XCharge and JOJO launch 9 new public EV charging sites in Chicagoland

Battery-integrated EV charging specialist XCharge North America and EV charging operator JOJO Superfast EV Charging will collaborate to deploy nine new public EV charging sites in Illinois.

The two companies will bring 800 kW of ultra-fast charging capacity to nine initial locations in the Chicagoland region, located at branches of the home improvement chain Menards.

XCharge NA will manufacture the chargers and oversee site construction from concept to completion through its turnkey solutions team.

Each site will feature four C6 Smart DC Fast Chargers, providing a total of eight charging ports per location. Charging stations at Menards locations in Crestwood and Bridgeview are now operational, and seven more are scheduled to come online by the end of this year.

“For too long, residents of the South Side of Chicago have been plagued by range anxiety, but today, we’re changing that narrative,” said Joe Sheehan, CEO of JOJO Superfast. “Our goal at JOJO’s is to build the most accessible ultra-fast network in the state, and XCharge’s unmatched technology and hardware are the keys to making that scale possible.”

Source: XCharge

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Investor groups press freight industry to reduce fleet emissions

The ongoing process of transport electrification sometimes resembles a tug of war: forward-looking companies, environmental and consumer advocates, and (sometimes) government agencies pressure industries to electrify, while automakers, freight haulers and their trade groups pull in the other direction, trying to preserve the fossil fuel-dependent status quo as long as possible.

Arguably, the only pressure that matters in the end is economic pressure. With this in mind, NGO ShareAction “mobilizes global investors to use their influence to tackle climate change, protect the natural world and improve people’s health.”

Recently, some 31 investors, representing over $1.8 trillion in assets under management, issued a public statement urging freight and logistics companies to take action to address air pollution, calling for improved reporting, target setting, and concrete measures to reduce harmful emissions.

The investors warn that transparent reporting on air pollution remains limited—few companies in the freight and logistics sector acknowledge their contribution to harmful emissions, and even fewer are taking proactive steps to reduce pollutants.

The signatories are urging companies in the freight and logistics sector to:

• Recognise air pollution as a material business issue.
• Measure and disclose key health harming air pollutants.
• Set time-bound reduction targets for priority air pollutants.
• Accelerate the transition to cleaner vehicle fleets.
• Engage in industry and policy initiatives to support effective action on air pollution.

Alongside calls for voluntary action from companies, signatories are urging standard-setting bodies and government to strengthen mandatory corporate disclosure requirements for air pollution.

“Investors are rightly concerned about the lack of meaningful action from freight companies to reduce harmful pollutants from vehicle fleets,” said Justine Holmes, Clean Air Lead at ShareAction. “Air pollution is one of the most damaging health risks in investors’ portfolios—healthcare costs and lost workforce productivity cost the global economy $6 trillion every year.”

Source: ShareAction

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Purem by Eberspächer hits 100,000-unit China production for steel EV battery housing, targets Europe

Purem by Eberspächer is bringing its high-strength steel battery housing to the European EV market, following the start of series production in China at volumes exceeding 100,000 units per year from the second half of 2026. The company will present the technology at AABC Europe 2026 in Mainz, Germany, from May 18–21 (booth 606).

The steel housing is positioned as a cost and weight alternative to the aluminum designs currently standard in EV battery packs. Higher-strength steel enables thinner walls, Purem says, resulting in housings that are lighter than aluminum equivalents—while also being cheaper to produce and lower in manufacturing carbon footprint due to lower CO₂ intensity in production and superior recyclability. The China program was secured through nominations from Chinese OEMs.

For the European market, Purem has co-founded a consortium to develop a stainless steel variant through a concept study. Partners include Sphere Energy, Bertrandt, the Tillmann Group, Reinert, Baosteel Lasertechnik and 3M. The group is targeting a design that eliminates the need for additional corrosion protection while achieving crash resistance through purpose-designed profiles and reinforcements. Purem also says it’s using AI tooling to calculate individual customer specifications and manufacturing adaptations faster than conventional engineering methods.

Purem is the exhaust and acoustic systems division of Eberspächer Group, applying its existing expertise in materials processing and welding to battery enclosure development.

Source: Eberspächer

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Electrovaya collaborates on DOE-funded project to develop next-gen energy storage for critical infrastructure

Battery manufacturer Electrovaya will participate in a DOE-funded project led by Binghamton University to develop and demonstrate a next-generation energy storage system for critical infrastructure applications.

The project, supported by a $5-million award from the DOE under its Critical Facility Energy Resilience (CiFER) program, will focus on the design and deployment of a 1.2 MWh battery system, which will be installed at Binghamton University’s Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2) and integrated into a data center test environment.

Project partners include LiiON, Eaton and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, providing expertise in battery technology, power systems and grid integration. Electrovaya will contribute its proprietary Infinity Battery Technology.

The system will be deployed in a real-world data center environment to demonstrate peak shaving, backup power and load management capabilities. It will feature a scalable architecture designed to serve as a replicable model for deployment across data centers and other high-demand applications.

“This project represents an important step forward in demonstrating how advanced battery systems can support the rapidly growing energy demands of data centers and other critical infrastructure, while using domestic supply chains,” said Dr. Raj DasGupta, CEO of Electrovaya. “There is a clear need for safe energy storage solutions that can enhance grid resilience while reducing peak demand pressures. Electrovaya’s technology is well-positioned to address these challenges through its proven safety record and long cycle life.”

