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Ford invests $1 billion in German electrical car plant

GEORGES GOBET | AFP | Getty Images

Ford is investing $ 1 billion in an electric vehicle production facility in Cologne. The European branch of the automotive giant is committed to going all-in for electric vehicles in the coming years.

In the plans announced on Wednesday morning, Ford said that its entire range of passenger cars in Europe would be “emission-free, fully electric or plug-in hybrid” by mid-2026 and an “all-electric” offering by 2030.

By investing in Cologne, the company is updating an existing assembly plant and converting it into a facility that focuses on the production of electric vehicles.

“Today’s announcement to rebuild our plant in Cologne, where we have been operating in Germany for 90 years, is one of the most significant that Ford has made in over a generation,” said Stuart Rowley, President of Ford of Europe in a statement .

“It underscores our commitment to Europe and a modern future, with electric vehicles at the heart of our growth strategy,” added Rowley.

The company also wants its commercial vehicle segment in Europe to be emission-free, plug-in hybrid or fully electric by 2024.

A “transformative” decade

With governments around the world announcing plans to move away from diesel and gasoline vehicles, Ford, along with several other major automakers, is looking to expand its electric offering and challenge companies like Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Earlier this week, Jaguar Land Rover announced that its Jaguar brand will be fully electric by 2025. The company, which belongs to Tata Motors, also said its Land Rover segment will introduce six “all-electric variants” over the next 5 years.

South Korean automaker Kia will launch its first dedicated electric vehicle this year. The German Volkswagen Group is investing around 35 billion euros in battery-electric vehicles and aims to bring around 70 fully electric models onto the market by 2030.

Last month, the CEO of Daimler told CNBC that the automotive industry was “in the midst of a change”.

“In addition to the things that we know well – to be honest, building the most coveted cars in the world – there are two technological trends on which we are doubling down: electrification and digitization,” Ola Källenius told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.

The Stuttgart-based company has “invested billions in these new technologies,” he added, explaining that they would “drive our path to carbon-free driving.” This decade, he continued, was “transformative”.

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Electrical car market and shares

India’s push into electric vehicles opens up opportunities for companies in ancillary areas like battery manufacturing, according to an analyst at diversified financial services firm Motilal Oswal.

The move towards electric vehicles is “inevitable” both globally and in India, where higher fuel prices can make owning electricity-powered cars comparatively more affordable, Siddhartha Khemka, research director for retailers, told CNBCs on Monday “Street Signs Asia”. “”

“Adoption will increase once you have the infrastructure,” he said.

There are two basic types of electric vehicles: those based on batteries and hybrid vehicles that use both batteries and plug into an external power source such as a charging station.

See three stocks

Most of the excitement in India’s electric vehicle sector is in side rooms where companies partner with global players, many of whom are keen to enter the lucrative market, according to Khemka.

“On the one hand you have the battery manufacturers who want to develop the battery for the electric vehicles, and on the other hand companies like Motherson Sumi who are involved in the electric part of the vehicles,” he said, adding: “You are getting a growing share of the ( Electric vehicles). “

Khemka said Motilal Oswal prefers Motherson Sumi and Exide Industries, which are up 29% and 11% respectively since the close on Monday.

Motherson Sumi works with automakers around the world in areas such as wiring harnesses, rearview mirrors, cockpits, bumpers, and more. Exide sells lead-acid batteries for automotive and industrial applications.

On the first weekend of 2021 in Kolkata, West Bengal, a lot of traffic and crowds were observed outside the Alipore Zoological Gardens.

Jit Chattopadhyay | SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

Boost from Tesla

The EV sector in South Asia’s largest economy should get a boost from Tesla.

The US company founded Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited last month with a registered office in the Bengaluru technology center in Karnataka, Reuters reported. The newscast reported on Sunday that a state government document claimed that Tesla would open an electric car manufacturing facility in Karnataka.

CEO Elon Musk previously said on Twitter that Tesla cars would be available in the country starting this year.

India, for its part, is trying to reduce its reliance on oil and also reduce air pollution. That can boost the thrust in electric vehicles. In the last annual budget, the finance minister announced a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to remove old vehicles that contribute to the country’s poor air quality.

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Business

Semiconductor scarcity causes Ford and Nissan to chop automobile manufacturing

A Ford Escape Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) undergoes a final inspection during production at the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on Tuesday, April 28, 2015.

Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Ford Motor and Nissan Motor on Friday confirmed they were reducing vehicle production at plants in the US and Japan due to a semiconductor shortage, indicating growing concerns in the global auto industry in 2021.

