WCA March 2020

From the Americas

EV pickups - what will they cost? Automotive companies, ranging from General Motors to the newest start-up Lordstown Motors Corp, are planning to introduce electric pickups over the next two years, and are expecting to produce 250,000 a year by 2024. However, industry analysts are questioning whether sales demand will equal production; AutoForecast Solutions analyst Sam Fiorani believes sales of battery trucks may not exceed 70,000 a year. Elon Musk has said that Tesla received 200,000 reservations within 72 hours of unveiling its Cybertruck, and plans to build up to 50,000 a year. The pickup will go into production in late 2021, selling for just under $40,000. Many EV pickups have projected prices ranging from $45,000 to $125,000. Lordstown Motors has a licensing deal with Ohio-based Workhorse to build an electric pickup called Endurance at GM’s former assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The company’s executives have said they plan to start production in late 2020, with prices starting at $52,500. Rivian’s R1T will go into production in 2020 at a former Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal, Illinois, priced from $69,000. In its first full year of production Rivian plans to build about 25,000 pickups, but it is installing capacity to build up to 260,000 vehicles, including a companion electric SUV and the electric delivery van for Amazon. GM and Ford both expect to begin building premium electric pickups in late 2021 at Detroit-area assembly plants. Analysts said both companies expect annual electric truck production to hit around 40,000 by 2024. First electric airplane The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed an early version of its all-electric experimental aircraft, the X-57 ‘Maxwell’, though equipped with only the two largest of its 14 electric motors. Adapted from an Italian-made Tecnam P2006T twin-engine propeller plane, and powered by specially designed lithium ion batteries, the X-57 has been under development since 2015 and is still a year away from its first test flight. It will be the agency’s first crewed X-plane to be developed in two decades. The Maxwell is the latest in a line of experimental aircraft designed by NASA, including the sound-barrier breaking Bell X-1, and the X-15 rocket plane flown by Neil Armstrong before joining the Apollo moon project. NASA’s X-57 venture is aimed at designing and proving technology according to standards that commercial manufacturers can adapt for government certification. These will include standards for airworthiness and safety, as well as for energy efficiency and noise. Brent Cobleigh, a project manager for NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at its Edwards Aeronautics Laboratory, said in an interview, “We’re focusing on things that can help the whole industry, not just one company. Our target right now is to fly this airplane in late 2020.”

Ford invested $500mn in Rivian during 2019, and is set to help the company go into production during 2020. Founded in 2009, Rivian has raised $1.9bn from investors, including Amazon.com Inc, which has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from the company. The Lincoln SUV could compete against Rivian’s own R1S, an electric sport utility vehicle scheduled to go into production in 2021. It is expected that both models will use Rivian’s ‘skateboard’, a flexible platform combining electric motors, batteries, controls and suspension. The new Lincoln could also be in competition with other high-end SUV offerings, including General Motors Co, which plans to introduce at least two new electric SUVs by 2023, one for Cadillac and one that could feasibly carry the Hummer badge. Ford’s Lincoln SUV is believed to be among the first of several battery-powered utility vehicles planned for Ford’s premium brand in North America and China, with the introduction of a compact Lincoln electric crossover in late 2021 or early 2022. The US automotive industry will be investing billions of dollars over the next few years to build all-electric pickups and SUVs, but analysts question whether consumer and commercial demand will match the anticipated production output. Cleaning up city deliveries With delivery firms and municipalities working to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Deutsche Post DHL Group’s electric StreetScooter will enter the US market in 2020. DHL will initially use the StreetScooter zero-emission Work L delivery van in two urban US markets, starting in spring 2020, with “full deployment anticipated in 2022 and 2023,” according to Ulrich Stuhec, StreetScooter’s chief technology officer. The industry is acting on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which stated that in 2010 the transportation industry accounted for 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. DHL has already introduced a “CO 2 -free last mile delivery” initiative in major German cities, and over 30 cities, including Los Angeles, London, Berlin and Tokyo, are working to establish zero-emission zones by 2030. Roughly 10,000 of the 12,000 StreetScooter electric vehicles already on the road make DHL deliveries, operating in Amsterdam, Vienna and cities around Germany. “We have the most experience on the road while others are still working on their first prototypes,” Mr Stuhec commented in an interview. In September 2019, Amazon.com Inc placed its 100,000 delivery van order with Rivian Automotive; UPS has 1,000 electric and hybrid electric vehicles in its fleet; and FedEx plans to deploy 1,000 electric vehicles in California. StreetScooter also signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2019 with the Chinese manufacturer Chery Automobile Co, to begin electric van production in 2021.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2020