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Mitsubishi Motors to relocate North America HQ from California to Tennessee

Mitsubishi Motors announced on Tuesday that it is relocating its North America headquarters from California to Tennessee, a move that will bring the Japanese automaker closer to its sister company Nissan and strengthen Tennessee’s growing reputation as an epicenter of the automotive sector.Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe — who made the announcement with Mitsubishi Motors North America — say the headquarters move from Cypress, California, to Franklin, Tennessee, will result in an $18.25 million investment in the region and approximately 200 jobs.It is unclear what financial incentives state officials offered Mitsubishi to move to Tennessee.

Press Releases – Auto industry revises 2019 car sales forecast to -1%

Brussels, 27 June 2019 – In the side-lines of its annual general meeting in Brussels today, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) revised its forecast for 2019 passenger car registrations downwards to -1%. ACEA’s initial forecast, published earlier this year, was for growth of up to 1% compared to 2018. The association now expects a… Continue reading Press Releases – Auto industry revises 2019 car sales forecast to -1%

Roelant de Waard

Roelant de Waard is appointed general manager, Passenger Vehicles, Ford of Europe, effective July 1, 2019. This is in addition to his role as vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe, a position he has held since January 2011. Previously, from January 2009, he was vice president of Sales, Ford of Europe, responsible… Continue reading Roelant de Waard

Hans Schep

Hans Schep is general manager, Commercial Vehicles, Ford of Europe. In this role, he is responsible for leading Ford’s Commercial Vehicles business line in Europe. Previously, Schep served as director, Product Marketing, Ford of Europe, beginning in February 2015. His prior experience at Ford includes roles as regional director of European sales operations – responsible… Continue reading Hans Schep

MiX Telematics Establishes Direct Presence in Mexico

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Uber targets expansion in fast-growing West African markets

LAGOS (Reuters) – Global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc is in talks with regulators over plans to expand into two West African countries and provide a boat service in Nigerian megacity Lagos, a company executive said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A sign marks the offices of Uber in Saugus, Massachusetts, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brian… Continue reading Uber targets expansion in fast-growing West African markets

JAC Electric-Only Ride-Hailing Service — #CleanTechnica Exclusive

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Published on June 26th, 2019 |

by Tim Dixon

JAC Electric-Only Ride-Hailing Service — #CleanTechnica Exclusive

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June 26th, 2019 by Tim Dixon

Chinese automaker JAC Motors (江淮汽车) launched an electric-only ride-hailing service called Hexing (Hexing on-line Hailing) (和行约车/Hexing Yueche) on the 9th of January in Hefei, Anhui, China. I have been monitoring this service since launch. Today, I will explain the service, its future expansion plan, and my experience in the vehicles.

I wrote about it originally in the January 2019 edition of our China X Cleantech newsletter. The story was based on an EV Partner article announcing the service.

The Service
Similar to other ride-hailing services, you easily download the app by scanning a QR code prominently displayed on any of the vehicles, and whenever you need a ride, you enter your destination and request pickup. The app is minimalist and functional, but the best thing is that all 2,000 cars in Hefei are all-electric vehicles.

The drivers don’t own the cars. They are more like employees of the service. The service owns the car but the drivers are allowed to use it for work — the reason given is so that the drivers and cars go through a thorough background check and technical checks before passengers go in them. This is a big issue in China due to a number of cases of assaults and murders in ride-hailing vehicles in China.

Hexing has three cars available:

JAC iEV A50 (long-range sedan)

JAC iEV 7S (long-range SUV)

SOL E20X (Volkswagen–JAC joint venture long-range SUV)

The service is presently limited to Hefei, but the plan is to expand rapidly.

The Plan
In Chinese press releases, JAC/Hexing mentioned that the plan is to expand to 10 cities across Anhui and have 10,000 cars on the road by the end of 2019. In 3 years, they plan to expand to every major city in China with a combined fleet of 50,000 electric cars. At the moment they have a fleet of 2,000 cars in one city.

Automakers, Post Ownership, & Autonomous Vehicles
I think it is no surprise that JAC is creating a ride-hailing service. Numerous reports and articles are coming out about consumer trends shifting towards ride hailing and autonomous cars getting closer to reality, so it is wise to get ahead and create an in-house service that will use JAC’s car production.

JAC is already investing in partnerships to create self-driving JAC vehicles, such as a partnership with Baidu (“the Google of China”), which is well known for investing heavily into self-driving technology and has recently claimed that its technology can achieve level 4 autonomy.

Other international companies and Chinese companies are planning the same, such as Tesla, BMW, Xpeng Motors, and many others which I plan to test in the future. Why are these companies doing this? Because the combination of electrification and autonomous vehicles will dramatically impact demand and use of vehicles, just as the smartphone impacted the dedicated digital camera market.

My Experience
My family decided to travel to see my wife’s family during the Dragon boat festival and to finally try out the app for that trip. The JAC iEV A50 pulled up and quickly loaded up us and our luggage. The app was quick, but finding drivers was slow due to the holiday — other days it took only a minute.

