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Tag: Auto

  • Vietnam auto production ranks 4th in Southeast Asia

    Vietnam auto production ranks 4th in Southeast Asia

    Vietnam ranks fourth in Southeast Asia in auto production in the first 10 months at 362,000 units, up 16.4% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.

    Thailand leads the region with nearly 1.6 million units made in the period, followed by Indonesia, 1.2 million, and Malaysia, 567,700, according to the ASEAN Automotive Federation.

    Many auto factories have recently been established in Vietnam, including Toyota, Honda, Ford, Kia, and Hyundai. Vietnam company VinFast has also been expanding with a focus on the global electric vehicle market.

    Some brands such as Skoda (Czech) and Chery (China) are planning to assemble cars in Vietnam through domestic partners in the next 1-2 years.

    Vietnam also imports cars from the regional leaders Thailand and Indonesia.

    Vietnam also ranked first in year-on-year auto sales growth in the first 10 months at 52.2%, followed by Malaysia at 50.7%.

    The country saw 322,963 units sold, against the leader Indonesia’s 851,413.

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  • Tata Motors Take A Dig At Mahindra As Nexon EV Crosses 35,000 Unit Sales

    Tata Motors Take A Dig At Mahindra As Nexon EV Crosses 35,000 Unit Sales

    Tata Motors recently announced that its popular Nexon EV has crossed the 35,000 unit sales mark. Tata Motors posted the achievement on its social media channels, while also taking a dig at the upcoming Mahindra XUV400. Tata Motors posted an image that read 35,000 is greater than OO, where the OO was written in the same font that Mahindra uses for the XUV400.

    The soon-to-be-launched Mahindra XUV400 one-ups the Nexon EV in almost all the fields, except on the feature front. Its longer, and has better specs than the Nexon EV, but it is not as feature packed as the Nexon EV.

    The Nexon EV has been the bestseller EV in India for a while, Mahindra aims to dethrone the SUV once the XUV400 is launched early next year.

  • VinFast ships first electric vehicles to US

    VinFast ships first electric vehicles to US

    VinFast had shipped its first batch of 999 cars to the U.S., capping a five-year bid to develop an auto production hub in Vietnam for markets in North America and Europe.

    The company said that the first cars are expected to be handed over to customers by the end of December.

    VinFast Chief Executive Le Thi Thu Thuy said some of the VF 8 electric SUVs being shipped on Friday would be sent to U.S. car subscription service Autonomy but the majority would go to retail buyers who have ordered the car.

    Thuy said VinFast expected to be able to ship a second batch of cars to the United States, its first export market, around January.

    VinFast is in the process of building an electric vehicle plant in North Carolina that is awaiting final regulatory approval from local officials.

    Thuy said the company expected to start production at the North Carolina factory from July 2024 and that electric vehicles built there would qualify for incentives under the terms of the Inflation Reduction Act signed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

    The Inflation Reduction Act, as currently written, requires automakers to have 50% of critical minerals used in EV batteries come from North America or U.S. allies by 2024, rising to 80% by the end of 2026.

    Major automakers have said those targets are unrealistic and it was not immediately clear how VinFast would meet the sourcing requirements.

    “The IRA came as a surprise to all of us but it doesn’t really impact our strategy in the U.S.,” Thuy told Reuters. “As soon as we start manufacturing cars in the U.S., our customers will be eligible (for) the tax incentive.”

    VinFast said last week that Autonomy had ordered 2,500 electric vehicles, its largest corporate order to date. VinFast has said it has almost 65,000 orders globally in total and expects to sell 750,000 EVs annually by 2026.

    The North Carolina factory project is running months behind schedule, based on the company’s initial targets, and the first shipment of EVs built by VinFast was short of the initial goal to deliver as many as 5,000 cars built at its factory in Haiphong by December.

    VinFast officials said the number 999 for the vehicles shipped in the first batch had been chosen because it is considered a lucky number in Vietnam.

    “There is no luckier number than 999,” Thuy said. The Panamanian-chartered transport ship used to send the first shipment of VinFast EVs had the capacity to carry up to 2,000 vehicles, officials said.

    Shares in VinFast’s listed parent company, Vingroup, which also has property and resort development businesses, were up 5.41% on Friday morning.

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  • Mercedes recalls nearly 1,000 vehicles in Vietnam over fire risk

    Mercedes recalls nearly 1,000 vehicles in Vietnam over fire risk

    Mercedes is recalling 966 cars in Vietnam due to fire risks related to electrical short circuits in the trunk control modules and faulty trim bars on rear doors.

