News: PowerTALK

2020-05-24

Southeast Asia: COVID-19 Stalls China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Southeast Asia’s infrastructure development has begun to stall. China, which has been supporting the project, has been unable to proceed with its Belt and Road initiative for a broad economic zone due to restrictions on movement caused by the new coronavirus.

Akihiro Komuro
Akihito Komuro

Southeast Asian countries also are prioritizing infection control and curbing the funds and human resources they invest in development. A major delay in the construction of infrastructure, which is the foundation of growth, could force foreign investors to reconsider their investment plans.

In Indonesia, work on a high-speed railway (about 140 kilometers) linking the capital Jakarta with the major city of Bandung was recently halted. The project is financed by a Chinese bank, and the state-owned company is involved in the construction. The opening is expected to be postponed from the scheduled 2021.

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South Korea: Hyundai and Kia Expand EV Models

According to the Hyundai Motor Group, both Hyundai and Kia plan to offer 44 eco-car models by 2025, more than half of which will be dedicated to EVs (23 models).

Akihiro Komuro
Akihito Komuro

Hyundai revealed in its 2025 strategy announced at the end of last year that it would increase EV and FCV sales to 560,000 and 110,000 units respectively. Kia has set a goal of selling 500,000 EVs and 1 million eco-cars by 2026, with 11 EV models available across all vehicle classes by 2025.

Source:            Yonhap News Agency

PSR Analysis: At present, both vehicle production and exports fell significantly in April due to the impact of COVID-19. In April, production fell 22.2% YOY and exports fell 44.3% YOY. But when we look at eco-cars, exports and domestic sales increased by 11.5% and 28.3% respectively.

Even during the predicament caused by the new coronavirus, the eco-car ratio is showing an increasing trend. Exports of EVs jumped 94.6% to a record 9,761 units. Of course, the entire South Korean auto industry is badly hurt by the ongoing corona shock.

However, even against this huge drop, Korean-branded eco-cars, including EVs, may be beginning to gain international recognition. Growth in external demand for these eco-cars will be a prerequisite for the recovery of Korean automobile production in the future. PSR

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

2020-05-23

Joint Development of Fuel Cell Trucks Advances

The development of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that use hydrogen as a fuel for heavy-duty trucks is accelerating. Since the start of 2020, major manufacturers such as Hino, Isuzu, and Daimler have been announcing cooperation with other companies one after another.

Akihiro Komuro
Akihito Komuro

In April, Daimler and Volvo announced that they would establish a 50-50 joint venture to develop and mass produce fuel cell heavy-duty trucks.

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Russia: Assembly of Electric GAZelle LCVs Started in Germany

Sales of electric version of GAZelle Next LCV have begun in Germany. Stuttgart company EFA-S is modifying Russian vehicles. The assembly started this year.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

The German company purchases LCVs in Russia without transmission, engine and fuel system. Then in Stuttgart they install an electric motor and battery.

Currently, four versions of the electric vehicle are available – a side truck, a wagon, a 2-cabin wagon and a mini-bus. All LCVs are powered by a 110 kWt electric motor and can reach a speed of 88 km/hour.   

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Russia: KAMAZ Tests Driverless Trucks in Arctic

KAMAZ driverless trucks have been tested in the Eastern-Messoyakh oilfield in the Nenetsky region. The vehicles were driven 2,500 kilometers without accidents.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

The joint project of Gazpromneft and KAMAZ was put together with support of region authorities in difficult climate conditions beyond the Polar Circle. The main target of tests was to determine the efficiency of driverless trucks, which would increase safety of cargo transportation and optimize supplies to territories with difficult access.

During the tests, the driverless trucks showed high potential to move on pre-set routes with high accuracy, to exchange information via duplicated communication systems, to recognize obstacles and forecast movements on actual environment.

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Russia Automakers To Receive Special Credits

Twelve automakers in Russia are counting on privileged credits for working capital support of backbone enterprises during the COVID struggle.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

Under the program, a company must have revenue of  US$300 million (20 billion rubles) and employ more than 1000 people. A special bank product has been designed for such companies. The bank interest on this credit will be subsidized within the base interest rate of Russian Central Bank, and half of the credit will be warranted by the Ministry of Finances.    Read The Article

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Russia New Car Sales Drop 70% in April

New car sales plummeted by 102,000 vehicles in April, the largest monthly car sales decline in history in Russian, according to the Association of European Business.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

During April, Russia introduced strict quarantine measures because of the coronavirus, causing car sales to fall by 102,089 units, or 72.4%.

After strong sales in March, dealers have had to suspend or restrict their activity.

“Black April” has dealt a strong blow to dealer cash liquidity, and seriously affected stability during middle-term period. The dealers are preparing to restart their business in May; however, they don’t expect significant sales growth.

AutoVAZ , the largest Russian car manufacturer, reported sales declined by three times in April over March.

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COVID-19 and Lockdown Have Major Impact on Engine-Driven Applications

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the Indian automotive sector was facing a severe downturn, but the problems were amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns across India and the rest of the world. The situation was compounded because India was transitioning from BS-IV to the BS-VI era.

Aditya Kondejkar

These are challenging times for the Indian automotive sector because of slow economic growth, negative consumer sentiment, axle load norms, a liquidity crunch, low capacity utilization and potential bankruptcies. The current lockdown has  severely affected the entire ecosystem of engine driven applications in India.

For the first time, automobile OEMs reported zero domestic sales and very limited exports in April.  According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the industry is losing more than $300 million per day.

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DATAPOINT: NA Personal Watercraft (PWC) 2020 Forecast: 88,300 Units

The 88,300 units is the estimate by Power Research of the number of Personal Watercraft (PWC) to be produced in North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States) in 2020.

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.

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COVID-19 Cuts Results at Harley-Davidson, Polaris

Harley-Davidson Q1 2020 Sales Plunge 15.5%

Harley-Davidson said US sales were up 6.6% in the quarter before the pandemic ground the economy to a halt in mid-March. But sales wound up plunging 15.5% in America compared to a year ago and 20.7% internationally. Overall revenue slipped 8% from last year’s first quarter.

For the quarter, Harley-Davidson posted earnings of $69.7 million compared with $127.9 million in the same period a year ago.

Michael Aistrup
Michael Aistrup

Harley-Davidson’s share in the U.S. heavyweight motorcycle market share was down 2.2 percentage points, to 48.9% and the company’s share of the heavyweight motorcycle market in Europe was 7.6% in the first quarter.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Harley has reduced planned capital spending, frozen hiring, temporarily reduced salaries, eliminated merit increases for employees in 2020 and changed the timing of new product launches in order to preserve $250 million in 2020.

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