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      A lithium mine for EV batteries is coming to Arkansas, says Exxon

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 13 November - 18:59

    Piles of harvested lithium salt in Bolivia

    Enlarge / These are piles of lithium harvested in Bolivia; Exxon's site in Arkansas will look almost entirely unlike this as it will use direct lithium extraction, not evaporation, to harvest the mineral. (credit: Getty Images)

    Earlier this year, new electric vehicle tax incentive rules went into effect. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, an EV's tax credit is now linked to the amount of domestic content in its battery pack, an amount that needs to increase year on year.

    Automakers had an inkling that would happen, so we've seen a flurry of announcements for new battery plants in the United States that will make the cells and assemble the packs for future EVs, but we've heard slightly less about new local sources of lithium. But today, Exxon revealed it is about to extract the stuff from a rich deposit in Arkansas.

    At one point, California's Salton Sea looked like a promising source of lithium , but working with the corrosive brine has proven extremely challenging to industrial equipment.

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      Changes at the top and in US production as Toyota reiterates its EV strategy

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 21 February, 2023 - 15:52

    Toyota EV concepts

    Enlarge / Toyota has shown us plenty of electric vehicle concepts and renderings but last year built just 24,000 battery EVs. (credit: Toyota)

    It's all change at the top of the world's largest car maker. Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder and CEO since 2009, is being replaced by former Lexus boss Koji Sato as Toyota's new president and CEO. Toyoda will assume the role of company chairman.

    The management changes are seen in large part as the company responding to a need to embrace battery-electric vehicles, a huge growth area in the industry but one that Toyota has seemingly neglected in favor of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

    At a press conference, Sato and his new management team faced many questions about the company's BEV strategy—or lack thereof. BEVs are important to the company, but "this is by no means a rapid change of direction toward BEVs," Sato said.

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      A new battery management system could boost EV range by 20 percent

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 4 January, 2023 - 15:30 · 1 minute

    A circuit board on a white background

    Enlarge / This is the BQ79731-Q1, a new battery pack monitor from Texas Instruments. TI has also developed a battery cell monitor that works with it to much more accurately manage LFP batteries in EVs. (credit: Texas Instruments)

    One of the more exciting developments to come to electric vehicles over the past few years has been the development of lithium-iron phosphate cells as an alternative to more traditional lithium-ion chemistries that use minerals like nickel, manganese, and cobalt. Now, a new battery management system, or BMS, could mean much more accurate range predictions for EVs with these batteries.

    Why LFP?

    LiFePO4, or LFP, batteries were mostly the province of Chinese EV makers until last year thanks to a series of exclusive patent licenses signed with the US and Canadian researchers who first developed the technology. But those patents are expiring, and non-Chinese automakers are beginning to adopt LFP batteries.

    LFP cells dislike very cold weather more than an equivalent NMC or nickel-cobalt aluminum cell, and they also store less energy. But that last bit might in fact be an advantage to this chemistry—there's no danger that an LFP pack will combust or explode in a crash, so there's much less need to surround the pack with a heavy protective shell.

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      Tesla finally delivers first electric Semi to Pepsi after years of delay

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 2 December, 2022 - 16:58

    https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tesla-chairman-and-ceo-elon-musk-steps-out-of-the-new-semi-news-photo/875152678?phrase=Tesla%20semi

    Enlarge (credit: VERONIQUE DUPONT / Contributor | AFP )

    Yesterday, Elon Musk appeared at his first Tesla unveiling since he took the helm at Twitter. At a Tesla plant in Nevada, the billionaire announced that after five long years, Tesla’s first heavy-duty Semi had been delivered to PepsiCo.

    The Semi, Tesla announced, would go into production in 2023 and feature an updated version of Tesla’s Supercharger, which uses liquid-cooling technology in its charging cable and is capable of charging the large electric vehicle at 1 megawatt.

    “If you're a trucker and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it,” Musk told those gathered for the reveal, according to a Reuters report .

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      Domino’s buys 800 Chevrolet Bolt EVs as pizza delivery vehicles

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 21 November, 2022 - 16:21

    Domino's new fleet of 2023 Chevrolet Bolts are unmistakeable.

    Enlarge / Domino's new fleet of 2023 Chevrolet Bolts are unmistakeable. (credit: Domino's Pizza)

    While it may not be your favorite pizza-slinger, one has to respect Domino's Pizza for being forward-looking. Whether or not it actually launched the first pizza delivery service in 1960, it certainly popularized the idea and more recently has been testing autonomous vehicles and sidewalk robots to deliver pizza.

    At some point, before robotic Domino's delivery is commonplace, its pizzas may speed their way to you in an electric car.

    On Monday the company announced the arrival of more than 100 Chevrolet Bolts to select Domino's locations, with another 700 due by the end of 2023. You can even check on their progress online— of Bolt deliveries , not pizza deliveries, although that's possible, too, thanks to onboard telematics.

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      Honda aims for a solid-state-powered EV by the end of the decade

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 2 November, 2022 - 13:00 · 1 minute

    The Honda e is adored by journalists, but it's small and expensive.

