In response to growing global demand for electric cars, Albemarle has announced an increase in capacity at its Silver Peak lithium production facility in the US state of Nevada. Albemarle will invest $30 million to $50 million to double production there by 2025.

Virgin Hyperloop has completed its first crewed test drive. A Hyperloop capsule with two of the company’s managers on board was transported at over 170 kph through a test tube near Las Vegas. Virgin Hyperloop is aiming for commercial operation of the transport system by 2030.

Panasonic is working on the development of a new battery cell for Tesla, based on the new 4680 format presented by Tesla at ‘Battery Day’. The South Korean battery company LG Chem, who similarly supplies Tesla, is also developing a new round cell that is very similar to the key data of the new Tesla […]

The legal case between Tesla and former employee Martin Tripp has been ongoing since 2018. After Tripp leaked sensitive documents and presented himself as a whistleblower, the court has made a ruling that is mostly – but not entirely – a victory for Tesla.

The long wait has come to an end as the Tesla Battery Day is over, and what did we get? Silence, at first, as viewers from around the world watched the stream with no audio. Then, we got some of the expected news with more detail and articulated ambitions, and a promise of a 25k […]

The Tesla-Panasonic partnership is warming with expansion and cell innovation underway. The Japanese will invest 100 million dollars at the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to set up another production line to increase capacity by 10 per cent.

The Science Channel has gained access to Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 and released an approximately 10-minute video, which provides the most detailed insight into the massive plant in the Nevada desert to date. Battery production capacities are particularly impressive.

Tesla has signed a new three-year price agreement with Panasonic to manufacture and supply battery cells at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. The general terms and conditions have also been adjusted in some points as part of the partnership.

Tesla has found a successor for Jatinder Dhillon. According to reports, Richard Miller now heads production at the Fremont plant. Miller is taking over the job at a difficult time, but there seems to be an “agreement” with Alameda County about reopening the plant.

The head of Tesla wants to move his headquarters and future operations to Nevada and Texas because Californian authorities will not yet let Tesla open its Fremont plant. Musk has even openly threatened the state with withdrawal from California altogether.

According to a media report, Tesla has commissioned the South Korean company Hanwha to supply equipment for battery formation. This is probably equipment that Tesla is already ordering for its intended cell production.

Washington State has become the twelfth state to adopt tighter emissions standards in the face of the new laxer laws brought in by the Trump administration, following the example of California. Four more states are about to do the same.

While the electric kick scooters populating the streets of major cities are obviously designed to safely carry one person, it does happen that people do not exactly follow the instructions. The startup BOGO (Buy One Get One) is attempting to address this disparity by offering a new electric kick scooter with an elongated board and […]

After the latest report that Panasonic and Tesla have halted their plans to expand production capacity for battery cells in Gigafactory 1, Elon Musk has partly contradicted Panasonic’s view of the matter.

Tesla appears to operate on an aggressive timeline for producing the Model Y, internal documents leaked to Business Insider show. Tesla sent said documents to engineers ahead of the Q3 earnings call in October and so a Tesla spokesperson called these to be “outdated” by now. Still they reveal ambition.

Redwood Materials, the recycling startup founded by Tesla CTO JB Straubel, is expanding to Nevada. Possible connections to Tesla are rumoured once again, however no official statement has been released.

Tesla has recently flown in six airplanes full of robots and equipment for the new battery production line from their German subsidiary Grohmann from Europe to the United States.

Tesla Semi electric trucks now transport battery packs from the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to the EV maker’s facility in Fremont. At the same time, a whole slew of videos and photos have appeared, showing the trucks on the road.

The California-based EV maker stepped up efforts to find employees for its huge battery factory that it runs together with Panasonic in the desert of Nevada – first of all engineers and production assistants.

Fastned adapts to Tesla: All 50 of the Dutch infrastructure provider’s fast-charging stations will be equipped with Tesla-to-CHAdeMO charging adapters by the end of the month. Fastned thus significantly expands the Californian’s network, as there are only seven Superchargers in the land of tulips.
electriccarreport.com, insideevs.com, fastned-en.pr.co

Smart City: Nissan envisions a future where cars charge at the curb and swap charge bays autonomously before driving up to homes to share their power. This extremely connected vehicle-to-grid scenario was developed together with architecture firm Foster and is on display in Geneva.
autocar.co.uk, youtube.com

Free to roam: British Columbia is getting ready to allow EV drivers to use HOV lanes, following California’s example. While the rule would go into immediate effect, the Canadian province still has to provide decals to clearly mark the privileged.
ctvnews.ca

Electric Highway: Nevada opened another EV charging location that now enables electric cars to go the 450 miles from Las Vegas to Reno. The stop provides six charging spots, including one for fast-charging. More stations are to follow as part of the government backed project.
reviewjournal.com, kolotv.com

