Author: James Carter

South Korean battery manufacturer SK On said on Thursday it will dissolve its U.S. joint venture with Ford Motor Company, marking a significant realignment of one of the country’s largest EV battery partnerships. The move comes as weakening electric-vehicle demand and the expiration of federal subsidies prompt Korean suppliers to reassess their U.S. strategies and accelerate expansion into the energy storage systems (ESS) sector. Under the restructuring, a Ford subsidiary will assume full ownership of the two joint battery plants in Kentucky, while SK On will take complete control of the Tennessee facility. “The production start schedule for the Tennessee…

Volkswagen Group is reportedly planning a further “significantly lower” budget for its battery subsidiary, PowerCo SE, in the automaker’s current five-year planning round. The reduction is largely attributed to a slower-than-anticipated growth in electric vehicle (EV) uptake across Europe and North America, according to a report by German business newspaper Handelsblatt, citing internal company sources. The revised five-year plan for PowerCo is now expected to feature only a mid-single-digit billion-euro figure for investment. This marks the third publicly noted reduction from the initial allocation of €15 billion, following previous cuts to €12 billion and then €10 billion. Group Chief Financial…

The average price of lithium-ion battery packs globally fell by 8% in 2025 to a record low of $108 per kilowatt-hour ($108/kWh), according to the annual price survey by BloombergNEF (BNEF). However, the pace of cost reduction is expected to slow significantly in the coming year due to persistent raw material challenges and rising international trade tariffs. BNEF projects the average battery pack price will decline by only 3% in 2026, reaching $105/kWh. This follows a steeper drop in 2025 from the 2024 average of $115/kWh, which was driven by factors including an oversupply of manufacturing capacity in China and…

Israeli battery startup StoreDot announced a definitive agreement to go public on the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange through a merger with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Andretti Acquisition Corp. II. The transaction values StoreDot at an $800 million pre-money equity value, with the combined entity—which will be renamed XFC Battery—projected to have an enterprise value of approximately $882 million. The merger is expected to secure approximately $222 million in net cash proceeds to accelerate the market introduction and scale-up of StoreDot’s XFC battery cells. See also: StoreDot Begins Commercial Shipments of Extreme Fast Charging 4695 EV Cells StoreDot defines…