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Rising sales of electric trucks lead to dip in diesel use in China

In China, the rise in electric truck sales have led to a slump in diesel use, reported Reuters. Electric and LNG-fuelled trucks comprise a fourth of all new truck sales in the first half of the year. Diesel consumption will most likely fall by 6.3% in 2025, according to a consultancy.

VinFast to expand to 27 Indian cities, signs deal with BatX Energies for battery recycling

VinFast, the Vietnamese electric car manufacturer, is expanding operations in India by signing pacts with 13 auto dealers across 27 cities. This can potentially lead to opening 35 VinFast showrooms, reported TOI. Parallely, VinFast has also entered into an agreement with Indian battery recycler BatX Energies. Through this agreement, BatX will handle recycling and repurposing of batteries for VinFast in India, as well material recovery and after-sales operations, reported ET

Tesla opens first Indian showroom in Mumbai

Elon Musk-owned electric vehicle giant Tesla is finally entering the Indian market after years of talks and negotiations. On July 15, the American manufacturer will open its first showroom at Mumbai’s Jio World Drive at the Bandra Kurla Complex, reported Exchange4Media. The showroom will function as an experience showroom, as well as an outlet for service, sales and spares. Interestingly, Tesla is not manufacturing cars in India, but importing from the USA and China under a temporary tax concession window.

DRX cathode materials offer path to less pricey, cobalt-free cathodes for batteries

Researchers at McGill University have devised a novel way of manufacturing cathodes that don’t require expensive metals like cobalt and nickel, which are also ecologically destructive to source, reported Interesting Engineering. The researchers synthesised DRX cathode materials, which were earlier considered unstable, through a two-step molten salt synthesis, and produced a usable battery-grade cathode. During testing, the DRX materials-fitted batteries retained 85% of their capacity after 100 charge-discharge cycles — more than twice the durability of previously synthesised DRX particles.

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