The A50 was comfy, quiet, and quick. The driver acted professionally and drove perfectly. I decided to ask some questions about what the driver knew and his own experience. I asked how he got the job and he said he applied on the website and had to pass a number of tests and get a certificate to drive for the service. I inquired if he owned the car. He said Hexing owned the car. I asked how he charged and he said he uses the public charging but that it is free due to Hexing providing a card and them partnering with State Grid. I wanted to understand the driver’s side well, so I asked about how he likes the car. He said it was comfortable and made his new (internal combustion engine) personal car felt very uncomfortable by comparison. (No surprise to any EV driver.) I asked about the acceleration and he confirmed he liked it. On working and compensation, I found out he has to drive a certain number of clients per day to get his wage, but after that number, he can either stop or earn extra fares. We also talked about cars and the fleet and he confirmed what I had already found out.

All in all, it was a very pleasant and informative experience. I’ve used the service 6 times now, and the drivers are very professional and courteous.

The Volkswagen Link
This Hexing service is linked to Volkswagen. The two companies previously signed an agreement with the Hefei city government to start a ride-hailing service and short-term rentals of electric vehicles in Hefei. The SOL brand is the JAC–Volkswagen joint venture and Hexing uses the SOL E20X.

The Name
The name of the app/company — 和行约车 Hé xíng yuē chē — like many companies names does not mean anything in particular. It could be understood as many things, including “a peaceful trip” or “with the car.” I used Hexing as shorthand, but that is westernization of the Pinyin.

Conclusion
My wife and I found the service good, better than the local taxi services and Didi Chuxing, and while it is the early days, I think this service is a good example of one of many shifts that automakers are making to get ready for the future of consumer transit — be it ride-hailing, autonomy, carsharing, connected vehicles, or vehicle as a service or advertisement medium. Additionally, Hexing is a good start for JAC to get its electric cars more widely known throughout China, which might also benefit its electric car sales.

All photos by Timothy Dixon (CC BY-SA license)

About the Author

Tim Dixon When not researching the Chinese electric car market, I am teaching in China. My interest in sustainable development started in University and it led me to work with Tesla Europe in the Supercharger team. I'm interested in science fiction, D&D, and travel. You can follow me on Twitter @TimDixon3.

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Sustainability award for SEAT in recognition of its commitment to natural gas as an alternative fuel for sustainable mobility

MADRID, 27-Jun-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — SEAT has been recognised for its commitment to natural gas as an alternative fuel by the Sedigas, the Spanish Gas Association. The recognition is in the form of the “Energy and Sustainability” award, which was given to the car maker at a ceremony at the Reina Sofía National Museum of Art in Madrid. The ceremony was attended by José Domínguez Abascal, Secretary of State for Energy from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Luca de Meo, SEAT President, who has accepted the award.

Sedigas’ acknowledgement is for SEAT’s strong commitment to natural gas as an alternative fuel for sustainable mobility. In Europe, SEAT has the broadest range of vehicles that run with compressed natural gas (CNG), with three models produced in the brand’s Martorell factory — the Leon, Ibiza and the Arona, which is the world’s only CNG powered SUV. In terms of sales, the company has tripled its sales of CNG vehicles in 2018. Furthermore, SEAT has also announced plans to increase the production of gas driven vehicles from currently 90 to 250 per day by investing 6 million euros in its Martorell factory.

Commenting on the recognition, Luca de Meo, President of SEAT, said:

“At SEAT we are convinced that natural gas is a key element in the transition toward sustainable mobility. Now is the time to take a step further and boost the creation of infrastructure and make gas a source of renewable energy that can be injected in the network and promote its consumption. Furthermore, biogas and biomethane production represent an opportunity for reducing the rate of emissions derived from transportation.”

He added further: “the goal we must set ourselves is that biomethane be considered a source of renewable fuel, and this is where certificates of origin play a fundamental role. Inexpensive cars that run on clean energy and can be refueled quickly in a few minutes already exist – they run on gas and biogas.”

Through SEAT’s initiative “Life Methamorphosis” the company is sourcing renewable gas for its vehicles from solid urban waste from the city of Barcelona and animal organic waste from a farm in Lleida. The company is also partnering with Aqualia to turn waste water into biomethane. Those projects and initiatives by SEAT aim at promoting the circular economy, energy efficiency and emissions reduction.

In this regard, establishing the certificate of origin for the production of biogas is of great potential. A system like that would make the development of the industry in Spain much easier, just as in other EU countries. Being able to transfer these certificates among sectors would also create many possibilities for the transport industry to guarantee a zero impact in terms of “well to wheel” CO2 emissions throughout the entire life cycle of a vehicle.

The European Union considers CNG fueled mobility as environmentally efficient. Vehicles that run on natural gas can access European cities when there are traffic restrictions in place due to pollution.

Media contacts:

Cristina Vall-Llosada
Head of Corporate Communications
T / +34 93 708 53 78
M/ +34 646 295 296
cristina.vall-llosada@seat.es

Blanca Marco
Corporate Communications
M/ +34 699 158 887
blanca.marco@seat.es

SOURCE: SEAT

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Boss of one of UK’s biggest car dealers quits three months into job

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UPDATE 1-Ford to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by end of 2020

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Ford engine plant at Bridgend, Wales, Britain June 6, 2019. REUTERS/Rebecca Naden/File Photo FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Ford (F.N) said it will have cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by the end of next year to try to return the business to profit, part of a wave of cost reductions in… Continue reading UPDATE 1-Ford to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by end of 2020