Tag: Porsche AG

A Porsche-backed startup is building a massive battery recycling plant to boost Europe’s EV industry

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Cylib, a startup backed by Porsche and Bosch, is building a huge electric vehicle battery recycling facility in Dormagen, a town in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region.

Cylib

A massive battery recycling plant is being built in Germany by Cylib, a startup looking to reduce waste from EV batteries that have reached the end of their life.

Cylib, which is backed by luxury sports car firm Porsche and appliances maker Bosch, on Monday started work on the new site in the town of Dormagen, in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

More than 180 million euros ($200 million) is being pumped into the facility, which is expected to span 236,000 square feet and will produce recycled batteries for the electric vehicle industry in Europe.

Cylib says its facility will be the largest end-to-end lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Europe.

It plans to recycle roughly 30,000 metric tons of end-of-life batteries at the facility each year, making it larger in scale than the current biggest plant, Hydrovolt, a joint venture between Swedish EV battery maker Northvolt and Norway-based aluminum and renewable energy firm Hydro.

Hydrovolt has capacity to recycle 12,000 metric tons of end-of-life batteries annually, according to Hydro’s website.

Recycled batteries produced by Cylib’s new facility are expected to be used by Porsche, which invested in the startup as part of a 55 million euro funding round, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The source, who preferred to remain anonymous as the information is not yet public, added that the plans are still in the early stages and have not yet been formalized.

Asked about Porsche’s involvement in the project, a Cylib spokesperson said that investments from partners like Porsche are “strategic,” adding that it is working closely with its investors about process industrialization and commercial partnerships.

Crucial for the EV transition

Battery recycling is a key priority for the European Union, which is looking to ensure the sustainable development of batteries needed to fuel the transition to electric vehicles.

Founded in 2022 by German entrepreneur Lilian Schwich, her husband Gideon Schwich, and Paul Sabarny, Cylib uses water-based lithium and graphite recovery techniques to repurpose materials from batteries that have hit the end of their lifespan.

Earlier this year, the firm raised 55 million euros of financing from investors including climate-focused venture capital firm World Fund, Porsche Ventures, Bosch, and DeepTech & Climate Fonds.

Cylib said the new plant would primarily serve automotive, battery manufacturing and chemicals clients. The startup wants it to be the first of many, with further facilities planned elsewhere in Germany and Europe within the next few years.

The new facility is being built on a brownfield site located at Chempark, an industrial space used primarily by the chemicals industry. Cylib said that the location was strategic, with preexisting supply chains already located on-site.

Operations at the plant are scheduled to commence in 2026. The move is key to Cylib’s ability to reach mass production, said CEO Lilian Schwich.

“Cylib reaching industrial scale production will be a key driver in building a robust European battery infrastructure,” Schwich said in a press statement.

“Battery recycling is pioneering the circular economy, proving that economic success is compatible with reduced environmental impact,” she added.

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September 9, 2024
BYD is set to beat Tesla for a second straight year after producing more than 3 million cars in 2023

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BYD launched the BYD Seal in Europe at the IAA auto show in Munich, Germany. The electric sedan has a starting price of 44,900 euros ($48,479).

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

BEIJING — BYD said Monday it produced more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023, putting the Chinese electric car giant on track to surpass Tesla‘s production for a second straight year.

The U.S. electric car company had yet to release full-year figures as of Tuesday in Asia. Tesla said it produced 1.35 million cars during the first three quarters of 2023.

In 2022, Tesla produced 1.37 million vehicles, fewer than BYD’s 1.88 million. New energy vehicles include battery-powered and hybrid models.

Most of BYD’s cars sell in a lower price range than Tesla’s, and come in hybrid versions. Elon Musk’s automaker only sells purely battery-powered cars. China accounted for about one-fifth of Tesla’s sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

BYD shares fell by more than 2% in Hong Kong trading Tuesday morning.

Competition heats up

Companies wanting a slice of China’s fast-growing electric car market have flooded the market with new models. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi last week detailed its plans to launch an EV to compete with Porsche and Tesla.

Li Auto, whose monthly deliveries have surged to record highs, is set to launch its first purely battery-powered vehicle, MEGA, on March 1 and begin deliveries later that month, according to an announcement Sunday. That’s slightly later than initial projections for late February deliveries.

The startup has so far seen success with cars that come with a fuel tank to charge the battery and extend driving range. Li Auto said it delivered more than 50,000 cars in December for a total of 376,030 cars in 2023, a 182% year-on-year increase.

Xpeng on Monday launched its X9 MPV, with deliveries starting immediately.

The Chinese EV maker said its overall deliveries of electric cars rose 17% year-on-year to 141,601 cars in 2023, with a record 20,115 vehicles delivered in December.

