Trade News

SHANGHAI – Battery swap sites are costly to build and operate. Automakers are still wary of battery swapping to charge electric vehicles after Tesla ditched it in the U.S. in 2013.

Yet in China, battery swapping has gained traction with the participation of a diverse range of domestic companies. 

Because of varying land prices in Chinese cities, a battery swap station requires an investment of an estimated 3 million yuan ($470,000) to 5 million yuan. 

Because of the high costs, most Chinese EV makers have been reluctant to embrace battery swaps. 

Until 2019, state-owned BAIC Motor Co. and EV startup Nio were the only two automakers offering battery swap services for customers. 

Market dynamics are playing a bigger role. EV sales hit a record 1.115 million in 2020, and surged 280 percent to 615,000 in the first four months of 2021, accounting for 7 percent of China’s new-vehicle deliveries, up from 3.5 percent of all indu…

Huawei Technologies, the Chinese tech giant subject to intense speculation over how big a role it wants to play in the auto industry, is dispelling persistent rumors it aims to build intelligent vehicles by acquiring automakers. 

It hasn’t made any investment in automakers, the private Chinese technology giant said in a statement this week. 

“We won’t invest in auto companies in the future either, nor will we control or acquire shares [of any auto company],” it added.  

What the auto industry needs is not “Huawei-brand vehicles” but its “information and communication technology accumulated over the past 30 years to help automakers better develop future-oriented vehicles,” the company said.

It is not the first time Huawei has signaled it has no intention of becoming a smart vehicle maker.

In a November posting on its website, Huawei admonished managers pressing the company to build intelligent vehicles and reaffirm its positio…

Electric-vehicle startup Nio signed an agreement with its contract manufacturer JAC Motor Co. to increase annual production vehicle capacity to 240,000 vehicles, from 150,000 vehicles in 2020.

The expansion, to be carried out over the next three years, will help Nio meet growing market demand, the company said this week. 

Nio, incorporated in Shanghai in 2014, has launched three products – the ES8 SUV, the ES6 crossover and the EC6 coupe-like crossover. 

In the first four months, it delivered 27,162 vehicles, nearly triple the tally a year earlier. 

Due to the global chip shortage, Nio suspended production at JAC for five days starting March 29. 

Nio only sells vehicles in China but earlier this month the company announced it will begin sales in Norway in September as a first foray in Europe.

Vehicle output at 11 key auto groups in China slipped 11 percent to roughly 983,000 vehicles in the first 20 days of May, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said this week. 

The 11 company groups, comprised of all foreign automakers producing locally as well as every major domestic manufacturer, account for more than 90 percent of auto output in China. 

During the 20-day period, production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks slumped 14 percent from a year earlier, while output of light vehicles —sedans, crossovers, SUVs, MPVs to minibuses – dropped 9.9 percent, according to CAAM.

CAAM didn’t release additional details on the production cuts or the reason for the decline. The trade group normally discloses vehicle output and sales around the tenth of each month for the previous month.

It warned earlier a global chip shortage, which started to dent auto production in China late last year, is likely to worsen in t…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Ford's ‘electric transformation' means new name for 53-year-old plant

Automakers continue to retire long-standing plant names as the industry transitions to building electric vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. announced this week that its Van Dyke Transmission Plant north of Detroit would be rebranded as the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center. The change comes roughly seven months after General Motors said its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant would be known as Factory Zero.

Since the Van Dyke plant opened in 1968, workers have built suspension components and transmissions for gasoline and hybrid vehicles, including the Taurus, Windstar, Transit, EcoSport, Edge and Explorer.

They will soon transition to making electric motors and electric transaxles for hybrid and full-electric vehicles, including the 2022 F-150 Lightning. Ford says electric motor production will begin this summer, and it expects one to come off the assembly …

BEIJING -- BMW, Daimler and Ford have set up facilities in China to store data generated by their cars locally, they told Reuters, as automakers come under growing pressure in the world's biggest car market over how they handle information from vehicles.

Cars are being fitted with an ever-increasing array of sensors and cameras to assist drivers.

But the data they generate can also be used by manufacturers to help develop new technologies, such as autonomous driving systems, raising privacy and security concerns, particularly when the information might be sent abroad.

