Charged Magazine

As China evolves into a world leader in battery and EV production, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced plans to develop a system to track the fabrication, sale and recycling of EV batteries.
The new “traceability management platform” will cover the entire lifecycle of batteries from production …read more

Netherlands-based Heliox will supply fast charging for 10 electric double-decker buses that are to go into service in Wellington, New Zealand in July. The new e-buses, operated by local transit agency Tranzit, will be joined by another 10 in 2020 and another 12 in 2021.
Heliox’s charging network includes a CCS …read more

Ultracapacitor specialist Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL) has formed a technology partnership with Zhejiang Geely, the Chinese parent company of Volvo and Geely Auto to integrate ultracaps and power conversion electronics into Geely’s global vehicle lineup.
Geely will include Maxwell’s ultracapacitor-based peak power subsystem in five mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles …read more

Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) will be providing batteries for Nissan’s Sylphy electric sedan, which is scheduled to hit the Chinese market in the latter half of the year. This marks the company’s first deal with a Japanese automaker.
The Sylphy, one of 20 electrified vehicles Nissan plans …read more

The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is wasting no time after its recent near-death experience (the president’s proposed budget would have eliminated the agency, but cooler heads in Congress prevailed): it has announced up to $30 million in funding for a new program called Duration Addition to electricitY Storage …read more

As the market for plug-in vehicles grows, so does the demand for the materials associated with production, particularly lithium and cobalt, which are used in Li-on batteries. The DOE’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) is focused on recycling and reducing the demand for rare metals that may experience shortages in the …read more

Target will be working with Electrify America to expand its EV charging program to over 600 parking spaces at 100 sites across 20 states over the next two years.
Target began adding charging stations to its parking lots in 2012, in partnership with ChargePoint. In 2017, it teamed up with Tesla …read more

Israeli startup Chakratec has raised $4.4 million from the iArgento Group and the Singaporean company Goldbell in a series C financing round. The company will use the new funding to conduct pilot projects with three European utilities. It hopes to receive its first orders later this year.
Chakratec, established in 2013, …read more

ROUSH CleanTech, a Michigan company that manufactures and installs propane autogas and compressed natural gas fuel systems for commercial vehicles, plans to add an electric option to its offerings.
ROUSH’s new electric model, unveiled at the recent Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, is built on the Ford F-650 chassis. It will have …read more

China is steadily positioning itself at the forefront of Li-on battery production. One sign of this is a massive ramp-up of the production of wet-process separators (separators are a critical component of Li-on batteries – they keep the anode and cathode from touching, while allowing ions to pass through).
Shanghai Energy …read more