Interesting automotive updates

Issue #46, Jan 2nd, 2021

The auto industry sees both extremes as it undergoes a tough period - innovation on one side while political and regulatory pressure exert tremendous pressure on it. The fall out of the Brexit could be "catastrophic" as industry experts put it, in a tightly coupled ecosystem where Britain and other countries have depended on each other for an efficient supply chain. Development in digital technologies and electrification have resulted in innovative applications and business models. Here are some recent updates.

New look for cars in California

California will become the first state to mandate that by 2035, cars must cease to be visually interchangeable. Fuel and safety mandates have made them all look the same. Car companies agree that their products suffer from a pitiful uniformity. They nod remorsefully that it would be nicer for everyone if cars were not so bland, generic, sleep-inducing. Then they point out, with some pique, that aerodynamic and structural innovations intended to make cars more fuel-efficient and safer are largely to blame. - WSJ

Peer-to-peer car rental business

Turo lets individuals rent their personal vehicles. Turo is a website where private car owners rent their vehicles by the day, week or month, including luxury rides like Lamborghinis. The peer-to-peer car-renting marketplace reported its first-ever profitable quarter this year, according to results shared with The Wall Street Journal, and Mr. Haddad forecasts achieving full-year profitability in 2022, before adjusting for interest and taxes. - WSJ

Brexit and the European auto industry

The United Kingdom left the European Union last January more than four years after its citizens voted for what became known as the Brexit. The breakup hasn’t been amicable. For the UK auto industry in particular, failure to reach an agreement before the deadline could be so harmful. The organization representing the European auto industry also used the word “catastrophic” in describing the consequences of failure the UK and EU to reach a free trade agreement by the deadline - “There is no other industry that is more tightly integrated than the European automotive industry, with highly complex supply chains stretching across Europe and production relying on ‘just-in-time’ delivery.” - Forbes

Thailand's transition to EVs

Vehicles powered by electricity instead of conventional fuels are slowly starting to emerge on Thailand’s roads, rails and waterways. The automotive sector is one of Thailand’s most important. The country is the eleventh biggest car manufacturer in the world and the fourth in Asia. Thailand is at a critical juncture. It has work to do to meet its climate targets under the Paris Agreement. Its legacy assets and skills, all set up to produce conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, face being wiped out by the electric wave. - Channel News Asia

e-trucks in U.S.A.

These days, about three in four vehicles bought in the U.S. is either a pickup truck or an SUV, up from about 50% in the past decade. As long as EV designers stayed away from trucks, Detroit kept hauling off huge half-ton profits. That is until 2018 when Tesla started tweeting about making a pickup. Around the same time, it became clear that Rivian and a crowd of other startups would be doing the same. In the next few months, America will quickly become e-truck country. - Bloomberg

Mahindra and Ford call off deal

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will focus on developing its core portfolio of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and their electric version, a senior executive said on Friday after the company ended joint venture talks with Ford Motor Co. Mahindra and Ford late on Thursday called off their automotive joint venture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted them to reassess their capital allocation priorities. The two companies had plans to jointly develop vehicles for manufacture in India for local sales and export to dozens of emerging markets under the Ford badge. - Channel News Asia