(Source: Nissan official website)
According to foreign media reports, two sources revealed that Nissan may withdraw from venture capital funds operated by its alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi. Nissan's move is part of the company's strategy of cutting costs and saving cash.
Two Nissan insiders revealed that the company will make a final decision on whether to withdraw from the alliance venture capital fund before the end of this month. The two sources refused to disclose their identities. One of the sources said that before Nissan considered withdrawing from the alliance venture capital fund, its alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors said at an alliance meeting last week that it would no longer inject capital into the fund. The fund is headquartered in Amsterdam, and a source said that Nissan's withdrawal from the fund has almost been settled.
A Nissan spokesperson said that the news was just speculation and refused to respond to the news. A Mitsubishi spokesman said that the company has not made any decision.
Nissan's move comes at a time when its sales in China have fallen sharply. China is Nissan's largest market, but due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, Nissan's sales in China market plummeted by 80% last month.
The move also shows that under the leadership of the new CEO MakotoUchida, the company is trying to cut costs. At present, Uchida is under great pressure, and he needs to lead Nissan to turn losses into profits quickly.
A source said that the Alliance Venture Capital Fund aims to find "learning opportunities" for the Alliance by investing in start-ups. At the beginning of its establishment, the investment fund's goal was to get up to $200 million from three alliance partners every year, but this target amount was never reached.
The fund was established under the leadership of CarlosGhosn, the former leader of the Alliance. He was arrested in Japan before, and fled Japan in June 5438+February last year and returned to his childhood hometown of Lebanon. Ghosn faced many charges in Japan, including concealing profits and misappropriating company funds, but Ghosn denied all the charges.
According to the website of Alliance Venture Capital, the initial registered capital of the fund is 200 million US dollars, and the goal is to increase the capital scale to 654.38 billion US dollars by 2023. Companies invested by the fund include Wen Yuan Star, a self-driving taxi startup in China, and Tekion, a car retail platform based on cloud computing. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Nebula)
2. The epidemic situation may threaten the development momentum of the global electric vehicle industry.
According to foreign media reports, up to now, more than 3,000 people have died in novel coronavirus, and the epidemic situation still shows no signs of easing. At the same time, the epidemic has had an unexpected impact on the global supply chain of emerging technologies such as electric vehicles.
In February this year, the overall car sales in China, the world's largest electric vehicle market, dropped sharply. According to the preliminary data of China Passenger Car Association, the domestic retail volume of passenger cars in China was about 252,000 in February, down 85.3% from the previous month and 78.5% from the same period last year. The wholesale sales volume of new energy passenger cars 1. 1 10,000 vehicles decreased by 77.7% year-on-year and 70% quarter-on-quarter. According to Reuters, BYD's sales of electric vehicles decreased by 79.5% last month. The sales volume of new energy of BAIC decreased by 65.1%year-on-year; Sales of Volkswagen's electric vehicle partner JAC decreased by 63.4%.
(Source: BYD official website)
At the same time, the uncertainty caused by the epidemic caused the oil price to plummet, the biggest drop since the Gulf War 199 1. The New York Mercantile Exchange's crude oil futures price once reached $30 a barrel this week. Usually, when the prices of crude oil and natural gas fall, people's interest in electric vehicles will decline, and the sales of electric vehicles will also slow down. Analysts pointed out that the fall in oil prices was a factor in the decline in Tesla's share price this week. The epidemic also led to the temporary closure of Tesla's super factory in Shanghai and stores across the country.
In addition, the epidemic has also led to the postponement or cancellation of several international auto shows, which were originally the stage for global automakers to showcase a new generation of electric vehicles. Last week, Fiat showed off 500 pure electric vehicles in Milan before Italy declared a state of emergency, regardless of people's concerns. But other automakers chose to publish online.
Gm also announced yesterday (March 10) that due to the epidemic situation, it will cancel the plan to release the pure electric Cadillac crossover Lyriq next month. A spokesperson for the company said that Cadillac is reassessing its plan to launch the Lyriq model, but the model will not be released at the Los Angeles event scheduled for April 2.
