EVs and cost control

Issue #266

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been taking steps to reduce the cost of making them. Chinese EV makers for example are keeping production costs down by integrating multiple components into one, maximizing in-house production, as well as standardizing parts. Honda looks?to compete in EV space against established?players by fusing its efficient welding technology with an?advanced die-casting process. Elon Musk is fond of saying?prototypes are easy production, production is hard. He presented the autonomous Cybercab and Robovan, but investors want a budget model by 2025. Honda's Wuhan facility reduces warehouse personnel through high degree of automation. Not to be left out in the combustion engine world, GM says simplifying gasoline vehicles has made them more profitable. Entrepreneurs once flocked to Detroit to build cars. Now, they’re building its mobility future. Below are some recent updates on cost control and reduction, specifically in the EV sector.

EV teardown for costing

Chinese EV makers are keeping production costs down by integrating multiple components into one part and maximizing in-house production, as well as standardizing parts across multiple vehicle models. That was the takeaway for representatives of Japanese auto parts manufacturers from central Japan's Chubu region, who attended an EV disassembly exhibition offering a look under the hood of more than a dozen cars. - Nikkei Asia

Die-casting to slash cost

Honda looks?to compete in EV space against established?players by fusing its efficient welding technology with an?advanced die-casting process as it prepares to introduce a new model in 2026. Honda recently introduced?its megacasting machine to the media at its research and development site in Tochigi prefecture north of Tokyo. The 5-meter-tall island of machinery produces 6,000 tonnes of pressure to shape EV components. - Nikkei Asia

Moving beyond autonomous prototypes

Elon Musk is fond of saying?prototypes are easy production, production is hard. A?robotaxi will face challenges beyond?just manufacturing. The butterfly door-boasting Cybercab?looked slick. But so did the next-generation Roadster?prototype that Musk revealed to a rapt audience in 2017. Seven years later, we’re still waiting on that car — one that human drivers presumably will still want to come with pedals and a steering wheel. Trying to get a vehicle?without?those components onto public roads isn’t a straightforward process. The US has taken a somewhat light-touch approach to regulating autonomous vehicles. - Bloomberg

Honda's first dedicated EV plant in China

Honda Motor officially opened its first-ever dedicated new energy vehicle plant in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, bolstering EV production amid plans to make all new vehicles sold in the country electric by 2035. The Wuhan facility reduces warehouse personnel through high degree of automation. The plant will be operated by a joint venture between the Japanese automaker and China's state-owned Dongfeng Motor. Roughly 4 billion yuan ($566 million) was invested in the facility, which is expected to have an annual production capacity of about 120,000 vehicles and employ around 800 people. - Nikkei Asia

Simplifying gasoline vehicles for profitability

GM says simplifying gasoline vehicles has made them more profitable. Its freshened and redesigned internal combustion vehicles are more profitable than their predecessors because it made them simpler and less costly to build. Vehicles from the Chevrolet Trax to the three-row Chevy Traverse have posted better pretax earnings after recent model-year updates, GM President Mark Reuss said. Executives said the 2025 Cadillac Lyriq has 24 percent fewer parts than the 2024 model. - Auto News

Hub for innovation in Detroit

Entrepreneurs once flocked to Detroit to build cars. Now, they’re building its mobility future. Nearly 130 years ago, Henry Ford tested his first automobile on Detroit’s streets, helping to usher in its future. Now, an incubator less than two miles from that test drive is moving the city even farther forward. Starting with $2,000 in family money, Mr. Medina álvarez and a team of nine people are developing a production version of an electric all-terrain vehicle of his own design at LIVAQ, one of 103 start-ups at Newlab, a 270,000-square-foot mobility-focused incubator. - New York Times