Toyota seeks robots to sort EV batteries for reuse, with federal loan

2023 Toyota bZ4X Limited AWDToyota is due to receive $4.5 million in federal funding for research into automating the teardown and rebuilding of used electric vehicle battery packs for eventual reuse. The funding comes from the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), under the Catalyzing Innovative Research for Circular Use of Long-lived...

Ford and SK On get $9.63B government loan for battery plant

BlueOvalSK Battery Park  -  rendering, September 2021Ford and SK On will receive a $9.63 billion government loan for their BlueOval SK battery joint venture, according to a report Monday from Reuters. The news ups the original loan amount, which was $9.2 billion, reported in June by The New York Times. The Department of Energy loan—the largest so far by the Biden administration related to EV...

Range-boosting solid-state EV cells get right-sized for production

Factorial Solstice solid-state battery cellMassachusetts-based Factorial has introduced a process for manufacturing solid-state battery cells, in the size range that electric vehicles can use, that is also close to what can be used for mass production. The company has been providing test cells to automakers, but on Thursday announced that it had scaled sample cells to an...

EV batteries could last longer with varied charging, use patterns

Gravity EV charging center in New York CityNew electric vehicle battery chemistries and configurations are constantly under development, but a new study highlights the importance of testing them under realistic conditions. Published in the journal Nature Energy by researchers from Stanford University and the Energy Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and first spotted by...

Stellantis aims to halve EV battery cost by 2030 with lithium-sulfur

STLA Large platformStellantis on Thursday announced an agreement with Texas-based Zeta Energy to develop lithium-sulfur batteries that could significantly reduce cost and pack weight, while boosting charging speed. The automaker and Zeta Energy claim lithium-sulfur chemistry can deliver comparable volumetric energy density to current lithium-ion battery cells, but...

Biden admin loans Stellantis and Samsung $7B for Indiana battery factory

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona$7.5B loan would help scale up battery production in Indiana Aiming for 67 gigawatt-hours of annual capacity there DOE loan comes from same program that supported Tesla The Department of Energy on Monday said it is prepared to loan up to $7.5 billion to Stellantis and Samsung SDI for battery production in Indiana. The conditional loan commitment...

Replacing an EV battery may cost less than fixing a gas engine by 2030

2024 Chevrolet Equinox EVThe potential high cost of EV battery replacements is a major worry for new-car shoppers, but that likely won't be the case for long, according to battery-analysis firm Recurrent. Recurrent, which produces battery health reports for used EVs, predicts that plummeting new-battery prices will make replacing a battery pack cheaper than repairing a...