Ford recalls 200,000 vehicles, and GM will launch a hydrogen fuel cell generator | the first financial daily review

Ford recalled nearly 200,000 vehicles

Documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that Ford will recall nearly 200,000 older cars because the brake pedal bumper may fall off. The reason for this recall is that due to exposure to high temperatures and humidity, the vehicle's brake pedal bumpers may corrode and fall off, which will cause the lights to be lit all the time, confusing other drivers and increasing the risk of collision. The failure could also cause drivers of vehicles using automatic transmissions to move away from the parking space without using the brakes, which could increase the likelihood of the vehicle getting out of control and the risk of injury.

Yicai comments: A development engineer of a joint venture car company told reporters that such problems may occur in Ford's development process, high temperature, smoke experiments have problems, and the defects are not fully exposed in the test. Ford's recall does not involve the Chinese market.

GM will launch a hydrogen fuel cell generator

General Motors (GM) announces the application of its HYDROTEC fuel cell technology to new commercial areas. GM plans to expand its hydrogen fuel cell business beyond cars to provide hydrogen-powered generators for construction sites, music festivals, and data centers.

Yicai comments: In the process of new energy vehicles in the global market, pure electric vehicles have become the mainstream, but it is worth noting that overseas car companies such as General Motors, Toyota Motor, and Hyundai Kia have still not given up their investment in the field of hydrogen fuel cells. In theory, hydrogen fuel cells have a similar energy replenishment experience to traditional fuel vehicles, and hydrogen can effectively store some unstable energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy. However, the safety of hydrogen, transportation and related infrastructure, as well as the still relatively high cost, have constrained the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In the Chinese market, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are more often in the field of commercial vehicles. In 2021, Toyota established a joint venture in the fuel cell system business of commercial vehicles in China; Hyundai Kia established the first overseas hydrogen fuel cell system production and sales base "HTWO Guangzhou" in Guangzhou; and recently, SAIC Motor's hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck production base in Ordos was officially put into operation.

Volkswagen plans to restart e-Up! sales

According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen plans to restart e-Up! Sales of miniature all-electric vehicles. German electric car rental company Nextmove said, e-Up! The "Style Plus" version is about to return, priced at around 26,500 euros and with a range of about 250 kilometers, the final price of this model will be around 17,000 euros, taking into account the German government's incentives for electric vehicles.

Honda and SES signed a joint development agreement for lithium-metal batteries

Recently, Honda Motor announced that it has signed a joint development agreement for lithium metal batteries with SES, a boston electric vehicle battery research and development company in Boston, usa, in December last year. In addition, SES plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a transaction with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), after which Honda plans to acquire approximately 2% of SES' shares.

Yicai comments: Recently, the Ningde era announced a high-profile entry into the power exchange market, but in the field of new energy vehicles, the dispute between charging and replacing still has no conclusion. Some people in the industry believe that as long as the charging speed of new energy vehicles is fast enough or the mileage is far enough, then the problem of energy replenishment will be greatly alleviated. SES, which cooperated with Honda, had earlier released Apollo lithium metal batteries with energy densities of up to 417Wh/kg and 935Wh/L, and their energy density far exceeded the current mainstream ternary lithium batteries. SES said that the new battery can increase the battery life of electric vehicles to 1200km. In addition, Honda is recently accelerating its layout in the field of electrification, in addition to announcing cooperation with General Motors in electric vehicle products, Honda will also launch a number of pure electric vehicle products in China in 2022.