Tag: production

EV makers face money squeeze amid hovering battery, manufacturing prices

Post author By
Post date August 28, 2022

EV makers face cash squeeze amid soaring battery, production costs

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company’s plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

In the transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric, the fuel every automaker is after these days is cold hard cash.

Established automakers and startups alike are rolling out new battery-powered models in an effort to meet growing demand. Ramping up production of a new model was already a fraught and expensive process, but rising material costs and tricky regulations for federal incentives are squeezing coffers even further.

Prices of the raw materials used in many electric-vehicle batteries — lithium, nickel and cobalt — have soared over the last two years as demand has skyrocketed, and it may be several years before miners are able to meaningfully increase supply.

Complicating the situation further, new US rules governing EV buyer incentives will require automakers to source more of those materials in North America over time if they want their vehicles to qualify.

The result: new cost pressures for what was already an expensive process.

Automakers routinely spend hundreds of millions of dollars designing and installing tooling to build new high-volume vehicles — before a single new car is shipped. Nearly all global automakers now maintain hefty cash reserves of $20 billion or more. Those reserves exist to ensure that the companies can continue to work on their next new models if and when a recession (or a pandemic) takes a bite out of their sales and profits for a few quarters.

All that money and time can be a risky bet: If the new model doesn’t resonate with customers, or if manufacturing problems delay its introduction or compromise quality, the automaker might not make enough to cover what it spent.

For newer automakers, the financial risks to designing a new electric vehicle can be existential.

Take Tesla. When the automaker began preparations to launch its Model 3, CEO Elon Musk and his team planned a highly automated production line for the Model 3, with robots and specialized machines that reportedly cost well over a billion dollars. But some of that automation didn’t work as expected, and Tesla moved some final-assembly tasks to a tent outside its factory.

Tesla learned a lot of expensive lessons in the process. Musk said later called the experience of launching the Model 3 “production hell” and said it nearly brought Tesla to the brink of bankruptcy.

As newer EV startups ramp up production, more investors are learning that taking a car from design to production is capital-intensive. And in the current environment, where deflated stock prices and rising interest rates have made it harder to raise money than it was just a year or two ago, EV startups’ cash balances are getting close attention from Wall Street.

Here’s where some of the most prominent American EV startups of the last few years stand when it comes to cash on hand:

Rivian

Production of electric Rivian R1T pickup trucks on April 11, 2022 at the company’s plant in Normal, Ill.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

Rivian is by far the best-positioned of the new EV startups, with over $15 billion on hand as of the end of June. That should be enough to fund the company’s operations and expansion through the planned launch of its smaller “R2” vehicle platform in 2025, CFO Claire McDonough said during the company’s earnings call on Aug. 11.

Rivian has struggled to ramp up production of its R1-series pickup and SUV amid supply chain snags and early manufacturing challenges. The company burned about $1.5 billion in the second quarter, but it also said it plans to reduce its near-term capital expenditures to about $2 billion this year from $2.5 billion in its earlier plan to ensure it can meet its longer-term goals.

At least one analyst thinks Rivian will need to raise cash well before 2025: In a note following Rivian’s earnings report, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said that his bank’s model assumes Rivian will raise $3 billion via a secondary stock offering before the end of next year and another $3 billion via additional raises in 2024 and 2025.

Jonas currently has an “overweight” rating on Rivian’s stock, with a $60 price target. Rivian ended trading Friday at roughly $32 per share.

Lucid

People test drive Dream Edition P and Dream Edition R electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, September 28, 2021.

Caitlin O’Hara | Reuters

Luxury EV maker Lucid Group doesn’t have quite as much cash in reserve as Rivian, but it’s not badly positioned. It ended the second quarter with $4.6 billion in cash, down from $5.4 billion at the end of March. That’s enough to last “well into 2023,” CFO Sherry House said earlier this month.

