Tesla (TSLA) is currently experiencing “unprecedented demand” in the US following the significant price cuts that happened last week.

Many stores are hitting new records and inventories are dwindling.

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Source: Charge Forward

With 1,000 horsepower, a 329-mile range, and a 350-kilowatt peak charge rate, does the Hummer EV work on a road trip?
Source: Electric Vehicle News

Toyota and Oncor Electric Delivery, a Texas-based electric transmission and distribution company, have announced a joint pilot project to research vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.

The effort is Toyota’s first EV-related collaboration with a US public utility. The results, Toyota says, will allow the two companies to be better prepared to support the EV charging ecosystem.

The initial phase will use Oncor’s Dallas research facility, composed of four interconnected microgrids that can be controlled independently or in parallel, in tandem or in combination. The microgrid and its subsystems include a V2G charger, solar panels and battery storage for testing and evaluation. A BEV will be used with the system to better understand interconnectivity between BEVs and utilities.

“We envision a future where BEVs can be utilized by customers to provide power to their homes, their communities, or even the electric grid in times of need,” said Christopher Yang, Group VP of Toyota’s Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions team. “Our collaboration with Oncor is an important step for us to understand the needs of utilities, as we plan to work closely with them to ensure every community can embrace Toyota’s shift to electrified vehicles.”

The EV Metals Group acquired the battery materials and technology business of Johnson Matthey in 2022. Now subsidiary EV Metals Arabia has advanced its plans to build a battery material processing plant in Saudi Arabia.

EVM Arabia has been awarded an allocation of 127 hectares of land from The Royal Commission at Yanbu and a gas and power allocation from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Energy. 

EVM says its planned Battery Chemicals Complex will position Saudi Arabia as “a global midstream hub for the production of high-purity chemicals required by electric vehicle and battery cell manufacturers.” Construction is scheduled to commence in Q3 of this year.   

The complex, which comprises a Lithium Chemicals Plant and a Nickel Chemicals Plant, will process intermediate feedstock from Western Australia to produce high-purity chemicals containing lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and other metals for downstream production of cathode active materials.  The company is also exploring for critical minerals within the Kingdom, and eventually hopes to develop a local Saudi supply chain.

EVM’s gas allocation is equivalent to a daily amount of 6,240,000 cubic feet of methane gas. This will be used for the first two processing trains in the Lithium Chemicals Plant to produce lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM). The commissioning of the first two trains of LHM will commence in 2026 and ramp to an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons per annum.  This will be followed by an additional four trains, bringing total production to 150,000 tpa of LHM.

“Our Battery Chemicals Complex is strategically located to serve demand for high-purity chemicals from electric vehicle and battery cell manufacturers both locally, and from target markets in Europe and North America looking for stable and transparent supply chains,” comments Michael Naylor, CEO of EVM Group.

Saudi Arabia has a strategy, called Vision 2030, to reduce ‘s dependence on oil and diversify its economy. These are worthy goals, but EVM’s project, which apparently involves using fossil fuel to process battery materials shipped from another continent, would seem to be out of step with current trends. Battery producers such as Verkor are locating new battery plants near sources of renewable energy, and what policy-makers in North America and Europe really want is to establish mineral supply and processing capacity within their regions.

Nevada-based Aqua Metals has begun operating a pilot battery recycling facility at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Feedstock has been introduced into the automated system, enabling recovery of valuable critical minerals from spent lithium-ion batteries.

The company’s Li AquaRefining technology is “a low-emission, closed-loop recycling solution capable of recovering all valuable metals, including high-purity lithium, manganese, cobalt and nickel from lithium batteries.”

Li AquaRefining uses electroplating powered by electricity to recover metals, instead of intensive chemical processes or polluting fossil-fuel furnaces. The process “enables low-cost and efficient production of high-purity products—drastically lowering emissions and limiting waste streams—and is designed to significantly reduce capital and operating costs.”

With the pilot facility operational, Aqua Metals anticipates the following milestones in the first quarter of 2023:

• Achieving targeted product specs for each high-purity metal
• Ramping of the pilot facility to process metric tons of black mass per month
• Recovering battery-grade lithium hydroxide from spent batteries in commercial quantities

“We are confident that Aqua Metals is now positioned to be the first metals recycling facility in North America to recover battery-grade lithium hydroxide from spent batteries in commercial quantities, and to initiate sales of recycled critical minerals into both metals markets and the lithium-ion battery supply chain,” said President and CEO Steve Cotton.

