+++ AUDI wants to regain the No 1 position in China’s premium car market and the key lies in making the carmaker “more Chinese”, said a senior executive at the German carmaker on Thursday. “I have a clear goal: to make Audi become No 1 again”, said Audi China president Jürgen Unser. Audi had been the bestselling premium carmaker in China since 1988 until it was overtaken in 2019 by rivals BMW and Mercedes. Unser, who worked for 7 years at Audi parent Volkswagen’s joint venture in Changchun, Jilin province, said the company would stage a comeback by making its operations in China “more Chinese”. “That means we need to have better technologies, better products and better services in China”, he said. Among other things, Unser said Audi will introduce latest models, beef up its research and development efforts in China and offer its customers enjoyable experiences in car purchase, use and after-sales service. “The auto industry in China is seeing the fastest development globally. It is the global leader in terms of digitalization and smart connectivity”, said Unser. Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said China is one of its most important markets, and it has been working smoothly with its 2 Chinese partners, FAW and SAIC Motor. FAW has been producing and selling Audi models in China for decades, with SAIC starting to offer its Audi models starting earlier this year. The German carmaker has also set up a joint venture with FAW to produce and sell electric vehicles based on Audi’s PPE platform co-developed with Porsche. Duesmann said Audi’s investment in the joint venture will total 2.6 billion euros. He said 3 models will be introduced in the first phase, including the A6 e-tron sedan and the Q6 e-tron SUV. By 2025, Audi will offer 20 electric models globally, with China as one of its most important markets as in the age of gasoline vehicles. The company sold 701.289 vehicles in China last year, according to statistics from the China Passenger Car Association. They accounted for over 40 percent of Audi’s global sales in 2021. +++
+++ GEELY said on Wednesday that it is planning to launch 13 models this year, most of which will be hybrids and electric vehicles. These new vehicles will help Geely, China’s largest private carmaker, to achieve its sales goal of 1.65 million units this year, up 24 percent from 2021. The Hangzhou, Zhejiang province-based carmaker reported a 2021 profit of 4.85 billion yuan ($761.64 million), a 12 percent drop year-on-year. Its revenue rose 10 percent to 101.6 billion yuan. Geely said the rise in raw material prices, pandemic-related disruptions and global chip shortages affected its business performance and said they will continue to push pressure on its performance and profitability in 2022. The carmaker’s sales in February of 78.478 units represent a 46 percent fall from the previous month, mainly because of Bosch’s low supply of electronic stability systems. Geely Auto Group CEO Gan Jiayue said the company would step up efforts in in-house chip development, among other measures, to solve chip shortages. The carmaker’s high-end electric marque, Zeekr, is launch its second model, which is an SUV, this year, said An Conghui, chairman of Geely Auto Group. An, also CEO of Zeekr, said he is confident that the one-year old brand can sell 70.000 vehicles this year. A total of 6 Zeekr models are planned in 3 years, he said. “Zeekr’s sales will reach 650.000 units by 2025 and we are confident that become a top-3 player in the world’s high-end electric car market”, said An. Zeekr has partnered with Waymo to develop an electric vehicle model for the Alphabet subsidiary’s robotaxi fleet in the United States. The model is being designed and developed at Zeekr’s research and development facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, which has been developing class-leading vehicles for the wider Geely Holding Group. When they are delivered, Waymo will integrate its fully autonomous solutions into the vehicles. +++
+++ GENERAL MOTORS is shutting down its pickup factory in Fort Wayne for 2 weeks next month because the company has run short of computer chips. The auto industry continues to face supply chain issues more than a year after a global chip shortage first emerged in late 2020. Chip supplies have improved during the first 3 months of this year compared with 2021, GM said, improving production and deliveries in the first quarter. But there’s still uncertainty in getting supplies from chip manufacturers. The Fort Wayne plant will be closed the weeks of April 4 and 11. It has been running on 3 shifts per day making Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierra light duty pickups. The plant employs more than 4.000 blue collar workers. “There is still uncertainty and unpredictability in the semiconductor supply base, and we are actively working with our suppliers to mitigate potential issues moving forward”, GM said Friday. All of GM’s North American assembly plants have been running on at least one shift since November 1 of last year, the company said. Throughout the chip shortage, GM has sent most of the semiconductors it gets to pickup truck and large SUV factories. Those are the company’s most profitable vehicles. Earlier this week, GM President Mark Reuss said he’s confident the company can manage its way through supply chain difficulties including chips and possible shortages of rare earth metals brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We’re not a new automaker. We’ve got lots of volume, lots of partnerships. We’ve got over 20.000 