Steve LeVine

A bloodbath is happening in the electric vehicle battery industry: Most of the next-generation Western startups that gained favor in 2020 and 2021 are struggling to survive, and some have either filed for bankruptcy or shut down. But a new wave of battery startups, unfazed by the rubble around ...

Hydrogen fuel-cell truck developer Nikola filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after years of struggle following the resignation of its founder, Trevor Milton, who was convicted of securities fraud in 2022. Phoenix-based Nikola said in the filing that it owes $97.7 million. The company was founded in 2014 to develop electric trucks, then shifted to hydrogen fuel cell propulsion, manufacturing its

In a call with analysts last month, General Motors CEO Mary Barra predicted a terrific flow of new revenue within five years—$2 billion a year in recurring fees from customers using its autonomous driving system, Super Cruise.

Many electric vehicle and battery startups are in danger of running out of money before they can generate profits. By contrast, electric aviation startups are enjoying fundraising success that resembles the industry’s party days of 2020 and 2021, when investors were throwing money at EV and ...

The DeepSeek earthquake shook developers of nuclear and natural gas power plants, pummeling their share prices and triggering doubts about billions of dollars of existing and planned investments to power artificial intelligence data centers.

Electric air-taxi startups, with their billions of dollars of development costs, have seemed like a long shot: In the next year or two, regulators will likely certify one or more of the startups to carry passengers, but no one knows how many people will want to fly in them, or whether they will ...

Last year was tough for Western makers of electric vehicles and batteries. Industry leader Tesla sold fewer cars than in 2023. Upstart battery makers declared bankruptcy and shifted their attention to solar panels or smartphones.

The slowdown in sales of electric vehicles has led to smaller and postponed orders for next-generation batteries. But some next-gen battery makers are eyeing a lifeline from an unexpected source: artificial intelligence.

Last March, President-elect Donald Trump, addressing a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, dove into a recurring theme: Chinese automakers were planning to build plants in Mexico and export their electric cars into the U.S. tariff free, exploiting a loophole in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade ...

Around a year ago, Swedish batterymaker Northvolt was feted in Europe and North America as the West’s answer to China’s dominance of lithium-ion battery production. The Quebec and Canadian governments committed $1.9 billion in subsidies toward a Northvolt battery plant near Montreal, and the EU ...