The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced $500 million in grants for battery materials, manufacturing and recycling towards the end of August 2026. The grants went to a range of battery minerals and materials including next-generation anodes, direct lithium extraction (DLE), cobalt, electrolyte, and recycling. These are the third round of grants from the DoE’s “Battery Manufacturing and Recycling” and “Battery Materials Processing” programmes, which each have $3 billion in funding available. Previous rounds were announced in 2022 and 2024 under the Biden Administration. These grants follow a recent announcement of $2 billion in investment for critical supply chain projects.

Tesla sold just over 6,500 EVs in Europe in July 2026, its lowest monthly level in the region since October 2022. Its sales in the region fell 53% year-on-year, with Germany and the UK, the region’s two largest automotive markets, registering just 367 and 512 Teslas, respectively.  Tesla’s heavy sales decline in July contradicts the strong performance it had in the region across the opening six months of the year, with sales rising 39% compared to the opening six months of 2025. However, following a weak July, its year-to-date growth in the region has dropped to 30%.   "While Tesla’s deliveries in Europe were unusually low in July, it followed a very strong end to Q2 where Tesla will have concentrated its efforts on maximising deliveries before the end of the quarter. Tesla had a strong opening six months of the year in Europe and there as signals that this is expected to persist despite the drop in July," said George Whitcombe, Benchmark's senior EV analyst.

A White House Executive Order (EO), published on 26 August, has declared a national emergency, citing national security risks relating to hardware and software in the US power system made overseas. This new measure, EO 14420 is the second attempt to put such a measure into place after the previous Trump administration’s EO 13920 in 2020. The new order is broader in scope, including software as well as hardware, and sets a 120-day deadline for the Department of Energy to set implementation guidelines. Benchmark senior BESS research analyst Pete Tillotson said the order could be “highly disruptive to the US grid should it be implemented to its fullest extent”.

CATL's Jianxiawo lepidolite mine, China's largest lithium mine by capacity, is back in care and maintenance after a brief and informal restart in July. Any return to production is now gated by an environmental review since the mine’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was revoked. Completing the review could stretch into the fourth quarter or into 2027. Benchmark has cut its 2026 mined output forecast for Jianxiawo to 32,000 tonnes LCE, from 62,500, almost halving the mine's expected contribution, while its 2027 forecast is so far unchanged at around 99,000 tonnes.