suppliers, $88 billion of material that we run through that chain to make our cars, trucks and crossovers”, he said. “We’re not new to this game. We work on it every day, and it’s never over”. The roots of the computer chip shortage bedeviling auto and other industries stem from the eruption of the pandemic in early 2020. U.S. automakers had to shut factories to help stop the virus from spreading and some parts companies canceled orders for semiconductors. At the same time, with tens of millions of people hunkered down at home, demand for laptops, tablets and gaming consoles, technology heavily reliant on computer chips, skyrocketed. And though auto factories were closing, demand for vehicles remained surprisingly strong. When auto makers did begin to open their factories, they found that chip makers had shifted production to other electronic goods being bought in vast quantities by people sheltering at home, creating a shortage of weather-resistant automotive-grade chips. Then, just as auto chip production started to rebound in late spring, the highly contagious coronavirus delta variant struck Malaysia and other Asian countries where chips are finished and other auto parts are made. Automakers and many analysts have said they expect the chip shortage to ease in the second half of this year, but not return to near normal levels until 2023. +++
+++ Japan’s auto giants are hedging their bets on the future of transportation, pressing ahead with developing cars that run on cleaner fuels even as the momentum builds globally around switching to electric instead. “The world is moving toward electric vehicles, there’s no doubt there”, Tomomi Nakamura, Subaru’s president, said at the Suzuka race circuit east of Osaka on Saturday. “But is it going to be a world of only EVs? No one can answer that question right now”. Subaru is exploring the potential that other options, such as cars powered by GREEN CARBON NEUTRAL COMBUSTION FUELS , may have a role to play in lowering fleet emissions, according to Nakamura. Over the weekend Toyota, Mazda and Subaru entered vehicles equipped with engines that burn hydrogen and various carbon-neutral fuels in a road race in Mie Prefecture. The chiefs of the 3 Japanese auto majors took the opportunity to lay out their belief that a variety of technologies, in addition to EVs, will contribute to cleaner transport over coming decades. Compared with a year earlier, support for hydrogen has grown among the people that create, transport and use the fuel, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a briefing at the race site. Carbon neutrality “is not something that can be immediately realized”, but racing and building awareness around Toyota’s hydrogen-powered car is an example of how “actions today are creating that future”, he said. The comments by leaders of Japan’s auto industry reflect a strategy that diverges from many of their U.S. and European peers, who have hopped on the EV bandwagon in droves over the past few years, pledging to offer only battery-powered cars within decades. The Japanese carmakers’ approach of maintaining a broad range of options has drawn criticism from those who argue that they will fall behind in the pivot to battery-powered cars. Even the companies themselves note that the cost of cleaner fuels remains a challenge, and that there are a number of steps that need to be completed before commercialization of the new engines will be possible. At the same time, offering a mix of traditional and new technologies is a pragmatic way of meeting the immense challenge of cleaning up a business built on decades of burning hydrocarbons, they argue. While EVs are taking off globally, the technology still faces a number of sticking points, from prohibitively high end-costs to challenges associated with sourcing the raw materials needed to make batteries. The strategy of building out diverse technologies is cemented in Japanese automakers’ road maps and expenditure plans for the coming decade. Toyota is investing heavily in its build-out of EVs while also continuing to spread its bets, announcing in December plans to spend half of ¥8 trillion ($67 billion) on EVs and the rest on building out hybrid and hydrogen technologies. Subaru is targeting carbon neutrality, with hybrid and battery-electric cars set to make up around 40% of its global sales in 2030. The automaker’s leader highlighted Saturday the speed at which he’d seen the U.S. market and regulations shift over the past two years, and promised to provide an updated technology road map for the company in the new year beginning April 1. Ultimately, for legacy automakers, tweaking engines to run on new fuels is also a way to retain technologies they’ve built up over decades. “As no one knows what the future will really look like”, Nakamura said, “the question right now is whether it’s really the right move to eliminate the internal combustion engine entirely”. +++
