Follow PSR’s ongoing global coverage of eMobility across a wide range of segments, including electric cars, commercial vehicles, electric motorbikes and e-buses.
Hydrogen power continues to be a hot topic as an alternative power source, as you’ll see when you read the March 2023 issue of the Alternative Power Report from Power Systems Research. Development of the charging infrastructure is a hot topic, too, as we see with the article on Subway tying its sandwich shops in with charging stations. PSR
A 240-ton mining haul truck is being fitted with a 1.4 megawatt-hour (MWh) prototype battery system that global green energy company Fortescue has developed with equipment maker Liebherr.
UK-based engineering company WAE Technologies, (acquired by Fortescue in March 2022), completed and delivered the battery system to Fortescue’s workshop in Perth, Australia. The battery will be assembled and installed in the mining haul truck before it’s transported to the Pilbara in Western Australia for onsite testing this year.
The battery system marks several firsts for an electric mining haul truck battery: In addition to having energy storage of 1.4 MWh, it also has the ability to fast-charge in 30 minutes, and it can regenerate power as it drives downhill.
PSR Analysis: This is a good view of the potential for all mining trucks, but it should be noted that a lot of these huge mining trucks are diesel-electric to start with, (a diesel generator powering electric drives), so this is a matter of replacing the generator with the battery pack. They also can recharge on the way down, so the battery size can be relatively smaller. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Leadat Power Systems Research
The global motorcycle market is growing at a healthy CAGR of 5.48%, according to Power Systems Research. Revenue for 2021 was approximately $107.1 Billion and projected to be $146.6 Billion by 2030.
Growth during this period is primarily due to increasing demand from China, India, and ASEAN countries. In addition, growth in traditional markets such as Europe and North America is also anticipated.
The growth of drivers for the Motorcycle industry come from the requirement for cost-effective private transportation among people around the world.
Indonesia plans to introduce a subsidy program to encourage the purchase of EVs starting in 2023. The goal is to increase the number of EV users to 2.5 million by 2025 and reduce air pollution. The EV purchase subsidy program will be added to the list of EV policies introduced by President Joko Widodo over the past year.
Transportation Minister Boudi Karya Sumadi said the government is also considering subsidies for retrofitting internal combustion engine vehicles, but the government is carefully considering this plan because it would bring major changes to the labor-intensive auto industry. The Ministry of Transport plans to approach existing Indonesian automakers, such as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and China’s BYD, to create an EV ecosystem for Borneo’s new capital city, he said.
The electric vehicle market in India is mostly dominated by lithium-ion battery technology, which powers two-, three- and four-wheeler vehicles. But this situation comes with its own set of challenges.
For instance, each battery chemistry has a different energy density, peak power output and charging time. Hence, the industry is working on alternative green solutions, and the government of India is aggressively working on hydrogen as a fuel option.
In terms of refueling time, hydrogen has a definitive advantage over batteries. It takes just a couple of minutes for a hydrogen vehicle to be refueled, irrespective of size, compared to the hours it takes to recharge an electric vehicle.
The union cabinet approved US$ 2.4 trillion (Rs 19,744 cr) for National Green Hydrogen Mission. The mission has four components aimed at enhancing domestic production of green hydrogen and promoting the manufacturing of electrolysers — a key constituent for making green hydrogen. The initial target is to produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen annually.
Along with the government, other industry stakeholders are taking significant steps to develop hydrogen fuel. Ashok Leyland (one of the largest CV makers) is working with Reliance industries on the development and supply chain of hydrogen-powered engines.
Ashok Leyland plans to install fuel-cell engines in an existing fleet of 45,000 trucks that RIL has hired to transport refined products and other marketing goods as a first stage in the strategy. Also, Adani (diversified business portfolio) and TotalEnergies (French energy and petroleum company) have entered into a partnership to jointly create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem.
The potential of the country towards the production of hydrogen is attractive to many companies. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is looking to source green hydrogen from India as well as Australia and Latin America.
“India is an amazing location with huge potential for the production of (green) hydrogen at a very exciting cost,” says Glenn Llewellyn, VP Zero-Emission Aircraft at Airbus.
In the 16th edition of the motor show Auto Expo Toyota, MG motors, Tata motors, Hyundai, and VECV, showcased their hydrogen-powered vehicles across several segments. It’s evident that OEMs are seriously exploring the option of Hydrogen powered vehicles. PSR
Aditya Kondejkar is Research Analyst – South Asia Operationsfor Power Systems Research
The development trend for the new energy vehicle (EVs) market remained positive through 2022. In November, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 598,000 units, with a year-on-year growth of 58.2%. From January to November, the domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 5.03 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 100.1%.
As for December, the Passenger Transport Federation believes that the subsidy for new energy vehicles will decline by 12,600 RMB this year, which is much more than the decline of 5000 RMB in the previous two years. In addition, some vehicle enterprises have announced a price increase for next year, which may promote strong pre-buying of new energy vehicles at the end of the year and boost sales.
This year, the new energy vehicle market is expected to achieve the annual sales of 6.5 million vehicles.
Panasonic Energy said it has agreed to purchase cathode active materials and copper foil for lithium-ion batteries from Redwood Materials. The recycled cathode active materials will be used to manufacture batteries in the company’s new $4 billion factory located in De Soto, Kansas, starting in 2025, and the recycled copper foil will be used to make batteries at Panasonic’s facility in Sparks, Nevada, starting in 2024.
“Recycling and a localizing supply chain are both essential to make the best use of limited natural resources,” said Kazuo Tadanobu, President and CEO of Panasonic Energy, in a press release.
This may amount to 50% of the cost of the battery and add around 900 new workers to Redwood Materials workforce once in full scale production
The City of São Paulo has announced a partnership with Enel, an energy supplier, for its bus fleet electrification project to be completed by 2024. Under the agreement, the city will get funding for the project of R $ 8 billion. The plan calls for the replacement of the fleet of combustion buses with non-polluting models.
According to the city, Enel is one of the main stakeholders in the project and should assist companies in logistics, infrastructure and the feasibility of electric vehicles based on their experience in Latin America.
JCB has unveiled a mobile hydrogen refueler which it says will allow on-site refueling of hydrogen powered machines in the same way that fuel bowsers are used for diesel powered equipment.
The mobile hydrogen refueller is designed to provide an easy way to refuel machines, the vast majority of which have fuel delivered to them while working on site, said the company. JCB said customers are already used to a transportable fuel system.
The de-carbonization of the transport industry is heavily dependent on the scaling up of electric vehicle production rapidly and massively, and this rests on scaling up battery mineral mining and refining. This means Lithium.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence counts 40 lithium mines that have been in operation and producing lithium in 2022. But, by 2050, the company sees a need for 234 more lithium mines if there’s no battery recycling underway (which, of course, is completely unrealistic but is a place to start from for such an analysis).
“The long term path for lithium is set, yet the supply chain scaling challenge has just begun,” said Simon Moores, chief executive of Benchmark. “What this data shows is that we are at just the beginning of a generational challenge, not one that’s going to be solved in the 2020s.”
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