Terra E, Podbike, Visedo, TECO, Hyundai.

German battery cell production: Terra E is the name of a consortium that consists of ThyssenKrupp, M+W and Manz who reportedly want to team up with battery assembly firms like Litarion, BMZ and StreetScooter to establish large scale battery cell production in Germany. Varta may join the partners’ endeavour and BMW has been mentioned as first automotive customer. The first task for Terra E will be to find 150m euros before applying for further funding from the federal government.
tagesspiegel.de (in German)

The Podbike is designed to deal with Norwegian weather as it is a pedal-assisted quad, so neither bicycle nor car. It is not actually a pedelec either, at least none that works with a chain. Instead the passenger pedals to power a generator that in turn activates the two in-wheel electric motors in the rear. While the size of a very small car, it is light enough to be “parked” upright. Production of 600 pieces may start next year but expect to see a prototype within this quarter.
podbike.com via pedelec-elektro-fahrrad.de (in German)

New heavyweight emerges: Visedo and TECO join forces to electrify heavy vehicles in Asian markets particularly. While TECO means access to the ASEAN zone to Visedo, it will profit in turn from the Finnish firm’s technology and expertise in large electric drives for ships and buses.
greencarcongress.com, visedo.com

Patent diggers: Hyundai is working on wireless charging, while Lucid Motors plans to have its own battery system and Toyota manages energy anew for plug-in hybrids. All this and more was dug out by our colleagues over at Inside EVs, who scanned the latest patent filings.
insideevs.com