Like Rivian, Lucid has struggled to ramp up production since launching its Air luxury sedan last fall. It’s planning big capital expenditures to expand its Arizona factory and build a second plant in Saudi Arabia. But unlike Rivian, Lucid has a deep-pocketed patron — Saudi Arabia’s public wealth fund, which owns about 61% of the California-based EV maker and would almost certainly step in to help if the company runs short of cash.

For the most part, Wall Street analysts were unconcerned about Lucid’s second-quarter cash burn. Bank of America’s John Murphy wrote that Lucid still has “runway into 2023, especially considering the company’s recently secured revolver [$1 billion credit line] and incremental funding from various entities in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.”

Murphy has a “buy” rating on Lucid’s stock and a price target of $30. He’s compared the startup’s potential future profitability to that of luxury sports-car maker Ferrari. Lucid currently trades for about $16 per share.

fisherman

People gather and take pictures after the Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV was revealed at Manhattan Beach Pier on November 16, 2021 in Manhattan Beach, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Unlike Rivian and Lucid, Fisker isn’t planning to build its own factory to construct its electric vehicles. Instead, the company founded by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker will use contract manufacturers — global auto-industry supplier Magna International and Taiwan’s Foxconn — to build its cars.

That represents something of a cash tradeoff: Fisker won’t have to spend nearly as much money up front to get its upcoming Ocean SUV into production, but it will almost certainly give up some profit to pay the manufacturers later on.

Production of the Ocean is scheduled to begin in November at an Austrian factory owned by Magna. Fisker will have considerable expenses in the interim — money for prototypes and final engineering, as well as payments to Magna — but with $852 million on hand at the end of June, it should have no trouble covering those costs.

RBC analyst Joseph Spak said following Fisker’s second-quarter report that the company will likely need more cash, despite its contract-manufacturing model — what he estimated to be about $1.25 billion over “the coming years.”

Spak has an “outperform” rating on Fisker’s stock and a price target of $13. The stock closed Friday at $9 per share.

Nikola

Nikola Motor Company

Source: Nikola Motor Company

Nikola was one of the first EV makers to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company has begun shipping its battery-electric Tre semitruck in small numbers, and plans to ramp up production and add a long-range hydrogen fuel-cell version of the Tre in 2023.

But as of right now, it probably doesn’t have the cash to get there. The company had a tougher time raising funds, following allegations from a short-seller, a stock price plunge and the ouster of its outspoken founder Trevor Milton, who is now facing federal fraud charges for statements made to investors.

Nikola had $529 million on hand as of the end of June, plus another $312 million available via an equity line from Tumim Stone Capital. That’s enough, CFO Kim Brady said during Nikola’s second-quarter earnings call, to fund operations for another 12 months — but more money will be needed before long.

“Given our target of keeping 12 months of liquidity on hand at the end of each quarter, we will continue to seek the right opportunities to replenish our liquidity on an ongoing basis while trying to minimize dilution to our shareholders,” Brady said. “We are carefully considering how we can potentially spend less without compromising our critical programs and reduce cash requirements for 2023.”

Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner estimates Nikola will need to raise between $550 million and $650 million before the end of the year, and more later on. He has a “hold” rating on Nikola with a price target of $8. The stock trades for $6 as of Friday’s close.

Lordstown

Lordstown Motors gave rides in prototypes of its upcoming electric endurance pickup truck on June 21, 2021 as part of its “Lordstown Week” event.

Michael Wayland/CNBC

Lordstown Motors is in perhaps the most precarious position of the lot, with just $236 million on hand as of the end of June.

Like Nikola, Lordstown saw its stock price collapse after its founder was forced out following a short-seller’s allegations of fraud. The company shifted away from a factory model to a contract-manufacturing arrangement like Fisker’s, and it completed a deal in May to sell its Ohio factory, a former General Motors plant, to Foxconn for a total of about $258 million.

Foxconn plans to use the factory to manufacture EVs for other companies, including Lordstown’s Endurance pickup and an upcoming small Fisker EV called the Pear.

