Velodyne CEO and founder Dave Hall is finding new automotive applications for the laser lidar technology he developed more than a decade ago. Velodyne Spinning laser lidar sensors, invented by Velodyne’s David Hall more than a decade ago, helped kick off a race to create self-driving cars. As his company marks a sales milestone for… Continue reading Velodyne’s Godfather Of Laser Sensors Hits $500 Million Milestone, Sets His Sights On Safer Self-Driving Cars – Forbes
Tag: Manufacturing
GM makes $300 million investment to produce new Chevrolet EV based on Bolt EV
General Motors has announced a $300 million investment to produce a new Chevrolet electric vehicle that will be based off an “advanced version” of the Bolt EV architecture. The money will go to GM’s Orion Township, Mich. plant, where the Bolt EV is currently made. GM said the investment will bring 400 new jobs to the… Continue reading GM makes $300 million investment to produce new Chevrolet EV based on Bolt EV
Faraday Future posts “For Sale” signs, as Evergrande backer announces first EV
Faraday Future FF91 prototype
Faraday Future has been selling like crazy lately. Only, not its cars.
The company announced last week that it is seeking a buyer for its original factory site in Las Vegas, where it announced at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show that it would build its future FF91 and FF81. It also announced then that it had sold its Gardena, California, headquarters in a lease-back deal with a real-estate company.
READ THIS: With cease-fire agreement, spark flickers toward Faraday's Future
After introducing the FF91 in Las Vegas in 2017, the company announced that it had bought the 900-acre parcel north of Las Vegas and had broken ground to build a new factory. But Faraday fell on hard times after Chinese authorities began digging into other companies owned by its founder in China and froze his assets.
NEVS 9-3 concept, 2017 CES Asia
By August, the company had abandoned the Las Vegas site and leased a former tire factory in central California to build its cars. Last year the company received a $2 billion lifeline from Hong Kong health insurance conglomerate Evergrande Health, which also holds a majority stake in National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS), the remnants of Saab.
DON'T MISS: Faraday Future factory completes its first full car (Updated)
A year later, the company produced its first running prototype in California—just before a dispute with Evergrande brought the money, and production, to a halt again. The company laid off or furloughed three-quarters of its workforce, including its five founding executives who have automaking experience, and is seeking new investors.
CHECK OUT: Faraday Future funder writes its own Saab story
Citing statements by company spokesman John Schilling as well as real-estate sale documents, The Verge reported that the company sold its Southern California headquarters to real-estate investment group Atlas Capital, and is leasing back the space as it tries to raise money to restart FF91 production at its leased factory in Hanford, California.
In a separate statement at a company summit in China last Saturday, Evergrande announced that it will bring its first electric vehicle to market this coming June. It's unclear whether Evergrande will build a car under its own name, or if it could be referring to the FF91. NEVS already builds electric cars in China based on the last version of the Saab 9-3, which are known as some of the most popular ride-sharing service cars in China.
Electric car battery research pact seeks to keep German auto prowess
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VW Battery Packs
For the past 50 years, the German auto industry has enjoyed quite the roll of growth and success in the U.S., built largely on its expertise with one specific technology: the internal combustion engine.
But now the importance of that advantage is fading, with electric cars on the rise and the highest-value component within them the battery pack.
Increasingly, companies with headquarters in South Korea, Japan, and China—not Germany—have taken the lead not just on cells and chemistry but in the design of modules and sometimes the entire pack architecture. Meanwhile Volkswagen, for instance, has said that it’s currently developing its final platforms focused around internal combustion engines.
DON’T MISS: German automakers commit to massive battery purchases, sidestep some hard realities
Volkswagen and the Swedish battery supplier Northvolt yesterday announced that they have joined forces to conduct research activities that, VW says, “will cover the entire battery value stream—from raw materials through cell technology to recycling.”
2019 Audi e-tron battery pack
The consortium, called the European Battery Union, will also include the manufacturing stage, resulting in “allowing sustainable, climate friendly and competitive battery cell production in the European Union,” states a release from the automaker, noting that the effort “could receive financial support from funding announced by the German government.”
CHECK OUT: VW confirms it’s planning for solid-state batteries by 2025
Germany has already earmarked $1.14 billion to support battery cell production, according to Reuters, with plans to fund a facility aimed at developing the solid-state battery technology that may start to become common in the later part of the next decade.
Joint research done through European Battery Union will start next year and be exchanged across partners. It's not indicated whether there's any limit on the number of partners, but with most such alliances, the more the merrier.
READ MORE: Report: Battery production could offset emissions gains from electric cars
This is in addition to the European Battery Alliance, a project launched by the European Commission in October 2017, with intent to create a competitive and sustainable battery cell manufacturing value chain. The Alliance has estimated that bringing the EU to a lead role in battery-cell manufacturing could create four to five million jobs.
