Much of the global attention around industrial self-sufficiency has focused on the US and China. Yet Japan, too, has been working to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers in strategic sectors, and particularly when it comes to China. A part of that effort has been to catch up in the electric vehicle battery market. That push is now faltering.

Panasonic Holdings Corp.’s decision not to rush into expanding capacity to build batteries has been validated by slower global demand for electric vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Yuki Kusumi said.

The Chinese battery giant is planning to raise as much as US$4.0 billion in the year’s biggest listing in Hong Kong.

Honda’s CA$15 billion commitment was touted by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “largest auto investment in Canada’s history.” It was to include a battery plant with an annual capacity of 36 GWh while an EV assembly plant would have been able to build as many as 240,000 vehicles per year from 2028.

From different battery tech pitted against each other to a drop in Tesla’s China deliveries, here are seven EV stories you may have missed.

In what the Devon-based company calls a major breakthrough for the development of sustainable battery materials, electrochemical testing of the cells has demonstrated comparable performance with cells made from conventional primary materials, underscoring the potential of recycled cathodes as a viable alternative to mined metals.

Global sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose 29% year-on-year in April, with stable growth in China and Europe despite trade tensions, while North America recorded the first fall since last September,

As it scrambles to turn things around, Nissan is scrapping plans to build a new LFP battery plant in Japan. The facility was expected to be key to reducing EV battery costs to keep up with leaders like BYD. With alarm bells ringing, Nissan is preparing to cut 20,000 jobs, or about 15% of its global workforce.