Canadian graphite mine developer Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) has received a commitment of $297 million in financing to support its Phase 2 Matawinie Mine project.

The company will receive an equity investment of $82 million from Canada Growth Fund, $61 million from the Government of Québec through Investissement Québec, and $70 million from Italian oil giant Eni. The company has also launched a public offering of subscription receipts for gross proceeds of approximately $84 million.

The total $297 million financing is expected to fully fund the graphite mine, enabling the company to advance toward its final investment decision and construction.

The participation of Investissement Québec and the Canada Growth Fund builds on their prior support for the project and the broader ore‑to‑battery‑material supply chain.

As a condition of Eni’s equity investment, it will negotiate a potential offtake agreement for 15,000 tons per annum of graphite concentrate from the mine or equivalent in active anode material.

In recent months, NMG has advanced its execution strategy for the project. The company said it has advanced construction preparation, engineering and procurement, and awarded contracts representing over 50% of the project’s capital expenditure budget. NMG’s construction manager, Pomerleau, has started work on-site to supervise the start of the contractors’ arrival and preliminary civil works scheduled to get underway in the coming weeks.

The company has also acquired a brownfield site adjacent to its greenfield property to build the Bécancour Battery Material Plant, to supply 13,000 tons of active anode material annually to Panasonic Energy. The company is updating its feasibility study and advancing procurement negotiations with key equipment suppliers with a view to proceeding with an investment and construction decision during the second half of 2026.

Shareholders Panasonic and Mitsui have indicated their intention to vote in favor of the Matawinie mine transaction and have reiterated their interest in making an equity investment in the Bécancour plant.

Source: Nouveau Monde Graphite

EV charging provider Source, a joint venture between SSE and TotalEnergies, will work with Siemens eMobility and Evolt Charging to establish a unified operational and maintenance model across Source’s growing UK and Ireland charging network.

Siemens eMobility will supply charging hardware, and Evolt Charging will provide the field engineering capability to install, commission and maintain the hardware.

Evolt Charging’s team is trained and accredited on Siemens eMobility equipment. Source will have a single point of contact for all maintenance and repair activity across its network, regardless of charger type or location. As Source continues to add sites, Evolt Charging is expanding its pool of Siemens-trained engineers to keep pace.

Source plans to operate 300 charging hubs across the UK and Ireland by 2030. All the company’s hubs feature chargers with at least 150 kW of power capacity, all powered by renewable energy. Higher-powered options are available at some sites.

“Charging infrastructure is only as good as the team keeping it running,” said Deepa Chandrasekaran, Managing Director at Source. “By bringing together Siemens eMobility’s hardware expertise and Evolt Charging’s nationwide engineering capability, we have a model that means our customers can rely on our network wherever they are. As we grow, maintaining that reliability is what will set Source apart.”

“As a certified service provider [for] Siemens hardware, we support Source’s rollout through a fully integrated service and maintenance offering—from remote diagnostics and reporting to nationwide field support,” said Justin Meyer, Managing Director at Evolt Charging. “As networks scale across multiple hardware brands, our manufacturer-agnostic model gives operators the confidence of consistent service, compliance and driver support through a single trusted partner.”

Source: Source

A couple of years ago, e-truck expert Rustam Kocher told Charged that the Tesla Semi was “a great product,” but that the company might struggle to compete against more established OEMs. Since then, the EV market in the US has changed radically—the Tesla Semi is moving into volume production, and Chinese upstart Windrose has started delivering electric Class 8 tractors in the US. Now it’s the legacy brands that are looking like the underdogs.

Coincidentally or not, legacy truck-makers seem to be increasing their efforts to slow the transition to EVs. Even as Volvo and Daimler announce new electric truck models, the companies continue lobbying to weaken emissions standards in the US and Europe, and investing money in hydrogen fuel cells.

