The US company Ascend Elements has announced plans to invest up to one billion US dollars in a factory for the production of sustainable battery materials for electric vehicles in southwestern Kentucky. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2023.

Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, the battery joint venture of Toyota and Panasonic, has signed a binding offtake agreement with Ioneer for lithium carbonate from Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada.

The US manufacturer General Motors has signed agreements with LG Chem and Livent for the supply of battery materials. The company sees this as strengthening its goal of reaching one million units of electric vehicles in North America by the end of 2025.

Northvolt’s Advanced Technology Group, i.e. the acquired company Cuberg, has achieved a breakthrough in the next generation of lithium metal cells, according to external tests. These are to be used primarily in electric aviation.

The battery cell joint venture between Porsche and Customcells, Cellforce, has entered into a strategic partnership with the machine manufacturer Trumpf from Baden-Württemberg. As part of the cooperation, high-precision laser technology from Trumpf will be used in battery cell production.

TÜV SÜD is participating in the construction of a battery test centre near Bangkok in Thailand. The German testing and certification service provider has now signed a corresponding cooperation agreement with the local Ministry of Industry and the Thailand Automotive Institute (TAI).

BASF and Toda have agreed on a further expansion of the production capacities of their joint venture BASF Toda Battery Materials (BTBM), founded seven years ago, at the Onoda site in Japan.

The Estonian battery specialists from Skeleton Technologies are building Europe’s largest supercapacitor production facility in Saxony with the support of Siemens. Skeleton Technologies is investing 220 million euros in the now announced new production facility in Markranstädt near Leipzig in Saxony.

The Belgian materials technology and recycling group Umicore is investing C$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) to build its first factory in North America for the mass production of cathode and precursor materials for electric vehicle batteries. This is to be built in the community of Loyalist in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Panasonic will probably build its new US battery factory, where the new 4680 cells for Tesla are to be produced, in Kansas. It is clear that Panasonic wants to build a battery factory there and that the funding application has already been approved – only which cells are to be built there is not yet specified by the Japanese company.

Volkswagen Group of America has entered into a wide-ranging collaboration with recycling start-up Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, to establish a supply chain for recycling electric car batteries in the US.

In California, USA, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Tesla have launched a new pilot program that creates a virtual power plant (VPP) to help support electric grid reliability. Customers who who contribute energy from their Tesla Powerwalls earn money from what they feed into the grid.

In France, Renault-backed battery cell manufacturer Verkor is partnering with industry group Startec Energy to develop and commercialise recyclable battery packs for electric mobility. The partnership aims to commercialise an annual volume of up to 1 GWh by 2030.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) is funding the development of a holistic recycling approach for lithium-ion batteries with 16.66 million euros. As part of the LiBinfinity project, a recycling pilot plant is being built at the Mercedes-Benz site in Kuppenheim to enable efficient recycling management of battery materials.

French battery manufacturer Forsee Power is cooperating with EDF Store & Forecast, a subsidiary of the French energy group Électricité de France (EDF), to give batteries from electric vehicles a “second life”.

Samsung SDI is preparing a pilot line for the production of 4680 battery cells for Tesla at its Cheonan plant in South Korea, according to Korean media. The first equipment for the production lines is said to have already been ordered.

Renault, together with automotive supplier Minth, is planning a joint venture based in France for the production of battery housings for future electric models. The joint venture, which is expected to be established by early 2023, will assemble the battery cases at Renault’s Ruitz plant.

Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché says it has achieved a breakthrough in the safety of its lithium-ion batteries without compromising cell performance. By adding a special additive to the composition of the electrolyte formula, the company says the risk of a thermal event has been reduced by almost 80 per cent.

BASF will build a plant for recycling black mass from batteries on an industrial scale in Schwarzheide, Brandenburg – where BASF’s pilot recycling plant is also located. Commissioning of the large plant is planned for early 2024.

Alsym will produce its new batteries – made of readily available materials, without lithium or cobalt – for electric vehicles, stationary storage, and marine applications.