Despite the considerable challenges ahead for Lordstown, Deutsche Bank’s Rosner still has a “hold” rating on the stock. But he’s not sanguine. He thinks the company will need to raise $50 million to $75 million to fund operations through the end of this year, despite its decision to limit the first production batch of the endurance to just 500 units.

“More importantly, to complete the production of this first batch, management will have to raise more substantial capital in 2023,” Rosner wrote after Lordstown’s second-quarter earnings report. And given the company’s difficulties to date, that won’t be easy.

“Lordstown would have to demonstrate considerable traction and positive reception for the endurance with its initial customers in order to raise capital,” he wrote.

Rosner rates Lordstown’s stock a “hold” with a price target of $2. The stock closed Friday at $2.06.

Tags Battery, Cash, Costs, Face, makers, production, soaring, squeeze

Health

Novavax Says U.S. Will Pause Funding for Manufacturing of Its Vaccine

Post author By
Post date August 6, 2021

WASHINGTON – Novavax, the Maryland company that won a federal $ 1.75 billion contract to develop and manufacture a coronavirus vaccine, said Thursday that the federal government will not fund further production of its vaccine until the company does has dispelled the concerns of the federal supervisory authorities about its work.

The company’s disclosure was made in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Trump administration agreed to purchase 110 million doses of vaccine from Novavax as part of its crash vaccine development program.

Although the company reported in June that its vaccine was 90 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 cases and 100 percent against serious illnesses, Novavax has been battling mass production of its product for months. His vaccine has not been approved for sale in the United States, and federal officials said it was unclear when or if it would.

Four people familiar with Novavax operations said the company has not yet been able to demonstrate that its production process complies with Food and Drug Administration standards. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive contractual issues.

In its SEC filing on Thursday, Novavax said, “The US government recently directed the company to prioritize coordination with the US Food and Drug Administration on the company’s analytical methods before engaging in additional US productions. and has further advised that the US government will not allocate additional funding to US production until such an agreement is reached. “

An official with the Department of Health and Human Services overseeing Novavax’s federal contract said the government wanted the company to step up its testing and quality controls. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations with the company.

Novavax said in a statement that the federal government is continuing to fund other ongoing work, including clinical trials. “We do not anticipate any impact on our funding agreement with the US government to support the overall development and production of 110 million doses of our vaccine candidate,” the company said.

The company’s manufacturing problems are on top of lost production at a government-funded vaccine-making factory in Baltimore operated by Emergent BioSolutions.

Federal regulators suspended production at that facility for more than three months this year until the company resolved quality control issues, including a failure to prevent contamination that ruined tens of millions of cans. The plant had made Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines but now only makes doses for Johnson & Johnson.

Chris Hamby contributed to the coverage.

Tags funding, Novavax, Pause, production, Vaccine

World News

Lordstown Motors shares soar after new chairwoman says manufacturing plans stay on monitor

Post author By
Post date June 16, 2021

The Lordstown Motors Corp. Endurance electric pickup truck sits on stage during an unveiling event in Lordstown, Ohio, U.S., on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Matthew Hatcher | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Embattled electric truck company Lordstown Motors has enough funding to operate through May 2022 and remains on track to begin limited production of its Endurance pickup in late September following an executive shake-up that ousted the start-up’s CEO and chairman, executives said Tuesday.

The company’s new chairwoman, Angela Strand, called it a “new day” for the aspiring automaker, which raised bankruptcy concerns after warning investors last week that it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern in the next year.

Shares of Lordstown Motors soared Tuesday afternoon by as much as 15% before leveling off at about $10 a share, up 8%. The company’s stock price has roughly been cut in half this year, including an 18.8% decline on Monday.

“It’s a new day at Lordstown and there are no disruptions, and there will be no disruptions, to our day-to-day operations,” Strand said during a webcast for the Automotive Press Association. “We remain committed to inspiring, building and maintaining confidence and transparency in our relationships with each other at Lordstown and, very importantly, with our customers, our partners, our suppliers and our shareholders.”

