Toyota is spending billions on batteries, VW is confident it will also have billions to spend and Lotus. All this and more The morning shift for September 7, 2021.
1st team: Toyota will spend nearly $ 14 billion on batteries
The world’s largest carmaker has been strangely hesitant about electric vehicles, despite stepping out of the door of electrification quickly with the Prius all those years ago. But the company he said Tuesday it would dump billions into batteries. This seems to be in large part because Toyota believes it has broken the solid state code.
From Automotive news:
Executives, outlining plans at an online briefing on Tuesday, said Japan’s largest carmaker also expects to cut the cost of batteries by half in the second half of this decade.
Toyota is still on track to develop solid-state batteries by 2025, said Masahiko Maeda, director of technology, adding that last year it began testing a working prototype.
The company is considering using solid-state batteries not only in pure electric vehicles but also in hybrid vehicles, if engineers can develop the right balance of power and stability, he said.
Toyota also plans to market a next-generation lithium-ion battery during the second half of the decade that will advance costs and performance for electrified cars.
“By establishing a system for both development and supply, we will promote the diffusion of electrified vehicles, including BEVs,” Maeda said, referring to battery-powered electric vehicles.
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The Wall Street Journal clarifies which is $ 9 billion for production and the rest for research. Toyota also had some shitty reasons why it’s late to the game.
Toyota has been slower than some competitors in bringing an electric car to market because it wants to offer consumers a good combination of safety, price and performance, said Masahiko Maeda, Toyota’s chief technology officer.
“It simply came to our notice then. If we focus on safety, performance suffers, ”said Maeda. The company is trying to build its batteries so that they retain 90 percent of their charging capacity after a decade, a goal that is still elusive, Maeda said.
We saw Toyota’s bZ4X concept in April and I hope Toyota’s next electric vehicles continue vein to be completely normal.
2nd gear: VW is also incorporating electric and insists the money to pay for them is out there
The batteries are very hot right now, you may have heard it. VW CEO Herbert Diess believes they are happy to justify a massive expansion of production capacity for them, which will come enormously expense. Anyway, VW says it will definitely have the money to build battery plants.
From Reuters:
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) is optimistic that there will be sufficient funds, internal or external, to carry out its ambitious plan to build six large battery factories across Europe with partners by the end of the decade, its chief executive said.
“The required capital is available in the market. Northvolt has proved it, ”Herbert Diess said on the sidelines of the IAA Motor Show in Munich.
Swedish battery maker Northvolt, in which Volkswagen has a 20% stake, raised $ 2.8 billion in June at one of the largest private placements in Europe this year run by four Swedish pension funds . and OMERS Capital Markets. Read more
“Today the performances that can obtain with the production of batteries are high. It’s a demand-based market and it stays in a demand-based market for the foreseeable future, ”Diess said.
If you’re someone who’s invested in VW-committed battery projects, you might expect a call.
Diess in May said some of Volkswagen’s battery activities could be listed separately in an initial public offering.
3rd gear: Hyundai also runs on electricity but hydrogen
A lot of people are happy about it explain all the reasons cars with hydrogen fuel cells will have they never work, especially that it is too expensive and the hydrogen harvest requires too many resources. Hyundai looks at the hydrogen and says, “Wow, it looks good, sign me up.
From Hyundai release Tuesday:
At the Hydrogen Wave global online forum held today, the Group presented its plans to popularize hydrogen in 2040 by introducing new technologies and mobility solutions in the transportation and other industrial sectors.
Emphasizing also its pioneering commitment to sustainable and clean energy for all types of mobility, the Group presented unprecedented plans to electrify all new models of commercial vehicles, which include electric or battery propulsion systems, with fuel cells, as well as the application of fuel cell systems. – To all models for 2028. The bold strategy will place the group at the forefront of the commercial vehicle sector, in the process helping to reshape the industry and achieve a clean and sustainable future.
[…]
The group’s central goal of fully implementing its line of commercial vehicles with fuel cells by 2028 will make it the world’s first automaker to realize these ambitions for commercial vehicle transportation and will further help facilitate the transition to true sustainable mobility.
“Hyundai Motor Group’s vision is to apply hydrogen energy to all areas of life and industry, such as our homes, workplaces and factories. The goal is to make hydrogen easy to use for everyone, for everything and everywhere, ”he said. [Chairman of the Group, Euisun Chung] in the Hydrogen Wave online world forum. “We want to offer practical solutions for the sustainable development of humanity, and with these advances, we aim to help foster a global hydrogen society by 2040.”
I wish Hyundai all the luck in the world.
4th gear: Lotus climbs into China
The legendary British carmaker is all-electric, with four new models, three of them to be built in Wuhan, China. Reuters he said Tuesday which also opens dozens of new dealerships, eh, showrooms, there too.
[Lotus chief Feng Qingfeng] said Lotus, owned by Chinese firm Geely (GEELY.UL) and Malaysian Etika Automotive, will begin production at the Wuhan factory next year, producing about 2,000 compact SUVs.
The plant, which is still under construction, would increase to full production of 20,000 cars by 2023, Feng told Reuters in a phone call from Hangzhou, where Geely is headquartered.
The cars will be in a segment similar to rival Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) and superior to BMW (BMWG.DE) and Audi, Feng said. Porsche has said it sold 88,968 cars in China last year thanks to demand for its Macan compact sports utility vehicle.
Feng said Lotus will open more than 20 showrooms next year, targeting major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai first. It will expand the network further during 2023 and 2024 to include cities such as eastern Suzhou and Ningbo for a total of 50-70 showrooms nationwide.
Bet against Lotus at your own risk, like Geely prudent custody of Volvo he has silenced many of his doubters.
5th Gear: Men get jobs
Stefan Sielaff, here has held many jobs in the automotive industry, is Geely’s new global head of design. Sielaff replaces him Peter Horbury, who seems to be having a fun retirement gig, talking about Lotus.
From Automotive news:
Horbury, 71, hinted in an interview with Automotive News Europe in March that he was willing to switch to Lotus as he was reducing his job at Geely.
“I have to say that the Lotus projects we have started will be difficult for me to let go of. They are so exciting, ”he said. “You can imagine that having the opportunity to design a new Lotus is something I would like to stay a while longer.
[…]
Sielaff, 59, will oversee the design of the Geely Geely Auto brand of the same name, as well as Lynk & CO, Geometry and Proton of the EV brand. It will also support the development of Geely’s new EV brand, Zeekr.
It will be based in Gothenburg, Sweden. It will not manage the design of its Volvo and Polestar brands.
Sielaff’s appointment comes as Chinese carmakers increase their commitment to attracting more global markets, which present stiffer competition than at home.
Reverse: Submarine
Given to the Patriot cause after the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, Ezra Lee piloted the unnoticed vessel to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. While Lee was working to anchor a time bomb to the hull. , he could see British sailors on the deck above, but they could not notice the strange vessel below the surface. Lee had almost secured the bomb when his boring tools could not penetrate a layer of iron cladding. He withdrew and the bomb exploded nearby and caused no damage to either the eagle or the turtle.
Over the next week, the Turtle made several more attempts to sink British ships into the Hudson River, but each time failed, due to the operator’s lack of skill.
I never knew History.com could be so brutal.
Neutral: How are you?
I was on vacation last week and a nuclear bomb could have exploded and I would not have known, such were my efforts to avoid the news. And then I came back and the first thing I read was this Michael K. Williams died. Sigh.