+++ CHERY GROUP shipped 212.959 vehicles overseas in the first 10 months this year, becoming the first Chinese passenger car maker to exceed 200.000 units in this period. The exports marked a 145.7 percent rise from the same period last year, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and global chip shortages, said the carmaker. Yin Tongyue, chairman of the carmaker, said the brand’s popularity in overseas markets lies in its focus on quality and technology. He made the remark at an event in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its overseas operations. Headquartered in Wuhu, Anhui province, Chery has ranked No. 1 for 18 years in a row in terms of vehicle exports among Chinese carmakers. Its models are now available in over 80 countries and regions. It has set up 10 overseas factories, more than 1.500 overseas dealerships and service outlets. Its cumulative overseas deliveries stand at 1.9 million, over 19 percent of its total vehicles sales. Yin said Chery has valued technology and it will continue to sharpen its competitive edge in partnership with outstanding technology companies. Robust exports are a sign of China’s rise as an automobile power, and the vast international market has great potential for Chinese carmakers to explore, said Yin. Xu Haidong, vice-chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said China’s vehicle exports are expected to grow in coming years. Statistics from the association show that carmakers in China exported 1.59 million vehicles in the first 10 months this year, less than 8 percent of total vehicles produced in the country. +++
+++ Major carmakers from CHINA are stepping up to explore overseas markets as globalization is deemed a prerequisite to become internationally competitive marques. Great Wall Motors opened its European headquarters last week in Munich, Germany, paving the way for its models to hit the country from 2022. China’s largest SUV and pickup maker presented a plug-in hybrid SUV from its Wey brand and a full-electric model from its Ora brand at the Munich auto show in September. “Chinese carmakers now have the courage and ability to take European brands head-on”, said the carmaker in a statement. Great Wall Motors also plans to open brand experience centers in Munich and Berlin in 2022 as part of its plan to build a “lifestyle ecosystem” for European customers. “The launch in Europe is an important milestone for Great Wall Motors”, said Qiao Xianghua, CEO of the carmaker’s European operations. “We have ambitious goals for this market as well”. Geely, another major private carmaker in China, revealed a plan for its premium brand Lynk & Co to make inroads into the Asia-Pacific region earlier this month. The first stop for Lynk & Co is Kuwait. It is to introduce an SUV in partnership with Kuwaiti company Al Zayani. The carmaker said there are 495 cars per 1.000 people in Kuwait and local car buyers value quality and cutting-edge technology, so there is huge potential for brands like Lynk& Co. Lynk& Co said it will soon enter other countries in the region including the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The Asia-Pacific campaign is the latest effort of Lynk & Co’s globalization, following its entry into European countries in late 2020. Its first model to enter the European market was the Lynk & Co 01 SUV, with total deliveries exceeding 10.000 units so far. The carmaker said it has built 4 showrooms in Europe and plans to open another 3 in 2022. Lynk & Co said it is also planning to export vehicles to such countries as Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Wuling is to sell its popular electric minicars in Indonesia from 2022. The first model to arrive in the Southeast Asian nation will be one built on its GSEV platform for global markets, the company said. The carmaker rose to fame in the EV sector last year because of its 2-seater Hongguang Mini EV, which once dethroned Tesla’s Model 3 as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle. The model and other GSEV-based vehicles have been successful in China, with total deliveries exceeding 650.000 units so far, according to company statistics. Wuling showcased two GSEV-based models at the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show earlier this month. “It represents our commitment to support the Indonesian government’s program to accelerate vehicle electrification”, said Han Dehong, vice-president of Wuling’s operations in Indonesia, in an interview with local media. Xu Haidong, vice-chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said China’s vehicle exports are expected to grow in the coming years. “Big auto companies have big shares in international markets. Compared with them, we still have a long way to go”, said Xu. Statistics from CAAM show that carmakers in China exported 1.59 million vehicles in the first 10 months this year, which is less than 8 percent of total vehicle production in the country. +++
