Canada-based industrial infrastructure platform company BMI is investing C$200 million ($146.2 million) to help develop Rock Tech‘s lithium converter facility in Red Rock, Ontario.

Under the proposed investment partnership structure, Rock Tech will retain full control and responsibility for project development, engineering and operations, as well as all key technical, commercial and strategic decision-making.

The initial investment will form part of a broader equity structure to be finalized as the project advances. Rock Tech, together with additional partners, is expected to contribute additional equity capital over time.

To support near-term development activities, including a feasibility study, the parties intend to initiate a funding program of up to C$30 million, which is expected to include contributions of both partners and government funding programs. Each dollar contributed by Rock Tech will be matched by the BMI Group and government funding.

The funding is aimed at advancing engineering, environmental, permitting and early site development activities in preparation for a final investment decision by the end of 2026.

The Red Rock Converter in Canada is based on Rock Tech’s project in Guben, Germany, which is fully engineered, fully permitted and designated as a strategic project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act. Rock Tech has invested over C$65 million in that project to date. The company plans to use the same design to reduce development timelines and execution risk and transfer proven technical know-how to Canada.

Rock Tech recently signed a partnership agreement with Siemens to provide industrial automation technology and a full digital twin for the Red Rock Converter. The real-time virtual replica of the plant will enable continuous performance optimization and predictive maintenance and reduce commissioning risk, Rock Tech said.

“As long-horizon developers, BMI Group sees its partnership with Rock Tech as one that will position Northwestern Ontario as a key hub in sovereign defense and battery materials supply chains. Our Red Rock platform provides industrial-ready infrastructure that compresses timelines from site selection to production,” said Paul Veldman, CEO BMI Group.

Source: Rock Tech Lithium

New Eagle has launched the OpenECU NX3, a vehicle control platform that combines Megawatt Charging System (MCS) and Combined Charging System (CCS) charging protocols with full vehicle supervisory control—powertrain, charging and auxiliary management—in a single ECU. New Eagle says it’s the first production-ready controller to integrate both charging standards alongside supervisory control in one unit.

The NX3 runs on New Eagle’s OpenECU platform and Raptor toolchain, supporting both model-based design and C-code development workflows from early development through production. It’s designed to meet ASIL-D functional safety requirements and ISO 21434 cybersecurity standards. New Eagle credits expanded hardware and software capabilities from its acquisition of Pi Innovo for enabling the platform.

The consolidation pitch is practical. Commercial EV programs running MCS—the high-power charging standard targeting megawatt-class DC charging for heavy-duty vehicles—alongside CCS and a separate vehicle supervisory controller typically require multiple ECUs, each carrying its own integration and validation overhead. More controllers means more wiring, more failure points and more development cycles.

“We’re eliminating multi-controller complexity and delivering a single, production-ready platform that accelerates deployment of next-generation EV systems,” said Kevin Alley, chief commercial officer at New Eagle.

New Eagle is also introducing the Charge Control Unit (CCU) and DLC-12 at ACT Expo 2026 as part of its broader controller portfolio for electrified vehicles.

Source: New Eagle

Caterpillar’s Battery Electric Power Unit (BEPU) is making its first public appearance at IFAT Munich, installed in a Doppstadt SWS 6 Spiral Shaft Separator. The prototype is the result of roughly a year of collaboration between Caterpillar, Cat dealer Zeppelin Power Systems and Doppstadt, whose SWS 6 processes scrap wood, yard waste, mixed construction and demolition materials and refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

The BEPU is a packaged unit that drops into the same footprint as a diesel engine—same mounting locations, same position in the machine—integrating the battery, motor, inverter, onboard charging, cooling and controls in a single assembly. The design intent is to let OEMs offer an electrified variant without building a new platform: one chassis, one core architecture, switchable powertrain.

For off-highway equipment manufacturers, that’s where electrification usually stalls. Separate electric and diesel platforms mean separate engineering, parts inventories and service procedures. A drop-in power unit that fits an existing installation envelope removes that split. The Doppstadt SWS 6 runs an intermittent duty cycle and is targeted at indoor, urban and regulated environments—applications where diesel exhaust and noise restrictions make the battery case easier to justify.