+++ Chinese electric vehicle startup NIO is to introduce 3 new EVs based on the Nio Technology Platform 2.0 this year, bringing the total number of its models to 6, its founder and CEO William Li said on Thursday. The first model based on the platform is ET7 sedan, which will start being delivered on March 28. Deliveries of the ET5 sedan is expected to start in September this year. The carmaker plans to release the first SUV model based on the platform ES7 recently, which will be delivered in third quarter this year, Li said. He made public the production plan when the carmaker released its financial performance for 2021. “We concluded the year of 2021 on a strong note with an annual delivery of 91.429 vehicles in total, representing an increase of 109.1 percent year-over-year, despite all the challenges including the supply chain volatilities in particular”, said Li. Wei Feng, Nio’s CFO said: “With steadily increasing deliveries, a stable average price and improved manufacturing efficiency, we have achieved solid financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021 with the vehicle margin reaching 20.1 percent”. Its total revenues were 36.14 billion yuan ($5.67 billion) last year, representing an increase of 122.3 percent from the previous year. Gross profit was 6.82 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 264.1 percent, while the net loss was 4.02 billion yuan, down 24.3 percent compared with 2021. The startup started trading in Hong Kong earlier in March. It launched its IPO in the United States in September 2018. Nio delivered 9,652 vehicles in January and 6,131 vehicles in February, representing a growth of 34 percent and 10 percent year-on-year, respectively. The carmaker expects to deliver a total of 25.000 to 26.000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year because of the pandemic and chip shortages. “2022 will be a year of reacceleration for Nio. We will deliver three new products based on the Nio Technology Platform 2.0 this year”, Li said. On top of its growing user base in China, Nio expanded its global market with the launch and delivery of Nio vehicles in Norway in September 2021. It plans to offer products and services in more countries and regions this year, including Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. +++
+++ My spy photographers have caught next year’s facelifted PORSCHE 911 out testing. Despite its disguise, the changes to the new version are clear to see, with the German brand aiming for a subtle evolution of the current car’s looks. Likely to be designated the 992.2, the facelifted 911 will get a slightly neater grille arrangement up front and new integrated led daytime running lights, while the rear diffuser has been redesigned to make space for a new centre exit exhaust system. I’m also expecting some different alloy wheel designs and paint options. Due to arrive in 2023, the refreshed 911 will also benefit from some chassis tweaks and, perhaps most significantly, a fully digitised cabin that ditches the current model’s analogue rev-counter. Also on the cards is a jacked-up Safari model, which we’ve already caught undergoing evaluation. This high-riding machine will feature plastic body cladding to help protect the panels from scrapes when driving over rough terrain, as well as GT3-style bonnet vents. Inside, the facelifted 911 is expected to retain the same basic layout as the existing car. It’ll also benefit from Porsche’s latest PCM 6.0 infotainment system, which has just recently been updated to include Spotify music streaming, wireless Android Auto and an improved voice assistant. Porsche’s new 911 Safari also appears to have GT3-style bonnet vents either side of the badge, but the fact they don’t appear on the spied prototype suggests they’ll be a quirk of the off-road model rather than a standard fixture across the line-up. Inside, the facelifted 911 is expected to retain the same basic layout as the existing car. It’ll retain Porsche’s latest PCM 6.0 infotainment system, which has just been updated to include Spotify music streaming, wireless Android Auto and an improved voice assistant. However, the updated sports car could move forward with a new, fully digital instrument panel, like that of the Taycan EV. The current model has an analogue rev-counter flanked by 2 screens, but this could be replaced with a slender curved screen that can display drive mode information, a map for navigation and a feed from the car’s night-vision system. The next 911 could also receive an improved suite of sensors for more advanced driving-assist technologies. A raft of chassis and handling improvements is also expected to give the 992.2 sharper responses when the driver takes full control. Porsche has honed the 911’s suspension and steering set-up as part of previous mid-life updates, so a retuned electric power steering set-up and revised chassis settings are likely. A snappier calibration for the 8-speed PDK gearbox is also possible, although the 992.2 is unlikely to receive significant powertrain revisions. It will, however, gain a new hybrid variant. The long-awaited, electrified 911 will be part of the 992.2 line-up, although this option could be added after the launch of the facelift. The electrically assisted 911 could also end up producing more power than the 650 hp 911 Turbo S and become the most potent 911 available. +++
+++ RENAULT announced Wednesday it was immediately suspending operations at its Moscow factory after Kyiv called for a boycott of the company for remaining in Russia. Renault is also considering “the possible options” for its Russian affiliate AvtoVAZ, the company said in a statement, adding that it had downgraded its 2022 financial outlook. “Renault Group has to revise its 2022 financial outlook with a Group operating margin of around 3 percent versus at least 4 percent previously”, it said. Ukraine’s foreign minister on Wednesday called for a global boycott of Renault over its earlier refusal to leave the Russian market in the aftermath of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Renault refuses to pull out of Russia”, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter ahead of Renault’s announcement. “I call on customers and businesses