Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted big cost reductions are coming with new battery chemistries that use fewer expensive and scarce precious metals such as nickel and cobalt. Plus, EVs will take less time and labor to build, saving more money, he said.
Podcast host Mason King talks with Ananth Iyer, a professor of management at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, who is part of a group studying the potential disruption in the auto industry and how Indiana manufacturers can adapt.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. laid out a substantial incentive package to lure the joint venture, with tax credits and investments totaling at least $186 million.
Stellantis officials said the clean energy requirement was a critical part of the agreement to locate the operation in Indiana.
The companies said the investment could grow to $3.1 billion as Stellantis—formed last year with the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot—ramps up production of electric vehicles.
Regulators said that the driver’s and front passenger’s seat belt pretensioners can explode upon deployment and send shrapnel throughout the vehicle.
Automaker Stellantis said it will give an update on the future of its Kokomo operations at an Indiana community college on Tuesday afternoon.
In other kinds of markets, a surge of demand and shortage of supply would trigger more investment. But the longer-term transition away from fossil fuels dims the outlook for demand, making companies unwilling to put up the billions of dollars needed to build new refinery plants.
President Joe Biden said that the roughly $700 billion the government devotes annually to procuring goods is supposed to prioritize U.S. suppliers, but regulations going back to the 1930s have either been watered down or applied in ways that masked the use of foreign imports.
Many companies that began producing personal protective equipment with patriotic optimism have scaled back, shut down or given up, according to an Associated Press analysis based on numerous interviews with manufacturers.
The war’s damage to the auto industry has emerged first in Europe. But U.S. production will likely suffer eventually, too, if Russian exports of metals—from palladium for catalytic converters to nickel for electric vehicle batteries—are cut off.
In return, the British agreed to lift retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, including whiskey.
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to pause production at its Princeton assembly pant because of supply chain disruptions. The Princeton plant assembles the hybrid Sienna minivan, the Highlander/Highlander hybrid SUV and the Sequoia full-size SUV.
Cummins has operated in Russia for decades and has 700 employees in that country, but on Friday the company said it was halting all operations in Russia “indefinitely” because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Indiana-based firms are struggling with how to protect their employees and their business interests in those countries while also condemning the Russian government’s actions.
The firm is in the midst of construction for its $145 million, 370,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fishers, which began last September.
MITO Material Solutions Inc. said it will use the investment to expand its Indianapolis operations, including new lab space for developing products and new composite material technologies.
EnPower Inc. is moving from Phoenix into a facility previously operated by EnerDel Inc. on the city’s northeast side.
Creative Works, which designs and manufactures entertainment and recreation venues, will bring with it more than 70 jobs, and the firm expects to create up to 30 more by the end of the year.
Soaring car prices have set off a battle between automakers and independent dealers, with consumers routinely paying hundreds, often thousands, more than the listed price amid a protracted vehicle shortage.
