NHTSA Wants Seat Belt Warnings For All Passengers

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, August 22, 2023, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.

Volkswagen’s CEO Is Stepping Down

Contents

1st Gear: Seatbelt Warnings For All

A new proposal from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would require automakers to equip their vehicles with seat belt warning systems for both from and rear passengers. It’s reportedly being done in an effort to establish consistency and up seat belt usage for everyone in the car. It would amend the regulation that required visual and audible alerts for just the driver’s seat belt. From Automotive News:

For rear seats, the proposal would require automakers to add a visual warning once a vehicle is started that lasts at least 60 seconds and an audiovisual “change of status” warning that lasts at least 30 seconds if a rear seat belt is unbuckled while the vehicle is in operation.

For front seats, the proposal would require an audiovisual seat belt use warning for both the driver and front passenger seats that remains active until the seat belts are secured. It also would require an audiovisual “change of status” warning for both the driver and front passenger seats that remains active until an unbuckled seat belt is refastened.

The requirements would apply to cars, light trucks and most buses as well as multiuse passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of up to 10,000 pounds.

NHTSA reportedly says it would be left to manufacturers to adjust warning signal characteristics like frequency and volume.

The front passenger seat belt warning requirements would take effect on Sept. 1, one year after a final rule is published. Requirements for rear seats would take effect on Sept. 1, two years after a final rule is published.

“Wearing a seat belt is one of the most effective ways to prevent injury and death in a crash,” Ann Carlson, NHTSA’s acting administrator, said in a statement. “In 2021, almost 43,000 people lost their lives on America’s roads, and half of those in vehicles were unbelted. This proposed rule can help reduce that number by getting more to buckle up.”

The agency estimates the proposed requirements would prevent about 300 nonfatal injuries and over 100 deaths annually. Some in the industry believe that the proposal has been “an incredibly long time coming.”

2nd Gear: GM’s Slurry Shutdown

A leaking pipeline at General Motor’s Ultium Cells battery factory in Warren, Ohio reportedly shut down operations after an “EV battery slurry mixture” oozed out of the pipes. Luckily, no employees were exposed to the chemicals or injured in the incident.

The plant reportedly makes electric vehicle batteries for General Motors in a joint operation agreement with Lordstown. From WFMJ NBC 21:

21 News reached out for comment on the accident and was provided the following statement:

“The safety of our employees is paramount at Ultium Cells LLC. Upon the discovery of a cathode mixing slurry leak at our Warren, OH production facility, immediate steps were taken to isolate the cause and contain the leak. The immediate surrounding area was cleared, and area mixing operations have been halted while we assess and address the situation,” said Katie Burdette, communications director.

Burdette said an investigation into the cause of the spill is ongoing, and operations in the area of the spill will remain paused until cleanup is complete.

Burdette said the written statement that the area “has been inspected for damage and deemed safe. We have brought in a third-party company to assist with cleanup.”

This is certainly not the first incident at the plant. The outlet reports that there have been 11 previous complaints filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since the plant opened about a year ago. Two of those complaints have led to nearly $25,000 in penalties.

This news comes as a second Ultium Cells factory is nearing completion in Sping Hill, Tennessee

3rd Gear: EV Truck Makers Better Get Going

Some of the biggest truck makers in the world have set some pretty lofty goals when it comes to battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles. Daimler Trucks reportedly estimates those alternative propulsion trucks will make up as much as 60 percent of its sales in Europe by 2030. VW’s Traton and Volvo are also aiming for 50 percent in those timeframes. From Bloomberg:

Those targets are looking lofty considering where these companies are on their paths to decarbonization. Electric vehicles were just over 1% of Volvo’s sales in the first half of the year. Daimler, the largest global truck manufacturer, and Traton’s Scania, MAN and Navistar, hovered around 0.3% of sales.

These three truck manufacturing groups collectively accounted for under a quarter of the 4.5 million global market for medium and heavy trucks and buses in 2022. Given we’re only roughly half a typical product cycle away from 2030, the magnitude of transformation ahead is going to be unique in the sector’s history.

Most companies are fast developing the technology and industrial assets needed for high levels of electric truck adoption. Traton expects to spend €2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) in electrification in the six years ending in 2026 — roughly the same as its average annual budget for research and development and capital expenditure of the past seven years.

However, truckmakers will likely need more than that. Daimler has vowed to commit the “vast majority” of R&D on zero-emission technologies by 2025. Its 2022 expenditure was €1.6 billion.

The fact that the electric truck market is still very small and that there are substantial investments to be made means that these truck makers are going to have a rough time for at least a few years. It’s similar to what’s going on in the passenger vehicle space, but even that is a few years ahead of trucks.

However, the fact passenger cars are a few years ahead can actually be helpful for these companies because of the lessons they’ve learned. Truck makers wanting to go big with EVs are now focusing on countries with the strongest policy support for zero-emission trucks, and on customers with the highest willingness to pay the premium for an EV truck.

4th Gear: Northvolt Just Got Over $1 Billion

Swedish lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt has reportedly raised $1.2 billion from investors including BlackRock and several Canadian pension plans as it prepares to build multiple new factories in Europe and North America.

The fresh round of funding comes as investors demand companies that are supposed to benefit from a “low-carbon economy” pick up the pace. From Reuters:

Leading the round alongside BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, were Canada Pension Plan, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and, as previously reported, pension investor Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.

[…]

Other investors to take part included Goldman Sachs, Volkswagen, Baillie Gifford, Swedbank Robur, Singapore’s GIC and Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.

Other investors to take part included Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Baillie Gifford, Swedbank Robur (SWEDa.ST), Singapore’s GIC and Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.

The fresh funds will help the firm expand its factory footprint, Hartman said. The firm currently has several factories across Europe with the latest a 600 million euros ($654 million) investment to build a plant in Germany, announced in May.

While the company has a facility in the United States, sources said the company is close to finalising plans to build a multibillion-dollar battery factory in Canada that will be announced later this year.

With this latest round of fundraising, Northvolt has raised over $9 billion in debt and equity since 2017 in its bid to become the biggest battery manufacturer in Europe. It has secured orders of over $55 billion from companies like BMW, Scania, Volvo and Volkswagen.