Auto Industry News

South Korea's three major players, which command a third of the global electric vehicle (EV) battery market, told Reuters they were all grappling with a shortage of research and engineering specialists as demand for the technology balloons.

The move comes as several autonomous trucking companies prepare to launch driverless routes in the coming years and begin signing up industry partners and customers in an effort to turn long-elusive self-driving into a profitable reality.

A Volkswagen spokesperson confirmed Diess' position that Tesla and others' presence in Germany heightened the urgency of transitioning to EVs, but denied that specific calculations had been made on how many jobs could be lost in the process.

More than 25 companies, including automakers Mahindra & Mahindra and Volvo, oil giant Shell, and clean mobility startups, want India to set firm targets and frame policies to support the transition to electric vehicles.

The companies are also exploring a setup where CATL would have a U.S. plant that would make battery cells and ship them to the ELMS plant in Indiana for assembly into battery packs.

A global shortage of semiconductors, triggered partly by surging demand for laptops and other electronic products during the pandemic, has shuttered some auto production lines globally this year. Hyundai temporarily suspended some factories.

BMW and Toyota Motor Corp have been investors in GaN Systems for several years, and Witham said GaN recently signed its first "capacity agreement" with BMW to guarantee delivery of power chips worth over a quarter of a billion dollars.

Waymo did not elaborate on when or whether it plans to charge customers for rides in San Francisco. It has applied for a regulatory permit to do so.