    The recall covers three models – C300, GLE and GLS imported via official channels in Vietnam. Of these, 126 recalled Mercedes C300 cars were made between May 2021 and May 2022.

    The remaining 840 units – GLE 450 4Matic, GLS 450 4Matic, GLS Maybach 480 4Matic and GLS Maybach 600 4Matic – were made between July 2019 and January 2022.

    With the C300 model (W206 generation), there is a risk of rain water ingress at the rear trunk. Moisture can thus seep into the signal acquisition and actuation module (SAM module) inside the trunk, the carmaker said.

    In this case, short circuits may occur in the control modules and fire risks cannot be completely eliminated. In addition, short circuiting can lead to various other problems, for instance, damage to the taillights. The company has recalled vehicles to fit a waterproof cover over the module that receives the signal and activates it to prevent problems.

    The GLE and GLS models are being recalled to repair the trim bar in the triangular window (rear door) because they may not meet specifications due to deviations in the assembly process. As a result, the decorative bars may detach from the vehicle while it is in motion, potentially causing accidents or injuries to other road users.

    The recall of the above models is being carried out at Mercedes Vietnam’s authorized dealers system nationwide and repairs are done free of charge. Fixing the error on the C300 takes about 60 minutes and procedures for the remaining lines about half that time. The recall program will run from November 10, 2022 to December 31, 2027.

    Mercedes Vietnam has said that it will also provide free error correction support for C300, GLE and GLS models not imported via official channels that are on the global recall list of Mercedes AG.

  • Tesla Reports Two New Fatal Crashes Involving Driver Assistance Systems

    Tesla Reports Two New Fatal Crashes Involving Driver Assistance Systems

    Tesla told U.S. auto safety regulators it has reports of two new crash fatalities in Model 3 cars tied to advanced driver assistance systems in the month ending October 15, data released Tuesday by the government shows.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in June began releasing data provided by automakers on reports of crashes tied to driver assistance systems like Tesla’s Autopilot.

    “NHTSA has reviewed these crashes and is conducting appropriate follow-up. NHTSA uses many data sources in its enforcement processes,” the agency said Tuesday.    NHTSA issued an order in June 2021 requiring automakers and tech companies to immediately report all crashes involving advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and vehicles equipped with automated driving systems tested on public roads. The safety regulator said Tuesday it uses data submitted by automakers under its 2021 order as part of its investigations.

    Nearly all of the 18 fatal crashes reported since July 2021 that had to do with driver assistance systems involved Tesla vehicles.

    The agency has emphasized crashes are tracked by individual automakers in different ways and discouraged comparisons of performance among automakers partly due to lack of comprehensive metrics to track how widely each system is used or how crashes are reported.

    Separately, since 2016, NHTSA has opened 38 special investigations of crashes involving Tesla vehicles where advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot were suspected of being used. Overall, 19 crash deaths have been reported in those Tesla-related investigations.

    Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

    It has said Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer automatically within their lanes but does not make them capable of driving themselves.    In June, NHTSA upgraded its defect investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, a required step before it could seek a recall.

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  • Tesla Recalls 3,21,000 U.S. Vehicles Over Rear Light Issue

    Tesla Recalls 3,21,000 U.S. Vehicles Over Rear Light Issue

    Tesla is recalling more than 321,000 vehicles in the United States because tail lights may intermittently fail to illuminate, the company said in a filing made public Saturday.

    The news follows the company’s recall on Friday of nearly 30,000 Model X cars in the United States over an issue that may cause the front passenger air bag to deploy incorrectly, which sent its shares down almost 3% to a near two-year low.

    In the filing published Saturday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the electric vehicle manufacturer said the tail light-related recall covers some 2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles.

    Texas-based Tesla said it will deploy an over-the-air update to correct the rear light issue and said it has no reports of any crashes or injuries related to the recall.

    The company said the recall followed customer complaints it became aware of in late October, largely from foreign markets, claiming vehicle tail lights were not illuminating.

    The investigation found in rare cases the lights may intermittently not work due to an anomaly that may cause false fault detections during the vehicle wake-up process. Tesla said it had received three warranty reports over the issue.

    Tesla has reported 19 U.S. recall campaigns in 2022 covering more than 3.7 million vehicles including four callbacks in November, according to NHTSA data.

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  • Hyundai inaugurates 100,000-car plant in Vietnam

    Hyundai inaugurates 100,000-car plant in Vietnam

    Hyundai Motor has inaugurated its second plant in Vietnam with a capacity of 100,000 automobiles per year.

