Tag: Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Volkswagen ‘Must Act Quickly’ After Largest Loss in Over a Decade

Media Library

Volkswagen said Thursday that it lost more than $6 billion in the latest quarter, the most since 2015, adding urgency to its plans to cut costs as its sales continue to sink in China. The struggling German carmaker, trapped in a dangerous cycle, warned that profit margins were too low to continue investing in the technologies that are crucial to its future. Deliveries in China fell more than 30 percent in the first nine months of the year. “We cannot afford to lose any time and must act quickly and…

Europeans Have a Love-Hate Relationship With Chinese Cars

Media Library

BYD, China’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, aims to open so many outlets in Germany that no one has to travel more than 20 minutes to buy one of its cars. One of its Chinese rivals, Xiaomi, sees Germany as the foundation of its European expansion plans, after selling 700,000 cars back home. Germany is the birthplace of the automobile and the home of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. These days, it is also a top destination for Chinese companies selling cars at a considerable discount to European vehicles. “Customers don’t…

China and Europe Step Back From Trade War With Limits on Chinese Car Exports

Media Library

High-level talks in Beijing between the European Union and China ended on Friday with an unexpected agreement that could pull the two sides back from an imminent trade war. The most notable feature of the agreement involved what both sides described as an understanding on China’s exports of hybrid electric-gasoline cars, which have been among the most contentious points of tension between the two sides. Maros Sefcovic, the trade commissioner of the 27-nation bloc, said that the understanding could lead to China’s halving the number of hybrid gasoline-electric cars that…

China’s ‘Self-Reliance’ Drive Is Upending Trade With Europe

Media Library

To understand Europe’s growing alarm over its trade deficit with China, consider a striking statistic: China now sends six containers of goods to Europe for every one it gets back. That ratio has more than doubled in China’s favor over the last five years as Beijing’s drive for greater economic self-reliance has expanded the range of goods China produces at home instead of buying from abroad. Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, cited those figures last month and provided a simple explanation for why. “China…

Two of China’s EV Makers Announce a Deal as Auto Industry Moves Toward Consolidation

Media Library

Two leading electric carmakers in China said on Monday they would combine their battery charging subsidiaries, in the latest sign of consolidation in a severely crowded Chinese car industry. The deal will combine divisions of Nio and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, with Nio also acquiring 10 percent of a separate Geely business. The transaction comes just two weeks after another Chinese automaker, Guangzhou Automobile Group, announced plans for a complex tie-up with First Automotive Works, a large manufacturer. Last year, two of the Chinese car industry’s giants, Dongfeng Motor and…

The German Auto Industry, a Pillar of the National Psyche, Is Trembling

Media Library

The centerpiece of Mercedes-Benz’s 140th birthday party in January was a patent application filed in 1886 by an engineer named Carl Benz for a “vehicle with gas engine.” The way Mercedes executives spoke of the handwritten document, which at one point was projected on a large wall on the company campus in Stuttgart, Germany, it might have been a sacred parchment. It not only certifies that Germany is the birthplace of the automobile but also helps explain why the woes of the country’s automakers — Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW —…

How Volkswagen’s Troubles Were Made in China

Media Library

Volkswagen has problems around the world, spurring it to announce on Thursday that it would slash the number of models it offers by as much as half, but many of its troubles can be traced to China. The German auto giant, the world’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, led the pack in China, the world’s largest car market, for four decades. For many years, the company’s joint ventures and factories in China provided half or more of the company’s worldwide profits, which helped Volkswagen afford high salaries and generous benefits for…

As Chinese Tech Pulls Ahead, U.S. Fears It Will Become Dependent

Media Library

At a factory in southeastern China, robot arms spin balletically, winding long strips of metal into rolls and shaping them into bricks that are destined to become batteries. As workers in white coveralls watch, the nascent batteries are packaged into aluminum cases and, as workers put it, “given life” — endowed with an electrical charge that will eventually power cars and data centers across the world. The site, owned by Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Ltd., or CATL, is the world’s largest cluster of battery factories, and the most advanced. Inside…

China Moves the Price of Oil, Even When It Buys Less

Media Library

After the war in Iran cut off a fifth of the world’s oil supply, oil prices jumped, at one point reaching nearly $120 a barrel. But they didn’t spike higher, even though some analysts warned ominously of $200 oil, and prices have since come down. At more than $80 a barrel, oil is expensive. But it could be a lot higher. One major reason was China. The biggest oil buyer in the world, China has kept a lid on prices by rapidly reducing the amount of oil it imports. Before…

Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Build a Robot Without China

Media Library

Japan led the world in robotics for decades. More than 50 years ago, Japanese researchers captured imaginations with the first robot capable of grasping objects and walking on two legs. In 1984, a team in Japan built one that could read sheet music and play the piano. When Honda unveiled its first humanoid in 2000, it seemed to cement the country’s lead. But now, just as tech investors, start-up founders and government officials around the world are betting that artificial intelligence will spur growth for robots, that lead no longer…