Let's take stock of what major events happened in the automotive circle on December 28, 2021.
Automobile incident 1: FAW Jiefang signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Star Charging
Recently, FAW Jiefang Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "FAW Jiefang") and Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Star Charging") signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Changzhou.
The strategic cooperation agreement reached by the two sides was highly recognized by the Changzhou Municipal Government of the signing place, FAW Jiefang and Star Charging will give full play to their respective industrial advantages, create a new infrastructure demonstration model for the integration of charging and replacing power grids, intelligent microgrids and mobile energy storage networks, actively participate in urban new energy projects such as "zero-carbon city", build a smart energy system, and carry out zero-carbon pilot projects, explore cooperation models in the context of multiple industries such as battery banks and green electricity scenarios, and accelerate the implementation of the "zero-carbon city" policy. Inject new vitality into the new energy commercial vehicle market and promote the healthy and green development of the industry.
Car incident two: South Korean battery manufacturers were forced to raise prices
Recently, sources revealed that because China has sharply raised the price of raw materials for electric vehicle batteries, the three major Battery companies in South Korea, such as LG New Energy, SK on and Samsung SDI, have raised the cost price of batteries.
Among them, LG New Energy plans to increase the price of cylindrical batteries by 10% in January 2022, and Samsung SDI has already increased the price of cylindrical batteries by 8% in November.
Although China is not a major producer of battery raw materials, nickel, and lithium, it is the main processor of these materials, and in the past month, lithium prices have risen by 24.3%, more than 5 times higher than the price per kilogram at the end of 2020, creating a record high, and Chinese manufacturers are the leading players in the lithium market. Cobalt prices have also created three-year highs, and nickel prices have also been seven-year highs.
Auto Incident 3: Pony Chi Heng / Sinotrans Cooperation
On December 27, Xiaoma Zhixing, an autonomous driving technology company, signed an agreement with Sinotrans Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Merchants Group, to establish a joint venture to jointly build a high-quality intelligent logistics capacity platform with autonomous driving technology as the core. The two sides will cooperate in depth to jointly explore a new model for the large-scale commercial landing of autonomous trucks.
The joint venture is expected to be formally established and put into operation in early 2022. At the beginning of the cooperation, the two parties will jointly invest 100 million yuan in the joint venture company to deploy more than 100 intelligent driving heavy-duty truck fleets in the early stage, and will continue to expand the scale in the future to build a leading domestic intelligent driving heavy-duty truck fleet, providing safer, more efficient and low-cost transportation services and freight solutions.
Auto Incident Four: Hyundai Motor Group may close the internal combustion engine development center
Recently, overseas media revealed that Hyundai Motor Group may be laying off its engine research and development department at the Namyang Research Institute in Seoul, and will be reorganized into an electrification development team and a battery development team in the future. However, this news has not yet been confirmed by hyundai motor group.
Combined with the previous news, Hyundai Motor Group has just announced new personnel adjustments, including peter Shireel's imminent retirement, and 203 executive promotions, of which 37% of the appointments are senior executives in the research and development department, which may also indicate that there will be a big adjustment. Separately, Hyundai's new head of research and development, Park Jong-kook, wrote in an email: "Our own engine development is a great achievement, but we must change the system to create future innovations based on huge assets from the past." "It also seems to confirm the possibility of the rumors.
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