U.S. EV maker Tesla is under public scrutiny in China over its storage and handling of customer data in the country.

Last week, Reuters reported that staff at some Chinese government offices were told not to park their Tesla cars inside government compounds due to security concerns over vehicle cameras, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Tesla said on Tuesda…

Ted Cannis, Ford's head of North America commercial vehicles, chats about the automaker's push to give its iconic nameplates electrified variants, including the Mustang Mach-E crossover and upcoming F-150 Lightning pickup.

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BERLIN -- Switzerland's Quantum Group said its bid for Volkswagen Group's Lamborghini division could turn the sports-car brand into a "spearhead of innovation" in technology and clean energy.

The newly-established investor said on Wednesday its proposed acquisition "would deliver attractive value to all shareholders and ... would clearly be a key strategic benefit to the wider Volkswagen Group."

VW said on Tuesday that Lamborghini was not for sale, in response to a report that Quantum Group had, together with London-based Centricus Asset Management, bid 7.5 billion euros ($9.2 billion) to buy Lamborghini.

Quantum Group founding partner Rea Stark is also co-founder of Piech Automobile with Toni Piech, the son of former Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech, according to its website.

In a statement, Quantum Group said it wanted to create a luxury multibrand platform, with Lamborghini "at the heart of the vision to further develop brands into a susta…

700Credit, a supplier of credit and compliance solutions to dealerships and software providers, has accelerated its industry partnerships this year, driven by the uptick in digital retailing transactions.

Ken Hill, managing director of 700Credit, said high demand for soft-pull technologies in customer relationship management software is prompting the additional business. A soft credit pull is when a customer authorizes the dealership to check their credit report without damaging their score.

"It allows dealerships to introduce credit into the conversations at a much earlier point in the conversation," Hill said. "With a better understanding of the consumer's credit, they can quote a more accurate payment at the top of the sales funnel."

700Credit has announced two partnerships a month since January. The solutions provider is also integrating with dealership management company Tekion, Hill said.

The company has more than 190 industry partnerships, …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday said a new, dedicated EV architecture would underpin battery-electric versions of the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator crossovers, as well as midsize pickups and "rugged SUVs" that will go into production within the decade.

The new vehicles are part of Ford's strategy to boost its EV offerings to 40 percent of sales globally by 2030 and were detailed at the company's Capital Markets Day for investors.

Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's chief product platform and operations officer, said the company would offer two new EV architectures: a rear-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive platform, as well as a platform dedicated to full-size pickups.

The rwd/awd platform "will underpin a range of emotive vehicles slated for production between now and 2030," Thai-Tang said.

That includes EV versions of the Explorer and Aviator, which CEO Jim Farley also noted in a presentation. Thai-Tang also said the platform will underpin "rugged SUVs," showin…

General Motors and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin said Wednesday they will develop a vehicle capable of carrying astronauts and equipment longer distances across the moon.

The announcement comes as NASA lays groundwork to return humans to the lunar surface.

It is the companies' response to a request NASA put out last year, which asked members of the automotive industry to pitch ideas for lunar terrain vehicles, known as LTVs, that could travel faster and farther on the moon than the ones used during the Apollo program.

The space agency is looking for mobility systems that can be deployed as part of Artemis, a U.S.-led international program that has a goal of landing astronauts on the lunar south pole by the mid-2020s.

NASA has not awarded a contract to GM and Lockheed Martin for a lunar rover, but the companies are keeping that option open, company leaders said at a Wednesday media event.

“This partnership is really about getting ahead of …

BERLIN, May 26 (Reuters) - German police are investigating whether a fire that broke out overnight at the construction site of Tesla's first European gigafactory had a political motive, after far-left activists claimed responsibility.

The fire at Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg early Wednesday morning damaged several power cables leading to the Tesla site and an area of around 3 square meters, said a spokesman for the LKA state criminal investigation office.

The spokesman said arson was not being ruled out and investigators were examining a letter that circulated on social media during Wednesday which claimed responsibility.

The letter, which was published on a radical left platform, said it had cut the power supply to the Tesla site by setting fire to six high-voltage cables above ground.

"Tesla is neither green, ecological nor social," said the letter, according to the LKA spokeman.

Tesla, which has said it could produce …