Group14 Technologies has started EV-scale production of its silicon battery material, SCC55, at its newest factory in Sangju, South Korea.

The facility is designed to produce up to 2,000 metric tons annually, enabling 10 GWh of fast charging battery capacity as production ramps. SCC55 is used across electric mobility, grid-scale energy storage and advanced consumer applications.

Located close to battery manufacturers in Asia, the Sangju factory extends Group14’s manufacturing footprint, operating alongside the company’s commercial factory in Woodinville, Washington. A second US facility in Moses Lake, Washington, is nearing completion.

Group14 obtained full ownership of the plant, which was established as a joint venture with South Korean manufacturing conglomerate SK, in August 2025, and raised $463 million in Series D financing to scale its manufacturing capacity in the US and South Korea.

Group14’s factories are designed to rapidly scale and drop in to commercial battery cell production lines easily, the company said. The factories are delivering battery materials to more than 160 customers worldwide. 

SCC55 offers roughly five times the energy capacity of conventional graphite anode materials, according to Group14, enabling one ton of SCC55 to replace approximately five tons of graphite. By reducing the volume of graphite required in battery production, SCC55 can help manufacturers to diversify supply and improve supply chain resilience.

SCC55 is compatible with multiple cell formats and chemistries, including lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) and high-nickel systems.

“Our customers are building silicon battery cells with SCC55 and report reaching 0-100% recharge in 90 seconds, 50 times faster than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and other designs achieving over a 43% boost in energy density,” said Rick Costantino, Group14’s CTO and co-founder.

Source: Group14 Technologies

Nano One Materials, a process technology company specializing in cathode active materials for lithium‑ion batteries, has been awarded $3 million from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) under its Energy Innovation Program.

The company will use the funds to support ongoing process optimization, supply chain diversification and enhanced commercial offerings for the production of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active materials (CAM) using its One-Pot process through March 2028.

The process development work will focus on iron feedstock, using the Nano One R&D facility in Burnaby, British Columbia and its pilot and demonstration facilities in Candiac, Québec. Sumitomo Metal Mining, which is a strategic shareholder in the company, will contribute technical expertise, testing and external validation for the program. 

The One-Pot process is designed to enable cost-competitive input of alternative iron feedstock that can be sourced in various jurisdictions around the world, eliminating the need to source iron phosphate precursor materials while enabling diversification of LFP supply chains.

Nano One is optimizing the technology for the commercial production of LFP across three core markets: EVs, defense, and energy storage systems.

“These funds support us as we bring cost-competitive and scalable LFP processing technology alternatives to markets, strategic partners and customers around the world, and they help us enhance our commercial offerings and supply chain solutions,” said Dan Blondal, Nano One’s CEO.

Source: Nano One

U Power has completed comprehensive operational testing and full-stack integration of the battery-swapping system for heavy-duty truck prototype vehicles it has designed for sale in Thailand.

The completion of testing marks a step forward in U Power’s collaboration with Thailand-based Whale Logistics to deploy 1,000 battery-swapping heavy-duty trucks in the country. The strategic partnership, which was formalized in December 2025, paves the way for the production and delivery of the first batch of heavy truck tractors by May 2026.

The battery-swapping heavy-duty truck project was jointly developed by U Power, heavy truck supplier SAIC Hongyan Automotive and technology company UNEX EV.

The prototype vehicles underwent three months of full-condition road testing, during which the key systems were thoroughly evaluated. Following full-stack integration, all technical parameters met design specifications and aligned with Whale Logistics’ requirements for electrified highway logistics transportation, enabling the companies to move to mass production.

Supported by U Power’s UOTTA battery-swapping solution, which enables battery swaps within minutes, electric trucks can match the operational efficiency of legacy fuel-powered trucks, the company said.

At the same time, vehicle operators can avoid substantial investments in grid expansion and charging infrastructure while eliminating concerns about battery performance degradation.

“Completing full-condition road testing of our pilot vehicles confirms the reliability and efficiency of the UOTTA battery-swapping model,” said Johnny Lee, founder and CEO of U Power. “Via the partnership with Whale Logistics, we are set to deploy 1,000 vehicles in Thailand to meet high-frequency logistics demand and boost operational efficiency.”

Source: U Power

After years of development, Tesla is ramping up production of its electric Semi, and simultaneously beginning to roll out the necessary charging infrastructure. The company currently plans to deploy 66 Megacharger locations across the US.

Tesla already has two Megacharger sites operational—one at Gigafactory Nevada and one in Carson, California. However, these appear to be designed to serve Tesla’s own fleet operations. Now the company has opened its first Megacharger station aimed at Semi customers, in Ontario, California.

Tesla’s Megacharger locations are planned for the busiest freight corridors in North America: I-5 on the West Coast, I-10 running east-west, and I-95 and I-75 on the East Coast. The company aims to have 37 sites operational by the end of 2026, and 46 sites by early 2027.

The Ontario site is in the heart of the Inland Empire, one of the busiest freight corridors in the world, strategically located near the junction of I-10 and I-15, as well as the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Tesla’s Megachargers can deliver up to 1.2 MW of charging power, but the company says this first public Megacharger cranks out only 750 kW.