around the globe to boycott Group Renault.” Renault, in its statement issued later Wednesday, said the group’s “activities in its manufacturing plant in Moscow are suspended as of today”. Partly state-owned Renault had suspended its production at its plants near Moscow last month after Russia’s invasion but subsequently resumed production according to reports. Russia’s top automaker, AvtoVAZ is part of the Renault-Nissan group. Western carmakers have ventured into Russia to assemble cars over the past two decades as the country’s economy expanded. Renault is particularly exposed as it invested in AvtoVAZ alongside Rostec, a state-owned defence conglomerate run by a sanctioned close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Renault controls 69 percent of AvtoVAZ. “Regarding its stake in AvtoVAZ, Renault Group is assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45.000 employees in Russia”, the statement said. The company said that it is complying with international sanctions on Russia. +++
+++ SUZUKI plans to invest around 150 billion yen ($1.26 billion) in its main market of India to step up production of electric vehicles and build a new plant for car batteries, sources close to the matter said. The move by the Japanese automaker is in line with efforts by the Indian government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions amid the global trend toward decarbonization. Production of EVs in India is slated to begin by 2025 at one of Suzuki’s existing plants, with operation of the new plant for producing automotive batteries to start around the same time. Suzuki, which has plants in the western state of Gujarat and Haryana in the north, is India’s biggest carmaker, accounting for around half of new vehicles sold in the country. The company is aiming to increase its competitiveness by strengthening its EV production and expanding its product lineup in the local market, where other automakers are selling EVs in the 1 million yen range after subsidies. Suzuki also plans to allocate 1 trillion yen for research and development on hybrid vehicles and other forms of automotive electrification over five years from fiscal 2021. +++
+++ A year ago Tesla dismissed the alternative path of electric car battery swapping as “riddled with problems and not suitable for widescale use”. It seems Beijing disagrees. In fact, China is pushing hard for SWAPPABLE BATTERIES for electric vehicles (EVs) as a supplement to regular vehicle charging, with the government throwing its weight behind several companies advancing the technology. 4 companies (automakers Nio and Geely, battery-swap developer Aulton and state-owned oil producer Sinopec) say they plan to establish a total of 24.000 swap stations across the country by 2025, up from about 1.400 today. Battery swapping allows drivers to replace depleted packs quickly with fully charged ones, rather than plugging the vehicle into a charging point. Swapping could help mitigate the growing strains placed on power grids as millions of drivers juice up, yet specialists caution it can only take off in a big way if batteries become standardized industry-wide. If China makes swapping successful on a large scale, though, the shift could undermine the business models of global brands like Tesla, Volkswagen and General Motors, whose EVs are designed for and powered by their own proprietary batteries and, in Tesla’s case, its own charging network. Even slight changes of fortune in the country can have significant consequences for these carmakers, whose futures rely on achieving success in the world’s largest car market. The Chinese swapping plans, announced piecemeal in recent weeks and months but not widely known outside the domestic auto sector, are part of Beijing’s broader plan to make 25% of car sales fully electric by 2025, or more than 6 million passenger vehicles based on current forecasts. Estimates vary widely as to how many will have swappable batteries. Furthermore, big Chinese players are also looking overseas. Ningde-based CATL, the world’s biggest battery-maker, said it was developing swapping services not only for China, but “to meet the demand of global markets”. “We are accumulating experience in the Chinese market and at the same time communicating closely with overseas partners. You’ll receive more concrete information soon”, said CATL, which supplies about half of China’s market and more than 30% of the battery cells used in EVs globally. Nio, among China’s top EV-makers, plans to offer U.S. customers battery-swapping services by 2025, the company’s North American head Ganesh Iyer said. It has more than 800 swap stations in China and has just set up its first in Europe. Such plans clash with the views expressed by global EV leader Tesla in March 2021 when it dismissed the viability of large-scale battery swapping in China. It trialed swapping in the United States years ago and abandoned it. Industry executives are divided over whether China’s push can overcome the reluctance of European and U.S. automakers to abandon their own battery designs and adopt standardized ones. “You’ll never ever get carmakers to agree to swappable batteries”, said Andy Palmer, former CEO of Aston Martin and currently head of EV-maker Switch Mobility. John Holland, wireless EV charging company Momentum Dynamics’ commercial director for Europe and the Middle East, said convergence on batteries created a quandary for automakers. “Then how do you differentiate your product?” Tesla, General Motors and Volkswagen say they are not exploring battery swapping right now. A