“The Cat BEPU has enabled the rapid development of this option alongside their diesel variant, with minimal engineering effort,” said Andy Curtis, customer solutions director at Caterpillar Industrial Power Systems Division. “Its intermittent duty cycle, suitability for indoor use, and access to low-power grid energy make the BEPU an ideal fit, with an on-board battery buffering simplifying energy management for end users.”

Source: Caterpillar

Way back in 2021, we ran a feature article on a company called Rocsys, which makes an automated EV charging system. The company originally saw automated vehicles as its main market, but it found customers in EV fleets that, it turns out, have several reasons for wishing to have their EVs charged automatically, without driver intervention.

Now the robotaxi market is starting to develop, and Rocsys has unveiled a new hands-free charging solution specifically designed for robotaxi fleets.

“Manual charging is emerging as a critical barrier to operational continuity,” the company tells us. “Repeated thousands of times each day, [manual] charging processes introduce cost, operational friction and safety risks, becoming a structural constraint on fleet growth and profitability.”

Rocsys has trained the new Rocsys M1 system on six years of data gleaned from using its existing system in active port operations and other high-duty environments. The M1 is currently in pilot deployment, and the company aims to begin a large-scale rollout in 2027.

The M1’s modular, multi-bay architecture allows a single system to seamlessly serve multiple vehicles across up to 10 bays. Flexible overhead mounting options, including ground- and roof-mounted configurations, are designed to integrate with virtually any depot layout, and to allow activities such as cleaning and inspection to take place during charging.

The system combines computer vision with motion intelligence, and is designed to adapt to variations in lighting, weather and vehicle positioning, achieving consistent performance. Rocsys says it achieves a 99.9%+ plug-in success rate in live environments.

Rocsys M1 is interoperable with different EVs, chargers and connector types. An overhead rail-mounted design with a flexible, long-reach robotic arm is designed to enable reliable connection and disconnection across mixed fleets, regardless of charging inlet positions.

The M1 is part of the Rocsys Platform, which integrates hardware, software and services to support autonomous fleet operations. The platform includes the Rocsys Portal for operational visibility, APIs for integration with customer IT systems, and remote monitoring with expert field support.

Rocsys has also announced a $13-million Series A funding extension led by Capricorn Partners, bringing total funding raised to date to $56M.

“Without hands-free operations, autonomy stops at the depot,” said Crijn Bouman, CEO and co-founder of Rocsys. “Based on a platform designed to extend beyond charging to automated interior cleaning and inspection, the Rocsys M1 introduces smart charging infrastructure for continuous, real-world use at scale. It enables operators to run mixed fleets autonomously, reliably and without interruption. This is the missing link for robotaxi operators to move from pilots to global deployment.”

Source: Rocsys

Sodium-ion batteries offer a number of advantages over lithium-ion cells. Sodium is 1,000 times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than lithium, and is far cheaper to obtain. Lithium-ion cells tend to achieve greater energy density, so sodium is considered less appropriate for EVs than for applications in which cost matters more than maximum energy density, such as grid-scale energy storage.

Sodium-ion tech has been moving from pilots into commercial production over the past year or two, and now Chinese battery behemoth CATL has announced what appears to be the largest commercial deployment of Na-ion batteries to date—a deal with energy storage integrator HyperStrong to provide 60 GWh of sodium-ion batteries over three years.

CATL says the deal, which includes R&D as well as project implementation, demonstrates that the company has “overcome the challenges of the entire sodium-ion battery mass production chain,” specifically manufacturing challenges concerning energy density, foaming and moisture control during production.

How much battery is 60 GWh? A lot—roughly equivalent to half of the total energy storage battery volume CATL shipped in 2025.

CATL’s energy storage sodium-ion cell is a 300+ Ah large-format product with specific energy of about 160 Wh/kg, a system energy conversion efficiency of 97%, and a cycle life exceeding 15,000 cycles at 80% capacity retention. It operates across a temperature range of -40° C to 70° C—significantly wider than that of most lithium-ion cells.