Electrek’s Fred Lambert calls the opening of the Ontario Megacharger a significant step that marks the Semi’s transition from the pilot phase to commercial operation. The company has been moving at an impressive pace in recent months, demonstrating 1.2 MW charging in December, announcing a deal with truck stop operator Pilot in January, and opening its first customer-facing station in March (shades of the good old Tesla!).

However, as regular Charged readers know, there’s many a bottleneck between planning and plugging in, from permitting to utility interconnection to construction to commissioning. Electric truck fans will be following Tesla’s timeline closely over the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, the company’s competitors have not been idle. Chargers based on the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), an open standard that supports charging speeds up to 3.75 MW, are already in operation in Europe and the US, and truck OEMs Daimler, Volvo and Scania all plan to deploy MCS-compatible electric trucks in 2026. EVSE manufacturer Kempower has deployed MCS charging hubs at three locations in Scandinavia, and one in San Bernardino, not far from Tesla’s new site.

Source: Electrek

Commercial EV manufacturer Harbinger has unveiled a new medium-duty, low cab forward (LCF) vehicle that is available in either an electric or plug-in hybrid configuration.

The new HC Series Cab is designed to deliver enhanced maneuverability, driver comfort, safety and operational cost savings. It doubles as a mobile power station to deliver sustained power for tools and equipment on the job site for prolonged periods.

The HC Series Cab has a 26,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). It can be upfitted with a variety of bodies, including cargo boxes, stake beds, flatbeds and more. The LCF architecture enables longer cargo boxes on shorter wheelbases, allowing fleets to increase usable cargo volume without increasing overall vehicle length.

Commercial EV startups have dropped like fruit flies over the last few years, but Harbinger CEO John Harris told Charged that his five-year-old company’s sales have been growing every quarter (read our January in-depth interview with Harris). He attributes the company’s success to specialization and vertical integration. Harbinger sells only stripped chassis in Classes 4, 5 and 6, a market in which today’s electrification technology is fit for purpose and cost-effective, and Harbinger faces little competition.   

Unlike EVs that are retrofitted from combustion engine platforms, all of Harbinger’s trucks are built from the ground up on the company’s vertically integrated electric architecture. Harbinger’s electric chassis includes all major vehicle systems, which the company designs and manufactures in-house, including the powertrain, battery system, steering, brakes and more. “This vertically integrated approach keeps costs low and provides a higher-performing, safer, and more durable solution than electric vehicles built upon legacy diesel and gasoline platforms,” the company explains.

Harbinger’s range-extended hybrid platform uses a gas engine to recharge the batteries, extending range up to 500 miles, depending on upfit configuration and drive cycle. The vehicle can also recharge its batteries while parked without external power. The platform supports full power take-off (PTO) functionality to operate hydraulic and body-mounted equipment. Harbinger is introducing an onboard AC inverter option that delivers up to 15 kW of exportable power on both EV and hybrid models, enabling crews to run external tools and job site equipment directly from the vehicle.

“The HC Series Cab represents a major expansion of our product line and a defining moment for the medium-duty industry,” said John Harris. “For too long, fleets have had to compromise between payload, maneuverability, range and onboard capability. We engineered this platform to outperform legacy diesel options while unlocking new advantages through electrification and our range-extended hybrid system to enable real work in the field.”

Source: Harbinger Motors

Thermal interface materials are playing an increasingly important role in extending product lifetimes and improving energy efficiency—key contributions to a more sustainable society. However, many of these materials rely on thermoset polymers such as silicone, which cannot be reused and often end up as industrial waste.

As a leading manufacturer of silicone-based thermal interface sheets, Fujipoly works to minimize scrap at the customer level. Yet, production processes inevitably generate auxiliary material waste and product offcuts. Recognizing this challenge, Fujipoly has launched new initiatives to explore ways of reusing these byproducts, with the goal of closing the loop and advancing circular manufacturing practices.

Join us to learn how Fujipoly is rethinking waste and taking meaningful steps toward a more sustainable future in thermal management.

Mar 12, 2026, 12:00 pm EDT
Register now—it’s free!

See the complete session list for the Virtual Conference on EV Engineering here.

Broadcast live from March 9 to 12, 2026, the conference content will encompass the entire EV engineering supply chain and ecosystem, including motor and power electronics design and manufacturing, cell development, battery systems, testing, powertrains, thermal management, circuit protection, wire and cable, EMI/EMC and more.

Researchers at Saarland University say they have developed iron-rich amorphous alloys for electric motor components that can reduce remagnetization losses by eliminating the crystalline microstructure that causes internal friction and heat buildup in conventional soft-magnetic materials.

The project focuses on replacing coarse-grained crystalline iron alloys used in stators and rotors with metallic glasses containing 70% to 80% iron. According to Professor Ralf Busch, conventional motor losses rise as magnetic fields repeatedly reverse and force microscopic magnetic domains to reorient within a crystal lattice, creating hysteresis losses. In the amorphous materials, the lack of crystallites allows those magnetic regions to reorient more freely, which the researchers say dramatically reduces iron losses and heat generation.

