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COBALT: Billionaires Are On the Hunt for New Underground Cobalt

  • Date: 04-03-19
  • Category: COBALT
  • Source: Bloomberg

A coalition of billionaires led by Bill Gates has thrown its financial weight behind a startup hoping to build a "Google Maps for the earth’s crust" to hunt for new sources of cobalt.

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BATTERIES: U.K. Is Said to Plan Car-Battery Factory to Halt Autos Decline

  • Date: 04-03-19
  • Category: BATTERIES
  • Source: Bloomberg

Britain aims to build an industry-leading car-battery factory to accelerate a push into electric vehicles, people with knowledge of the plan said, as Brexit and an over-exposure to diesel models hurts demand and jobs.

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AUTO PRODUCTION: Demographic ‘time bomb' awaits automakers

General Motors' plan to idle or close five North American plants points to industrywide turmoil ahead. Electric vehicles, autonomous cars and new mobility services will radically reshape the auto industry in the coming decade. But as executive boards debate their future business model, they are overlooking another looming threat: the demographic time bomb.

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EMISSIONS: Europe's CO2 cuts will threaten jobs, PSA's Tavares says

  • Date: 04-03-19
  • Category: EMISSIONS
  • Source: Europe Auto News

Tavares: "This jeopardizes the jobs of 13 million people in the industry and could destabilize some of our European societies."

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EMISSIONS: CO2 emissions rise to highest average since 2014, as the shift from diesel to gasoline continues

  • Date: 04-03-19
  • Category: EMISSIONS
  • Source: Automotive World

The total average of CO2 emissions increased by 2.4 g/km to 120.5 g/km in 2018 – the highest average of the last four years. The analysis, carried out by JATO Dynamics, covered 23 markets in Europe and found a direct correlation between diesel car registrations and average CO2 emissions.

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AUTO SALES: China’s Car Slump Has Dealers Slashing Prices, Giving Cheap Loans

  • Date: 03-03-19
  • Category: AUTO SALES
  • Source: Bloomberg

China’s worst car-market slump in a generation is forcing manufacturers and dealers to resort to generous discounts and loan offers to lure buyers, as the slowdown hits automakers’ profits.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: German Car Industry to Invest $45 Billion in Electric Vehicles

Germany’s automotive industry will invest over 40 billion euros ($45 billion) in electric vehicles over the next three years to triple the number of models vying for buyers, the head of the VDA car industry association said.

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EMISSIONS: No-deal Brexit and US tariff threat, combined with CO2 targets, make 2019 a challenging year

  • Date: 28-02-19
  • Category: EMISSIONS
  • Source: ACEA

Europe’s automobile industry will face some fundamental challenges this year. These include the looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit, the ever-present threat of US tariffs on car imports from the EU, as well as meeting stringent CO2 targets – both those for 2020 and the recently-agreed post-2020 targets for cars, vans and trucks. Given the challenges ahead, it is more than ever vital that efforts to safeguard the competitiveness of Europe’s auto industry are stepped up, also bearing in mind the rather shaky growth forecast for the car market in 2019.

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