+++ South Korea’s shift to ELECTRIC VEHICLES (EVs) poses a threat to thousands of workers in the auto industry. EVs are simpler to design and engineer compared to cars with internal combustion engines. That leads to a simple if grim formula: the more EVs that are sold in South Korea, the faster the shrinkage in jobs at auto companies and auto parts makers. “The number of auto parts needed to make an EV is only a third of that needed for a car with a traditional engine”, said Kim Yong-won, an executive at the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, during a symposium in Gwangju on November 18. “so it is inevitable that the number of employees in the auto industry will shrink by 20 to 30 percent”. The bottom line, according to Kim: “If EVs take up 33 percent of all car sales in 2030, about 35.000 people will lose their jobs in South Korea”. In South Korea, a total of 71.006 EVs were sold in the first 9 months of this year, up 96 percent compared to same period a year earlier. EVs accounted for 5.5 percent of all car sales in Korea, just behind China and some European countries, according to data provided by the Korea Automotive Technology Institute. Hyundai and Kia announced that they will not sell internal combustion engine vehicles from 2040 onward. Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis said all its vehicles will be purely electric starting in 2025. According to a recent Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association survey of 185 auto parts makers, 68.2 percent of respondents said they expect a sharp decline in sales as a result of the country’s move into EVs. The association’s members are suppliers to Korea’s 5 major car companies: Hyundai, Kia, GM Korea, Ssangyong and Renault Samsung. Global auto makers are already reducing the number of their employees in factories. The Renault Group recently announced that it will cut the number of employees who work in the internal combustion engine car sector by 2.000 by 2024. The French car maker cut 14.600 people last year. Volkswagen in March reduced the number of employees at its manufacturing sites by 5.000. The cuts were partly made to redirect investment to EVs. General Motors cut 14.000 employees last year while BMW cut 16.000. Analysts say the government should be prepared with some measures to help people who are likely to lose their jobs. “The government must see the reality more clearly”, said Kim Pil-soo, an automotive engineering professor at Daelim University. “It is urgently needed for the government to come up with some programs to train current employees, as well as foster new talent”. Professor Park Chul-wan, who teaches car engineering at Seojeong University, agrees. “The jobs in the automobile industry of the future will be very different from now, so the government should exert all efforts to train existing employees so that they can be engaged in new businesses in the future”, Park said. +++
+++ Development of FULLY ELECTRIC SYSTEMS will be the most important technical route for the automotive industry’s low-carbon development in the medium and long term, industry insiders said. “Carmakers and consumers should pay close attention to PHEV and HEV vehicles, which have excellent performance in carbon reduction”, said Feng Xingya, president of GAC Group, a carmaker headquartered in Guangzhou. Continuously improving the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in sales is one of the most effective means to promoting the peak of vehicle carbon emissions and moving towards neutralization, according to Feng. He made the remarks during the East Tech West, a high-level meeting bringing together representatives at the cutting edge of the technology industry with leading investors from across the world. The event opened on Wednesday in Nansha district of Guangzhou, part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which is rapidly developing into a global hub for technology and innovation. With sessions focused on practical solutions, international collaboration and global viewpoints, tech giants and rising business stars gathered during this year’s event to chart a course towards a post-pandemic future, according to organizers. The carbon emission of materials and production accounts for about 20 percent of the total carbon emission of vehicles, while the carbon emission during the car operation accounts for about 80 percent, according to the China Automotive Technology and Research Center. According to Feng, NEV sales will account for 50 percent of the company’s total vehicle sales by 2030. “Development of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will become our key efforts in the years ahead”. The Guangzhou-headquartered company has also begun research and development of alternative fuel car models including those generated by hydrogen power, according to Feng. The growth of the NEVs nationwide is expected to exceed 195 percent year-on-year in 2021, according to Yang Ying, chief executive officer of Hycan, an all-electric car manufacturer based in Guangzhou. “Consumers have developed greater interest in electric vehicles, which in turn has encouraged us to develop more high-quality NEVs”, Yang said. +++
