EV charging provider Emobi has closed a $3.4-million seed funding round led by Florida Funders. The company will use the new capital to support the expansion of its proprietary seamless EV charging solution, JustPlug.
EV drivers badly need a seamless charging system like the one Tesla drivers have long enjoyed. The good news is that help is on the way. The ISO 15118 standard enables (among other things) a feature called Plug & Charge, which handles authentication and payment automatically—drivers simply plug in and walk away.
The bad news is that not all EV models support Plug & Charge, and several charging experts have told Charged that a substantial amount of work remains to be done before the system comes into widespread use.
Emobi says: “The majority of existing chargers and vehicles lack the necessary hardware and firmware to support traditional Plug & Charge functionality, leaving about 80% of chargers and vehicles unable to adopt this capability. JustPlug removes this long-standing barrier by extending Plug & Charge functionality across both modern and legacy infrastructure.”
Emobi’s JustPlug “enables secure, automatic EV charging with no special hardware, software or setup required.” It uses ISO 15118 digital certificate infrastructure for cloud-based authentication.
Emobi plans to market its JustPlug system through partnerships with automakers, fleets and charging operators. The company says it’s now doing pilot programs with 3 of the top 10 EV automakers in North America. The company has also partnered with infrastructure providers Flipturn, ElectricFish and Curo.
“For over a decade, the EV industry has promised seamless charging but drivers are still fumbling with apps, RFID cards and closed ecosystems,” said Lin Sun Fa, CEO of Emobi. “We’re not waiting for another round of network upgrades or regulatory alignment—JustPlug breaks that stalemate.”
Battery materials and technology company Talga has been granted a patent in Japan that builds on its Talnode-C product line, which combines shaping and coating methods as well as purification to make battery anode materials for use in high-power applications such as hybrid vehicles.
Japanese Patent No. 7779483, titled “Anode Material and Method for Producing Same”, protects Talga’s proprietary process for producing natural graphite anode material delivering superior energy density, long life and fast-charge capability for lithium-ion batteries.
The patent provides Talga with exclusive rights in Japan until at least 2040 and follows the granting of a patent in the US for the same technology.
The company has concluded anode test programs with several Japanese cell producers, and aims to capitalize on the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s recent announcement of an immediate prohibition on exports of graphite products to Japan.
“The grant of this Japanese patent is a significant validation of our innovative anode technology at a time when global supply chains are under unprecedented strain. As China’s latest export controls highlight the fragility of graphite reliance, Talga’s Vittangi project offers a secure, high-performance and low-emission solution that can support the broader battery industry and rapidly growing energy storage transition,” said Mark Thompson, Talga’s founder and MD.
Cyclic Materials has closed a $75-million Series C equity round to scale its rare earth element recycling operations across the US and Europe and accelerate its Canada-based research and development footprint. The company says the funding will speed deployment of locally anchored recycling infrastructure for magnet-containing end-of-life scrap and magnet production waste—materials it processes to produce magnet rare earth elements, including heavy rare earth elements that it notes are less commonly available from Western mining deposits.
Cyclic Materials says that the new capital will support commercial rollout and global expansion with “a substantial focus” on North American market needs.
Cyclic Materials operates a two-stage physical and hydrometallurgical recycling technology to produce rare earth elements from end-of-life products and magnet production waste. It claims its approach reduces carbon footprint by 61.2%, cuts water use to five percent of what mining requires, and achieves recovery rates exceeding 98%. The company also says its recycling infrastructure can be deployed years faster than traditional mining projects, and it positions the system as a pathway to supply heavy rare earths used in high-performance permanent magnets.
Cyclic Materials’ Mesa, Arizona site, the very first scale-up of a commercial plant for recycling and local production of rare earths in the US, with a focus on heavy and light rare earth magnets.