In a recent Forbes article, former EPA exec Margo Oge argues that Europe’s largest truck manufacturers would rather litigate than compete with Tesla and the Chinese brands in the US market. Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Traton filed a motion through the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association to defend the Trump EPA’s repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding and the repeal of all motor vehicle climate standards. This stands in stark contrast to public statements that all three companies have made, asserting their commitment to electrification and emissions reduction.

“You cannot publicly claim climate leadership while supporting efforts to dismantle the policies designed to drive the transition to cleaner trucks,” Ms. Oge writes. “In China, roughly 25% of new truck sales are already electric and it is exporting aggressively. The transition is happening with or without Washington. The only question is whether legacy truck manufacturers compete or are left behind.”

Source: Forbes

Indium Corporation has been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation to develop a domestic process for recovering high-purity gallium from manufacturing by-products. The company is one of five organizations selected under the DOE’s TRACE-Ga (Technology for Recovery and Advanced Critical-material Extraction–Gallium) initiative, which is targeting novel gallium recovery technologies from US metal processing feedstocks.

Work will be conducted at Indium Corporation’s Rome, New York facility, using electrochemical methods and advanced purification techniques to convert gallium-bearing production scraps—including residues from gallium trichloride, gallium acetylacetonate and gallium oxide manufacturing—into high-purity metallic gallium. The project runs in two phases: Phase 1 designs and validates a recovery prototype; Phase 2 scales the system to produce at least one metric ton of 4N-grade (99.99% pure) gallium per year, with capacity to expand beyond that as commercial demand grows.

The domestic supply gap is significant. The U.S. hasn’t produced gallium domestically since 1987 and currently imports 100% of its supply. Gallium is the base material for gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, which are increasingly used in EV onboard chargers and inverters for their switching efficiency at high voltages. It also underpins gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices in radar and RF systems, and is used in LEDs and solar cells.

“This project marks an important step toward restoring domestic gallium production for the first time in nearly 40 years,” said Ross Berntson, President and CEO of Indium Corporation. “Our efforts will support the commercialization of innovative technologies, strengthen domestic critical minerals production, and advance supply chain independence.”

The TRACE-Ga initiative is managed by ENERGYWERX under a Partnership Intermediary Agreement with the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization.

Source: Indium Corporation

Pacific Power Source has launched the SmartTS-PV Inverter Test System, a pre-integrated compliance testing platform targeting solar inverters, EVSE with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability and other distributed energy resources. The company says any grid-tied device that needs to meet IEEE 1547.1, UL 1741 SB or EN50549 certification is a candidate. The system was developed with QualityLogic and Tektronix Elektro-Automatik and is available now.

The relevance to bidirectional charging is direct. UL 1741 SB is increasingly required for V2G-capable chargers connecting to the utility grid, and the validation process—covering voltage and frequency ride-through, reactive power control and anti-islanding—involves the same complex, sequenced grid support function testing that has made IEEE 1547.1 certification a bottleneck for solar inverter makers. A synchronized test environment is critical: grid events, inverter responses, measurement capture and protocol commands must align precisely. SmartTS-PV combines an AC grid simulator, DC power supply and load, measurement and data acquisition hardware, and QualityLogic’s automated pass/fail software into a single platform that handles that coordination automatically.

The headline figure is test time. Pacific Power Source and QualityLogic cite approximately 32 hours of actual test time against IREC’s 8-12 week estimate for manual NRTL testing.

“QualityLogic’s test automation reduces what traditionally takes weeks of manual NRTL testing to approximately 32 hours of actual test time, with automatic pass/fail analysis against IEEE 1547 accuracy requirements,” said Steve Kang, General Manager of Smart Energy at QualityLogic. “Combining that software with Pacific Power Source’s grid simulation hardware in one integrated platform removes the integration burden from inverter manufacturers and test labs and gets them to certification faster.”

The system targets string, central and hybrid inverter manufacturers, energy storage developers, test labs, utilities and certification bodies.

