Transport agency De Lijn, which serves the Flanders region of Belgium, has commissioned its 1,000th electric bus, and is steadily ordering more. In 2025, De Lijn ordered more than 650 new e-buses, which will be deployed in phases in the coming years.
By 2035, the company plans to phase out diesel buses entirely. This will require a fleet of 3,800 e-buses, representing major investments not only in new vehicles, but also in charging infrastructure, energy supply, software, training and maintenance.
“The 1,000th electric bus is a clear signal that Flanders is moving forward towards sustainable and future-oriented public transport,” said Flemish Minister of Mobility Annick De Ridder. “The Flemish Government provided a turbo investment of 400 million euros for the purchase of electric buses.”
De Lijn is investing heavily in software and employee training during this transformation. In 2025, some 1,400 drivers received specific e-bus training, and 176 technicians received training in electromechanics.
Electric buses require less mechanical maintenance than diesel buses, and lend themselves to a different, more data-driven approach, De Lijn has found. Maintenance is increasingly shifting towards prevention and monitoring, reducing the need for urgent repairs and increasing the reliability of service.
“The enormous behind-the-scenes transformation that many people are involved in is now fully visible on the road with modern, quiet and fuel-efficient vehicles,” said De Lijn Director-General Ann Schoub. “For the traveler, that means more comfortable transport today, and tomorrow completely emission-free public transport throughout Flanders, with a positive impact on air quality, noise and livability.”
Everrati Automotive is a UK-based conversion shop that repowers classic cars as EVs. Now the company is branching out into next-generation mobility platforms such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which also require advanced electric propulsion technologies.
“Electric propulsion is no longer just about cars,” said Rhodri Darch, Co-CEO of Everrati. “The technologies powering the EV revolution—from advanced motors to battery integration and software-defined capability—are becoming fundamental to unmanned and autonomous systems. UGVs are the natural first move for a company like ours: the technology transfer is close to a lift-and-shift, with a different set of operating requirements. UAVs follow, introducing additional constraints around weight and airspace, and demanding a more aerospace-focused engineering discipline.”
“Batteries are a key enabling technology. In UAVs and advanced mobility, everything comes back to energy density, weight and control,” said Dr Andy Palmer, founder of Palmer Automotive. “If you can package more usable energy into less mass, and manage it intelligently, you unlock range, payload and reliability in one move. That’s exactly where electrification expertise translates—we’ve spent the last decade learning how to make batteries not just powerful, but predictable, scalable and safe. Apply that to UAVs, and you move from niche capability to operational utility.”
Everrati focuses on developing advanced electric propulsion systems for integration into specialist platforms, rather than designing entire vehicles. Through its Powered by Everrati division, the company works with a specialist partner ecosystem that includes motor manufacturer Helix, manufacturing specialist DASIS, McLaren subsidiary Motion Applied and bespoke battery builder Raeon.
Tom Brooks, COO, Raeon: “The demand for battery-powered mobility is hitting a development barrier. Software can improve in weeks, but battery development is still taking years. Our FloLock and AnyVolt technologies allow us to deliver bespoke battery systems in as little as 12 weeks, ensuring partners across defense, marine, robotics and EV platforms remain resilient and scalable.”
Leighton King, Chief Commercial Officer, Helix: “High power density in a compact, lightweight package is an operational necessity in UAV and advanced mobility applications. Our motor and inverter development is grounded in environments where these demands are absolute—motorsport, aerospace, defense. Working with partners like Everrati, who lead propulsion architecture and integration at a system level, allows that specialist expertise to be deployed where it creates the most value.”
Whenever oil prices go up, the mainstream press responds with a spate of articles about EVs. However, it’s not at all clear whether this corresponds to any substantial increase in EV sales.
The link between oil prices and EV sales has always been tenuous—and temporary. As Viet Nguyen-Tien, Gavin D. J. Harper and Robert Elliott point out in a recent article in The Conversation, media interest in EVs was kindled during the 1973 oil embargo, only to disappear when oil prices returned to “normal” levels. The cycle has been repeated several times since.
However, the writers argue that this time may be different. The main reason that high oil prices don’t cause EV sales to spike has been the substantially higher purchase price of EVs, and that price differential is steadily dwindling.