    Covering an area of over 50 hectares in the northern Ninh Binh Province, the new plant will turn out eco-friendly and fuel-saving vehicles, said Thanh Cong chairman Nguyen Anh Tuan.

    Hyundai entered the Vietnamese market in 2009 through a joint venture with local conglomerate Thanh Cong Group. It imports parts for local assembly in what are known as knock-down kits.

    The plant will increase Hyundai’s Vietnamese production capacity to 170,000 vehicles a year when it becomes fully operational, likely in 2025.

    The South Korean automaker has invested nearly VND12.3 trillion (roughly $496 million) in Ninh Binh province.

    In the first 10 months, 397,457 cars were sold and auto sales could exceed 400,000 for the first time in eight years, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

  • Slovakia’s Inobat Eyes Electric Vehicle Battery Plant In Serbia

    Slovakia’s Inobat Eyes Electric Vehicle Battery Plant In Serbia

    Slovakian battery maker InoBat said on Monday it has signed declarations of intent with the Serbian government to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in the Balkan country with a capacity of up to 32 gigawatt hours (GWh).

    The plant would open with an initial capacity of 4 GWh in 2025.

    The Serbian government has agreed to provide funding of up to 419 million euros ($431 million) including grants and tax incentives to support the project, InoBat said.

    Although the agreement is not final, a source familiar with the matter said it is close to being so.

    InoBat has said it wants to build a gigafactory in western Europe and one in eastern Europe.

    Last month InoBat said it had signed a declaration of intent with Spain’s government to build a gigafactory in Valladolid. The declaration is not a finalised agreement and other locations, including the United Kingdom, remain under consideration for InoBat’s western European factory.

    Some European battery startups have struggled to raise billions for huge gigafactories, while others like InoBat are focused on expanding slowly as they land customers contracts.

    InoBat will open a 45 megawatt-hour (MWh) pilot line in Bratislava early next year to produce high-performance batteries for customers to test and says it has signed customer agreements, including with German air taxi developer Lilium worth 500 million euros by 2030.

    The company aims to build battery production capacity in 4 GWh increments starting in 2025 – costing around 350 million euros each – as contracts are signed.

    InoBat also plans a research & development facility in Indiana, which could expand into a gigafactory, in a joint venture with fintech company Ideanomics.

    Ideanomics is an investor in InoBat, as is mining group Rio Tinto.

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  • Indonesia To Set Up $2 Billion EV Fund With China’s CATL, CMB International

    Indonesia To Set Up $2 Billion EV Fund With China’s CATL, CMB International

    The Indonesia Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is to set up a green electric vehicle (EV) fund of at least $2 billion with China’s battery maker CATL and CMB International, the fund’s CEO said on Monday.

    The announcement was made in a live-streamed business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

    INA CEO Ridha Wirakusumah then signed an agreement for the partnership with company executives from CATL and CMB International.

    The fund will invest in the EV value chain to capture a market that is expected to grow fast globally, driven by countries’ pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ridha said.

    “With CATL and CMB International as the main partners, we are looking for limited partners to invest in the green EV fund, to seize this EV value chain opportunity primarily in Indonesia,” Ridha said.

    Indonesia’s own EV market is on track to grow, with 2.1 million electric motorcycle and 400,000 electric cars expected to be sold by 2025, Ridha said.

    Indonesia is keen to develop its own EV and battery industries at home, after banning exports of nickel ore to ensure supply for investors since 2020.

    Earlier this year, CATL announced a $6 billion power battery project in Indonesia, in partnership with Indonesian companies.

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  • Elon Musk Says ‘I Have Too Much Work On My Plate’

    Elon Musk Says ‘I Have Too Much Work On My Plate’

    Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday he was working “at the absolute most amount…from morning til night, seven days a week” when asked about his recent acquisition of Twitter and his leadership of automaker Tesla Inc.

    “I have too much work on my plate that is for sure,” Musk said by videolink to a business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

    Musk is chief executive of both companies and also runs rocket firm SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company. Wearing a batik shirt sent by the organizers, he appeared on screen lit by candles, explaining that he was speaking from a place that had just lost power.

    Tesla investors worry that Musk, a self-confessed “nanomanager” who has been personally involved in working-level decisions from car styling to supply chain issues, is distracted at a critical time for the world’s largest electric vehicle maker.

