Tag: electric

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Politics

Biden’s Electrical Automotive Plans Hinge on Having Sufficient Chargers

Biden’s Electric Car Plans Hinge on Having Enough Chargers

Startups, automakers, and other companies have been slowly building chargers for years, mostly in California and other coastal states, where most electric cars are sold. These companies use different strategies to make money and auto experts say it is not clear which one will be successful. The most station company, ChargePoint, sells chargers to individuals, workplaces, businesses, condominiums and apartment buildings, and companies with electric vehicle fleets. It charges subscription fees for software that manages the chargers. Tesla offers charging mainly to get people to buy their cars. And others make money selling electricity to drivers.

The switch to electric cars

Once the poor cousin of the hip business of building sleek electric cars, the charging industry has been swept away by its own gold rush. According to PitchBook, venture capital firms poured nearly $ 1 billion in fees last year, more than in the previous five years combined. In 2021, venture capital investments will total more than $ 550 million so far.

On Wall Street, according to Dealogic, a research firm, publicly traded-purpose businesses or SPACs have closed deals to buy eight charging companies out of 26 deals in electric vehicles and related businesses. The deals typically involve an infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars from large investors like BlackRock.

“It’s early days and people are trying to figure out what the potential is,” said Gabe Daoud Jr., managing director and analyst at Cowen, an investment bank.

These companies could benefit from the infrastructure bill, but it’s not clear how the Biden administration will distribute money for charging stations.

Another unanswered question is who will be the Exxon Mobil of the electric car age. It could be automakers.

Tesla, which makes about two-thirds of the electric cars sold in the US, has built thousands of chargers that it made available to early customers for free. The company could open its network to vehicles from other automakers by the end of the year, its CEO Elon Musk said in July.

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World News

As electrical automobile gross sales surge, discussions flip to noise and security

As electric vehicle sales surge, discussions turn to noise and safety

Martin Pickard | Moment | Getty Images

Hyperloop, hydrogen-powered trains and air taxis. As the 21st century progresses, the way people get from A to B is on the cusp of a major change driven by design and innovation.

While the above technologies may still be a few years away from widespread adoption, that doesn’t mean the change isn’t already underway.

Around the world, national and local governments are trying to reduce emissions and improve air quality in cities, with many betting on a growing sector: battery electric vehicles.

There is undoubtedly a dynamic behind the industry. According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, around 3 million new electric cars were registered last year, a record and an increase of 41% compared to 2019.

Looking ahead, the IEA says the number of electric cars, buses, vans and heavy trucks on the roads – its forecast doesn’t include two- and three-wheel electric vehicles – is projected to reach 145 million by 2030.

If governments step up efforts to meet international energy and climate goals, the global fleet could grow even further, reaching 230 million by the end of the decade.

A changing world

As the number of electric vehicles on the world’s roads increases, society must adapt.

Extensive charging networks, for example, need to be rolled out to meet increased demand and to dispel persistent concerns about “range anxiety” – the idea that electric vehicles cannot make long journeys without losing power and getting stranded.

Another area in which we will notice changes concerns noise: electric vehicles are not only emission-free, but also significantly quieter than their diesel and gasoline cousins.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

This means less noise pollution in urban areas – a clear thing – but it also poses a potential challenge for other road users, especially those with vision problems.

“It can be very difficult for blind or visually impaired people to judge traffic,” Zoe Courtney-Bodgener, Policy and Campaigner for the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People, told CNBC in a telephone interview.

Courtney-Bodgener explained that more and more “quiet” modes of transport are being used, using the example of bicycles and larger electric and hybrid vehicles.

“If you can’t always see these vehicles reliably or with your eyesight, the sound is even more important,” she said.

“And if the noise is not there or is not loud enough to reliably detect these vehicles, there is of course a risk, because … you cannot reliably know when a vehicle is approaching you.”

The law of the land

It should be noted that laws and technology have been put in place around the world to address this problem.

For example, in the European Union and the United Kingdom, all new electric and hybrid vehicles must use an audible vehicle warning system, or AVAS for short, from July 1st. This will build on and expand on the previous regulations that came into force in 2019.

According to the rules, the AVAS should step in and make noises when the speed of a vehicle is less than 20 kilometers per hour (about 12 miles per hour) and when it is reversing.

According to a 2019 UK government statement, the sound can “be temporarily turned off by the driver if necessary”.

According to the EU regulation, the noise generated by the AVAS should “be a continuous tone that informs pedestrians and other road users of a vehicle that is in operation”.

“The noise should easily reflect vehicle behavior,” it adds, “and should sound similar to a vehicle of the same category equipped with an internal combustion engine.”

RNIB’s Courtney-Bodgener told CNBC that while her organization was “happy” that the AVAS policy had been translated into UK law, it had not “done everything we asked of it”.

She went on to explain how the speed at which the AVAS turns on might need to be increased to 20 or 30 miles per hour.

“We are not convinced that if … a vehicle is traveling at a speed of 21 miles per hour, for example, it would generate enough noise on its own to be reliably recognized by noise.”

Another area of ​​concern concerns older vehicles. “There are already many, many electric and hybrid vehicles that were produced before this legislation came into effect that did not have the sound technology,” she said.

There are currently no plans to retrofit these, she added. “This is worrying because there are already thousands of vehicles on the UK’s roads that do not have AVAS technology.”

From the industry’s point of view, it appears to be satisfied with the existing regulations. In a statement emailed to CNBC, AVERE, The European Association for Electromobility, told CNBC that it supported the “current legislative status quo”.

