On Friday, Stellantis Group announced the launch of its new STLA Large model platform, a highly flexible native platform for large, pure electric vehicles, Tavares said at the launch: “If you cut prices regardless of the reality of the costs, you’re going to have a bloodbath. Companies are trying to avoid a race to the bottom.”

According to him, automakers that get caught in a “price war” that results in continuous corporate losses may risk being acquired. The Stellantis Group has more room to cut costs and improve operations than it does to engage in a “price war”.

At the meeting, Tavares also said he knew of one company that had drastically reduced its prices, resulting in a significant drop in profits. However, he did not disclose the name of the company.

As previously reported, Stellantis’ upcoming D-Class, E-Class, and other large vehicles will be based on the new STLA Large platform, which features embedded energy sources, high-performance power and charging efficiencies, and excellent off-road road ratings. Products based on this platform will cover a full range of sedans, crossovers and SUVs, and will be launched this year.

The platform is available in 400V and 800V electrical architectures, and powertrain performance can be software-updated through OTA wireless upgrades over the life of the vehicle. Early versions of the powertrain package have the potential to accelerate the vehicle from 0-100 km/h in about 2 seconds, and a fast-charging feature adds 4.5 kilowatt-hours of power per minute to the 800-volt battery pack.

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To cater to driving enthusiasts, some automakers are starting to copy the most exciting elements of traditional cars into their latest electric models. Hyundai, Toyota and others are experimenting with this simulation technology. However, BMW says it’s not interested in including simulated gearboxes or fake engine roars in future electric cars.

At a recent press conference, reporters asked BMW Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber whether his engineers were developing simulated gearboxes for electric vehicles. Weber laughed and dismissed the idea: “Yes, we could probably simulate shifting. A digital shifter,” he joked. BMW’s technical director added that the company has more important things to do when it comes to the driving experience of its next generation of electric vehicles. He said BMW hopes to take advantage of electric technology and develop a system that simultaneously controls the vehicle’s wheels, motors and chassis. This is a top priority.

“The work of simulating fixed gears and shifting, we might do in the afternoon after we’ve done other work,” he said. “You’d be surprised at the difference in how the next generation car drives.”

While Weber was joking, other car companies were serious about comforting car enthusiasts who were feeling the loss of their beloved gasoline engines. Toyota has developed an electric car with an actual gear shifter that can even turn off the engine. Drivers of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N can experience the bumpy feel of shifting gears and can even choose different engine roars from the menu to wake the neighbors. And Dodge, a brand best known for its thunderous V8 muscle cars, recently added a transmission and a loud “exhaust note” to its concept electric car.

While this isn’t a top priority for BMW, that doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen. It is noted that the head of BMW’s high-performance M division told the media earlier this year that his team is studying artificial shifting, vibration and acoustic cues to help drivers of future M-brand electric vehicles make better judgments.

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In the recent ruling, Tesla did not provide a strong argument as to why Tesla would be harmed by the postal service’s failure to distribute these packages before settling the case. It is worth mentioning that the day before the ruling, another Swedish court withdrew its ruling in Tesla’s favor in a lawsuit against the Transportation Bureau – Tesla can obtain the license plate directly from the vehicle license company.

To make matters worse, in addition to the current strikes in Sweden, the Finnish Transport Union will also implement an embargo on Tesla at ports across the country starting from December 20. Not only that, but major institutional investors from the Nordic region sold Tesla shares to support the workers’ strike action.

In addition, the conflict has now spread to Denmark. Jens Munch Holst, CEO of Akademiker Pension, a Danish fund with total assets of approximately US$24 billion, said that Tesla’s position on labor rights means that Tesla has already been included in the fund’s updated list. Closely monitored investment options list.

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However, after retirement, Callum has not been idle. He recently announced the first electric car he designed and engineered – Callum Skye.

According to reports, Callum Skye is a fully electric 2+2 seat four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle. It is known as “the most beautiful high-performance, multi-terrain vehicle in the world” with a unique shape and wide range of uses. The Skye is based on a Scottish The island is named after it.

The Callum Skye car is 4 meters long, 1.9 meters wide, weighs only 1150 kilograms, is powered by a 42 kWh battery, accelerates from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4 seconds, and has a nominal range of about 170 miles (Note: about 273.59 kilometers ).

