Gigacasting is a hot topic in the automotive industry right now. We continually receive calls from clients on the subject, either concerned about how it’ll change their market prospects or warning of the perils of this ‘eggs-in-one-basket’ strategy. They’re right about the perils. It’s a long list. Massive castings can cost up to 10 times more than what they’re replacing. They may have distortion issues, may remove important repair capabilities. What’s more they require intensiv...

S&P Global Mobility: How was OneD Battery Sciences established? Please tell us about the origin of ‘SINANODE’ platform. Vincent Pluvinage: I have lived in the Silicon Valley since 1987, and I have taken a couple of companies public. Since 2001–02, I have been active in Silicon Valley as an investor, mainly focusing on innovative technologies, where I can use my physics and bioengineering background, to bring to market technologies that are well patented. I am an inventor at heart...

During Tesla’s Investor Day earlier this year, the carmaker explained its intention to increase the production of its next-generation electric vehicles and stationary battery storage in order to speed up the world's transition to electric vehicles (EVs). The driving force behind this is its Unboxed Process, a combination of refined manufacturing techniques and strategic process overhauls that will contribute to a substantial production cost reduction and facilitate the profitable build of t...

Among the many duties of The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) is to provide a forum for engineers, governments, and other stakeholders to develop technical standards and best practices for the automotive sector. The SAE today houses over 9,900 documents that are the fruits of collaboration between some 15,000 experts and engineers worldwide. Among these standards, perhaps the most referenced and influential today is standard J3016. To most, J3016 is better known as the stan...

With reports that consumers are starting to push back against the vogue for sleek looking, but frustrating to use, in-vehicle interfaces AI is set to be the vehicle interior designer’s secret weapon. AI could succeed in making more drivers and passengers receptive to their minimalist interiors and could banish buttons forever.  Click the link above to download the whole article.

The time for denial is over. There are still suppliers of parts related to internal combustion engines that are steadfast in their belief that the looming (and eventual) shift away from ICE toward any number of battery-electric propulsion formats is just a passing fad. In their view, scores of OEMs, suppliers, dealers and infrastructure partners have it completely wrong. They believe that the billions in investment earmarked in virtually every major global market to build a new ecosystem are cap...

Last January, five European countries - Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden - submitted a proposal to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to restrict PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the EU under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The group are calling for an EU ban on PFAS as early as 2026, pointing to recent studies that have linked the chemicals’ exposure to a wide range of health problems. The proposed r...

One of the most recognized patterns in current well-to-wheel analysis is the differentiation of localized power generation sources and supply chain contributions to the overall carbon footprint of vehicles. Experts like Kelly Senecal rightly point out that in many cases, the power grid is dirtier than a hybrid, even when vehicles manufacturing energy sources are responsibly developed.  Click the link above to download the full article.

Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) have been everywhere these past few months, with the noise reaching a crescendo after the recent CES in Las Vegas. Trouble is, it’s not exactly new. It’s just that the auto industry loves a mega trend or a concept that helps explain everything. And to be fair, SDV does knit together a whole gamut of developments in the industry rather neatly.  Click the link above to download the whole article.

On March 1, Tesla hosted its Investor Day, where it presented ‘Master Plan 3’, the sequel to Master Plan outings in 2006 and 2016. While earlier plans were greeted enthusiastically by investors, the third met with a muted response from the markets with the stock falling by 6%.  Click the link above to download the full article.

In 2023, some 300 exhibitors showcased their vehicle technology. Its increasing importance – usurping the traditional auto shows like NAIAS, Paris, IAA and Geneva along the way – is demonstrated if we wind back the clock to 2014. Then, there were just nine OEMs present and some 125 automotive technology exhibitors. With this growth has also come maturity. The 2023 CES was less about fanciful concepts and more about tangible. Click the link above to download the full article.

Automotive display HMI is growing in demand owning to convenience features and enhancing customer experience. Moreover, in the coming years development of multi-display will not only provide greater freedom of information usage and control between driver and passenger, but it will also reduce product development complexities and costs for automakers. Although, in real-terms automakers will invest more during the initial years to gain longer-term benefits. Automakers are also engaged in the devel...

The current year has again been dominated by the chip crisis. Overlaid on this has been the worsening macroeconomic position due to the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has had knock-on effects for the industry in terms of demand surety. In turn this has brought an end to the era of cheap capital, which has served to slow the burgeoning mobility startup ecosystem. In the broader sense the sector looks set to be heading to a phase where demand-side considerations replace the curren...

With energy prices in Europe skyrocketing, placing business bottom lines in triage mode, a harsh winter could place certain automotive sectors at risk of being unable to keep their production lines running. Click the link above to download the article.

On 26 September 2022, Europe’s largest carmaker Volkswagen Group’s newly established battery company PowerCo and Brussels-based material supplier Umicore announced setting up a joint venture (JV) for precursor and cathode material production in Europe, starting from 2025. The landmark agreement with Umicore is expected to be critical for VW, which has two major long-term milestones to achieve: prepare for the European Union’s regulatory requirement of allowing sale of only zero-carbon-emis...

On 7 August 2022, Democrats in the US Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which aims to not only take control of rising inflation by reducing the fiscal deficit but also invest in domestic manufacturing of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs), secure the necessary supply chain, and cut down the carbon footprint by roughly 40% by 2030. The proposal made within the purview of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) expects to raise about USD739 billion and invest about ...

The survey results indicate that R&D spending is critical for medium- and long-term goals for companies within the industry, particularly to develop their market positioning. However, some companies are still cautious about planning a high-spending year until the market conditions for products have settled to a predictable level. The key findings of the ‘2021 IHS Markit global automotive R&D survey’ are: 6.5% average increase in automotive R&D spending by companies. Gr...

The EU has rejected calls from Brexit’s chief negotiator Lord David Frost to include components as ‘local content’ if they imported from countries with which both the EU and the UK have trade deals with or are in the processing of finalizing, such as Japan and Turkey.   Under this so-called cumulation scheme – which is typical in bilateral trade agreements – UK-based OEMs exporting their vehicles to the EU will be subject to tariffs averaging at 10% on vehicles and nearly 5% on...

On 22 September, Tesla hosted an announcement-packed ‘Battery Day”, showcasing its vision on where it wants to be in terms of battery cell technology and production capacities within the next three years, as well as what some of the innovation in the works could mean for end customers of its electric vehicles (EV). The company announced evolutionary changes, right from the cell design, down to the manufacturing processes related to every cell component, that will not only improve the perform...