    Tesla’s shares have halved in value since early April, when he disclosed he had taken a stake in Twitter. His Tesla share sales, including another $4 billion last week to bring his Twitter-related sales to $20 billion, have added to the pressure.

    When asked about the complexity of industrial supply chains “decoupling” from China and the risks from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Musk returned to how busy he was.

    Responding to an observation that many business leaders in Asia wanted to be the “Elon Musk of the East,” Musk said: “I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure how many people would actually like to be me. They would like to be what they imagine being me, which is not the same thing as actually being me. The amount that I torture myself is next level, frankly.”

    Musk also said he wanted to see Twitter support more video and longer-form video so that content creators could make a living on the platform, but did not provide details. His remarks were streamed live on Alphabet Inc’s YouTube.

    Indonesia has been trying to secure a deal with Tesla on battery investment and potentially one for SpaceX to develop a rocket launch site.

    Musk made no commitment to either of those but said Indonesia had a large role to play in the electric vehicle supply chain and that it would make sense “long term” for SpaceX to have multiple launch points around the globe.

    It was not clear where Musk was during the Bali event. His personal jet has remained in Austin, Texas, Tesla’s headquarters since the weekend, according to @ElonJet, a Twitter account that tracks Musk’s Gulfstream G650.

    “I’m just looking at this video and it’s so bizarre,” Musk said. “I’m sitting here in the dark surrounded by candles.”

    Musk added he believed that the economy would make the transition to sustainable energy, adding it was “just a question of how long it takes.” He said space exploration should remain a priority “so we can understand the nature of the universe and our place in it.”

    “Maybe we’ll find alien civilization or discover civilizations that existed millions of years ago, but we see the ruins of ancient civilizations. I think that would be incredibly interesting,” he said.

  • Toyota’s Upcoming Hybrid Sedan Teased Ahead Of Global Debut

    Toyota’s Upcoming Hybrid Sedan Teased Ahead Of Global Debut

    Electrification has been one of the key focus areas for Toyota in the global markets. Earlier this year Toyota showcased its all-electric range and now it has released a teaser image of its upcoming hybrid sedan, which is likely to be the successor of the Prius hybrid. In fact, it’s most likely the same mysterious model that it teased alongside the bZ4x crossover. The model is expected to share its underpinnings and powertrain with the bZ3 sedan which is sold in China and will make its debut on November 16.

    The teasers were released on the company’s Japanese social media handles, however, the brand is refraining from sharing any further details as yet. In fact, the company hasn’t even revealed its name yet, while we expect it use the venerable Prius moniker for this hybrid model. Both teasers show “Hybrid Reborn” lettering while the tapering roofline silhouette will remind you of the Prius sedan. Moreover, the word “reborn” itself hints at Toyota going with the Prius name for this new model rather than coming up with a new branding

    The fourth-gen Prius has been around since 2015, and it’s high time for a generation update. The previously teased bZ had a similar profile, but that was a different car since bZ brand is reserved for pure electric models. Toyota had earlier said that the Prius will remain one of the front-runners in its electrified range and we expect the next-gen model to be a plug-in-hybrid, followed by a hydrogen fuel-cell iteration.

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  • Canoo To Build Battery Manufacturing Facility In Oklahoma

    Canoo To Build Battery Manufacturing Facility In Oklahoma

    Electric vehicle startup Canoo Inc said on Wednesday it would build a battery manufacturing facility at Pryor in Oklahoma with a capacity of 3,200 Megawatt hours production.

    The company’s Pryor facility will make proprietary battery modules, energy management system and thermal control technology, CEO and Chairman Tony Aquila said.

    Canoo added it will be the first electric vehicle company to produce battery modules using hydro-power from the Grand River Dam Authority.

    The company’s new battery manufacturing facility will be in the same industrial park as its future “MegaMicro” factory, Canoo said.

    Canoo last year announced Panasonic Holdings Corp, which also supplies battery cells to Tesla Inc, will be its provider for manufacturing battery packs.

    The EV startup, which is set to report third-quarter results on Nov. 9, had access to about $250 million in capital at the end of the second quarter.

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  • Tesla closes its first showroom in China in retail strategy shift

    Tesla closes its first showroom in China in retail strategy shift

    Electric vehicle giant Tesla has closed what had been its flagship showroom in China as the company adjusts its sales and service strategy in its second-largest market, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

    Tesla shut the showroom in Beijing’s Parkview Green, an upscale downtown shopping centre late last week, according to the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were not authorised to discuss the closure.

