Lithium-ion batteries

Among the products are lithium-ion batteries, car exhausts and oil for car engines

Ford is halting work on a major battery plant in the northern U.S. state of Michigan, the automaker has said, just seven months after launching the project with a Chinese partner.

The stoppage, which a Ford a representative confirmed to AFP, comes as the company faces a major strike along with both of the other "Big Three" U.S. automakers, Stellantis and General Motors.

Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure "white gold" in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.

Ford has announced an investment of $1.3 billion to retool its Canadian assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario to make electric vehicles and batteries for the North American market.    

“We’re starting to approach this new frontier of battery research that could do so much more than li-ion batteries can”

Nissan is working with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on a new type of battery for electric vehicles that promise to charge quicker and be lighter yet safe, the Japanese automaker said on April 8.

The all-solid-state battery will replace the lithium-ion battery now in use for a 2028 product launch and a pilot plant launch in 2024, according to Nissan.

Several companies have built lithium-ion batteries that can fully charge in a matter of minutes. Their next goal: getting these into electric vehicles

The advantages of this approach are the scalability and that it offers longer-term energy storage than traditional batteries

The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery has plugged into an Australian state grid, an official said on Dec. 1, easily delivering on Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk’s 100-day guarantee.