+++ Chinese vehicle manufacturer GREAT WALL MOTORS registered sales of 16.370 units in the first 10 months in the South African market this year, ranking first among Chinese brands in the market in October, according to the latest data from the company. Haval Jolion, a small SUV brand in the company, became sales champion of the segment, just two months after it was launched in the South African market. After entering the South African market in 2007, Great Wall Motors has sold around 100.000 units, with sales and market shares topping other Chinese brands, the company said. The quality of Great Wall Motors has been recognized by local consumers. The company’s Haval brand was awarded the “Company to Watch” award by South African’s Car Magazine in February 2018, due to its outstanding performance on the market. The company was also awarded a gold medal for dealer satisfaction by the South Africa National Automobile Dealers’ Association in June 2019. Besides South Africa, Great Wall Motors has also expanded its footprint elsewhere on the continent, as its pickup products hit the Egyptian market in April this year. The Haval SUV, which debuted in July 2021, ranked top five in the compact SUV segment the same month, and maintained a comparatively high growth speed in sales. Along with the GB Automotive Group, the largest passenger car dealer in Egypt, Great Wall Motors established 47 sales services networks in Egypt to date, and is set to continuously optimize its sales network layout in the region, the company said. Apart from the Africa market, Great Wall Motors also witnessed high growth in other overseas areas, as its October sales jumped 30.3 percent to 14.074 units. Total overseas sales during the January to October period were 112,020 units, an increase of 114.3 percent on a yearly basis. +++
+++ HONDA is integrating artificial intelligence into its vehicles to warn drivers of imminent traffic hazards and help them avoid accidents caused by human error, as the automaker aims to meet its target of zero fatalities by 2050. Honda’s AI-powered driver assistance technology (unveiled Thursday in what the firm says is a world first) checks a driver’s movements and health using a monitoring camera and sensors. The No. 2 Japanese automaker by volume said it is planning to put the technology, including functionality that alerts against risks by tightening the driver’s seatbelt or emitting audible warnings, into its vehicles in the latter half of the 2020s. Domestic automakers are stepping up their development of safety technologies, such as automatic braking systems, at a time when the country’s population is rapidly aging. The auto industry has also seen increased competition to develop internet-connected cars. The automatic seatbelt tightening system will warn the driver of pedestrians ahead of the car. In another situation, if a driver tries to change lanes when another vehicle is approaching from behind, they will be given a directional sound alert via in-vehicle speakers, Honda said. Other safety functions include seats that vibrate to prevent a driver from dozing off and steering assistance in response to erratic driving. Pedestrians can also get smartphone alerts that will help them avoid dangerous traffic incidents. Honda is developing another technology with mobile carrier SoftBank that connects drivers and other road users via telecommunication networks. Information gathered from in-vehicle or other cameras will be used to predict dangerous traffic situations with the help of AI, and people facing imminent danger will be alerted, the automaker said. “For the realization of a collision-free society where all road users care for each other and the freedom of mobility becomes possible, we will further accelerate our industry-wide and public-private initiatives”, Keiji Otsu, who heads the automaker’s research arm Honda R&D, said in a press release. Japan has seen the number of deaths from traffic accidents fall in recent years. The figure for 2020 came in at 2.839, the lowest since data became available in 1948, marking an 11.7 % drop from a year earlier, according to the National Police Agency. Among major domestic automakers, Toyota has developed a system that uses large amounts of data to avoid unwanted acceleration incidents caused by a driver who mistakenly steps on the gas pedal rather than the brake. +++