Callum Skye models are currently being tested in Europe, with the first prototypes expected to be launched next spring. The company’s target price is about $126,000 (currently about 901,000 RMB).

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Even with the fast charging method, the charging time of electric vehicles usually takes at least 30 minutes. If we could charge electric vehicles as quickly as we can refuel, we could ease the shortage of charging stations.

The efficiency of lithium-ion batteries depends on the ability of the anode material to store lithium ions. Recently, the research team led by Professor Jin Yuanpei developed a new type of anode material. Using a novel self-mixing method, they synthesized manganese ferrite nanosheets with large surface area through a simple displacement reaction process. This new material can store more lithium ions, breaking through its theoretical limit.

In this study, the research team devised a new method to synthesize manganese ferrite nanosheets, a material with both excellent lithium-ion energy storage capacity and good ferromagnetism. First, a displacement reaction was performed in a mixed solution of manganese oxide and iron to form a heterostructure compound with manganese oxide inside and iron oxide outside. Then, the team used a hydrothermal method to prepare manganese ferrite nanosheets with a thickness of only nanometers. This approach takes advantage of highly spin-polarized electrons, significantly improving the ability to store large amounts of lithium ions.

This innovation allowed the team to effectively exceed the theoretical capacity of the manganese ferrite anode material by more than 50 percent. The increased surface area of the anode material allows a large number of lithium ions to move at the same time, increasing the charging speed of the battery. Experimental results show that it takes only 6 minutes to fully charge a battery with a capacity equivalent to that of an electric vehicle currently on the market.

The research simplifies the complex process of preparing anode materials, leading to breakthroughs in improving battery capacity and speeding up charging. Professor Jin Yuanpei, the leader of the research team, said, “We provide a new understanding of how to overcome the electrochemical limitations of conventional anode materials and increase battery capacity by modifying the surface with electron spin.” The development expressed optimism that it could improve battery life and reduce charging times in electric vehicles.

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Communication’s Mid-Term Investigator Program and Advanced Research Center Program, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Performance Enhancement and New Manufacturing Technology Development Program for Next-Generation Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries.

This could be a major breakthrough in the field of lithium-ion battery chemistry. If this technology can be commercialized, it will set a new standard. Even for a small system like a cell phone, a 50% increase in capacity would be a significant change. Also, keeping the same capacity saves lithium usage. A full charge in 6 minutes is even more unheard of, and I hope this technology can be commercialized as soon as possible.

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Many car buyers may believe that the most important factor driving down the cost of electric cars is the $7,500 tax credit that was expanded in the U.S. last summer, followed closely by Tesla’s cost-cutting drive to gain more market share. The underlying reason, however, is that car companies are improving electric vehicle technology and developing critical new manufacturing processes.

This has led to the emergence of more new models and made electric cars cheaper and more mainstream. Tesla has promised that the company’s next-generation electric cars, set to go on sale next year, will be sold at lower prices, expected to start between $25,000 and $30,000. The rise of mass-market electric vehicles will be an important milestone, environmentally, economically, financially and politically. The Biden administration is pushing for reforms that will aggressively reshape the automotive market in favour of electric vehicles faster than previously expected.

The Kelley Blue Book found that the average price of a new car in the U.S. is $48,763, a 30% increase over the past three years. If electric cars sell for much less than that, the “electric car is for the elite rich” narrative will go away. If these new models catch on, they will cement electric transportation as a mainstream consumer product, while also enabling Tesla, a repositioned Ford and General Motors, and a group of not-yet-exhausted electric car startups to become mainstream automakers.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said, “Tesla is going to have to come out with cheaper cars if it wants to get to the mass market.” He believes Tesla’s cheaper model will be a compact luxury car similar to the gas-powered Audi A3, which starts at $35,400 for the base model. According to Ives, “The mass market will be the most important market for electric cars.”

Tesla’s lowest-priced model is currently the base Model 3, which has a suggested retail price of $41,990. According to market researcher Edmunds, three EVs currently have a base model MSRP below $30,000: the Chevrolet Bolt, Bolt EUV and Nissan Leaf, but the average sales price for the first two models was still above $30,000 in March, and the Leaf’s average sales price was above $34,000.

