Elm Analytics - Automotive Supply Chain Risk Digest #283 - July 8 - 14, 2022

CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT

Lordstown Motors has named Edward Hightower its new CEO, making him the first Black CEO of a US automaker in over 100 years. Hightower replaced Daniel Ninivaggi, who was elected executive chairman of the automaker.

ZF Friedrichshafen has named Dr. Holger Klein as its new chairman and CEO. Dr. Klein has performed in various roles at the company since 2014.

Tesla's head of AI, Andrej Karpathy, is leaving the company. Karpathy led the Autopilot team, and his departure came a day after the company's announcement to close the team's San Mateo, California office.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Rivian is holding a meeting today to brief employees on potential layoffs.

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

EVs accounted for 5.6% of new car sales in April-June, double their share of sales from the same period last year. New car sales in Q2 declined by 20% compared to the previous year.

Sales of mini battery electric vehicles have surged in China lately, leading its NEV market.

Panasonic is working on new battery tech that would increase EV battery energy density by 20% by 2030.

NYT: Advanced EV Batteries Move From Labs to Mass Production

MERGERS, VENTURES, ACQUISITIONS

Ford and SK Innovation have formed a new JV to build EV batteries at the automaker's upcoming BlueOval City campus in Stanton, Tennessee. The new company, BlueOval SK LLC, will also make batteries at two additional locations in Kentucky.

GM is partnering with PIlot Co. to install 2K EV fast chargers across 500 Pilot and Flying J travel center locations across the US. They expect to have a significant portion of the chargers installed by the end of 2023.

STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries are teaming up to build a new semiconductor plant in Crolles, France. The plant will reach capacity by 2026 with a production of 620k wafers per year.

Bosch plans to make a $3B investment by 2026 to bring Europe's share of global semiconductor output to 20% by 2030.

OPENING

Volkswagen broke ground on its first EV battery cell factory in Salzgitter, Germany, late last week. The plant is scheduled to start production in 2025 and will have an annual capacity of 40GWh.

Continental is planning to build a new $40M hydraulic hose plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The plant will open in 2024 and create around 150 jobs.

Metal refining company Umicore is investing $1.5B into a new EV battery component factory near Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Panasonic announced plans to build a new $4B EV battery plant in Kansas with jobs for 4k employees.

RECALLS

Ford recalled over 100k hybrid vehicles due to the potential for an under-hood fire. The recall covers certain 2020-2022 Ford Escape, Maverick, and Lincoln Corsair vehicles.

REGULATION

Volvo will follow Stellantis in breaking ties with the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturer's Association) within the last few weeks. Volvo says its sustainability "ambitions are not fully aligned with ACEA's positioning," while the ACEA is casting doubt on the EU's ambitious climate goals.

RISK ANALYTICS

Automotive hose manufacturer Nichirin-Flex USA suffered a ransomware attack. The supplier moved to manual operations after detecting unauthorized access on its network.

SHUTDOWN

This week, Tesla paused production at its plant in Berlin, Germany, due to planned maintenance. The plant will also be down next week.