The rush for new materials, methods

Issue #86, June 4th, 2021

The rush for new materials and methods continues in the automotive industry to stay ahead of competition. The U.S.A is looking at lithium mines in Nevada while Indonesia wants to become the nickel capital of the world. Japan has announced the setup of chip manufacturing foundries as a national project, one of the highest importance. Nissan's plans to manage the chip crunch are to improve its forecasting methods and share parts with its suppliers and partners for risk diversification. Mercedes-Benz plans to start direct sale of cars in India. Several startups plan to copy the Tesla blueprint to start large scale EV manufacturing. Below are some recent updates from the automotive industry.

The Lithium gold rush

A race is on to produce lithium in the United States, but competing projects are taking very different approaches to extracting the vital raw material. Atop a long-dormant volcano in northern Nevada, workers are preparing to start blasting and digging out a giant pit that will serve as the first new large-scale lithium mine in the United States in more than a decade — a new domestic supply of an essential ingredient in electric car batteries and renewable energy. - NY Times

Managing chip shortage by sharing parts with suppliers

Nissan Motor is rethinking the forecasts that underpin its "just-in-time" supply chain after being blindsided by a global chip shortage. COO Ashwani Gupta said that the carmaker saw no need to stockpile more chips. He said Nissan was working on having a "more accurate forecasting system" throughout its supply chain. Gupta said Nissan would stick to its practice of keeping low inventories for parts. "We are not going to change our inventory standards just because this unpredictable scenario happened," he said. Nissan is looking to do far more to share parts among its partners to cut costs, as it places more emphasis on developing electric vehicles. Nissan expects to share close to 70% of key EV parts including motors, batteries as well as platform within the alliance, Gupta said. - Nikkei Asia

Chip making - a national project in Japan

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan said it would treat semiconductor industry growth as a “national project” -- as important as securing food and energy. The government will support the establishment of manufacturing bases in Japan including through joint ventures with overseas chip foundries. The push comes amid a global chip shortage that has weighed on manufacturing across a range of industries and threatens Japan’s auto production. - Bloomberg

How to be the next Tesla

A traffic jam of upstarts is vying to follow in Elon Musk’s tyre tracks. Does any stand a chance? The basic blueprint for survival involves three elements. The upstarts must first find a starting niche from which they can expand. They then need actually to produce cars at scale. Finally, they have to create a sales-and-distribution network. Most will fail at one or more of these steps. Ironically, those with the best odds of emulating Tesla’s success may be the ones that look least like it. - The Economist

Retail of the Future for D2C @ Mercedes-Benz

 Mercedes-Benz India on Wednesday announced its direct to customer (D2C) sales model for the future to offer a better buying experience to its customers. Under this new business model named the ‘Retail of the Future’ (ROTF), the brand will own the entire stock of cars, sell them through appointed franchise partners, invoice the new cars directly to customers, process and fulfill orders, and provide customers with one transparent price and purchasing experience, the company said. - ET Auto

IKI series on reskilling - the new MBA

Infosys Knowledge Institute has started a series of posts on reskilling. The most recent post is on how MBA programs are changing, to adopt to lifelong learning. To make sure you do not miss future posts, please do follow IKI on LinkedIn.

Indonesia as the nickel capital

Indonesia is on track to become the world’s nickel capital with new projects potentially lifting the country’s share of the important stainless steel and battery metal ingredient to a whopping 60% of global output later this decade. Much of the planned investment is linked to Chinese companies keen to cement their grip on stainless steel production and to meet fast growing demand for batteries which require a range of new-energy metals such as nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper. - Forbes

The EV adoption S curve

We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in motoring since Henry Ford's first production line started turning back in 1913. And it is likely to happen much more quickly than you imagine. We're on the verge of a tipping point, says Ramez Naam, the co-chair for energy and environment at the Singularity University in California. He believes as soon as electric vehicles become cost-competitive with fossil fuel vehicles, the game will be up. That's certainly what Tesla's self-styled techno-king, Elon Musk, believes. "We've seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and our demand is the best we've ever seen," Mr Musk said. - BBC