Follow PSR’s team of analysts as they track the rapidly expanding global battery electric power market, including, battery technology, transportation, eMobility, mergers and acquisitions and more.
R&D World magazine recently examined the global market for lithium-ion batteries and concluded that there could very well be a shortage in the next decade. They projected that recent investments will ensure supply keeps ahead of demand for at least the next two years, but that the demand for lithium in 2030 will be 2.3x higher than the global output in 2019, and investments may not be happening at the pace needed to meet it.
Tyler Wiegert
The main bottleneck is that it takes 5-10 years to bring a new lithium or cobalt mine online, but their low prices right now remove some of the incentive to make those investments.
In the absence or shortage of those investments, control of current resources will play a critical role in the production costs of lithium-powered equipment, including on-highway vehicles. In this area, as in many others, Tesla appears to be a leader. The electric car maker has made a number of moves recently to pursue vertical integration, including, most recently, signing a supply deal with Hanwha for battery production equipment. But they are also making moves to secure ownership of the raw materials needed for battery production.
Recently I was at a dinner with visiting members of my family discussing the noble transition that many manufacturers are making from producing their typical goods to producing essential goods and equipment for the coronavirus fight.
Tyler Wiegert
One that came up was Tesla’s transition to making ventilators, and one member of my family began to say that they wouldn’t want a Tesla ventilator if they were hospitalized, because it would probably catch fire and explode.
My fiance is in medicine rather than in our industry, so she took that to be a serious comment about the risk of ventilators sparking in an oxygen-rich environment. But it quickly became clear that this critic just has a deep and abiding skepticism of battery technology, because they repeatedly brought the conversation back to battery fires and cars exploding, despite there having been only 14 reported cases of Tesla vehicles catching fire between 2013 and 2019, with most of those happening after accidents.
Haval, the Chinese manufacturer, said it plans to build its own
engine plant in the Tula region of Russia. Work is scheduled start this month (March
2020). The planned investment in the project is US$ 270 million. This information
comes from press-service of Haval Motor Rus.
Maxim Sakov
It’s expected that the new plant will produce 80,000 engines
annually, increasing the localization level of SUVs by several thousand units
annually. Total personnel number in automotive plant exceeds 1000 people. Read
The Article
PSR Analysis: The first Russian Haval plant opened in May of 2019. Current production capacity is 80 Haval SUVs. The plant will be located on a 10,000 sq.m. site next to the Haval automotive plant. It will provide more than 300 jobs.
Claas is Shifts Production of Tucano 320 Harvester To Russia.
In April 2020, Russian plant Claas in Krasnodar will start
producing the Tucano 320 grain combine. During the first two years, this model
will be produced simultaneously in Germany and in Russia. Beginning in 2022,
the plant in Krasnodar will became the sole maker for this model. The move
opens opportunities to increase production and export volumes for the Russian
plant.
Based on the capacity of EV-equipped batteries sold in
January 2020, the three largest Korean battery companies (LG Chem, Samsung SDI
and SK Innovation) have a combined share of 30.8%, exceeding 30% for the first
time. In the ranking of total power consumption of EV batteries, China’s CATL is
in the top place for the third consecutive year, LG Chem is in third place,
Samsung SDI is in fifth place, and SK Innovation is in tenth place. For the
first time, SK Innovation has joined the Top 10.
HANNOVER, Germany– The impressive Gold Award for Innovation at the Agritechnica 2019 Show was awarded to John Deere for its electro-mechanical power split gearbox.
Stepless transmissions with a hydrostatic-mechanical power split have been used in agricultural tractors for over 20 years. Previously, additional generators for electric drives with a higher power requirement were installed on tractors (fan, compressed-air/air conditioner compressor, etc.) or on implements.
HANNOVER, Germany–For many years, Agritechnica has been growing and strengthening its role as the top European agricultural trade show. Despite the struggles that the industry is facing, with declining order books and a less than enthusiastic outlook for 2020, Agritechnica 2019 held here Nov. 11-16, 2019, reaffirmed its position as the most important ag tech event in Europe. The show reported 2,820 exhibitors and 450,000 visitors, more than 130,000 of them from outside Germany.
Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle subsidiary Traton says its MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus (VWCO) brands plans to invest more than one billion euros in e-mobility by 2025.
“Our goal is to
become the leading provider of e-trucks and e-buses,” explained Traton CEO
Andreas Renschler, mostly through research and development. Traton is
developing a common modular electric powertrain to be used by all brands, much
like Volkswagen’s MEB platform.
Scania displayed CNG trucks and biogas production systems at its booth as a clear bet on this technology growing against Diesel in Brazil. At FENATRAN, the 22nd International Road Cargo Transport Trade Show, it sold its first regular production R 410 fueled by CNG to RN Logistics. The truck will operate at the São Paulo – Rio de Janeiro route.
Batteries Are Coming. We Saw Lots of Them at CONEXPO and GIE+Expo 
