They change car designs due to the fall in sales of pure electric cars

Reducing demand for purely obliges them to revise their plans for the production of zero-pollution cars as well as the construction of large battery factories. In particular, the fall in sales of pure electric cars changes car designs such as Volkswagen, which limits plans to build battery factories in Europe and North America amid a recession in the EV market, as reported by Automotive News Europe. The company’s CTO Schmall of Volkswagen stressed that the company’s aim to acquire plants of total dynamic capacity of 200 gigawatt hours is ‘realistic, but not defined’. The German car industry’s decision comes after a new assessment of electric drive due to the fall in demand for pure electric cars. “The expansion of factories will depend on how the electric car market will develop,” said Volkswagen Chief Technology Officer Thomas Schmall in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). VW announced in 2021 that it would have six battery cell factories by 2030 with a combined annual production capacity of 240 GWh. Two factories in Europe are already under construction, one located in Salzgitter, Germany and the other in Valencia, Spain. VW battery plants will have less capacity due to the fall in EV sales. Production in Salzgitter, Germany, will begin in the first in 2025 and Valencia, Spain in 2026. In addition, the first works are underway in a third unit in Ontario, Canada. The revised plan of the VW is to build only these three facilities, out of the initial six planned. They will have a total capacity of 170 GWh. If necessary, factories in Valencia and Ontario can be expanded to reach the total of 200 GWh by 2030, but this of course depends on how the demand for EV will range in the coming years. VW is currently considering which type of batteries it will choose: lithium iron phosphate (LFP) or nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). The first category ensures cheaper batteries and therefore if placed in its own EVs will be more accessible. VW is also planning to start producing solid-state batteries this decade. Ford also cancels its plans to build three electric SUVs, as it faces $1.9 billion damage due to EV’s low demand, Reuters reports. The American company will focus on hybrid versions of SUVs, offering profitability. The company’s decision comes at the time when the slowing down of demand for electric vehicles has prompted several car manufacturers to reassess and, in some cases, abandon their plans for electric vehicles (EV). Ford’s decision is aligned with the growing trend in the market, where hybrid models have risen 35.3% in sales during the first half of the year, far exceeding the growth by just 7% in EV sales. Source: RES-AE