Fast charging in electric vehicles helps meet the demand for fast and convenient recharging, but the high voltage it entails also brings risks. Download Sensata’s guide to high-voltage protection to learn more about the risks associated with high-voltage DC fast charging and what can be done to mitigate these dangers.
Belgian materials company Syensqo and French clean fuels firm Axens Group have launched Argylium, a new company that will focus on developing and scaling up the industrialization of sulfide solid electrolyte materials for all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs).
The new company builds on Syensqo’s solid-state battery pilot line in La Rochelle and more than a decade of technology development at its Paris laboratory.
Argylium brings together Syensqo’s work on advanced materials and Axens Group’s experience in process design, industrial scale-up and global operation of in-organic chemistry industrial plants. That will be complemented by French public research organization IFPEN’s expertise in inorganic chemistry as well as oxide or sulfide divided materials at its Lyon research center.
Argylium will focus on collaborating with European research institutions, automotive OEMs, battery manufacturers and energy technology partners to drive innovation and bring ASSBs to commercial production, contributing to Europe’s goal of building a sustainable and competitive solid-state battery industry.
“With over 50 years of experience in scaling up technologies to commercial levels, in partnership with IFPEN and aligned with our strategy to develop industrial assets in Europe for the production of advanced battery materials for cathodes (CAM) and recycling of black mass, our association with Syensqo aims to lay the groundwork and build a robust ecosystem for the commercialization of solid electrolytes by 2030,” said Fabrice Bertoncini, Axens Group’s Executive VP, New Development and Transformation.
Source: Syensqo
EV charging provider L-Charge has closed a $10-million funding round, led by Ultra Capital.
L-Charge will use the new capital to expand its national installation footprint; add new product categories; expand its portfolio of off-grid chargers; grow sales, operations and customer support teams to support increasing project volume; and strengthen long-term infrastructure and service capabilities. The investment will support rapid growth in installations in the rideshare, last-mile delivery and fleet segments.
Fleet operators installing charging infrastructure continue to face permitting delays and infrastructure backlogs that add cost and slow EV deployments. L-Charge aims to address these challenges by delivering modular, off-grid charging solutions that enable fleets to electrify in a matter of weeks.
L-Charge’s Charging-as-a-Service and Power-as-a-Service offerings provide commercial customers with a flexible, zero-CapEx alternative to traditional grid-dependent charging infrastructure.
“Demand for our solutions continues to grow as fleet operators look for reliable ways to deploy EVs despite grid limitations and rising costs,” said Stephen Kelley, CEO of L-Charge. “This investment allows us to scale faster, support more customers, and keep building the team needed to sustain our next phase of growth.”
“L-Charge is solving one of the most critical bottlenecks in fleet electrification today—access to power,” said Kristian Hanelt, Partner at Ultra Capital. “Their ability to deploy charging infrastructure independent of grid timelines makes them uniquely positioned to support the rapid electrification of commercial fleets.”
Source: L-Charge
Aperam has announced a new “slinky” production method for making iron-cobalt (FeCo) alloy stators and rotors for high-performance electric motors. The company says the approach adapts an in-plane helical winding process—already used for electrical steel—to FeCo alloys, which it describes as difficult to form despite “exceptional magnetic performance.”
Aperam’s slinky method forms motor components from continuous strips instead of stamping them from sheet metal. It uses a combination of linear stamping and in-plane helical bending to create slinky stators and rotors. The process reduces metal scrap to 10–30%, versus conventional methods that can waste up to 70% of the high-cost material.
Aperam says that combining FeCo alloys with the slinky process yields +35% power density for eVTOL aircraft, +25% torque for hypercars and –15% motor size, which it calls essential for aviation weight constraints.
The approach is built around Aperam’s AFK family of FeCo alloys, including IMPHY AFK1, AFK18 and AFK502R.
“FeCo alloys offer unparalleled magnetic performance, but their cost has historically limited their efficient use,” said Frederic Mattei, CEO Alloys and Specialties and CIO at Aperam. “With ‘slinky’, we drastically reduce waste and also enable the design of more efficient electric motors, helping our customers meet the growing demands of sustainable transportation.”
Source: Aperam
HPQ Silicon’s ENDURA+ lithium-ion battery cells have received UL 1642 certification, a US safety standard required for commercial acceptance of lithium-ion cells. The certification covers its cylindrical 18650 (4,000 mAh) and 21700 (6,000 mAh) cell formats and clears the cells for US commercial sales.
The company says the UL 1642 milestone follows its earlier UN 38.3 transport certification and completes its US regulatory framework for the HPQ ENDURA+ cell platform. With both certifications in place, HPQ is moving from validation to commercialization, including immediate customer engagement and qualification discussions in the US market.
The UL 1642 evaluates cell-level safety through electrical, mechanical and thermal stress tests intended to simulate real-world use and failure scenarios, and is a prerequisite for downstream integration into certified battery packs and finished products because it applies at the cell level.
“Certifying at the cell level, is where real market access begins in the United States,” said Bernard Tourillon, President and CEO of HPQ Silicon Inc. “UL 1642 gives OEMs and integrators confidence that safety has been engineered into the core of the product, not added later at the system level. For HPQ ENDURA+, this removes a key qualification hurdle and allows commercial conversations to focus on performance, scalability, and integration rather than regulatory risk.”
Source: HPQ Silicon
Recently, a leading manufacturer of EV inverters encountered a heat dissipation issue related to the inverter and required a reliable solution to address this challenge.
Download this case study to learn about diligently evaluating various options for thermal conductivity, high reliability, and suitability for thin gaps; and to learn more about Honeywell’s Phase Change Material (PCM) applications in EV inverter, on-board charger, and advanced driver-assistance system.
A favorite trope of the anti-EV crowd is that EVs will “crash the grid.” None of the utility execs we’ve spoken to share that fear, but it is true that unmanaged charging can exacerbate the problem of peak power demand. The answer is managed charging, which schedules charging for off-peak times.
EnergyHub, a provider of grid-edge flexibility solutions, and The Brattle Group have released the results of a study that used real-world EV data from an EnergyHub program in Washington State to quantify the grid reliability and cost savings benefits of active managed charging.
The Brattle Group’s analysis of EnergyHub’s active managed charging solution shows that optimization of EV charging can help utilities meet this challenge effectively by reducing local grid stress and minimizing wholesale market costs, while continuing to ensure customer charging needs are met.
The report, “Demonstrating the Full Value of Managed EV Charging,” compares two active management strategies tested in real-world trials to both unmanaged charging and chaging that takes advantage of passive time of use (TOU) rates.
The researchers found that active managed charging:
“As utilities prepare for accelerating EV adoption, understanding the real-world performance of active managed charging is critical for planners to be able to utilize these solutions in distribution system planning,” said Akhilesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Energy Associate at The Brattle Group and co-author of the study. “This report provides a rigorous, data-driven evaluation of how active managed charging can improve hosting capacity and reduce grid infrastructure costs. By using actual vehicle data to model distribution system impacts, this study moves the industry beyond assumptions to actionable insights that support proactive planning and investment decisions.”
“This report confirms that active managed EV charging isn’t just a theoretical solution—it delivers measurable grid value today,” said Freddie Hall, Data Scientist at EnergyHub. “By actively shaping load at the distribution level, utilities can defer costly upgrades, improve reliability, and design programs that work for both the grid and drivers.”
Source: The Brattle Group
Sponsored by TTI. Fast charging in electric vehicles helps meet the demand for fast and convenient recharging, but the high voltage it ent...
