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Globaldata: VW Group Bets Big On Industrial Scale To Counter Tesla

Globaldata: VW Group Bets Big On Industrial Scale To Counter Tesla

Following Volkswagen (VW) Group’s annual results conference for investors at which it set out its transformation to ‘new auto’ which includes the switch to electric drives;

David Leggett, Automotive Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Volkswagen is turning to its natural industrial strength – especially in the form of standardised technical foundations and engineering architectures that can be spread across multiple brands to leverage scale economies.

Now though, it has to manage a platform roadmap that includes much software as well as hardware and brings together critical advanced technologies on platforms that must deliver the promised improved performance at much lower cost.

Much hinges on VW’s new unified battery cell and six yet to be built cell-making ‘gigafactories’ in Europe that VW believes can reduce the cost of its battery cells by up to 50 percent by 2030.

If VW can follow its ambitious roadmap for e-mobility and leverage the scale economies it is targeting, it will certainly be competitive in the rapidly growing global electric car market and a credible rival for current market leader Tesla.

“As well as its industrial scale, VW also has the advantage of continuing to sell combustion engine cars – at higher margins than is possible with electric cars – in markets around the world to help finance the shift to electric over the next ten years. Unlike some other carmakers, VW has notably not set a date for going ‘all electric’.”

 

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Gehring Laser Technology Helps VW Develop High-Efficiency Engine

Gehring Laser Technology Helps VW Develop High-Efficiency Engine

After intensive cooperation in process and technology development, Gehring Technologies GmbH will equip the Volkswagen Group (VW) with the latest laser and honing technology for the production of coated EA211 evo engines. This will not only be in North America, but also on VW’s first plants in China.

The VW engine named EA211 evo has been equipped with the latest technologies to increase efficiency and is also available for natural gas models and plug-in hybrids—playing a strategically important role worldwide in the further development of conventional drives and is one of the most efficient engines on the market. The coating of the cylinder liner is one of the important levers. VW will now install the corresponding production lines in China. For these lines, Gehring received the order to supply the laser roughening and honing machines.

The thermal coating of cylinder bores is a highly sought-after technology for increasing the efficiency of internal combustion engines. Gehring is focusing on optimizing the process chain laser roughening–coating–honing, which is required to produce a strong bond between the coating and the engine block. Gehring’s laser roughening technology brings operative advantages. Apart from cost savings and an improved working environment, there is also a positive effect on the overall engine design. In addition to high adhesive tensile strengths with low roughness, economic advantages take effect in mass production, since no wearing tools are needed and coating material is saved. Both aluminium and cast iron can be pre-machined with the laser refining process.

The Gehring laser roughening machines have two spindles with innovative rotation optics for the simultaneous machining of two-cylinder liners. The coordinated process steps roughening–coating–honing lead to low-friction and wear-resistant cylinder liners, which contribute to more compact and more efficient internal combustion engines.

The process for pre-machining cylinder liners by means of laser, industrialized by Gehring, before coating and honing brings decisive advantages in terms of operating costs, working environment and, above all, friction and heat dissipation—resulting to the optimization of engine efficiency.

 

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Volkswagen Collaborates With FAW To Open Assembly Plant In China

Volkswagen Collaborates With FAW To Open Assembly Plant In China

Volkswagen (VW) and China’s FAW Group have jointly opened a US$1.9 billion assembly plant in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Zone. Chassis components for the plant will be supplied by VW FAW Platform Tianjin Branch facility while transmissions will be supplied from the VW Automatic Transmission plant in Tianjin. This creates a local supply chain that would reduce costs and carbon dioxide emissions while allowing for enhanced internal coordination of vehicle production and  rapid responses to customer demands.

Jochem Heizmann, president and CEO of VW Group China, has said “We are creating the state-of-the-art infrastructure needed to meet our goal of further activating our broad e-mobility strategy and SUV offensive”. This is reflected in the utilisation of the latest innovations in the newly developed plant whereby a visualisation system has been adopted across the facility’s workshops. Allowing for production yield, manufacturing status and any malfunctions to be analysed and monitored.

With a daily production set for 1,200 units, VW and FAW Group’s new plant will be assembling VW and Audi brand SUVs, including PHEV models to feed increased local demands. Just in 2017, 10 million SUVs have been sold in China alone and there has been a 25% year-on-year increase since. Although in the past few months, Bloomberg has reported that the same models have experienced a 8% downturn.