Ford will shut down an SUV plant in Kentucky next week while Nissan is cutting production at a plant in Japan. Both companies said they are working closely with suppliers to resolve the situation and monitor for additional impacts.

Automakers and suppliers warned of a semiconductor shortage late last year after vehicle demand rose faster than expected after a two-month shutdown of production facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Semiconductors are extremely important components of new vehicles for everything from infotainment systems to other more traditional parts like power steering. They are also easily used in consumer electronics.

German automaker Volkswagen announced last month it had adjusted production at plants in China, North America and Europe due to a lack of semiconductor shipments, according to Reuters. America’s largest automaker, General Motors, has not had to cut production, but the company is closely monitoring the situation, spokesman David Barnas said.

“We are aware of increased demand for semiconductor microchips as the auto industry continues to recover around the world,” he said in a statement sent via email. “Our supply chain organization works closely with our supply base to find solutions to our suppliers’ semiconductor needs and to reduce the impact on GM production.”

Ford’s affected plant, the Louisville Assembly Plant, builds the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair SUVs and employs around 3,900 hourly workers. According to Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker, due to the shortage, it will be postponed to another planned one-week shutdown later in the year due to the shortage.

“We are working closely with suppliers to address potential production restrictions related to the global semiconductor shortage,” she said in a statement sent via email.

The affected Nissan plant, the Japanese Oppama plant, is building the Note, a small car that is not sold in the United States. Lloryn Love-Carter, a Nissan spokeswoman in the US, said the company’s domestic production was not affected by the semiconductor shortage.

“We are working closely with our supplier partners to monitor the situation and assess the potential impact on our operations in North America,” she said in a statement sent via email.

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World News

Tesla TSLA This autumn 2020 car manufacturing and deliveries report

Tesla said on Saturday that it delivered 180,570 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, beating the previous record and Wall Street expectations. The electric car maker produced 179,757 Vehicles in total.

For the year, Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, slightly missing the latest forecast of 500,000 vehicles.

At an annual general meeting earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk announced to shareholders that he expects deliveries to reach an implicit range between 477,750 and 514,500 cars by 2020 despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The fourth quarter numbers set a new record for Musk’s auto business, which hit its best-ever level in the third quarter of 2020 with deliveries of 139,300.

According to a consensus among analysts polled by FactSet, Wall Street expects Tesla to report 174,000 vehicle deliveries in the last three months in the fourth quarter. The estimates ranged from 151,000 at the low end to 184,000 at the high end and included projections released between October and mid-December.

In the fourth quarter, Tesla delivered 161,650 Model 3 and Y vehicles and produced 163,660 such vehicles. The automaker also delivered 18,920 S and X models and produced 16,097 of them.

For the year, Tesla shipped 442,511 Model 3 and Y vehicles while 454,932 vehicles were produced. It delivered 57,039 Model S and X vehicles, while 54,805 such vehicles were produced.

In its quarterly reports, Tesla does not split the delivery and production numbers by region. Tesla is also combining delivery numbers for its older Model S and Model X electric cars, as well as newer, more popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

However, Tesla observers can get some understanding of these segments from reports on light vehicle production published by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Automakers are required to report to NHTSA the number of vehicles they have made for sale in the U.S. per quarter. Production numbers refer to the make, model, model year, and powertrain of a particular vehicle that each automaker produces for the US market through the end of each quarter.

According to these reports, analyzed by CNBC, Tesla manufactured 66,175 of its 2020 Model 3 electric sedans and 46,773 of its 2020 Model Y crossover SUVs for the domestic US market alone in the first nine months of 2020.

By the third quarter of the year, Tesla was manufacturing more US models for 2020 than Model 3 for US drivers for 2020. Tesla began producing its crossover SUV for Model Y in large numbers for 2020 in the first quarter of 2020.

According to reports from NHTSA Light Vehicle Production, Tesla only manufactured 119 of its 2020 Ys for sale in the U.S. market in the fourth quarter of 2019 – but 29,216 of its 2020 Ys for customers in the third quarter alone. This equates to 28,071 2020 Model 3 in the first quarter and 22,667 of its 2020 Model 3 in the third quarter for the US market.

(Prior to release, NHTSA hadn’t released U.S. fourth-quarter production numbers for Tesla.)

