Porsche announced on Monday the expansion of its electric-vehicle lineup. A month after revealing its Taycan Turbo and Turbo S, Porsche debuted its “entry-level model,” the Taycan 4S.
Taycan 4S pricing starts at $103,800 — a steal compared to the $150,900 Taycan Turbo or $185,000 Turbo S, but far less accessible than other EVs on the market.
Porsche is owned by Volkswagen AG.
How The 4S Compares In The Series
The Taycan 4S comes in a Performance Battery version (79.2 kiloWatts per hour) and a Performance Battery Plus version (93.4 kiloWatts per hour), each of which is less powerful than the original models. The 4S delivers up to 420 kiloWatts (630 horsepower) compared to the Turbo’s 500 kiloWatts and the Turbo S’s 560.
FILE PHOTO: Supercar Hongqi S9 is unveiled next to FAW Group Chairman Xu Liuping at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany. September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Chinese suppliers and manufacturers have stepped up their presence at the Frankfurt auto show, capitalizing on a strong position in electric technologies forced on European carmakers by regulators seeking to curb pollution.
Though the number of exhibitors has fallen to 800 in 2019 from 994 in 2017, Chinese automakers and suppliers now make up the biggest foreign contingent, with 79 companies, up from 73.
Several European and Japanese carmakers including Fiat , Alfa Romeo, Nissan and Toyota have skipped the show as the industry cuts costs.
Europe’s automakers face multibillion-euro investments to develop electric and autonomous cars, forcing them to rely on Chinese companies for key technologies such as lithium ion battery cell production, an area where Asian suppliers dominate.
German firms are striking major deals with Chinese suppliers to help them meet stringent EU anti-pollution rules, which were introduced in the wake of Volkswagen’s 2015 emissions cheating scandal.
“All carmakers face the challenge that they will have to fulfill fleet consumption targets,” Matthias Zentgraf, regional president for Europe at China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology, told Reuters.
Zentgraf said he expected further supply deals to be struck in Europe this year following agreements with BMW and Volkswagen.
Daimler on Wednesday said it had chosen China-backed Farasis Energy to supply battery cells for its Mercedes-Benz electrification push.
Farasis is building a 600 million euro ($663 million) factory in east Germany, close to where Chinese rival CATL is erecting a 1.8 billion euro battery plant.
SVOLT Energy Technology, which was carved out of China’s Great Wall Motor Co, told Reuters it would start building battery cells in Europe at a new 2 billion euro plant in 2023.
TIPPING POINT
Chinese companies are also giving Europe more attention since the United States and China embarked on a global trade war, which has resulted in tariffs.
“We put Europe up in priority,” said Daniel Kirchert, chief executive of Chinese electric car maker Byton.
“We are at a tipping point” for acceptance of electric vehicles in Europe, Kirchert, a former BMW executive, added.
Byton has taken its prototype vehicles on road shows in Europe, and received expressions of interest from 20,000 customers, he said. In electric vehicle hot spots, such as Norway and the Netherlands, “we see a very positive response.”
Byton plans to export vehicles from its factory in Nanjing, to Europe in 2021, Kirchert said, adding that exporting to the United States would be a challenge if Washington and Beijing did not resolve their trade war.
He said Byton still hoped to launch in the United States in 2021, but tariffs would threaten the company’s goal of selling vehicles at a starting price of about $45,000.
“We decided no matter what” Byton will launch in the United States, even at a higher price, he said.
China’s Great Wall Motor may consider building car manufacturing facilities in the European Union once its sales there hit 50,000 units a year, its chairman told Reuters at the show.
German carmakers have been forced to accelerate electrification plans after the EU imposed a 37.5% cut in carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2030 in addition to a 40% cut in emissions between 2007 and 2021.
PSA Group Chief Executive Carlos Tavares used the show to step up criticism of Europe’s aggressive approach toward emissions limits.
“The word dialogue has become meaningless in Europe,” he said, referring to the requirements placed on the auto industry.
“Politicians can decide rules without any discussion with industry,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the show.
Electric cars made up only 1.5% of global sales last year, or 1.26 million of the 86 million passenger vehicles sold, JATO Dynamics said.
If carmakers fail to meet the 2021 targets they could face a combined 33 billion euros in fines, analysts at Evercore ISI have estimated.
They also estimate it will cost the auto industry an aggregate 15.3 billion euros to comply, assuming a 60 euro cost per gram to reduce CO2 emissions for premium carmakers and 40 euros per gram of CO2 reduction for volume manufacturers.
(Writing by Edward Taylor; Editing by Mark Potter)
A woman cleans the prototype of a Chinese car at the IAA Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. The IAA officially starts with media days on Tuesday and Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (Reuters) – Italian premium sports car maker Ferrari NV will expand sales of easier-driving grand touring cars, but will not try to chase rival Porsche’s annual sales volume, Ferrari Chairman John Elkann told an audience of classic car enthusiasts gathered at this storied golf resort on the Pacific coast.
Elkann also reiterated that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, of which he is chairman, remains open to opportunities to combine with other automakers, but is positioned to remain independent. Fiat Chrysler in May proposed a merger with French automaker Renault SA, but the deal fell apart after the French government intervened and Elkann withdrew the proposed merger.
Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Mike Manley sent the same message to Renault and other would-be partners earlier this month.