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Volkswagen To Utilise 3D Printing For Future Manufacturing

Volkswagen To Utilise 3D Printing For Future Manufacturing

GERMANY – Volkswagen (VW) has announced that it will be the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to utilise HP Metal Jet for mass global production of its vehicles. A method that the company claims is not only simpler and quicker but also 50 times more productive than other existing methods.

Considering that a typical VW car contains approximately 6,000 to 8,000 parts, the HP Metal Jet would allow for greater personalisation and production of individual parts. A point that has been reinforced by Dr. Martin Goede, VW’s head of technology planning and development, who said, “At the same time, complexity is increasing with the number of new models. That’s why we are relying on state-of-the-art technologies to ensure a smooth and fast production. 3D printing plays a particularly important role in manufacturing of individual parts.”

Moving forward, VW would be working with GKN Powder Metallurgy in the next two to three years to gear this technology towards the mass production of automotive parts for vehicle assembly. A trend that several other key car makers, such as Ford, would be following as they continue to test the viability of 3D printing technologies in creating hyper personalised vehicles at a commercial scale.

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Germans Already Going With Asian Batteries

Germans Already Going With Asian Batteries

Global automakers plan to invest at least $90 billion in electric cars and batteries, the most expensive component in the vehicles, to finance hundreds of new models over the next five years.

Electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to account for 30 percent of the global auto market by 2030, according to metal consultants CRU, up from 4 percent of the 86 million vehicles sold last year.

For now, carmakers in Europe have been importing batteries from Asia, but as production ramps up that will become less viable. Setting up production in Europe would cut shipping costs by a quarter, consultancy P3 Group.

But some carmakers are not waiting for a European industry, instead signing contracts with Asian firms coming to the region. German’s BMW said it was not involved in the European alliance while Europe’s biggest automaker, Volkswagen, said it plans to get batteries from LG Chem’s Polish factory due to open this year. Mercedes maker Daimler has awarded a contract to CATL.

The European Commission’s plan calls for 110 million euros in battery related research, help for projects from a 2.7 billion euro EU innovation fund and the development of an EU “green battery” trademark. Supporters of the initiative argue Europe can carve out a niche by selling green batteries produced with renewable energy and ethically sourced raw materials.

 

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Volkswagen Group To Increase BEV Production

Volkswagen Group To Increase BEV Production

Wolfsburg, Germany: The Volkswagen Group has announced its plans to construct battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in 16 different locations around the world by the end of 2022.

At present, the Volkswagen company makes BEVs at only three of its plants–in Wolfsburg, Dresden and Bratislava–but wishes to grow this number to nine within the next two years.

The decision could be vital for the Volkswagen Group to accommodate its target of building three million units each year by 2025. This goal was outlined in the company’s ‘Roadmap E’ strategy, alongside Volkswagen Group plans to offer 80 new electrified models in its portfolio.

The Volkswagen Group has recently invested in production facilities specific to BEVs. It said it would pump US$17m into its transmission plant in Tianjin, China, to house the production of motors for electric vehicles.

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Volkswagen Group To Invest €34 Billion By 2022 To “Reinvent The Car”

Frankfurt, Germany: Over the next five years, carmaker Volkswagen Group plans to invest more than 34 billion euros (US$40.31 billion) in order to develop electric and hybrid cars, as well as self-driving cars, new mobility services such as car-sharing, and digitalisation.

In a meeting of the group’s supervisory board, chief executive officer Matthias Mueller said that they are “reinventing the car”. The group, which owns 12 brands including Audi, Porsche and Skoda, announced in September 2017 that it planned to electrify its entire fleet by 2030—this will see electric or hybrid versions of some 300 models.

The group recently signed off on an overall five-year spending plan totalling “more than 70 billion euros (US$83 billion),” according to a spokesperson. That is slightly lower than the 2015-2019 investments announced in 2014, when the group pledged to spend nearly 86 billion euros ($101.41 billion).

This focus on the cleaner, smarter vehicles of the future mirrors other traditional carmakers, and is especially important for Volkswagen as it seeks to shake off its global emissions debacle in 2018, which has cost 25 billion euros (US$29.64 billion) in fines, recalls and compensation.

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