EU repordedly plans 100% EV quota for fleets by 2030 Source: https://evlife.sg/blog/eu-repordedly-plans-100%7C-ev-quota-for-fleets-by-2030 If the EU Commission has its way, rental car providers and company fleets will allegedly only be allowed to purchase electric vehicles starting in 2030. According to a German media report, such a requirement is indeed on the table. However, the decision is not final – and resistance is already mounting. The German Bild am Sonntag reported on the plans to impose a 100 per cent EV quota for rental car providers and company fleets for new acquisitions from 2030. According to the report, the EU Commission wants to present the proposal in late summer, kicking off the parliamentary process. The topic itself is not entirely new: in March, the Commission announced draft legislation to increase the share of electric cars in company fleets as part of its measures to support the European automotive industry. At the beginning of this month, affected companies had already indicated that a quota of 75 per cent by 2027 and 100 per cent by 2030 was under discussion. As with initial reports in early July, the EU has confirmed that Brussels is working on new regulations, but it has not provided details on the current state of discussions, meaning there is no official comment on the alleged 100 per cent figure. And even if the EU Commission proposes it, it is far from certain that the regulation would come into force. Both the EU Council (representing the member states) and the EU Parliament would need to approve it first. What is clear is that such a regulation would affect a large part of the new car market – around 60 per cent of all new cars in the EU are registered to corporate owners and rental providers, while around 40 per cent are private customers. The new regulation has not even been officially presented, but resistance within the industry is already growing. The German newspaper cites a letter from German MEP Markus Ferber (CSU) to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU). According to the letter, Ferber calls for the plans to be dropped. He supposedly argues that electric cars would be purchased merely to meet quotas. Earlier this month, when the first reports emerged, Richard Knubben, Director General of Leaseurope (the European umbrella organisation of national leasing associations), warned that the otherwise for 2035-announced regulation was brought forward through the backdoor. Knubben fears – likely with an eye on his members’ interests – that “decisions here are being made out of conviction rather than based on facts”. Sixt board member Nico Gabriel also spoke out: “Electric quotas for fleet operators are completely unsuitable as they do not address the root cause of the problem.” Gabriel sees that root cause in the slow rollout of fast-charging infrastructure.

China EV brands Zeekr, Neta accused of inflating car sales via insurance scheme Source: https://evlife.sg/blog/china-ev-brands-zeekr-neta-accused-of-inflating-car-sales-via-insurance-scheme Chinese electric vehicle brands Neta and Zeekr reportedly inflated sales figures by insuring cars before they were sold, allowing them to book early sales and meet aggressive targets. Documents reviewed by Reuters reveal Neta recorded over 64,719 premature sales between January 2023 and March 2024, more than half its reported 117,000 sales in that period. Zeekr, owned by Geely, used a similar method in late 2024 through its main dealer in Xiamen, according to dealers and buyers. The practice, known as “zero-mileage used cars,“ has drawn regulatory concern amid China’s intense EV price war. State media recently named Zeekr for inflating sales, while authorities plan to ban reselling registered cars within six months. Neta’s parent company, Zhejiang Hozon New Energy Automobile, did not respond to requests for comment. Geely denied the allegations, stating Zeekr’s insured vehicles were for showroom display only. However, buyers in Guangzhou and Chongqing reported discovering pre-existing insurance policies on their newly purchased cars. Analysts say such practices distort financial reports and inventory tracking. Dealers also face pressure, with some admitting unsold cars remain in warehouses. Neta’s sales have declined sharply since 2022, and its parent company entered bankruptcy last month

China puts new restrictions on EV battery technology in latest move to consolidate dominance Source: https://evlife.sg/blog/china-puts-new-restrictions-on-ev-battery-technology-in-latest-move-to-consolidate-dominance China has put export restrictions on technologies critical for producing electric vehicle batteries, in a move to consolidate its dominance in the sector that has contributed to the country’s lead in the global EV race. Several technologies used to manufacture EV batteries and process lithium, a critical mineral for batteries, were added to the government’s export control list. Inclusion on the list means transferring the technologies overseas – such as through trade, investment, or technological cooperation – will require a government-issued license, according to a statement by the country’s Commerce Ministry. The new controls mirror similar restrictions introduced just three months ago on certain rare earth elements and their magnets – critical materials used not only in EV production, but also in consumer electronics and military equipment such as fighter jets. China’s dominance of the rare earths supply chain