    A member of the mall’s staff confirmed to Reuters during a visit to the site on Wednesday that Tesla had shut the showroom, whose windows are now plastered with posters belonging to the next tenant, a streetwear brand.

    “Their contract with us expired and Tesla decided not to extend it,” the mall staff member said.

    A call to the store earlier in the day was redirected to another Tesla showroom nearby. Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

    The Beijing store, opened in 2013, was Tesla’s first in China. It was renovated in 2018 and expanded to occupy two floors of the mall.

    Tesla owns and runs over 200 outlets across the country that display models and arrange test drives for potential buyers.

    Reuters reported in September that Tesla was considering closing some showrooms in flashy malls in cities like Beijing after traffic plunged during Covid restrictions.

    It also plans to put more emphasis on stores in less-costly suburban locations that can also provide repairs as the company works to meet Chief Executive Elon Musk’s goal of improving service for customers.

    As part of that effort, Tesla has been hiring technicians and other staff for service jobs in China. The company’s China recruitment website showed 305 openings for service jobs as of Wednesday, little changed from September.

    More than half of Tesla’s China stores do not offer repair or maintenance services and are in high-rent locations where space is limited. That included the now-closed Parkview Green Tesla store.

    Tesla owns all of its own stores rather than relying on dealers. It also sells its cars online. That has allowed it more leeway to adjust a retail strategy that had been initially modeled on Apple’s glossy stores in high-rent locations.

    Tesla has cut starter prices for its Model 3 and Model Y cars by as much as 9 per cent in China, reversing a trend of price increases across the industry amid signs of softening demand in the world’s largest auto market.

    Tesla sold 318,151 vehicles in China in the first nine months of 2022, up 55 per cent from a year earlier, according the China Passenger Car Association. By comparison, overall sales of electric vehicles and hybrids increased 113.2 per cent.

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  • Volvo Global Sales Up By 6.9% In October 2022

    Volvo Global Sales Up By 6.9% In October 2022

    Volvo Cars reported sales of 54,317 cars in October, up 6.9 percent compared with the same month last year. The company’s line-up of Recharge models represented 36.8 percent of the sales last month, with fully electric cars accounting for 15 percent of total sales. During the January-to-October period, Volvo Cars’ retail sales reached 483,304 cars, down 16.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

    European sales for October reached 22,030 cars, down 0.4 percent compared to the same month last year. Sales of Recharge cars accounted for 64.9 percent of the total sales in the region during the month.

    Volvo Cars’ US sales for the month reached 9,478, up 8.9 percent compared with October last year, with Recharge models making up 26.7 percent of the total sales. China sales increased by 36.7 percent in October to 15,048 cars compared with the same month last year, with Recharge models amounting to 6.1 percent of total sales.

    Volvo Cars’ top-selling model for the month was the XC60 with sales of 17,531 cars (2021: 15,399 units), followed by the XC40 at 14,883 cars (2021: 13,987) and the XC90 at 7,651 cars (2021: 8,639 units).

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  • Invygo Raises $10 Million For Its Car Subscription Service

    Invygo Raises $10 Million For Its Car Subscription Service

    UAE and Saudi Arabia-based startup Invygo has raised $10 million in series A funding led by MEVP as it further develops its long-term car subscription service. The startup, which was founded by Eslam Ahmed Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo in 2019 so far has raised $14.3 million.

    It counts Al Rajhi Partners, Arab Bank, Amana Capital, and Palm Drive Capital as its main investors. It also has backing from Signal Peak Ventures and Knollwood Investment Advisory, who have participated in the latest round.

    “We’ve split the full payment of the car into three. Normally, you have a massive down payment of around 20% and then your monthly instalments with no way to get out of that commitment. Our starting fee is around 5%, and you can cancel your plan at any time without any penalty,” Ganjoo said.

    Invygo offers three kinds of rental services – one is a short-term rental service that allows one to one to nine months. The other service is the long-term leasing option which allows users to rent a car for between a year and three years. There is also a subscription to own model, which offers brand new or semi-used cars on a 2–3-year rental period with a start fee that’s much lower than a traditional down payment.

    Users for a short-term rental can go to its website and look for available cars and book a rental. Users have access to all kinds of information like model number, year of make, and km clocked by the vehicle in question. Users can also filter parameters like car type, fuel type, transmission type and color.

    Invygo offers doorstep delivery, replacement of car, maintenance, regular insurance, and a 24×7 helpline. Invygo makes money by taking a cut of the subscription. It has around 200 cars in Saudi Arabia on its service and 100 cars in the UAE.