| From: slacker711 | 11/9/2018 11:00:01 AM | | | | | | Arrow Electronics Expands Distribution Agreement with Cree, Inc.’s Wolfspeed Division
Extended Agreement Includes Wolfspeed’s RF and Power Products
November 09, 2018 10:10 AM Eastern Standard Time
CENTENNIAL, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW) today announced an expanded agreement with Cree, Inc.’s Wolfspeed division (NASDAQ: CREE). The new agreement positions Arrow Electronics as Cree’s largest global distributor for Wolfspeed’s industry-leading silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) on SiC product portfolio.
“We are pleased to build upon and expand our franchise to include both Wolfspeed’s power and RF solutions,” said David West, senior vice president of global marketing and engineering at Arrow. “This agreement offers our customers a greater range of technology options that will enable continuous product innovation.”
“Wolfspeed’s heritage as a pioneer of GaN-on-SiC technology for RF applications is well established and offers an attractive value proposition to our customers who are evolving the technology marketplace,” said Rafael R. Salmi, Ph.D., president of Richardson RFPD. “This agreement offers a strategic advantage in that we can now provide the optimal RF power solutions to meet our customers’ diverse needs.”
“We are committed to ensuring our customers have access to our superior SiC-based semiconductor devices,” said Thomas Wessel, senior vice president of global sales and marketing. “Arrow’s global sales force enables us to reach more markets and customers quicker and more efficiently through a proven partner solution.”
Arrow will be featuring an IoT-connected 150 kW off-board charging station that relies upon Wolfspeed’s SiC technology in their booth #412 at Electronica in Munich, Germany, Nov. 13-16.
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| From: slacker711 | 11/15/2018 10:12:42 AM | | | | | | China Is Leading the World to an Electric Car Future
bloomberg.com
New emission rules will force global carmakers to redraw their road maps.
Bloomberg News
November 14, 2018, 3:00 PM CST Updated on November 15, 2018, 4:01 AM CST
China Could Soon Become the Detroit of Electric Cars
The world’s biggest market for electric vehicles wants to get even bigger, so it’s giving automakers what amounts to an ultimatum. Starting in January, all major manufacturers operating in China—from global giants Toyota Motor and General Motors to domestic players BYD and BAIC Motor—have to meet minimum requirements there for producing new-energy vehicles, or NEVs (plug-in hybrids, pure-battery electrics, and fuel-cell autos). A complex government equation requires that a sizable portion of their production or imports must be green in 2019, with escalating goals thereafter.
The regime resembles the cap-and-trade systems being deployed worldwide for carbon emissions: Carmakers that don’t meet the quota themselves can purchase credits from rivals that exceed it. But if they can’t buy enough credits, they face government fines or, in a worst-case scenario, having their assembly lines shut down.
“The pressure is mounting,” says Yunshi Wang, director of the China Center for Energy and Transportation at the University of California at Davis. “This could be a model for other countries; it could be a game changer globally.”
The message coming from the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases is clear: Even as President Trump withdraws support for alternative fuels, attempts to gut mileage requirements, and begins the process of pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, China is dead serious about leading the way to an electrified future. That would help it reduce a dependence on imported oil and blow away the smog choking its cities. It would also help domestic automakers gain more expertise in a car manufacturing segment that’s burgeoning globally.
Electric Vehicle Sales
Data: Bloomberg Intelligence
Given the size of the Chinese market, the largest for cars overall and for EVs, auto companies will have to rapidly accelerate their development and manufacturing efforts to meet the targets. By 2025, China’s leaders want 7 million cars sold every year, or about 20 percent of the total, to be plug-in hybrids or battery-powered. “This is probably the single most important piece of EV legislation in the world,” Bloomberg NEF said in May.
The world’s largest automaker is certainly taking notice. Volkswagen AG, which sold just under 40 percent of its vehicles in China last year, says it will introduce about 40 locally produced NEV models in China within the next decade. “Volkswagen Group China will meet the government’s targets,” the company said in a statement.
