The companies have agreed to manufacturer ‘Swift’ semi solid-state batteries at Mullen’s Fullerton facility in California, a 1-GWh site which it opened in 2023.

At the plant inauguration, MAN announced that it would invest a further EUR150m to kickstart production of battery modules, i.e., assembled battery cells which are installed in the packs.

These 12-metre electric city buses will be built in New South Wales and feature a stainless steel chassis and aluminium side panels.

In the next several years, Siemens will establish a “Global AI Manufacturing Technologies Research and Development Center for Battery Production” which will initially focus on electric vehicle battery production.

Readers of Truck & Bus Builder will be accustomed by now to news stories reporting the demise of yet another electric vehicle startup. Particularly in Britain and in the USA, several new companies in receipt of millions of dollars of investors’ money – either through venture capital funding rounds or the stock market – have faltered in the past year, reducing their business activities to a fraction of their original scope or ceasing to trade altogether. Yet, in late 2024, while all of this was going on, a small British firm successfully raised a sum of GBP17.3m from investors who could justifiably have refused to cough up a single penny towards yet another electric vehicle proposition. Bucking the trend, Sunswap Ltd is showing that a new entrant can bring out a product that is economically as well as environmentally sustainable.

Webasto claims that, using a combination of mechanical, thermal, and hydrometallurgical methods, Cylib can fully recover lithium, graphite, and other materials from a used battery pack, exceeding the requirements of upcoming European Union regulations.

Kiepe announced that its U.S. engineering team was working with German battery manufacturer, the BMZ Group to customise its MAGNUS+ battery to fit with its own electric systems.  

The partnership is to focus on creating traction motors, controllers, vehicle control units, and battery management systems.

This builds on the success of its ‘Black Mass’ facility, also in Sikandrabad, Uttar Pradesh, launched in 2022.

Ijaz’s reappointment coincides with the closing of ONE’s latest funding round, which was led by Crescent Ventures LLC.

The round was led by America venture capital firm, Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF) of Sacramento, California, with participation from Blume Ventures of Mumbai, India and British International Investment Plc of London, UK (BII).

With a lifespan of 20 years, the 26 kWh battery utilises Yoshiba LTO cells and delivers double the power of the previous generation (Pulse 15) with a peak output of 400lW for ten seconds.