Secures

Volcon Powersports is set to rake in the green for its green UTVs, the Volcon Stag. The company just announced that it has received over $100M worth of pre-order reservations for the new electric off-road vehicle. The Volcon Stag opened pre-orders on July 1st of this year. To get in line, prospective owners had to put down a $100 deposit towards the eventual $39,990 purchase price. If my math is correct, that $100M claim would account for around 2,500 pre-order reservations. The company achieved that level of…

BorgWarner’s iDM146 integrated drive module (iDM) has been selected by Hyundai Motor to power an additional A-Segment electric vehicle platform, scheduled to start production in the third quarter of 2024. BorgWarner said the new business was awarded based on BorgWarner’s iDM technology, its prior iDM win with HMC on another A-segment electric vehicle, and the longstanding relationship between the two companies. “Our…

Tesla has reportedly agreed to a deal with the Indonesian government that will secure the automaker about $5 billion worth of nickel, according to a government official. In 2020, we reported on Tesla allegedly being in talks with the Indonesian government to build a new nickel venture in the country, which has a strong nickel reserve – nickel is one of the main materials used in the production of cathodes for battery cells used in electric vehicles. The move came after CEO Elon Musk pleaded with mining companies…

The federal government has obtained $134 million loan from the Africa Development Bank to boost wheat production. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Mahmoud, said this in Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on the implementation of the presidential mandate given to the ministry. He explained that the aim was to save the country from acute scarcity of wheat, whose demand and price had gone high because of the Russia-Ukraine war. The minister noted that with 250,000 farmers…

Tesla has secured battery material supply deals with two large Chinese companies, according to new fillings. The move aims to ensure battery supply to support its electric vehicle production through the mid-decade. Automakers who are serious about electric vehicles are currently scrambling to secure as much long-term battery supply as possible since it will determine how many electric vehicles they are going to be able to produce. With internal combustion engine sales declining, their capacity to produce EVs…

GM announced today two deals to secure a long-term supply of lithium from Livent and cathode materials from LG Chem in order to support its goal of producing for 1 million electric vehicles in 2025. Lithium is used in the cathode of li-ion battery cells. It is a critical mineral that is quite common on Earth, but it needs to be refined in battery grade in order to be useful in battery cell production, which is seen as a current bottleneck for electric vehicles. Some automakers are getting directly involved in…

The Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program (ATVMP) hasn't offered a loan to an electric car maker since 2010, but it's ready to offer money once again. As Reuters reports, the Energy Department is providing a $2.5 billion loan to the GM and LG joint venture Ultium Cells for the sake of constructing EV battery cell factories. This is the government agency's first loan for battery production under the program. The money will be used for manufacturing plants in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. It…

Hydrogen-electric plane developer ZeroAvia announced it has garnered an additional $30 million in funding from both new and returning investors, including International Airlines Group (IAG). The aviation company’s Series B funding round now totals $68 million, which will be used to get its forty to eighty seat planes into operation by 2026. ZeroAvia is a zero-emission aviation company focused specifically on planes that utilize hydrogen-electric propulsion. The company currently operates in the US and UK and has…

Onomondo, a startup offering a dedicated wireless network for internet of things (IoT) devices, today announced that it raised $21 million in a funding round led by Verdane with participation from Maersk Growth, People Ventures, and The Danish Growth Fund. In an email, CEO Michael Karlsen told TechCrunch that the new cash will be put toward productization, go-to-market efforts, and marketing as Onomondo scales its team from 50 people to around 100 by the end of the year. Karlsen co-founded Onomondo in 2012 alongside…

The European Union will continue to prevent carriers from appling roaming charges for travelers from and to any of the 27 member states of the union or the European Economic Area for 10 more years. The "roam like at home" initiative abolished roaming charges 5 years ago and put an end to carriers putting surcharges on travelers using their network. Now the initiative will stay on until 2032. A new part of "roam like at home" is the focus on the quality of service. It means that customers should be offered the same…