In the course of 2020, Tesla was able to increase vehicle production and deliveries by ramping up production of the Model Y, successfully operating a new automobile plant in Shanghai and bringing in new suppliers of battery cells (together with its long-term partner Panasonic) to get more out of the high-voltage battery packs doing that powers his electric cars.

Tesla announced on Saturday that production of the Model Y has started in Shanghai and shipments of the Model Y Made In China are expected to begin shortly.

Musk has announced that he plans to increase Tesla’s vehicle sales from around 500,000 in 2020 to 20 million a year over the next decade. Plans for a $ 25,000 electric vehicle, Cybertruck, Semi, and the redesigned Roadster are in the works.

After Tesla’s Model S unveiling brought in higher than expected pre-orders in 2016, Musk said the company plans to produce 500,000 cars a year at the Fremont plant by the end of 2018. He also said Tesla would produce 800,000 to 1 million cars a year in Fremont by 2020, then reiterate the target in 2018 with a slight hedge that it could look closer to 700,000 to 800,000 a year in Fremont. The company has apparently not yet achieved this goal in California.

Looking ahead to 2021, Tesla is building new factories in Austin (Texas) and Brandenburg (Germany) to increase production and sales volumes, among other things. Musk warned shareholders on the company’s latest earnings statement that it could take 12 to 24 months to reach full capacity in new factories once commissioned – significantly slower than what Tesla achieved in Shanghai.

With Tesla facing a larger number of competitors in luxury and lower-cost segments around the world, IHS Markit predicts that EV sales will account for 10.2%, or 9.4 million, of the nearly 92.3 million vehicles expected to be sold worldwide in 2024 .

Correction: Tesla slightly missed its target for annual shipments, with the car company producing 179,757 Total vehicles in the fourth quarter. In an earlier version of this story, the annual target and fourth quarter production numbers were incorrectly stated due to processing errors.

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Business

EV start-up Canoo unveils new automobile forward of Nasdaq debut

Canoo’s van – known as a multi-purpose delivery vehicle (MPDV) due to its equipment options – is designed for commercial customers.

Canoo

Electric vehicle start-up Canoo unveiled a new van on Thursday ahead of its public debut on Nasdaq next week.

The futuristic-looking van, known as a multi-purpose delivery vehicle (MPDV) due to its equipment options, is designed for everything from last-mile deliveries to food trucks, according to the California company. It is expected to start at around $ 33,000.

“There are many use cases that this vehicle can perform,” said Tony Aquila, chairman of Canoo, a major investor in the company, during a video reveal of the MPDV. “We wanted it to look very chic and modern and at the same time be very affordable.”

Production of the vehicle is scheduled to begin in 2022 and start in 2023. The company did not disclose any specific production plans, but previously announced a strategic relationship with auto supplier and contract manufacturer Magna International.

Such commercial vehicles are expected to be a major driver of the sales of profitable electric vehicles for the automotive industry. It’s a segment that startups and older automakers want to get into quickly in the years to come. Ford Motor, which leads commercial vehicle sales, plans to release an electric vehicle in 2021, followed by an electric version of its F-150 pickup truck the following year.

Interior of the Canoo delivery van, also known as the multipurpose delivery vehicle or MPVD.

Canoo

Canoo said the MPDV will come in two sizes with different EV ranges and battery sizes. The company says the smaller van, known as MPDV1, is expected to range between 130 miles and 230 miles, while the larger van, MPDV2, is between 90 miles and 190 miles based on battery sizes. Canoo takes reservations and refundable deposits of USD 100 for the vehicles on its website.

Canoo is part of a wave of new speculative EV start-ups that are planning to enter the market through reverse mergers with special purpose vehicles, also known as blank check companies, after the IPO. The company announced its merger agreement with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. in August. known.

Canoo is expected to be listed as “GOEV” on Tuesday after a general meeting on the Nasdaq to approve the merger on Monday. The deal is expected to provide Canoo with approximately $ 600 million to support the production and launch of electric vehicles.

Hennessy’s shares fell 10% to around $ 18 on Thursday lunchtime. The stock is still up around 69% since the deal with Canoo was announced on Aug. 18.

This is Canoo’s second planned vehicle. The first was a smaller, pill-shaped vehicle that was more intended for consumers. It is expected to be available via a company’s member-only vehicle service from 2022, according to Canoo.

During the vehicle reveal on Thursday, the company also teased a two-sheet car and pickup truck.

Correction: This story has been updated to take into account that Canoo’s expected ticker symbol is “GOEV”. The company had previously announced a ticker symbol for “CNOO”.