Communications strategy at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.
Electric Vehicles Only.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES DEEP DIVE FIVE
Uber pledges to shift to ‘100 percent’ electric vehicles by 2030: Uber announced that “100 percent” of rides will take place in electric vehicles by 2030 in the US, Canada, and Europe, and by 2040 for the rest of the world. But rather than pay drivers directly to trade their gas-burning vehicles for electric ones, the company will impose an extra fee on trips completed in an electric vehicle to incentivize drivers to make the switch.
The Verge
Norway boosts electrics to 58 percent of car sales in 2019: Electric cars have outsold traditionally-fuelled vehicles for the first time in Norway. The nation wants all new vehicles sold to be electric by 2025.
DW
China slips in its rush to embrace electric vehicles: China remains by far the biggest EV market—1.26 million were sold there in 2018, 60% of the global total—and most analysts still expect widespread adoption in the long term. But sales have sputtered during a brutal downturn in the broader automobile market. Chinese vehicle sales fell for the first time in decades last year, declining 3%, before falling 11% in the first eight months of 2019. While EVs initially proved resilient, they, too, have now succumbed to the fragile consumer confidence-sapping the Chinese economy. An official target of two million EV sales in 2020 now looks challenging.
WSJ
BMW's future EVs will have a soundtrack from an Oscar-winning movie composer: For safety, electric vehicles can't be silent, so Hans Zimmer has composed a unique engine soundtrack.
Car + Driver
The dirty secrets of ‘clean’ electric vehicles: A recent United Nations report warns that the raw materials used in electric car batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental and labor regulations are weak or non-existent. Thus, battery production for EVs is driving a boom in small-scale or “artisanal” cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo which supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral.
Tilak Doshi
CARACAL INSIGHTS
China > California
The mantle of setting global automotive standards are about to shift from California to China.
With the Middle Kingdom requiring car companies to accelerate production of electric vehicles, the policy mandate will shape global auto production as the industry bends to the will of the world's largest car market.
Currently, Ford and General Motors are both selling more cars in China than in North America.
This isn't going to change anytime soon.
The work environment fosters culture and innovation
When Ford Motor Company took stock of its current 60-year-old global headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, it became clear that the only way forward for the company and the culture would be to take a giant leap and launch two new high-tech campuses.
Announced in 2016, the company committed an estimated $1.2 billion to a ten-year project, which will move 30,000 employees from 70 buildings into a Product Campus and a Headquarters Campus.
The new campuses are part of a future that will see the Ford Smart Mobility plan executed.
The plan aims to integrate connectivity, mobility, technology, customer experience, and big data. Innovations such as rapid charging and car-sharing, big-data collection, a car-swap program, autonomous vehicles, on-demand shuttles, and eBikes.
Ford is also spending $740 million on a project to revamp the Michigan Central Station, Detroit's beloved historic but dilapidated former rail station, and other neighborhood sites, especially Corktown.
Acquired in June 2018, the station and several nearby properties that Ford now owns will anchor a 1.2 million-square-foot innovation hub that draws on talent at Ford and beyond.
The company sees the Corktown developments and Ford's transformation of its Dearborn campuses as the vehicle to create a mobility corridor that will drive the future of transportation.
Ford also announced it is investing more than $1.45 billion in two southeast Michigan manufacturing facilities and adding 3,000 new jobs to strengthen its leadership in trucks and SUVs and support its expansion into electric and autonomous vehicles.
At 199,000 employees and 67 plants spread across the globe, Ford's transformation and commitment to the future of mobility will be no small task.
With these new bold campuses and big bets on the future, Ford has shown that it is building a new corporate mindset that will be critical as the company enters its next 100 years.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES DATA POINTS
Sales of electric cars topped 2.1 million globally in 2019, surpassing 2018 – already a record year – to boost the stock to 7.2 million electric cars. Electric cars, which accounted for 2.6% of global car sales and about 1% of global car stock in 2019, registered a 40% year-on-year increase.
Only about 17 000 electric cars were on the world’s roads in 2010. By 2019, that number had swelled to 7.2 million, 47% of which were in China.
Electric vehicles needed to account for roughly 3%-4% of an auto maker’s Chinese output in 2019, with the level set to rise gradually in subsequent years.
General Motors' micro electric vehicle has become the most sold electric vehicle in China surpassing Tesla. Last month, 15,000 micro EVs were sold in China compared to the 11,800 Model 3 sedans that Tesla sold.
Car batteries can still hold up to 70% of their capacity when they’re no longer suitable for electric vehicles (EVs), making them perfect for storage.
The infrastructure for electric-vehicle charging continues to expand. In 2019, there were about 7.3 million chargers worldwide, of which about 6.5 million were private, light-duty vehicle slow chargers in homes, multi-dwelling buildings, and workplaces.
Fast-charging stations for EVs are scarce outside major US urban centers and their surroundings:
TWEET
#India mulls installing #ElectricVehicles #ChargingStations at around 69,000 petrol pumps
@ManishKhurana
Market Research | #CleanDelhi | #SwachhBharat | Co-founder @WeMeanToClean | #Delhi | #India
Have a great weekend. See you next week.
Caracal is political communications for global business.
