Indian power electronics manufacturer Hirect has completed the acceptance regime for its 6,000 hp (4,475 kW) electric locomotive propulsion system, which hauled loaded freight in a WAG-9 locomotive under what the company describes as severe duty cycles and a demanding thermal operating environment. Hirect designed, engineered and manufactured the system in-house, including its liquid-cooled IGBT traction inverters and converters and its own control software. The qualification opens one of the world’s largest locomotive markets to its complete propulsion package, Hirect says, and establishes a modular subsystem platform for new-build, retrofit and hybrid locomotive programs internationally.
The company has also secured a development order from Indian Railways’ Modern Coach Factory for complete propulsion systems for four Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) trainsets. The 24-month program covers traction transformers, traction motors and the fully integrated propulsion system, including the Train Control and Management System (TCMS). Hirect describes it as its first development order for a complete trainset propulsion system. A MEMU carries its traction equipment distributed beneath the cars of the trainset rather than concentrated in a locomotive.
Hirect’s rail portfolio also includes traction transformers, IGBT converters, auxiliary power supplies, SiC battery chargers, traction motors and HVAC systems.
That equipment, the company says, supports the transition from diesel traction to hybrid, electric and alternative-energy traction, including hydrogen.
“Powering Indian Railways locomotives with a propulsion system designed and produced entirely in-house, and delivering the complete power and control systems for modern trainsets, demonstrates the strength of our R&D and our ability to take responsibility for the whole system—from the dielectric coating on our copper wire to the control software,” said Suramya Nevatia, Hirect’s Chairman and Managing Director.
You don’t plug it in, and it’s powered solely by gasoline. So why is the 2027 Rogue Hybrid an EV?
The 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid gives the company an entry it has lacked for a decade or more: a compact crossover SUV with a hybrid powertrain. With gasoline prices far higher than they were just months ago, hybrid utility vehicles—demand for which had grown steadily over the past several years—are suddenly THE hot ticket.
So Nissan’s new hybrid Rogue, the fourth generation of the small SUV that debuted in 2006, comes right in time. You can now buy hybrid models of the Toyota RAV4, the Honda CR-V, the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Sportage, the Mazda CX-50, and the Subaru Forester. Nissan is late to the game, and it leaves the Volkswagen Tiguan as the sole entry in the segment with no hybrid option.
What Nissan has created, though, differs from all those other hybrids. They’re parallel hybrids, in which the engine can clutch into the powertrain to power the wheels alongside the electric motor(s) that do so at low speeds or light throttle. The Rogue is different: it’s a series hybrid, in which the engine serves solely as a generator to provide electricity. That power either charges the 1.67-kilowatt-hour battery pack or travels directly through the inverter to run the pair of motors that are the only way to turn the wheels.
For the 2027 model year, only this new e-Power hybrid version of the Rogue will get the fourth-generation body style. All other variants will carry on with the existing style through 2027, with their replacements arriving in 2028.
We drove a prototype 2027 Rogue Hybrid “e-Power” in the mountains around Park City, Utah, in late August. We only got two 10-minute loops, on private roads, though they included fairly step curving mountain roads. That demanded far more of a series hybrid system than flat arterial roads or even steady-state highway cruising. On the other hand, we had no chance to operate at sustained highway speeds, so we can’t speed to how the series-hybrid technology works under that duty cycle.
Our limited verdict: After doing the same loop first in a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, then in a Nissan Rogue Hybrid, we found the prototype series-hybrid Rogue to be smoother and markedly quieter under hard acceleration. It’s a more EV-like driving experience.
Development of the hybrid Rogue was massively by assisted by Nissan’s e-Pedal, which provides one-pedal driving with relatively strong regenerative braking all the way down to a stop. Drivers simply press a button to use e-Pedal, though the drive setting, gives a more conventional hybrid drive feel with some coasting and idle creep rather than auto-hold at stops. NOTE: We had no sustained freeway time, which arguably could have put enough stress on individual parts of the system to show unusual behavior. That will have to wait for our extended road test.
With an estimated combined fuel-economy rating of 38 mpg, we think the Rogue Hybrid should do fine. Especially if the salespeople at Nissan’s dealers call it a hybrid and just leave it at that. They should stress that it’s quieter and smoother than competitors’ hybrids, though we doubt they’ll go as far as to offer test drives of the competition. What they shouldn’t do, in our view, is try to explain the difference between their series hybrid and the conventional parallel hybrid setup used by every other maker. (To add confusion, Honda’s system can act as a series or a parallel hybrid depending on circumstances.)
Photos courtesy of Nissan.
How Nissan built a series hybrid sans plug
The e-Power system has been around in Japan for a decade, and Europe for the past several years. It took a third generation of the e-Power system, though, to provide sufficient performance to compete straight across with the most popular hybrid crossovers in the North American market.