The comments come a day after Lordstown’s chairman and CEO, Steve Burns, and CFO Julio Rodriguez resigned from the company after the board released a summary of an internal investigation into claims made by short seller Hindenburg Research that Lordstown misled investors.

The company said the internal investigation found Hindenburg’s report “is, in significant respects, false and misleading.” The probe, however, did identify “issues regarding the accuracy of certain statements regarding” Lordstown’s preorders, specifically the seriousness of the orders and who was making them.

Commerce secretary assured U.S. can enhance semiconductor manufacturing

Post author By
Post date May 26, 2021

Trade Minister Gina Raimondo on Tuesday expressed confidence in the efforts of the Biden government to increase semiconductor manufacturing in the United States

In an interview with CNBC’s Mad Money, Raimondo said the global chip scarcity that has rocked a number of industries shows the need for America to increase domestic manufacturing capacity and become a leader again. Asian countries, especially Taiwan, dominate the industry.

“We’ll make it. There’s no option,” Raimondo told host Jim Cramer. “When the semiconductor supply chain is disrupted, the economy is disrupted.”

“They are in your dishwasher, your car, your computer, your headset, your phone and your military equipment. So, yes, we will do it,” she added, describing it as an economic and national safety imperative.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y, put together the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which, among other things, aims to provide $ 52 billion to support semiconductor manufacturing in the country.

While Democrats and Republicans still have disagreements over certain parts of the bill, there is bipartisan support for addressing the issues it addresses.

Raimondo said she hopes it passes the upper chamber “in the coming days,” offering an optimistic timeline similar to Schumer. “That can’t wait,” said Raimondo, who served as governor of Rhode Island before heading the commercial division.

“This requires an emergency appropriation … and I believe Congress has the will to do it,” she added.

Raimondo also addressed the possible infrastructure proposal that a group of Senate Republicans would like to offer as an antidote to President Joe Biden’s plan. Raimondo participated in some negotiations in Washington.

“I don’t know what’s on the deal. We’ll have to see if it’s real, but the fact that we’re still talking and they may come back with a $ 1 trillion deal is certainly progress.” said she said.

Tags boost, Commerce, confident, production, secretary, Semiconductor

Business

Lordstown slashes ’21 manufacturing plans, says extra capital wanted

Post author By
Post date May 24, 2021

Lordstown Motors | Reuters

Shares of Lordstown Motors tumbled more than 9% during after-hours trading after the company slashed its production guidance for the year and said it will need to raise additional capital.

In a statement Monday, Lordstown CEO Steve Burns said the company has “encountered some challenges” as it prepares to begin production of an electric pickup truck called the Endurance in late September.

Lordstown said it expects to produce, at best, half the number of vehicles it previously forecast for this year, according to a release for its first-quarter earnings.

During a call Monday with investors, Burns said the production cut, from about 2,200 vehicles to 1,000 vehicles this year, is based on the company not receiving any additional funding. He said if the company receives funding, it could reinstate its previous production guidance.

Lordstown also said its projected expenses will be between $335 million and $350 million, up from between $220 million and $235 million. It also lowered its forecast for year-end liquidity from at least $200 million to between $50 million and $75 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Burns cited “significantly higher than expected expenditures for parts/equipment, expedited shipping costs, and expenses associated with third-party engineering resources” as reasons for the increase in expenses.

“We secured a number of critical parts and equipment in advance, so we are still in a position to ramp the Endurance, but we do need additional capital to execute on our plans,” he said. “We believe we have several opportunities to raise capital in various forms and have begun those discussions.”

The changes are the latest blow to Ohio-based Lordstown. Shares of the aspiring automaker tumbled last week after Wolfe Research downgraded the stock to underperform with a $1 price target following the debut of the Ford F-150 electric pickup, a competitor to the Lordstown Endurance.

Without naming Ford, Burns said EV pickups are more mainstream following a “watershed moment” last week. He said Lordstown continues to have first-mover advantage. Ford’s electric F-150 is expected to go into production next spring.

