Assembly
Sustainability at the core of leadership at Scania and ArcelorMittal
At last week’s inaugural AMS livestream, Scania’s Mathias Wijkström was joined by ArcelorMittal’s Hugo Da Gama Campos to discuss making automotive production greener and how it is vital to put sustainability at the heart of the production system.
Register now: Supporting production through automation – from AI to cobots (EP.2)
This Livestream Hour episode will discuss how automation and AI can support automotive manufacturing with technology leaders from BMW and Ford, together with systems and software specialists. Join us on Wednesday December 17.
Watch: Strategies for Greener Production (EP.1)
This AMS Livestream Hour episode discusses how automotive manufacturers are making their plants and value chains more sustainable through new processes and technology, with special guests including Scania and ArcelorMittal. Watch and download slides.
Scania to build battery plant and research centre in Sweden
Scania is building a lithium battery assembly facility at its plant in Södertälje, Sweden to support production of a range of electric trucks and buses. The cells will be supplied by Northvolt in Sweden but battery module assembly onsite will overcome the dangers and cost associated with the inbound delivery of finished modules
Can UK manufacturing keep up with a 2030 ban on new ICE vehicle sales?
The UK government has announced it is bringing forward its plans to phase out the sale of new cars and vans powered by internal combustion engines. Daniel Harrison, automotive analyst at Ultima Media, examines how realistic that is and whether supply chains are ready to produce enough electric vehicles and batteries.
VW Hannover to become multi-brand production plant
In addition to its own T model range and the ID. Buzz, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) will also produce three fully electric D-SUV models for other brands within the Group
OEMs see the sunny side of sustainability
As the cars themselves become cleaner, manufacturing operations can’t stay behind. In an effort to achieve carbon neutrality, OEMs turn to large-scale solar developments to power their plants
Stable growth post-Covid will depend on greater supplier collaboration
At last week’s Livestream Hour Joe McCabe, CEO and president of AutoForecast Solutions, said 2021 was going to be a recovery year in global vehicle production and that continued recovery to 2027 would be based on greater stability. A more globally integratred supply chain, thanks in part to revision of Trump policy following last week’s election, and provide opportunities for tier suppliers, who are getting more involved complex subassembly
Magna to build Fisker Ocean electric vehicle in Europe
Magna International is going to build start-up EV brand Fisker’s forthcoming Ocean SUV under contract at its Magna Steyr manufacturing facility in Graz, Austria.
Chinese carmaker Haval signs a major investment contract in Russia
Chinese carmaker Haval has signed a special investment contract worth 42.4 billion rubles ($650m) to expand the car plant it opened in Uzlovaya last year and build a components plant to localise the supply of core parts, including engines, transmissions, electronic control modules, and vehicle control systems
GM invests $4 billion to prepare Spring Hill and Detroit-Hamtramck plants for EV production
General Motors is moving forward with investments to equip its factories to produce electric vehicles (EVs). The Spring Hill, Tennessee plant gets a $2 billion upgrade to produce the Cadillac Lyriq and the and Detroit-Hamtramck plant will see $2.2 billion invested to produce the recently unveiled GMC Hummer EV.
GM restarts Corvette assembly after supply shortage
General Motors has confirmed that it restarted production of the Corvette sports car in Kentucky on Monday after a week of shutdowns that resulted from parts shortages.
AMS Autumn 2020 – At the cutting edge, the latest on 3D printing and aluminium welding
The latest issue Automotive Manufacturing Solutions features insight on 3D printing of parts and tooling with Porsche, Audi and Seat, digital solutions for aluminium welding and much more. With technology solutions from ABB, Rockwell Automation, Henkel and Castrol.
EV start-up Arrival to build microfactory in South Carolina
Arrival, the start-up that plans to build electric commercial vehicles in what it calls ‘microfactories’, has announced its first US production location in York County, South Carolina. It has also raised $118m from funds managed by BlackRock.
Can Tesla shift the balance of EV battery and cell manufacturing away from China?
At Tesla’s recent Battery Day presentation, the company promised to shake up its battery supply chains by moving into cell production and even the mining of raw material, but how realistic are these targets?
Series production of the Mercedes eActros to begin in 2021
The Wörth plant will begin series production of the battery-electric eActros truck alongside the existing manufacture of ICE vehicles
Arrival plans to build fully automated microfactories
Electric commercial vehicle maker Arrival could have as many as 1,000 automated microfactories operating by 2026, with the first now under construction. Localised supply is a priority and the manufacturing and logistics will be supported by industry 4.0 technology
Tesla plans for more efficient battery production
Tesla has revealed a host of production innovations to make lithium-ion battery manufacturing more efficient and reduce costs, including in-house battery cell production, which could cut the miles travelled for the battery production by 80%, and the reduction of the cobalt content of the cathode, which would bring further supply chain savings
Skoda completes Enyaq iV production line at Mladá Boleslav
The updated production line can now build vehicles using both MEB and MQB platforms
Factory 56 opens and starts of production of the new S-Class
Mercedes has invested €730m in its Factory 56 development and says it sets new standards and represents the future of its production operations
