Scooter Doll

eVTOL developer Archer Aviation continues to build and expand upon existing relationships with its partners and customers. Today’s news includes an expanded partnership with the United States Department of Defense in which the Air Force is planning to acquire a number of Midnight eVTOLs from Archer Aviation.

After submitting a proposal to the government in India alongside its local joint venture partner this past spring, Build Your Dreams (BYD) is reportedly shelving a $1 billion investment following opposition from the government in New Delhi over security concerns relating to such a large investment from a Chinese company.

Solid-state battery developer QuantumScape has recently shared its Q2 2023 report, offering several updates on its progress toward reaching commercialization – particularly in the EV segment. The company is reporting stellar milestones including a shipment of high cathode-loading cells to automotive partners as well as details of a potential customer chosen for an official launch of its first product.

Just a few months after setting a world record for the longest flight by an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, AutoFlight has delivered another world first. The company just shared footage of it showing off not one but three of its Prosperity I prototypes flying at once, and it looks awesome. Check out the full video below.

A week after confirming its subsidiary Audi will be co-developing EVs with SAIC Motor, Volkswagen Group is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in China’s XPeng Motors. Together, the automakers plan to jointly develop Volkswagen branded EVs for the Chinese market.

And yes, it’ll have NACS accessibility. In a shocking but exciting announcement this morning, a group of some of the world’s largest automakers has combined forces into a new joint venture to deliver a new “high-powered” charger network across cities and highways in North America to expedite EV adoption. Oh, and they intend to power the entire network with renewable energy.

Light eVTOL developer Opener has announced a unique opportunity as it looks to achieve market commercialization of its BlackFly aircraft. The company unveiled an Early Access Program today in which a dozen early eVTOL customers will not only get to experience Opener’s training and aerial technology first hand, but will report back about their entire customer experience.

A mere few months after announcing a move to a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Nairobi, electric mobility company ROAM inaugurated the new space in a ceremony attended by the president of Kenya, William Ruto. As operations officially kick off, ROAM now occupies the largest electric motorcycle assembly plant in East Africa.

Battery swap startup Ample looks to accelerate the electrification of last-mile delivery vehicles – particularly those from Mitsubishi Fuso. The two companies announced a new global partnership this morning in which Ample will implement its EV battery swap technology on Mitsubishi Fuso trucks to sell to fleets around the world.

The Council of the European Union (EU) has adopted a new law surrounding EV charging infrastructure it’s calling a “milestone” in reducing carbon emissions throughout the European transport sector. Beginning in 2025, fast charging stations will need to be present every 60 km along the “trans-European transport (TEN-T) network.”

Just over a year after announcing a joint venture to establish EV battery manufacturing together in the US, Stellantis and Samsung SDI are doubling down with a second plant with an even higher annual production capacity.

Autonomous technology developer Aurora says it now has enough money to commercially launch its holistic system of self-driving products next year, thanks to a fresh round of public and private funding totaling $820 million. Following the news, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson posted a blog detailing why Wall Street believes in the company and how it intends to use that cash to deliver.

It’s been a busy week for Japanese eVTOL developer SkyDrive, who has announced its second pre-order agreement in two days, its latest coming from CT UAV in Vietnam. That puts pre-orders for the company’s new SKYDRIVE eVTOL up to 200 in Vietnam alone.

Japanese eVTOL developer SkyDrive has announced a pre-order for up to five aircraft from South Carolina-based aerial charter service Austin Aviation. The news comes as SkyDrive looks to enter the US market, make the Palmetto State its new home, and create an entire network in advanced air mobility (AAM).

Tier 1 automotive supplier Webasto Group is once again helping expedite EV adoption by introducing a new North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector across its entire portfolio of charging technologies. Many other OEMs have recently committed to the standard created by Tesla, but this is our first physical glimpse at a company’s new NACS charging connector.

After weeks of rumors swirling out of China, state-owned automaker SAIC Motor has confirmed a pending partnership with Audi pertaining to next-generation EV platforms. Here’s the latest.

One of the world’s largest automotive suppliers is investing big bucks to expand its footprint in North America – a market in which it’s already #1. Today, Tennessee’s Governor announced Magna International will invest nearly $800 million dollars to become the first supplier and Ford’s new BlueOval City.

Seven Super Bowl rings, five Super Bowl MVPs, and countless accolades in between – Tom Brady is considered by many football fans as the GOAT (greatest of all time), but has since retired… then came back to the NFL… then retired again. Brady may have hung up his football cleats, but he’s now taking that competitive edge into new ventures – the latest as a team owner of the UIM E1 World Championship electric boat racing league.

Vietnamese EV automaker VinFast will kick off a slew of firsts in North Carolina next week, as it will officially break ground on a previously announced production facility – its first in North America.

Over a year and a half after initially announcing a pivoting of its EV business strategy into commercial vehicles, Bollinger Motors has begun pilot production of its B4 chassis cab vehicles. We have our first glimpse at the “design validation” builds below, which will soon see public demonstrations and testing before reaching fleet customers.

After seven years of research and development, Slovenian shipyard EJET has achieved one of the first goals the company was founded upon – create an electric jet tender that outperforms its combustion-dependent competitors. Today, EJET has brought its 4X high performance electric jet tender to market as it puts the finishing touches on its next electric boat, which is even larger.

Yes, that’s a Jeep Gladiator in the image above, which is inherently not electric (quite the opposite actually). However, thanks to Magna International’s new EtelligentTerrain EV powertrain system, 4WD combustion vehicles like Jeeps will soon be able to tear up muddy terrain without any emissions. I recently got invited to Mt. Magna in Michigan, where I tested the new EV powertrain system, climbed the mountain, and sprayed mud EVERYWHERE. Watch me go below.

Nissan’s sales continue to climb in the US on the wings of its Ariya SUV – its second BEV model after the long-running LEAF – but the Japanese automaker is facing a major recall of over 1 million vehicles across three global markets.

Ford Motor Company says it is in the home stretch of massive upgrade to its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan – soon enabling the facility to triple F-150 Lightning production. This level of scaling paired with reduced raw materials costs is now enabling Ford to cut the price of all trims of the F-150 Lightning, delivering MSRPs closer to numbers originally promised when the electric pickup first debuted. But is the price cut purely supply side?