Huawei’s new energy vehicle brand Aito said Monday that orders for its M9 SUV have surpassed 30,000 in the seven days since its launch. M9 mass deliveries are set to begin in late February.

Aito said it delivered 94,380 cars in 2023, including 24,468 in December alone. For 2022, Aito said it delivered more than 75,000 cars since beginning deliveries in March that year.

Zeekr, backed by Geely, said it started Monday to deliver its latest model, the 007 electric sedan. Zeekr said its overall deliveries rose by 65% in 2023 to 118,685.

That total figure is still lower than Nio’s, which said it delivered 160,038 cars in 2023, up by nearly 31% year-on-year. The company delivered just over 18,000 cars in December.

Among the many other electric car brands in China, Nezha reported deliveries of 127,496 cars in 2023.

Aion, a spin-off of state-owned GAC Motor, said it sold more than 480,000 cars in 2023, up 77% year-on-year.

Overseas expansion

Several Chinese electric car players including Nio and BYD are also pushing into markets outside China, especially Europe.

BYD’s overseas sales in 2023 exceeded 242,000 new energy passenger vehicles, according to CNBC calculations of public data. The company did not disclose comparable 2022 figures.

The Chinese EV giant announced plans in December to build a new production center in Hungary. The company said it currently sells five models in Europe and plans to launch three more for the region in the next 12 months.

“While the China market is one of the pioneers entering into the era of EVs, we believe moving overseas (building factories in the overseas market rather than just shipping vehicles manufactured in China) is the only way for China’s leading carmakers to achieve success in the global market in the long run,” Nomura China autos analyst Joel Ying and a team said in a Jan. 2 note.

“Given the company already has a bus factory in Hungary, we believe the decision to build the first EU PV factory in Hungary will help BYD to minimize the potential risks in the overseas market,” the report said.

BYD said it sold 36,095 new energy passenger vehicles overseas in December, more than triple the year-ago figure.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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January 1, 2024
Tesla rival Polestar plans own smartphone launch alongside its first electric vehicle in China

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A Polestar 4 electric SUV is on display during the 20th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) on April 18, 2023 in Shanghai, China.

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Launching smartphones with EVs

Meizu is not a major smartphone player in China with companies like Apple and Oppo among the biggest. And the Polestar smartphone would not be an attempt to grow market share.

Instead, the unusual step of an EV company launching a smartphone comes from a desire from automakers to make the car like a mobile phone on wheels.

“Where you have an opportunity to link these two worlds, without any border … then you can really have a seamless transition,” Ingenlath said.

You can imagine a world where you’re using an app on your phone and you enter the car and that same app is displayed on the car’s dashboard screen, for example.

“I still have problems to get, you know, an SMS displayed,” Ingenlath said of the frustrations with current technology.

Ingenlath added that the phone will be a “premium” device. Meizu is known in China for more mid-tier devices. This will help Meizu push into the high-end device market for handsets too, Ingenlath said.

While it is still unusual for car companies to launch phones, the idea is gaining some traction. Chinese EV start-up Nio plans to launch its first self-developed mobile phone in September.

There are lots of reasons this could make sense specifically in the world’s second largest economy.

It’s not just good enough to bring a great European design to China, you have to be very, very special about what you offer to the market when it comes to software.

Thomas Ingenlath

CEO of Polestar

Firstly, there is no Google Android mobile operating system. This means that automakers can customize the operating system on their phone and the car to sync up. For example, Meizu has its own operating system called FlyMe. And the company is making an operating system for Polestar cars based on this.

The smartphone that Polestar releases is also likely to have a similar OS which will make integration seamless.

“It’s not just good enough to bring a great European design to China, you have to be very, very special about what you offer to the market when it comes to software,” Ingenlath said.

“Many OEMs are following Geely and potentially other future players such as Apple if they come up with their own car with their smartphone to provide a holistic and tighter connected experience in every aspect of mobility,” Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.

An OEM is an original equipment manufacturer and refers to car manufacturers.

Shah said the smartphone would also allow Polestar to bundle software, apps, services and features such as remotely controlling or turning on the car with a phone.

Launching a phone could also help carmakers learn more about their customers’ habits, Shah added.

Polestar 4 ‘more premium’ than Tesla’s Model Y

The Polestar 4 is on sale in China for 349,800 Chinese yuan ($47,890) — that’s more expensive than Tesla’s Model Y which starts at 263,900 yuan.

The Polestar 4 is being positioned as “more premium, more luxurious” than the Model Y, Ingenlath said.

The CEO said Polestar’s customers come from German carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz and that the car is being positioned more as a competitor to cars like the Porsche Macan.

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September 5, 2023