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PowerTALK™ News, May 2020
Download PDFCOVID-19 continues to make a huge impact on global production of engines and equipment. While the impact is stabalizing in some areas, it is growing rapidly in other regions, such as Brazil and South America. Read about it in the May issue of PowerTALK News.
In This Issue:
- NA: COVID-19 Webinar Scheduled with HDMA
- NA: Vertical Integration Key for EVs
- NA: New Class of Hybrids
- NA: CORVID-19 Cuts Profits at HOG and PII
- NA: DataPoint: PWC
- Europe: ARGO Tractors Resumes Operations
- Brazil: Commercial Vehicle Production Slides
- Japan: Fuel Cell Joint Development Advances
- Korea: Hyundai and Kia Expand EV Models
- Southeast Asia: COVID-19 Stalls China Belt & Road
- India: COVID-19 Lockdown
- Russia: April New Car Sales Drop 70%
- Russia: Automaker To Receive Support
- Russia: KAMAZ Driverless Trucks Tested
- Russia: Electric GAZelle LCV Launched
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PSR’s Coronavirus Special Report

Power Systems Research has created a Coronavirus Special Report detailing the impact of COVID-19 on the global production of Off-Highway and Medium/Heavy Truck Engine and Equipment in 2020.
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Brazilian Production and Sales of Commercial Vehicles Won’t Recover Until 2021
Power Systems Research analyzes markets of trucks, buses, agricultural and construction machines

Brazil deaths caused by coronavirus increased sharply in April and May 2020. Slump Caused by COVID-19 Will Last into 2021
The overall slump in production and sales of heavy commercial vehicles (trucks and buses) as well as for agricultural and construction machines should last throughout this year; these segments won’t recover until 2021. PSR
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SOUTHEAST ASIA REPORT: Spread of COVID-19 Shuts Down Automobile Plants
Due to the spread of COVID-19, Japanese automobile OEMs have stopped production in Indonesia. Isuzu stopped operating its plants April 1, and Honda and Suzuki stopped April 13.
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SOUTH KOREA REPORT: Doosan Infracore Hikes Sales Promotion with SNS in China
Doosan Infracore announced on March 24 that “the share of product marketing and customer support using live content broadcasting on SNS is growing in China.” The company has conducted more than 20 live machine maintenance training sessions through SNS, and the total number of users has reached about 7,300, with 140,000 followers on WeChat.
More than 1,200 machines were sold through such online marketing, and the sales of parts sold on WeChat reached 10 billion won.
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JAPAN REPORT: The Impact of COVID-19 on Manufacturers
Japanese OEMs are struggling to adapt to the COVID-19 problem. Plants are being temporarily shut down and production adjustments are being made.

Akihiro Komuro While domestic plants are generally operating quietly, overseas bases are being affected in various ways, depending on the country. Here is a summary of announcements by the major companies.
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TAIWAN REPORT: No New Coronavirus Cases
April 17, 2020–Taiwan reported no new coronavirus cases on April 14, 2020, marking the first-time authorities there have reported zero new cases in more than a month. It’s also the latest achievement for a health system that first acted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in December.

Erik Martin With a population of around 23 million, Taiwan has only 393 confirmed COVID-19 cases; six people have died from the disease. The last time Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center announced no new cases was on March 9 – 36 days ago.
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RUSSIA REPORT: April 2020
Large Russian Automakers Resume Work After One Week Stop
Many automakers who suspended work March 30 in Russian, as ordered by the government to the reduce spread of the COVID-19 resumed work April 6. The firms including KAMAZ, AutoVAZ, GAZ Group, Mazda Sollers.

Maxim Sakov However, 98% of office personnel are working remotely. Started working YAMZ, Yaroslavl plant of diesel apparatus and some production lines of Likino bus plant. Procurement production of GAZ plant in Nizhny Novgorod is also working. Schedule of main production lines will be determined within a week depending on situation on suppliers’ plants. Read The Article
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Impact of COVID-19 in India on Engine-driven Applications
As of today, India is relatively less impacted by COVID than other nations. Because of the very bold and unprecedented move of a complete lockdown for about 40 days, India has managed to restrict the number of positive cases to 17,000.

Ritvik Kulkarni Considering that India is a country with a population of over 1 billion persons living in challenging on-ground conditions, it is a phenomenal effort of proactive and timely response from the government as well as restraint observed by citizens.
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China Delays Nationwide NS 6 Regulation
The Ecology and Environment Ministry is extending the transition period for OEMs and the sales period for NS 5 inventory products.
Source: China Central Television Read The Article
PSR Analysis:
So here comes the impact of coronavirus for the industry. But what we should bear in mind is that despite this latest news, the capital metro area, the Yangtze delta area and the Zhujiang River Delta area, three of the most prosperous areas in China, have already implemented…
PowerTALK Reports