Battery supply chain news and analysis – Page 49
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FeaturePacking a punch
Electric cars could revolutionise transport by providing a cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly way to travel. The International Energy Agency forecasts that there will be 13m electric vehicles (EVs) on the road globally by 2020, while PwC Autofacts predicts that 55% of all new vehicle sales will be fully ...
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FeatureProgress for all to CEE
In past decades, international investment has flowed into the automotive industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) primarily due to it being a low-cost production centre. However, these days the region has much more to attract such investment, including a well-trained workforce, a wide-ranging supplier base and improving logistics infrastructure, ...
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FeatureDaimler to spend €20 billion on battery cells
German carmaker Daimler says it will buy battery cells costing more than €20 billion ($22.6 billion) over the next decade as it prepares to introduce 130 electrified variants of Mercedes-Benz cars by 2022.The group is investing €10 billion to make the models, plus another €1 billion on an in-house global ...
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FeatureZotye seeks to break into US market
Chinese carmaker Zotye Automobile has agreed to set up a US sales and distribution base in Lake Forest, California, in partnership with Haah Automotive Holdings. Haah, through its Zotye USA subsidiary, will have US distribution rights to sell Zotye Automobile’s full range of SUVs.The goal is to start selling in ...
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FeatureAudi to develop closed loop for battery recycling
German carmaker Audi has begun working with Belgian materials technology and recycling partner Umicore to investigate the potential for recycling the materials in electric car batteries. The companies are looking to adopt a closed-loop approach in which valuable elements such as cobalt, nickel and copper from end-of-life batteries are recovered ...
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FeatureSupply chain a factor in Dyson’s Singapore plant
Electrical goods manufacturer Dyson has selected Singapore as the location for its first electric vehicle (EV) production plant.Jim Rowan (pictured), the CEO of the British company – which is best known for its home appliances – was quoted in media reports suggesting that the decision to make the car there ...
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FeatureBigger vehicles, bigger challenges
Last year, GM sold around 3m vehicles in the US, with roughly 775,000 imported from Canada and Mexico and the rest coming from around the world, mainly from South Korea, China and Europe. Combining deep-sea and short-sea volumes, the carmaker used seaports to receive close to 200,000 vehicles into the ...
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FeatureBMW moves to drive battery development
German carmaker BMW has formed a technology consortium with battery developer Northvolt and Umicore, a producer of active materials for battery cells, to develop a complete and sustainable value chain for batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe.BMW said its chief objective was to make battery cells sustainable by establishing ...
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FeatureChina's BYD invests in US bus plant
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has invested $5m in a 9,300 sq.m warehouse to free up space at its electric bus plant in Lancaster, California.The new building currently stores around 15,000 different parts and will further streamline the handling of materials and supplies into the 41,800 sq.m manufacturing plant, the ...
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FeatureDelphi delivers converter to Geely in China
Delphi Technologies is producing a new vehicle propulsion device in China and has commenced deliveries to OEM Geely.The Suzhou plant set up by Delphi has started fully localised production of a combined inverter and DC/DC converter (CIDD), used in electric vehicles and hybrids to manage their electric drive systems. “Combining ...
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FeatureA crisis in human capital
As the automotive logistics sector continues to automate and let technology take the lead, there are some important human factors to resolve if such plans are to succeed – as delegates at this year’s Automotive Logistics Global conference in Detroit found out While the US car market may be ...
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FeatureMema slams Trump’s latest tariffs
The Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (Mema) in the US has criticised the Trump administration for imposing $200 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports. The duties start at a rate of 10% on September 24 and will rise to 25% in January.“[The measure] will serve as a tax increase ...
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FeatureSmart logistics underpins Audi e-tron assembly
Audi officially premiered its e-tron electric SUV at a summit event in San Francisco this week but production has been underway for a couple of weeks already at its plant in Brussels, Belgium, which is making the e-tron for global markets. Patrick Danau (left), managing director of Audi ...
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FeatureAnu Goel: the highs and lows
What have been some of the high points in logistics in your career?One is the swing toward providing a level of service that customers expect, as opposed to providing a level of service that we either think they need or that the system can provide. Those are two different ...
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FeatureChinese EV battery maker forced to stop output
A reduction in Chinese government subsidies to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers has forced battery maker Shenzhen OptimumNano Energy to cease operations for six months.The majority of staff have been told to take paid leave for the rest of the year from July 1. Meanwhile, the government is reported to be ...
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FeatureVW realigns global components business
Volkswagen is reorganising its global components business into a separate corporate division in an effort, it said, to improve efficiency, become more flexible and prepare for growth in electric vehicles. Group Components will sit under the aegis of Volkswagen AG alongside VW Passenger Cars and VW Commercial Vehicles.“We are preparing ...
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FeatureTwinning talent with technology
The rate at which emerging digital technologies are transforming the automotive logistics supply chain is hard to keep up with. As both an enabler of everything from platform design to procurement, finance and planning, and a disruptor of traditional supply chain operations, digital technology associated with industry 4.0 is driving ...
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FeatureMercedes-Benz to build compact EV in France
Germany’s Mercedes-Benz Cars has chosen the Hambach factory in France as its base for assembly of a compact electric car under its EQ brand, part of a wider expansion of the company’s electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing capabilities.Preparations for the new model will start shortly, with around €500m ($585m) being spent ...
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FeatureSweet home Alabama
One of the most popular songs about the US state of Alabama, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, opens with the line “Big wheels keep on turning” – and indeed the number doing so is set to grow after the January announcement that a $1.6 billion Toyota-Mazda joint-venture manufacturing plant is scheduled to ...
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FeatureMBUSI: In a state of contentment
Why has Alabama become such a mecca for automotive manufacturing?I think there are a number of reasons. You have seen the automotive industry continue to push further south into areas where there is a good workforce available. You have infrastructure that is available. The supplier network has continued to migrate ...