    Enlarge / The Honda e is adored by journalists, but it's small and expensive. (credit: Honda)

    By all rights, Honda should be further along with its electrification strategy. The Honda Insight beat the Toyota Prius as the first mass-market hybrid to be introduced into the US market by seven months. Instead, other manufacturers seemed to have jumped on the EV train while Honda was still buying a ticket. After appearing to languish, the company announced that its first modern EV in the US would be the fruit of a team-up with GM. But under new leadership, it's working with partners and striking out on its own for its long-term EV strategy.

    At its research and development facility in Tochigi, Japan, Honda is working on what it believes will be the breakthrough that brings solid-state batteries to the market. While Honda is happy to work with General Motors and Sony on electrification efforts, the automaker is working solo to bring the technology to the masses by the end of the decade.

    "In the springtime of 2024, we will start a pilot line (for manufacturing). Then if we can be successful, we believe we can launch a vehicle with a solid-state battery in the latter part of the 2020s. 2029, 2028," Shinji Aoyama, Honda's global leader of electrification, told Ars Technica during a roundtable interview at Honda headquarters in Tokyo.

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      BMW will invest $1.7 billion to make EVs in the United States

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 19 October, 2022 - 17:47 · 1 minute

    BMW's factory in South Carolina builds its X models—SUVs and crossovers—and now it's going to build electric ones.

    Enlarge / BMW's factory in South Carolina builds its X models—SUVs and crossovers—and now it's going to build electric ones. (credit: BMW)

    Domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing has received quite a shot in the arm in 2022. In May, the Department of Energy announced it would spend $3 billion to increase battery-making here in the US. But perhaps more consequentially, in August the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act now ties an electric vehicle's tax credit to local battery production. As a result, automakers have been scrambling to build new battery factories in North America .

    Now BMW is the latest OEM to join the list. On Wednesday, BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse announced that the company, which wants to have sold 2 million EVs by the end of 2025 , is going to invest $1.7 billion in US EV manufacturing. $1 billion of that will be used to build out EV production lines at BMW's factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The remaining $700 million will go toward a new battery assembly plant in Woodruff, South Carolina.

    And BMW also announced a partnership with Envision AESC, which is going to build a lithium-ion cell-manufacturing plant with an annual capacity of 30 GWh/year, also in South Carolina. BMW says that this plant will produce newly developed round cells, specifically designed for BMW's sixth-generation EVs. (The recently introduced iX and i4 are its fifth-gen EVs.)

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      Ford secures battery supplies for 600,000 EVs a year from 2023

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 21 July, 2022 - 13:36 · 1 minute

    Ford's electric F-150 Lighting (L), eTransit (M), and Mustang Mach-E (R) battery-electric vehicles have all been such successes that they're all sold out for the rest of the year.

    Enlarge / Ford's electric F-150 Lighting (L), eTransit (M), and Mustang Mach-E (R) battery-electric vehicles have all been such successes that they're all sold out for the rest of the year. (credit: Ford)

    On Thursday, Ford Motor Company announced that it has secured 60 GWh of battery cells that will allow it to build 600,000 electric vehicles by late 2023. And it says it has contracts for cells that will allow it to build 1.4 million EVs by 2026, 70 percent of the 2 million EVs it plans to build globally that year.

    "Ford's new electric vehicle lineup has generated huge enthusiasm and demand, and now we are putting the industrial system in place to scale quickly," said Jim Farley, Ford’s president and CEO and president of Ford Model e. "Our Model e team has moved with speed, focus, and creativity to secure the battery capacity and raw materials we need to deliver breakthrough EVs for millions of customers."

    The automaker says that its plan for 2023 will consist of 270,000 Mustang Mach-Es for North America, Europe, and China, 150,000 F-150 Lightnings for North America, 150,000 e-Transit vans for North America and Europe, and it will launch an additional electric SUV in Europe, building 30,000 in 2023 before ramping up production significantly in 2024.

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      GM, EVgo, and Pilot will install 2,000 fast chargers at travel centers

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 14 July, 2022 - 12:30

    The Cadillac Lyriq is one of a new range of EVs built by General Motors using a new common battery and motor platform.

    Enlarge / The Cadillac Lyriq is one of a new range of EVs built by General Motors using a new common battery and motor platform. (credit: General Motors)

    General Motors is in the process of transforming itself into an electrified automaker, as entire brands like Cadillac and Hummer switch their lineups to entirely electric vehicles. To help the process of EV adoption, the automaker is also investing in charging infrastructure around the country. On Thursday, it announced that it is working with the Pilot Company to install 2,000 DC fast chargers at Pilot and Flying J travel centers around the US.

    The chargers will be operated by EVgo, which has already partnered with GM on a fast charger expansion program— initially 2,700 and now 3,250—to be completed by 2025.

    The travel centers should have at least four charging machines each—GM and Pilot say that in total, they intend to place 2,000 chargers at up to 500 locations. And the companies say that many of the installations will have canopies to shield EV drivers from the elements and will be designed to work with EVs towing trailers.

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