CATL designed its sodium-ion cells with the same dimensions as its lithium-ion products, making them compatible with existing supply chains and installation infrastructure. This should greatly installation costs and shorten deployment timelines.

CATL is also beginning to incorporate sodium-ion cells into EVs. In February, Changan Automobile and CATL unveiled the Nevo A06 (aka Qiyuan A06), a passenger EV equipped with a 45 kWh CATL Naxtra sodium-ion battery pack that boasts 175 Wh/kg specific energy and 400 km of range (on the Chinese CLTC testing cycle).

Other battery-makers are getting salty too. BYD, has developed a third-generation sodium-ion platform that it says achieves over 10,000 cycles.

Source: Electrek

Canada-based NEO Performance Materials has commissioned a small-scale heavy rare earth element (HREE) production line at its Silmet facility in Estonia.

The solvent extraction line is operating at nameplate capacity and the company is now focusing on delivering stable product purity before transitioning to routine production capacity.

The facility has produced its first separated terbium and dysprosium process solutions, which are precursor products for metal making, from mixed rare earth carbonate feedstock. The processing was completed entirely in Europe. This validates the technical robustness and operational reliability of the Silmet solvent extraction line under continuous operating conditions, a step towards establishing advanced heavy rare earth separation capability in Europe, NEO noted.

Dysprosium and terbium are essential inputs for high-performance sintered rare earth permanent magnets used in robotics, EV traction motors, wind turbines and industrial automation applications.

Developing separation capability at Silmet is part of NEO’s strategy to develop a secure, Europe-based supply chain to support its growing magnet manufacturing operations and supply chain diversification.

NEO’s permanent magnet facility in Estonia is advancing through customer qualification and is expected to ramp up commercial production later this year.

“The successful launch of our heavy rare earth separation in Estonia represents a critical step in NEO’s strategy to build the most vertically integrated rare earth magnetics value chain in Europe,” said Rahim Suleman, President and CEO of NEO.

“Our rare earth value chain now spans both light and heavy rare earth processing, enabling the separation and finishing of select elements into value-added, engineered end-use applications. This achievement enables NEO to provide secure, traceable, and high-quality heavy rare earth materials to our European permanent magnet facility, supporting our customers’ most demanding applications,” Suleman added.

Source: NEO Performance Materials

ITECH has released the IT8100A/E Series DC electronic loads, a high-power test platform targeting EV charging station validation, power battery testing, fuel cell testing and AI power supply evaluation. The series scales from single units to parallel systems reaching 1.8 MW.

Power density is 7.2 kW per 3U rack unit, scaling to 86.4 kW in a 37U cabinet. The dynamic slew rate is 150 A/μs, designed to reproduce rapid current transients in switching power supplies, charging systems and fuel cells. A 1.5× short-term over-power capability handles peak load conditions without requiring an oversized test configuration. A dedicated high-current variant — 60 V / 2400 A / 6 kW — targets next-generation AI GPU and computing power supply testing where supply voltages are low and currents are high.

The series spans four voltage levels: 60 V, 150 V, 600 V and 1200 V. The 1200 V ceiling covers testing for 800 V EV charging architectures, where DC link voltages at the load can exceed standard 400 V infrastructure levels. Three product families—IT8100A Series, IT8100E Series and the dedicated high-current load—support flexible parallel configurations from benchtop scale to MW-class platforms.

The IT8100A/E Series is available now.

Source: ITECH

6K Energy and CRG Defense have entered a seven-year agreement to establish a domestic supply chain for cathode active materials (CAM) powering defense battery systems. Under the deal, CRG Defense will source single crystal NMC811 from 6K Energy’s North Andover, Massachusetts facility, with additional capacity coming online in late 2026.