“The limit of 20 km / h is sufficient, as other noises – especially rolling resistance – take over at this level and are sufficient for pedestrians and cyclists to hear approaching electric and hybrid vehicles,” added the Brussels organization.

“In fact, the requirement of additional noise above 20 km / h would deprive European citizens of one of the main advantages of electrification: lower noise levels at city speeds.”

Noise pollution can indeed be a serious problem. According to the European Environment Agency, over 100 million people in Europe are “exposed to harmful environmental noise”. The agency classifies road traffic noise as “a particular public health problem in many urban areas”.

Regarding the need for modernization of older cars, AVERE said: “Only a very small proportion of the electric vehicles on European roads would be subject to retrofitting obligations, as many existing vehicles were already equipped with AVAS in anticipation of the new ones and that the rules were introduced in good time to meet the expected mass consumption of To support electric vehicles in the years to come. “

Should it emerge that “additional requirements” are needed, AVERE is ready to work with policy makers.

The future

The discussions and debates on this topic are likely to go on for a long time and it is clear that a balance will have to be found in the future.

Whether you think current legislation goes far enough or not, the fact is that these types of systems will become an increasingly important feature of urban travel in the years to come.

Robert Fisher is Head of EV Technologies at the research and consulting company SBD Automotive.

He emailed CNBC that tests the company carried out had “shown AVAS to be quite effective,” but added that if a pedestrian is unfamiliar with the noise, “may not automatically do so with presence of an approaching “Connect Vehicle.”

“Currently, AVAS is mainly hampered by inconsistent legislation and a lack of innovation,” he said, and dared to look positively into the future.

“With the move away from the internal combustion engine, this technology has the potential to become an integral part of a car’s character, a point of brand differentiation and the ability to save lives.”

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Business

Jefferies on the carbon challenges in electrical automobile manufacturing

Jefferies on the carbon challenges in electric vehicle manufacturing

Electric vehicle manufacturing currently faces an “embedded carbon” challenge, says Jefferies’ Simon Powell.

“To gain the environmental dividend that governments are looking for, users are going to have to keep them longer, drive them further than they may have done with a conventional internal combustion energy vehicle,” Powell, head of global thematic research at the firm, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.

He explained that a “huge amount” of carbon is emitted when materials such as steel, aluminum and glass are created and put together to manufacture vehicles. He said the problem is compounded for electric vehicles, which currently tend to be heavier on average than their gasoline-powered counterparts.

“When they leave the factory, these (electric vehicles) are at a disadvantage,” he said. “They contain more steel. The brakes are bigger. The battery packs are certainly heavier.”

The relatively higher weight of electric vehicles today is a result of manufacturers’ focus on the range for these cars, Powell said. Unlike cars which run on internal combustion engines that have been around for decades, the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is considerably less developed globally.

Importance of ‘green steel’

Powell predicted, however, the “embedded carbon” in electric vehicles is expected to eventually come down to levels that compare with conventional vehicles.

“The way this whole thing gets solved is greener steel,” he said. “The use of hydrogen in the manufacturing process for steel, as well, is something to look at.”

“I don’t think many people are talking about the greening of the steel industry,” the analyst said, admitting that it will be “very challenging” to decarbonize the sector globally.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

The metal today is largely produced from coking coal, while the making of lower carbon steel tends to be both more resource intensive and costlier.

“I think it’s going to take a long time. We’re talking about large investments with … long paybacks, long time horizons,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, investors should also monitor the development of battery technology as more energy-dense cells will aid in bringing down the weight and potentially the embedded carbon of electric vehicles, Powell said.

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Business

Electrical Automobile Begin-Up Cuts Outlook as Funding Runs Low: Dwell Updates

Lordstown’s biggest selling point to investors was that it had thousands of pre-orders for its truck, the Endurance.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Megan Jelinger/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Shares of Lordstown Motors, a start-up aiming to make electric pickup trucks, dropped 13 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company said that it would “at best” make just 50 percent of the vehicles it had previously hoped to this year, unless it is able to raise additional capital.

“What we are saying is that if we don’t get any funding, we might only make half of what we thought,” Lordstown’s chief executive, Steve Burns, said Monday during a conference call.

Mr. Burns said the company was still on track to begin making trucks by September.

Lordstown has had discussions with some strategic investors who could pump money into the company, he said, and it has looked into borrowing money by using its plant or other assets as collateral.

He also said the company was looking into borrowing from a federal government program meant to support the development of electric vehicles, but it was unclear if it had any funds left.

Lordstown would be able to make as many as 2,200 trucks by the end of the year if it gets funding, Mr. Burns said. Without additional capital, it would probably make fewer than 1,000.

Mr. Burns has been hoping Lordstown would be the first to produce an electric pickup truck aimed at commercial fleets such as large construction and mining companies, but it will soon face some formidable competition. Ford Motor last week unveiled an electric version of its F-150 pickup that is supposed to go on sale next spring.

Lordstown gained attention because it bought an auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that General Motors had closed. It was also once hailed by former President Donald J. Trump for saving manufacturing jobs.

It became a publicly traded company last year by merging with a special purpose acquisition vehicle, a company set up with cash from investors and a stock listing. Several other electric vehicle and related businesses have gone public through similar mergers in recent months, taking advantage of investors’ desire to find the next Tesla.

Lordstown, which is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it lost $125 million in the first quarter of 2021, but ended the period with $587 million in cash.

Commuters inside a Berlin subway station earlier this month. A survey found rising confidence in the German economy.Credit…Emile Ducke for The New York Times

  • Stocks continued an upswing on Tuesday, pushed higher by strength in Asian markets and growing confidence in a European economic recovery. And Bitcoin steadied.

