Category: Brands

Audi recently held its annual media conference where, among a litany of financial information about the company, some clues to its future were revealed. It’s no secret that Audi is taking big strides in the EV realm, but CEO Markus Duesmann hammered that point home by stating the German brand was “on the verge of the biggest product initiative” in its long history.

That’s a bold statement, but Duesmann backed it up by saying Audi “will have launched around 20 new models” by 2025. A quick glance at our calendar reminds us that 2025 is less than two years from now, so yeah, that’s quite a pace. Beyond that, Duesmann also stated over half would be EVs.

It’s not clear if new models includes mid-cycle refreshes, but this schedule puts the automaker on track to have an EV in every one of its vehicle segments by 2027. The ultimate plan sees Audi becoming an all-electric manufacturer early in the next decade.

As part of that plan, Duesmann used the media conference to tease one of these new models –  an entry-level EV slotting below the Q4 E-Tron. Details weren’t mentioned, but Autocar reports it will be an A-segment hatchback similar to the A3. An exact timeframe for this launch isn’t known, but logic says it will happen in the next year and a half as part of Audi’s blitz of 20 new models.

Audi was early among legacy automakers to enter the EV world with its E-Tron SUV in 2019. We’ve seen a steady stream of hybrid and fully electric models since then, not to mention the collection of sphere concept vehicles starting with the striking Skysphere concept roadster in 2021. It was followed by the Grandsphere concept sedan a few months later, and we’ve since learned the next-generation A8 flagship will borrow heavily from its design.

The final two sphere concepts – the Urbansphere and Activesphere – showcased more practical EVs in the form of a minivan and coupe crossover. While none are said to be production vehicles, Audi has stated the sphere concepts preview the company’s future design language.

In September 2020, Hindenburg Research released its report on Nikola, saying it was “an intricate fraud.” The company acknowledged a truck appearing to cruise down a desert road under its own power in a video was not. The SEC launched an inquiry. Ultimately, Trevor Milton, Nikola’s founder, was convicted of fraud. Nikola settled with the SEC for $125 million.

In 2021, J Capital Research published a report calling Faraday Future “nothing but a bucket to collect money from U.S. investors and pour it into the black hole of debt created by its founder.” A company spokesperson said “the substantive allegations of inaccurate disclosures” in the report “were not supported by the evidence reviewed.” The SEC launched an investigation, and the company underwent a transformative restructuring.

Now, those companies are facing other pressures.

Nikola and Faraday Future in their 2022 annual filings both disclosed “substantial doubt” about their abilities to continue as going concerns.

Nikola had about seven months’ worth of cash to cover operating expenses as of its latest SEC filing. The company did not respond to requests for comment. Nikola started sales of its battery-electric heavy-duty truck last year and expects to start production on hydrogen fuel cell trucks in the second half of 2023.

Faraday Future had less than a month’s worth of cash to cover operating expenses. A spokesperson said in a statement that the company had raised additional funds and expects to receive an additional $65 million over the coming month, and that while there were “issues that impeded our progress in the past,” Faraday Future plans to make its first customer deliveries of a vehicle in April.

Faraday Future “feels comfortable with its current liquidity supporting the start of production and delivery of our flagship FF 91 Futurist,” said the spokesperson.

But those stumbles and others began to erode investor confidence in electric vehicles from other companies, too.

“You had companies’ just outright fraud investigations early on, and that didn’t help,” said Robert Bollinger, the founder and CEO of Bollinger Motors. Some investors saw those investigations “as fodder for why they might be shy to invest.”

In 2020, Bollinger Motors’ net cash provided by financing activities was more than $20 million. The following year, that number was down to about $9 million. Mullen Automotive Inc. acquired a controlling interest in Bollinger late last year, but in June, Bollinger had cash to cover a little more than a month of operating expenses. Bollinger only just revived its original products, two electric off-road vehicles, and is still waiting to start production of a Class 4 truck.

Zurich-based robotics giant ABB Ltd. is planning to invest $20 million and create 72 jobs at its Auburn Hills, Mich., plant in response to the growth of automation in the automotive industry and others.

The company will increase robot production at its 538,000-square-foot building, adding new equipment to its manufacturing space and renovating its offices and demonstration center, said John Bubnikovich, ABB’s U.S. Robotics division president.

The renovations at the plant, where the company has operated since 1993, are expected to be complete by November. The project is being supported with a $450,000 performance-based grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Automation continues to expand in the auto industry as carmakers accelerate electrification plans. Automotive is roughly half of ABB’s robotics business, which supplies the major automakers, Bubnikovich said, declining to name customers.

At the same time, the company is seeing major growth in warehousing, logistics and health care. Besides needing more robots, the common demand among customers is having more control of what they do.

“We need to increase our production capacity to keep up with the market,” Bubnikovich said. “How do we streamline our delivery process and become more intimate with the market here in North America?”

The answer has been to build robots locally, which allows for customers to be more involved in the process, Bubnikovich said. About 80 percent of ABB’s robots sold in the Americas are delivered from local factories, and that is soon to be 90 percent, according to the company. Most of the robot parts are imported, though Bubnikovich said the company is looking at ways to localize production.