At the same time, the epidemic has aggravated the troubles caused by the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on China goods (including 25% tariffs on electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, electric scooters and electric skateboards). Last week, this pressure led BoostedBoards, the main manufacturer of electric skateboards, to lay off most employees.
The supply chain of electric vehicles is most affected. Many car manufacturers have been trying to provide batteries for electric vehicles. In addition, cobalt and lithium are important components of electric vehicle batteries. China is a global leader in refining cobalt materials and a major supplier of lithium materials in the world. However, the epidemic led to the closure of some cobalt processing plants, and China lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium also raised its price, but the increase was less than 10%. However, the continuing impact of the epidemic may affect the cost of electric vehicles. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Zhan yazhen)
3. Does Tesla increase the spare parts production capacity of the Shanghai factory? Fully localize the supply chain
(Source: Tesla official website)
According to foreign media reports, according to the documents submitted by Tesla to the Shanghai government, the company plans to increase the production capacity of some auto parts in its Shanghai super factory to promote the localization of its supply chain in China, the world's largest auto market.
Specifically, Tesla plans to increase production lines in its Shanghai factory to produce more battery packs, motors and motor controllers. However, the document shows that the new production line will not include the production of batteries, but will package the outsourced batteries in the factory. In addition, Tesla hopes to nearly double the annual production capacity of its cooling pipes (key components of automobile thermal management system), from 6,543,800+0,500 sets to 260,000 sets. It is reported that Tesla will also build a new stamping production line in the Shanghai factory to speed up automobile production.
By the end of 65438+February last year, about 70% of imported parts and components of cars produced by Tesla in China were in use. The company has previously said that it hopes to localize the entire supply chain of the Shanghai factory before the end of this year.
The Shanghai factory is the key to Tesla's profit growth. According to a document of 20 18 issued by the Shanghai municipal government, the company plans to produce 150000 vehicles per year in the Shanghai factory, and plans to increase the annual output to 250000 vehicles in the future. Tesla aims to deliver more than 500,000 cars worldwide by the end of 2020.
However, the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 epidemic in China disrupted Tesla's production and delivery plan in Shanghai. The epidemic has caused 3 100 deaths in China. According to industry data, the sales of passenger cars in China dropped by about 80% in February due to the epidemic. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Zhan yazhen)
4. Uber restarted the autopilot test in San Francisco.
(Source: Uber official website)
According to foreign media reports, the company's self-driving cars reappeared on the roads in San Francisco for the first time since Uber had a fatal accident in Arizona road test and reduced the scale of the autopilot test program. The California Motor Vehicle Authority (DMW) resumed the road test license for Uber's self-driving test vehicles last month. However, the company said that it will take a cautious approach and only conduct road tests on vehicles during the day, and vehicles will be equipped with two security officers.
A spokesman for the company said that its testing will resume on March 10, and it is expected to last only a few weeks. Uber's test vehicle is a Volvo XC90 equipped with the company's self-driving hardware and software. SUV, the vehicle does not provide passenger service during the test.
In addition to California, Uber's self-driving cars are currently being tested in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Toronto. But San Francisco is the only city besides Pittsburgh where Uber can test in automatic mode.
A spokesperson for the company said: "We are very excited to be able to restart the autopilot test at the company headquarters. In the initial stage, our test will be carried out in a limited scope, but we look forward to expanding the scale in the next few months and learning in the complex but informative road conditions in the San Francisco Bay Area. "
Resuming the experiment in San Francisco is a very important development for Uber. Uber started its first test in San Francisco in 20 17. But less than a week later, DMV forced Uber to stop testing in San Francisco because the company refused to obtain the required license.
20/kloc-in March, 2008, a self-driving test car of Uber was fatally involved in a car accident in Tempe, Arizona. After that incident, Uber became cautious about the autopilot test. In that accident, the vehicle was equipped with only one safety officer, and Elaine, a 49-year-old pedestrian, was killed. Herzberg was killed when the victim was pushing a bicycle across the street.