The low-cost electric cars are one of a number of new electric models that have already begun to hit the market, with more than 60 new electric vehicles expected to hit the market in the next few years. The Volkswagen Group announced the launch of the ID.2 in Europe on March 15 for less than 25,000 euros (about $27,465). Startup Fisker plans to launch the PEAR, a $29,900 crossover, in the U.S. next year, and General Motors plans to launch the Chevrolet Equinox SUV in the fall for less than $30,000.

Ives said most companies will compete fiercely in the compact car market, and global sales of compact electric cars could reach 10 million over the next five years, even though automakers originally focused less on small cars and more on SUVs.

All of these were prices before last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which allowed U.S. buyers to get up to $7,500 off most electric cars made in North America, extended the tax credit, but the incentives have become increasingly complex, including rules for qualifying for the credit based on battery origin. There are also more financing options available in the auto loan market designed for eco-friendly vehicles.
The Biggest Problems Facing Manufacturers of Cheap Electric Vehicles

The rise of cheap electric cars presents a host of problems for automakers, but by far the biggest question is: What kind of electric car are consumers likely to get when sold at such a low price? Will they buy them? Think of Toyota’s gasoline-powered pillar, the Corolla, and other entry-level cars,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of global mobility research at S&P. There’s nothing wrong with having a base car as a first vehicle, and its having fewer features is in line with expectations.”

Analysts believe a model like the Fisker PEAR (an acronym for Personal Electric Vehicle Revolution) will not compete with large SUVs like Ford’s gasoline-powered Explorer. Instead, the PEAR looks more like a scaled-down version of the Honda CRV or Toyota RAV4. Both were the best-selling SUVs in the U.S. last year, according to Goodcarbadcar.net, with the RAV4 selling for as little as $27,500, which is longer than expected for the PEAR, and the larger CRV selling for slightly less than $30,000.

Ives said Tesla’s initial low-cost car, commonly known as the Model 2, is expected to be a hatchback and will likely be built at a plant built in Monterrey, Mexico, with some production also likely to take place at Tesla’s plant in Austin, Texas.

Brimley said models similar to the next-generation Tesla and other cheap electric cars could include the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, which have base retail prices of $25,050 and $21,550, respectively. The data shows that these two vehicles rank 9th and 13th in U.S. sales of all models, respectively, and first among compact cars. Other similar models include the Hyundai Kona and Honda Fit.

CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said the lowest-cost electric car could have a range of only 400 miles per full charge, similar to current cars like the Nissan Leaf and Hyundai Kona, which cost about $30,000, and consumers could save money by buying smaller, cheaper batteries.

Brimley said consumers are unlikely to accept lower prices and may insist those lower-priced electric cars also retain popular safety features such as lane departure warnings. Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker said during a Feb. 27 earnings call that consumers may accept shorter ranges in exchange for lower costs as they use PEARs as a second car or in cities where they have time to recharge during short trips.

Fisker added, “If people are just using electric cars as urban transportation, they may not need to carry around huge and expensive batteries. So, we can offer different options in that area.”

For market leader Tesla, the key to bringing costs down from $41,990 for the Model 3 standard series is new or redesigned factories, significant scaling up and advancing battery technology, Nielsen and Ives said. After years of declines, Ives said, there is still room for a 30 to 50 percent drop in battery costs.

As the second-largest U.S. electric vehicle maker, Ford expects simple economies of scale to improve operating margins on electric vehicles by 20 percentage points by 2026. Another 25 percentage points of profitability will come from lower battery costs and redesigning vehicles to use smaller batteries, said John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer. To save money, Fisker outsourced the production of PEAR to Foxconn.
How does Tesla plan to reduce costs?

Tesla spent a lot of time at its March 1 investor day explaining its future strategy. The company said the new strategy will reduce already low unit production costs by another 50 percent. While Musk has broken his promise several times, the company said it’s a trick that has worked once before, when Tesla shifted from the high-priced Model S and Model X models to a lineup now dominated by the Model 3 and Model Y.

The key is a new, larger factory and a design that lets the car’s large, flat battery act as the car’s chassis at the same time. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of automotive engineering, said at the investor day that the moves have allowed Tesla to assemble the cars in a different order, skipping steps such as removing doors after painting and making it easier for workers to install seats and other interior components, thereby reducing downtime during production. The company’s new powertrain plants cost 65 percent less than the ones they replaced, he added.

