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Buffett-backed BYD Will Supply Batteries To Tesla
CHINA REPORT
Jack Hao BEIJING— Chinese electric vehicle (EV) and battery maker BYD is going to become Tesla’s battery supplier for the first time, a senior executive at the company backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said recently.
“Tesla is a very successful company. BYD has great respect for Tesla and raises our hat to it,” said BYD’s executive vice president Lian Yubo in an interview with the state-owned news channel China Global Television Network (CGTN), when he was asked his thoughts of China-made vehicles in comparison with Tesla. “(Tesla CEO) Musk and us are good friends now as we are preparing to supply batteries to it very soon. We learned a lot from Tesla,” Lian added, noting the U.S. rival’s positioning itself as a high-end EV brand.
Lian’s remark suggests BYD is set to be the second China-based battery supplier of Tesla next to CATL, the world’s largest EV battery company. LG Energy Solution, the South Korean battery maker second to CATL, and Tesla’s long-time partner Panasonic currently are another two battery makers in Tesla’s supplier list.
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Thai Incentive Program to Promote EVs, Starting in 2022
SOUTHEAST ASIA: THAILAND REPORT
The Thai government plans to introduce an incentive program to promote EVs starting in 2022. The program will focus on providing subsidies to lower sales prices and reducing excise and import taxes. Automakers taking advantage of the program will be required to produce EVs locally from 2024 onward.
According to local media, the subsidy is 70,000 to 150,000 baht per vehicle, depending on the model and battery capacity. The excise tax on purchases will be reduced from the current 8% to 2%. Import duties will be reduced by 20-40% depending on battery capacity and sales price. The current maximum tariff rate is 80%, but the trade agreement will impose no tariff on Chinese-made products and 20% on Japanese-made products. Japanese-made products are also expected to be tariff-free if they meet the conditions. The current sales prices of imported cars vary from about 1 million baht for EVs from China’s SAIC Motor Group and Great Wall Motor to about 1.5 million baht for Nissan Motor’s LEAF at campaign prices.
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Russia Shuts Down Half of Auto Plants
RUSSIA REPORT
Maxim Sakov March 10, 2022–The volume of working auto production facilities in Russia has dropped by 45% since the invasion of Ukraine. On March 3, work continued in Russia on 55% of the facilities for assembling LCVs and passenger cars, comparing to 2021. Last year, domestic operations produced 83% of sales in Russia.
Work continues at AutoVAZ (in Tolyatti and Izhevsk), Stellantis and Mitsubishi alliance (PSMA Rus plant), Autotor (Kia and Hyundai assembly), Nissan, Haval, GAZ, UAZ, Mazda Sollers and Isuzu. The total number of vehicles produced by these enterprises has reached 766,000, which is 55% of the sales produced by the Russian automotive industry last year. The total annual production capacity of Russian automotive industry is about 2.7 million vehicles.
After implementation of Western sanctions and the volatility of currency exchange, automakers started raising prices and stopped production and shipping cars. Companies such as Volkswagen, BMW, Renault, Mercedes, Hyundai, Toyota, Sollers Ford have announced the temporary closing of factories. Closed import to Russia Audi, Porshe, GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Lexus, Volvo, Honda, Mazda and others.
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Autotor To Produce Two Models of Electric Cars in 2023
RUSSIA REPORT
Autotor said it plans to start mass production of electric cars next year. One of the new models will be a city car for young drivers, and second one will be a car for people with limited liabilities.
The OEM already has developed a concept vehicle with the designers from Europe, and there are plans to assemble a test lot of several thousand electric vehicles in 2023. Three possible OEMs are considered as partners in the venture: Kia, Hyundai and BMW.
PSR Analysis:…
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Global: Recovery Is Strong, but Uneven
GLOBAL REPORT
Yosyf Sheremeta SUMMARY. The global economy performed very well in 2021 and continues to recover, along with trade, employment and incomes. But the revival is unbalanced, with regions/countries, businesses and people facing very different economic realities. Recent improvements also conceal structural changes, which means that some sectors, jobs, and technologies will not return to their pre-pandemic trends. Based on the most recent economic developments and trends, Power Systems Research remains somewhat optimistic about the global recovery.
Many of us hoped to be in the post-Covid phase by now, but it is evident that there is no quick way out. The pandemic has had a profound impact on the world economy, and it will continue to challenge established norms of life and business into the foreseeable future. As we start the new year, many challenges remain, new and old alike: re-surgency of COVID variants, restrictions on travel, supply chain challenges, shortages of materials/goods, inflation, and employment, as well as renewed geopolitical tensions across many parts of the globe.
Power Systems Research witnessed a strong economic recovery globally in 2021, despite regional differences. Output in most OECD countries has now either surpassed or is about to reach pre-pandemic levels, but lower-income economies, particularly those where vaccination rates are low, are at risk of being left behind. Furthermore, the rebound will continue to vary widely among different market segments.
Global inflation re-surfaced in 2021 and presents a real risk to economic recovery in all regions. The renewed inflationary pressure risks lasting longer than was expected a few months ago. The surge in retail and wholesale energy costs in late 2021 will undermine economic growth prospects for large parts of Europe and Northeast Asia well into 2022. Rising food and energy prices already have impact on low-income households in particular.
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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.
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Almaz-Antey Group To Develop Car Powered by Hydrogen Cells
Maxim Sakov This OEM is developing a passenger car dubbed E-NEVA which will use hydrogen as a fuel.
Almaz-Antey is a group of 60 enterprises, specializing in air defense weapons. With this current effort, OEM is making civilian products based on the developments from the military industry. In August, the concern introduced a self-propelled electric chassis that could be used to create passenger cars on the basic chassis. The chassis includes two electric motors and a set of batteries of 90 kWt/hrs, providing up to 400 km on a single charge.
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Russian Car Sales in September Drop 22.6%
Sales on new passenger cars and LCVs in September 2021 declined 22.6%, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB). In total, automotive salons and dealers have sold 119,4 000 cars, which is 34,9 vehicles less than in 2020 September.
According to AEB head Tomas Schterzel, “negative trend is going on” (in August the sales dropped 17%), although the totals for the first nine months of 2021 are showing 15.1% growth versus the same period in 2020. The shortage of vehicles on the market is…
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Personal Mobility Segment Lacks Sparkle, Stocks, Demand Drop
Aditya Kondejkar Passenger vehicles sales dropped 41% to around 160k units in September as the shortage of semi-conductors disrupted production at most of the OEMs. OEMs are facing supply shortages rather than demand problems. We are seeing robust customer demand as increasing preferences towards personal mobility increase.
2-wheel sales declined 17% to 1.5 million units in September. The Motorcycle segment is heavily impacted as sales is dropped 23% in September. Owing to high vehicle acquisition…
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Automechanika Fair Shows CV Parts
Maxim Sakov MOSCOW–MIMS, also called Automechanika, is a trade show dedicated to automotive parts and components, automotive electronics and service/repair.
The fair was conducted this year at the Moscow Expocenter July 23 to 26.
Automechanika is a small local event. However, this year there were about 400 participants from 18 countries. The biggest delegations were from Russia and Turkey. There were companies from UK, India, Spain, Italy, Iran, UAE and other countries.
Among largest foreign participants…
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