  • The S&P 500 index was set to open 0.4 percent higher when markets begin trading in the United States. It gained 1 percent on Monday.

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.4 percent, the fourth-straight day of increases. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed 1.8 percent higher and the CSI 300 in China rose 3.2 percent, the biggest one-day increase since July. Overseas investors bought a record amount of Chinese shares on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported, amid a crackdown on rising commodity prices by Chinese officials.

  • Oil prices fell. Futures on West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 0.7 percent to $65.61 a barrel.

  • After a turbulent weekend, the price of a Bitcoin was above $37,000 on Tuesday morning. The cryptocurrency had dropped as low as about $31,000. Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said Bitcoin’s “greatest risk is its success.” Speaking at a CoinDesk conference in a video released on Monday, Mr. Dalio said that as Bitcoin becomes a “bigger deal and more of a threat,” it could become an existential risk to other financial markets and governments unable to control it. He added he’d rather own Bitcoin than government bonds.

  • Lordstown Motors, the start-up aiming to make electric pickup trucks, dropped more than 12 percent in premarket trading after it said on Monday that it would “at best” make half of the vehicles it had hoped to this year, unless it is able to raise additional capital.

  • An improving outlook for the German economy is taking hold. A survey of German business managers on their expectations for the economy over the next six months showed increasing optimism in May, with the ifo Institute’s index rising to 102.9 points, the highest since 2011. Separately, the national statistics office confirmed that gross domestic product fell 1.8 percent in the first quarter, a period during which Germany was in different degrees of lockdown, compared with the previous quarter.

Credit…Shira Inbar

After years of hype, billions of dollars of investments and promises that people would be commuting to work in self-driving cars by now, the pursuit of autonomous cars is undergoing a reset.

Expectations are that tech and auto giants could still toil for years on their projects. Each will spend an additional $6 billion to $10 billion before the technology becomes commonplace — sometime around the end of the decade, according to estimates from Pitchbook, a research firm that tracks financial activity. But even that prediction might be overly optimistic, The New York Times’s Cade Metz reports.

So what went wrong? Some researchers would say nothing — that’s how science works. You can’t entirely predict what will happen in an experiment. The self-driving car project just happened to be one of the most hyped technology experiments of this century, occurring on streets all over the country and run by some of its most prominent companies.

Companies like Uber and Lyft, worried about blowing through their cash in pursuit of autonomous technology, have tapped out. Only the most deep pocketed outfits like Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet; auto industry giants; and a handful of start-ups are managing to stay in the game

Late last month, Lyft sold its autonomous vehicle unit to a Toyota subsidiary called Woven Planet in a deal valued at $550 million. Uber offloaded its autonomous vehicle unit to another competitor in December. And three prominent self-driving start-ups have sold themselves to companies with much bigger budgets over the past year.

President Biden is under pressure to redirect assistance for state, local and tribal governments to instead pay for parts of a potential bipartisan agreement on upgrading the United States’ infrastructure.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

President Biden and congressional Democrats went to the mat this winter to secure $350 billion in assistance for state and local governments in their $1.9 trillion stimulus package. The aid was meant to help them rehire laid off government workers, invest in infrastructure projects and repair balance sheets damaged by the pandemic.

But it increasingly looks like many states — especially ones run by Democrats, with relatively high taxes on high earners — don’t need the money. California officials expect a $15 billion surplus this fiscal year. Virginia has seen nearly $2 billion in unanticipated revenues. In Oregon, economists recently upgraded the state’s revenue forecasts, moving the state from projected deficits to surplus.

The tax revenues are coming from a rebounding economy and soaring stock market, and raising pressure on Mr. Biden to repurpose hundreds of billions of dollars of federal spending approved earlier this year, The New York Times’s Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport report.

Republicans in Congress have urged Mr. Biden to redirect assistance for state, local and tribal governments to instead pay for roads, bridges and other portions of a potential bipartisan agreement on upgrading America’s infrastructure. Some economists and budget experts support that push. White House officials haven’t said whether they would be willing to redirect that spending, mindful that some states, like tourism-dependent Hawaii, still face large budget shortfalls.

“Popular products run out and prices are still higher than we’d like to see them,” said Jeff Brown, executive director of New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission.Credit…Mohamed Sadek for The New York Times

The advent of legalized adult-use marijuana in New York and New Jersey is an entrepreneur’s dream, with some estimating that the potential market in the densely populated region will soar to more than $6 billion within five years.

But the rush to get plants into soil in factory-style production facilities underscores another fundamental reality in the New York metropolitan region: There are already shortages of legal marijuana, The New York Times’s Tracey Tully reports.

Within New Jersey’s decade-old medical marijuana market, the supply of dried cannabis flower, the most potent part of a female plant, has rarely met the demand, according to industry lobbyists and state officials. At the start of the pandemic, as demand exploded, it grew even more scarce, patients and business owners said.

The supply gap has narrowed as the statewide inventory of flower and products made from a plant’s extracted oils more than doubled between March of last year and this spring. Still, patients and owners say dispensaries often sell out of popular strains.

Because marijuana is illegal under federal law and cannot be transported across state lines, marijuana products sold in each state must also be grown and manufactured there.

Federal banking law also makes it nearly impossible for cannabis-related businesses to obtain conventional financing, creating a high hurdle for small start-ups and a built-in advantage for multistate and international companies with deep pockets.