“We are on par with somebody like that at this point, and we’re getting to market faster,” he said. “We want as many people buying our vehicle while we’re the only game in town. We want to be on version 2.0 when somebody comes out with version 1.0.”

In March, Lordstown also confirmed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had requested information regarding claims by short seller Hindenburg Research that it misled investors.

Hindenburg accused Lordstown in a March report of using “fake” orders to raise capital for the Endurance. The short seller claimed the pickup was years away from production; however, Lordstown maintains it’s on track to start making the vehicle in September.

Burns on Monday reiterated the company is continuing to cooperate with the SEC.

Lordstown went public through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in October. It is among a growing group of electric vehicle start-ups going public through deals with SPACs, which have become a popular way of raising money on Wall Street because they have a more streamlined regulatory process than traditional initial public offerings.

The company plans to produce the Endurance at General Motors’ former Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio, which it purchased in 2019.

Tags Capital, Lordstown, needed, plans, production, slashes

Business

U.S. Home lawmakers search Boeing, FAA data after manufacturing issues

Post author By
Post date May 18, 2021

U.S. House lawmakers seek Boeing, FAA records after production problems

A Boeing logo is on the fuselage of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft manufactured by Boeing Co. on display ahead of the opening of the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, UK on Sunday 13 July 2014.

Simon Dawson / Bloomberg

Two key House Democrats are soliciting records from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration after discovering production problems with the company’s 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Chair of the Transportation Committee, and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., Chair of the Aviation Sub-Committee, requested a list and descriptions of FAA inspections at the 737 manufacturing facility in Renton, Wash., Since 2017 and the Dreamliner South Carolina factory since 2015, according to a letter they sent to Dave Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, Tuesday that has been audited by CNBC.

Among other things, they requested records of supervision, the results of audits and the number of Boeing employees assigned to perform supervisory tasks at each location.

“While it is important that Boeing continue to voluntarily report such issues to the FAA, we are concerned that even after the longest civil airliner establishment in history, persistence of quality control and manufacturing defects – in two different cases – aircraft programs – remain “wrote the legislature. “This naturally raises questions about whether the FAA adequately oversees Boeing’s commercial aircraft programs, as well as Boeing’s internal quality controls and safety culture.”

The request comes less than a year after a report by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure informed Boeing about the design and development of the 737 Max and the FAA for oversight failures. Two of these planes crashed between October 2018 and March 2019, killing all 346 people on the flights.

Boeing said last year it found the wrong clearance in some areas of the 787 fuselage. After inspections and a five-month break, delivery of the wide-body aircraft resumed in March. Regardless, an electrical issue with Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max grounded more than 100 aircraft in April, despite the FAA approving a solution last week.

Legislators asked for replies by June 8, but said that “continued production of these records will be considered if you cannot fully complete your answer by that date”.

A Boeing spokesman said the company is looking into the request.

The FAA did not respond immediately.

The agency announced last month that it was reviewing Boeing’s process for minor design changes, as well as the causes of the electrical problem on the 737 Max. This problem is not related to the system involved in the two major crashes.

Tags Boeing, FAA, House, lawmakers, Problems, production, records, Seek

Business

China Is Set to Rule Electrical Automotive Manufacturing

Post author By
Post date May 4, 2021

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.

Tags car, China, electric, production, Rule, set

Business

TV Manufacturing Tailored to Climate the Pandemic. Now What?

Post author By
Post date April 28, 2021

TV Production Adapted to Weather the Pandemic. Now What?

“Law & Order: SVU” has been a merit in the Playbill biographies of stage actors for many years, but when Broadway closed it became an even more important part of their work diet – also because flying into the stars was made difficult by quarantine rules, and in part out of a conscious effort to help the New York theater community.

“When everything was shut down, we all said, ‘What do we do now? “Said Adriane Lenox, a Tony Prize winner who played a judge on SVU just a few months after testing positive for the virus at the start of the pandemic. Ms. Lenox said, like many other actors, she would have to get unemployed at some point tried to make ends meet by searching for jobs like dog walking on sites like ZipRecruiter.