has emerged as among its most potent tools in a renewed trade war with the United States. China has emerged as a leading player in the competitive global EV market, thanks in part to its ability to develop high-performance, cost-effective batteries through its comprehensive supply chain, from raw material processing to battery manufacturing. Huge numbers of car manufacturers around the world use Chinese EV batteries in their vehicles. Chinese EV battery makers accounted for at least 67% of the global market share, according to SNE Research, a market research and consultancy firm. First proposed in January, the latest licensing requirements have cast uncertainty over Chinese EV makers’ overseas expansion plans, particularly as markets like the European Union have employed tariffs on Chinese car exports to push them to set up shop there. Many Chinese battery makers also have plans to localize production in markets such as Southeast Asia and the US. The Commerce Ministry said the restrictions “aim to safeguard national economic security and development interests, and promote international economic and technological cooperation.” Liz Lee, an associate director at Counterpoint Research, said the move “deepens the emerging geopolitical tech decoupling beyond materials to process IP (intellectual property).” She added that this could accelerate efforts by the US, EU and others to boost localization of precursor materials and metal refining capabilities. China’s CATL, the world’s largest EV battery producer and a key supplier of Tesla, has plants in Germany and Hungary and has plans for a joint venture factory in Spain with Stellantis, the owner of Fiat and Chrysler. It is also licensing its technology to be used in a Ford EV battery plant under construction in Michigan. A Ford spokesperson told CNN the company is “not affected” by the new restrictions. Meanwhile, Chinese EV giant BYD, which manufactures its own battery and surged past Tesla in 2024 sales to become the world’s largest EV maker, has EV production facilities around the world, from Hungary and Thailand to Brazil. And Gotion, another major EV battery maker in China, has plans to build a production plant in Illinois. CNN has reached out to CATL, BYD and Gotion for comment. Analysts said the true impact of the new export controls remains uncertain, as details are still unclear. Lee noted the restrictions “appear to target upstream process technologies… rather than battery cell and module manufacturing.” Since CATL’s plants in Germany and Hungary focus on cell and module production and do not appear to replicate the restricted processes locally, the near-term effect may be limited, she said. For BYD, which only assembles battery packs overseas and does not manufacture battery cells abroad, the controls do not appear to affect operations at this stage, Lee added. Vincent Sun, senior equity analyst at Morningstar covering China’s EV sector, said the ultimate impact would depend on how easily companies can obtain permits – something that “may take some extra time to see.” China’s dominance in EV batteries One part of the newly announced restrictions surrounds the battery cathode production technology for the making of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, a type of lithium-ion battery that has become increasingly popular in EVs in the last five years for its lower price and greater safety. Another part focuses on the processing, refinement and extraction of lithium. A worker from Chinese electric vehicle company NIO sits in a car during its final inspection at the end of the automated production line at the company's manufacturing hub in Hefei, China, on January 17, 2025. A worker from Chinese electric vehicle company NIO sits in a car during its final inspection at the end of the automated production line at the company's manufacturing hub in Hefei, China, on January 17, 2025. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images China dominates the production of LFP batteries and the processing of lithium globally, according to Fastmarkets, a United Kingdom-based research company. Last year, it held 94% market share for LFP production capacity and provided 70% of global processed lithium production. But while LFP batteries amounted to 40% of the global EV market by capacity, adoption of them is more prevalent in EVs made by Chinese manufacturers than elsewhere, according to Adamas Intelligence, a data analysis and consultancy firm focusing on critical minerals and batteries. James Edmondson, vice president in research at IDTechEx, a research firm, told CNN that despite LFP’s lower energy density, its much lower cost, compared with its common alternative battery made of nickel, manganese, and cobalt, has made it “a staple in lower-cost vehicles” and there are plans for greater adoption by EU and US automakers. China’s dominance in LFP production means that “even for LFP produced outside of China, Chinese suppliers would still often play a part in the production of precursors to LFP cathodes,” he said. China holds a “significant lead” in the technology itself, as shown by BYD’s “Super E-Platform” that promised a 250-mile range on just a five-minute charge, Edmondson added. The technology outperforms Tesla’s Superchargers, which take 15 minutes to deliver 200 miles. Not to be outdone, CATL followed in April with a more competitive product, an upgraded LFP battery that provides an even longer range of 320 miles with the same charging time.