Quicktake
China Is About to Shake Up the World of Electric Cars
The formula for doing so is algebraic, and the 10 percent credit target in the first year won’t necessarily equate to 10 percent of cars sold. For example, a pure-electric vehicle with a range topping 300 kilometers (186 miles) will generate more credits than one with lesser performance or than a gasoline-electric hybrid. The rules apply to all companies that manufacture or import more than 30,000 cars annually. The floor rises to 12 percent in 2020, then keeps increasing in line with the government’s ultimate plan to eliminate fossil fuel vehicles by a still-unspecified date.
BMW AG, which sells more cars in China than anywhere else, makes two plug-in hybrids there and plans to produce two pure-electric cars, including the iX3 SUV, starting in 2020. Yet some companies will struggle to reach the goals under their own steam. “Carmaker s are both technically and commercially not ready for a ramp-up in EV production to the level of the quotas,” says Sophie Shen, an automotive analyst at PwC in Shanghai.
So they’re turning to a wide range of solutions to avoid falling short. Ford Motor Co., which lost $378 million in China in the third quarter, is teaming up with Zotye Automobile Co., a minor domestic player, to jointly produce cars eligible for the credits, Asia-Pacific President Peter Fleet said in October. Ford will introduce at least 15 hybrids and EVs in China by 2025. Vehicles sold through the Zotye partnership will have a new brand name.
Some rivals, however, are putting their names on the same generic car. Toyota, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Honda Motor, and Mitsubishi Motors all plan to sell the same electric SUV, developed by Guangzhou Automobile Group, to Chinese drivers. Other than brand-specific pricing and specifications, the models will be largely identical. That’s not ideal in an industry that prizes distinctive marketing, but it’s a necessary compromise until the companies develop their own technologies.
While carmakers have plenty of regulatory reasons to flood Chinese showrooms with EVs, it’s not clear that consumers will want them. Electric cars remain considerably more expensive than their gasoline counterparts everywhere; in China, where gasoline cars such as Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.’s Benben Mini model sell for as little as 29,900 yuan ($4,300), the difference can be especially pronounced.
For now, government subsidies for EVs cover much of that gap, running to as much as $7,900 for an all-electric vehicle with a range longer than 400km. That can offset almost one-third of the sticker price of a BYD e5 electric car.
Read more about the future of transportation.
The incentives, though, are being phased out and will disappear in 2021. That could mean a risky several years for automakers, since battery costs aren’t expected to be truly price-competitive with internal combustion engines until 2024 to 2028, depending on a vehicle’s type and the region of the globe where it’s sold, according to BNEF.
Still, the government has other levers should demand fall short. Several of the largest cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, limit the number of cars on their roads by restricting the issuance of new license plates. In those metropolises, simply acquiring the right to purchase a car can be pricey. A plate for a traditional gas guzzler costs as much as $14,000 in Shanghai. But if a consumer decides on an EV instead, it’s free.
BNEF already expects 2.5 million passenger EVs to be sold in China in 2022. But if similar restrictions take off in other cities, particularly the rapidly growing industrial hubs of the interior, EV growth could be even more dramatic.
For the moment, domestic models will mostly remain confined to the Chinese market. “Right now a lot of the cars selling in China have zero brand value outside of China,” says Janet Lewis, the head of industrials and transportation research for Asia at investment bank Macquarie Capital. But the EVs that are successful in the early-adopting mainland market may eventually help China develop the manufacturing and branding expertise it will need to export more vehicles to other countries, experts say.
China undoubtedly will tweak its credit-and-subsidy regime as it seeks to encourage an electric-first domestic auto industry. The minimum thresholds of the cap-and-trade system for 2021 and beyond haven’t been laid out, though they’ll have to rise rapidly to meet government sales targets for NEVs.
