On Friday, Toyota revealed its vehicle sales rose by 10.1% in 2021, making it the largest producer of cars globally for the second consecutive year. Including subsidiary companies Daihatsu Motors and Hino Motors, Toyota reached 10.5 million vehicles sold in 2021. More: - Toyota was followed by Volkswagen, which sold 8.9 million vehicles, a 5% drop from 2020, which marks its lowest sales numbers in 10 years.
- In 2021, Toyota displaced General Motors as the top vehicle seller in the U.S. by 114,034 units, marking the first time since 1931 that GM has not been the auto company with the most sales locally.
- Toyota, however, has been undergoing continuing semiconductor supply constaints, as it expects to produce 47,000 fewer vehicles this month in Japan.
- The automaker has also seen non-supply impacts to its production this year, including halts to its Tianjin, China factory due to mandated COVID testing and prevention measures earlier this month.
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 Shipping company Maersk announced the launch of an off-shore vessel charging infrastructure subsidiary, Stillstrom. The new company plans to place the off-shore charging buoys by wind farms from the energy company Ørsted in Q3. More: - Under the launch plans, Ørsted will connect Stillstrom's charging buoys to its wind systems, which in turn will power the energy company's service operation vessels.
- Maersk aims to remove 5.5 million tons of CO2 within five years of commercial rollout. Earlier this month, the shipping giant revised its target date to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain from 2050 to 2040.
Zoom Out: - In September, manufacturer Zero Emission Services revealed its plans to build and operate an electric ship battery charging network in the Netherlands, to be used by Heineken for the next 10 years.
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Daimler AG will officially change its name to Mercedes-Benz AG beginning on Feb. 1, following the spinoff of its trucks and buses unit in December. The company's CEO, Ola Kallenius, sees the re-branding and the shift toward electric vehicles as opportunities to obtain a higher valuation. More: - In the past 12 months, Daimler has gained 40% in value to $82.4B, placing it ahead of Ford ($77B) and General Motors ($72B).
- Mercedes-Benz AG retained a 35% stake in Daimler Trucks Holding AG and plans to transfer an additional 5% to the Daimler Pension Trust.
Zoom Out: - Mercedes-Benz has increased the frequency of its EV battery investments, which included an undisclosed stake in Taiwan-based ProLogium and participation in Factorial's $200M Series D within the past week, both of which work on solid-state technology.
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Passenger car manufacturing dropped 6.7% to 859,575 units in the U.K. in 2021, per the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the lowest output since 1956. The production for 2021 constitutes a 34% decrease from 2019 levels. More: - The SMMT attributes the ongoing semiconductor shortage as the main driver for the decrease in production.
- Automakers in the U.K. delivered 224,011 electric and hybrid units in 2021, comprising 26.1% of the total passenger vehicles manufactured, of which 190,727 were battery-electric vehicles.
- The U.K. government is proposing a ban on sales of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030.
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 A message from MARKEE Looking to make team and external collaboration simple? Markee is a brandable all-in-one collaboration solution for remote and in-house teams alike, allowing you to host video meetings, chats, and share files with anyone of your choosing. For companies using Slack to communicate internally, Zoom to host meetings, and Dropbox to share documents, Markee will be a fresh start and a completely new way to collaborate. “Our goal was to take the core features that people actually need every day and make them simpler.” says Markee CEO — Craig Doig. With Markee, users can: - Create chat rooms in seconds
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On Friday, Volvo Group reported an increase in net sales by 6% to approximately $10.85B in Q4. The truck and bus manufacturer (not to be confused with Geely's Volvo Cars) attributes the rise to the return of demand to pre-pandemic levels; however, Martin Lundstedt warned of continued semiconductor shortages continuing to impact further growth. More: - In 2021, sales (excluding UD Trucks) increased 12% YoY to 45,180 vehicles in Europe, 25% to 28,306 units in North America, 43% to 9,181 in South America, and 33% to 6,077 in Africa and Oceania. Volvo Group sales in Asia dropped 17% YoY in 2021 to 13,633.
- Volvo Group had a net order intake of 454 electric trucks in Q4, up from 39 in the fourth quarter of 2020, for a total of 1,062 in 2021.
- In Q4, Volvo Group delivered 1,350 buses, of which 20 were fully electric and 76 hybrids.
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 Kia has issued a recall of 410,000 vehicles in the U.S. for airbags that may not inflate during a crash. The models include 2017 to 2019 versions of the Sedona, Soul and Soul EV, 2017 and 2018 models of the Forte, and the 2017 Forte Koup. More: - The issue involves the cover of the airbag control unit making contact with a memory chip on the printed circuit board, damaging the electrical circuit.
- Kia has received 13 customer complaints and 947 warranty claims in the U.S. after the possible airbag failure surfaced in South Korea in July.
- The automaker has revealed that dealerships will either offer a software update or replace the faulty airbags to correct the issue.
Zoom Out: - Nissan is recalling over 793,000 Rogues sold from 2014 to 2016 for potential fire risk.
- Earlier this month, Mercedes-Benz recalled 50,000 Sprinter vans for faulty powertrain programming.
- In December, General Motors extended the production halt for the Chevrolet Bolt through February. The automaker had widened the vehicle's battery recall to 140,000 vehicles over fire concerns in August.
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- The city of Charlotte approved Arrival's EV battery manufacturing plant.
- Tesla released a microphone product in China.
- Renault revealed its electric Alpine SUV. It's expected to hit the market in 2025.
- Land Rover began taking orders for the Range Rover SV plug-in hybrid.
- BYD introduced an electric school bus for the U.S. market.
- Ford started production of the E-Transit electric van.
- More than 2,900 flights were canceled for Saturday, primarily driven by forecasted weather events in the Northeast.
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 |  | Written and curated by Nicolas Saravia, an avid map maker and data nerd. Nicolas has worked in the shared-scooter space, as well as advised e-bike and moped start-ups. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
Splinterlands is the world’s #1 most played blockchain game. Play Splinterlands for free today. | |
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