ALBEMARLE, NC - For the past few decades, Nirvana has been the dominant supplier of “lithium” in America, but now it has some serious competition in ’90s grunge bands. The Albemarle, North Carolina company is the world’s largest producer of lithium for electric vehicle (EV) batteries – and the company recently announced plans for a
ANN ARBOR - Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new battery technology that could create electric vehicle batteries with five times the capacity of the industry-standard lithium ion batteries used today. A network of aramid nanofibers, recycled from Kevlar, can enable lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome their Achilles heel of cycle life—the number
DETROIT - LG Energy Solution's Michigan office has secured $1.36 billion for investment into production facilities for electric-vehicle batteries in North America by 2024, the company confirmed Monday. The funding is a part of the plan from the batteries unit of South Korea-based LG Corp. to expand its solely owned annual production capacity in North
GRAND RAPIDS - A statewide organization of economic development leaders is sounding alarms following Ford Motor Co.’s recent announcement to venture outside of its home state to make a historic investment in electric vehicles. Ford announced this week that it — along with partner SK Innovation Co. — will invest $11.4 billion and create 11,000 jobs in Tennessee and
On a recent trip to Detroit, we spent a few minutes with Tim Grewe, GM’s director of battery cell engineering and electrification strategy. The company has a robust and expanding battery-cell R&D program and testing facility. At the same time, GM announced a new joint venture with LG Chem to build an Ohio-based battery gigafactory with
DETROIT - Automakers around the world are investing tens of billions of dollars to electrify their line-ups, but there are still a number of obstacles limiting mainstream acceptance — such as range and cost. But Phoenix-based Nikola Motors may have found what its CEO describes as the “Holy Grail of batteries,” an alternative to today’s
SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla filled a patent on a new chemistry for better, longer-lasting and cheaper batteries in late December. Earlier in 2019, Tesla’s battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiled the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric
