Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #313
February 3 - 9, 2023 by Elm Analytics
Bankruptcy
Australia's Recharge will buy the assets of insolvent EV battery startup Britishvolt. The company may move forward with Britishvolt's plans to build a gigafactory in northern England.
Atlas Technologies BV, which operates the Dutch solar EV startup Lightyear, has filed for bankruptcy. Contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive in Finland is building the $260k vehicles, only starting production in January.
Meanwhile, Germany's Sono Motors has turned to crowdfunding to save its $29k solar EV.
Change In Management
Volvo has named 19-year company veteran Asa Haglund its new head of safety. Haglund will replace Thomas Broberg, who has served in the role since last summer.
Closing
Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems is shutting down its plant in El Paso, Texas, by the end of March. The closure will affect 110 employees.
Cyber Security
A white hat hacker gained access to Toyota's global supplier portal, alerting them in November. The vulnerability was quickly closed.
Human Capital
Stellantis will add more lactation rooms at its assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, following a US Labor Dept. investigation that found some nursing mothers were waiting up to 20 minutes for a room or were forced to turn to other areas of the plant due to the scarcity of rooms available.
Industry Directions
A new report backed by EV makers Polestar and Rivian suggests that the automotive industry will likely miss climate goals by 75% without making significant changes. The lack of action would dramatically overshoot the target set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, aiming to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C by 2050.
Hyundai will offer a monthly service offering use of its EVs. The company created the program to allow customers to try the vehicles out or for short-term needs.
Mergers, Ventures, Acquisitions
Ohio's economic development office finalized a deal with Hyundai to invest $237M into the automaker's upcoming JV battery plant with LG Energy. The state has already agreed to another $156M in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements.
Opening
BMW is investing $863M into adding EV battery production at its San Luis Potosi, Mexico plant. The batteries will support their fully electric NEUE KLASSE vehicles, which will also be built at the plant starting in 2027.
Production Decrease
Due to the semiconductor shortage, Subaru cut its annual production numbers by 9.3%.
VinFast pushed back the first US deliveries to the end of February while the vehicles get updated software.
Recalls
VW recalled 21k ID.4 EVs due to a battery management system software issue. The problem could cause motors to drop power while driving unexpectedly.
Honda recalled 114k vehicles due to displays that might not show the backup camera image.
Regulation
Maersk recently issued an advisory on aluminum automotive commodities entering the US. US Customs and Border Protection has begun issuing detention notices under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Companies need to prepare to be able to document the supply chain to the raw material.
Check out Axios' comprehensive breakdown of why the Biden administration's plan to jumpstart EV production in the US is on track to shatter expectations.
Vehicle sales in China were down 38% in January as an EV tax cut expired.
South Korea fined Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz a combined $33M. Regulators stated the automakers colluded to curb emissions-cleaning technology for diesel cars.
Supply Chain
GM has announced a long-term deal with chipmaker GlobalFoundries that will secure a supply of US-made chips for the automakers' key chip suppliers at their upstate New York fabrication facility.