Follow PSR’s ongoing global coverage of eMobility across a wide range of segments, including electric cars, commercial vehicles, electric motorbikes and e-buses.
The lack of a refueling infrastructure is one of the largest challenges facing H2 development, so Nikola plans to start building a hydrogen fuel network. The network would make it possible for H2-powered vehicles to refuel conveniently, particularly when those vehicles are the company’s own trucks.
The company has already started the construction of H2 plants in order to produce the H2 necessary to supply the hydrogen fuel network. Once those are in place and the refueling stations are built, it will become feasible for companies to begin including H2-powered trucks in their fleets.
There is a recent report from the Washington Post with a scary title: “EV Battery Recycling Has Boomed Too Soon.” There aren’t enough used electric vehicle batteries to meet even 10% of the raw material demand for electric vehicles made in the US, the Washington Post says.
Meanwhile, the US already has more battery recycling capacity than it has batteries available to recycle, with more public and private battery recycling facilities planned or under construction. The Post concludes its report with this pithy statement: “Many of these investments are destined to fail. Those few that succeed will do so only by diversifying away from recycling, at least temporarily.”
Most owners of electric cars have wished for a battery pack that could power their vehicle for more than a thousand miles on a single charge, and Range Anxiety is a big issue for EV adoption. Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a lithium-air battery that could make that dream a reality.
The main new component in this lithium-air battery is a solid electrolyte instead of the usual liquid variety. Batteries with solid electrolytes are not subject to the safety issues of liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion and other battery types, which can overheat and catch fire.
Hydrogen power continues to be a hot topic as an alternative power source, as you’ll see when you read the March 2023 issue of the Alternative Power Report from Power Systems Research. Development of the charging infrastructure is a hot topic, too, as we see with the article on Subway tying its sandwich shops in with charging stations. PSR
A 240-ton mining haul truck is being fitted with a 1.4 megawatt-hour (MWh) prototype battery system that global green energy company Fortescue has developed with equipment maker Liebherr.
UK-based engineering company WAE Technologies, (acquired by Fortescue in March 2022), completed and delivered the battery system to Fortescue’s workshop in Perth, Australia. The battery will be assembled and installed in the mining haul truck before it’s transported to the Pilbara in Western Australia for onsite testing this year.
The battery system marks several firsts for an electric mining haul truck battery: In addition to having energy storage of 1.4 MWh, it also has the ability to fast-charge in 30 minutes, and it can regenerate power as it drives downhill.
PSR Analysis: This is a good view of the potential for all mining trucks, but it should be noted that a lot of these huge mining trucks are diesel-electric to start with, (a diesel generator powering electric drives), so this is a matter of replacing the generator with the battery pack. They also can recharge on the way down, so the battery size can be relatively smaller. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Leadat Power Systems Research
The global motorcycle market is growing at a healthy CAGR of 5.48%, according to Power Systems Research. Revenue for 2021 was approximately $107.1 Billion and projected to be $146.6 Billion by 2030.
Growth during this period is primarily due to increasing demand from China, India, and ASEAN countries. In addition, growth in traditional markets such as Europe and North America is also anticipated.
The growth of drivers for the Motorcycle industry come from the requirement for cost-effective private transportation among people around the world.
Indonesia plans to introduce a subsidy program to encourage the purchase of EVs starting in 2023. The goal is to increase the number of EV users to 2.5 million by 2025 and reduce air pollution. The EV purchase subsidy program will be added to the list of EV policies introduced by President Joko Widodo over the past year.
Transportation Minister Boudi Karya Sumadi said the government is also considering subsidies for retrofitting internal combustion engine vehicles, but the government is carefully considering this plan because it would bring major changes to the labor-intensive auto industry. The Ministry of Transport plans to approach existing Indonesian automakers, such as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and China’s BYD, to create an EV ecosystem for Borneo’s new capital city, he said.
The electric vehicle market in India is mostly dominated by lithium-ion battery technology, which powers two-, three- and four-wheeler vehicles. But this situation comes with its own set of challenges.
For instance, each battery chemistry has a different energy density, peak power output and charging time. Hence, the industry is working on alternative green solutions, and the government of India is aggressively working on hydrogen as a fuel option.
In terms of refueling time, hydrogen has a definitive advantage over batteries. It takes just a couple of minutes for a hydrogen vehicle to be refueled, irrespective of size, compared to the hours it takes to recharge an electric vehicle.
The union cabinet approved US$ 2.4 trillion (Rs 19,744 cr) for National Green Hydrogen Mission. The mission has four components aimed at enhancing domestic production of green hydrogen and promoting the manufacturing of electrolysers — a key constituent for making green hydrogen. The initial target is to produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen annually.
Along with the government, other industry stakeholders are taking significant steps to develop hydrogen fuel. Ashok Leyland (one of the largest CV makers) is working with Reliance industries on the development and supply chain of hydrogen-powered engines.
Ashok Leyland plans to install fuel-cell engines in an existing fleet of 45,000 trucks that RIL has hired to transport refined products and other marketing goods as a first stage in the strategy. Also, Adani (diversified business portfolio) and TotalEnergies (French energy and petroleum company) have entered into a partnership to jointly create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem.
The potential of the country towards the production of hydrogen is attractive to many companies. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is looking to source green hydrogen from India as well as Australia and Latin America.
“India is an amazing location with huge potential for the production of (green) hydrogen at a very exciting cost,” says Glenn Llewellyn, VP Zero-Emission Aircraft at Airbus.
In the 16th edition of the motor show Auto Expo Toyota, MG motors, Tata motors, Hyundai, and VECV, showcased their hydrogen-powered vehicles across several segments. It’s evident that OEMs are seriously exploring the option of Hydrogen powered vehicles. PSR
Aditya Kondejkar is Research Analyst – South Asia Operationsfor Power Systems Research
The development trend for the new energy vehicle (EVs) market remained positive through 2022. In November, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 598,000 units, with a year-on-year growth of 58.2%. From January to November, the domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 5.03 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 100.1%.
As for December, the Passenger Transport Federation believes that the subsidy for new energy vehicles will decline by 12,600 RMB this year, which is much more than the decline of 5000 RMB in the previous two years. In addition, some vehicle enterprises have announced a price increase for next year, which may promote strong pre-buying of new energy vehicles at the end of the year and boost sales.
This year, the new energy vehicle market is expected to achieve the annual sales of 6.5 million vehicles.
Panasonic Energy said it has agreed to purchase cathode active materials and copper foil for lithium-ion batteries from Redwood Materials. The recycled cathode active materials will be used to manufacture batteries in the company’s new $4 billion factory located in De Soto, Kansas, starting in 2025, and the recycled copper foil will be used to make batteries at Panasonic’s facility in Sparks, Nevada, starting in 2024.
“Recycling and a localizing supply chain are both essential to make the best use of limited natural resources,” said Kazuo Tadanobu, President and CEO of Panasonic Energy, in a press release.
This may amount to 50% of the cost of the battery and add around 900 new workers to Redwood Materials workforce once in full scale production
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Performance cookies are used to adjust the rate of analytic and advertisement tracking (if enabled) to avoid slowing our site down during high traffic times.
Cookies used to track your Internet use and tailor advertisements to your interests and provide the ability to share and like pages on our site with your friends on social media.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