Oregon, which issued thousands of cultivation licenses after legalizing marijuana six years ago, has an overabundance of cannabis. But many of the other 16 states where nonmedical marijuana is now legal have faced supply constraints similar to those in New York and New Jersey as production slowly scaled up to meet demand.

Categories
Politics

Ford Electrical F-150 Lightning Pickup Is New EV Contender

Ford Electric F-150 Lightning Pickup Is New EV Contender

Ford Motor has opened an important new front in the battle to dominate the fast-growing electric vehicle market by relying on one of the world’s top performing franchises.

In a lively presentation on Wednesday evening at a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, the automaker unveiled an electric version of its popular F-150 pickup called the Lightning. Ford’s F-Series trucks, including the F-150, are the top-selling line of vehicles in the U.S., typically generating around $ 42 billion in annual sales – or more than double that, according to a study commissioned by Ford Brought to McDonald’s last year.

It was one of the most anticipated introductions of a new car, and it invited comparisons to Ford’s Model T, the car that made cars affordable for the masses. Ford has a lot to do with the success of the new vehicle. If it can make the F-150 Lightning a best seller, it could accelerate the move to electric vehicles, which scientists say is vital for the world to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Car and truck exhaust pollution is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and one of the largest in the world. However, if the Blitz isn’t selling well, it could indicate that the transition to electric vehicles is far slower than President Biden and other world leaders to meet the climate goals.

“The F-150 will put electric vehicles in a completely different area,” said Michael Ramsey, a Gartner analyst. “It’s huge for Ford, but also huge for the entire industry. If you’re looking to electrify the entire US fleet of vehicles, the electric F-150 is a big step in that direction. “

The F-150 Lightning signals a shift in the auto industry’s EV thrust, which was previously geared towards niche markets. Tesla has grown rapidly for several years by selling flashy sports cars to the wealthy and early adopters. Nearly 500,000 cars were sold worldwide last year, just over half of the F-Series trucks sold by Ford. Other electric models that have sold well have been small cars like the Chevrolet Bolt and the Nissan Leaf, which appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

In contrast, the F-150 Lightning is aimed at small businesses and corporate customers such as building contractors, as well as mining and construction companies, who buy a lot of rugged pickups. As a rule, these buyers are interested not only in the sticker price of a truck, but also in the cost of its operation and maintenance. Electric vehicles tend to cost more, but less, to buy than traditional cars and trucks because they contain fewer parts and are cheaper per mile to buy electricity than gasoline or diesel.

“There are many large fleets that have looked for green solutions but haven’t had the answers yet,” said William C. Ford Jr., company chairman and great-grandson of Henry Ford, in an interview.

The truck is expected to go on sale next spring. It starts at $ 39,974 for a model that can travel 230 miles on a full charge. A 300 mile range version starts at $ 59,974.

Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNBC Thursday that the company had made reservations for 20,000 Lightning trucks in less than 12 hours of its Wednesday event.

With an electric motor mounted on each of its axles, the vehicle offers more torque – effectively faster acceleration – than any previous F-150 and can pull up to 10,000 pounds. According to Ford, the battery can power a home for about three days during an outage.

For contractors and other commercial truck users, the Lightning can power electric saws, tools, and lights, potentially replacing or reducing the need for generators in workplaces. It has up to 11 sockets.

“It’s made to be on the job site and work all day,” said Ted Cannis, general manager of Ford’s North American commercial vehicle business.

The base price of the truck is a few thousand dollars less than a Tesla Model 3 and even the company’s own Mustang Mach-E sport utility vehicle. The total cost is even lower as Ford EV buyers are still eligible for the $ 7,500 tax credit available for EV purchases. Some states, such as California, New Jersey, and New York, offer additional discounts up to $ 5,000.

Mr Cannis said Ford was able to keep the price of the electric model down by using the seats and other parts used in conventional F-Series trucks. Ford typically sells 900,000 of these vehicles per year, resulting in significant economies of scale.

General Motors and startups like Rivian are also working on electric pickups. Rivian has announced that it will start delivering its R1T truck this summer. GM is expected to sell the GMC Hummer pickup later this year.

A big question about electric pickups is whether a lot of people will buy them. Commercial buyers aside, trucks like the F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram are typically bought by people who have a lot to haul or people – usually men – who enjoy driving trucks.

“There will likely be some initially raised eyebrows, but once we get people to experience the driving dynamics and the extra space, the skepticism will subside,” said Ford.

The F-Series trucks have been the top-selling range in the United States for 44 years. A 2020 study by the Boston Consulting Group found the truck supported 500,000 jobs at Ford, parts suppliers and dealerships.

Ford’s introduction of the lightning bolt received a big push from Mr Biden, who visited the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on Tuesday, where the pickup will take place. Before a pool of White House reporters gathered at the plant, Mr Biden stopped behind the wheel of a prototype covered in black and white camouflage film to hide the shape of the truck prior to Wednesday’s event.

“That sucker is fast,” said Mr. Biden, missing out on how the truck can zoom to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, a detail that wasn’t due to be released until Wednesday. Mr. Biden then zoomed out and reached a top speed of 80 mph

The Secret Service does not normally allow presidents to drive. Ford officials weren’t sure if Mr. Biden would drive the truck until it got to the Rouge Center, but it’s no surprise he did.

Mr. Biden is a well-known car enthusiast and owns a green 1967 Corvette that his father gave him as a wedding present. In 2016, he and his Corvette appeared in an episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage,” in which he drove the car in a closed Secret Service training facility.

