Manufacturing – Page 12608 – I wish I had more to offer

Brexit shutdown cuts car output by 45%

Factory shutdowns designed to cope with disruption from a 29 March Brexit, slashed UK car production in April by almost a half. Even though Brexit is delayed the factories still closed and production fell 44.5% according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). In what it called “an extraordinary month”, the SMMT said… Continue reading Brexit shutdown cuts car output by 45%

Hyundai Kona Electric Owners Five Biggest Dislikes

These complaints still don’t take the shine off the car for their owners. Make no mistake, the Hyundai Kona Electric is a pretty great car. The compact crossover has found its way into a number of driveways now in North America, and some of their owners have, in turn, found their way to the InsideEVs… Continue reading Hyundai Kona Electric Owners Five Biggest Dislikes

Read Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s latest email urging employees to improve vehicle deliveries

Elon MuskJim Watson | AFP | Getty ImagesOn Wednesday, a new email from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to all employees at the electric car company called for employees to focus on making end-of-quarter deliveries better than they have been, historically.
As he did in recent weeks, Musk hammered home the notion that every employee should be individually focused on controlling costs.
In this installment, Musk reminds Tesla employees that the company's first quarter results fell short of investors' expectations, in part because Tesla was unable to make deliveries efficiently and on time.
Sales of Tesla's electric vehicles hit $3.72 billion in the first quarter which represented a 41% drop from the fourth quarter of 2018, when the company generated $6.32 billion in automotive revenue. In its first quarter vehicle deliveries and production report, Tesla said it delivered 63,000 vehicles during that quarter, down from a record 90,700 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The company has given guidance that it will deliver around 90,000 vehicles in the second quarter, and between 360,000 and 400,000 for the year.
Tesla's relatively new CFO Zack Kirkhorn told investors on its first-quarter earnings call this year that “unwinding the wave” of uneven deliveries would be critical in helping Tesla achieve profitability later this year.
Here's the Musk's e-mail about deliveries from Wednesday.
To: Everybody
From: Elon Musk
Date: May 29, 2019
While our demand is strong, we have a lot of vehicle deliveries to catch up to in order to have a successful quarter.
Starting tomorrow, I will be holding skip-level calls with the America, Asia and Europe delivery teams every 2 days to understand what's needed to accelerate our rate of deliveries.
We also need to address the total cost of getting a car from our factory to the customer. Last quarter, there were many expedite fees and routing inefficiencies that led to higher than expected delivery costs. This makes it much harder for Tesla to break even.
Per my earlier email, if we execute well, Q2 will be an all-time record for Tesla vehicle deliveries and an awesome victory!
Super excited to make this happen with you!
WATCH: Tesla owner frustrated, so repairs his own Model S and says it's as easy as Legos
VIDEO5:1605:16Tesla owner frustrated so fixes his own Model S: easy as 'Legos'Tech

FCA, Renault face tall odds delivering on cost-cutting promises in merger

FRANKFURT/DETROIT (Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Renault SA promise huge savings from a mega-merger, but such combinations face tall odds because of the industry’s long product cycles and problems translating deal blueprints into real world success, industry veterans told Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sign is seen at the U.S.… Continue reading FCA, Renault face tall odds delivering on cost-cutting promises in merger

$50 billion VW battery plan could need revamp after Samsung cuts back

VW ID family
Volkswagen, with its plan to build 22 million new electric cars across 70 models by 2030, is ground-zero for concerns over battery supplies.

As more automakers get serious about building lots of electric cars, there are indications that supplies of batteries to power all those cars aren't ramping up as quickly, leading to shortages of batteries, increased competition, restricted sales of some EV models, and potentially rising prices (or at least flattening their trend toward affordability).

READ THIS: VW boosts electric car plans with more models, 22 million EVs in 10 years

Now Bloomberg reports that VW's deals for $56 billion worth of batteries for all those upcoming electric models are in jeopardy as Samsung cut its supply agreement with the automaker after disputes over timing.

Samsung was slated to supply batteries for up to 200,000 or more electric VWs based on assumptions by Bloomberg of 100-kilowatt-hour battery packs, a little bigger than those in the Audi e-tron that just went on sale, and the size of the largest batteries in Teslas. Since many of VW's will use smaller battery packs of 48 kwh, the change could affect many more cars.

2019 Audi e-tron battery pack

VW had named Samsung a supplier for electric models it plans to build in Europe, along with LG Chem (which supplies batteries for the Audi E-tron quattro), and SK Innovation—and for other markets, CATL. Reports have persisted since last fall of battery shortages and price disputes between VW and LG Chem that have affected production of the E-tron at Audi's factory in Belgium.

DON'T MISS: Could battery lawsuits, material shortages delay some EVs?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also named limitations of battery supplies from its partner Panasonic as a constraint on production of the Tesla Model 3.