+++ HYUNDAI has reclaimed the No. 2 spot in Australian car sales, with its October car sales outpacing those of American rival Ford and Japanese rival Mazda. Hyundai sold around 6.200 vehicles in October in Australia, a 3 percent increase from a year prior. For the January-October period this year, its cumulative car sales reached 61.000 vehicles, up almost 10.000 vehicles from the same period last year. Of the 7 bestselling car brands in Australia, Hyundai was the only carmaker that sold more cars this year than in 2020. The Korean carmaker reclaimed the second spot it last held in October 2019, while Japan’s Toyota retained its No. 1 position with a market share of nearly 20 percent. Its smaller sibling Kia suffered an 8.5 percent decline in sales to rank fifth. Looking into car models, Hyundai’s i30 and Tucson drove up overall sales, selling 1.800 and 1.500 units, respectively. The i30, in particular, saw a 36 percent surge in sales, becoming the 4th highest selling car during the period. The fully electric Ioniq 5 and Nexo hydrogen SUV also continued gaining popularity in the market. Earlier this year, Hyundai supplied 20 units of the Nexo as official cars for the Australian government. +++
+++ SOUTH KOREA ’s burgeoning rechargeable-battery industry is alarmingly dependent on China for four core materials, raising concerns of potential supply shortages and hostage-taking by the increasingly assertive superpower. The acute shortage of diesel exhaust fuel Korea suffered when China curbed exports of urea recently was a stark warning of what could lie in store. Already battery prices are expected to rise next year for the first time after cracks began to appear in the supply chains dominated by China, and China’s low-tech industries could easily bring Korea’s high-tech sector to its knees. China dominates the market for the 4 main materials that are used to manufacture rechargeable batteries: cathodes, anodes, membranes and electrolytes. The materials account for 50 percent of battery manufacturing costs and cathodes for 44 percent and China controls 58 percent of the global cathode market, while Korea accounts for only 9 percent. And even then for that small proportion Korea must import from China almost all of the nickel, cobalt and manganese powder that are used to make cathodes. The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for 78 percent of the cobalt mined around the world, which is the most expensive ingredient, and China controls the mines in that country and processes 72 percent of the mined mineral. Some 61 percent of the lithium mines in Australia and Chile are also Chinese-owned. One battery industry insider said, “Utility costs are cheap in China, which enables it to dominate the processing of core raw materials. Although that process does not require a high level of technology, battery production is impossible without China”. Kim Kwang-ju of SNE Research said, “The price of Chinese-made lithium that goes into electrolytes rose from $15 per kg early this year to $80 recently. Unless we lower our dependence on China, we won’t be able to deal with price volatility risks”. China also accounts for 66 percent of the global market for graphite anodes and recently succeeded in mass producing artificial graphite to supply to Korean manufacturers. Posco Chemical manufactures natural graphite, but Chinese rivals boast unrivaled cost competitiveness. Japan’s Asahi Kasei used to dominate the global market for membranes, but now China’s Shanghai Energy New Materials Technology began selling them at low prices and rose to the top. According to Bloomberg last month, global battery prices are expected to rise 2.3 percent next year. Battery prices stood at $1,200 per 1kWh but dropped sharply to $140 last year and fell a further 6 percent this year. The car industry expects electric cars to become as affordable as combustion-engine cars if battery prices drop to $100 per 1kWh, but Bloomberg said that now sees unlikely to happen until 2026. Park Chul-wan at Seojeong College said, “Under the current supply structure, Korea’s battery industry is unsustainable. We need to diversify suppliers of raw materials and nurture our own industry”. +++
+++ SSANGYONG said its sales fell 26 percent last month from a year earlier amid a prolonged chip shortage. It sold 8.748 vehicles in November, down from 11.859 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales declined 32 percent to 6.277 units last month from 9.270 a year ago, while exports were down 3.4 percent to 2.501 units from 2.589 during the same period, it said. From January to November, its sales fell 3.4 percent to 75.351 autos from 96.763 during the same period of last year. SsangYong Motor’s lineup consists of the Tivoli, Korando, Rexton and Rexton Sports SUVs. The SUV-focused carmaker has been in a debt-rescheduling process since April 15 as its Indian parent Mahindra failed to attract an investor amid the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic and its worsening financial status. It filed for court receivership in December 2020 after failing to obtain approval for the rollover of 165 billion won (US$148 million) of loans from creditors. SsangYong and its lead manager, the EY Hanyoung accounting firm, recently selected a local consortium led by Edison Motors as the preferred bidder for the debt-laden carmaker. +++