The team says it identified three alloy compositions that resist crystallization while still meeting the requirements for additive manufacturing and motor use. The materials are processed by laser powder bed fusion, in which powder is melted with a laser and built up in layers about 50 µm thick to form fully amorphous motor parts without disruptive crystallites. The researchers say the approach could improve efficiency in devices such as e-scooters, drones and other small electric drives, while also avoiding critical alloying elements such as cobalt.

“The challenge now is to develop the process so that it works reliably in practice and at industrial scale,” said Professor Matthias Nienhaus. The work was carried out under the €3.5-million AM2SoftMag project funded by the European Innovation Council’s Horizon Europe Pathfinder Open program, with Heraeus AMLOY handling 3D printing of magnetic components.

Source: research-in-germany.org

Motion and fluid control system specialist Moog has unveiled a new electronics system for electric construction equipment that combines EV components to save space and cost.

Moog’s Adaptive Electrification Management System (AEMS) is intended to help design engineers and product development teams at construction vehicle OEMs to electrify, automate and digitalize construction machinery efficiently and cost-effectively.

The patent-pending AEMS electronics system is currently featured in machines such as Bobcat’s Rogue X3. Moog describes it “a compact bookshelf” holding a configurable controller, DC/DC converter, high-voltage distribution, and single- and dual-axis inverters. This modular system is designed to enable OEMs to electrify and automate a broad range of machinery—from 6-ton compact track loaders to 25-ton excavators—with just one standardized part number per module.

“AEMS is the most efficient path to achieving electrification, automation and digitalization goals while slashing the cost and boosting the reliability of producing and servicing next-generation vehicles,” said Dr. Nate Keller, Moog’s Strategic Business Manager.

The system uses a high-voltage busbar and shared coolant manifold to reduce the number of cables and hoses by 30%, simplifying assembly and maintenance and reducing cost. Maintenance teams can quickly replace faulty modules on site.

AEMS also manages multiple EV functions with streamlined software architecture. Built-in diagnostics allow consistent system monitoring for traction, steering, lifting and more across machine platforms.

“We recently developed a machine for an OEM with AEMS, completing all system programming in under 15 minutes,” Keller added. “AEMS reduces testing and configuration time by up to eight hours and supports over-the-air software updates post-production to add new features seamlessly.”

Source: Moog Construction

The Utah Department of Transportation will lead a federal pilot program to test eVTOL aircraft and other emerging aviation technologies in real-world operations.

The Federal Aviation Administration selected UDOT to lead one of eight projects nationwide for the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program, a three-year initiative designed to help integrate electric aircraft into the national airspace.

Through the initiative known as uFLY, Utah will lead a partnership with Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and Oklahoma, along with more than 30 industry partners and research institutions, to test new aviation technologies and gather data. Industry partners include BETA Technologies, Ampaire, Joby Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Future Flight Global, Alpine Air, Jump Aero and 47G.

Testing will take place across a range of operating environments throughout the western US, including urban areas, rural corridors, mountainous terrain and wildfire-prone regions.

UDOT Aeronautics operates mobile command centers equipped with workstations and satellite connectivity that allow crews to connect aircraft systems, monitor live video and flight data, and coordinate testing operations from the field. The portable units can be deployed statewide and will support data collection and testing.

“Utah has built a national reputation as a home to innovation,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox. “This partnership puts Utah at the forefront of the next generation of aviation technology while creating new opportunities for economic growth, research and workforce development across our state.”

“With our strong aerospace sector, innovative research institutions and diverse landscape for real-world testing, Utah and our regional partners can help advance these technologies safely and effectively,” said Senate President Stuart Adams.

Source: Utah Department of Transportation

South Korean component supplier Hyundai Mobis has established a dedicated production base in Hungary to supply German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz for its electric and hybrid vehicles.

The new production base in Kecskemet, which is now fully operational, is located in central Hungary near the customer’s site. Covering 50,000 square meters, the plant operates under the just-in-sequence (JIS) system, enabling real-time processing of production plans for immediate manufacturing and delivery.

Hyundai Mobis has been supplying front and rear complete axle assemblies to Mercedes-Benz through its Alabama plant in the US.

The Hungarian plant features flexible production lines capable of mixed production of electric, hybrid, and internal combustion engine components, enabling it to adjust rapidly to customer production plans.

Hungary is emerging as an automotive production hub in Eastern Europe to provide local supply to European automakers. The country produces more than 500,000 new vehicles annually. German manufacturers already operate production facilities in the country and Chinese automakers and battery companies are making large-scale investments. South Korean battery companies are also increasing their presence through additional investments.

Hyundai Mobis currently operates production bases in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Turkey to supply modules and core components to group companies Hyundai Motor and Kia. The plant in Hungary will serve as a dedicated production base for global customers.

The company is also preparing to begin full-scale operations at its plant in Spain this year to supply battery systems to an unnamed international automaker, bringing its total number of European production bases in Europe to five.

Source: Hyundai Mobis