International Battery Company, a startup developing lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles, has raised $35 million as it plans to bridge the demand-supply gap in the growing EV market in India.
International Battery Company touts to address these issues and fulfill both the current and projected demand of EV batteries in the country with its in-house Li-ion battery cells.
So, we want to participate in that journey in India,” Priyadarshi Panda, founder and CEO of International Battery Company, told TechCrunch in an interview.
“We are proactively preparing for the execution of building the gigafactory in India, which we will do with the additional fundraising.”Distinctive edgeNotably, International Battery Company is not alone in building Li-ion battery facilities in India.
“The [International Battery Company] founders, and the way they have approached so far is just very different from a lot of others.
CES has increasingly become defined by what automakers and other mobility-focused companies bring to Las Vegas, and CES 2024 has been no exception.
Hydrogen’s making a big comebackThe underlying technology for hydrogen-powered vehicles has been around for a while, though it’s been eclipsed by battery-powered electric vehicles.
But at CES 2024, a number of companies from Nikola to Hyundai and Bosch were touting its benefits.
We explore why this is the year several companies are highlighting hydrogen, with an additional deep dive into Hyundai’s plans.
Kia’s modular EV lineup is revealedModular phones may have come and gone, but Kia hopes modular vehicles will have a bit more success.
When was the last time you watched an automotive company wax poetic about diesel engine controllers for Class 8 trucks?
It’s true that Hyundai has invested in hydrogen fuel cells for decades, but it has also been one of the more successful legacy automakers at navigating the electric transition.
It’s odd that a company with so much momentum on its side would throw a hydrogen Hail Mary.
But maybe Hyundai’s EV rollout isn’t going as planned.
Enter hydrogen, a sector with a green aura about it, a useful distraction from more polluting realities.
Hertz is selling off a third of its electric vehicle fleet, which is predominantly made up of Teslas, and will buy gas cars with some of the money it makes from the sales.
Hertz’s move to slash its EV fleet comes as electric vehicle sales growth has cooled from record highs.
Just two years ago, Hertz announced plans to buy 100,000 EVs from Tesla by the end of 2022.
Instead, as of October 2023, Hertz had only purchased 35,000 Teslas and its entire electric fleet included about 50,000 EVs total.
It announced plans in 2022 to buy up to 175,000 EVs from General Motors, and another 65,000 from Polestar.
CES has increasingly become defined by what automakers and other mobility-focused companies bring to Las Vegas, and CES 2024 has been no exception.
Honda’s 0 series EVs, Saloon and Space-Hub concepts debutIf you’re tired of “thick, heavy” EVs, Honda has an alternative vision for you.
The carmaker showcased a more sleek design for its Saloon concept, while the Space-Hub takes a more family-friendly van approach.
Though like its standard form factor, the voice-powered ChatGPT could still be tricked, as we learned in a hands-on demo.
Kia’s modular EV lineup is revealedModular phones may have come and gone, but Kia hopes modular vehicles will have a bit more success.
Bankrupt EV startup Lordstown Motors could be on the hook for $45 million for violating federal securities laws.
The SEC first started probing Lordstown Motors in 2021, just days after short-selling research firm Hindenburg Research published a report laying out a number of allegations of fraud.
Lawyers for Lordstown Motors revealed early on in the bankruptcy process that it had held confidential settlement talks with the SEC.
Lordstown Motors and a lawyer for the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some investigations — like the one into Lucid Motors, or struggling EV startup Workhorse — have been dropped without any enforcement action.
Vietnamese EV startup VinFast is trying to get into the electric pickup truck game, as it revealed a new concept called the VF Wild at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.
The company announced it also plans to start selling its smallest EV, the VF3, outside of Vietnam as previously hinted.
The VF3 is a plucky little EV that VinFast announced in Vietnam earlier this year.
Developing a truck and globally launching a compact EV aren’t even the biggest things on VinFast’s plate.
Globally, the overwhelming majority of VinFast’s EV sales have been to a taxi company owned by Vuong.
Google announced Tuesday at CES 2024 a new feature for EV drivers that will track and display real-time battery information in Google Maps.
The new Android Auto feature will rollout today on Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
Google built-in adds Chrome, Weather ChannelGoogle also added new trip planning capabilities, the Chrome browser and the Weather Channel app to Google built-in.
The company said that starting today drivers of vehicles with Google built-in can send the trip they’ve planned on their smartphone using Google Maps directly to their car.
Cars with Google built-in will also get, starting today, PBS KIDS and Crunchyroll and the Weather Channel app.
Kia is following up a strong year for its passenger EVs by sharing what it wants to do for businesses looking to go electric.
The Korean automaker just unveiled at CES 2024 a forthcoming lineup of electric vans and other similar vehicles all set to be built on a new modular platform.
What that looks like in practice, according to Kia, are vehicles with fixed driver cabs that can have the rest of the vehicle’s cabin swapped out.
These cabins (Kia calls them “life modules”) connect to the chassis using both mechanical couplings and electromagnets, though Kia was light on the details about how that will work.
The first model to be made will be the Kia PV5, a three-row van with futuristic styling.
EV sales remained strong in Q4.
They could have been stronger All automakers, including Tesla, are at a crossroadsIf you’ve only been reading headlines these past few months, you’d think demand for electric vehicles has fallen off a cliff.
In some countries, like Norway, where 82% of new vehicles are electric, it has already landed.
That jibes with other forecasts that predict EVs will make up around 25% of the market in 2026.
The demand will be there, but to make the most of it, automakers have some work to do.