The Auburn Hills renovations will add a third manufacturing line, allowing the company to increase capacity by 30 percent.

Prior to launching its manufacturing plant in Auburn Hills in 2015, ABB focused primarily on systems integration and building assembly lines for automotive companies. It has prioritized diversifying the company in recent years.

ABB’s, which has its U.S. robotics base in North Carolina, employs 105,000 people around the world, including 350 in Auburn Hills. The 72 new jobs will be manufacturing positions.

The jobs pay an average of $26 per hour and offer full benefits, according to an MEDC briefing memo. Crain’s Detroit Business, an affilaite of Automotive News, requested pay details from the MEDC.

ABB joins other robotics companies growing their footprints in the Detroit suburbs. Last year, robotics giant and ABB competitor Fanuc announced an $86 million expansion in Auburn Hills, following a $51 million add-on in 2018. JR Automation, a customer of ABB, opened a new 227,500-square-foot systems integration plant in Orion Township late last year.

ABB, which recorded $29.4 billion in revenue last year, said it expects future investments in Michigan and the U.S.

“As the global mega trends of labor shortages, uncertainty, the near and reshoring of production, and a desire to operate more sustainably accelerate, more businesses are turning to automation to build resilience while improving efficiency and flexibility,” Sami Atiya, president of ABB robotics and discrete automation, said in a news release.

“We have not historically competed for projects of this scale,” Thelen said of the Gotion plant. “This is a rare moment for us to see this kind of opportunity. … To see them consider a corner of the state, the northwest portion of the state, that hasn’t seen projects like this frankly ever is a really exciting opportunity for us to see a path to really boost the economy in an area that’s been in decline.”

Rep. Donni Steele, a Republican from Oakland County’s Orion Township who opposed the transfer, noted that all three projects are EV battery factories.

“I’m just really kind of concerned moving forward in the state of Michigan that we don’t necessarily have really a vision and we don’t really have a lot of diversification,” she said.

She pointed to worker shortages and suggested that some of the incentives funding should instead go toward improving schools. Republicans also have criticized Chinese ties to two of the factories.

Thelen, however, said 40,000 people in West Michigan work for auto suppliers. He warned of a reduction in employment amid the transition to EVs because they are simpler to engineer and manufacture than cars powered by internal combustion engines.

“If we take no action, we stand to lose about a third of the employment in that industry, dramatically impacting the state of Michigan, dramatically impacting communities all across the state,” he said. “We have to find ways to offset that loss and reposition ourselves as leaders in this new economy, in this new automotive economy. That to me is why I think this is imperative.”

Rep. Phil Skaggs, an East Grand Rapids Democrat, supported the transfer. He cited competition from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Nevada for EV investment.

“We have to win this competition for the engineering jobs that will come, the working jobs that will come, the entrepreneurs and the pizza shops, for the supply chain and the construction. This is an extraordinary, serious moment. And it calls for us to govern seriously, to put aside rhetoric, to put aside foreign policy hypotheticals and do what is right for Michigan, for Michiganders and our future.”

After completing the lengthy process of testing the T.50 (see the related links below), Gordon Murray Automotive is finally starting to assemble the highly limited supercar. The very first example to be built was signed by Gordon Murray marking the beginning of the production for the first model to come from the company. 

As announced before, the automaker plans to produce just 100 examples of the T.50 for the entire world. Each one of them will be hand-assembled at GMA’s Dunsfold facility in Surrey, England, to unique specifications according to the customers’ desires. The company says no two vehicles will even have the same basic exterior color.

“From the very moment, we announced T.50 – conceived to be the world’s most driver-centric supercar – I’ve been looking forward to this day. Designing and engineering the T.50 has been an incredible journey with much of the initial work completed during the lockdown, so to witness the engineering art of the first customer car’s carbon-fiber monocoque ready for assembly, less than two-and-a-half years since the reveal, is quite magical,” Gordon Murray said after signing the first example of the T.50.

With just 100 units planned for production, most of you are probably asking yourself who is going to provide maintenance and warranty services for the supercar. Gordon Murray Automotive says it is establishing a network of five global service centers, located in the US (East and West coasts), UK, Japan, and Abu Dhabi that will cover those tasks.

These centers will be staffed with maintenance and service expert technicians trained by GMA to work and repair the T.50. In addition, Gordon Murray Automotive works on a network of 14 support centers around the globe, including Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, and others. Further six centers will be established in key states around the US. 

Next year, the firm is also supposed to start assembling the T.33, its second road-legal production supercar. The entire run of 100 examples is sold out, though.

GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said in January the automaker continued “to face some supply chain and logistics issues, but overall, things remain trending in the right direction.”

Last month, GM said it would idle its Fort Wayne, Indiana, assembly plant that builds Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks for two weeks starting March 27 to maintain “optimal inventory levels with our dealerships.” GM said the Mexican production halt was not related to efforts to optimize inventory.

GM share closed down 0.5 percent Tuesday to $35.60.

Honda’s plan to build its “EV Hub” in Ohio is beginning to take shape. Last year, the automaker announced it would invest $700 million to prepare three factories to make electric vehicles. We now have more details about Honda’s effort, which includes moving Accord production to Indiana.

