This Week in Batteries: BYD, Tesla, Lucid, and More.

• BYD launched ultra low-cost $9,700 EV powered by 30kWh of LFP Blade batteries (Link)

• Northvolt on ramping up, staying competitive, German gigafactory and IPO (Link)
• LG Energy Solution partners with Lithium Australia’s Envirostream to recycle Li-ion batteries (Link)
• Gotion sues west Michigan town, accusing board of blocking $2.4B EV battery plant (Link)
• CATL and Tesla collaborating on creating new electrochemical structures to allow for faster charging (Link)

• Tesla has a plan to fend off cheaper competition from China with a $25K EV using it’s “unboxed” manufacturing approach (Link)
• Tesla reduced production at its Shanghai factory to volumes below year-ago, despite the overall China EV market up 37% in the first two months of 2024. (Link)
• GM Ultium Cells’ gigafactory is 35% complete, set to begin manufacturing in early 2025 (Link)
• Fisker cuts $24,000 off the price of its Ocean SUV in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy (Link)
• Ferrari is making progress on its first EV, CEO promises it’s going to roar just as loud as a fossil engine (Link)
• Rimac Automobili’s Nevera EV reaches speeds of 256 mph, and costs $2.5MM (Link)
• Hyundai IONIQ 6, Kona EV are two of the cheapest cars (EV or gas) to lease at just $169/mo (Link)
• Volvo build it’s last fossil car as it shifts to EVs (Link)
• Canoo acquires advanced manufacturing equipment assets from bankrupt Arrival (Link)

• Engie Chile begins commercial operation of 139MW/638MWh BESS in Antofagasta (Link)
• Marubeni plans to build 100MWh BESS project in Japan’s storage hotspot Hokkaido (Link)
• Gotion targets 1GWh of BESS deployments in Japan (Link)

• Li-Cycle raised the cost estimate for the construction of its Rochester Hub to $960MM (Link)
• Indonesia has issued mining production quotas of 152.62MM metric tons of nickel ore in 2024 (Link) 
• PT Vale Indonesia looking into building a $1.91B HPAL plant in Sulawesi island, it will be the third kind of project to convert nickel ore into MHP (Link)
• Altilium Metals and Talga Group partner on recovering graphite from old EV batteries for reuse in the production of new battery anodes (Link)
• INSG showed that the global nickel market recorded 13,400t surplus in January (Link)
• Sigma Lithium receives letter of arbitration from LG Energy Solution, alleges breach of certain provisions related to a lithium supply agreement entered in 2021 (Link)

• BMW, VW and Renault asked European regulators to push back the 2035 fossil car phase-out, despite the timeline already being loosened (Link)
• Stellantis and California executed a deal to protect the state’s EV mandate from future political and legal challenges (Link)
• Xi Jinping toured BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co. in the provincial capital of Hunan to inspect how the city is stepping up the development of high-tech growth drivers he coined “new productive forces” (Link)

• Lucid raised $1B from Ayar Third Investment Company, an affiliate of the Public Investment Fund (Link)
• Rio Tinto to invest $350MM in Argentina lithium project (Link)
• France sets end of March deadline for New Caledonia nickel bailout deal, subsidizing energy prices up to $217MM per year (Link)
• Lifezone Metals raises $50MM in funding led by Harry Lundin and Rick Rule for the development of its flagship Kabanga project in northwest Tanzania (Link)
• Avalon enters $11MM funding agreement with Lind Global Fund II for lithium processing facility (Link)
• Tianqi Lithium Corp urged SQM to hold a shareholders vote over a lithium deal under discussion with Codelco, and criticized a lack of clarity in the negotiations (Link)
• The Doe Run Corp. awarded $7MM from the DOD to scale up hydrometallurgical plant in Missouri (Link)
• Ionobell raised $3.9MM in Seed funding, led by Dynamo Ventures and Trucks VC (Link)

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