EXCLUSIVE Hyundai to slash combustion engine line-up, invest in EVs - sources
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: hallux • 3 years ago • 18 commentsBy: Gilles Guillaume & Heekyong Yang - Reuters
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hyundai Motor Group will slash the number of combustion engine models in its line-up to free up resources to invest in electric vehicles (EVs), two people close to the South Korean automaker told Reuters.
The move will result in a 50% reduction in models powered by fossil fuels, one of the people said, adding the strategy was approved by top management in March.
"It is an important business move, which first and foremost allows the release of R&D resources to focus on the rest: electric motors, batteries, fuel cells," the person said, without giving a timeframe for the plan.
While Hyundai did not specifically address a Reuters query on its plans for combustion engine models, it said in an email on Thursday that it was accelerating adoption of eco-friendly vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and battery EVs.
Hyundai Motor Group, which houses Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and Kia Corp (000270.KS) and Genesis, aims to sell about one million EVs per year by 2025 to achieve a 10% share of the global EV market.
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45% of a barrel of oil goes to the production of gasoline ... will this lead to lower costs for all other products requiring hydrocarbons in their manufacture?
Not for the foreseeable future
It’s gonna take a couple decades by by 2050 you can likely expect to see as many or more EVs than gas powered vehicles. Which is good because we definitely need to save our oil reserves for as many other petroleum products as possible.
Now that more and more affordable electric vehicles will be hitting the roads we need more clean and efficient ways to keep them charged.
And to dispose of/effectively recycle the batteries.................................little thought of dilemma for a lot of "greenies".
Meh, liquify them and send it back to Canada, Alberta has a few square miles of untouched land left over.
A very good point!
Redwood Materials has been recycling lithium batteries for a long time. They get 60 tons a day in their North America center. They are partnering with Panasonic and Envision to recycle all production scrap. Accourding to IEEE Spectrum there are about a 100 companies world wide either recycling batteries now or have plans to do so. Several dozen are startups in North America and Europe. It looks like new technologies are developing now that will make the processes more efficient and cheaper as they go along.
Some car manufacturers are already setting up recycling EV car battery centers. They'll strip them down and recover the cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese. The aluminum and copper will go to traditional recycling. Volkswagen is setting up to recycle up to 3,600 battery systems per year in it's pilot program. Currently they can only recycle 60%, but this new program, they say, will recover 95%. Renault is already recycling all it's batteries through a French company Veolia and Belgian chemical company Sovay.
Here is a link to an interesting article on a company that is building its third battery recycling plant in AZ.
This is exciting:
Theres no dilemma. Batteries are recyclable and probably less environmentally damaging than petroleum combustion. Especially over the long term.
Recycling of lithium ion batteries is already ramping up.
Yep, when we were looking at our EVs from VW that was one of my questions and their goal is to recycle 90% of the batteries ASAP.
I ran across a YouTube video this morning that was 2 or 3 months old, but talked about companies like VW and Panasonic are working towards a solid state car battery. We should start seeing these in EVs somewhere around 2024, 2025 & 2026. One of the companies said they are working on a battery that would last for approximately 350,000 miles!
Affordable?
Surely you jest.
The first flat screen tv's cost nearly 10,000$, similar size ones run at 500$ today.
I said they are becoming more affordable. As more cars are sold the technology gets better and prices continue to fall. It's how markets work. At least now we have options like the Kia Niro EV at $39K. Not as "affordable" as I'd like but better than when Tesla was the only option on the market. I'm currently saving up to get a Jeep Wrangler 4xe in a few years and I'm hoping by then they'll have shaved a few bucks off the current MSRP by then.
TCL now has an 85" 4K at $1,600 which would have been a crazy idea just 2 years ago.
They are absolutely getting there, and will only continue to get cheaper. That’s the thing about newer techs, they start off pricey but over time they get cheaper and better.
I remember when my family got our first desktop computer, cost like $2000 and had far less power than the phone I am using now. We just bought our girls a couple lip tops for $100 and 100X the power of that desktop.
Fossil fuel’s days are thankfully numbered.