Fight against hydrogen VW EV Germany

I’ve waited decades for hydrogen cars to become anything but a way to convince regulators that you are going green and never doing anything. I may wait even longer if a fight continues in Germany. All this and more in The morning shift by September 22, 2021.

1st gear: the EV / hydrogen division is still strange

The ongoing debate in Germany about the future of hydrogen or battery-electric vehicles depends, I suppose, on how seriously you take hydrogen. You see, auto giant VW is already producing thousands upon thousands of electric vehicles. However, BMW, the supposed hydrogen leader in the country, is considering a different production figure because Reuters reports:

BMW is the biggest proponent of hydrogen among German automakers, paving the way for a mass market model around 2030. The company also has an eye on the evolution of hydrogen policies in Europe and China, the largest automotive market in the world.

The BMW brand has developed a hydrogen car prototype based on its X5 SUV, in a project already partially funded by the German government.

Jürgen Guldner, who heads BMW’s hydrogen fuel cell car program, told Reuters the brand will build a test fleet of nearly 100 cars in 2022.

“Whether this (technology) is driven by policy or demand, we’ll be ready with a product,” he said, adding that his team was already working on the development of next-generation vehicles. “We are on the verge of getting there and we are really confident that we will see a breakthrough in this decade,” he said.

I’m not sure if what we’re seeing in this hydrogen agenda in Germany is government support for inaction on electrification under the veil of hydrogen progress.

At least it can be on the car side. From a trucking perspective, hydrogen seems to be making bigger strides, and we cannot ignore Germany’s role as the leading semi-trailer manufacturer in Europe. From Reuters:

Hydrogen is considered a safe bet by the world’s largest truck manufacturers, such as Daimler Unit Daimler Truck, Volvo Trucks and Hyundai, because the batteries are too heavy for long-haul commercial vehicles.

Yet fuel cell technology – where hydrogen is passed through a catalyst, producing electricity – is currently too expensive for mainstream cars. Batteries are complex and contain expensive materials, and although refueling is faster than recharging batteries, infrastructure is scarce.

So, hydrogen can end up looking like diesel. It’s weird, you don’t want it, you stock up on truckers, but you are not so secretly convinced that you are following the only real beacon to efficiency and economy.

2nd Gear: Tesla returns to court for being racist

The auto industry is still suing Tesla in terms of cars, but the actual car manufacturing work at Tesla seems like crap. Tesla fought tooth and nail to keep unions out and worked to suppress workers’ voices with arbitration deals that bar you from going to court. Temporary workers are not included in this category, this is where our story begins. Of Bloomberg:

The vast majority of Tesla employees sign arbitration agreements that make them nearly impossible to obtain in court. But not everyone who works at Tesla is direct employee. Some, like Diaz, are contract workers hired through recruiting agencies and do not sign arbitration agreements.

In addition to racial slurs, Diaz says colleagues told him to “go back to Africa” ​​and drew racist cartoons in the toilets and on cardboard balls. My colleague Josh Eidelson, who covers labor issues, wrote a in-depth story about the Diaz case in April 2018.

Jury selection begins Friday and opening pleadings are set for September 29 before U.S. District Judge William Orrick. The procedure will subject further scrutiny to the culture of the Tesla plant and the treatment of the outsourced personnel who have played a key role in making the company the most valuable automaker in the world. This is also an important case for contract workers in general.

It is not Tesla’s first trial for racist working conditions. Elon’s response the last time was pretty rough.

Tesla has an obligation not to be a completely horrible place to work, and it should see the business case for doing so if it is to present itself to investors as a visionary and progressive company in general.

3rd gear: I’m in love with this stupid electric car startup

The world of PSPAC-funded EV startups are a total shit show, but I can’t help but rely on this new one called Electric Last Mile which uses small Chinese electric vans. They had an ad this morning:

Electric Last Mile Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELMS; ELMSW) (“ELMS” or “the Company”), a commercial electric vehicle (“EV”) company focused on redefining productivity for the last mile, announced today that it has received a firm purchase order for 1,000 units of its urban delivery vehicle from its strategic distribution partner, Randy Marion Automotive Group.

Urban delivery production began on September 20, and the company plans to ship its first units from its production facility in Mishawaka, Indiana, on September 28.

“Right from the start, we said our goal was to deliver the first Class 1 commercial EV to the US market, and with production starting this week, we will reach that milestone,” said James Taylor, CEO of ELMS. “This order reflects the work we do with our customers and business partners to understand and meet their unique business needs. “

They are very clearly Wuling EV50 with a new brand image as “urban delivery” vehicles, that’s what Randy Marion Automotive Group calls them. Randy Marion is the company that sells these things to Electric Last Mile at an incredible price of $ 25,000, according to Loaded fleet, a news site on the electric vehicle fleet. It’s funny because these Wulings start at 108,000 yuan, or around $ 16,000, per PushEVs.com.

4th gear: Good Evergrande Roundup: what if WeWork made a car?

Edward Ongweso Jr at Vice a un overview of the Evergrande situation, which is worth reading. It’s a good take on the giant company in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, with a not-yet-orphaned EV branch of which it is still responsible. Of Vice:

The real estate titan is grappling with $ 300 billion in debt he is no longer sure he can repay. Banks are decrease in new loans to buyers of its unfinished projects. Credit rating agencies have downgraded several times huge business, and Chinese authorities have already told major lenders not to expect upcoming refunds.

In a page of WeWork Playbook, Evergrande saw itself as more than a loss-making and debt-ridden real estate company. The company transformed its healthcare business unit in an electric vehicle company despite never do a single car. In July, Evergrande was consider an IPO for Evergrande Spring, his bottled water company (you read that right). At the same time, Evergrande was also considering an IPO for its tourist activity and an inconsistent theme park with fairy tales from around the world. Guangzhou FC, China’s most successful soccer team, is Evergrande property (with a stake in Alibaba) for some reason.

The situation has become so desperate for the cash-strapped company that it required employees lend money to Evergrande at a high interest rate in order to keep their premiums, only to stop repaying those loans shortly thereafter. The situation triggered protests led by homebuyers waiting for unfinished homes and employees who have lost their savings.

Evergrande seems only slightly more of a rip off than the average EV startup.

5th gear: Bloomberg gets a good look at abandoned Chinese electric vehicle factories

And speaking of Chinese electric vehicle startups, we also have another good summary of Bloomberg of what the bubble actually looks like on the ground in China.

“We have too many electric vehicle companies,” Xiao Yaqing, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology, told reporters on September 13. Mergers and acquisitions will be encouraged as the market needs to be more concentrated, he said. The government is also considering setting production limits for the electric vehicle sector, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News this month, as provinces were unable to give the green light to new projects until excess capacity is brought online. The resources will also be routed to a few selected EV hubs.

[…]

There are some 846 registered car manufacturers in China, and more than 300 of them produce new energy cars, loosely defined as electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The vast majority are names unrecognizable elsewhere. In 2020 alone, the country added new production capacity of around 5 million units, roughly four times the actual number of electric vehicles sold in China that year. According to regulators, almost half of this capacity was not being used.

Bordrin, founded by former Ford executive Huang Ximing in 2016, aimed for an annual production of 700,000 cars at three factories. But he ran out of money and folded before he even made one. Huang did not respond to messages requesting comment sent via WeChat.

It’s an enjoyable read and a reminder that a lot of good and brilliant ideas in the automotive world don’t work.

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