Toyota set to spend billions to enhance EV battery technology by 2030
Toyota, the world’s largest car producer by volume, has announced that it will spend over $13.5 billion to develop electric vehicle (EV) batteries and its battery supply system. This investment is a bid for the company to lead in the automotive technology across the industry.
To beat competitors across the industry, Toyota aim to reduce the price of the EV batteries by 30% which they hope to achieve by altering the materials and cell structures of the product. The Japanese automaker also hopes to boost its range of vehicles, as the company is set to improve the power consumption of its cars by 30%.
Toyota is also the front runner to produce solid-state batteries within this decade, which will be used in their hybrid electric vehicles. Chief Technology Officer of Toyota, Masahiko Maeda has said that Toyota is “still searching for the best materials to use”, as these batteries are expensive to fabricate and are prone to damage.
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Post-Brexit sausage wars: trade grace period extended to avoid chilled meat shortage in the UK
Post-Brexit checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland are being pushed back after the government announced the grace period will be extended again to avoid the so-called “sausage war”. The grace period means that only partial checks on goods such as sausages and other chilled meats will be taking place.
Regulations around the shipment of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland were set to start at the end of September, but the Northern Ireland Protocol will still be in operation until a deal can be reached with Brussels. The disagreement centered around the movement of chilled meat products has already caused disruption, with ministers noting that the post-Brexit regime was causing shortages in supermarkets in Northern Ireland.
In a written statement to the UK parliament, Brexit minister Lord Frost said that these arrangements would “provide space for potential further discussions and give certainty and stability to businesses”, suggesting that the Protocol will remain in place until an agreement is reached.
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German factory output bounces back suggesting bottlenecks are easing
Industrial output in Germany has rebounded after experiencing three monthly drops, as factories are able to tackle the supply bottlenecks which have damaged the euro zone’s largest economy for months. This boost is partly due to an unexpected increase in industrial orders in July, with the car industry and the engineering sector performing particularly well.
The Federal Statistics Office has announced that the German manufacturing output rose by 1.3% and the construction output by 1.1%. The best performing sectors were the automobile industry and the engineering industry, with their outputs increasing by 1.9% and 6.9% respectively.
Despite this growth, the ministry has commented that the bottlenecks with semiconductors which slowed down production “are likely to persist for a while”. Andrew Kenningham from Capital Economics warns that even though the rest of the economy is close to a full recovery, “supply chain problems among manufacturing companies will keep GDP below its pre-pandemic level until Q4 this year at the earliest”.
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