Source: Pacific Power Source

US-based Full Circle Lithium has made its first commercial sale of FCL-X, its lithium-ion battery fire extinguishing agent, to a US-based waste management operator for on-site deployment.

The sale highlights the escalation of lithium-ion battery fires in landfills, recycling facilities and waste collection systems in North America, the company noted.

More than 5,000 fires occur annually at recycling facilities internationally, many linked to lithium-ion batteries, the company said. Some 2,400 waste facility fires were estimated to have taken place in the US and Canada in 2022.

Lithium-ion battery fires are driven by thermal runaway, a self-sustaining chemical reaction that produces intense heat, flammable and toxic gases and a risk of reignition. The fires burn hotter and faster than typical combustible materials, can reignite hours or even days later, release toxic and hazardous gases, and can be difficult to suppress with water or traditional extinguishing methods.

FCL-X is designed to rapidly suppress thermal runaway reactions and reduce reignition risk, enabling safer handling for on-site personnel.

“Waste operators are facing a growing and costly threat with no effective solution, until now. FCL-X is purpose-built for this challenge and is quickly becoming the new standard in lithium-ion battery fire response,” said Carlos Vicens, CEO of Full Circle Lithium.

Source: Full Circle Lithium

Power2Drive South America is LATAM’s key exhibition and conference for charging infrastructure and e-mobility. Strongly connected to the Latin American market, it showcases innovative charging solutions, battery concepts and business models that are shaping the future of sustainable mobility. It underlines the growing role of electric vehicles in the energy mix and their contribution to more climate-friendly transport systems in the region.

Power2Drive South America is the ideal platform for manufacturers, suppliers, installers, distributors, fleet and energy managers, e-mobility service providers and start-ups to connect, exchange and explore new opportunities. It provides in-depth insight into market trends and technology innovations across Latin America – from urban transport and smart charging to energy self-consumption.

The event will be held from August 25–27, 2026 as part of The smarter E South America, LATAM’s largest alliance of events for the energy industry, at the modern and centrally located Expo Center Norte in São Paulo, Brazil. In parallel, the following exhibitions will be dedicated to sector coupling and a renewable 24/7 energy supply:

• Intersolar South America – LATAM’s Largest Exhibition and Conference for the Solar Industry
• ees South America – LATAM’s Key Event for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems
• Eletrotec+EM-Power South America – The Event for Electrical Infrastructure and Energy Management

With Power2Drive Europe in Munich, Germany and Power2Drive India in Gandhinagar, India, this global exhibition series is represented across three continents.
Power2Drive South America is organized by Solar Promotion International GmbH, Freiburg Management and Marketing International GmbH (FMMI) and Aranda Eventos & Congressos Ltda.

E-Mobility in Brazil – Electrification in a Flex-Fuel Market

Brazil’s e-mobility market is developing under conditions that differ from most other growth regions – and at the same time is setting the pace for e-mobility as Latin Americas biggest car market. The country combines one of the world’s cleanest electricity systems, which gives electric mobility a particularly strong decarbonization advantage, with a long-established ethanol and flex-fuel ecosystem. At the same time, Brazil is not following a purely battery electric pathway. Instead, battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles are expanding alongside existing biofuel-based technologies. This makes Brazil one of the most distinctive transition markets in global e-mobility.

How is the e-mobility market in Brazil developing?

The market for e-vehicle has shown significant growth recently: the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association reported 223,912 electrified light vehicles sold in 2025, up from 177,358 in 2024. Their share of total domestic light-vehicle sales reached 9 percent, while the overall market for light vehicles grew by only 2.6 percent. This shows that electrified mobility is expanding much faster than the market as a whole.

A key driver behind this growth has been the rising availability of imported vehicles, especially from China. Chinese brands accounted for 85 percent of electric vehicle sales in Brazil in 2024, helping reduce the price gap between battery electric cars and conventional vehicles. At the same time, the government is trying to combine market growth with industrial development. Import tariffs on electric cars were reintroduced in 2024 at 10 percent and are set to rise gradually to 35 percent by mid-2026. In parallel, the Green Mobility and Innovation Program MOVER is designed to strengthen local production, innovation and investment in cleaner vehicle technologies.