Cyclic Materials says its proprietary technologies can economically and sustainably recover critical raw materials from end-of-life electric vehicle motors (as well as wind turbines, MRI machines, and data center electronic waste). The company links these feedstocks to demand growth in e-mobility and other permanent-magnet-driven systems.
WattEV offers a Truck-as-a-Service solution for carriers and owner-operators—not only does the company have its own fleet of electric trucks, it also operates five heavy-duty EV charging depots, and has 15 more under development. Now the company has added more charging ports and increased the available charging power at its busiest electric truck charging depot, located in San Bernardino, California.
The San Bernardino truck charging depot, located adjacent to I-215, one of Southern California’s busiest freight corridors, has added thirty 250 kW CCS ports and six 1.2 MW MCS ports to its existing 24 ports, and offers 11.5 MW of total charging power. The site will now be able to charge up to 200 electric trucks per day while offering megawatt charging capability for trucks compatible with the MCS standard.
“At our San Bernardino depot, strong and sustained utilization—currently averaging approximately 700 MWh per month—has created the need to more than double the site’s capacity” said CEO Salim Youssefzadeh. “San Bernardino sits at the center of some of the most freight-dense corridors in the country, and scaling this depot enables us to support real-world fleet growth with reliable charging, dependable operations and infrastructure designed for long-term commercial deployment.”
Canada-based Northern Graphite and Saudi industrial group Obeikan Investment have signed a financing agreement to jointly develop and operate a large-scale battery anode material (BAM) facility in Saudi Arabia through a joint venture company.
The $200-million BAM facility will have an initial annual production capacity of 25,000 tonnes. Construction of the facility is expected to start in 2026 and first-phase production is expected to begin in 2028. The facility will be scalable over time to meet growing global demand for graphite anode materials sourced outside of China.
The facility will be located in Yanbu, a strategically positioned industrial and logistics hub on the Red Sea that has direct access to European, North American and Middle Eastern markets.
Obeikan will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture company and Northern Graphite will hold 49%.
Obeikan will lead the organizing of local debt funding required to finance construction, development and commissioning of the plant. The partners will provide the remaining funding as equity in proportion to their ownership interests and through commercial banks.
Northern and Obeikan are in negotiations with battery manufacturers to secure long-term offtake agreements for the initial 25,000 tonnes per year of production. The joint venture will also enter into a long-term offtake agreement to purchase up to 50,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually from Northern’s Okanjande project in Namibia. That agreement will accelerate the restart and potential expansion of the graphite mine, which has been in a care and maintenance status since 2018.
“We are partnering with a well-financed and experienced industrial player, gaining scale, financing strength, and access to one of the world’s most strategically important industrial hubs, while accelerating the restart of our Okanjande mine in Namibia and advancing our broader mine-to-market strategy,” said Hugues Jacquemin, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Graphite.
Heilind Electronics is adding the Molex SideWize High-Voltage Connectors to its portfolio of high-power interconnect solutions. The connectors target space-constrained, high-power designs where engineers are balancing packaging, electrical safety and power density in power-distribution hardware, like EV charging systems, data-center power shelves, UPS equipment and industrial automation.
The Molex SideWize Connectors use a right-angle architecture intended to maximize power transfer in constrained environments. The connectors are rated up to 80 A and 1,500 V per UL 4128, positioning them for high-voltage, high-current systems. The design supports higher-wattage, denser power architectures “without increasing heat generation or installation complexity.”
The right-angle design is intended to eliminate cable bend-radius challenges, while color-coding, positive locking, and 360° cable rotation are meant to simplify mating and reduce cable wear.
The global electric vehicle industry is experiencing rapid growth, driving an urgent demand for power conversion systems that are not only efficient but also highly reliable. Among these, the on-board charger (OBC) is a critical component, tasked with converting alternating current (AC) from various charging infrastructures, residential, commercial, or public, into direct current (DC) suitable for charging high-voltage battery systems.