Work started on what became the e-Power series hybrid drivetrain at the same time the first-generation Leaf was in development. It uses some components from Nissan’s EV lineup, including the two drive motors: 202 kilowatts (271 horsepower) up front, and 134 kW (TK hp) at the rear. Nissan knows a fair amount about powering wheels via electric motors at this point, so that wasn’t the most challenging part of the system. But like the gasoline Rogue, it remains front-wheel-drive dominant.
Instead, designing an internal combustion engine to run as efficiently as possible within the limited range of speeds required to power a generator required extensive work. While the Rogue Hybrid’s engine is a 1.5-liter turbocharged inline 3-cylinder, Christian Spencer, senior manager of powertrain engineering, told Charged it shares no parts at all with the 1.5-liter turbo three that powered the last generation of Rogues.
That engine can reach 42 percent thermal efficiency, Spencer said. That’s higher than the most efficient combustion engines from Toyota, Ford, and others. And with the smaller battery pack of a conventional hybrid, that matters even more. As far as we know, all previous series hybrids sold in the U.S. have been plug-ins as well, to wit the BMW i3 REx, and tisker Karma / Karma Revero.
Given that it runs entirely on gasoline, the crucial metric is not miles per kilowatt-hour but miles per gallon. Nissan estimates it will be EPA-rated at 38 mpg combined, with 40 mpg city and 36 mpg highway. Final figures will be released by the EPA.
IS it an EV? Yes … no … maybe?
If a car runs solely on electric power and its wheels are turned solely by electric motors, does that make it an electric vehicle? Does it have to have a plug so its battery can be charged from grid electricity? What if it has an internal combustion engine as well? And … what if that engine generates all the electricity to power the car?
You might as well ask how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. What different people view as an EV will differ. Which is why, to be frank, you’re reading a drive report on a car without a charging port in an outlet called Charged EVs.
The 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid will be priced from $37K to $45K. With AWD standard on all versions, the base Rogue Hybrid SV starts at $37,065. Adding $2,100 to that moves buyers up to the SV Premium, while the mid-range SL starts at $39,065, with an available Tech Package adding a further $4,000. Finally, at the top of the range is the Rogue Hybrid Platinum, starting right around $45,000. All prices include the mandatory $1,575 delivery fee. At launch, all e-Power Rogues will be exported from Japan, though it’s not unreasonable to expect Nissan is assessing U.S production in due course.
We look forward to getting a 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid for a full road test over a week or so, Meanwhile, you can think of it as an electric-car driving experience without the plug that lets owners use grid electricity to cut their gasoline expense and carbon footprint.
Nissan provided airfare, lodging, and meals to enable Charged to bring you this first-person report.
EV charge point operator Zapgo has opened its largest site to date—a new DC fast charging hub at Sowerby Wood Business Park in Barrow-in-Furness, a coastal city in Northern England.
The new charging hub features 10 charging bays, including 2 fully accessible bays, served by five 200 kW Alpitronic chargers.
Amenities at the charging hub include rest rooms, a coffee machine and a vending machine. Zapgo has partnered with local businesses to provide ongoing maintenance.
Barrow-in-Furness itself is an industrial port town, which is (perhaps unsurprisingly) underserved by public charging. However, the nearby Lake District National Park sees some 18-19 million visitors annually.
“We’re delighted to launch Zapgo’s largest site to-date: a much-needed ultra-rapid charging hub in Barrow-in-Furness which provides significant support to the growing number of local residents and visitors who are making the switch to EVs,” said Neil Mahapatra, CEO of Zapgo. “Our site’s proximity to the world-famous Lake District National Park makes it a key amenity for the millions of families who visit the area each year.”
ProLogium Technology has begun mass production of its Gen 3.5 Lithium Ceramic Battery (LCB) at the company’s plant in Taiwan.
According to a recent third-party TÜV test, the 185.4 Ah large-format cell delivers 381 Wh/kg specific energy and 903 Wh/L energy density.
UL Solutions tested the cell under China’s GB/T 43568-2026 methodology. After six hours under vacuum at 120° C the cell recorded weight loss of less than 0.05%, below the 0.5% maximum the standard sets for all-solid-state classification.
The cell is built on ProLogium’s Logithium architecture, which pairs a ceramic separator with an edge-frame structure that adds a second separator around the electrode perimeter to help isolate potential burrs while providing sealing and insulation. ProLogium completed the design and patent work for the architecture in 2012 and has kept it in place through four generations of cell technology and three generations of manufacturing process.
Commercial production began in 2013 on a sheet-by-sheet line aimed at niche markets including consumer electronics, wearables, explosion-resistant applications, medical devices and semiconductor equipment. A roll-to-roll line followed in 2017, and the third-generation Giga-level platform entered operation in 2024. ProLogium says it obtained IATF 16949 automotive quality-management certification for its production line in 2022 and has passed the annual surveillance audits since.