“This is a foundational step for Aqua Metals as we begin scaling to demonstration capacity and subsequent full-scale commercial operations of what we believe is the world’s cleanest and lowest-cost lithium battery recycling technology,” said Chief Engineering and Operating Officer Ben Taecker. “Aqua Metals is focused on quickly advancing from the planning and validation phases to execution. We expect to initiate sales of recycled materials in the first quarter of 2023, while advancing strategic offtake agreements to expand our revenue opportunity significantly.”

Mere weeks after officially debuting its AFEELA EV in front of crowds at CES, the joint venture between Sony and Honda has a unique strategy for how its future customers will be able to afford it. Although we don’t yet know the EV’s starting MSRP, Sony Honda Mobility is already admitting it’s “a bit expensive” due in part to all the technology it will come equipped with to ensure its longevity (hint hint).

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Source: Charge Forward

Proterra (NASDAQ: PTRA) is a commercial electric vehicle OEM, and it has two related businesses: Proterra Energy, which offers turnkey charging services to fleets; and Proterra Powered, which provides battery packs to other vehicle manufacturers.

Now the company has produced the first Proterra Powered EV battery at its new Powered 1 battery manufacturing plant in Greer, South Carolina. Proterra expects to begin deliveries of Proterra Powered battery systems from the new factory in the first quarter of 2023. Powered 1 has also started production of drivetrains and other ancillary systems such as high-voltage junction boxes.

Powered 1 brings battery production closer to Proterra’s customers on the East Coast and in Europe, and to its own electric bus manufacturing operations in Greenville, South Carolina. The  327,000-square-foot battery plant will eventually have “multiple gigawatt-hours of annual production capacity.”

“Achieving this important milestone at Powered 1 a little over a year after announcing our plans for the factory is a reflection on the talent, innovation, and collaboration of our incredible team,” said Proterra CEO Gareth Joyce. “At full scale, we believe Powered 1 will be the largest battery manufacturing facility in the US dedicated exclusively to electric commercial vehicles.”

That’s a laudable ambition, but Proterra might just have some competition for the “largest” title—so many new battery plants are planned for the US Southeast that some are starting to call it the Battery Belt.

The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is taking several significant steps forward for its ninth season of competition—a new generation of racecars, new race locations, revised rules and changes in key component suppliers. In December, the series put the new cars, which offer more power, less weight and vastly greater efficiency, through their paces a at a pre-season test meeting at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Global electronics giant ABB, which has long been the “energizing force” of the series, now graduates to the role of official charging partner, responsible for replenishing the batteries of all 11 Formula E teams prior to each race.

ABB has developed new DC fast charging hardware that prioritizes reliable service, compact dimensions and light weight, all vital requirements for the globe-trotting racing series. The ABB Formula E Race Charger has been designed to be easily transported and installed around the world, and to use a wide variety of power sources. Each charger can deliver maximum power of 160 kW and is able to charge two vehicles with 80 kW of power simultaneously—a feature that reduces cargo loads when the cars and support gear travel between races.

Another innovation for this season is the ABB Ability OPTIMAX energy management software solution, which is designed to maximize the energy efficiency of on-track operations.

ABB Ability OPTIMAX will allow Formula E’s engineers to monitor and analyze total race-specific energy output, helping drive more efficient usage. Up to 14 metering boxes will be located at host venues, collecting data on how much power (kW) is being used at each moment and how much energy (kWh) is consumed over any given time period.

Total consumption across entire E-Prix sites will also be monitored, encompassing operations including the TV broadcast suite, E-Village fan zone, media center, catering facilities, the paddock and the pit garages.

Daniela Lužanin, Head of the ABB Formula E partnership, said: “Energy efficiency is key to reducing emissions and meeting sustainability targets, and ABB Ability OPTIMAX will be fully implemented this season to help improve this.”

Jamie Reigle, CEO of Formula E, said: “As the first sport to be certified as net-zero carbon since inception, we are always looking for more ways to make the series as sustainable as possible. With ABB Ability OPTIMAX we are able to better monitor our energy consumption and see where potential savings could be made.”

“We’re delighted to bring our innovative charging solutions to the biggest global e-mobility stage—the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship—continuing our drive to use the series as a testbed for new, more sustainable technologies,” said Frank Mühlon, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “The experience and knowledge we gain will be used to continuously improve ABB chargers for customer and consumer use.”

This year the company will launch the all-new Kia EV9 model.
Source: Electric Vehicle News