The performance and safety of the OBC directly impact overall vehicle efficiency, battery health, and user experience. As the EV ecosystem evolves to incorporate advanced functionalities such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G), vehicle-to-home (V2H), and modular, distributed power electronics, the requirements for testing and validation have become more complex and rigorous, particularly under variable and dynamic electrical conditions.
This article presents a comprehensive overview of how Kikusui’s cutting-edge power testing solutions specifically, the PCR-WEA/WEA2 series of programmable AC/DC power supplies, the PXB series of bidirectional DC power supplies, and the PLZ-5WH2 high-speed DC electronic loads enable detailed evaluation, functional testing, and seamless system integration of OBCs and other critical EV power electronic components, including traction batteries. These tools support robust characterization across a range of real-world scenarios, contributing to improved design validation, compliance, and performance optimization in next-generation electric mobility systems.
Electric vehicle OBCs serve as the primary interface between the power grid and a vehicle’s high-voltage battery, enabling safe AC-to-DC conversion across a wide range of input conditions. Modern OBCs must not only provide efficient unidirectional charging but increasingly support bidirectional energy flow for V2H/V2G functions, grid-interactive services, and energy storage applications.
At the same time, automotive manufacturers are shifting toward compact, modular, and multifunctional power electronic assemblies, combining OBCs, DC/DC converters, and junction boxes into integrated units to reduce size, weight, and cost.
These advancements increase the need for:
Robust AC-side resilience against voltage sags, frequency variations, momentary interruptions, and harmonic distortion.
Stable DC-side control, ensuring proper charging behavior, battery protection, and compliance with global standards.
Test equipment capable of reproducing worldwide grid conditions, enabling repeatable and accelerated development.
Kikusui’s laboratory-grade power systems provide this controlled environment, ensuring OBCs and battery systems are verified under real-world electrical variability with high fidelity.
Figure 1. AC–DC Conversion of Voltage and Current Waveforms in an On-Board Charger (OBC).
AC-Side Evaluation of On-Board Chargers
The PCR-WEA/WEA2 Series is a high-capacity AC/DC regulated power supply designed for flexible, high-precision grid simulation. It supports all major global AC configurations used for electric vehicle (EV) charging, including:
Single-phase 120 V (commonly used in USA)
Single-phase 200 V three-wire (L1-N-L2, typically 100 V line-to-neutral, 200 V line-to-line)
Three-phase 208V (line-to-line), common in industrial or commercial charging applications
A single PCR-WEA/WEA2 unit can replicate these voltage and phase conditions without requiring additional hardware, significantly reducing test complexity and enabling rapid configuration changes for global compliance testing.
The 15-model PCR-WEA2 lineup offers AC/DC output from 1 kVA to 36 kVA, with variable single- and three-phase output from 6 kVA upward. It features a regenerative mode for reduced power consumption and supports mix-and-match parallel operation up to 144 kVA for scalable test systems, the series offers:
Output frequency flexibility up to 5 kHz
4x rated peak current capability
1.4x inrush current tolerance for 500 ms
These features enable engineers to accurately evaluate OBC performance during startup, simulate real-world grid disturbances, and validate transient handling during rapid load transitions.
Available power configurations options 1 kVA and 2 kVA, 4 kVA, 8 kVA, 12 kVA, 16 kVA, 20 kVA, and 24 kVA. For applications requiring higher capacity, parallel operation can extend the output up to 96 kVA. Additionally, the three-phase PCR-WEA2 series is available in 3 kVA, 6 kVA, 12 kVA, 18 kVA, 24 kVA, 30 kVA, and 36 kVA models, with parallel expansion possible up to 144 kVA.
Figure 2. AC Power Simulation for EV Charging: Single-Phase and Three-Phase 100V/200V Inputs Delivering Pure Sine Wave Outputs for 7kW, 11kW, and 22kW Charging.
Key Features and Benefits of PCR-WEA/WEA2:
Versatile Output Configurations supporting all major EV charging voltages.
