LONDON Reuters: With electric car sales soaring and regulations increasingly favouring zero-emission vehicles, a flurry of announcements on Monday showed how the global auto industry has kicked into a higher gear as it races to make it past fossil fuel era.
As part of its own 30 billion euro $34.7 billion electrification plan Stellantis - born earlier this year from a merger between PSA and Ford Chrysler - announced it had entered a preliminary agreement with battery maker LG Energy Solution to produce battery cells and modules for North America, where the world's No. If electric vehicles (EVs) are a core technology for 2030, 4 automaker expects more than 40% of its U.S. sales to be electric vehicles by 2030.
It follows a recent announcement that Stellantis and TotalEnergies will take 33% stake in auto electronics manufacturer Automotive Cells Company ACC founded by Daimler AG in 2020.
Carmakers are racing to gather battery supplies as they switch to electrical, with dozens of new battery plants planned throughout Europe and America.
Ford Motor Company's plans to go electric in Northern England received a boost on Monday as the company said it would invest up to 230 million pounds $316 million to refurbish an engine factory in Europe to produce electric car power units instead of combustion-engine transmissions.
2 U.S. carmaker has announced that its car lineup in Europe will be all electric by 2030.
Companies like Mercedes-Benz Daimler maker warn that the transformation of electric vehicles will cost jobs in combustion engine plants, so Ford's announcement is a boost to workers making fossil fuel engines at its Halewood plant in Liverpool.
The transition to electric has also accompanied changes in the automotive landscape, with a large number of startups hoping for the next Tesla Inc.
That has attracted the attention of Apple Inc., Taiwan's Foxconn, which has ambitious plans to diversify away from its role of building consumer electronics for Taiwan and other tech firms.
Indeed, fys has unveiled its first three prototypes of electric vehicles - an SUV, a sedan and a bus - made by Foxtron, a venture between Foxconn and Taiwanese car manufacturer Yulon Motor Co Ltd.
It announced its EV ambitions less than two years ago and has moved relatively quickly on with companies like Fisker Inc and Thailand's PTT Pcl. to build cars.
Elon Musk was a reason why Volkswagen AG had top Tesla CEO speak at the german carmaker over the weekend with Tesla's CEO in-house.
Tesla CEO Herbert Diess has revealed no secret of his ambitions to overtake Volkswagen, the world's leading electric carmaker.
But in a Linkedin post, Diess announced he had invited Musk as a surprise guest to drive home the point that VW needs faster decisions and less bureaucracy for what he called the biggest transformation in the company's history.