Thursday, 20 August 2026

California is putting USD 95.2 million into electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The money is split across passenger chargers, heavy-duty vehicles and station reliability, and carries what Hydrogen Fuel News describes as a strong equity mandate.

The California Energy Commission is managing the Clean Transportation Program that distributes the funding, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Under that program, the commission is targeting gaps in the existing network, improving the reliability of hydrogen refueling stations, and deploying high-powered chargers serving vehicles ranging from passenger cars to buses, according to the same report.

Reliability is treated as a funding category in its own right rather than a byproduct of new construction, with hydrogen refueling stations named alongside charger deployment as a target for the allocation.

Sales of electric trucks and buses across the 34 countries tracked by the ICCT climbed 86 per cent year-on-year in 2025, the second consecutive year of near-doubling, according to the ICCT as reported by electrive.

Heavy battery-electric trucks accounted for much of that momentum. Global sales in the segment reached nearly 240,000 units last year, more than double the 2024 total, electrive reported.

China sits at the front of the shift. Almost 30 per cent of all new registrations in the country's heavy truck segment last year were fully electric, according to the ICCT.

Bogotá has added 50 battery-electric articulated buses to the TransMilenio network, the first battery-electric articulated buses in Colombia, according to electrive. Each vehicle carries up to 160 passengers, electrive reported.

The bodies were built domestically. Busscar assembled 25 units in Pereira and Marcopolo assembled the other 25 in Cota, per electrive.

The delivery is the opening tranche of a larger procurement. Bogotá intends to bring 900 new battery-electric buses into its public transport system between 2026 and 2029, electrive reported.

TransMilenio estimates that the full 900-bus fleet, once in service, will avoid around 57,500 tonnes of CO2 each year.

The purchase lands in a region where electric bus fleets have already reached scale. Latin America now counts more than 10,000 electric buses in operation, with Santiago de Chile the largest single fleet at 4,222 vehicles, according to electrive. Measured against that benchmark, Bogotá's 900-unit target through 2029 would represent a fraction of the regional total already running today.

Articulated vehicles are the segment that matters most for TransMilenio, which runs high-capacity bus rapid transit corridors. Replacing diesel articulated units with 160-passenger battery-electric equivalents shifts emissions off the busiest trunk routes rather than the feeder network.

German automotive supplier Schaeffler and Chinese battery manufacturer CATL have signed a letter of intent to jointly develop battery management systems (BMS) and so-called X-in-1 Integrated PowerBox (IPB) solutions for EVs, according to electrive.

The two companies are targeting the European market first, electrive reported, with an already secured customer project serving as the starting point for the work. The letter of intent covers both the BMS side and the integrated power electronics packages sold under the IPB label.

Thomas Stierle, Member of the Board for E-Mobility at Schaeffler AG, said the goal is to build a competitive portfolio for Europe and other markets together with CATL.

The partnership sits alongside CATL's own cell roadmap. The battery manufacturer recently announced plans to begin pilot production of solid-state cells in 2027, according to electrive. CATL CEO Robin Zeng does not expect volume production of those cells before 2030.

Prestige Imports, a New Jersey dealership, has filed suit against Polestar over the carmaker's exit from the US market, accusing the manufacturer of breaching New Jersey's Franchise Practices Act, electrive reported, citing Automotive News and Inside EVs.

At the centre of the complaint is notice. According to electrive, the dealership alleges Polestar failed to give the 60-day termination notice that New Jersey law makes mandatory. The filing also alleges the manufacturer offered no sufficient justification for ending the business relationship.

electrive describes Polestar as a Chinese manufacturer and reports that the dealership took the company to court over the exit.

The economics of the withdrawal have drawn political comment. Senator Bernie Moreno claims Polestar lost up to USD 35,000 on every vehicle it sold in the USA, according to electrive.

The exit removes a market that was never the core of the business. Around 80% of Polestar's sales come from Europe, electrive reported.

Denver Public Schools has installed 26 charging plugs at its Hilltop Bus Terminal, served by a Kempower distributed charging system rated at 650 kilowatts, Electrek reported.

The hub pairs with a fleet the district recently enlarged. Twenty-five Blue Bird Vision electric school buses joined three already in service, taking the total to 28, according to Electrek. The district says electric buses now account for 12% of its yellow school bus fleet.

Charging capacity at the depot is shared rather than fixed per plug. Electrek reported that 13 dual-port Kempower Satellite dispensers distribute the available 650 kW dynamically across the plugs, which lets the site handle more vehicles than a hard split of that power would allow.

On running costs, the district estimates electricity will run around USD 1,900 per bus each year against USD 6,800 for diesel, per Electrek. The purchase side runs the other way: an electric bus costs about USD 400,000 compared with USD 140,000 for a diesel unit, though grants and rebates covered both the buses and the charging infrastructure, Electrek reported.

The fleet work sits inside a wider emissions target. Denver Public Schools has set a goal of cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions by at least 90% by 2050. Transportation accounts for 14% of those emissions, according to Electrek.