Ultra-Compact Design providing high power density for reduced lab footprint.
Exceptional Transient Handling for inrush and peak-load events.
Advanced Sequencing Functions to simulate disturbances, harmonics, and advanced grid behavior.
Global Grid Simulation with adjustable voltage, frequency, and phase.
Proven Reliability, widely used in Japanese automotive and consumer electronics industries.
Sequence Functions for Advanced AC Simulation
The PCR-WEA/WEA2 Series incorporates sophisticated waveform programming that allows engineers to replicate complex utility grid behavior with precision. These functions are essential for evaluating OBC reliability, EMC performance, and compliance with international test standards.
Simulation of Power Disturbances
The system can reproduce a range of real-world anomalies, including:
Undervoltage/Overvoltage
Voltage dips, swells, and fluctuations
Instantaneous interruptions
Waveform distortion
These simulations help verify OBC operation during brownouts, unstable infrastructure, and transient grid events.
Harmonic and Phase Control
The PCR-WEA/WEA2 supports harmonic synthesis up to the 40th order, enabling detailed analysis of power factor correction (PFC) behavior and OBC EMI performance. Adjustable initial phase settings (e.g., 0°, 90°, 270°) enable worst-case startup scenario testing.
Compliance and Standards Testing
The series supports testing aligned with major global power quality standards, such as:
IEC 61000-4-11 – Voltage dips, short interruptions, variations
IEC 61000-4-28 – Frequency variations
IEC 61000-4-34 – Voltage disturbances for high-current equipment
These features help manufacturers validate devices before formal certification, reducing development cycles and compliance risk.
Figure 3. Various Sequence Functions: Simulation of Voltage Dips, Interruptions, and Harmonic Waveforms for Compliance with IEC 61000 Standards
DC-Side Evaluation of On-Board Chargers
To complement AC-side testing, Kikusui provides powerful DC-side test instruments, including the PXB Series bidirectional DC power supply and the PLZ-5WH2 Series high-speed DC electronic load.
PXB Series – Bidirectional High-Capacity DC Power Supply
The PXB Series offers bidirectional operation, allowing both sourcing and sinking of power for energy-regenerative testing. This reduces total energy consumption during extended test cycles.
Supporting voltages up to 1,500 V, the PXB series is ideal for evaluating high-voltage battery systems (300–750 VDC typical). Its regenerative capability simulates both charging and discharging conditions, closely reflecting actual EV operating environments.
PLZ-5WH2 Series – DC Electronic Load
The PLZ-5WH2 Series provides high-speed transient response and precise dynamic load control, enabling accurate measurement of OBC output characteristics such as voltage regulation, ripple, and transient response.
With voltage handling up to 1,000 V, it allows engineers to evaluate the OBC’s behavior under sudden load changes, ensuring safety and reliability in real-world operation.
System Integration and Application Flexibility
By combining the PCR-WEA/WEA2, PXB, and PLZ-5WH2 systems, Kikusui delivers a fully integrated OBC test environment capable of simulating both grid-side and battery-side conditions with precision.
This integrated platform allows:
End-to-End AC–DC performance testing under variable grid conditions
Long-term endurance and efficiency testing through regenerative power flow
Harmonic, transient, and compliance testing per global standards
Optimized energy use through power regeneration
Such a setup ensures comprehensive validation and accelerated development of next-generation OBC and EV power systems.
Conclusion
As EV power electronics expand in capability and complexity, the need for high-precision, globally representative test environments continues to grow. Kikusui’s PCR-WEA/WEA2, PXB, and PLZ-5WH2 series provide a comprehensive solution for AC and DC evaluation of OBCs, high-voltage battery systems, and related power electronics.
By delivering advanced harmonic simulation, regenerative operation, fast transient control, and compliance-oriented sequence functions, these instruments enable engineers to design, validate, and integrate next-generation EV charging and energy-management systems with confidence.
