SOME WORDS ABOUT BATTERIES
Ford needs batteries
Ford Motor needs batteries for its electric vehicles more than semiconductor chips, CEO Jim Farley told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday. His comments come after the Detroit automaker shut down customer reservations for an upcoming electric version of the F-150 after they hit 200,000 units, which is more than double Ford's annual production capacity for the vehicle. The electric F-150 Lightning is scheduled to go on sale in the spring.
Source: CNBC
General Motors building supply chain for batteries
To reach $90 billion in electric vehicle revenue by 2030, General Motors Co. is continuing to grow a North American-focused supply chain for its coming EVs and on Thursday revealed two new partners in that mission. First, GM has formed a supply partnership for rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for electric motors from MP Materials, owner and operator of the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility, which is claimed to be "the only rare earth mining and processing site of scale in North America." There's no capital investment from GM involved in this supply partnership.
Source: The Detroit News
Volkswagen
The Volkswagen Group announces plans to invest $100 billion in new automotive technology as the central part of a strategy that aims to make it the world's leading manufacturer of battery-electric vehicles with the next five years. In an annual budget update made public by the Volkswagen Group supervisory board, the German automaker says the investment in a wide range of technologies, including electrification, digitization, robotic production and mobility services, will amount to 56% of the company's overall expenditure, which stands at $180 billion through 2026.
Source: WardsAuto
CDK DROPS CLAIMS IN ARIZONA DEALERSHIP DATA LAW CASE
CDK Global Inc. agreed to drop its legal challenge to a state law in Arizona that gives auto retailers more control of data inside dealership management systems, saying the company instead will focus on its software products. U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow last week signed an order dismissing CDK's claims in the case following a stipulation by the parties, including CDK and DMS rival Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, which intervened in the case, according to a court filing. Privately held Reynolds and Reynolds Co. is the sole remaining plaintiff in the case. The two DMS giants brought the lawsuit in 2019.
Source: Automotive News
MILLENNIALS OVERTAKE BOOMERS
Gen X as Biggest Buyers of Pickup Trucks in U.S. for First Time
Millennials, a generation that some disregarded as not being interested in driving, have rapidly become the largest generation of new car buyers in the U.S. While it's traditional for each generation to eventually overtake the previous one, Millennials - born between 1977 and 1994 - have done it at an "astonishing" rate, according to Tyson Jominy, J.D. Power vice president of data & analytics.
Source: CNBC
GM HALTS CORVETTE OUTPUT AFTER TORNADO CAUSES FIRE AT KENTUCKY PLANT
General Motors' Chevrolet Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky., will be down this week for repairs after a tornado started a fire at the plant early Saturday, the automaker said. Several tornadoes tore through six states Friday and Saturday, killing more than 90 people and causing catastrophic damage, The New York Times reports. GM said first and second shifts at the factory would be canceled the week of Dec. 13 as "as our trained teams work to get tooling, equipment, and the facility space up to standard."
Source: Automotive News
TOYOTA, IN REVERSAL, SAYS IT WILL SHIFT MORE RAPIDLY TO EVS
Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday stepped up its commitment to battery electric vehicles, saying it would have 30 EV models available by 2030 and aimed to sell 3.5 million battery EVs globally by 2030. Toyota also said that 100% of the vehicles in its luxury Lexus brand would be EVs globally by 2035. The Lexus brand aims to have battery EVs account for 100% of total sales in Europe, North America and China by 2030, Toyota said.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
CANADA PROPOSES DEAL TO ALIGN ELECTRIC VEHICLE CREDITS WITH U.S.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has put forward "a number of solutions" for resolving its complaint over a proposed U.S. tax incentive on electric vehicles made only by unionized American workers. Canada has slammed the tax credit as a violation of the North American trade pact between Canada, U.S. and Mexico, saying it amounts to unraveling five decades of integration in the auto sector. Trudeau, speaking Monday in Ottawa, said one option is to align electric-vehicle incentives in Canada and the U.S. "to make sure that there's no slippage or no unfair advantages on one side or the other."
Source: Bloomberg
TOYOTA EXTENDS PRODUCTION STOPPAGES IN JAPAN AS PARTS RUN SHORT
Toyota Motor Corp said it would extend stoppages at some factories in Japan as it runs short of components from plants in Southeast Asia where production has been disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns. Lost production from the latest haltswill now total about 14,000 vehicles in December, up from 9,000 units it flagged on Friday, Toyota said in an email.
Source: Reuters
AUTOMAKERS TO BATTLE CHIP CRISIS FOR YEARS, CONSULTANCY SAYS
Carmakers like Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. should brace for the global semiconductor shortage to last beyond next year and redesign cars so they need fewer of the high-tech components, consultancy Roland Berger said. Severe bottlenecks will persist through 2022, analysts at the Munich-based firm said, in a departure from many automakers hoping that the crisis would ease in the second half of next year. Capacity will remain constrained in the long term as chipmakers aren't investing in additional supply to make the older semiconductors typically used in today's models.
Source: Bloomberg
BOLT BATTERY UPDATES
General Motors is providing new software to some owners of recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles that will remove the parking and charging restrictions while the automaker continues to build replacement battery modules for the cars. All 2017-22 Bolt EVs and EUVs - an SUV-style body of the car - are under recall for defective batteries that could pose a fire risk. The recall affects about 140,000 vehicles. There are 18 suspected battery fires in Bolt EVs globally. GM has confirmed 15 of them, with no major injuries.
Source: Detroit Free Press
THE U.S. AUTO INDUSTRY'S TRUCK WARS ARE GOING ELECTRIC
More major auto makers are unveiling plans to roll out electric-pickup models, a reminder of the competition coming at newer rivals like Tesla Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. General Motors Co. on Wednesday released a video teasing an electric version of its GMC Sierra, the third plug-in pickup in the works from GM. Toyota Motor Corp. a day earlier revealed plans for a future electric pickup truck, while outlining the Japanese auto maker's broader electric ambitions.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
BIDEN TO TOUGHEN AUTO EMISSIONS LIMITS TO COUNTER CLIMATE CHANGE
The Biden administration is preparing to impose more stringent limits on car and truck emissions in an effort to clamp down on a top U.S. source of the greenhouse gases fueling climate change. The standards, set to govern passenger cars and light trucks from model years 2023 through 2026, will reverse a Trump-era move to relax the mandates and are set to be issued within days, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Source: Bloomberg
NISSAN TO BUILD NEW BATTERY RECYCLING FACTORIES IN U.S., EUROPE BY 2025
Nissan Motor Co Ltd plans to build new battery recycling factories in the United States and Europe by the end of fiscal 2025, the daily Nikkei reported on Thursday. Nissan hopes that recycling batteries and re-using them in electric vehicles (EVs) would help lower production costs as the price of rare metals rise, Nikkei said.
Source: Reuters
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