+++ TESLA is investing 1.2 billion yuan ($187.91 million) to optimize the production line at its Shanghai factory as China is rising as a major global export hub for the US electric carmaker. The project is expected to start in December and finish in April 2022, according to Tesla’s filing to a Shanghai government platform for local companies’ environmental information disclosures. Tesla did not specify the production capacity changes at the plant that currently makes up to 500.000 vehicles annually, but said it will add another 4.000 workers after the project is finished, which will increase the number of the plant’s employees to 19.000. The Shanghai plant, which started production in late 2019, is Tesla’s first car manufacturing facility outside of the United States and China’s first and only passenger car manufacturing facility wholly owned by an overseas carmaker. The plant currently produces Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and sells them in China, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. The facility became Tesla’s major global exporter in July. In the third quarter, the plant produced 133.200 vehicles, of which 59.579 were exported, according to the carmaker’s financial statement. In the first 10 months of this year, vehicle exports from the Shanghai plant reached almost 150.000 units, and sales in China stood at around 210.000 units, statistics from China Passenger Car Association showed. “The investment comes as no surprise, as demand for electric cars is surging both in China, where its cars are loved, and overseas markets, so Tesla needs to quickly scale up its capacity”, said Roy Lu, an independent auto analyst based in Shanghai. China is the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles, including electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Over 2.5 million new energy vehicles were sold in the country in the first 10 months of this year, and total deliveries this year could reach 3 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Besides production, Tesla is also ramping up its research and development in China. Its research facility, which was unveiled last month in Shanghai, specializes in aspects from software and electronics to materials and charging. Tesla said the facility, its first outside the US, will gradually develop over time to be similar in size to the one in its home country. “The goal of Tesla’s team in China is to design, develop and produce new vehicle models and products with Chinese elements and sell them globally”, Tesla said in an online recruitment post earlier this year. Tesla has also built a data center in Shanghai for local data storage. In September, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said data security is becoming even more important as vehicles are becoming smart and autonomous. The company’s third-quarter financial report showed the Shanghai gigafactory has an annualized production capacity of over 450.000 vehicles. The Chinese market generated $3.13 billion in revenue, up 78.5 percent from a year earlier. +++
+++ TOYOTA will launch an all-electric car in China late next year, having turned to local partner BYD for key technology to finally make an affordable yet roomy small sedan, four sources said. 2 of the 4 people with knowledge of the matter described the car as an electric holy grail for Toyota which has struggled for years to come up with a small EV that is both competitive on cost in China and doesn’t compromise on comfort. The sources said the breakthrough was chiefly down to BYD’s less bulky lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) Blade batteries and its lower-cost engineering knowhow; a turning of the tables for a Chinese company whose popular F3 saloon was inspired by Toyota’s Corolla back in 2005. Little known outside China at the time, BYD, or “Build Your Dreams”, made headlines in 2008 when Warren Buffett bought a 10 % stake and it has since become one of the biggest manufacturers of so-called new energy vehicles in the world. Toyota’s new EV will be slightly bigger than its compact Corolla, the world’s best-selling car of all time. One source said think of it as “a Corolla with bigger back-seat section”. It will be unveiled as a concept car at the Beijing auto show in April and will then most likely be launched as the second model in Toyota’s new BZ series of all-electric cars, even though it will only be on sale in China for now. “The car was enabled by BYD battery technology”, one of the sources said. “It has more or less helped us resolve challenges we had faced in coming up with an affordable small electric sedan with a roomy interior”. It will be pitched below premium EVs such as Tesla’s Model Y or the Nio ES6 but above the ultra-cheap Hong Guang Mini EV, which starts at just $4,500 (about ¥510,000) and is now China’s bestselling electric vehicle. 