According to Warren Leight, her showrunner, she was one of more than 100 local stage actors to appear on the show this year.

“I just called early on, ‘Let’s make this the year the first pool of actors we go to is the Broadway actors, the off-Broadway actors,” he said. “It really seems to be the right thing to do. From a logistical point of view, it is easier to rent on site. “

The effects of the pandemic were felt most clearly in cities like Los Angeles and New York, which at least during the prepandemic period were home to about two-thirds of the country’s film, television and theater assignments. In New York City, for example, officials have estimated that employment in the arts, entertainment and leisure sectors fell 66 percent from December 2019 to December 2020.

But there are signs of recovery. According to FilmLA, the official film bureau for the city and county of Los Angeles, television shooting days in Los Angeles had rebounded to around 62 percent from 2019 by the end of last year. After a winter hiatus when a California outbreak hobbled, TV production in the city is nearing normal pre-pandemic levels, FilmLA reported last week, although other sectors of the entertainment industry are lagging behind.

Tags Adapted, Pandemic, production, Weather

World News

Tesla TSLA Q1 2021 car manufacturing and supply numbers

Post author By
Post date April 4, 2021

Tesla TSLA Q1 2021 vehicle production and delivery numbers

Tesla has just reported its vehicle production and delivery numbers in the first quarter for 2021. A total of 184,800 vehicles were delivered and 180,338 cars were produced.

Analysts had expected Tesla to deliver around 168,000 vehicles as of April 1, according to FactSet estimates. The estimates were between 145,000 and 188,000 deliveries.

Deliveries in the first quarter surpassed Tesla’s previous record of 180,570 deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2020.

All of the electric vehicles he produced were Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossover SUVs during the quarter, and none of the more expensive Model S sedans and Model X SUVs were made.

2,020 vehicles of the models S and X were delivered from stock, which, however, only corresponds to 1% of the total deliveries. In a statement, Tesla wrote that the company is “now in the early stages of ramp-up” for updated versions of the S and X with “new equipment installed and tested in the first quarter.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said in his last report on January 27th: “We were able to promote the Plaid Model S and X – Model S will be delivered in February and Model X a little later.” He added, “The Model S plaid, we’re in production right now.”

The S Plaid model is a luxury sedan that the company promises to go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds and seat up to seven people with third-row seating. What is important to Tesla’s automotive margins is that the S and X models have a higher average retail price than the S and Y models. The Model S plaid costs between $ 79,990 and $ 149,990, according to Tesla’s website.

However, Tesla’s operations for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 were ultimately affected by a fire at its Fremont, California facility. Temporary closings, which Musk attributed to shortages of parts, a major chip shortage in the industry, problems with port capacity and the ongoing pandemic.

Tesla’s most recent shipments were more than 100% higher than the same period last year when the company first began shipping and mass producing the Model Y. However, Tesla Q1 shipments were up a little more than 2% vehicles from the quarter through 2020 when Tesla shipped 180,570 vehicles.

Deliveries are closest to Tesla’s reported sales.

During the company’s latest earnings call in 2021, Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said, “Especially for the first quarter, our volumes will have the benefit of an early Model Y ramp in Shanghai. However, S and X production will be discontinued due to the transition to new revised products. “

At an annual general meeting in 2020, CEO Elon Musk announced to shareholders that he expects deliveries to hit an implied range between 477,750 and 514,500 cars for the year. Tesla hit the mid-range of that window, shipping 499,550 cars for the year, the best sales volume ever.

Musk and Kirkhorn declined to provide specific guidance on deliveries in 2021 during that call, but said they would provide more clarity in the second quarter. Kirkhorn said on the conference call, “We continue to expect a long-term volume CAGR of 50%, which we could significantly exceed in 2021.” That goal was reiterated in the same appeal by Tesla’s then President of the Automotive Industry, Jerome Guillen. (Guillen has since taken on the role of President of Heavy Trucking.)

