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Leapmotor suspends investments in Poland

Carlos Tavares was looking forward to a very successful future when a few months ago it was confirmed that the first electric cars from the Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor would leave the factory in Tychy. However, before it even started, everything fell apart because Leapmotor decided to stop investing in the factory in Poland.

It’s a project that Leapmotor was supposed to launch with one of the world’s largest automotive conglomerates, Stellantis, but at the end of last month, the Chinese government called on its manufacturers to immediately stop investing in Europe in response to the imposition of tariffs on their products.

Not all EU members were in favor of introducing additional tariffs on Chinese products, such as Germany, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia or Slovakia, but 10 of them stood by the decision that the new tariffs will protect the European market. One of them is Poland, so China started to take revenge.

In the factory in Tychy, semi-finished products are assembled, and the Chinese company has informed the Polish Trade and Investment Agency that, according to the order of the Chinese Ministry of Economy, it is suspending investments in Poland.

The only model that Leapmotor will produce in Poland for now is the T03, and the first cars will leave the production lines in the coming weeks.

Source: Reuters

News

Nissan cuts 9,000 jobs

Nissan is in trouble, and in order to save what can be saved, the company is selling its share in Mitsubishi Motors, but also reducing production capacity, which puts 9,000 jobs in question.

CEO Makoto Uchida cut his salary by 50% and presented a reform plan to pull the company out of the abyss. That includes reshuffles of some officials, including Nissan president Guillaume Cartier who has been moved to the position of executive director of performance. He lowered forecasts related to sales and operating profit for the whole year, but also the previously set target for net income.

Nissan currently has 133,580 employees, and it is predicted that the planned reforms and cutting 9,000 jobs would save the company three billion dollars. The intention is to reduce global capacity by 20 percent, so that global production capacity worldwide amounts to 5 million cars. Nissan has 30 new or refreshed models in the lineup and has no plans to phase them out, but is likely to shift launch dates depending on market needs.

Also, the company announced the sale of 1/3 of its 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi, but even after the sale it should remain the largest shareholder.

Source: Reuters

News

Mercedes CLA EV covered 3,717 km in 24 hours

In the next two years, Mercedes plans to launch four new electric models on the market: CLA, CLA Shooting Brake, EQA and EQB. The CLA is the first of them to reach the market, and during testing on the Nardo (Italy) test track, this model covered 3,717 kilometers in 24 hours, which is a record for electric cars.

The CLA is built on Mercedes’ MMA platform and will use a newly developed 800V electric architecture combined with a new generation of electric motors, heat pumps and the MB:OS operating system introduced last year.

During the track testing, two test cars were used and engineers from Mercedes’ Electric Software Hub in Sindelfingen (Germany) used real-time data to monitor the CLA’s progress and telemetry, and also assisted in planning the timing and duration of battery charging stops. The CLA prototype completed 40 charges in a 24-hour period, each lasting about 10 minutes. This resulted in a total stop time of about 400 minutes.

The short but regular stops allowed the Mercedes to take advantage of the boost function, which allows a high initial charging rate on the DC system compared to the average achieved over longer charging periods.

The speed of the car was limited to 210 km/h, because the goal was not a speed record, but still with an average speed of 154.9 km/h they managed to surpass the Taycan’s record set in 2019 by 12.2 km/h.

It is still not known which battery the new CLA will use, and some speculate that it could be an 89.6 kWh lithium-ion battery that should ensure a range of 785 km. Also, the charging capacity of this model is not known, but it was previously hinted that it will support 250W charging, while an additional 50W boost function will allow it to reach 300 kW in short periods and ensure that a 15-minute charge using a high-power charger will be enough for the crossing 400 km.

The test car was equipped with a single rear-mounted electric motor and a two-speed gearbox that sent power to the rear axle. Although not confirmed, the new sedan will offer from 205 hp (151 kW) to 545 hp (400 kW) in the AMG version with two engines and four-wheel drive.

Mercedes will also offer the new CLA with a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine and a 48V mild hybrid system with an integrated engine starter mounted in the gearbox.

Source: Mercedes

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