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Porsche AG

Porsche AG and the Swedish industrial start-up H2 Green Steel have signed an agreement for the supply of CO₂-reduced steel. The aim is to further improve the emissions balance of Porsche vehicles by using CO₂-reduced steel.

H2 Green Steel plans to produce steel using renewable electricity in Boden, Sweden, starting end of 2025. From 2026, Porsche and various direct Porsche suppliers of production material are to be supplied with near zero-emission steel from the company. This agreement marks the second contract between H2 Green Steel and a company in the Volkswagen Group, following that of Scania announced earlier in 2023.

The material would have one of the lowest carbon footprints on the market. H2 Green Steel relies on an innovative production process with hydrogen and electricity from renewable energy sources. Production of the steel is therefore almost CO₂-free. According to H2 Green Steel, this results in up to 95 percent lower CO₂ emissions than conventional steel production with coking coal. Up to 35,000 tonnes of the low-emission steel produced in Sweden are to be used per year for the series production of Porsche vehicles. By way of comparison: in 2022, 220,000 tonnes of steel were used in Porsche vehicles.

Skoda is expanding its cooperation in Kazakhstan with local partner Allur in a number of areas. The VW-owned brand has signed agreements with local partners for local sales and production as well as training.

Local assembly of Skoda Octavia, Kamiq, Karoq, and Kodiaq models from SKD (semi-knocked down) kits will start gradually in first quarter.

Among the agreements signed by Skoda Auto and Allur is an MoU, which includes evaluating the feasibility of locally producing vehicles from CKD ((completely knocked down) kits after 2025. If successful, this would lead to a more comprehensive manufacturing process at the production plant, including welding, painting, and final assembly, and would also allow for greater involvement of local suppliers. This collaboration between both companies would support employment in Kazakhstan as well as the Czech Republic. The final feasibility assessment will be completed by the end of 2024.

Scania says its new engines designed to run on Bio-LNG or Bio-CNG are an obvious way to go for achieving radical CO₂-reductions, ‘here and now and without any sacrifices’.

The Swedish heavy duty truck specialist says the engines come with 420 hp or 460 hp and ranges of up to 1,800 km. Scania also says the new biogas engines plus the G25 gear-boxes and axles from a diesel sibling work so well together that fuel savings of 5% in long-haul are ‘noted and confirmed’. Scania says networks of biogas filling stations are expanding rapidly across Europe, driven by increased demand and by major players in the fuel industry.

The new biogas engines are based on the 13-litre gas engine that Scania has offered for several years.

China’s Chery Automobile has said it has begun electric vehicle (EV) production in Indonesia, anticipating strong growth in demand for zero-emission vehicles in south east Asia’s largest economy.

The automaker, trading as Chery International, has spent US$16m this year to tool up for the new model at the Pondok Ungu plant in Bekasi, a city just east of Jakarta, which it operates with local assembler PT Handal Indonesia Motor.

The plant already produces Chery internal combustion engine (ICE) models including the Tiggo and Omoda 5. The company has a production target of 400 Omoda 5Es by the end of January with official launch scheduled in January and deliveries starting in February.