OIL CAPS: News briefs from the week

Global electric vehicle (EV) leader BYD has announced the imminent launch of its second-generation Blade battery technology. Spearheaded by BYD’s battery subsidiary, FinDreams, this new battery variant is expected to hit the market as soon as August of this year. The highlight of this advancement is the substantial increase in energy density, anticipated to reach 190Wh/kg, setting a new benchmark for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. The Blade battery, first introduced by BYD in 2020, has been a pivotal development in the EV market. It challenged the dominance of nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries by significantly enhancing the power density of more cost-effective LFP batteries.

GWM is set to launch its largest ute to date in New Zealand, which could also be the first full hybrid ute to land in the country when it arrives here in the middle of this year. The GWM Cannon Alpha is essentially a ute version of the GWM Tank 500 SUV, sharing a lot of frontal sheet metal and its underpinnings with the luxurious off-roader. As such, this puts it larger than the current crop of one- tonne utes (Ranger, Hilux, Amarok, etc), but smaller than the big Americans like the Ram and Silverado. It shares the Tank 500’s petrol hybrid powertrain.

Hyundai and Kia have unveiled the latest generation of their DAL-e Delivery: a robot designed to cart stuff around offices and malls. Does what it says on the box, basically. An update of the DAL-e introduced in 2022, the companies say the new version is better in “complex settings” and “diverse spaces”. The new DAL-e Delivery is designed in a square column with rounded corners, with a low centre of gravity. It’s based on four Plug &

Drive (PnD) modules, a mobility solution that combines a motor with steering, suspension, braking systems and environmental recognition sensors. It can travel at up to

1.2m/s.