2 of the 4 sources, all of whom declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said the new Toyota would be priced competitively. One said it would likely sell for under 200,000 yuan (¥3.55 million), aiming for a segment of the Chinese market Tesla is expected to target with a small car within the next 2 years. “We don’t comment on future products”, a Toyota spokesperson said. “Toyota considers battery electric vehicles as one path to help us get to carbon neutrality and is engaged in the development of all types of electrified vehicle solutions”.The fact Toyota has been compelled to turn to BYD to solve its low-cost EV conundrum shows how far the competitive balance of the global auto industry has tipped in the past decade. When the quality of Chinese vehicles was considered below par, global automakers were not too concerned that they couldn’t compete on price and left Chinese companies to control the domestic market for cheap, no-frills cars. But times have changed. Toyota executives started to worry back in 2015 when BYD launched its Tang plug-in hybrid, with significant improvements in styling, quality and performance. Most worrying was the fact it was still about 30 % cheaper than comparable Toyota models. There was a critical turn of events in 2017 when Toyota’s top engineering leaders, including then-executive vice president Shigeki Terashi, drove several BYD cars such as the Tang at its proving ground in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, near its headquarters. Terashi subsequently visited BYD’s headquarters in Shenzhen and drove a prototype of its Han electric car. “Their long-term quality is still a question mark, but the design and quality of these cars showed levels of maturity, yet they were much cheaper than comparable Toyota models”, said 1 of the 4 sources, who participated in the test drives. “We were all kinda floored by that”. 2 of the sources said the BYD evaluations pushed Toyota to create its research and development (R&D) joint venture with BYD last year. Toyota now has two dozen engineers in Shenzhen working side-by-side with about 100 BYD counterparts. Toyota’s new EV comes at a time it is under fire from environmental groups that maintain it is not committed to zero emissions. They say Toyota is more interested in prolonging the commercial usefulness of its successful hybrid technology. Toyota executives say they’re not against battery electric vehicles (BEVs) but argue that until renewable energy becomes more widely available, they won’t be a silver bullet for slashing carbon emissions. Nevertheless, Toyota has set up a division in Japan dedicated to zero-emissions cars called ZEV Factory and it is developing safer and lower-cost battery technologies, including solid-state lithium-ion cells which would significantly boost an EV’s range. While Toyota has long advocated a runaround that doesn’t compromise on comfort as the best way to popularize BEVs, it has struggled to produce such a car. One problem stems from need to stack bulky, heavy batteries under the floor, as they eat up the interior unless the roof is raised too, which is why many smaller EVs are SUVs. In 2018, Toyota briefly explored the idea of a battery venture with BYD. That and subsequent interactions led Toyota’s engineers to come across BYD’s LFP Blade battery. They described it as a game-changer as it was both cheaper and freed up space. “It’s a ‘scales fell from my eyes’ kind of technology we initially dismissed because its design is so radically simple”, one of the four sources said. BYD officially launched its Blade battery in 2020. LFP batteries have a lower energy density than most other lithium-ion cells but are cheaper, have a longer shelf-life, are less prone to overheating and don’t use cobalt or nickel. Tesla already uses LFP batteries in its Model 3 and Model Y in China. One of the sources said a typical Blade pack is about 10 centimeters thick when the modules are laid flat on the floor, roughly 5 cm to 10 cm thinner than other lithium-ion packs. A BYD spokesperson said that was possible, depending on how an automaker packages the Blade pack in a car. While Toyota has not fully solved the puzzle as to how BYD keeps coming in low