Free charging: Florida joins Nissan’s ‘No Charge to Charge’ programme, which offers Leaf drivers free charging. The Sunshine State is the 27th market the Japanese carmaker has added to the scheme.
electriccarsreport.com

Indian bus electrification: India’s run to electrify all its 150,000 buses has kicked off. In Delhi, 15 buses have been retro-fitted, supported by a pilot scheme by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT). Others cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune will follow in a drive to turn a first batch of 1,000 buses from diesel to electric.
punemirror.in

Smart City Challenge: 77 cities applied for the U.S. Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge. The winner gets 50 million dollars, with 10m dedicated to electric vehicles and other CO2 decreasing measures. Five finalists will be chosen on March 12th, and will then have time to polish their proposals for the final selection in June.
greencarcongress.com

Business travel: Nissan teams up with Go Travel Solutions and offers members of the Smartgo workplace travel networks discounts “worth thousands of pounds” when purchasing a Nissan Leaf. There are 95,000 Smart Go members from 200 companies in the UK.
fleetnews.co.uk

Public charging: The city of Liverpool has installed 28 charge points. Half of them are for public use and stand at railway stations, the ferry terminal, and hospitals. The other half is located well within reach of the local authority, i.e. at council buildings. The Liverpool City Region will soon introduce 23 EVs to its fleet.
businesscar.co.uk

Highway charging: Nevada installed its first of four charging stations on route 95 that links Las Vegas and Reno. It is part of the state’s Nevada Electric Highway initiative, which lets EV drivers charge at no cost over the next five years.
reviewjournal.com

12,000 EV charging stations could be built on Volkswagen carparks. At least that is what VW CEO Martin Winterkorn supposedly said behind closed doors at the national conference on e-mobility in Berlin this week, German Press Agency dpa reports. However, the carrot comes with a stick as he asked politicians to consider new taxation for the financial advantage workplace charging poses.
greencarcongress.com; welt.de (in German)

H2 consensus: The OEM Advisory Group has agreed on a list of 19 recommended locations to install the next hydrogen stations in California. The association unites carmakers like GM, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.
greencarcongress.com

FedEx trials FCVs: At Memphis International Airport, the delivery company is testing 15 fuel cell vehicles in a demo project. Plug Power delivers the fuel cell system and will also be responsible for the hydrogen supply. The project is financed with 2.5 million dollars each from private investors and the DoE.
hydrogenfuelnews.com, environmentalleader.com

Pay by phone: AeroVironment and Recargo introduced a new smartphone-based payment option for EV drivers. The PlugShare app by Recargo now includes the West Coast Electric Highway in Oregon and Washington. The pay per charge service invokes no additional charges but drivers can still subscribe for flat-rate unlimited charging.
greencarcongress.com

Take no gamble: Plans have been announced to install electric car charging stations between Las Vegas and Reno. The so-called Electric Highway will be funded by NV Energy and Nevada’s renewable energy tax abatements. The first 15 stations are to be erected before this year ends.
fox5vegas.com, lasvegassun.com

The Nevada-Gigafactory deal will offer Tesla more incentives than expected. In return for choosing Nevada as location for the Gigafactory, the state will support the enterprise with a package estimated at 1.25 billion dollars. If approved by legislature, Tesla will basically operate tax free for the first 10 years and not having to pay sales tax for another ten years. In exchange for the incentives, Tesla must agree to invest at least 3.5 billion dollars in the battery plant.
forbes.com, businessinsider.com, teslamotors.com

Updated hybrid for Paris: Peugeot will show a new version of the hybrid study Exalt at the Paris Motor Show. The updated vehicle feature new materials and a little extra – it will come with a foldable electric scooter, called the HYbrid-kick, stored in the boot of the car.
autoexpress.co.uk, motorauthority.com

Chinese EV from India? A consortium of 15 Chinese companies allegedly wants to produce electric vehicles in the Indian region of Gujarat. Among them are seven carmakers. They are planning on investing 100 million dollars into building electric buses, ambulance and police cars.
rushlane.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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E-Golf with sirens: Though there are no reports suggesting that Germany’s police force is looking to go electric, Volkswagen will show its E-Golf police car at the upcoming General Police Equipment Exhibition & Conference in Leipzig. More and more police forces worldwide have chosen to add EVs to their fleets.
motornature.com

Driving the Golf GTE: VW’s first plug-in hybrid is an overall smooth ride, especially in the city. Though Andy Pringle from AutoTrader finds the engine pretty noisy when going into sports mode and says, the vehicles extra pounds are weighing down acceleration. Still, he would “recommend it over a Toyota Prius plug-in or Vauxhall Ampera.”
autotrader.co.uk