Battery costs have fallen 93% since 2010, The Conversation reports. EV industry cognoscenti have long predicted that a pack-level battery price of $100 per kWh would be the tipping point for widespread adoption. Battery prices in the US are now very close to that price (and far cheaper in China).
Technological improvement is not the only driver of plummeting prices—economies of scale and network effects have also played important roles. More battery production leads to lower costs, which leads to more production, in a virtuous cycle.
“This loop does not need an oil crisis to keep spinning,” write Nguyen-Tien and colleagues. In most markets, EVs reached total cost of ownership parity with legacy vehicles some time ago. Now they are approaching purchase-price parity.
And there are several advances on the horizon that could soon make going electric an offer vehicle owners can’t refuse. Chinese EV-maker BYD says its latest Blade battery delivers a range of 450 miles, and can be charged in 10 minutes. The company is already selling its moderately-priced EVs in Europe, and will enter the Canadian market this year. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which could turn car ownership from a money pit into a source of incremental income, is making the transition from pilots to commercial deployments.
However, the Conversation writers argue, “The deeper reason this wave will not fade is not technical—it is economic. An EV is a platform. Its value grows as the network around it grows. Every charger built makes the next EV more attractive. Every software update raises the value of every car already on the road. Every recycled battery feeds back into the supply chain that makes the next one cheaper.”
The EV transition is underway—it doesn’t need high gas prices, and it no longer needs government subsidies. (Just ask Harbinger Motors—sales of its electric trucks have steadily grown since federal subsidies expired in 2025.)
The electrification of transport is making vehicles cheaper, cleaner, quieter and more fun to drive. One thing it won’t do, alas, is eliminate geopolitical risk. Today, EV supply chains mostly run through China, and neither governments nor automakers are doing much to rectify that situation. In the three traditional centers of the global auto industry—the US, Europe and Japan—denial, delay and downright delusion remain the norm.
French multinational electric utility Engie has won a public contract to install and operate 2,926 EV charging points in the Belgian region of Wallonia.
The new AC charging stations, each with a capacity of 22 kW per charging point, will be distributed across 242 municipalities in Wallonia. Installation will take place over the next two years, and Engie, through its dedicated brand Engie Vianeo, will manage operations for a period of ten years.
This contract follows a similar agreement signed in March for the Brussels-Capital Region, covering 1,640 charging points.
Currently, Engie operates nearly 7,000 charging points across Belgium, located in Flanders and Brussels. (Belgium is roughly divided into three regions: Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region.)
Looking ahead, Engie aims to deploy 12,000 charging points across Belgium by 2028. Engie supplies electricity to 27 countries in Europe and 48 countries worldwide.
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has started shipping engineering samples of the TB9M030FG, the latest in its SmartMCD series of automotive motor control devices. The chip combines a microcontroller and gate driver in a single package and adds a proprietary sensorless approach that enables position-sensorless FOC from zero speed—without the acoustic noise produced by standard high-frequency signal injection methods.
The challenge with sensorless control of three-phase brushless DC motors is detecting rotor position at low speed. Standard approaches superimpose a high-frequency voltage signal onto the drive waveform to infer position, but that harmonic injection generates noise and audible motor sound. Toshiba says its approach enables stable sensorless FOC from zero speed through the low-speed range on salient-pole motors, without that acoustic penalty.
Spec
Value
MCU core
32-bit Arm Cortex-M0, 40 MHz
Memory
64 KB flash (ECC), 12 KB ROM, 4 KB RAM
Package
9×9 mm QFP48
Supply voltage (Vbat)
6–18 V operating; –0.3 to +40 V abs. max
Operating temp (Ta)
–40 to +150 °C
Junction temp (Tj)
–40 to +175 °C
Communication
LIN (1ch, responder), UART, SPI, PWM
Current sensing
1-shunt resistor current sense amplifier
ADC
12-bit and 10-bit
Qualification
AEC-Q100 Grade 0
Target applications include electric water pumps, oil pumps, fans and blowers, where electrification of automotive auxiliary systems is pushing demand for more integrated, quieter motor control. Built-in vector engine hardware handles FOC computation offboard the CPU core, reducing software overhead and program size.
Tapes can simplify complex processes, support robotic assembly, reduce scrap, and more.
