EV News Daily|Ford Thinks ‘Batteries are the Constraint’|Fisker Production Goals| Vinfast VF8 Long Range will be Shipped to U.S

In today’s edition of EV News Daily, we have covered headlines from Ford which thinks batteries are the constraint for EV Transition; Henrik Fisker which discusses the company’s production goals, and Vinfast which will Ship Longer-Range VF8 SUVs to the US in April.

Ford CEO Thinks ‘Batteries are the Constraint’ for EV transition

• Ford CEO Jim Farley in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance on EV transition said, “First of all, batteries are the constraint here (U.S), Both lithium and nickel are really the key constraining commodities.”
• He also stressed the importance of domestic nickel and lithium supply chains for electric vehicle batteries.
• Farley even pointed out that raw metals mined in the U.S. are often sent to China to be processed, raw metals can travel as many as 50,000 miles before reaching a battery factory.
• He further said, “The big change is going to be onshore all that capability of processing but also mining back in the U.S. It will be a huge job, just like it has for semiconductors.”
• The average electric car battery uses about 8kg to 10kg of lithium and by 2030, 300 million electric cars are estimated to be on the road, that in turn could test the global battery supply chain.
• Already, lawmakers and those in the mining industry have raised alarms that minerals critical to the EV transition have supply chains at risk.
• Earlier in September, Keith Phillips, CEO of Piedmont Lithium said, “There’s going to be a real crunch to get the material (Lithium). We don’t have enough in the world to turn that much production in the world by 2035.” 
• Notably, lithium-ion battery demand is expected to explode by more than 500% between 2020 and 2030, and automakers are threatened by the spike in lithium prices due to supply-side shortages.
• Many U.S. automakers are making a concerted effort to shore up their own networks of lithium supply.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Henrik Fisker Discusses Company’s Production Goals

• Henrik Fisker in a recent interview with German news media, Welt am Sonntag, shared the company’s production goals as well as the company’s plans to manufacture their own electric vehicles.
• He shared Fisker’s plans to sell one million electric vehicles worldwide within four years, as the company looks forward to competing with major automakers.
• On outsourcing production, Henrik Fisker said “we haven’t decided on long-term production plans at this time. In the long term, we may have our own manufacturing plant.”
• He further added talks are ongoing with major car manufacturers about sharing technological platforms for future EVs, but nothing has been decided yet.
• Magna Steyr currently produces the Fisker Ocean in Graz, Austria, and in 2024, Fisker aims to have the PEAR enter production for which it has partnered with Foxconn.

Vinfast to Ship Longer-Range VF8 SUVs to the US in April

• In a statement to Bloomberg, VinFast Chief Executive Officer Le Thi Thu Thuy said, The company will send 900 VF8 standard vehicles to California and 900 to Canada.
• VinFast plans to ship its second batch of EVs to North America on April 4, VinFast had earlier sent 999 VF8 City Editions to California late last year. The company also plans to ship 700 standard VF 8s to Europe in mid-June.
• This will be VinFast’s first shipment to Canada as well as Europe as it tries to gain a foothold in highly competitive overseas markets.
• The company expects to start delivering the standard edition of the VF 8 to US customers in May and to Canadians in early June. 
• The standard edition VF8 SUVs have an estimated driving range of 293 miles whereas the city edition offers a driving range of up to 207 miles.

Source: Bloomberg

For Yesterday’s edition of EV News Daily, Please click here