Manchin says EV Tax Credit Bonus is Gone from Spending Bill
Senate Democrats have scrapped a $4,500 bonus tax credit for electric vehicles made with domestic union labor that was opposed by Senator Joe Manchin as they seek to wrap up negotiations on a spending deal. “It’s gone,” Manchin said in an interview at the Capitol Tuesday. The Build Back Better legislation passed last year in the House would have increased the $7,500 consumer tax credit to as much as $12,500, as part of a White House-backed effort to ensure that electric vehicles are “manufactured by workers with good jobs.” Bloomberg reports the plan came under fire from Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and swing vote in the evenly split Senate, and foreign-owned automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. “At this point, what we are left with is the base credit,” Joe Britton, the head of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, said in an interview. Conversations about lifting an existing 200,000 vehicle-per-manufacturer cap on the credit remain on going, Britton said. Click here for the full story.
Toyota Joins Redwood Materials' EV Battery Recycling Initiative
U.S. startup Redwood Materials Inc said Japan's Toyota Motor Corp has become the latest auto industry giant to join its comprehensive electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling and remanufacturing initiative. Redwood Materials, whose partners include automaker Ford Motor Co and EV battery maker Panasonic Holdings Corp, is building a closed-loop battery ecosystem aimed at lowering EV costs by lessening dependence on imported materials while also reducing the environmental impact. The five-year-old company has focused initial work at a 175-acre campus in northern Nevada, and plans to build another complex in southeastern United States, its chief executive and founder, JB Straubel, said. Reuters reports the new facility would be able to supply Toyota's planned $1.3 billion battery plant in North Carolina, as well as Ford's planned battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky with SK On, a subsidiary of South Korea's SK Innovation Co Ltd. Redwood Materials is ramping up production of anode and cathode components to 100 gigawatt-hours by 2025, enough to supply batteries for 1 million EVs a year, then to 500 GWh by 2030, enough to supply 5 million EVs a year or more, said Straubel. Click here for the full story.
VW Group Wins Informa Tech’s OEM of the Year Award
The Volkswagen Group is deep into a major transformation that puts it at the forefront of developing electric vehicles for the masses at an unprecedented pace. That’s why it was named the 2022 Informa Tech Automotive Group OEM of the Year. Judges lauded the automaker’s ambitious pivot and commitment to EVs and zero emissions overall. In 2014, VW held 70 percent of the U.S. passenger-vehicle diesel market; and the EPA required the German automaker to commit $2 billion to EVs and zero emissions. That helped make VW a major EV player after it ditched its once-ambitious diesel efforts. The transformation changed the company, but it also took some determination. “We had developed a great diesel-engine program, then pulled out of that and had to wrap our heads around EVs,” Hein Schafer, Volkswagen Group of America’s senior vice president-product and strategy, tells Wards. “Our full commitment to EVs and zero emissions came post-Dieselgate. It was amazing.” He notes the company is committed to zero emissions beyond the vehicles it builds. “We’re going down the supply chain, including delivery and shipping,” Schafer says. “It’s not just about EVs. Our zero-emissions strategy is all-incumbent.” Click here for the full story.
Hyundai Teases its Ioniq 6 “Electrified Streamliner”
Hyundai is charging into the EV market with a passion and is expected to reveal its next all-electric model in the coming months, with this teaser image showing the design direction it’s taking for what it has dubbed the “Electrified Streamliner.” Set to formally be named the Ioniq 6, the new battery-electric vehicle will borrow heavily from the design cues first spotlighted in the form of the Hyundai Prophecy Concept unveiled in 2020. The Detroit Bureau reports the Ioniq 6 will sit between the compact Ioniq 5 crossover and the bigger Ioniq 7 model shown at the L.A. Auto Show last November as the Seven concept. “Inspired by the company’s Prophecy concept EV, Ioniq 6 will be communicated as the Electrified Streamliner with clean, simple lines and a purely aerodynamic form,” Hyundai said in a statement accompanying this image and a teaser video. “The streamliner design typology evident in the sketch reflects Hyundai designers’ commitment to satisfy both aesthetic and functional needs of customers in the electric mobility era.” Click here for the full story.
Florida Dealer Brett Morgan Discusses His Group’s Bullish Acquisition Strategy
Despite inventory shortages and supply chain concerns, many car dealers are experiencing record profitability and capitalizing on expansion opportunities. In 2021, when CBT News spoke to Brett Morgan, the CEO of Morgan Automotive Group, his group was ranked number 11 on The Top 150 Dealership Groups in the US. by Automotive News. But after some more acquisitions and retailing over 60,000 new vehicles last year, the group moved to the number 8 spot. Today, Brett Morgan joins Inside Automotive again to discuss his bullish acquisition strategy. In May of this year, Morgan Automotive purchased three additional dealerships in Florida. The group now owns 56 dealerships representing 30 brands. Growth is part of Morgan Automotive’s DNA, and the current M&A environment presents opportunities to expand. Acquisitions after time are kind of like children, Morgan says. Some are doing what you think they should be, and others are not. Click here to watch the full interview.
Vote for CNA National in the Dealers’ Choice Awards
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