By Max VanRaaphorst
Globally, more than 60 million EVs are now on the road. It’s a number that might have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. It underscores how EV OEMs have moved beyond needing only to prove feasibility, and must now prove manufacturability — the ability to scale-up rapidly while maximizing quality, safety and profits.
The same holds true for EV and e-mobility batteries. While the technology continues to evolve, the path to marketability now goes through manufacturing. Winning providers will be those that can optimize their production processes, automate effectively and produce high quality at a low cost.
That path may seem daunting. But there are strategies available that can result in greater quality and throughput. One such strategy is materials selection, particularly that of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tapes.
What do PSA tapes offer for battery design?
PSA tapes are a mature, sophisticated and diverse technology used in a wide range of industries, including automotive and transportation. Depending on its configuration, a tape may feature one or two adhesives that bond to a substrate upon the application of light pressure, a facestock that provides dimensional stability and other qualities, and a liner that protects the adhesive until its application.
These versatile tapes can easily fit in tight spaces while helping limit a pack’s overall mass. They offer clean and repeatable application and are typically compatible with automated production processes.
From a manufacturing perspective, such benefits may make PSA tapes an enhanced alternative choice to liquid adhesives, which require cure time and have variance in their application; and mechanical fasteners, which increase part count and mass.
Common PSA tape configurations
PSA tapes can also be customized to provide qualities that go beyond simple bonding. Some examples: Electrically insulative film facestocks can enhance a system’s dielectric protection
strategy. Tapes combined with flame barrier materials, such as mica, can enhance thermal protection. Tapes laminated to thick foam facestocks can provide shock absorption for delicate components.
PSA tapes as a design-for-manufacturability solution
Importantly, PSA tapes can be customized not just for the end use, but for specific challenges of the manufacturing process itself. This is the essence of DFM.
The fact is, battery manufacturing is highly complex at multiple levels. Cell, module and pack production involve different substrates, tight tolerances and layered assemblies, and electrical and thermal management requirements. Wasteful production steps and damage to fragile battery components are pain points, and may be frequent occurrences for manufacturers using traditional bonding and assembly methods.
How PSA tapes address pain points and optimize battery production
Enter PSA tapes. Here are just a few ways this DFM solution can help optimize battery production.
PSA tapes reduce process steps, production line costs and complexity
Manufacturing optimization with PSA tape solutions
The use of PSA tapes eliminates some of the time-and effort-intensive steps associated with traditional bonding and fastening methods. As mentioned earlier, tapes require no cure time. Once adhered, a taped part can move immediately to the next step of the production process. This saves time and eliminates the need for equipment such as curing ovens, helping manage CAPEX.
Avery Dennison next-gen Volt ToughTM Stretch offers a prime example of these benefits.
Estimated cost comparison: Use of powder coating vs. next-gen Volt Tough Stretch
The product is a PSA-tape-based dielectric insulation solution engineered for adhering to flat metal blanks. Those blanks can then be cut and stamped into whatever shapes are needed for the battery component’s design. The “stretchability” engineered into the tape prevents the dielectric barrier from tearing or cracking during those processes.
Traditional dielectric strategies, such as powder coating, can add complexity and cost to a production process whether done in-house or outsourced. As a PSA tape, next-gen Volt Tough Stretch can more easily be applied inline, manually or robotically, to promote simplicity and cost savings.
PSA tapes support automation and robotic application
By using tape constructions tailored to their application and automation methods, e-mobility manufacturers can design efficient and effective automated processes. PSA tapes support multiple automation strategies, including pick-and-place of die-cut parts, single-pass liner removal and application, and wide-web lamination for large components such as cooling plates.
Because PSA tape bonding occurs immediately upon contact with a substrate, components are less likely to shift during transfer between stations. This is particularly important for layered battery assemblies, where misalignment can lead to electrical clearance issues, uneven thermal interfaces and downstream assembly failures.
Dimensional stability is another plus for PSA tapes applied robotically. Film-based carriers such as PET resist stretching during robotic handling and placement, improving positional accuracy at high application speeds. Where assemblies require conformity around edges or uneven surfaces, nonwoven or foam carriers can be used to balance flexibility with automation compatibility.