Source: Electrovaya

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Emobi and DIMO deliver customized Plug & Charge-enabled EV charging for fleets

EV charging roaming provider Emobi and software provider DIMO have collaborated to launch a device that enables electric vehicle fleets to implement Plug & Charge using Emobi’s ISO 15118-based JustPlug solution.

Plug & Charge is a system based on the ISO 15118 standard that handles user authentication and payment automatically, with no need for apps, RFID cards or other clumsy solutions. The system is already widely used in Europe, but as numerous players in the EV charging field have told Charged, technical hurdles are holding back wider adoption. Many EVs on the road today don’t support Plug & Charge.

Emobi and DIMO claim to have found a way to work around this limitation: “Unlike existing Plug & Charge implementations that rely on automaker-issued certificates, this solution enables ISO 15118 digital certificates that are provided directly to vehicles through DIMO’s physical or virtual device, allowing any fleet or driver, with any vehicle, to independently enable Plug & Charge.”

DIMO says its aftermarket device suite can serve as a “bridge” for Plug & Charge without requiring any changes to the vehicle. Emobi’s JustPlug technology can issue and manage an ISO 15118 digital certificate at the fleet level via DIMO’s device, eliminating the need for automaker involvement, firmware updates or charging hardware upgrades.

“Electric vehicles have been promised a seamless Plug & Charge experience for years, but have had to keep waiting as the industry struggled to deliver it at scale,” said Lin Sun Fa, CEO of Emobi. “Issuing ISO 15118 digital certificates directly to fleets through DIMO’s device puts control where it belongs, and unlocks Plug & Charge functionality for any car today.”

“Plug & Charge is just the beginning. Once a vehicle has a session identity through DIMO, you can layer on tolling, parking, insurance, and connected services that activate per trip and shut off at return,” said Yevgeny Khessin, co-founder of DIMO. “Emobi is the first partner to ship on this infrastructure, and charging is the perfect place to start.”

Source: Emobi

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SWTCH Energy’s new EV charging system works with one tap—even offline

EV charging provider SWTCH Energy has added a new feature within its SWTCH Cortex intelligent charging platform that lets drivers start a charging session with a single smartphone tap—even when a cellular signal is unavailable.

Underground garages and remote commercial sites are notorious dead zones for cellular connectivity, SWTCH explains. For EV drivers, this can result in a frustrating gap between pulling up to a charger and getting a charge started.

The new SWTCH Tap feature is designed to eliminate that gap. The technology uses NFC to identify the charger and the driver’s account instantly—bypassing menus, app downloads and cloud handshakes.

When both the charger and the driver’s phone are online, the tap provides a one-click start—no QR codes, no looking up station IDs, and no waiting for a signal. If a driver has no cellular signal on their phone, the charger recognizes their SWTCH account via NFC and authenticates the session locally. Even in the case of a complete network outage, the system can authorize the charging session using local intelligence—via SWTCH Nexus edge computing or cached user IDs on the charger itself.

SWTCH’s approach uses a standard OCPP framework to cache user data locally, so the charger retains the ability to authenticate sessions even when entirely disconnected from the cloud. Transaction data syncs automatically once connectivity is restored.

“The biggest hurdle to a great driver experience is often the connectivity burden at the site,” said Carter Li, CEO of SWTCH. “With SWTCH Tap, we’ve streamlined the process to a single tap while ensuring the charger works every time, regardless of network status. By utilizing local authorization and UID caching, the charger can make decisions in real time without waiting for a cloud handshake.”

Source: SWTCH

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U Power readies battery-swapping trucks for Thailand and targets Q2 Hong Kong taxi launch

U Power Limited has completed production of the first batch of vehicles from a 1,000-unit battery-swapping heavy-duty truck order in Thailand, while its Hong Kong taxi battery-swapping project is targeting commercial launch in Q2 2026 following completion of vehicle certification requirements.

The Thailand program, branded UNEX, runs through partnerships with SUSCO (Susco Public Company Limited) and Whale Logistics Group. U Power says it is the first company to achieve scaled commercial operations of battery swapping for commercial transport vehicles in overseas markets outside mainland China. The company already operates a taxi battery-swapping service in Phuket, launched in 2025 through the same Thailand partnerships.

The Hong Kong project has been in development since 2024. U Power completed the city’s first commercially capable demonstration battery-swapping station in June 2025 and has since been running road testing and swapping compatibility validation on a vehicle model identified in October 2024. The company says it has now cleared all required certifications under Transport Department requirements and the vehicles are ready for on-road operation. Station construction is proceeding in parallel, with a Q2 2026 target for commercial launch.

U Power’s case for Hong Kong is largely economic: operators avoid installing charging infrastructure or upgrading grid connections, fleet managers aren’t exposed to battery degradation risk, and integration with a battery banking system keeps day-to-day operating costs competitive—arguments well-suited to the city’s high-density, efficiency-focused taxi sector.

“Leveraging our AI-driven energy management system and standardized battery-swapping infrastructure, we are building an ecosystem for a wide range of commercial battery-swapping vehicles and advancing the electrification of commercial transportation,” said Li Jia, Founder and CEO of U Power Limited.

U Power describes itself as the world’s first publicly listed battery-swapping technology company, having listed in 2023. Its commercial vehicle battery-swapping model, branded UOTTA, dates to 2020.

Source: U Power Limited

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