Honda currently produces the popular Accord sedan at its Marysville, Ohio, factory. The automaker will consolidate two production lines at the location, allowing it to begin building the infrastructure needed for EV production.

This transformation will begin as soon as January 2024, with the automaker transferring Accord production to its Indiana Auto Plant sometime in 2025. Honda will maintain the Accord’s production volume at its new factory.

Changes are also coming to Honda’s Anna Engine Plant. The factory will transfer engine production to the company’s Alabama Auto Plant by August 2023, freeing up space at AEP to produce battery cases for EVs one day. In Georgia, the automaker will dedicate one assembly line at its transmission plant for e-axle production, which a Honda supplier will install, own, and operate.

Honda’s “EV Hub” will involve the Marysville Auto Plant, East Liberty Auto Plant, and the Anna Engine Auto Plant. The automaker’s new battery production facility will be at the hub’s heart. The company established a joint venture with LG Energy Solution to build the factory in Ohio, which should be completed by the end of 2024.

Earlier this month, Honda said it plans to invest at least $40 billion through the decade’s end to increase hybrid and EV sales. The company hopes that electrified vehicles can account for 40 percent of its sales by 2030.

Honda is off to a slow start compared to its competitors. The company’s new Prologue electric vehicle comes from its partnership with General Motors. The EV rides on GM’s Ultium platform and uses the Detroit automaker’s batteries.

The changes coming to Honda’s auto plants shouldn’t disrupt staffing levels. The company “expects to maintain employment stability across all locations during these key next steps in the transition.” Starting this year, employees at its Marysville location will begin learning the skills required for EV production.

Marysville will begin preparing for EV production as early as January by consolidating its two production lines to one to enable it to begin building the EV infrastructure, the company said.

Honda began assembling the Accord at its Marysville in November 1982, making it the first Japanese automaker to produce cars in the United States. It has since produced more than 12.5 million Accords at the Ohio plant.

In 1989, the Accord was the first Japanese model to hold the title of best-selling U.S. car, with 362,700 vehicles sold.

In recent years, Americans have been moving away from sedans to sport utility and crossover vehicles. Honda sold 154,600 Accords in the U.S. last year, down 24% from 2021.

Honda said Accord production will be transferred to its Indiana auto plant, which builds the Civic Hatchback and CR-V.

Honda’s transmission plant in Georgia will dedicate one production line to e-axle production – a key EV component – and its Anna, Ohio engine plant will shift production of some engine components to a Honda engine plant in Alabama to prepare for production of battery cases for EV models, the company said.

BERLIN — Volkswagen Group said it will invest 180 billion euros ($193 billion) in the next five years into areas including battery cell production, digitalization in China and expanding its presence in North America, while spending on combustion engines will decline.

More than two-thirds of the five-year investment budget — 122 billion euros — is allocated toward EVs and software as the group, whose brands include Porsche, Audi, Bentley, VW and Skoda, intensifies a push to challenge Tesla’s leadership on EVs.

“We have set clear and ambitious targets and took necessary decisions to streamline processes,” CEO Oliver Blume said during the automaker’s annual press conference on Tuesday. This year “will be a decisive year for executing strategic goals and accelerating progress across the group,” Blume said.

The automaker is increasing overall spending by 13 percent compared with its last annual update.

The difference from the previous plan is primarily down to more investment in its battery business, raw materials, and a $2 billion plant in South Carolina for its Scout brand, CFO Arno Antlitz said.

“We expect to reach 20 percent electromobility in new sales from 2025 and are already investing two-thirds in that area,” Antlitz said. “On the other hand we need to keep combustion engines competitive… that is a double burden.”

VW’s investment in ICE technology will peak in 2025 when tough new Euro 7 emissions regulations in the European Union come into force and decline from then on, as it works toward its target of 50 percent all-electric sales globally by 2030.

VW said it is finalizing high-performance software for its premium and luxury brands which could in the medium-term be applied across the company, in an attempt to improve operations at its software unit Cariad.

The unit has gone over budget and fallen behind on its goals, suffering an operating loss of 2 billion euros in 2022 on revenue of 800 million euros, according to the carmaker’s annual report released on Tuesday.

VW is also investing in China, its biggest market, to improve competitiveness with local models to help stop a slide in market share, particularly among EVs.

The “substantial” investments in VW’s battery business and spending on combustion engines to keep up with emissions regulations “will present a key worry for investors” concerned about drag on cash flow, Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska said in a note.

Elsewhere in Michigan, Lear is plotting $32.5 million of investment, including at its Sterling Heights and Traverse City plants.

The investments are a sign that the Biden administration’s efforts to onshore the manufacturing supply chain, including the Inflation Reduction Act last year, are working.

Since GM announced $7 billion in EV investments in Michigan last year, suppliers including Lear and Magna International have followed with expansion plans.

Lear CEO Ray Scott, among the 2022 Crain’s Newsmakers of the Year, alluded to more announcements to come last week during the Newsmakers event at the MGM Grand Detroit. He told Crain’s last October that localizing production and flexing its manufacturing plants were main priorities for Lear.