Back in July 2023, a group of seven major automakers announced plans to form a public charging joint venture along the lines of the European consortium Ionity. EV fans welcomed the plan to deploy some 30,000 fast charging stations throughout North America, but we’ve heard very little since. Now the venture has a name: IONNA…. Read more »
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How Umicore is ensuring sustainability in the North American EV battery chain
Q&A with Umicore’s Robert Privette Umicore traces its roots to a Belgian mining company formed in 1906. Since then, it has moved on from mining to a variety of high-tech pursuits including refining, recycling and the manufacture of specialized metal products. Today it’s one of Belgium’s largest companies, and has a strong presence in e-mobility,… Read more »
Kia EV9 and Volvo EX30: Are they 2024’s most important EVs?
One’s a three-row midsize SUV under $60,000; the other’s a compact hatchback that starts in the mid-30s. Now we’ve driven both. Choosing “best of” or “most important” new cars is always dicey, and doubly so with electric vehicles. New entries are announced virtually every month, and picking the 2025 models that will be most important… Read more »
New report: automakers have secured less than a fifth of battery metals required for 2030 EV production
When it comes to electrifying by the magic date of 2030, automakers talk a great game—but if you want to know which companies are serious about electrification, look into which ones are lining up supplies of critical battery minerals. According to a recent report from Transport & Environment (T&E), automakers in the European market have… Read more »
Cummins to pay $1.6-billion fine for installing VW-style emissions cheating devices
Here we go again. The scandal that we dubbed VW’s Dirty Diesel Debacle opened a lot of folks’ eyes to the true priorities of automakers and other corporations. As reported in these pages, VW was truly sorry that it got caught, and performed several acts of contrition—it bought back a fraction of the defective cars,… Read more »
Wildcat will build a US plant to produce nickel-free and cobalt-free cathodes
Battery makers are scrambling to build North American supply chains, and at the same time they’re increasingly turning to chemistries such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) in order to reduce reliance on problematic elements such as nickel and cobalt. Wildcat Discovery Technologies sees opportunity in these trends, and is now finalizing site negotiations for a… Read more »
Battery makers seem to be okay with an EV production slowdown
The news that GM, Ford and other automakers plan to slow down production of EVs in response to slower sales growth (EV sales grew by only 50 percent last quarter) was like an early Christmas for the various varieties of EV-haters. For most of us in the EV industry, it was more like a visit… Read more »
DeepDrive unveils new dual-rotor, radial flux drive unit for EVs
DeepDrive, a Munich-based tech company backed by BMW and Continental, has unveiled a new central drive unit that it plans to deploy in 2027. DeepDrive has developed a dual-rotor, radial flux machine that has an inner and outer rotor with two air gaps to maximize material usage and minimize iron losses, along with a new… Read more »
EV charging is changing, Part 4: Behind the scenes as seven automakers counter Tesla’s Superchargers
Part 1: How automakers’ disappointment in Electrify America drove them into Tesla’s arms Part 2: No, NACS is not today’s Tesla connector Part 3: Why Tesla’s NACS is unlikely to kill CCS EV charging is changing, but much remains to be settled A flurry of news over less than a year permanently altered the US landscape… Read more »
Seven automakers unite to create massive new public EV charging network in North America
A lot of folks were doubtless still digesting the details of Tesla’s near-takeover of the North American public EV charging scene—and along comes another blockbuster development on the infrastructure front. Seven of the world’s major automakers—GM, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia and (oddly enough) Honda—have announced plans to form a joint venture to build a… Read more »