Ford’s plan to produce a unionized electric truck in the Midwest is closely tied to the Biden government’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing domestic production, supporting unions and accelerating the transition to electric vehicles. The batteries for the flash are manufactured by SK Innovation, a South Korean company, at a facility in Commerce, Georgia. On Thursday, Ford announced that SK Innovation and SK Innovation would establish a joint venture, BlueOvalSK, to manufacture battery cells and modules in the United States, beginning in the middle of this decade.

The government’s $ 2 trillion infrastructure proposal includes money to build half a million charging stations and incentives to buy electric vehicles.

Ford has announced that it will spend $ 22 billion on electric vehicle development over five years through 2025.

Other automakers are moving in the same direction. GM is spending a similar amount and has announced that it will only produce electric vehicles by 2035. This is to set a date for the phasing out of the internal combustion engine that has been driving the auto industry for more than a century.

GM recently unveiled an updated version of its electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt. There are also plans to make an electric version of its popular Silverado pickup, which is one of the F-150’s biggest competitors.

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Business

Ford already has 20,000 reservations for brand spanking new electrical F-150 Lightning pickup

Ford already has 20,000 reservations for new electric F-150 Lightning pickup

Jim Farley, chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company, poses next to the newly unveiled F-150 Lightning electric outside their headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan on May 19, 2021.

Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images

Ford Motor has taken 20,000 reservations for its new F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck in less than 12 hours since the truck was officially unveiled to the public on Wednesday night, CEO Jim Farley told CNBC.

The automaker unveiled the vehicle Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. ET during an in-depth presentation at the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. The company’s shares rose about 3% in premarket trading.

The reservations are being closely monitored by both the company and investors to gauge customer interest in EV pickups. This is an unproven segment that automakers are rushing into.

Ford takes reservations for the vehicle on its website. A $ 100 refundable deposit is required.

This is the latest news. Check for updates again.

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Business

China Is Set to Rule Electrical Automotive Manufacturing

China Is Set to Rule Electric Car Production

ZHAOQING, China – Xpeng Motors, a Chinese start-up for electric cars, recently opened a large assembly plant in southeast China and is building a suitable factory nearby. It has announced plans for a third.

Another Chinese electric car company, Nio, has opened a large factory in central China and is preparing to build a second a few kilometers away.

Zhejiang Geely, owner of Volvo, showed off a huge new electric car factory in east China last month that could rival some of the largest assembly plants in the world. Evergrande, a troubled Chinese real estate giant, has just built electric car factories in the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou and hopes to produce nearly as many all-electric cars as all of North America by 2025.

China is building electric car factories almost as quickly as the rest of the world put together. Chinese manufacturers are using the billions they have raised from international investors and personable local executives to bring established automakers to market.

Success is far from assured. Players include startups, electronics manufacturers, and other newbies to the auto industry. They bet that drivers in China and beyond will be willing to spend $ 40,000 or more on brands they have never heard of.

Chinese automakers acknowledge that the experience brings some advantages to the mainstream auto companies. But they insist that their plans work.

“We have the will and we have the patience,” said He Xiaopeng, chairman and general manager of Xpeng, in an interview. “I think we will find it very challenging, but we also have to move forward.”

The Chinese industry is on the move. China will produce over eight million electric cars a year by 2028, estimates LMC Automotive, a global data company, compared to a million last year. Europe is well on the way to producing 5.7 million fully electric cars by then.

General Motors and other North American automakers have plans to catch up. In April, President Biden urged the United States to step up its electric vehicle efforts. During a virtual visit to an electric bus factory in South Carolina, he warned: “At the moment we are running far after China.”

North American automakers are well on their way to building just 1.4 million electric cars a year by 2028, compared to 410,000 last year, according to LMC.

Global auto companies are helping China’s leadership. Volkswagen started recently Third Chinese electric car factory built.

Thanks to the nationwide rollout of over 800,000 public charging stations supported by the government, China already has the infrastructure for electric cars. That’s almost twice as much as the rest of the world, although US drivers who tend to live in single-family homes find it easier to hook up their cars at home.

With a slower deployment of charging stations outside of China, automakers elsewhere plan to continue building some plug-in hybrids with small gasoline engines for a few more years. However, the market for fully electric cars is already larger than for plug-in hybrids, and the lead of electric cars is growing rapidly. Automakers like GM plan to completely eliminate gasoline and diesel engines over the next 15 years.

Name recognition will be a major challenge for the new Chinese cars. The brands are mostly unknown even to Chinese drivers. On streets full of Buicks, Volkswagens and Mercedes-Benzes, it was difficult for them to stand out.

E-commerce company Alibaba and two state-backed companies have set up a joint venture for electric cars called IM Motors, which is scheduled to begin delivering cars early next year.

Evergrande called his brand Hengchi, pronounced “Hung-cheh”. An electric car craze has brought Hong Kong-traded shares in the company’s Evergrande New Energy Vehicle electric car unit to nearly the same market cap as GM

Evergrande plans to manufacture and sell one million all-electric cars annually by 2025. So far none have been sold.

Geely, an industry veteran with recognized brands in China, has named his electrical brand Zeekr, which rhymes with “seeker”. The delivery of the cars is planned for October.

The Zeekr will be manufactured in a new electric car factory near Ningbo on China’s east coast. The factory is a cavernous space with miles of white conveyor belts and rows of cream-colored 15-foot robots made by ABB of Sweden. It has an initial capacity of 300,000 cars per year, is larger than most Detroit auto plants, and has space for expansion.

“The most important thing is that China has the market,” said Zhao Chunlin, general manager of the factory.