Chevrolet Bolt EV to get electric sibling, with Michigan plant investment
2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production
General Motors announced on Friday that it will build a second electric car for Chevrolet, alongside the Chevy Bolt EV.
The new model is widely expected to be a somewhat larger crossover SUV, though GM would not confirm that at this point.
MUST READ: Long-range Cadillac SUV to lead GM's next electric-car push, in 3 years
It will share the Bolt's underpinnings, rather than be based on GM's new BEV3 platform, which is expected to go into production with a Cadillac badge sometime after 2021.
In January, the company announced that Cadillac will become its lead electric vehicle brand in an effort to make GM's electric cars profitable by 2023. It can charge more for Cadillacs than for Chevrolets.
Future Cadillac long-range electric large luxury utility vehicle (rendering), 2019 Detroit auto sho
The Bolt EV, the new model, and a new lineup of electric cars on the BEV3 platform are the first-fruits of GM's efforts to transition to building all electric cars as part of its vision, announced in 2017, for a world with “zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion,” as Barra has articulated. “This new Chevrolet electric vehicle is another positive step toward our commitment to an all-electric future,” she said during the announcement Friday.
As part of the new announcement GM said it will invest a $300 million investment in its Orion Township, Michigan, factory where the Bolt is built to add the new model.
READ THIS: Barra blogs again: GM plans to double EV, self-driving investments
The new car was originally expected to be built outside the U.S., but GM CEO Mary Barra said at an event announcing the new vehicle that terms of the new U.S./Mexico/Canada trade agreement encouraged the company to build it in the U.S.
Last month, the company stopped building the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid hatchback, and in January company President Mark Reuss hinted that GM would not develop further hybrid or plug-in models.
CHECK OUT: GM president dashes hopes of future Volt, says no more hybrids
The November announcement that the company would shutter factories and discontinue the Volt and Chevy Cruze, among other models, prompted a public feud with President Trump, who tweeted “all-electric is not going to work.” Last week, he took to Twitter again to demand that Barra “act now” to save 1,500 jobs at the closed Lordstown, Ohio, factory that produced the Cruze.
The investment in Orion township is expected to create 400 new jobs. Meanwhile, the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal reported this morning that GM is entertaining offers to sell its “unallocated” Lordstown factory.
Tesla drops annual servicing for ‘as needed’ repair model
ASSOCIATED PRESS Tesla has quietly changed its EV maintenance policy, going from regularly scheduled service to an “as-needed” model, according to its “Car Maintenance” page. Before, it called for “recommended” service every 12 months and 12,500 for the Model S and X, and 24 months or 25,000 miles for the Model 3. Now, however, it… Continue reading Tesla drops annual servicing for ‘as needed’ repair model
first ever CKD assembly plant for Proton vehicles in Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan, 22 March 2019 – A project for the first ever CKD assembly plant for Proton vehicles in Pakistan officially began today when the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Yang Amat Berhormat Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, His Excellency Mr Imran Khan, signed a ceremonial marble plaque at an event held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The plant, to be built at a Greenfield site in Karachi, will be owned and operated by ALHAJ Automotive, the official distributor for Proton vehicles in Pakistan and is expected to commence operations before the end of 2020.
PROTON aims to grow overseas sales to meet long term objectives
In 2017, PROTON unveiled the seven stars strategy, a roadmap to achieve their long term goals including targeting to sell 400,000 units by 2027. A major future growth area for the Company is export sales and the establishment of CKD assembly plants in overseas markets is one of the steps taken to grow those numbers.
To establish PROTON in P..
Prototype carbonfibre tub completed at McLaren Composites Centre
McLaren’s second production facility was officially opened in November by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by the Crown Prince of Bahrain. It’s located in the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Catcliffe, between Sheffield and Rotherham. Full-scale production of the Monocell is anticipated to begin next year, with the current 60-strong workforce set to swell to more than… Continue reading Prototype carbonfibre tub completed at McLaren Composites Centre
GM investing $300 million to build a new electric Chevy in the U.S.
GM announced Friday it will invest $300 million into a Michigan factory to produce a new Chevrolet electric vehicle, reversing a decision to build the EV outside of the United States. The announcement comes on the heels of recent job cuts and plant closures by GM, moves that have complicated bargaining with union workers over… Continue reading GM investing $300 million to build a new electric Chevy in the U.S.
PSA management and unions begin to negotiate relief contracts for the Figueruelas plant
Published 3/22/2013 2:11:43 PM There will be a pre-retirement plan proposal for office workers born in 1958 ZARAGOZA, 22 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) – The management of the PSA Group and the unions of the Zaragoza plant of Figueruelas will begin next week to negotiate the relief contracts. In addition, the company will present the proposed… Continue reading PSA management and unions begin to negotiate relief contracts for the Figueruelas plant