A report from Benchmark Minerals in April showed that lithium-battery supplies could increase by 50 percent a year between now and 2023—that is, if the supply of battery materials can keep up.

CHECK OUT: Report: Battery shortages lead to Audi E-tron production delays

Last year the Trump administration named lithium, cobalt, and other materials for electric-car batteries among “critical minerals” that the U.S. needs to develop domestically and for which it hopes to speed up mining permits.

Following the E-tron from VW's upscale Audi brand, the first electric car in VWs' new lineup of EVs is expected to be the ID 3, which is expected to go on sale late this year.

Fremont Factory Being Prepped For Tesla Model Y Production, Model S Refresh

Tesla is reportedly gearing up for Model Y production in Fremont. There will be changes on the Model S/X production lines as well. Tesla is expected to produce the new Model Y at the Fremont factory according to a CNBC report, which also hints an upcoming Model S refresh. Tesla officially hasn’t announced where it… Continue reading Fremont Factory Being Prepped For Tesla Model Y Production, Model S Refresh

Audi Opens 1.9 MWh Second-Life Battery Energy Storage In Berlin

The new 1.9 MWh ESS will be used to compensate fluctuations in the grid, counteract local peak demand and help prevent blackouts. Audi is preparing for the utilization of old electric car batteries in energy storage (second-life use) through a series of pilot installations. The latest one launched in EUREF Campus in Berlin, Germany is… Continue reading Audi Opens 1.9 MWh Second-Life Battery Energy Storage In Berlin

Tesla Order Rate Surges 25% Worldwide, 116% In North America, According To New Data

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Published on May 29th, 2019 |

by Michael Grinshpun

Tesla Order Rate Surges 25% Worldwide, 116% In North America, According To New Data

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May 29th, 2019 by Michael Grinshpun

While the financial media and analysts continue to question Tesla’s demand on the basis of one unusually “bad” quarter, quarterly data and internal Tesla emails show worldwide order rates are actually up 25% in Q2 versus Q1. Meanwhile, a crowdsourced Tesla order tracker shows US and Canada Model 3 orders are up 116% versus Q1, and website traffic and interest data show that interest in Tesla’s vehicles is higher than in the past.

These data points are especially significant as the stock hits 3-year lows mostly due to speculation about soft demand, resulting in the stock price divorcing from reality for a company whose demand is actually very healthy. Many powerful and influential actors stand to profit from the declining stock price, which directly affects Tesla’s employees’ compensation and Tesla’s ability to raise capital to fund its vision of a sustainable future.

The worldwide order data for the second quarter comes from Elon Musk’s recently leaked internal email, in which he told employees that Tesla has over 50,000 new orders net of cancellations from April 1–May 21. This represents an order rate of about 980 cars per day for all three models (S/3/X) worldwide. This number was underreported in the news about Tesla, partially because it doesn’t fit with analysts and media commentators claiming soft demand, and partially because the number isn’t directly comparable to any other number.

However, it is possible to estimate Tesla’s orders for previous quarters simply due to the way it reports its production and deliveries.

Tesla reports how many cars were delivered and how many were in transit to customers. Cars in transit are defined as ordered cars that have been built and are currently being shipped to a customer. In most recent quarters, Tesla builds the bulk of its cars at the same time or even before the car is ordered, and then assigns the car to a buyer after it leaves the factory. That means that one could calculate the orders in a particular quarter by starting with deliveries in that quarter (in order for a car to be delivered, it must be ordered), and subtracting in-transit cars from the previous quarter (in-transit means the car was already ordered last quarter), and then adding back the in-transit cars from the quarter of interest (which had to have been ordered in that quarter). Finally, we divide by the number of days in the quarter to see the daily order rate.

For example, in Q1, Tesla entered the quarter with 2,907 cars in transit from Q4, delivered 63,000 cars, and had 10,600 cars in transit to customers at the end of the quarter. This implies 70,693 orders in the first quarter over 90 days, or 785 orders per day.

With 980 orders per day in Q2 so far, according to the leaked internal email, that is a 25% increase over the 785 order per day rate in Q1. This methodology for calculating orders is adopted from twitter user @vgrinshpun.

I would note that this methodology will be flawed and actually overestimate orders for quarters in which Tesla started with a significant backlog of orders (a backlog implies some cars have been ordered but not yet built and therefore not captured in the in-transit numbers). However, Q1 2019 is not such a quarter since there was virtually no backlog from the fourth quarter when Tesla pulled out all the stops to deliver as many vehicles worldwide as possible, including in the largest market, the US, before the first step in the tax credit phaseout. It is also discernible from the short wait times for Tesla’s cars that there has not been significant backlog this year. Q4 2018 and Q3 2018 might have had significant backlogs at the beginning of the quarters, so it is likely that this methodology will overstate the number of orders in the quarter, which in fact makes the Q2 order number look even stronger when comparing to those quarters.

