SPARKS, NV—Tesla Inc. plans to invest more than $3.6 billion at its 5.4-million-square-foot gigafactory here.

LAS VEGAS—During the recent Consumer Electronics Show here, Infinitum unveiled the Aircore Mobility traction motor.

PHOENIX—Nikola Corp. plans to relocate its battery manufacturing operation from Cypress, CA, to Coolidge, AZ.

CHEMNITZ, Germany—Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology here have developed a new way to recycle EV batteries and other car parts..

Engineers at Stanford University have developed a new way to make lithium-ion battery packs last longer and suffer less deterioration from fast charging. It could enable electric vehicle batteries to handle more charge cycles and last longer.

Lightweight batteries will be one of the next big breakthroughs in EV technology. One possibility that intrigues engineers is structural batteries, which can be built into the structure of a vehicle’s body or chassis to fulfill load-bearing needs while producing power.

INGOLSTADT, Germany—Audi AG is preparing its assembly plants to produce EVs-only within 10 years.

SHEFFIELD, England—The first commercial prototype of a solar tree is being developed by engineers at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.

UUSIKAUPUNKI, Finland—Production of Lightyear’s much anticipated solar-powered EV has started at Valmet Automotive’s state-of-the-art assembly plant here.

Vehicle production plants are undergoing a massive transformation as automakers evolve from internal-combustion engines (ICE) to battery power. While EVs use fewer parts overall, those components tend to be heavier than their ICE equivalents. That demands new ways to deploy robots on assembly lines.