News: Passenger Cars, Minivans, and SUVs

2022-12-14

Honda To Produce FCVs in the U.S. in 2024

FAR EAST: JAPAN REPORT

Akihiro Komuro
Akihiro Komuro

Honda announced that it will produce electric fuel cell powered vehicles in the U.S. in 2024. They will also be equipped with a plug-in function that allows them to be recharged externally. Honda has set a goal that all new vehicles sold by 2040 will be either EVs or FCVs.

In North America, its main market, Honda will offer FCVs as an option. The new FCV to be produced is based on the CR-V SUV model and will be manufactured in small quantities at the Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio. The plant had produced the Acura NSX sports car until November. Since the plant has not yet developed a sufficient hydrogen supply base, it will be a plug-in FCV that can also be recharged externally. This is said to be the first production vehicle in North America to adopt such technology.

Honda has been developing FCVs for some time, introducing the FCX in 2002 in Japan and the United States. In Japan, it launched the FCV model Clarity Fuel Cell in 2016. However, due to sluggish sales, the company discontinued production of this vehicle in Japan in 2021.

Source: The Nikkei

PSR Analysis: Plug-in FCVs can run on electricity, fed by plug-ins, where there are no hydrogen stations. If FCVs are to be popularized at a stage where the hydrogen filling infrastructure is weak, a plug-in that can be charged from an electrical outlet may be the best combination. After filling up at a hydrogen station, which might be located far away, the vehicle could be operated by recharging its battery, and the hydrogen could be used as a range extender in case of power shortages. Of course, if a hydrogen station were to be established in the same neighborhood, it would be possible to switch to the same operation as at a gas station. The biggest barrier to sales expansion is the price. In the price competition, FCVs will probably lose out to BEVs. The availability and scale of subsidies for FCVs will have a significant impact on sales. PSR

Akihiro Komuro is Research Analyst, Far East and Southeast Asia, for Power Systems Research

China 2023 EV Sales To Grow To 8.4 Million Units

CHINA REPORT
Jack Hao
Jack Hao

The development trend for the new energy vehicle (EVs) market remained positive through 2022. In November, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 598,000 units, with a year-on-year growth of 58.2%. From January to November, the domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 5.03 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 100.1%.

As for December, the Passenger Transport Federation believes that the subsidy for new energy vehicles will decline by 12,600 RMB this year, which is much more than the decline of 5000 RMB in the previous two years. In addition, some vehicle enterprises have announced a price increase for next year, which may promote strong pre-buying of new energy vehicles at the end of the year and boost sales.

This year, the new energy vehicle market is expected to achieve the annual sales of 6.5 million vehicles.

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Tesla Refinery Project Advances in Texas

Tesla is currently working on a lithium refinery project that would be coming to Corpus Christi, Texas, and it sounds like the automaker is in the final stretch of its negotiations with the authorities.

In September, we learned that Tesla has a plan to build a lithium refining facility on the Gulf Coast of Texas. At the time, all we knew was that Tesla was planning on moving fast with hope to start building in Q4 2022.

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Are There Enough Materials To Produce Needed EVs?

The transition from ICE to electric vehicles (EVs) is necessary to decrease climate-changing emissions. As deployment increases, so will the demand for EV battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These materials are primarily supplied through two sources: 1) newly mined or 2) recovered by recycling batteries.

Research shows there are enough explored or prospective reserves to electrify the global transportation sector using current technology if a high amount of battery recycling occurs. In this scenario, global demand for EVs in 2100 will amount to about 55% of cobalt reserves and 50% of lithium reserves. If recycling doesn’t ramp up, a shortage of lithium, nickel, or cobalt is likely, and it is estimated that demand would exceed what is economically accessible to extract.

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2022-11-16

World Needs To Mine 25X More Lithium

Guy Youngs
Guy Youngs

The de-carbonization of the transport industry is heavily dependent on the scaling up of electric vehicle production rapidly and massively, and this rests on scaling up battery mineral mining and refining. This means Lithium.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence counts 40 lithium mines that have been in operation and producing lithium in 2022. But, by 2050, the company sees a need for 234 more lithium mines if there’s no battery recycling underway (which, of course, is completely unrealistic but is a place to start from for such an analysis).