For battery producers focused on scale, PSA tapes engineered for robotic application can help stabilize production lines, improve yield and increase overall equipment effectiveness.
PSA tapes help manage scrap rates and promote quality
Many battery materials are delicate and difficult to handle, making them especially vulnerable to damage during high-speed assembly. PSA tapes can be customized to help battery manufacturers limit these materials’ contribution to waste and scrap rates.
A common challenge occurs during liner removal. Materials such as mica or ceramic paper can tear, delaminate or fracture if subjected to excessive stress and forces.
PSA tape constructions that pair controlled-release liners with appropriately balanced adhesive systems reduce the mechanical stress placed on these materials during automated or semi-automated removal. This results in fewer damaged parts entering downstream processes.
Manufacturers such as Avery Dennison can fine tune a liner’s removal force through approaches such as controlling the release formula (low, medium or high) and/or zone coating the adhesive.
In addition, tapes can be designed for compatibility with vision systems to support inline quality checks. Printed liners or pigmented adhesive systems allow automated equipment to verify part presence and placement before the assembly progresses further down the line. Identifying defects early allows for removal of noncompliant parts prior to the addition of value, thus reducing the total cost of scrap.
At scale, such incremental improvements compound. By reducing handling damage, misalignment and late-stage defects, PSA tapes optimized for battery manufacturing help improve overall yield while decreasing manufacturing costs.
Engineering PSA-tape-based DFM solutions for your production line
Printed liners aid robotic vision systems that perform inline quality checks
A logical first step in creating PSA-tape solutions for your manufacturing needs is to locate collaborators who can provide expertise and capabilities you may not have in-house. The industry is served by a variety of PSA tape manufacturers who can fulfill this role.
Some questions to consider as you vet tape manufacturers:
Does the manufacturer have experience and application expertise in the battery industry?
Does the manufacturer have the R&D capabilities to develop the solutions I need?
Does the manufacturer have the business appetite to develop customized solutions? (Not all do.)
Does the manufacturer have access to a network of additional companies, such as tape converters and functional material manufacturers, who may be crucial to my success?
Does the tape manufacturer provide ongoing support?
Ideally, this relationship begins early in your product design phase. This gives the tape manufacturer maximum leverage to develop solutions that work for your manufacturing process.
My company, Avery Dennison, collaborates with OEMs and suppliers to tailor PSA-tape-based solutions to specific cell, module, and pack designs. We offer a wide range of PSA-tape solutions for the e-mobility battery industry, and our portfolio is backed by extensive R&D capabilities.
About the author
Max VanRaaphorst is market manager for Energy Storage at Avery Dennison Materials Group North America. With a decade of technical, sales, and marketing experience in the adhesives and tapes field, Max strives to help OEMs and suppliers address design, manufacturing, and performance challenges in the fast-evolving energy storage segment.
Rivian and Redwood Materials are deploying 10 megawatt-hours of second-life battery storage at Rivian’s manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. The system uses more than 100 retired Rivian battery packs and is described as the largest repurposed battery energy storage system for a US automotive manufacturer.
Redwood is integrating the used packs into a stationary setup—called a Redwood Energy system—managed by the company’s Redwood Pack Manager technology. The stored energy dispatches on-site during peak demand periods, letting Rivian draw on its own retired packs instead of purchasing more grid power. Both companies say the system is rapidly scalable as more retired packs become available.
EV battery packs are engineered to far outlast the vehicles they power, designed for many hundreds of thousands of miles and often still healthy when a car is retired. Repurposing those packs as stationary storage extends their useful life before recycling and defers the need for costly new infrastructure. Redwood’s pitch is that the US already holds a growing domestic stockpile of these packs, and converting them to dispatchable energy is faster than building new storage capacity from scratch.
“Our partnership with Redwood enables us to utilize our vehicle’s batteries beyond the life of a vehicle and contribute to grid health and American competitiveness,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian Founder and CEO.
Redwood’s JB Straubel focused on the infrastructure gap: “Electricity demand is accelerating faster than the grid can expand, posing a constraint on industrial growth…Our partnership with Rivian shows how EV battery packs can be turned into dispatchable energy resources, bringing new capacity online quickly, supporting critical manufacturing, and reducing strain on the grid without waiting years for new infrastructure.”
