Kevin McLaughlin
Subscriber since 2016
About
Kevin joined The Information in 2016 after 11 years covering enterprise technology and cloud computing at CRN, a technology trade industry publication. Previously, he was a technical writer for France Telecom’s R&D division and a reporter at Business 2.0, a magazine that covered the rise (and fall) of the first dot-com era. He started his career at The Bangkok Post, a Thailand-based English language daily newspaper serving Southeast Asia. Kevin attended Colgate University and lives with his wife and two young children in Berkeley, Calif. You can reach him at [email protected].
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Manchin-Schumer and electric cars
Posted bySteve LeVine
Sens. Schumer and Manchin have smartly gone both ways on China: The deal takes a page from China's winning EV-battery strategy—extending $7,500 in EV purchase credits, but requiring that much of the battery be built in North America. And it's anti-China—the metals inside the battery would have to be from a U.S. free trade partner, which China isn't.The Information
Ford has made a big strategic battery and raw materials play
Posted bySteve LeVine
Ford this morning became the first Western automaker to concretely make a shift away from supply-challenged nickel-based batteries, and to plentiful iron. It was a triple-play announcement: building U.S. LFP capacity; buying full LFP cell-to-pack packs from CATL for the Mustang Mach-E; and doing a possible nickel deal in Indonesia. Look for copycat announcements very soon.The Information
Celina Mikolajczak's next job
Posted bySteve LeVine
A few weeks after her exit from QuantumScape, Celina Mikolajczak moves to lithium-sulfur developer Lyten as chief battery technology officer. Lithium sulfur is super early in development—well behind lithium metal for example. It will be awhile before it's scaled up.The Information
Why China looks likely to keep dominating batteries
Posted bySteve LeVine
While the West wrings its hands over China's dominance in electric vehicles and batteries, its companies keep building their advantage. The latest is Gangfeng, the Chinese lithium giant, which yesterday announced a billion-dollar deal to buy Argentina's Lithea, a lithium brine producer. Apart from Tesla, is any Western company demonstrating this kind of commercial ne...The Information