on costs, 2 of the sources said one factor may be its abbreviated and flexible design and quality assurance process, which some Toyota engineers see as cutting corners. Toyota’s planning process is much more rigid and thorough, the sources said. Once it has decided on the technologies, components and systems at the outset of a car’s three-to-four-year development process, it rarely changes designs. During the process, Toyota typically does 3 design prototypes and 3 manufacturing prototypes. Some are driven about 150.000 kilometers to bullet-proof quality and reliability when testing for emissions or bad-road durability. At BYD, engineers do far less prototyping, there are typically just 2, and designs can be changed as late as 2 years into the process, which is a definite no-no at Toyota, one source said. A BYD spokesperson declined to comment. But as a result of those last-minute changes, the technology in a BYD car is much more up to date than in a Toyota when it hits the market, and is often cheaper. The 4 sources believe that further advances in simulation and virtual engineering knowhow, as well as the fact that BYD produces a wide array of its own components, have helped it close potential gaps in quality and reliability that could stem from such last-minute design changes. “Our challenge at Toyota is whether we dismiss BYD’s way of engineering as being loosey-goosey and too risky, or whether we can learn from it”, one of the sources said. +++
+++ The TOYOTA GR86 will be on sale in Europe for just 2 years and is unlikely to be replaced after that. Speaking at Toyota’s annual Kenshiki forum, European CEO Matt Harrison said: “We’re already receiving a growing number of enquiries from potential customers, including those who believe the GR86 could be the last of its kind. And at least for Europe, they might be right”. Interested customers should act “relatively quickly” to place their orders, he said, as sales in the region will end in just 2 years time, because the GR86 won’t be compliant with incoming European safety regulations without significant re-engineering. Order books for the GR86 (which recently lost the space in its name for marketing reasons) will open in the Spring, ahead of deliveries beginning in the first half of 2022. Toyota’s senior European vice-president, Tom Fux, told: “We felt that the vehicle is so good and so needed for Toyota’s image in Europe, and we have a small but very passionate group of customers out there who are searching for vehicles like the GR86. In the end, we decided it’s important to offer this vehicle, and then we will need to stop the vehicle, because it will not meet the new requirements in the future. But these 2 years will still provide an opportunity for passionate customers to get the vehicle”. The news comes just 2 weeks after media drove the GT86 successor for the first time in Spain, and Harrison said that company president Akio Toyoda (a renowned sports car fan) would be “delighted” to see the widely positive feedback. The suggestion that the GR86 will be the “last of its kind” hints that Toyota isn’t planning to introduce another non-electrified, affordable sports car in this vein. Fux said this is meant in the sense that the GR86 is “a pure sports car which is really focused on performance and fun on the road”. The GR86’s short sales window in Europe is in direct contrast to its similarly conceived predecessor, which was offered here for a total of 9 years. That isn’t to say the GR86 won’t be indirectly replaced, especially as Toyota has invested heavily in the expansion of its dedicated Gazoo Racing performance division in recent years. Fux confirmed: “When vehicles go to zero carbon emission, we don’t intend to stop Gazoo Racing. We intend to continue the brand. A clear example is our 2 pinnacle sports cars today: the hypercar in WEC and our WRC car. Both will be hybrid cars for next season and both will be run on green fuel. So we’re working on the technologies, plus we have now put the hydrogen combustion engine in the GR Yaris, so we’re looking at how to keep the brand and the excitement of motorsport in the zero-emissions era”. +++
+++ Chinese electronics manufacturer XIAOMI plans to build an automobile manufacturing plant in Beijing with an annual capacity of 300.000 vehicles. The announcement was made at a contract signing ceremony on Saturday between the company and the management committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. According to the agreement, Xiaomi will set up business headquarters, sales headquarters, and R&D headquarters for the automobile manufacturing base in the Development Area. The automobile factory will be constructed in 2 phases, with each having an annual production capacity of 150.000 vehicles. The first car is expected to roll off the production line in 2024. +++