Charging infrastructure is also expanding, but it remains unevenly distributed and heavily concentrated in economically stronger regions, especially São Paulo, where 30 percent of all charging infrastructure is located, according to Brazilian Energy Research Authority EPE. Brazilian E-mobility Association ABVE states that by February 2026, Brazil had 21,061 public and semi-public charging points, including 6,479 direct current fast chargers, with the fast-charging segment up 167 percent year on year.

Public transport and fleet electrification: a key driver in Brazil

Public transport and fleet applications are among the most promising segments for electrification in Brazil. São Paulo is leading this development in bus electrification and surpassed 1,000 zero-emission buses in its municipal fleet in 2025, reaching 1,009 vehicles. In addition, the federal government has earmarked significant funding for fleet renewal through the New Growth Acceleration Program Novo PAC.

In freight transport, electrification is progressing more cautiously. The International Council on Clean Transportation reports 480 electric truck sales in Brazil in 2024, with most concentrated in light and medium-duty segments. This suggests that urban logistics and regional delivery are currently the most viable use cases, while long-haul heavy-duty transport still faces stronger cost and infrastructure barriers.

Potential and challenges

Brazil’s long-term potential for e-mobility is substantial. According to EPE, electricity demand from electric vehicles could rise from 627 gigawatt-hours in 2025 to 7.8 terawatt-hours in 2035.

Overall, Brazil’s market environment is currently shaped by strong growth, Chinese imports, industrial policy, expanding charging networks and the coexistence of battery electric mobility with hybrid and flex-fuel technologies. That combination makes Brazil a market with its own highly specific transition model.

Mitsubishi Materials (MMC) is investing in US rare earth refiner ReElement Technologies as part of a strategic collaboration with ReElement shareholder American Resources to develop supply for manufacturing in the US and friendly countries, including Japan.

In the US, the collaboration will focus on supporting ReElement’s refining operations by pursuing opportunities for feedstock sourcing, tolling and offtake to expand domestic refining capacity.

In Japan, the companies will jointly evaluate opportunities to commercialize rare earth and critical mineral recycling solutions, combining Mitsubishi’s established recycling infrastructure and ReElement’s chromatographic refining platform.

ReElement’s technology enables the efficient processing of a wide range of feedstocks, including recycled materials, mine waste and primary ores, into high-purity critical mineral products.

Conventional solvent-based refining methods are difficult to deploy outside China because of environmental, capital, and operational constraints. ReElement’s platform is designed to be modular, scalable and environmentally responsible, its former parent company American Resources said.

“By combining MMC’s expertise in feedstock sourcing and recycling with ReElement’s refining-first platform, we are advancing a scalable and economically viable solution to the midstream bottleneck,” said Mark Jensen, CEO of ReElement Technologies.

Source: American Resources

Electric city buses have reached critical mass in Europe, Transport and Environment reports. Sixty percent of new EU city buses ordered in 2025 were electric (56% battery-electric and 4% fuel cell). At the current rate of growth in sales, all new city buses are expected to be electric by 2028.

A variety of OEMs from European and Asian countries (including Daimler, Scania, Vinfast, Yutong, Temsa, Irizar, Solaris and more) are delivering city buses and motorcoaches.

Austrian carrier Blaguss deploys 12 Yutong electric coaches

Austrian transport operator Blaguss introduced 12 battery-electric coaches from Chinese OEM Yutong. The company recently conducted a six-month pilot of vehicle-mounted solar systems, and estimated the payback period at around 18 months.

Blaguss has been gradually introducing electric buses into its operations starting in 2024. In 2025, the company added electric hop-on/hop-off buses for tourist services in Vienna.

