AutoVAZ Stops Production at Tolyatti Plant

AutoVAZ stopped assembly of cars on all three production lines at its Tolyatti plant Nov. 12, because of parts shortages, according to the plant’s trade union representative.

The plant produces Lada Largus, Lada X-Ray, Renault Sandero, Logan, Lada Niva Legend, Lada Kalina, and Lada Granta.

AutoVAZ systematically stops its conveyors because of component shortages. To compensate, the OEM tries to implement 6 day work weeks, but these also were cancelled because of parts shortages.

AutoVAZ also stopped production for a corporate vacation July 26 – Aug. 15.

Read More»

Chip Shortages Cause Worst Festive Season in Decade for Auto Industry

Aditya Kondejkar

2021’s festive period from Navratri to Diwali (October) marked the worst performance for India automakers in nearly a decade. Usually, sales of PVs peak during the period, however, the demand was much lower this year. 

Further, two-wheeler and tractor sales dropped by about 10%. The major reason for this drop is supply-side challenges on semiconductors and lack of demand in entry-level segments for both PVs and two-wheelers.

In the commercial vehicles space, the situation was somewhat better with an increase in demand for interstate movement of goods.

Read The Article

Read More»

Weichai Delivers 150-Ton Mining Trucks

Jack Hao
Jack Hao

The 150-ton large-scale mining truck delivered by Weichai has accumulated more than 50,000 hours of trial operation, with a total mileage of more than 360,000 kilometers, a 70% increase in efficiency, and a 10% reduction in unit energy consumption.

This product is equipped with a powertrain system consisting of Weichai Group’s 17-liter engine + 3300 Nm high torque 8-speed gearbox + 60-ton drive axle. The operation equals the output of two trucks, which significantly reduces the number of vehicles need for a specific job, greatly reduces operating costs, and brings considerable economic benefits to customers

Source:  Weichai Power  Read The Article

Read More»

Argentina Car Sales Drop 24%, But Production Grows

Fabio Ferraresi
Fabio Ferraresi

Sales in October 2021 are 24.1% lower than the same period of 2020 in Argentina, at about 25,000 units. This is also 1.6% lower than September 2021. On the other hand, production has grown 42.8% in October 2021 over October 2020 with 41,000 units produced, driven by strong exports.

Source: Automotive Business     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Brazil’s shortage of cars is due to a shortage of semiconductors and supply chain issues caused by the demand increase for Argentinian cars and the effect of higher exports. Economic issues and exchange rates boost the high demand in Brazil.   PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director-Business Development South America for Power Systems Research

Chinese Higer Bus To Produce Electric Buses in Brazil by 2023

This Chinese OEM confirmed the plans to start the production of its vehicles in Brazil by 2023 after the initial phase of importing the first units in 2022. In 2021, road tests of the Azure A12BR will take place in São Paulo using the regular city bus fleet.

Source: Automotive Business     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Higer Bus has announced an investment of US$ 10 million for production infrastructure but it has not announced the location of the manufacturing facility. Although they say there are many suppliers in Brazil, as ZF, Dana, Valeo, Bosch and Siemens, the amount seems low and limits the operation for something similar to a CKD with shared assembly infrastructure. PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director-Business Development South America for Power Systems Research

Stellantis Confirms Second Electric LCV in Brazil

Soon after the recent launch of the Peugeot e-Expert, Stellantis announced the Citroën e-Jumpy on Friday Nov. 12. Price, drives, batteries configuration, autonomy have not been announced yet. However it announced the growth expectations from 1.2% Market Share to 4% with the new electric launches.

Source: Automotive Business     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Although it has not been announced, the most likely scenario is that Citroën e-Jumpy will use the same configuration as its European product, the Peugeot e-208 GT. European Battery has 75kWh with Autonomy for 330 km per charge over the EMP2 platform. PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director-Business Development South America for Power Systems Research

BMW Starts Production of CE 04 EV Motorbike

Emiliano Marzoli
Emiliano Marzoli

The CE 04 falls somewhere between a maxiscooter and a light electric motorcycle, with a distinguished concept style.  Initially, the rated power will be 42 Hp, giving the CE 04 a 2.6 seconds to 50km/h and 120 km/h max speed.   A second model will be soon available with 31 Hp, with slower acceleration but similar top speed.

Acceleration won’t be the only difference.  The battery in the faster model will be bigger, with 8.9 kWh of capacity and is rated for up to 130 km (81 miles) of range. The reduced power model has a maximum range of 100 km (62 miles).  It will be possible to charge the bike under different circumstances, at home, or public places.  Two built-in chargers will be available, ranging from 2.3 kW to 6.9 kw.  Charging will take from 1 hour and forty minutes to 4 hours depending on the selected option.  BMW said that 20 to 80% battery charge will take 45 minutes, making this a very practical vehicle.

Read More»

Global Economy On the Path To Economic Recovery, Despite Increased Uncertainty

Yosyf Sheremeta
Yosyf Sheremeta

The global economy is on a healthy rebound trend, but issues with supply chain, logistics and the re-surgency of COVID-19 during Q3 2021 remained.  Power Systems Research witnessed a strong economic recovery globally in H1 2021; however, many challenges still remain.  The rebound will continue to vary widely among different regions/countries, but a complete recovery is not expected until the global pandemic is under control.   With some minor changes among regions and market segments globally, our overall forecast from last quarter remains in place, and that is good news to our industry players, OEMs, powertrain, and component suppliers.

The global economic performance last quarter was in line with our initial projections from earlier this year.  As we projected last quarter, we did not expect any rapid economic recovery in H2 2021, however, we continued to witness a steady increase in economic activities.  During the last quarter of 2021 Power Systems Research expects this trend to remain in place.

Government support in the form of fiscal policies and public health management are driving the economic rebound and largely explain variations in performance across countries. With the targeted monetary support to consumers and certain industries, the demand for products and services globally is coming back, and we expect this trend to carry over into Q1 2022.

Read More»

DATAPOINT: 2021 NA Production of Tractors

101,500 units is the estimate by Power Systems Research of the number of tractors to be produced in North America  during 2021. In this report, we consider North America to include Canada, Mexico and the United States.

This information comes from industry interviews and from two proprietary databases maintained by Power Systems Research: EnginLink™ , which provides information on engines, and OE Link™, a database of equipment manufacturers.

Market Share: With combined plant totals of 75% Deere leads in production of AG tractors in North America with about 63,200 units. In second position is Kubota (8,000 units) with 9.5%. Third is Case with about 8%.

Worldwide Distribution: Canada exports about 75% of its North American Ag Tractor production, Mexico, about 60%, and the United States, up to 45% of its total production.

Trends: In 2020, production of Ag tractors in North America decreased nearly 24% to only 84,600 units.  Production is expected to rebound 20% in 2021 to more than 101,500 units.  COVID-19 related factors played a role in the decline last year, especially for parts availability and equipment inventory levels. Expect production to increase 10% by 2025.      PSR

Carol Turner is Senior Analyst, Global Operations, for Power Systems Research

DATAPOINT: 2021 North America Combines

Today Joe Delmont presents the 2021 forecast for Combine production in North America. This forecast has been developed by Carol Turner, Senior Analyst of Global Operations at Power Systems Research. Carol provides annual production forecasts for important equipment applications.

Transcript

Welcome to the PSR PowerTALK podcast produced by Power Systems Research.

00:06

From Power Systems Research, I’m Joe Delmont, editor of PSR PowerTALK.

Today we’ll discuss a data point covering 2021 North American production of combines. When we talk about North America in this podcast, we mean the United States only.

Read More»