EVinFocus

Happy New Year from EV inFocus to you all. However, if you're committed to the transition to a battery-electric land mobility future, we can forgive you for not feeling especially positive as we enter 2026. Everywhere we look in the western hemisphere, the news appears to be bad. In the US, the Trump administration's far-right assault on efforts to tackle the climate emergency more generally, and on BEVs in particular, are having a chilling effect on sentiment.

It initially seems a no-brainer that the ability to charge at home using domestic power tariffs that are cheaper — as well as a far more convenient user experience — than public charging should be a major driver in switching to all-electric.

A production line rethought from first principles churning out passenger cars with radically lower production costs every five seconds. Integrated cell production from lithium refining through cathode production to assembly, with the eventual elimination of the anode.

“We are on track to do our first stope by the end of the quarter.” So said Antonino Ottaviano, CEO of Australian miner Liontown Resources, in January of his firm’s plans to move to underground exploitation of its Kathleen Valley lithium deposit. But the firm has now confirmed to EV inFocus that first stoping will not be until the April-June quarter. The firm denies that the project is delayed.

German OEM Volkswagen remains committed to selling down ownership in its Powerco EV battery subsidiary. But negative net cash flow that threatened the €2bn ($2.2bn) mark last year may curtail appetite for now. “The earnings performance of our battery business was characterised by the ongoing ramp-up of production capacities, particularly in Salzgitter and Valencia,” says VW CEO Oliver Blume.

Two nascent lithium production schemes have hit material benchmarks, one in the US and one in the UK. While both remain in the early stages, the projects could provide the raw materials for reshored/friend-shored lithium-ion EV battery supply chains to be developed.

Battery and Components Do cash-settled futures contracts suffer from inherent weakness? David Greely, chief economist at challenger commodity exchange Abaxx certainly thinks so. His firm sets out what sees as these flaws in a white paper “Back to the Futures”.

Researchers from the UK, France, and China have revealed findings about a new process for sustainable lithium extraction, which they say could help to solve ESG issues around existing production of the key battery metal. Current ways of getting lithium are bad for the environment and more sustainable approaches are hard to perform on a large scale, the group warns.

Chile’s SQM anticipates stable lithium prices for the remainder of the year but is “optimistic about a positive trend starting in 2026”, according to CEO Ricardo Ramos. While it expects 2025 demand to grow by 17pc, largely corresponding increases in supply will prevent prices from moving higher.

South Korea’s LG Chem will begin mass production of precursor-free cathode materials in the first half of this year. The materials will be produced by directly calcinating custom-designed metals without precursors, which the firm says will improve power performance at low temperatures and shorten development time. Eliminating the need to expand precursor production capabilities also promises reductions in wastewater and carbon footprints. Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.