Mr. He named Xpeng, pronounced “X-Pung”, after himself. Xpeng’s niche feature is a cooing Siri-like voice assistant that controls the car’s internet services like directions and music, as well as computer-aided driving on the highway. Xpeng plans to produce 300,000 cars a year by 2024. it sold less than a tenth as many last year.

Mr. He made his first fortune developing a cell phone browser company, UCWeb. He sold it to Alibaba in 2014 and became president of Alibaba’s Mobile Business Services division. That same year, he helped two former Guangzhou Auto State executives set up Xpeng.

Three years later, Mr. He took direct control of Xpeng and left Alibaba, which also acquired a small stake in the automaker. Mr. He said his second child had been born and that he wanted to tell his son that he ran a car company. Mr. He holds 23 percent of Xpeng’s shares, while Alibaba holds 12 percent.

Chinese government officials helped with this. A state-owned company in Zhaoqing, a 1,000-year-old jade carving town near Guangzhou, donated $ 233 million to Xpeng in 2017 to build its first factory with an annual capacity of around 100,000 cars. The city has since subsidized the company’s interest payments according to Xpeng’s regulatory filings.

The City of Wuhan helped Xpeng buy land and borrow money for a new plant at low interest rates. The Guangzhou government also helped Xpeng build its factory in that city, said Brian Gu, vice chairman and president of Xpeng.

Last year, after weathering the pandemic, Xpeng benefited from Wall Street, where Tesla’s rise sparked investor appetites for the industry. The Chinese company raised $ 5 billion through an initial public offering and subsequent share sales. It spends part of the money on new factories and part on research and development, especially on autonomous driving.

Xpeng’s deep pockets are visible in costly automation in the Zhaoqing factory. Robots lift 44-pound car roofs made from dark-tinted glass, apply aerospace adhesive, and press into place. Waist-high robots slide across the gray concrete floor and carry instrument panels as they play an instrumental version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. (The robots were programmed that way, company officials explained.)

The construction of the factory took only 15 months, which was considerably faster than the assembly plants in the west. Yan Hui, the general manager of the plant’s final assembly area, said decisions were made faster than at the German auto parts maker where he used to work.

“Every design change took a long time – characters, characters, even characters in German,” he said. “But at Xpeng, we can just make the change.”

Although many of the electric car brands are new to China, their owners already have ambitions abroad. Xpeng starts exporting cars to Europe, starting with Norway. Chery, a large state-owned automaker in central China, announced last week that it would start exporting gasoline-powered cars to the US next year, followed by electric cars.

The United States will be a difficult market. The Trump administration imposed 25 percent tax on cars imported from China in 2018, which has slowed exports. Many electric car parts are subject to the same tariffs. This makes it more difficult, but not impossible, for Chinese companies to deliver electric cars in kits for assembly in the United States.

Chinese companies currently see great potential for building their brands.

Michael Dunne, managing director of ZoZo Go, a consulting firm specializing in the electric car industry in Asia, said the industry’s prospects were clear: “China will be the global dominator in electric car manufacturing.”

Liu Yi and Coral Yang contributed to the research.

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Indonesia’s Gojek needs all autos on its app to be electrical by 2030

Indonesia's Gojek wants all vehicles on its app to be electric by 2030

Indonesian ride hail app Gojek has announced plans to turn every car and motorcycle on its platform into an electric vehicle (EV) by 2030 in an ambitious tripartite sustainability strategy.

The company, dubbed the “Three Zeros” agenda, aims to achieve zero emissions, zero waste and no socio-economic barriers by the end of the decade, co-founder and co-CEO Kevin Aluwi told CNBC.

The 11-year-old company will invest in a number of EV pilot programs in Southeast Asia and introduce a “world’s first” in-app carbon offsetting feature. However, Aluwi said the plans would also require outside assistance.

“We will definitely use our money where our mouth is,” said Aluwi. “But it goes without saying that it is impossible for us to do this alone,” he continued, emphasizing the need for public and private collaboration to build the supporting infrastructure.

We will definitely put our money where our mouth is. But it goes without saying that it is impossible for us to drive this alone.

Kevin Aluwi

Co-founder and Co-CEO, Gojek

Gojek has already seen great interest from battery manufacturers, nickel suppliers and Indonesian authorities interested in supporting the transition to green energy in the world’s fourth largest country and the surrounding region, said Aluwi.

“Indonesia is one of the largest motorcycle haulage countries so there is a lot of interest from all types of parties and we see ourselves primarily as a facilitator to make this happen.”

The company also announced a number of social mobility initiatives, including the establishment of an employee-led council to advance corporate diversity, equality and inclusion programs and support the digitization of micro and small businesses. It also promised to only attend gender-specific panels for lecture events.

Aluwi said the plans would help Gojek remove some of the barriers to inclusivity that exist both within the company and in Indonesia as a whole.

“We’re very, very far from where we need to be if I can be brutally honest with ourselves. But I think our commitments are the first step in correcting that,” he said. “Indonesia is a very diverse and complex country when it comes to these issues.”

An Indonesian driver from the Gojek hail service and his passenger commute in Jakarta on March 5, 2021.

NurPhoto | Getty Images

The plans were announced on Friday in the company’s first sustainability report, which outlines the company’s environmental, social and government goals (ESG). The goals are to be announced and reviewed annually.

“It’s no longer about whether companies should report their sustainability impact,” said Allinettes Adigue, head of ASEAN at the Global Reporting Initiative, which benchmarks corporate and government ESG commitments, in the report’s press release .

“The issue now is whether the reports reported by companies are accurate, relevant and clearly communicate their economic, environmental and social impact,” he added.

