Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 8

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
Umicore confirmed in October that it is proceeding with the construction of a 35-GWh equivalent battery-materials production plant in Loyalist, Ontario,
to serve the North American market for EV batteries.
ONE's Aries LFP batteries for Class 3-6 commercial trucks deliver 5,000 cycles and
a single-charge range of 150 miles (241 km).
companies, which he called " junior miners, "
it was just impossible that they will all
be able to provide the proper purity.
Ford senior manager of value chain and
quality, Rakesh Nahta, said that like other
aspects of the supply chain, mining requires
the efforts and investments of
companies like his, government and other
suppliers such as cathode makers. He
mentioned that the level of investment
would be in the billions of dollars. " You
cannot expect just one supply chain [participant]
to do this. This has to be managed
by all parties. "
Kevin Rhodes, vice president of batteries
and advanced fuels at Caterpillar, said
8 December 2023
Caterpillar's battery-electric machine prototypes, including the
301.9 mini excavator, are powered by Cat battery prototypes and
include an onboard AC charger. It also plans to offer an offboard
DC fast-charging option.
having North American and local suppliers
online had the additional benefit
of making policy work easier. " Local
suppliers are a big deal in helping us
influence local and regional policy interactions, "
he said.
Rhodes also stressed the importance
of closing the loop with recycling and
repurposing. " Second life has to be considered
very strongly, " he said. " How we
localize our own production, immediately
get that material back and economically
turn it into black mass, extract
lithium, reprocess it and then put
that back as an active material in batteries
is really important, as is reducing
the costs associated with that. "
Our Next Energy's Ijaz laid out the
three ways he thinks the Inflation
Reduction Act of 2022 has helped the
supply chain. " First, it gave us companies
an advantage in sourcing U.S. suppliers,
and emerging U.S. suppliers fit
in a category every U.S. OEM wants us
in the supply chain, " he said. " But no
one wants to take the risk on emerging
a supply chain. So there has to be
some incentive. "
Also on the panel was Hideki Ozawa,
vice president of lithium hydroxide for
Albermarle Energy Storage.
Chris Clonts
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: UMICORE; CATERPILLAR; OUR NEXT ENERGY

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023