Page 8 - Sam Jaffe News Today

It’s the Oscars tonight, which is good news for insomniacs because it’s likely to run through to breakfast. The film tipped to take the top honours – it has 10 nominations – is Mank. If it wins Louis B Mayer, who originally set up the Academy Awards, will be be turning in his grave.  Mayer created and ran MGM, the biggest Hollywood studio ,which led in the blacklisting of the Hollywood 10 in 1947, accused of being communists. And in the 1930s, amazingly as he was a Jew, he collab...

Years of neglecting its critical metal supplies is catching up with the United States, as demand for the raw materials needed to build a new green economy that rejects fossil fuels gears up. US President Joe Biden just announced a $2.3 trillion infrastructure spending package aimed partially at shifting the US transportation system from gas and diesel-based to battery-powered, and more support for renewable energies such as wind and solar over carbon-based sources like natural gas. ...

GM Is Betting Big On Electric Vehicles By Tsvetana Paraskova - Mar 14, 2021, 12:00 PM CDT Weeks after General Motors pledged to work for an all-electric future, the highest-selling U.S. automaker announced this week a partnership with MIT spinoff SolidEnergy Systems to speed up the commercialization of lithium metal batteries that could dramatically cut electric vehicle (EV) costs and boost range.  GM Ventures was an early investor in lithium metal battery innovator SolidEnergy Syst...

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) pays significantly less than its rivals for lithium battery cells and has the lowest cost EV battery packs, according to Cairn ...

"Tesla is definitely putting the hammer down on the accelerator pedal. They see this as the crucial period and theyre building out their capacities," said Sam Jaffe, managing director of Cairn ERA. "Look at what theyre doing in Shanghai and in Berlin and now in Austin, Texas. Theyre just piling factory upon factory." Jaffe, who tracks the battery and EV industry, says Teslas advantage stems not only from the scale of its operations, but also from Elon Musks relentless pursuit of lower batter...

TCM is launching a new series called Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror to look at troubling and problematic aspects of 18 old Hollywood movies such as Psycho and My Fair Lady

Former Tesla executive JB Straubel’s battery recycling venture Redwood Materials has reached a recycling deal with Envision AESC, the battery manufacturer for the Nissan LEAF. Redwood Material’s deal with Envision AESC is the latest move for Straubel’s company, which aims to recycle raw battery materials in an attempt to provide the quickly-growing EV sector with […]

The ID.4, VW’s answer to Tesla’s popular Model Y. Photo: Jens Schlueter/Getty This is a story of cutthroat technological war, unfathomable corporate animus, a new kind of economic nationalism, and great power competition between the two most powerful leaders in the world. The likelihood is that the rare drama will end in a settlement that could lay low one of South Korea’s most powerful companies. But before then, it is a nerve-wracking spectacle that reflects the newfound tension rife in...

Biden wants to create millions of clean-energy jobs. China and Europe are way ahead of him. Jeanne Whalen, The Washington Post Feb. 11, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Robots work on Model X cars in the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif., in 2018.Photo for The Washington Post by Mason Trinca As the Biden administration promises to jump-start the clean-energy economy, it faces an uphill climb: The United States has fallen behind Asia and Europe in the race to produce the central technology - the high-t...

As the Biden administration promises to jump-start the clean-energy economy, it faces an uphill climb: The United States has fallen behind Asia and Europe in the race to produce the central technology — the high-tech batteries that power electric cars and store solar and wind energy.