EV Canada Newsletter: World leading battery facility coming to Ontario.

Weekly Recap Issue #26 - Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

Hello, thank you for joining me and taking the time to read the EV Canada Newsletter. If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook!

Now on to latest in EV news:

Canada

Government of Canada and Umicore to bring world-leading facility to Ontario.

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, was joined today by members of his cabinet which included the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, and Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Vic Fedeli, to announce and sign a memorandum of understand with Umicore, who plans to invest $1.5 billion to establish a world leading net-zero facility in Loyalist Township, Ontario, which will create 1,000 jobs during construction and hundreds of permanent positions.

“Today’s announcement is about creating jobs, cutting pollution, and building a stronger, cleaner economy for Canadians. Umicore’s intention to establish its new facility in Loyalist Township is another major step forward as we make Canada a global leader in producing electric vehicles – from minerals to manufacturing. With over 1,000 good jobs to build the plant, and hundreds of permanent positions once it is up and running, this new facility will play an important role in Canada’s clean automotive sector well into the future.”

The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Umiwho? Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Umicore is a materials technology company with the goal of reducing harmful emissions, power the vehicles and technologies of the future, and give new life to used metals through recycling. Its new facility in Loyalist Township, Ontario, will be the company’s largest in Canada.

“Canada and the province of Ontario have all it takes for Umicore to establish a full-fledged, sustainable supply chain for battery materials, all the way from the mine right to the end-market of electric vehicles. Once the key customer contracts are in place, this expansion in North America would complete our global rollout of regional supply chains for our automotive and battery cell customers to now three continents. Moreover, we are most grateful to the Canadian and Ontario governments for their support and for their readiness to co-fund this planned project. The facility will help Canada and Umicore in their shared objective of achieving a carbon-neutral battery supply chain.” - Mathias Miedreich, CEO of Umicore

By 2030, Umicore’s new facility will produce enough cathode active materials – essential components in batteries – to supply one million EVs annually. The company plans to supply EV manufacturers and battery producers in Canada and the United States. Umicore hopes to play an important role in our domestic electric vehicle supply chain and a strengthened North American batteries ecosystem. Umicore’s new facility will help ensure Canada’s automotive sector remains strong and thrives well into the future.

As noted in the news release:

“As we build a clean economy, the Government of Canada will continue to ensure the Canadian automotive industry and its workers remain competitive. Through the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan that was launched this spring and Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy that is in development now, we will deliver clean air, good middle-class jobs, and a strong economy for Canadians now and into the future.”

Hyundai showcases 2 of their concepts that demonstrate the path forward of the high-performance N brand.

At an event at Hyundai's Namyang R&D center outside of Seoul, South Korea, the automaker showcased two new EV concepts under Hyundai's high-performance N brand. Prioritizing the original 3-pillars that define the N Brand as they continue towards an electrified future: corner rascal (tight, perfectly balanced cornering machine), racetrack capability (all N models are built to perform directly on the track) and everyday sportscar (for everyone and every need, not just track days and highways).

I really enjoyed this video which showcases the Hyundai N brand, their goals within an electrified future and the all-around commitment to performance EVs.

Introducing, the fully electric RN22e

The first concept that is shown in the video is the RN22e which is based on the upcoming IONIQ 6, but shows a more aggressive body design and powertrain that makes it a highly capable performance EV. Hyundai claims the RN22e, despite its race car look and serious performance, is a "glimpse of upcoming EV N." The video also indicates that there will be an Ioniq 5 N announced in 2023.

The RN22e prioritizes handling capability with a torque-vectoring system that utilizes two clutches. Drivers the ability to select the amount of torque going to the front and rear wheels through different drive modes.

Hyundai states that the RN22e concept has dual electric motors that make a combined 577 horsepower and 546 pound-feet of torque. These figures match the Kia EV6 GT. The RN22e comes with a 77.4-kWh battery pack that can go from 10 percent to 80 percent charged in roughly 18 minutes. 

Next up: The Hydrogen powered N Vision 74

The wedge-shape design of the N Vision 74, pays homage to the Hyundai Pony Coupe concept from 1974.

Compared to the RN22e, the N Vision 74 is powered by hydrogen. It features two electric motors, a 4.2-kg compressed hydrogen tank, and a 62.4-kWh battery pack. Output is rated at 671 hp and 545 lb-ft of torque. The concept has an estimated range of 372 miles, though finding hydrogen in the real world is nearly impossible. 

Hyundai states that these two vehicles are "rolling labs" and are being used as inspiration for future models. We won't have to wait long to see what things make it to a production vehicles, as Hyundai confirmed that the brand's first N-badged vehicle will be the IONIQ 5 and should arrive in 2023. 

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EV Around the World 🌏

Redwood Materials and Volkswagen Group of America collaborate on EV battery recycling.

Redwood Materials, started by none other than Tesla founder Jeffrey Brian (JB) Straubel currently recycles more than 60,000 EV batteries each year, in Carson City, Nevada. The process looks something like this:

  • Batteries get sent to Redwood and are typically from end-of-life consumer electronics, battery production scrap & EV batteries.

  • Redwood extracts raw materials such as cobalt, copper, nickel & lithium.

  • Redwood then refines and remanufactures them into battery components.

  • Lastly, Redwood then delivers the remanufactured components to domestic battery cell manufacturers.

“Redwood and Volkswagen Group of America share a vision to create a domestic, circular supply chain for batteries that will help improve the environmental footprint of lithium-ion batteries, decrease cost and, in turn, increase access and adoption of electric vehicles.” said JB Straubel, Co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials.

Volkswagen Group of America and Redwood Materials will collaborate to create a supply chain to recycle Volkswagen and Audi electric vehicle batteries in the United States,. This will in turn, create accessible and sustainable electric mobility in the US.

Volkswagen will now have access to a domestic life cycle for their EV batteries which will be a competitive advantage in the North American EV industry. Together, Volkswagen and Redwood Materials are main stake holders in a large closed-loop supply chain for EV batteries in North America.

“The electric transformation means making commitments in many areas throughout our business,” said Daniel Weissland, President, Audi of America. “In addition to our robust line up of fully electric Audi e-tron models available now, having like-minded partners like Redwood Materials in place to further reduce environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of every electric vehicle is critical.”

Volkswagen Group of America has a goal of having 55% of its U.S. sales to be fully-electric by 2030. Volkswagen Group of America is heavily investing in transforming the North American region to feature domestic EV engineering and R&D capabilities, EV assembly and component production, and plans for a dedicated battery cell production.

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