GM spokesperson told that swappable batteries “are not part of our strategy at present”. A VW spokesperson said the company originally considered battery swapping to avoid waiting times at charging stations, but that advances in fast charging and the lower costs of non-swappable batteries had led it to shift focus to the latter. “Nevertheless, our strategists closely monitor and evaluate the competitive environment and all developments in this area”, the German carmaker said. A Tesla spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Swapping and regular grid-charging both have critics and cheerleaders in a rapidly evolving auto tech arena. The ease of exchanging batteries in e-scooters has been demonstrated in Asia and Europe, but the challenge is adapting the technology to larger and more complex cars, trucks and vans. Concerns about the length of swapping times have also faded, with Nio saying it has automated the process so it takes as little as 90 seconds. Yet the more familiar grid-charging side has a huge head start, and is bolstered by the fact there’s already billions of dollars’ worth of charging infrastructure built globally. Automakers are also rolling out EVs with improved batteries that boast longer ranges and shorter charge times, which could make swapping obsolete. In China, MIIT released the global auto industry’s first standards for swapping technology last year. They went into effect in November, specifying safety requirements, test methods and inspection rules for EVs with swappable batteries. The ministry aims to have more than 100.000 battery-swappable vehicles and more than 1.000 swap stations, in total, in 11 cities by 2023; stations in the bigger cities will accommodate both passenger and commercial vehicles, while outlying provincial cities will focus on electric heavy-duty trucks. Yet a key uncertainty for China’s ambitions is whether enough carmakers adopt standardized batteries, an obstacle that scuttled attempts at battery swapping in the last decade. Yet, if overcome, it could propel the technology to a viable scale. There’s a long way to go. Even the swapping option offered to customers by Nio uses the company’s own batteries, thus limiting the service to people driving Nio cars equipped with the company’s proprietary batteries. CATL, which helped Nio develop swappable batteries, has signed up China’s FAW Motor as the first customer for its new Evogo battery-swapping service and expects to extend the service to other Chinese automakers. CATL wants domestic firms to accept its standard battery design so its stations can service models from multiple brands, according to a person close to the company who declined to be named due to commercial sensitivities, adding that it expected more car brands to adopt its standardized designs. The company is “the biggest game in town” for EV batteries, said Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights. “They can offer a large footprint for swapping stations and a low cost to use those stations”, he said. Meanwhile, among those Chinese companies building out swap station networks, Shanghai-based Aulton New Energy Automotive Technology has said it is working with automakers to develop standardized batteries, and with Sinopec to install stations at 30,000 Sinopec gas stations in China by 2030. Aulton didn’t respond to a request for comment. While international carmakers may resist swappable batteries, they are reliant on Chinese sales to fund their costly transition to electric and will have little choice but to adapt to the market there, according to many industry experts. Furthermore, if Beijing ultimately mandates swappable batteries “and starts saying, ‘okay, the only car you’re allowed to produce is one that meets the standard’, you would have to comply to stay in business” in China, says John Helveston, assistant professor at George Washington University’s School of Engineering. Some advocates of swapping are looking beyond China. Battery swapping “is too convenient, too economical and too logical for this not to happen at scale in Europe and the United States”, said Levi Tillemann, head of policy and international business at San Francisco-based battery-swap startup Ample. “It’s a sort of magical thinking to imagine that this is a uniquely Chinese phenomenon”, he added. Ample, one of just a handful of battery-swapping developers outside China, has raised $275 million from investors, including energy companies Shell, Repsol and Eneos, boosting its valuation to $1 billion. It is running pilot programs with Uber and car rental startup Sally, and says it is collaborating with several unnamed automakers. “With a relatively small number of vehicles that are heavily utilized, we can deploy and operate a battery-swap system profitably,” Tillemann said. “So fleets are a prime target for us”. +++