There is even more evidence for significantly increased orders in the second quarter versus the first for US and Canada, according to a crowdsourced spreadsheet that tracks orders and deliveries and samples around 1% of all orders per quarter. It is worth noting that participation rates in this spreadsheet decline over time, so the underlying order rate might be the same between two quarters even when the spreadsheet shows a decline in the orders. Despite this slight flaw that makes order rates in more recent quarters appear lower than previous quarters, average daily order rates in Q2 are up 116% versus Q1 in the US and Canada.

Finally, the last piece of data that corroborates Tesla’s increasing demand story is the increasing website traffic, website engagement, website time spent, and overall search interest data from Alexa.com and Google Trends. Discussions of this have been published on both CleanTechnica and Seeking Alpha.

Tesla.com ranking relative to other websites.

“Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.”

All the available data points to increasing demand for Tesla’s cars, not softening demand as financial media and some analysts often suggest. The takeaway from this is that financial media and analysts often speculate and do not necessarily update their speculations when hard data comes out, leaving everyone else to do their own homework or wait until official data is released to come to conclusions. Another side effect is that Tesla’s stock keeps falling due to speculation about soft demand when the reality is the opposite. Most people would call this an opportunity.

About the Author

Michael Grinshpun Michael Grinshpun is a dual undergraduate and graduate student in economics. He writes about the electric car industry and works on sustainable energy issues. He works on Carbon Free Boston, an initiative to lower Boston’s carbon emissions to zero by 2050, as well as on water utility projects. Previously, Michael has worked in solar consulting and energy facilities.

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UPDATE 1-VW Tennessee plant employees to vote on whether to join union

(Adds details, background) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG and the United Auto Workers union confirmed on Wednesday that workers at the German automaker’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly will vote June 12-14 on whether to unionize. The UAW had petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to set the dates for the election… Continue reading UPDATE 1-VW Tennessee plant employees to vote on whether to join union

Tesla is rejiggering its Fremont factory to build the Model Y SUV and a Model S refresh

Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an unveiling event for the Tesla Model Y crossover electric vehicle in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2019.Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTesla is rejiggering its car factory in Fremont, California, to make way for production of the Model Y crossover SUV, as well as a refresh of the Model S with a more minimalist interior design and longer-range battery, according to several current and former employees.
These initiatives could raise costs again for Tesla, just as CEO Elon Musk has vowed to review every 10th page of outgoing expenses, personally. But starting up production of the Model Y in 2019 allows Tesla to tap into the growing SUV segment sooner rather than later, while a Model S refresh would help it maintain or grow its share within the declining market for luxury sedans.
The company has barely begun to place orders for new equipment to manufacture the Model Y, employees said. And while Musk has suggested that Tesla would probably make the crossover SUV in Fremont, Tesla hasn't officially announced that preparations in the factory had begun.
Making way for Model Y production in Fremont will require Tesla to combine Model S and Model X production into one line, according to the insiders. These lines at the car plant take up a significant amount of floor space today, at least partly because the S and X are each made with a lot of parts. The Model X is particularly complicated to build — its features include falcon wing doors that open up, rather than out — leading Musk to liken it to a “Faberge egg. ”
In addition to the Model Y, Tesla is planning on a full refresh of the Model S, which employees say will likely include an interior with the minimalist look and feel of the newer Model 3, the same drive units and seats used in the higher-end Model 3, and a battery that delivers 400 miles of range on a full charge.
The company is aiming for a September start of production for that Model S refresh.
Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Tesla has recently been canceling factory tours because of “upgrades” being made to the factory, according to Musk, who didn't say exactly what those upgrades entailed.
Meanwhile, production has already slowed on the current S and X models. In the first quarter of 2019, Tesla laid off a portion of its Model S and X production staff and cut hours for those who remained, as CNBC previously reported. Today, Tesla only manufactures the S and X on day shifts during the week in Fremont. There is no weekend or nighttime production of those cars today, according to the current and former employees.
Last week, Tesla cut prices on its Model S by $3,000 and Model X by $2,000, and rolled out a free supercharging incentive to entice customers, causing some analysts to question whether demand is softening for these older, higher-priced models. This follows a set of upgrades in April that improved the driving range and charging speed for both cars.
On investor calls recently, Tesla reiterated guidance that it would deliver 90,000 to 100,000 cars in the second quarter of 2019, and at least 360,000 in 2019. It has not said how many of these would be Model S, X and Model 3 vehicles or, eventually, Model Ys.
Tesla shares fell more than 10% last week on investors' concerns over demand, profitability and the impact of U.S.-China trade clashes on the company. They recovered slightly after an email leaked in which Musk promised that Tesla was on target to meet its second-quarter goals.
WATCH: How Elon Musk's tweets might be affecting the latest price targets for Tesla
VIDEO7:3607:36How Elon Musk's tweets might be affecting the latest price targets for TeslaSquawk Box