It’s a direction of travel that couldn’t be more different from that of the Trump administration. But for global carmakers, it’s increasingly clear that policymakers in Beijing, not Washington, are in the driver’s seat. —Matthew Campbell and Tian Ying
— With assistance by Yan Zhang, Keith Naughton, Christoph Rauwald, and Oliver Sachgau |
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| To: Lou Weed who wrote (9898) | 11/16/2018 7:48:43 AM | | From: slacker711 | | | | I cant remember Cree saying that they were dealing directly with BYD. A brief Google search didnt turn anything up, but if you have a source, I'd love to see it.
China is aggressively moving towards EV sales. If they continue down this path, all of the out year estimates for SiC sales should end up low.
Slacker |
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| To: slacker711 who wrote (9900) | 11/16/2018 7:56:02 AM | | From: Lou Weed | | | | Like I said slacker, I thought I heard it mentioned on a conf call but I might be mixing it up with something else. I do remember seeing something in a tech publication a couple years back (EE Times or the like) about BYD and SiC technology so I just assumed Cree. Could very well be another player? Sorry for being vague - coffee hasn't kicked the old motor into gear yet :-)
BB |
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| To: Lou Weed who wrote (9901) | 11/16/2018 8:20:12 AM | | From: slacker711 | | | | FWIW, this is the one mention I see on the thread.
SiC is an automatic f the battery is of sufficient size on an EV.
Message 31583375
Also, China's electric car maker BYD shows keen interest in developing SiC power devices, and international IDMs are proceeding with fast deployments in high-performance SiC power devices needed for new-energy cars now under development by major auto brands in the US, Europe and Japan, the sources indicated. |
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| From: slacker711 | 11/16/2018 10:30:54 AM | | | | | | VW board backs plan to storm the market with millions of electric cars
Confirms Ford talks, 3-plant plan for EVs — and clears up a big error
autoblog.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov 16th 2018 at 9:40AM
1
comments
FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen says it will invest $50 billion in developing autonomous and electric cars and expand the appeal of battery-powered cars by selling its upcoming I.D. compact for about what a diesel-powered Golf costs.
Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch told a news conference Friday that the company's plans for the next five years aim to make Volkswagen "a worldwide supplier of sustainable mobility."
Poetsch says the company is in talks with Ford about possible cooperation in making light commercial vehicles.
Volkswagen is converting three of its German plants from internal combustion to battery car production as it pivots away from diesel vehicles in the wake of its emissions scandal. It says it will increase the number of electric models from six now to more than 50 by 2025.
Volkswagen could build up to 15 million electric cars over several years on its new electric vehicle production platform, the company said — adding that its Chief Executive Herbert Diess had misspoken in an interview on Monday.
Automotive News on Monday quoted Diess as saying that VW could build 50 million electric vehicles globally across its brands, beginning in 2020, and had battery sourcing agreements for them.
A VW spokesman on Friday said that the figure, which referred to a theoretical long-term goal for the MEB electric car manufacturing platform, was overstated.
"Diess meant to say 15 million, not 50 million cars," the spokesman said.
VW's supervisory board voted Friday on the multi-billion-dollar EV investment plan, including steps to retool three German plants to mass produce electric cars and to explore alliances with battery partners and rival carmakers.
Labor unions, who control half the seats on Volkswagen's supervisory board, needed to sign off on the plan to create global production capacity for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025 amid their concerns that assembling battery driven cars will require fewer workers.
Around 436,000 industrial jobs in Germany are tied to building petrol and diesel engined vehicles.
Jobs are under threat because a combustion engined car has 1,400 components in the motor, exhaust system and transmission, while an electric car's battery and motor has only 200 components, according to analysts at ING.
Volkswagen's management this week outlined plans to labor leaders for converting car plants in Zwickau, Emden and Hannover to build electric cars, providing job guarantees to workers until 2028.
The first ID electric car is due to roll off the production line in Zwickau in 2019, as the plant ramps up to a production capacity of 330,000 electric vehicles. Zwickau currently builds the VW Golf and the Golf Estate.
Volkswagen's MEB electric vehicle platform is also being eyed by Ford as the two companies continue exploratory talks about an alliance to develop self-driving and electric vehicles and to complement each other's global production footprints.
Material from Reuters was used in this report. |
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