+++ TESLA boss Elon Musk danced for joy at the inauguration of his “gigafactory” electric car plant near Berlin on Tuesday, shrugging off 2 years of bureaucracy and delays to watch customers drive off with the first Model Y vehicles made in Europe. “Danke Deutschland!” (Thank you, Germany) Musk tweeted after the red ribbon ceremony, where he joined workers in applauding the first 30 drivers to get behind the wheel of their new cars. The U.S. billionaire even broke into a little dance during the handovers, reviving memories of the slightly awkward jig he did at a launch event in Shanghai in 2020 that lit up the internet. The factory opening caps an arduous two-year approval and construction process that saw Tesla run into a series of administrative and legal hurdles, including complaints from locals about the site’s environmental impact. Having started construction at its own risk, Tesla finally won the formal go-ahead from regional authorities to begin production earlier this month. The “gigafactory” in Grünheide, in Germany’s eastern state of Brandenburg, is Tesla’s first production site in Europe and local officials are hoping it will help the region position itself as a hub for electric vehicle production. The Californian company aims eventually to employ some 12.000 workers at the site who will churn out around 500.000 Model Y cars annually, the firm’s all-electric, compact SUVs. “We are extremely confident that the world can transition to a sustainable energy future with the combination of solar, wind, plus battery storage and electric vehicles”, Musk said in a speech at the ceremony. “I really want to assure everyone that you can have hope in the future, you should have hope in the future”, he added. Tesla’s arrival is expected to jolt Germany’s flagship car industry, setting the stage for fierce competition with rivals Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz as they pivot from traditional engines to cleaner electric vehicles. “The new era in the auto industry has now arrived in Germany”, said analyst Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Center for Automotive Research. Tesla’s focus on Europe comes as the continent grapples with sky-high energy costs that have sent petrol prices soaring, prompting some drivers to take a closer look at electric alternatives. The “Giga Berlin-Brandenburg” is “one of the biggest strategic endeavors for Tesla over the last decade and should further vault its market share within Europe over the coming years as more consumers aggressively head down the EV path”, analysts at investment firm Wedbush said. But Tesla has not been spared the pain from shortages of key materials and supply chain disruptions, linked in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that are also plaguing other carmakers. Musk tweeted last week that the company was seeing “significant recent inflation pressure” in raw materials and logistics. Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who attended Tuesday’s inauguration along with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said it was “a special day for Germany’s mobility transformation”. In a nod to efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy, Habeck said electric cars took Germany “one step further away from oil imports”. He also called for more “Tesla speed” in other infrastructure projects, including the expansion of renewable energies. Although Musk was frequently frustrated by the red tape that slowed down his Gruenheide plans, by German standards the factory was up and running in record time. The inauguration was not universally welcomed, however, with environmental campaigners protesting near the site. Among their demands was a call for better and free public transport instead of “yet more cars”, said spokeswoman Lou Winters from the Sand in the Gears environmental group. +++
+++ VOLKSWAGEN GROUP CHINA is forming joint ventures with Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Group to secure nickel and cobalt supplies, in a bid to cut the cost of batteries for its electric vehicles. The 3 companies have signed memoranda of understanding for 2 joint ventures, said the German carmaker in a statement. Tsingshan is a giant in the global nickel industry and Huayou is a supplier of cobalt and li-ion battery products. The first joint venture will be among the three and be built in Indonesia, where they will invest their respective advantages and resources for battery raw materials production, Volkswagen said in a statement. More than 10 percent of the world’s laterite nickel ore reserves are located in Indonesia, said Volkswagen. The second joint venture, which will be headquartered in China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, will be formed with Huayou to refine nickel and cobalt sulfates and produce cathode materials, it said. Many electric carmakers including Tesla and BYD have recently hiked prices on some of their models in China citing rising raw material costs. Volkswagen said the two joint ventures aims to achieve significant cost advantages, secure the raw material supply and achieve a transparent and sustainable supply chain. “They are expected to contribute to the group’s long term target of a 30-50 percent cost reduction on each battery”, said the carmaker. Volkswagen’s deliveries of electric vehicles almost doubled in 2021 to more than 450.000 units, said the carmaker. In China, the German auto giant sold 93.000 electric cars; 4 times the number in 2020. It expects sales to double this year in the country. Volkswagen now has five electric models bearing the namesake marque in China, its largest market. Its premium subsidiaries, including Porsche and Audi, have electric models available as well. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, said its EV sales in the last months of 2021 matched the level of Chinese competitors including New York-listed Xpeng and Nio. “We had a bit of a slow start, yes, accepted. But toward the end of last year, we already had a run rate of 15.000 units. Now at least, we want to double up, and that should happen”, he said. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers estimated that total sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids will reach 5.5 million this year in the country, up from 3.5 million in 2021. +++