Previously known as the Frankfurt Motor Show, the IAA Mobility relocated to Munich in 2021, shifting the focus away from the traditional static motor show to giving practical demonstrations of new technology. While the ritualistic wall-to-wall “thumpin’-and-pumpin’” music inside the Messe Frankfurt every other September is but a distant memory, the sheer range of exciting new electric and autonomous vehicle concepts are still on display in different locations in Germany’s third-largest...

S&P Global Mobility: How was OneD Battery Sciences established? Please tell us about the origin of ‘SINANODE’ platform. Vincent Pluvinage: I have lived in the Silicon Valley since 1987, and I have taken a couple of companies public. Since 2001–02, I have been active in Silicon Valley as an investor, mainly focusing on innovative technologies, where I can use my physics and bioengineering background, to bring to market technologies that are well patented. I am an inventor at heart...

AI can address specific original equipment manufacturer challenges, enabling greater product development efficiency and faster time to market, which are crucial in the highly competitive automotive industry. Marking the first of our series of roundtable discussions with automotive industry specialists, we gathered three experts to learn more about the current and potential use of AI in the automotive industry, covering sales efficiency, potential job creation, regulatory aspects and its role in ...

Sustainability vs. economics Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) in operation will reach 171 million units globally in 2032, according to S&P Global Mobility. What will happen to all those end-of-life batteries? The race is on to recycled electric vehicle (EV) batteries. But at what cost and who stands to gain? EV sales are blossoming but it is still a waiting game for battery recyclers. Where and when is the window of opportunity for high-voltage battery recycling? A new study by S&...

The current electric vehicle charging infrastructure offering is diverse in terms of product quality, user experience and payment systems. Sometimes chargers are out of service. Sometimes the payment system is down. Given that the EV charging network is still in its infancy, there is plenty of room for improvement. To learn more about tomorrow’s charging infrastructure, trends in the public transport charging space and the 30-minute retail economy, we spoke to Bill Loewenthal, chief product of...

The role of manganese in the battery-material conversation is frequently disregarded, given that it is used in smaller amounts compared with other metals in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Its primary function is as a stabilizer in the cathode. However, there is growing OEM and investor interest in manganese. Tesla and Volkswagen have expressed interest in shifting their Li-ion battery designs away from cobalt and nickel and toward manganese. Mainland China dominates the manganese market, accoun...

The switch to electrification means there is an opportunity for startup automakers unburdened by legacy costs and investments to change the way cars are designed and built. “We assessed the waters with a few SPACs and found the level of redemptions, mixed with the cost overburden of being public too soon was entirely counterproductive.” “We see electric mobility as an opportunity, a brand leveller. Where perceptions of certain brands and products may have lagged reality in the past, u...

Sila’s anode material plant in Moses Lake, Washington, will produce enough material to serve up to 200,000 electric vehicles in its first phase. With Mercedes-Benz as its first official customer, Sila is working through an early qualification process with other potential customers. Sila’s innovative silicon materials can entirely replace graphite from battery anode. Berdichevsky gives a detailed account of how Sila was formed, the advantages of breakthrough silicon anodes in EV...

The time for denial is over. There are still suppliers of parts related to internal combustion engines that are steadfast in their belief that the looming (and eventual) shift away from ICE toward any number of battery-electric propulsion formats is just a passing fad. In their view, scores of OEMs, suppliers, dealers and infrastructure partners have it completely wrong. They believe that the billions in investment earmarked in virtually every major global market to build a new ecosystem are cap...

UK-based McLaren Applied is a specialist in vehicle electrification, particularly inverters. It recently struck a deal with STMicroelectronics for the supply of silicon carbide power modules for its 800V inverter. Inverter technology is rapidly adopting silicon carbide semiconductors, and McLaren has turned to the Geneva-based company in the absence of a local supply chain. To learn more about the inverters market and the migration from distributed ECU E/E architecture to a centralized zona...

Last January, five European countries - Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden - submitted a proposal to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to restrict PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the EU under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The group are calling for an EU ban on PFAS as early as 2026, pointing to recent studies that have linked the chemicals’ exposure to a wide range of health problems. The proposed r...

One of the most recognized patterns in current well-to-wheel analysis is the differentiation of localized power generation sources and supply chain contributions to the overall carbon footprint of vehicles. Experts like Kelly Senecal rightly point out that in many cases, the power grid is dirtier than a hybrid, even when vehicles manufacturing energy sources are responsibly developed.  Click the link above to download the full article.

In 2023, some 300 exhibitors showcased their vehicle technology. Its increasing importance – usurping the traditional auto shows like NAIAS, Paris, IAA and Geneva along the way – is demonstrated if we wind back the clock to 2014. Then, there were just nine OEMs present and some 125 automotive technology exhibitors. With this growth has also come maturity. The 2023 CES was less about fanciful concepts and more about tangible. Click the link above to download the full article.

Automotive display HMI is growing in demand owning to convenience features and enhancing customer experience. Moreover, in the coming years development of multi-display will not only provide greater freedom of information usage and control between driver and passenger, but it will also reduce product development complexities and costs for automakers. Although, in real-terms automakers will invest more during the initial years to gain longer-term benefits. Automakers are also engaged in the devel...

The current year has again been dominated by the chip crisis. Overlaid on this has been the worsening macroeconomic position due to the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has had knock-on effects for the industry in terms of demand surety. In turn this has brought an end to the era of cheap capital, which has served to slow the burgeoning mobility startup ecosystem. In the broader sense the sector looks set to be heading to a phase where demand-side considerations replace the curren...

With energy prices in Europe skyrocketing, placing business bottom lines in triage mode, a harsh winter could place certain automotive sectors at risk of being unable to keep their production lines running. Click the link above to download the article.

On 26 September 2022, Europe’s largest carmaker Volkswagen Group’s newly established battery company PowerCo and Brussels-based material supplier Umicore announced setting up a joint venture (JV) for precursor and cathode material production in Europe, starting from 2025. The landmark agreement with Umicore is expected to be critical for VW, which has two major long-term milestones to achieve: prepare for the European Union’s regulatory requirement of allowing sale of only zero-carbon-emis...

It has been almost a month since the Democrats in the US Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA 2022), which became legislation on 16 August 2022 after the US President Joe Biden signed the act. While carmakers and their suppliers across the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain have been scrambling to decode the new mandates, auto industry lobbies from Europe, South Korea, and Japan have already expressed deep concerns about the ability of global carmakers to meet the requi...

On 7 August 2022, Democrats in the US Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which aims to not only take control of rising inflation by reducing the fiscal deficit but also invest in domestic manufacturing of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs), secure the necessary supply chain, and cut down the carbon footprint by roughly 40% by 2030. The proposal made within the purview of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) expects to raise about USD739 billion and invest about ...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may exacerbate price pressure on critical battery raw materials and result in less affordable EVs, with battery input costs increasing by over 7,000 USD for several popular models.  Prices of lithium, nickel and cobalt, which can represent some 27% of the total battery input costs for certain battery chemistries, had already been sustained over the last few months, due to increased demand from the automotive sector, particularly in China, and low inventories. ...

On 22 September, Tesla hosted an announcement-packed ‘Battery Day”, showcasing its vision on where it wants to be in terms of battery cell technology and production capacities within the next three years, as well as what some of the innovation in the works could mean for end customers of its electric vehicles (EV). The company announced evolutionary changes, right from the cell design, down to the manufacturing processes related to every cell component, that will not only improve the perform...