Fans and critics will both watch whether new battery-electric vehicles entering the market undermine Tesla’s lead in this category or have a more negative impact on internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicle sales. Startups and major automakers are introducing more EV models than ever before.

On March 29, Jeffries cut his price target for Tesla from $ 775 to $ 700. Analyst Philippe Houchois wrote in a note:

“Legacy-free 30-50% net growth and double-digit margin potential still support high multipliers, but Tesla is no longer unique as an EV game with preferential access to capital. Part of the edge began to erode, but slowly and Tesla is still leading on multiple fronts, from software to design to manufacturing, speed of execution and direct sales. “

– CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to the coverage.

Tags delivery, Numbers, production, Tesla, TSLA, vehicle

Business

OPEC and Its Allies Agree toGradual Will increase in Oil Manufacturing

Post author By
Post date April 1, 2021

OPEC and Its Allies Agree toGradual Increases in Oil Production

OPEC and its allies, including Russia, announced on Thursday that they would gradually increase oil production over the next three months.

By agreeing to modest increases in production, Saudi Arabia appears to have given in to pressure from Russia and other manufacturers to increase production. They want to capitalize on what they see as a likely growing global thirst for oil as economies grow slowly after a pandemic.

The group known as OPEC Plus has withheld eight million barrels from the market every day.

On that occasion, the Saudis decided to “follow the consensus of the members,” said Helima Croft, commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank.

A call from the new US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday to Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister, could also have had an impact, although the Saudi official denied that the oil markets had been discussed.

“We reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation to provide consumers with affordable and reliable sources of energy,” Ms. Granholm wrote on Twitter.

Under the agreement, OPEC Plus will increase production by 350,000 barrels per day in both May and June and by 441,000 barrels per day in July. Over the same period, Saudi Arabia will gradually roll out further cuts of one million barrels a day that it has made voluntarily.

Prince Abdulaziz said during a post-meeting press conference that OPEC Plus wanted to test the increase in production but would still be able to change plans if demand did not materialize.

“We can freeze; we can gain weight; we can lose weight, ”he said.

For the time being, the oil market has accepted the prospect of increases that would be less than 1 percent of global consumption per month. Larry Goldstein, an oil analyst with the Energy Policy Research Foundation, said the approach to easing the cuts was “very modest and conservative” and would tend to prop up prices in the coming months.

Ms. Croft also said OPEC’s willingness to increase production is seen as a vote of confidence in the recovery of the global economy.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.6 percent to $ 64.26 a barrel on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3 percent to $ 60.94 a barrel.

In business today

Updated

March 31, 2021, 6:27 p.m. ET

Prince Abdulaziz was the main vocalist for reluctance to increase production and warned of the risk of flooding a still weak market. Some analysts also say the Saudis are aiming for higher price levels.

In remarks at the beginning of the meeting, the prince appeared to be advocating maintaining current production restrictions, which keep an estimated eight million barrels of oil per day, or about 9 percent of global consumption, out of the market.

“The reality remains that the global picture is nowhere near uniform and the recovery is nowhere near complete,” said the prince, who chairs the group’s meeting known as OPEC Plus.

The reintroduction of a national lockdown by France announced on Wednesday underscores the ongoing doubts about the recovery from the pandemic and the rising number of cases in the United States.

However, other manufacturers, including Russia and the United Arab Emirates, have pushed for production to increase.

At the beginning of the meeting, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Co-Chairman of OPEC Plus, said the market has “improved significantly” since it met last month. He estimated that demand now exceeded supply by about two million barrels a day, a deficit that would lead to a rapid depletion of inventories and potentially higher prices.

Prince Abdulaziz emphasized that he had a good relationship with Mr Novak – a big difference from a year ago when the two countries clashed in a market-breaking price war.

“We talk to each other more often than to our own families,” said the prince.

Tags Agree, Allies, increases, Oil, OPEC, production, toGradual

Rivian

Lucid

fisherman

Nikola

Lordstown

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro