Philippa Kaur

VW’s Unified Battery Cell will form the electric heart of its future models.
Volkswagen
Taking a page from Elon Musk and Tesla’s playbook, on Monday, Volkswagen Group executives outlined the company’s next-generation battery and charging strategy in its first Power Day presentation, a virtual seminar. The German giant detailed plans to move a majority of its forthcoming electric vehicle range to a single next-generation battery format. Dubbed “Unified Battery Cell,” this new prismatic (as opposed a to cylindrical or pouch-style) format will enter production in 2023 and go on to form the heart of 80% of the company’s EVs by 2030. The remaining 20% of production will rely on special chemistries for unique usage cases, including heavy-duty commercial trucks and high-performance models and race cars among them. There is a clear, distinct target for Porsche’s own research and development within VWAG: “Our goal must be to ensure a permanent supply of high-performance cells that fully satisfy our specific requirements for future electrified race cars and electric super sports cars,” said Porsche CEO Oliver Blume.VW’s goal is to cut battery costs by up to 50% in these standard cells, and to ensure up to 95% recyclability, all while increasing range. According to a press release, “Volkswagen intends to gradually reduce the cost of batteries in the entry-level segment by up to 50% and in the volume segment by up to 30%.” As noted by Reuters, it’s not immediately clear what this largely in-house program means for the Volkswagen Group’s existing pouch-style battery partners, which include Korea’s LG and SK Innovation.

VW officials outlined plans for 240 gigawatt hours of battery capacity in six European factories by the end of this decade, including 40 gigawatt-hour plants in Skelleftea, Sweden (coming online in 2023), and in Salzgitter, Germany, in 2025.Consumers will first be able to experience this next-gen battery power in the company’s forthcoming Artemis platform, which is now in development at Audi, another of VWAG’s luxury brands.Bidirectional chargingBeginning in 2022, VW says models built on the company’s MEB architecture will support bidirectional (two-way) charging — that is, the ability to leverage a vehicle’s battery to power external things. That ability includes feeding power back into a home or business in the event of a blackout, or to use as a temporary storage medium to take advantage of lower-cost off-peak electricity rates. Plans call for VW to offer a home energy storage battery to take advantage of this new capability (think: Tesla PowerWall). It is not immediately clear if this two-way capability will be legal throughout the US and Canada — other automakers have announced similar capabilities, only to run into local regulatory red tape.Solid-state battery futureDuring Power Day, VW also confirmed plans to continue pursuing solid-state batteries as its end goal, and the company says that moving to this newly standardized Unified Battery Cell as an intermediate step will help the company’s models move to a liquid-free battery easier in the future. VW is working with its US partner QuantumScape to ready production of solid-state cells for the 2025 timeframe. Volkswagen believes these smaller, lighter and more robust liquid-free cells will enable up to 30% more range while delivering 80% charges in as little as 12 minutes. That’s roughly twice as quick as today’s cutting-edge batteries, which would bring refueling time much closer to parity with gasoline-powered vehicles. Lengthy charge times are seen as a primary stumbling block to EV adoption by many consumers.

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Charging network plansVolkswagen also revealed plans to ramp up its European charging network to 18,000 charge points in the near term — a quintupling of today’s footprint — with partners like BP in the UK, Iberdrola in Spain and Enel in Italy. VW is planning 8,000 150kW high-speed chargers at BP and Aral gas stations, primarily in Germany and the UK. In the US, plans call for 3,500 new fast-charging locations by 2023, and a further 17,000 charge points in China by 2025. Electrify America, the company’s US charging arm, says it is averaging four new network-point installations per week, and it expects to have 800 stations up and running in North America by the end of 2021.In the near term, on the back of its new ID range of EV models that are just now entering dealers worldwide, Volkswagen expects to double global battery electric vehicle sales to become between 6 and 8% of the company’s range of vehicles. The first of these models to be offered in the US and Canada is the ID 4 compact crossover.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a new title at the automaker. In a new regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company revealed that the world’s current second-richest man title has changed to “Technoking of Tesla.”Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla’s chief financial officer, also got a new title on Monday as the company’s “Master of Coin.” The filing notes that in addition to these titles both Musk and Kirkhorn will “also maintain their respective positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.”It was not clear why Musk and Kirkhorn changed their titles. Musk, normally active on social media, has yet to tweet on the change.While Musk hasn’t tweeted, at least for Kirkhorn the change does seem to tie into recent Tesla news. The baroque title adjustment arrives nearly a month after the electric carmaker announced that it would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment, with the company also investing $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

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VW’s Unified Battery Cell will form the electric heart of its future models.
Volkswagen
Taking a page out of Elon Musk and Tesla’s playbook, on Monday Volkswagen Group outlined its next-generation battery and charging strategy in its first Power Day presentation, a virtual seminar. The German giant detailed plans to move a majority of its forthcoming electric vehicle range to a single next-generation battery format. Dubbed “Unified Battery Cell,” this new prismatic (opposed to cylindrical or pouch-style) format will enter production in 2023 and go on to form the heart of 80% of the company’s EVs by 2030. The remaining 20% of production will rely on special chemistries for unique usage cases — ultrahigh-performance models (e.g. Porsche models and race cars) and heavy-duty commercial trucks among them. VW’s goal is to cut battery costs by up to 50% in these standard cells, and to ensure up to 95% recyclability. According to a press release, “Volkswagen intends to gradually reduce the cost of batteries in the entry-level segment by up to 50% and in the volume segment by up to 30%.” As noted by Reuters, it’s not immediately clear what this largely in-house program means for the Volkswagen Group’s existing pouch-style battery partners, which include Korea’s LG and SK Innovation.

VW officials outlined plans for 240 gigawatt hours of battery capacity in six European factories by the end of this decade, including 40 gigawatt-hour plants in Skellefteå, Sweden (coming online in 2023), and in Salzgitter, Germany, in 2025.Consumers will first be able to experience this next-gen battery power in the company’s forthcoming Artemis platform, which is now in development at Audi, one of VWAG’s luxury brands.Solid-state battery futureDuring Power Day, VW also confirmed plans to continue pursuing solid-state batteries as its end goal, and the company says that moving to this newly standardized Unified Battery Cell as an intermediate step will help moving to a liquid-free battery easier in the future. VW is working with its US partner QuantumScape to ready production of solid-state cells for the 2025 timeframe. Volkswagen believes these smaller, lighter and more robust cells will enable up to 30% more range while delivering 80% charges in as little as 12 minutes. That’s roughly twice as quick as today’s cutting-edge batteries, which would bring refueling time much closer to parity with gasoline-powered vehicles. Lengthy charge times are seen as a primary stumbling block to EV adoption by many consumers.

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Charging network plansVolkswagen also revealed plans to ramp up its European charging network to 18,000 charge points in the near term — a quintupling of today’s footprint — with partners like BP in the UK, Iberdrola in Spain and Enel in Italy. VW is planning 8,000 150kW high-speed chargers at BP and Aral gas stations, primarily in Germany and the UK. In the US, plans call for 3,500 new fast-charging locations by 2023, and a further 17,000 charge points in China by 2025. Electrify America, the company’s US charging arm, says it is averaging four new network-point installations per week, and it expects to have 800 stations up and running in North America by the end of 2021.In the near term, on the back of its new ID range of EV models that are just now entering dealers worldwide, Volkswagen expects to double global battery electric vehicle sales to become between 6 and 8% of the company’s range of vehicles. The first of these models to be offered in the US and Canada is the ID 4 compact crossover.
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Future lithium-based batteries promise greater energy density, faster charging, lighter weight and more.
GM
Two of the biggest hurdles standing in the way of mass-EV adoption are cost and energy density. Addressing both concerns, on Thursday GM announced it’s hard at work on a next-generation Ultium battery chemistry. Yep, first-gen Ultium batteries aren’t even out yet and the automaker is already talking about what comes next. Here’s what that means.To develop these improved batteries, GM also revealed a joint development agreement with SolidEnergy Systems (SES), a company that has extensive experience working with lithium. GM Ventures, the automaker’s venture capital arm that helps nurture automotive-related start-up companies has been invested in SES for six years now, but this new announcement takes the partnership a step further. By 2023, the two companies plan to build a manufacturing line in Woburn, Massachusetts to make prototype batteries.SES technology promises to deliver batteries that charge faster, have greater energy density and are lower in weight. Talk about a win-win-win. Beyond that, its designs should also be efficient to manufacture and very scalable, exactly what automakers need. Prototype batteries have already withstood some 150,000 simulated miles’ worth of testing in the lab at GM’s tech center in Warren, Michigan, so the design shows promise.Advances in battery design promise to address several major hurdles in the way of mass-EV adoption. 
GM
This new battery design sounds a lot like solid state, but that’s not the case. According to its website, SES “used to pursue solid-state Li-Metal technology. However, we have developed a far more practical, better-performing, and complete Li-Metal system than today’s solid-state alternatives.” Its new designs promise greater range from batteries of the same size or the same range from smaller, lighter packs. “With this next-generation Ultium chemistry, we believe we’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation improvement in energy density and cost,” said GM president Mark Reuss in a media release. “There’s even more room to improve in both categories, and we intend to innovate faster than any other company in this space.”GM has extensive experience working with lithium-ion batteries. The automaker currently has 49 patents related to this technology and another 45 are pending. Ultium-powered vehicles are expected to go on sale at some point in 2021, just one year after the system was unveiled.

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It’s here, everyone. The gorgeous Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo bowed via a digital debut on Thursday, and it’s a looker. It becomes Porsche’s second electric car, following the standard Taycan sedan that sent shockwaves through the electric car industry when it launched as a true, potential Tesla Model S rival. Now, we have an even cooler version.You can catch the live reveal above or read all about the new electric wagon right here.
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The Cross Turismo takes the Taycan’s winning formula and gets it dirty.
Porsche
Porsche’s Taycan Cross Turismo is looking like it’s going to be an incredibly awesome machine, with all the things we love about the standard Taycan, crossed with all the things we love about tall, slightly off-road-oriented wagons. Needless to say, we’re excited about its debut, and we can only assume you are as well.Luckily, the world being what it is right now, most major car debuts have been shifted to an online format, and the Cross Turismo is following that same formula. Even better, you don’t even have to be a journalist or have press credentials of any kind to watch it as it’s happening. In fact, you can watch it right here on Roadshow when the live stream kicks off at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 4.

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What can you expect to see? Well, probably a whole bunch of videos of the Cross Turismo blasting through the dirt and in the snow as well as some details on performance and maybe even an on-sale date.Porsche’s Taycan sent shockwaves through the electric car industry when it launched, despite offering up less-than-impressive range on paper. It did this because it was the first high-performance, luxury electric vehicle from a legacy manufacturer. Beyond that, Porsche is known for its excellence in engineering and epic build quality, and we’re excited to see that carried over in the Cross Turismo.We’d expect the Cross Turismo to make a slightly smaller splash, but we definitely know which of the two we’re going to go to sleep dreaming of driving like maniacs through a rally stage.
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Drive in and 10 minutes later, you drive out with a new, fully charged battery.
Ample
Back when electric vehicles had ranges that could best be described as “uninspiring,” a bunch of companies toyed with the idea of offering a car with swappable battery packs. Its something that still comes up now and then, but for the most part, it’s been left behind as battery tech has improved.A startup called Ample apparently didn’t get that memo because it announced its swappable battery system on Wednesday. It says it’s been working for the last six years with companies like Uber to bring it to market.

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Ample’s goal is to offer fully automated battery swaps in around 10 minutes at small, self-contained pop-ups. The structures would be cheap and straightforward to build and take up no more than two standard parking spaces. Ample even has a video showing the process on a modified Nissan Leaf.
Here’s the problem, though: Getting the industry to pivot away from the idea of large fixed battery packs and public charging stations will likely be next to impossible. Ample’s system is unlikely to succeed as a consumer-focused system, in other words. But it could make sense for commercial vehicles.It would make sense in places like ports, where an electric vehicle with its lack of emissions and tons of torque makes it well-suited to lugging containers around. Having the ability to change batteries out quickly would mean that downtime due to charging would be basically nonexistent.Ample says that it’s currently being deployed in the Bay Area, where it’s working with ride-sharing, last-mile delivery, and municipal fleet partners. It also claims that it’s “actively working with a number of the world’s largest automakers to enable mass deployment in the US, Europe, and Asia.”Check out the video and let us know what you think. Will Ample change the trajectory of EV development?

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EV charging could be about to get much simpler in America if the Electric Highway Coalition has anything to say about it.
Bartek Szewczyk/EyeEm/Getty Images
Right now, there are a few major brand-agnostic electric vehicle charging networks available to use in the US. They’re all broadly similar, and for the most part, their coverage is pretty good. The problem is that they’re run privately and not a part of an energy company. That means they’re subject to the same kinds of issues with the power grid as anyone else.The Eastern and Southeastern US could get a serious boost to its EV charging infrastructure.
Electric Highway Coalition
Enter the Electric Highway Coalition and its Tuesday announcement that it plans to build one seamless network of chargers from West Texas to the Gulf of Mexico and all the way up the Eastern seaboard. The coalition is made up of six major utility companies: American Electric Power, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy Corporation, Southern Co., and the Tennessee Valley Authority. 

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The planned network will be built focusing on DC fast-charging to allow people to more easily cover great distances in their electric cars, with locations planned along major highways and near other services. Each independent utility company will select its own sites and build its own charging stations.If this network comes to fruition, and if it’s genuinely seamless for drivers — a single app needed to pay, enough charging spaces, etc. — then it could serve as a blueprint for a future nationwide charging network run by utility companies and subject to the same kind of regulation and oversight. Theoretically, it would also incentivize utility companies to improve America’s electrical infrastructure, more so than the added load placed by private charging networks, anyway. We asked American Electric Power for comment but didn’t hear back before publication.
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