Major Cargo Carrier Halts EV Shipping to Hawaiʻi Source: https://evlife.sg/blog/major-cargo-carrier-halts-ev-shipping-to-hawai%CA%BBi Matson is putting the brakes on electric vehicle shipping, effective immediately. The company, Hawai‘i’s largest ocean cargo carrier, announced it will no longer accept electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles for transport in either direction. The reason: rising safety concerns over lithium-ion battery fires at sea. What It Means for Hawai‘i This pause could cause waves across Hawai‘i’s already limited car market. More than 37,000 electric vehicles are registered in the state, according to the Hawai‘i Electric Vehicle Association. With Matson out of the picture, delays and higher costs could follow. EV owner Don Heddesheimer considers himself lucky. He shipped his Tesla from Ohio to Hawai‘i four months ago, before the ban was in place, but recalls how strict battery guidelines were even then. “As long as it’s between 50-60 percent [charged], there won’t be any problems,” Heddesheimer explained. “But it was still a complicated process.” Dealerships Brace for Impact Island News reached out to major automakers for comment. A Honolulu Tesla manager declined to speak on internal logistics, and Ford did not respond to our request. However, a sales manager at Kia told Island News their dealership relies on competitor Pasha Hawaii for vehicle shipments, and they do not anticipate major disruptions at this time. Fires at Sea: A Rising Risk In March, the Maritime Technologies Forum released a study on EV battery hazards aboard ships. The report found that lithium-ion battery fires are nearly impossible to stop once triggered, releasing flammable and toxic gases. That danger became reality earlier this year, when a cargo ship near Alaska caught fire. The vessel, carrying more than 700 electric cars, was abandoned by the crew for safety reasons. What's Next? The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation told Island News it was not involved in Matson’s decision and was given no timeline on when EV shipping might resume. The International Maritime Organization is working to create official safety regulations for transporting EVs, but those are not expected until 2027. In the meantime, customers and dealerships alike are left navigating uncertainty on land and at sea.

China Puts New Restrictions on EV Battery Manufacturing Technology Source: https://evlife.sg/blog/china-puts-new-restrictions-on-ev-battery-manufacturing-technology The Chinese government said on Tuesday that it would restrict any effort to transfer out of China eight key technologies for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, a move that could cement the country’s already dominant role in the production of electric cars. The plan could make it harder for Chinese electric carmakers to set up factories overseas, as the European Union has pushed them to do. Effective immediately, any overseas transfer of these technologies through trade, investment or technological cooperation will first require a license from the Chinese government, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. Chinese manufacturers have achieved important breakthroughs in the past five years in making inexpensive batteries that can provide considerable driving range for electric vehicles. The new generation of battery technology is central to China’s success in building electric cars that are considerably cheaper than electric and gasoline-powered cars made in other countries. The European Union has been pressing Chinese automakers and battery manufacturers to set up operations in the bloc as an unofficial condition for continued growth in sales of Chinese cars there. The United States has been more wary of Chinese investment, but plans for at least two Chinese electric car battery factories have been proposed in Michigan. The new restriction on battery technologies comes less than three months after Beijing began requiring licenses for exports of seven kinds of rare earth metals and the magnets made from them. Those restrictions have already caused considerable disruption to companies in the West and Japan that manufacture cars, robots and other advanced devices that require electric motors with small but powerful rare earth magnets. BYD, which is based in Shenzhen, China, and has recently overtaken Tesla as the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars, made a technological breakthrough five years ago when it introduced a new line of lithium-ion batteries. Instead of using a costly chemistry based on nickel, cobalt and manganese, the new batteries used inexpensive iron and phosphate. The new chemistry also appears less likely to catch fire in collisions and other incidents. BYD’s archrival, CATL in Ningde, China, introduced similar technology at almost the same time. Lithium iron phosphate batteries now command more than half the global market and are made almost entirely in China. Battery and chemicals companies in Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United States still rely mainly on chemistries with nickel, cobalt and manganese, but they have been trying to catch up. BYD declined to comment Tuesday evening on the Ministry of Commerce’s announcement. CATL — its full name in English is Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Ltd. — also declined to comment. Ford Motor, which is building a $3 billion factory in Michigan to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries with CATL technology, also declined to comment. The Ministry of Commerce provided few details in its statement about why it was imposing the license requirement. “This is an adjustment to the existing restricted technologies based on the development and changes of technology,” the statement said. China has close to 50 graduate programs that focus on either battery chemistry or the closely related subject of battery metallurgy. By contrast, only a handful of professors in the United States are working on batteries. The Ministry of Commerce imposed the new license requirement on overseas transfers of three core technologies of lithium iron phosphate batteries. It also imposed a license requirement on five key technologies for producing lithium for all kinds of batteries. Lithium iron phosphate batteries were invented nearly 30 years ago in the United States. But for many years, these batteries could be fully recharged only a few times. With many years of study, Japanese researchers gradually developed ways to increase the number of recharges that these batteries could withstand. BYD and CATL then figured out a way to further increase the number of recharges, making it comparable to more traditional battery chemistries. They also figured out how to pack more electricity into each of the new batteries and how to mass-produce them. China has been racing ahead of the rest of the world in many areas of research, including chemistry. Researchers in China lead the world in publishing widely cited papers in 52 of 64 critical technologies, according to calculations last year by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. A once-a-decade meeting last summer of China’s Communist Party leadership chose scientific training and education as one of the country’s top economic priorities. That goal received more attention in the meeting’s final resolution than any other policy did, except strengthening the party itself.