Bosch warns EV makers over battery cell reliance

Europe’s energy crisis offers a hard lesson on the risks of focusing on one fuel source — in the case of the electric-vehicle industry, battery cells, Markus Heyn, head of mobility services for Robert Bosch, told the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

“We are currently seeing the consequences of the gas shortage for Germany and Europe because we prepared too few alternatives,” Heyn, who is also a board member of the supplier, told the paper.

“In the automotive industry, we should use this occasion to ask ourselves what we can do if there should ever be too few battery cells.”

In that case, he said, “everyone would certainly like to see an alternative to battery power. But this will only exist if we have prepared it in good time.”

Battery alternatives that need to be considered, Heyn told the paper, include fuel cells that use hydrogen and oxygen to power electric motors.

Read more →

Ford forges EV future, but still has Mustang gas

Ford rolled out the new standards to dealers in Las Vegas in what some who attended described as an occasional combative meeting. The concerns stemmed mostly from small-market dealers worried about the size of the investment, even as executives attempted to reassure them they could remain successful selling only gasoline vehicles.
Each certification will be effective from Jan. 1, 2024, until the end of 2026. Ford said dealers who opt out of becoming EV-certified for now will have another opportunity to buy in starting in 2027. It does not expect to force any dealers to do so at that time, either .

“We don’t want to rush dealers into being a Model e dealer before their market or they are ready to,” Farley said.

Ford said each of its 3,000 US dealers theoretically could choose to become Certified Elite. Farley declined to say how many he wants to opt in.

Read more →

Hyundai Mobis receives 2022 Automotive News PACEpilot

  • Dual Actuator Rear Wheel Steering System where each rear wheel is individually steered

  • The only auto-components supplier in Asia to win the PACEpilot for its unrivaled performance.

  • Advanced steering technology that’s optimized for full-size vehicles including electric vehicles and pickup trucks … expected to increase orders from global automakers.

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hyundai Mobis (KRX 012330) was named a 2022 Automotive News PACEpilot Innovation to Watch at the awards ceremony on September 19th. The recognition acknowledges post-pilot, pre-commercial innovations in the automotive and future mobility space.

Hyundai Mobis CI (PRNewsfoto/Hyundai Mobis)

Hyundai Mobis CI (PRNewsfoto/Hyundai Mobis)

Hyundai Mobis was recognized for its Dual Actuator Rear Wheel Steering System. It is an advanced rear wheel steering system, which allows the left and right rear wheels to move independently in different directions with a maximum angle of 10 degrees.

In the traditional way, the single actuator system and the

Read more →

‘The Car,’ a New Book, Takes a Joyride through Automotive History

Cambridge-educated journalist and author—and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) recipient—Bryan Appleyard has mainly covered the arts and sciences in his books and articles, so in some ways, he seems unlikely as the writer of a fresh history of the automobile. Yet his new book, The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine That Made the Modern World is no ordinary history. Instead, it is a delightfully meandering romp through key milestones in the development of the automobile, and the repercussions that it has wrought—both amazing and horrific.

The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine that Made the Modern World

The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine that Made the Modern World

The Car: The Rise and Fall of the Machine that Made the Modern World

This simultaneous dichotomy is elemental to the book’s deftness and its allure. I didn’t really realize what the thesis of the book was until several months after I’d written

Read more →

Ford expects higher Q3 costs, lower earnings

Ford Motor Co., citing inflationary pressures throughout the supply chain, said Monday it expects to end the third quarter with adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion, down from the $3 billion in adjusted earnings it posted over the same period a year ago.

The company’s latest third-quarter guidance is also below the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $2.98 billion.

The automaker, however, reaffirmed its full-year guidance of $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion in adjusted EBIT, which would be 15 to 25 percent more than it earned in 2021.

The automaker said that inflation-related supplier costs during the third quarter will run about $1 billion higher than it was originally expected.

It expects to finish the period with between 40,000 to 45,000 unfinished vehicles waiting on parts. Most of those vehicles, it said, will be high-margin trucks and utility vehicles.

Ford finished the second

Read more →