The announcement follows news that Gojek will merge with Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia to form the multifunctional GoTo app.

An IPO is definitely an area, an activity, a milestone that we know is on the agenda at some point.

Kevin Aluwi

Co-founder and Co-CEO, Gojek

Under the combined company, the country’s two most valuable startups will reportedly aim for a valuation of up to $ 40 billion if they compete in the public markets against Southeast Asian hail giant Grab.

“An IPO is definitely an area, an activity, a milestone that we know will be on the agenda at some point,” said Aluwi, although it would not be limited in time.

Last month, SoftBank-Backed Grab announced that through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp. will go public. The company is valued at $ 39.6 billion – the largest blank check merger to date.

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Three Electrical S.U.V.s With Tesla in Their Sights

Three Electric S.U.V.s With Tesla in Their Sights

An electric trickle turns into a flood: by 2025, up to 100 new EV models will be in the showrooms. Heavyweights like Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford promise all-electric setups within a decade.

The end times of gasoline can almost be a fait accompli, save for one annoying problem: even with Tesla’s steps, we are still waiting for the first real EV sales hit, let alone a mass exodus of unleaded vehicles.

In 2014, Nissan only sold 30,200 Leafs, and that’s still the American record for any non-Tesla model. Ford routinely sells more than 800,000 F-Series pickups. A single gasoline sport utility vehicle, the Toyota RAV4, finds well over 400,000 buyers a year, compared to around 250,000 sales last year for all electric vehicles combined – 200,000 of which were Teslas.

Automakers insist that we are “that close” to a turning point. The market share of electric vehicles is expected to increase from just 1.7 percent in the previous year to up to 50 percent by 2032, said Scott Keogh, President and Chief Executive of Volkswagen of America. While Tesla captured 80 percent of the U.S. electric vehicle market in 2020, VW and other global giants – with internal combustion engine-based war crates and unmatched expertise in size and manufacturing – are well positioned to grab a piece of Tesla’s pie .

“There has never been a competitive consumer product with a market share of 80 percent,” said Keogh for a long time.

Globally, Volkswagen is poised to overtake Tesla as the world’s largest electric vehicle seller as early as next year, according to Deutsche Bank, with Europe and China being the key markets. In America, where the brand remains an outsider, VW and other older automakers are focusing on the stronghold of compact SUVs: models like the RAV4 that make around four million segment sales annually.

As always, the idea is to reduce the prices and charging times of electric vehicles while increasing the range until consumers no longer see any reason to stick to environmentally harmful gasoline models whose energy and operating costs exceed the plug-in alternatives.

Like the Rolling Stones who drive the Beatles forward, healthy competition will ultimately benefit all EV fans and creators. And when consumers see electric vehicles multiply in their neighbors’ driveways and take their first test drive, there’s no going back.

“If you drive one, you drive the future and that’s what people will want, not a debate,” Keogh said.

The latest hopefuls for electric SUVs to hit showrooms are the VW ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Volvo XC40 Recharge. The Nissan Ariya, the BMW iX and the Cadillac Lyriq are expected to arrive at the end of 2021 by next March. I drove the VW, Ford, and Volvo to see what could knock down Tesla’s Model Y SUV – or at least beat the 2014 Leaf.

Ford branded its fabled Mustang name on an electric SUV, igniting some boomers in the process. But the Mach-E appears to be Tesla’s Model Y’s most straightforward rival to date, not just in terms of price and performance, but also in terms of the Ford’s 300-mile maximum range.

Consumers have noticed: Ford sold 3,729 mach-es in February, its first full month of sales, and almost single-handedly reduced Tesla’s dominant EV stake from 80 percent to 69 percent. If Ford could keep that pace for a full year, the Mach-E would easily set a sales record for an EV that wasn’t made by Tesla.

Tesla’s 326-mile Model Y Long Range is still a few miles from every kilowatt-hour because of the automaker’s expertise in aerodynamics, engine and battery efficiency, and “simple” things that are anything but: the 4,416 pound curb weight removed on board undercuts the Ford by about £ 400. And Tesla rules the public cargo space with its Supercharger network, in which competitors – now with a potential infrastructure lift from the Biden administration – are fighting to catch up.

The Ford strikes back against the Dad-Bod Model Y with a sculpted exterior, a tech-savvy interior with superior materials and craftsmanship, and a feat of its own. With 346 horsepower from twin engines, the Mach-E Premium AWD I was driving shot to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. Even the new Shelby GT500 – at 760 horsepower the most powerful Mustang in history – won’t match the 3.5-second blast from 0 to 60 mph of this summer’s Mach-E GT Performance version.

The Shelby would of course put the Mach-E or Tesla to shame on any winding road. Still, because of the curvy stuff, the Mach-E is reasonably fun and glides with addictive boost and confidence.

A cinema-scale 15.5-inch touchscreen sneaks past the Tesla’s 15-inch unit. Like other electric vehicles, the Ford sends its presence below 20 mph, a throat-clearing hum to alert pedestrians. In the driver-selectable “Whisper” mode, the Ford would please the most stubborn librarian. Select the “Unbridled” mode and the Mach-E swaps wonderful silence for a revised sound with a faux engine: think of a V-8 that has been remixed by Kraftwerk. The soundtrack is apparently intended for people who need to be weaned from the burning beat of the gasoline, but it can be turned off with an on-screen switch.