Tesla contends that its vertical integration will further reduce costs. In this integration, Tesla designs its own batteries and much of its manufacturing equipment and software. Tesla says its overall effort has reduced the cost of the drive unit, including the motor, to $1,000.

Engineering firm Munro & Associates backs that up, saying Colin Campbell, the firm’s vice president for powertrain engineering, “We don’t think any other automaker comes close to that.” Cory Steuben, president of Munro & Associates, said, “This is absolutely huge news.”

While Tesla hopes the entry-level car will cement its position as an automaker that can serve all market segments, the automaker has been reducing its presence in the lower end of the market, where margins are lower, for years, preferring instead to focus on larger vehicles with higher margins. In fact, a spokesman for Hyundai’s U.S. operations said the company has no plans to launch a low-end electric vehicle.

In a statement, Hyundai said, “At this time, it is difficult to launch an electric vehicle priced at $25,000 without compromising range.” Hyundai expects the ICE and BEV models to eventually achieve parity, but the exact timing is unclear.

The companies hope that the solution to the low-end electric vehicle’s low profitability will be to offer them a variety of options, like mid-priced cars and trucks, Nielsen said. In the case of Tesla, he added, that could mean upgrading batteries and subscription services, or even letting drivers drive cars at home for automatic carpool driving. Or, the automaker could simply try to sell leather seats, more powerful batteries and premium stereos to buyers of smaller electric cars. Relying on such tactics, Honda has prompted many Civic buyers to spend more than $43,000 on the sporty Type R.

Brimley said the automaker may just not want to make new cars as cheap as they now promise. “Tesla hasn’t reached that price point yet,” she said.

The real answer depends on just how much costs will fall and how much Tesla cuts prices, as a recovering supply chain and its own declining costs give Tesla the ability to offset some of the recent rise in car prices. Ives said, “Everyone is watching where Tesla is going, and that will determine pricing and market competition.”

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The world’s largest automaker by sales will also create a dedicated division to focus on next-generation electric vehicles. In a briefing on Friday, company executives detailed plans for its new leadership team.

Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus currently have just three electric vehicles on the market, with global sales of fewer than 25,000 last year.

Investors and environmental groups have criticized Toyota for being too slow in getting into electric vehicles, saying it has lost ground to rivals such as Tesla that have quickly taken over the market.

But Toyota has countered that EVs are only an option for car owners and that for certain markets and drivers, hybrid models such as its groundbreaking Prius are more practical options.

“Over the next few years, we will expand our lineup in the important field of electric vehicles,” Chief Executive Tsuneji Sato announced at his first briefing but added that hybrid models will remain an important pillar.

The market expects electric vehicles to account for more than half of total global vehicle production by 2030.

Meeting that demand will be critical for Toyota, which has also said it will increase production in the United States, where electric vehicles are growing faster than the overall market.

Toyota reported that U.S. sales fell nearly 9 percent in the first quarter. In contrast, GM’s sales rose 18%, which was attributed to greater demand for electric vehicles from corporate fleets and commercial customers.

According to S&P data, the majority of electric vehicle purchases in the United States are Toyota and Honda owners.

“Now that we’re on our way to the next big innovation leap, Toyota is falling behind, and more and more Americans are starting to realize it,” said Ester Peterson-True, a clean-vehicle activist and nonprofit Citizens for Good. Hilo (East Peterson-Trujillo) said in an interview before the briefing.

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Car sales in the first three months of 2023 were 162,938, up 10% from the same period last year. The sales growth is mainly driven by the company’s pure electric vehicles, which will increase by 157% compared to the same period in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, Volvo China’s sales reached 36,457 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 2%.

It said that Volvo Cars’ new energy models, which feature pure electric or plug-in hybrid powertrains, were popular in the first three months of this year, accounting for 41 percent of Volvo Cars’ global sales. Its share of pure electric vehicles ended up at 18 percent during that period.

Volvo Cars’ official website shows that the company’s sales in Europe in the first three months of 2023 increased to 72,671 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 12%, and the share of new energy models reached 62% of the region’s overall sales. U.S. sales rose 16 percent to 26,483 vehicles in the first three months of the year, with new-energy models accounting for 29 percent of total first-quarter sales.