When 6K Energy’s PlusCAM™ facility in Jackson, Tennessee comes online in early 2028, it will become the primary production source. The Jackson facility uses 6K Energy’s proprietary UniMelt platform—a microwave plasma-based process for manufacturing advanced materials—to produce NMC811 and other high-nickel cathode chemistries. The agreement includes a Quarterly Purchase Plan to maintain consistent supply for CRG Defense’s programs.

The timing is tied directly to federal mandates. The FCC’s December 2025 ban on foreign-produced UAS critical components and Section 842 of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act—which prohibits the Department of Defense from procuring batteries from foreign entities of concern—have created urgent demand for compliant domestic supply chains. CRG Defense manufactures battery cells and packs at U.S. facilities for drone platforms and other defense applications.

“Rebuilding a resilient U.S. battery supply chain requires both early commitment and long-term partnerships,” said Saurabh Ullal, President of 6K Energy. “Our PlusCAM facility is designed to deliver sustainable, battery-cathode material at scale for the most demanding defense applications.” Patrick Hood, CEO of CRG Defense, said the deal means drone platforms “will now be powered by technology that is truly American made from the chemistry up.”

Source: 6K Energy

Morrow Batteries has started delivering lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells to Finnish technology company Proventia, as Morrow ramps up production for industrial customers at its battery cell factory in Arendal, Norway.

Morrow is making the deliveries under a long-term agreement to supply prismatic LFP cells for Proventia’s battery modules and packs used in off-highway and industrial applications. The agreement runs through 2031 and allows for the future inclusion of additional cell chemistries as they become commercially available.

Proventia expects to begin its first customer deliveries of batteries using Morrow’s cells in the first half of this year. Morrow will continue to increase its production capacity In the coming months, and further stabilize and optimize its manufacturing processes.

The collaboration with Proventia combines cell supply with close technical cooperation, including optimization at module and pack level, validation work, and a shared focus on performance and reliability in demanding operating environments, Morrow said.

“This is an important milestone for Morrow. At the same time, the situation remains challenging, and there are no shortcuts to building stable and competitive battery production. It takes time to scale up production, improve processes, and consistently deliver the quality our customers expect. In Arendal, we are now producing cells that are being put into use by customers with high requirements for quality, performance and reliability of supply,” said Jon Fold von Bülow, Acting CEO of Morrow.

“Access to battery cells produced in Europe is becoming increasingly important for our customers, both from a supply security perspective and for future competitiveness,” added Jari Granath, Product Manager of Proventia. “Working with Morrow gives us a strong technology partner with the flexibility and industrial mindset needed to support demanding customer projects.”

Source: Proventia

Retail giant Walmart already offers EV charging at many of its stores, but it’s in the process of rolling out its own branded charging network, and it’s moving quickly. The latest deployment to be announced: ABB e-mobility is installing A400 All-in-One DC fast chargers at seven Walmart locations in the metropolitan Phoenix area.

Nine Walmart locations with a total of 38 ABB e-mobility A400 chargers are slated to come online in the coming months.

There are over 5,200 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores across the US, and the company estimates that 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart location. Walmart’s market research indicates that offering EV charging will entice customers to visit its stores more often, and spend more time in the store on each visit. Walmart customers can start charging sessions directly through the Walmart app.

“As part of Walmart’s commitment to helping customers save money and live better, we’re excited to bring a retail-integrated EV charging experience to the communities we serve,” said Adam Happel, GM Walmart EV Charging. “We’re building a convenient and reliable network that gives our customers the ability to charge their EVs quickly and affordably without having to change their daily shopping routines.”

The ABB e-mobility A400 All-in-One chargers feature dual CCS and NACS connectors, and can each deliver up to 400 kilowatts of power—200 kW to two vehicles at once or the full 400 kW to a single car. The A400 includes a 32-inch configurable display for brand integration, promotions and advertising, and features a modular architecture designed to facilitate future expansion and/or upgrades. ABB’s ReliaGear switchboard will enable Walmart to add energy resources such as battery energy storage solutions.

“Launching in the Phoenix metro area is the first step in what will become the most ambitious retail charging rollout in the United States,” said Brandt Hastings, President North America, ABB e-mobility.

Source: ABB e-mobility