Rivian and Redwood Close the Loop on Battery Lifecycles
Rivian and Redwood Materials have expanded their strategic collaboration into a closed-loop lifecycle partnership covering manufacturing scrap recycling, retired pack repurposing and on-site stationary energy storage. Under the broadened agreement, Redwood will collect decommissioned battery packs from Rivian’s nationwide service network. Each pack will either be reconditioned for stationary energy storage systems or processed for hydrometallurgical materials recovery, alongside production scrap generated at Rivian’s assembly plant in Normal, Illinois.
The agreement builds on an initiative announced in April 2026 that deploys a 10 megawatt-hour second-life stationary storage installation at the Normal manufacturing facility. Redwood’s processing infrastructure recovers critical minerals, including lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper, at rates exceeding 95 percent, feeding domestic precursor and cathode active material supply chains. Repurposed packs, meanwhile, serve behind-the-meter peak shaving and grid stabilization functions.
Honda Takes Swappable Batteries to the U.S. Market
American Honda Motor Co. received the Sustainability & Circular Economy Excellence Award for its Honda Mobile Power Pack e: swappable battery platform at The Battery Show 2026 in Detroit. The zero-emission portable power architecture has officially entered the U.S. market, targeting business-to-business integration across external OEM mobility platforms and distributed mobile energy systems.
The standardized swappable format is engineered to eliminate vehicle downtime, bypass prolonged depot charging cycles and lower upfront pack acquisition costs for commercial equipment. The technology forms part of Honda’s broader resource circularity and decarbonization roadmap, which couples product electrification across powersports and power equipment lines with long-term virtual power purchase agreements covering more than 80 percent of the automaker’s North American electricity demand.
Gelion Tests Sulfur Cathodes With a Top-Five Automaker
Battery materials developer Gelion has signed a jointly funded proof-of-concept agreement with a top-five global automaker to evaluate its nano-encapsulated sulfur cathode technology for electric vehicle applications. The pilot is the first co-funded OEM testing program to evaluate a cell chemistry that pairs Gelion’s sulfur-based cathode material with standard graphite anodes, with the automaker providing engineering resources and automotive battery validation facilities.
Engineered as a drop-in cathode replacement, the platform is compatible with legacy lithium-ion cell manufacturing infrastructure and commercial liquid electrolytes. It relies on abundant sulfur to ease supply chain bottlenecks while supporting broad operating temperature ranges. The initiative follows a testing agreement with a top-15 OEM and expands on Gelion’s ongoing solid-state cell research with Nissan in the United Kingdom.
UNICO Unveils a 330kW Bidirectional Inverter
UNICO unveiled a 330kW bidirectional grid-tie inverter at The Battery Show 2026, held October 12–15 in Detroit. The unit is targeted at data center infrastructure, commercial and industrial installations, and energy storage systems. The domestic power conversion product achieves 98.5 percent efficiency and an energy density of 72W per cubic inch, with programmable operating ranges of 380 to 900 VAC on the grid side and 600 to 1,500 VDC on the energy storage bus.
A modular architecture supports parallel integration of ten or more units to exceed 3.3MW at the system level. According to the company, that approach enables utility-scale scaling without altering control topology or hardware configurations.
Sensata Brings Brake-by-Wire Sensing to Production Vehicles
Sensata Technologies has announced that its brake force sensors are actively enabling electromechanical braking systems in series-production electric vehicles. The systems replace traditional hydraulic lines and fluid circuits with fully electric, dry brake-by-wire actuation. The sensors measure clamping force directly inside the brake caliper and transmit high-frequency data to the caliper control unit, creating real-time, closed-loop wheel-end force feedback.
The design uses Sensata’s Micro Strain Gauge technology to deliver precise contact-point detection during low-force deceleration and stable calibration during high-force emergency maneuvers. Because the sensor integrates directly into the caliper assembly without supplemental wiring harnesses or intermediate packaging, the architecture reduces unsprung mass and supports ASIL-compliant functional safety designs. It also eliminates residual brake drag, which extends EV range.
TomTom Compresses EV Onboarding From Months to Minutes
Location technology specialist TomTom has deployed Electric Vehicle Management, a self-service software platform designed to cut the onboarding timeline for new electric vehicle variants from months to minutes. Automakers upload fundamental vehicle parameters, including usable battery capacity, connector configurations, dimensions and curb weight. The platform generates a unified digital identifier across in-vehicle infotainment systems, mobile applications and web services, while automakers retain full data ownership.
The service feeds those specifications into a hybrid predictive model that combines physical powertrain dynamics with empirical road consumption data to calculate state-of-charge forecasts and dynamic charging stops. Integrated directly into TomTom’s routing network, the platform supports real-time navigation across 2.3 million charging connectors in 117 countries, pairing live occupancy and reliability metrics with locally cached driver route preferences.
Green SM Launches an All-Electric Ride-Hailing Fleet in Los Angeles
Green SM has launched commercial operations for its all-electric ride-hailing and taxi service in Los Angeles, marking the Vietnamese mobility operator’s entry into North America. Los Angeles is the brand’s ninth global market, following expansions across Southeast Asia and Europe. The deployment uses a dedicated fleet of VinFast VF 8 electric SUVs, managed through a proprietary dispatch application and a telephone booking platform for urban transit and airport transfers.
The rollout integrates turnkey electric fleet management with VinFast Auto’s EV hardware pipeline and supports dedicated driver recruitment and charging operations in Southern California. Since its founding in 2023, Green SM has scaled its mobility-as-a-service network across eight international countries, logging approximately 850 million completed trips and six billion kilometers of zero-emission transit.