In March, the Volvo XC40 led the way with sales of 20,556 (17,584 in 2022), followed by the XC60 with a total of 18,090 (16,855 in 2022) and the XC90 at 9,828 (9,141 in 2022).

The original text of Volvo sales is attached:

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Several countries in North America, Europe and Asia have set goals to increase production and sales of electric vehicles, with the hope that all new cars produced by 2040 will be electric. However, a new industry survey found that most people are pessimistic that the goal will be met, with only 39 percent believing such a vision will become a reality.

According to the U.S. government’s climate goals, half of all new cars and light trucks sold in the country should be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. California, for one, has set 2035 as the deadline for banning the sale of fuel-powered vehicles. In some European countries, 2040 seems to be the end of fuel cars, and the United Kingdom wants to ban them by 2030. Automakers on every continent are scrambling to go electric as they begin to phase out their internal combustion engine vehicle lines.

But a survey of the automotive industry conducted jointly by electrical equipment manufacturer ABB Robotics and Automotive Manufacturing Solutions magazine shows some pessimism about whether these goals will be met. When asked if it was “realistic to achieve 100 percent electric vehicle production by 2030 to 2040 to meet the goals in different regions,” only 11 percent answered in the affirmative, and less than 10 percent of European respondents thought the goal was achievable. This compares with 12 percent of North American respondents and 17 percent of Asian respondents who hold similar views.

Another 28 percent responded, “I think it can be achieved, but it will not be easy.” This leaves more than half of respondents who believe it is too early to achieve full adoption of electric vehicles between 2030 and 2040. 41 percent said, “It is possible to achieve the goal, but not earlier.” The final 18 percent said that the replacement of fuel-powered vehicles is still a long way off.

Those working for Tier 2 automotive suppliers are the most optimistic, with more than 50 percent saying a complete shift to electric vehicle production is possible; in contrast, only one-third of respondents in other groups think this is likely to become a reality. These groups include original equipment manufacturers, design and engineering service providers, Tier 1 suppliers, Tier 3 suppliers, software and IT service providers, and logistics service providers.

Without a doubt, the biggest barriers to 100% electric vehicle production are supply chain and cost. Of these, 19% of respondents cited the creation of a new battery supply chain as the biggest obstacle. We have already seen the impact of this, such as the battery supply shortage that has severely limited Toyota’s electric vehicle business and Ford’s access to a sufficient supply of batteries. In 2023, Ford tripled production of the Mustang Mach-E-E and doubled production of the F-150 Lightning.

Just as electric vehicles are clearly more expensive than similarly sized and equipped fuel vehicles, building new electric vehicle production facilities requires significant capital investment, for which 16 percent of respondents cited high costs as the second biggest obstacle to achieving 100 percent electric vehicle production.

Other concerns include shortages of raw materials and infrastructure, inadequate grid capacity, lack of green energy, and lack of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Concerns about EV performance, lack of demand and the high cost of purchasing new EVs were also cited as reasons for pessimism.

Industry respondents were also asked what they saw as the biggest barriers to EV adoption, with a lack of charging infrastructure leading the way (26%), followed by 17% citing the high cost of new EVs. North American consumer resistance to electric vehicles is expected to be a bigger negative factor than cost compared to respondents in Europe or Asia.

The good news is that 80 percent of respondents believe it will be possible to achieve sustainable vehicle manufacturing. Of those, 51 percent said, “It can be done, but it won’t be easy”; another 29 percent said it is possible, “but difficult.

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According to CCTV Finance, the service is called “remote driving”, the service is different from the traditional concept of driverless, it does not allow the car to drive automatically, but allows staff to operate the console in the remote simulation warehouse through the 5G network, sending instructions to the car to control the car driving. This way, users don’t have to worry about parking and other issues, and can simply book a car on their cell phones to enjoy a convenient and fast travel experience.

Thomas, the company’s CEO, said their goal is to solve the traffic challenges in big cities, “We want to make users feel like they are driving themselves, and when they reach their destination they just get out and go, and the remote driver does the rest”.

The company is also the first in Europe to have tested “remote driving” on public roads, and at MWC 2023 they showed a live demonstration of a crew remotely controlling an electric car in Berlin, Germany, from Barcelona. The company plans to launch a future service that combines driverless cabs and car rentals as a way to ease traffic pressure and parking problems in major cities.

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