“The long term path for lithium is set, yet the supply chain scaling challenge has just begun,” said Simon Moores, chief executive of Benchmark. “What this data shows is that we are at just the beginning of a generational challenge, not one that’s going to be solved in the 2020s.”

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US Increases EV Battery Recycling Capacity

A new EV battery recycling plant in Alabama from Li-Cycle has just come online. It can process up to 10,000 tons of battery waste per year, enough for about 20,000 EVs per year, and helps the US move toward a zero-emission economy.

Li-Cycle’s processing method is specifically designed as a two-part system recycling battery manufacturing scrap and turns end-of-life batteries into a black mass. The black mass is then processed and used to generate battery minerals such as nickel sulfate, lithium carbonate, and cobalt sulfate, three of the most critical factors for EV batteries. According to the battery recycling company, Li-Cycle believes its new method will enable up to a 95% efficiency rate compared to the industry average of 50%.

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Penn State Offers Smaller, Faster Charging Batteries

Researchers at Penn State say they have found a way to make batteries for electric cars that can be smaller and faster charging.

“The need for smaller, faster-charging batteries is greater than ever,” said Chao-Yang Wang, the lead author of the research study that was published in the October 12 issue of the journal Nature. “Our fast-charging technology works for most energy dense batteries and will open a new possibility to downsize electric vehicle batteries from 150 to 50 kWh without causing drivers to feel range anxiety,” said Wang.

Batteries operate most efficiently when they are hot, but not too hot. Keeping batteries consistently at just the right temperature has been a major challenge for battery engineers. Historically, they have relied on external, bulky heating and cooling systems to regulate battery temperature, but they respond slowly and waste a lot of energy. The team decided to regulate the temperature from inside the battery. The researchers developed a new battery structure that adds an ultrathin nickel foil as the fourth component besides the anode, electrolyte, and cathode. The nickel foil self-regulates the battery’s temperature and reactivity which allows for 10 minute fast charging on just about any EV battery.

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2022-11-15

Cheering Festive Season for Auto Industry

INDIA REPORT

This year’s festive season fired up vehicle registrations but failed to match 2019 sales numbers. Vehicle sales, which peak during the festive season in India, account for about 40% of annual volume. Sales in the just-concluded season this year were better than in the past two COVID years but were far below the sales level of 2019.

“Auto Retail for October 2022 saw an overall growth of 48%,” said Manish Raj Singhania, president of FADA. With most of the month under the festive period, the sentiments were extremely positive across all categories of dealership outlets.”

Source: Economic Times     Read The Article

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New Vehicle Sales Increase 33% in September

SOUTHEAST ASIA: 6 MAJOR COUNTRIES REPORT

New vehicle sales in the six major Southeast Asian countries totaled 317,765 units in September, up 33% from the same month last year. The figures were compiled from new vehicle sales statistics released by automobile industry associations and other organizations in each country. This is the 12th consecutive month that sales have exceeded those of the same month last year; the economic recovery from COVID-19 continues, with sales up 8% compared to September 2019, even before the spread of the infection.

Indonesia, the largest new vehicle market in the region, saw a 19% y/y increase to 99,986 units. This was the highest single-month sales volume in 2022. The tax exemption for some models ended at the end of September, and there appears to have been a rush demand for new vehicles.

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Semiconductor Development Companies Set Up

FAR EAST: JAPAN REPORT
Akihiro Komuro
Akihiro Komuro

The full details of the government’s goal of a next-generation semiconductor development system have been revealed. Led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and in cooperation with the private sector and overseas countries such as the United States, a new company will be established to mass produce next-generation semiconductors, and a new R&D center will be launched. This is the first time that a comprehensive system for research and mass production of advanced semiconductors has been established.

The new structure has two pillars. The “LSTC (Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center)” will be established by the end of this year as a research and development center for next-generation semiconductors. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tohoku University, RIKEN, and others will participate in the LSTC, which aims to be an open R&D platform for both domestic and international use so that the results of research can be put to practical use. The company is also considering collaboration with the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), which is scheduled to be established in the United States.

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