Temsa delivers 15 electric buses in Kaunas, Lithuania

Turkish commercial vehicle manufacturer Temsa has delivered 15 MD9 electriCITY electric buses to public transport operator UAB Kautra in Kaunas, Lithuania. Further scheduled deliveries will bring Temsa’s Lithuanian e-bus fleet to 321 units.

Flemish transport agency deploys its 1,000th electric bus

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.

Three hydrogen buses join 203 battery-electric buses in Sardinia’s capital

Cagliari, the capital of the Italian island of Sardinia, has deployed 3 Solaris Urbino 12 Hydrogen buses. Transport agency CTM Cagliari now operates 236 electrified vehicles, including 203 battery-electric buses, 30 trolleybuses and the 3 new fuel cell buses, which will operate on longer suburban routes.

The fleet’s charging network includes 50 Level 2 charging systems and 22 DC fast charging systems. The agency aims to operate a fully zero-emission urban fleet by 2030.

England and Scotland fund hundreds of new electric buses

The UK government, which has sometimes been criticized for directing the lion’s share of support to London and the Southeast, recently authorized a major funding package for electric buses to be deployed in several English districts.

The new funding includes £73.2 million from the UK government and £94 million from operators and local authorities, bringing total investment to over £167 million. The dosh will be used to procure some 484 zero-emission buses, as well as charging infrastructure.

Not to be outdone, Scotland approved £45 million in new funding to support the deployment of 334 zero-emission vehicles (227 buses and 107 coaches) along with associated charging infrastructure. Fleet operators will collectively contribute over £163 million, and public funding complemented by private investment contributions will come to over £118 million.

Aurora grid connections enable Stagecoach to charge over 1,300 electric buses in the UK

Aurora Utilities has electrified some 17 bus depots belonging to bus operator Stagecoach across England and Scotland. Aurora, acting as an independent distribution network operator, will operate the grid connections required to supply high-capacity bus charging infrastructure at the depots.

The company says the upgraded energy capacity now supports around 1,330 electric buses, equal to around 16 percent of Stagecoach’s total UK fleet.

Sources: Transport and Environment, Sustainable Bus

At ACT Expo next week (May 4–7, Las Vegas, Booth 3570), chargebyte is introducing the Charge Control L MCS (CCL MCS), a stand-alone charge controller that handles the complete ISO 15118-20 communication and safety stack for Megawatt Charging System-equipped trucks, buses and heavy machinery. First samples are open for pre-order.

The CCL MCS sits in the low-voltage path between the MCS inlet and the vehicle and eliminates the need for additional ECUs. It’s built around two NXP S32K146 processors and implements charging communication over 10BASE-T1S Ethernet—the single-pair automotive Ethernet layer specified for MCS—replacing the power line communication (PLC) approach used in CCS deployments. Interfaces include CAN-FD and CAN with vehicle CAN at 500 kbit/s, native support for Isabellenhütte IVT-S and IVT-3 current shunts, and UDS-based firmware updates.

Integrated functions cover dual HV interlock, HV switch control with weld detection, a full inlet controller (ID, CE, PE, lock, button), temperature monitoring on both DC paths and LED control. Protection rating is IP6K9K (ISO 20653), operating range is -40 °C to +85 °C, supply input is 9–32 V, and the Cinch housing measures 153 × 146 × 56 mm at 400 g. Each unit ships with a per-unit end-of-line test.

10BASE-T1S offers lower latency and better noise immunity than PLC—significant at the power levels MCS targets. For heavy-duty OEMs and body builders, the practical appeal of a product like this is offloading the entire ISO 15118-20 stack to a qualified, production-ready ECU rather than developing it in-house.

“With the Megawatt Charging System, charging communication moves to a new layer – away from PLC, towards Ethernet,” said Martin Kranzfelder, CPO Products at chargebyte. “Our brand new CCL MCS is a fully integrated, rugged controller. It makes MCS deployable today, and thus enables OEMs and body builders to stay ahead in the e-truck market.”

Customer-specific variants are available on request.

Source: chargebyte