The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has awarded $68 million in grants for the purchase of 227 electric transit buses in 13 counties. The funds came from Florida’s $166-million share of Volkswagen’s $15-billion federal settlement for the Dirty Diesel Debacle. The electric buses will replace existing diesel buses in Alachua, Broward, Duval, Escambia, Hillsborough, Leon,… Read more »
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Nissan exec: EV batteries lasting longer than predicted
If you use social media, you probably see a never-ending stream of “articles” insisting that EV batteries wear out in a few years, making the cars worthless, that they can’t be recycled, they’re full of poisonous chemicals, yada yada yada. That would be news to Nissan’s UK Marketing Director Nic Thomas. “Almost all of the… Read more »
Ford cuts 3,000 jobs, citing shift to EVs
Many have predicted that the shift to EVs will lead to job losses in the automotive industries, as EVs are simpler to assemble than legacy vehicles. The latest news from Ford appears to bear out this inconvenient truth—the automaker has announced that it will cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in… Read more »
Northvolt raises $1.1 billion to support factory construction in Europe
Battery innovator Northvolt has issued a $1.1-billion convertible note to finance its expansion of battery cell and cathode material production in Europe. Investors participating in the capital raise included the Volkswagen Group, along with a raft of global financial institutions. This capital raise brings the amount Northvolt has secured since 2017 close to $8 billion…. Read more »
What does the bZ4X recall and buyback mean for Toyota’s EV efforts?
What on Earth is going on at Toyota? It was bizarre enough that the company that introduced the ground-breaking Prius (and has since sold over 15 million hybrids) had in recent years pursued a flat-earth strategy, bad-mouthing EVs at every opportunity and lobbying hard against government climate measures. Then came the news that the world’s… Read more »
Toyota is the global leader in solid-state battery patents
It’s common for companies to espouse green policies in public, while privately pursuing opposite goals—but Toyota turns this familiar equation on its head. Other automakers tout their enthusiasm for EVs to the media, while pushing gas-guzzling SUVs to their customers. Toyota’s leaders speak against EVs in public, and the company actively lobbies against government support… Read more »
The EV raw materials crunch: How bad, how long, how to solve it?
This article originally appeared in Issue 60: April-June 2022 Subscribe now Every new technology must overcome a series of temporary constraints on its way to widespread adoption. Since modern EVs appeared a decade ago, they’ve motored past many of these bottlenecks, (or hurdles, or roadblocks—pick your preferred metaphor). Range has increased, access to charging infrastructure has expanded,… Read more »
EV sales hit new record in Q2, as legacy vehicles struggle
The legacy auto industry is crying the blues—US new-vehicle sales in the second quarter were up only a tiny bit from the previous quarter, and down over 20% from Q2 2021. However, the new auto industry is doing very well, thank you. Kelley Blue Book tells us (via Cox Auto) that sales of pure EVs… Read more »
New smart charging solution allows drivers to match sessions with local renewable energy
Energy Web, a non-profit that creates operating systems for energy grids, has collaborated with the Volkswagen Group subsidiary Elli to develop a new smart charging solution designed to enable EV owners to charge with renewable electricity that is matched directly with the vehicle’s real-time electricity consumption. The solution relies on a 24/7 matching algorithm that… Read more »
Consortium looks at recycling cathodes, electrolytes and graphite in closed loop
An industrial and scientific research consortium funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action plans to research and develop processes for recycling cathode metals, electrolytes and graphite multiple times. The HVBatCycle research consortium is planned to operate for 3 years. “In order to have to use fewer materials from primary sources such… Read more »