Elkann visited Pebble Beach during the annual Concours d’Elegance, during which wealthy collectors bring some of the world’s rarest vintage automobiles to be admired — and sold — and premium manufacturers showcase exotic new models.
Ferrari is best known for flashy, high performance sports cars. Among fans of vintage Ferraris, more understated GT, or grand touring, cars from the 1960s, some with seating for four people, are among the most popular models on auction blocks and at enthusiast events. GT cars were designed to be comfortable on longer road trips.
Elkann hinted Ferrari will unveil a new GT type car in November. Ferrari has said previously that about 40% of its total sales could come from GT cars by 2022, up from 32% now.
Ferrari has outlined plans to expand revenue to 5 billion euros ($5.54 billion) by 2022 from 3.4 billion euros in 2017. The company has said it plans to add a model called the Purosangue to compete with a growing stable of sport utility vehicles wearing premium sports car brands, such as the Lamborghini Urus.
Rival Porsche AG, a unit of Volkswagen AG, has expanded its sales to more than 250,000 sports cars and sport utility vehicles annually. Elkann said Ferrari is not aiming for Porsche’s level of sales.
July 1 (Reuters) – Lucid Motors said on Monday it hired Tesla Inc’s former vice president of production at its Freemont factory, Peter Hochholdinger, as vice president of manufacturing.
The Newark, California-based electric carmaker in April also named Peter Rawlinson, former chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S, as its chief executive officer.
Lucid, which has more than $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, was founded in 2007 as Atieva by Sam Weng and Bernard Tse, a former vice president of Tesla.
The company positions itself as being less of a direct competitor to Tesla than with luxury car makers such as Audi or BMW, Rawlinson had said.
Hochholdinger, a former production executive at Volkswagen AG, left Tesla last week after three years with the company. At Tesla, he was tasked with improving production for Tesla’s luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle as well as helping build a cost-effective manufacturing program for the Model 3 sedan.
He was the latest high-profile executive to leave Tesla in the past two years, as the automaker struggles to ramp up production of Model 3, which is seen as crucial for its long-term profitability.
Rawlinson said Hochholdinger’s experience in manufacturing would help the company in launching Lucid Air and other future models.
Tesla is expected to report its second-quarter delivery and production numbers this week.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
(Bloomberg)
— It’s all-electric like a Tesla. It’s priced like a Ford Fiesta. It’s
one of the oddest-looking vehicles you’ve ever seen — and it may just
redefine the commuter car.
As
General Motors Co. prepares to shut the plant near Toronto that got
car-making started in Canada more than a century ago, a new model is
taking shape in a tiny production facility in Vancouver’s outskirts.
Meet the Solo — a one-seater vehicle made by Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp. that costs $15,500. By December, 5,000 will be zipping around the streets of Los Angeles, with an additional 70,000 to be delivered over the next two years across the West Coast. Electra Meccanica may have a market value of just $80 million, yet it has $2.4 billion in pre-orders. The stock almost doubled in New York Wednesday.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) intends to sell electric cars for less than 20,000 euros (17,437.4 pounds) and protect German jobs by converting three factories to make the Tesla (TSLA.O) rival, a source familiar with the plans said.
VW and other carmakers are struggling to adapt quickly enough to stringent rules introduced after the carmaker was found to have cheated diesel emissions tests, with its chief executive Herbert Diess warning last month that Germany’s auto industry faces extinction.
Plans for VW’s electric car, known as “MEB entry” and with a production volume of 200,000 vehicles, are due to be discussed at a supervisory board meeting on Nov. 16, the source said, adding that it is also looking to roll out 100,000 of the “I.D. Aero”, a mid-sized sedan.
The Wolfsburg-based carmaker, which declined to comment on the plans, is also expected to discuss far-reaching alliances with battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation <096770.KS> and rival Ford (F.N), the source said.
VW’s strategy shift comes as cities start to ban diesel engine vehicles, forcing carmakers to think of new ways to safeguard 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers.
An electric van, the ID Buzz, is due to be built at VW’s plant in Hannover, where its T6 Van is made, the source said.
To free up production capacity for electric cars in Hannover, VW’s transporter vans could be produced at a Ford (F.N) plant in Turkey, the source added.
EXPLORATORY TALKS
VW and Ford are in “exploratory talks” to develop self-driving and electric vehicles in an alliance meant to save them billions of dollars, Reuters reported last month.
German VW factories in Emden, Zwickau and Hanover, which all build combustion-engined cars, will switch to electric ones in under the plans being considered, the source said.
Carmakers in Germany agreed on Thursday to spend up to 3,000 euros ($3,430) per vehicle to add more efficient exhaust filtering systems to cut diesel emissions, but failed to prevent bans on diesel vehicles by Cologne and Bonn.
EU lawmakers have agreed to seek a 35 percent cut in car emissions by 2030 after a U.N. report called for dramatic steps to slow global warming.
Diess said to cut average fleet emissions of carbon dioxide in Europe by 30 percent by 2030, VW needs to raise its share offully electric vehicles to 30 percent of new car sales.
The shift from combustion engines to electric cars wouldalso cost 14,000 jobs at VW by 2020 as it takes less time to build an electric car than a conventional one and because jobs will shift overseas to battery manufacturers.
In Europe there are about 126 plants making combustionengines, employing 112,000 people. The largest such plant inEurope is VW’s in Kassel.
(Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Editing by Edward Taylor and Alexander Smith)
