News Roundup: 11/26 – 12/2

Headlines and links from all the news, including things we didn’t cover in depth here on EVmeme.com this past week. Follow the links for more on each.

Thanks To Price Drops, EVs and Hybrids Grow To 18% Of U.S. Vehicle Sales
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has announced that, according to Wards Intelligence data, the sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric vehicles in the United States rose to 17.7 percent of new light-duty vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2023.

First Hydrogen Hybrid Diesel Race Truck To Attack Dakar
DynaCERT has entered into an agreement with French racing team HoleShot Competition to support their MAN Dakar Rally race truck at the 2024 Dakar Classic event. The #915 rally truck has been fitted with a HydraGEN HG1 Unit that uses simple electrolysis to convert distilled water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Nissan Announces Two New EVs for UK Production
Nissan has announced that all three models being built at its Sunderland, United Kingdom plant will become battery-electric vehicles. The announcement comes with the promise of three new gigafactories and up to £3 billion in investment.

Mitsubishi Launching New Minicab EV in Japan
Mitsubishi Motors will launch a new kei-car Minicab EV in Japan on December 21. The two-seater minicab will be priced at roughly US$16,000 and the four-seat model at $16,600.

Gulfstream Completes World’s 1st Trans-Atlantic Flight On SAF
Gulfstream Aerospace has completed the world’s first trans-Atlantic flight using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The flight took place on a Gulfstream G600 aircraft, leaving Savannah, Georgia and landing 7 hours later in Farnborough Airport, England. The SAF had no added aromatics.

Fiat To Auction 3 Fiat 500e EVs for Charity
Fiat will auction three bespoke 500e electric vehicles at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023. Proceeds from the auction will benefit an unnamed environmental non-profit.

Lotus Plans to Launch Charging Solutions
Lotus has committed to developing its own range of electric vehicle charging solutions as part of its all-electric promise for 2028. The next-generation charging solutions will be designed to increase charging confidence and infrastructure.

Toshiba Develops Li-Ion Battery With Cobalt-Free Cathode
Toshiba Corporation has developed a new lithium-ion battery with a cobalt-free 5V-class high-potential cathode material. The material significantly suppresses performance-degrading gasses produced as side-reactions in standard cathodes.

DOE Confirms California’s Salton Sea Region Rich In Lithium
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced results of the most comprehensive analysis so far to quantify domestic lithium resources in California’s Salton Sea region. The analysis concludes that with expected technology advances, the Salton Sea region’s total resources could produce more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium.

EPRI Launches Electric Transport Grid Planning Tool
With support from truck and car manufacturers, fleet operators, and the U.S. Department of Energy, and others, EPRI has released eRoadMAP, an interactive online resource to help power companies and industry stakeholders effectively plan for power infrastructure to serve light-, medium-, and heavy-duty electric vehicles.

Hyundai Designs New Universal Wheel Drive System For EVs
Hyundai has developed a new drive system to replace the CV joint, drive shaft, and reducer normally found in a vehicle’s chassis. The Universal Wheel Drive System packs the functions of those components into the wheel of the vehicle instead.

Poor Reliability Still Plaguing Electric Vehicles, Consumer Reports Says
Although electric vehicles are selling in higher numbers, consumers are still finding reliability issues to be an issue. The latest Annual Auto Reliability Survey from Consumer Reports shows that new electric vehicles, on average, have 79 percent more problems than do internal combustion vehicles. Plug-in hybrids fare even worse.

BloombergNEF Battery Price Survey Finds 14% Drop Year-on-Year
Battery prices for electric vehicles are falling this year, with a 14 percent drop from 2022. Raw material and component prices fell as production capacity increased across the EV battery value chain and demand growth proved to be short of predictions.

Connecticut Withdraws Advanced Clean Cars II Proposal
Connecticut’s governor Ned Lamond and the state’s Department of Energy & Environmental Protection withdrew a set of proposed Advanced Clean Cars II regulations. The proposals would have aligned the state with California’s Zero Emissions Vehicle regulations. The proposals were withdrawn when it was clear they would not pass committee vote.

Volvo Aims To Cut CO₂ Emissions Per Car By 75% By 2030
Volvo has announced that the company will double down on its action plan, by aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions per car by 75 percent by 2030 (using a 2018 baseline) and to become climate neutral by 2040.

Airbus Hydrogen Contrail Study Has First Flight
The Airbus Blue Condor, a modified glider in the Airbus UpNext experiment, made its first hydrogen-powered flight over Nevada. Hydrogen was the sole fuel source, a first in the study. The plane will conclude with a contrail-measuring mission in early 2024.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz Establishing High-Power Charging Network in China
BMW Brilliance Automotive and Mercedes-Benz Group China are establishing a joint high-power charging network in China.

Tesla Unveils New Production Cybertruck With Shorter Range, Higher Price
Tesla unveiled the new delivery-ready Cybertruck at its Texas gigafactory to launch the highly-anticipated new electric pickup truck. Three model variants will be offered, with the lowest-priced coming in 2025 at $60,990.

Kohler Engines Unveils Direct-Injection Hydrogen Engine
Kohler Engines has unveiled its new Kohler Direction Injection Hydrogen (KDH) engine, an internal combustion engine running on hydrogen. The engine is aimed for off-road and agricultural use.

Ohmio and City of Riverside, CA Reach Agreement On Autonomous Shuttles
The Riverside City Council of Riverside, California unanimously voted to finalize an agreement with all-electric autonomous shuttle company Ohmio. Ohmio will move its headquarters from New Zealand to Riverside and manufacture its vehicles there. The city will spend up to $2.5 million to facilitate the move.

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