The police later said that when the accident happened, the security officer did not pay attention to the road conditions, but was watching the voice program on the mobile phone. After a long investigation, national transportation safety board (NTSB) decided in a report that Uber, vehicle safety officials, victims and Arizona should share the responsibility for the accident. The report also accused the federal government of failing to properly supervise the autonomous driving industry. Although the local authorities said that Uber did not violate the law, the company subsequently reached a settlement with the families of the victims, and the amount of settlement was unknown.
Nine months after the accident, Uber officially restarted the test work, and the company began to conduct closed road tests in Pittsburgh, which is also the Uber Advanced Technology Group (Advanced? Technology? Group headquarters). Not long ago, Uber released the third generation of self-driving cars, and the company plans to start testing this year. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Nebula)
5. Affected by the epidemic, the new york Auto Show was postponed to August.
(Source: new york Auto Show official website)
According to foreign media reports, due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the new york Auto Show will be postponed until August this year. Before the new york Auto Show was postponed, several large gatherings had been cancelled due to the epidemic.
The new york Auto Show originally scheduled for April this year will be postponed from August 28th to September 6th, and August 26th and 27th will be the media activity days of this exhibition.
The number of novel coronavirus cases in new york has been increasing. Many automakers had planned to use the new york Auto Show to release new models. New york Auto Show Organizer Greater new york Automobile Dealers Association (Greater? New? York? Cars? Dealer? Association President Mark? Schienberg said: "We are taking this extraordinary measure (postponing the auto show) to protect participants, exhibitors and all participants from coronavirus."
In the past few years, new york Auto Show has attracted more than 1 10,000 visitors, which is a huge positive event for the hotel industry in new york. Under normal circumstances, new york Auto Show can attract more than 5,000 journalists to report.
Due to the spread of coronavirus, other auto shows around the world have been cancelled or postponed, including Beijing Auto Show, Geneva Auto Show and Sao Paulo Auto Show.
Other automakers have cancelled media events scheduled for the next few weeks because they are worried about novel coronavirus. Just yesterday, Cadillac announced the cancellation of the Lyriq conference scheduled for April 2. Lyriq is the first electric SUV based on the newly released electric vehicle platform of Cadillac parent company General Motors. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Nebula)
6. Tesla's 654.38+00000 car rolled off the assembly line.
(Source: Musk Twitter)
According to foreign media reports, Tesla announced that its 1 10,000 electric vehicle has rolled off the assembly line, making it the first manufacturer to achieve this milestone.
Just a few years ago, many people thought that Tesla could not mass-produce electric vehicles, but the company successfully completed the capacity climbing of three electric vehicles, namely Model? S, model? X and Model3.
Tesla is about to deliver its fourth electric vehicle model? Y. March 10, Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon? Musk) announced that the company has completed the production of the 1 10,000 car, and attached a photo of the car: a model? Y. Musk wrote on Twitter: "Congratulations to the Tesla team's 1 10,000 car! ! "
(Source: Musk Twitter)
In terms of long-life pure electric passenger cars, no automobile manufacturer has reached this milestone before. This also shows that the company's production capacity has improved significantly in the first quarter of 2020.
Last June, 5438+ 10, it was reported that according to KevinRooke's data, Tesla surpassed BYD to become the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer. By the end of 20 19 and 10, Tesla delivered 807,954 electric vehicles and BYD delivered 787 150 vehicles.
It should also be pointed out that BYD also provides plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), while Tesla provides pure electric vehicles.
After entering 2020, with the improvement of the production capacity of the Shanghai factory, Tesla's total production capacity will be further enhanced, which is also the second super factory in Tesla to produce cars in the world.
This year, Tesla plans to produce 6.5438+0.5 million electric vehicles in the Shanghai factory. The output of the company's fremont plant is expected to exceed 500,000 vehicles this year. Together, Tesla's total output this year will reach 650,000 vehicles. According to last year's statistics and the latest data point calculation of the 654.38+0000th vehicle, Tesla's current production capacity is about 40,000 vehicles per month. (Source: Geshi Automobile? Nebula)
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.