News: PowerTALK

2023-06-19

Suzuki Moves Aggressively To Regain India Market Share

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

A key portion of Maruti Suzuki’s mid-term goal to achieve 50% overall PV (passenger vehicle) market share by becoming the number one SUV seller in the country. This is important for Maruti Suzuki because even though the automaker’s market share in the non-SUV segments is more than 65%, its SUV share was only 10.5% in 2022.

Source: The Times of India    Read The Article

Capacity Expansion.

The company is planning to invest Rs 18,000 crore for the Kharkhoda facility in Haryana. This will increase the capacity by one million units. Further, by the end of the decade, Maruti Suzuki plans to invest over 45,000 crore to quadruple production capacity to four million vehicles in order to meet domestic consumer demand and increase exports from India.

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Cummins Accelera Delivers Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck

CHINA REPORT
Jack Hao
Jack Hao

Accelera and Shaanxi Auto’s Dechuang Future have jointly developed a 31-ton Hydrogen fuel battery residue vehicle. Sixty Cummins Accelera Hydrogen fuel cell driven muck trucks were delivered and put into operation in Shanghai.

It is reported that this vehicle is matched with Cummins 125kW Hydrogen fuel battery engine system and 127kWh Lithium iron phosphate power battery, and uses the 410kW drive motor and AMT automatic transmission with ultra-low system energy consumption independently developed by Dechuang in the future to form a “new energy power chain,” so that the vehicle’s power performance indicators such as maximum speed, hill starting ability, climbing ability, loading capacity, etc. are higher than the industry average.

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Indonesia Plans To Become Major Player in Car Industry

SOUTHEAST ASIA: INDONESIA REPORT

Amid the global shift to EVs, Indonesia is vying to become the new leader in this segment.

Indonesia has already surpassed Thailand in passenger car production and has begun full-scale EV production ahead of Thailand. Thailand has begun to defend its position as the auto manufacturing hub of Southeast Asia by offering preferential policies for EVs, including subsidies for both domestic production and sales.

Indonesia’s greatest strength is its abundance of nickel, which is used in car batteries. It is said to have the largest nickel reserves in the world, and investment in this resource is growing rapidly. In April, the Indonesian government announced that it was considering investing in a nickel production venture involving Ford of the United States and that VW of Germany was also considering participation.

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Hyundai Motor and LG Energy To Build Battery Plant in U.S.

FAR EAST: SOUTH KOREA REPORT
Akihiro Komuro
Akihiro Komuro

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solutions said they plan to build a joint automotive battery plant in the United States.

They will split the total investment of $4.3 billion (about 600 billion yen) on a 50-50 basis and plan to start operations by the end of 2025. As conditions for EV subsidies in the U.S. become clearer, several local investment plans are in the works.

The new plant will be built in Bryan County, Georgia. With a standard production capacity of 30 gigawatt-hours per year, it will be able to supply batteries for approximately 300,000 EVs. In addition to Hyundai Motor’s dedicated EV plant in Georgia, the plant will also supply batteries to Kia’s plant in Georgia and Hyundai Motor’s plant in Alabama.

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Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso To Merge

FAR EAST: JAPAN REPORT

The announced reorganization of several commercial vehicles companies came suddenly and was one that few in the industry expected.

On May 30, Toyota Motor Corporation and Daimler Trucks of Germany announced a business merger between Toyota-owned Hino Motors and Daimler-owned Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation. The merger is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

The four companies have reached a basic agreement that calls for Toyota and Daimler to establish a holding company by the end of 2024 with the aim of going public. Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso will become part of the holding company. Toyota and Daimler will hold the same percentage of shares in the holding company, and Hino Motors will cease to be a consolidated subsidiary of Toyota after the merger.

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XCMG To Produce EV Trucks in Brazil in Two years

Fabio Ferraresi
Fabio Ferraresi

XCMG announced plans to produce battery electric trucks in Brazil at Pouso Alegre (MG) plant in two years. Until then, the company expects to build a local network of suppliers and wait for new industrial policies that are expected for the electric vehicle segment.

The current plan consists of starting with the assembly of chassis and cabins at the Minas Gerais plant with components produced by local suppliers. Batteries and other components of the electric powertrain will be imported from China.

This first stage fits the company’s electric trucks within the scope of Finame, the BNDES credit line that finances the acquisition of machinery and equipment. To access this line, the product to be financed must have a certain percentage of parts and components produced in the country.

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Brazil Announces Incentives for MHV and LV

BRAZIL/SOUTH AMERICA REPORT  

The Brazilian Federal Government this month has announced a package of incentives for the automotive sector during a press conference held in Brasilia (DF). The program intends to bail out the country’s automakers at a time of weak demand for new vehicles.

The final text includes passenger cars, Minivans and SUVs, Trucks and Buses through discounts granted to the consumer, and not by tax reduction to automakers, as was expected.

Total spending of Federal Government is US$ 300 Million (R$ 1.5 Billion). Funds are expected to come from the return of taxes on diesel sales, which was planned to happen in January 2024, but it is anticipated to meet the program of the automotive sector.

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Global Electric Scooter Market Could Reach $56B in 2033

GLOBAL REPORT
Michael Aistrup
Michael Aistrup

The global electric scooter market is growing at a rate that will enable it to surpass $56 billion by the end of 2033, according to a forecast by. Power Systems Research. The forecast predicts a projected growth rate of 9.72% by 2033.

This high growth rate is attributed to the rising demand for electric vehicles because of the increasing worldwide population.

An Electric Vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that runs on electricity/battery power. Electric vehicles have low running costs due to fewer moving parts and are environmentally friendly as they use little or no fossil fuels. Some EVs use lead-acid or nickel-metal hydride batteries, but lithium-ion batteries are now used in battery-powered electric vehicles for their long life, excellent energy storage, and low self-discharge rate.

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Battery Recycling Center Will Have A Big Impact On Europe

Guy Youngs
Guy Youngs

Recycling lithium-ion batteries is extremely important, as these batteries contain valuable metals such as cobalt, copper, and lithium that can be recovered and reused. By recycling these metals, we can reduce our reliance on mining and extractive activities that aren’t free or even cheap.

Li-Cycle (a recycling company) and Glencore (a mining company) have partnered to do something significant in this space. The proposed “Portovesme Hub” would focus on producing essential battery materials like cobalt, lithium, and nickel by recycling used battery content. A letter of intent has been signed to commence the preliminary discussions.

Source: CleanTechnica   Read The Article

PSR Analysis:  This facility can’t take care of Europe’s full battery recycling needs, but the research and development of mass recycling processes sets the stage for future facilities that will take care of the rest of the needs. So, this announcement is both good for the near-term and the long-term future.   PSR

Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research

EVs and The H2 Battle To Be Included in the Family

This article looks at the nomenclature of Electric Vehicle and Zero Emissions vehicles and discusses ways the electricity used is generated. It then discusses the basics of Fuel Cell Vehicles and then compares them to EVs

Source: Hydrogen Fuel News: Read The Article

PSR Analysis:  This is a fairly basic article but it’s a good reminder of the terms and basics.   PSR

Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research