EV buyers can whistle about the Ford’s price tag, which is just $ 36,495 or $ 48,300 for the extended-range AWD model. These prices include a $ 7,500 tax credit denied to Tesla EV (or General Motors EV) buyers because those automakers sold too many to qualify. Despite Tesla’s big defensive price cuts for 2021, the cheapest Mach-E with a range of 230 miles undercuts Tesla’s 244-mile standard range by $ 6,700. A Mach-E Premium AWD saves $ 2,900 versus a Model Y Long Range. In a surprisingly streamlined, compelling matchup with the Tesla, the government is credited with perhaps the most seductive perk of the Ford: a $ 7,500 discount.

No, Volkswagen is not changing its name to Voltwagen as the company briefly convinced some media and car fans about a bad marketing stunt. In terms of historical names, VW calls the ID.4 the most important model since the original Beetle. But where the Beetle was a revolutionary leader, the ID.4 feels like a trailer.

Based on my drive, the VW can easily exceed its 250 mile range with 275 miles in range. A 201-horsepower rear-wheel drive model rolls to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds. This is comparable to gasoline sports equipment like the Honda CR-V, but pokey by EV standards. Twin-engine, all-wheel drive models are coming later this year and promise 60 mph in less than six seconds.

The generic performance and design of the ID.4 comes from a company known for its fun German cars. The infotainment system is even more disappointing: the clunky, annoying touchscreen cannot touch the screen magic of Ford, Volvo or Tesla.

The VW’s fastest performance was achieved during a quick charge session at a target in New Jersey, where the 77-kilowatt-hour battery was refilled from 20 to 80 percent in an impressive 31 minutes. The growing network of Electrify America chargers is funded by VW’s court-ordered $ 2 billion fine for the diesel emissions scandal. And VW is offering ID.4 buyers indulgences with three years of free public fee.

Frugal virtues include a base price of $ 41,190, or $ 33,690 after the $ 7,500 tax break. That’s $ 2,800 less than the cheapest Mach-E. It’s also less money after credits than a smaller Chevrolet Bolt. The more powerful ID.4 with all-wheel drive starts at $ 37,370 after deduction.

But as Tesla’s Triumph and Chevy’s lukewarm bolts have proven, electrical success is more than an attractive price. VW is aggressively investing $ 80 billion in electric vehicle development, but the ID.4 feels less like a market splash and more like a toe in the water. We’ll see if VW got it wrong by not starting with a recognizable design that really blends its nostalgic, weedy past with today’s green virtues: the electric ID.Buzz Microbus, slated for release in 2023.

Volvo seems like a natural fit for electric vehicles. And the progressive brand brings us the XC40 Recharge, an electrified version of its gasoline XC40.

Charging is like the perfect dining table in a Shelter magazine: not sure why it costs so much, but you want it anyway.

The angular Scandinavian design of the Recharge surpasses any SUV in this group, as does its pretty interior. This includes soft nappa leather compared to the ascetic “vegan” materials used in many electric vehicles

The ride is similarly breezy, with 402 horses and a quicksilver flight of 4.7 seconds to 60 mph. Perhaps the biggest technical topic of conversation is Android Automotive OS: The Recharge (and Volvo’s electric Polestar 2) introduces a cloud-based Google operating system that works Like a Dream, with Google Maps, Search, an ultra-capable voice assistant and much more. (Don’t confuse this with the ubiquitous Android Auto, which simply mirrors phone apps on a car’s screen.)

Several major automakers, including GM and Ford, plan to make Android Automotive the nerve center of upcoming cars. If only the Volvo itself were that efficient.

The Recharge is an electron eater with a range of 208 miles that appears optimistic in real life. I drove the Recharge in cold New York weather, which explained some but not all of the hunger for performance: No matter how I flipped the throttle, the Volvo stayed at one pace 190 miles at best, covering about 2.4 miles for every kilowatt – Hour in batteries. I can get 3.6 miles per kilowatt hour with little effort in the Tesla Model Y and over 3.2 in the Ford.

The numbers from the Environmental Protection Agency confirm this: although the Tesla has practically the same battery size, it offers a maximum range of 326 miles, 118 more than the Volvo. The Recharge is pricey because of its intimate size too: $ 54,985 for the start and nearly $ 60,000 for the model I drove. This $ 7,500 tax break mitigates the blow. However, if the Volvo indulges bourgeois buyers, they must indulge in its lavish ways too.

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China’s Wuling Hongguang Mini EV launches Cabrio electrical convertible

China's Wuling Hongguang Mini EV launches Cabrio electric convertible

Wuling Motors unveiled a convertible model of its popular budget mini-electric car at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2021.

Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

SHANGHAI – General Motors’ China joint venture launches a miniature electric convertible under a budget brand that has grown in popularity over the past year.

The convertible, known as the Hongguang Mini EV Convertible, will begin mass production next year, according to a publication. Details of pricing and availability were not available at the time the vehicle was unveiled at this week’s Shanghai Auto Show.

The car is the latest in the popular Hongguang Mini EV line developed by General Motors’ joint venture with Wuling Motors and the state-owned SAIC Motor. GM China owns 44% and SAIC 50.1%, according to GM’s website.

The first Hongguang Mini EV launched in July with a starting price of just a few thousand US dollars. According to the company, more than 270,000 units were sold in 270 days.

This Mini EV was second only to Tesla’s Model 3 in terms of the number of new energy cars sold in China last year, climbing to first place in the first quarter according to the China Passenger Car Association.

Another new model of Hongguang Mini EV, the Macaron, has received more than 45,000 orders in just 10 days, according to a release.

General Motors and its joint ventures delivered more than 780,000 vehicles in China in the first quarter of 2021, with the Hongguang Mini EV accounting for around 9%, according to GM.