ProLogium’s cells are supplied to a US automotive audio-system company and installed in vehicles from a Japanese automaker. ProLogium estimates deliveries to the audio-system company at more than 900,000 cells across over 175 repeat orders, and says the unmanned systems market has brought orders as well, for applications in which payload, endurance and recharge time matter.
Gen 4 LCB uses a fully inorganic superfluidized electrolyte system, a change ProLogium outlined in 2025, while keeping the same Logithium architecture and manufacturing process. About 10% of the existing Giga-level line and related equipment would need modification to build Gen 4 cells, by the company’s estimate. The generation adds an Active Safety Mechanism (ASM) designed to prevent thermal runaway by stabilizing electrode active materials at high temperature, and the company expects Gen 4 to improve low-temperature performance and reduce material and manufacturing costs. Its intended applications, according to ProLogium, are electric vehicles, maritime and aerospace.
ProLogium plans to build a global manufacturing network built in three regions: Taiwan as its technology-development and manufacturing-validation base, France for scaled production and North America for localized supply and manufacturing capacity. In the first phase of its North American plan, the company says it will evaluate partnerships under which Inlays, the single-layer unit that forms an LCB cell, would be produced at scale in France and shipped to North America, where partners would stack them into pouch cells and handle module and pack integration closer to end customers. It would consider adding Inlay production capacity in the United States at a later stage.
Shell is a player the EV charging infrastructure industry in Germany, where it currently operates more than 2,400 charging points.
Now the oil giant is working with Amazon to help charge the retail giant’s electric heavy-duty trucks at dedicated truck charging hubs in Hannover, Kirchheim and Koblenz. Amazon currently operates some 45 electric heavy-duty vehicles in Germany.
The new hubs are designed for the demands of heavy-duty fleets. They feature liquid-cooled, bookable chargers that deliver up to 400 kW of power.
Amazon’s partners will also use Shell’s Home-away-from-Home model at selected sites. This system allows fleet operators to reserve charging slots at public charging sites in advance, enabling schedulers to coordinate charging stops with route planning and legally mandated driver rest periods.
The collaboration builds on Shell’s existing fuel service relationship with Amazon. Access and payment are handled through the Shell Card, giving fleet customers access to Shell’s charging network for heavy-duty vehicles in Germany, which currently includes around 150 charging points.
“Amazon’s use of Shell’s high-power truck charging hubs shows how we can help fleet operators electrify heavy-duty transport in a practical way,” said Melanie Falkenstern, Head of Fleet Solutions DACH at Shell. “Our focus is on providing reliable, high-power charging in the right locations, with simple access and payment through the Shell Card. Services such as Home-away-from-Home add another layer of certainty by helping fleets plan charging around their operations.”
“As we continue to integrate electric trucks into our transport network, reliable access to high-power charging is essential. Working with Shell gives us additional charging options on key routes in Germany, while the ability to reserve charging slots helps us plan routes, charging stops and driver rest periods with greater confidence,” said Andreas Marschner, Vice President of Worldwide Sustainable Operations at Amazon.
Day 4 of the Charged Virtual Conference on EV Engineering brings 6 free live webinars, starting at 8:45 AM EDT. Register now to join any session live on Zoom or watch the recording afterward. Every session is recorded and posted to its page within hours.
Fast-charging G CELLS from Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) have run 489 charge and discharge cycles without measurable capacity loss, according to test data collected by the Battery Innovation Center of Indiana (BIC) and current as of September 4, 2026. The 1 Ah pouch cells were charged and discharged within six minutes for each cycle, at a 10 C rate in both directions.
BIC built the test cells itself, using graphene materials that GMG developed, manufactured and supplied from its Brisbane Battery Development Centre. The work falls under a joint development agreement between GMG and Rio Tinto.
GMG’s product page describes G CELLS as graphene aluminum-ion cells that use no lithium or rare earth materials, and says they are designed to be interchangeable with lithium-ion battery applications.
A lithium titanate oxide (LTO) cell put through the same profile fell to 86% of its original capacity within 64 cycles. GMG puts the difference at more than seven times the cycle life under identical testing.
Internal resistance of the G CELLS measured around 5 mΩ, against up to 30 mΩ for the LTO cell. Lower resistance means less resistive heating at a given current. The G CELLS ran 4° C above ambient during testing, and the LTO cells ran 19° C above it.
GMG reports specific energy lower than it has previously reported. The company describes the cells as unoptimized and expects to bring the figure back to around 50 Wh/kg at the same charge rate after further optimization.
Voltage stayed close to flat across roughly 80% of the discharge, which GMG says makes constant-power discharge easier to control.
“Having built and scaled battery manufacturing for the world’s largest lithium-ion producer, I know how rare it is to see this combination of fast-charge durability and thermal control this early in a cell’s development,” said Bob Galyen, GMG Director and former Chief Technology Officer of CATL. “There is clear further work ahead on some of the energy density optimisation and further scaling of the cell size, but the fundamentals being demonstrated here are the right ones to be solving first.”
