Welcome to the Dec. 5 edition of the Daily 5.
For electric vehicles to win the hearts and minds of North American drivers, the problematic issues of range anxiety and quick-charger access will need to be solved. Automakers are grappling with these challenges every day and we have two stories that delve into them.
Hans Greimel reports how Honda Motor Co. wants to deploy breakthrough solid-state batteries in its next-generation EVs by the end of the decade. And it envisions dramatic cost savings when it does so. Trouble is, there's still a lot of R&D ahead to make these batteries ready for scale. They need to grow about 100 times larger and become more durable.
But the goal of 1,000 kilometers of range — that's about 620 miles — appears doable. And other automakers are competing in this EV battery arms race. Toyota Motor Corp. is planning two versions of solid-state batteries. Toyota's first will arrive around 2027 to 2028, with a target range of more than 621 miles, our story says.
As for charging station development, Laurence Iliff reports that Rivian Automotive Inc. opened its first fast-charge location serving EVs from other automakers, fulfilling a promise by CEO RJ Scaringe. The "next generation" fast-charger site is near Joshua Tree National Park in California, but Rivian expects to open similar sites in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York this year.
Of course, automakers ramping up for EVs also need to build plants for whatever batteries those EVs will use. Both General Motors and Stellantis are dealing with the uncertainty of future EV production while still scaling battery production capacity. Lindsay VanHulle's story explains.
In other stories today, Reuters dug deeper into the emerging financial crisis at Nissan Motor Co. and the many challenges faced by CEO Makoto Uchida. The story describes an online meeting between Uchida and hundreds of managers in October. It wasn't pleasant.
Uchida is under pressure to deliver a turnaround, three sources with knowledge of Nissan's thinking told Reuters. The next few months will be critical for him and for Nissan's future, one of the sources said.
Looking ahead to Friday, Molly Boigon will be taking a look at the record of New York's Lee Zeldin, who is President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to run the EPA. Zeldin this week has begun meeting with key U.S. senators to prepare for confirmation hearings.
That's it for today. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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