Richard (“Dick”) K. Lee is president and CEO of Value Innovations, Inc (Vi). Dick is a past member of the BOD and three time past chairman of the emeriti committee of the Industrial Research Institute. Dick has been the VP and General Manager of two divisions of Fortune 500 companies [Gould Inc. and McGraw Edison], the VP R&D at Pharmaseal, the manufacturing arm of American Hospital Supply, and the VP Strategic Business Operations at Johns Manville. Dick received his Ph. D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of London in 1968. Dick is a UK subject, a Permanent Resident of the USA and lives with his wife Lin in Castle Rock, CO.

Phase I: Fueling Innovation with bEVCurrent.

In February, 2018 Value Innovations launched its weekly report, bEVCurrent.

bEVCurrent uncovers the “Top 3” and “Top 4-10” headlines impacting the 6 Transformation Axes bringing seismic change to the global auto industry.

After 6 months, bEVCurrent had generated 72 “Top 3” headlines captured on subjects ranging from #Autonomousvehicles to #ElectricVehicles (#bEVs), from #OmniChannelRetail to Mobility as a Service (#MaaS) and #ConnectedCars to #Fleets.

Phase II: Fueling Innovation taken to next level using TMS Software.

In  June, 2018, the #iTRANSFORM team took #bEVCurrent to the next level by adding the capability to capture and text mine tweets using Text Mining Solutions (TMS) proprietary software to present the latest relevant information across a broad spectrum of topics in the automotive industry.

The #iTRANSFORM and #bEVCurrent team working with Steve Brewer, the Founder and Managing Director of Text Mining Solutions generated lists of #users (Organizations) and #hashtags upon which to collect tweets.  We followed, 263 organizations and 90 hashtags (e.g., ev, #ev, eMobility).   For the period June 11 2018 through January 13 2019, TMS processed 24 million tweets and with the help of text mining reduced this to 79K “Relevant Tweets” which were saved in the TMS database. Using a set of search criteria, users can search these tweets to answer key questions from marketing, new business development and R&D teams thereby Fueling Innovation.

Progress to date.

Most countries in the world have posted or retweeted tweets relevant to the global auto industry since June 11, 2018. Our latest edition of the weekly bEVCurrent contains headlines, analysis and opinion making sense of these tweets:

bEVCurrent_DEC30-JAN5_Full_190106

What we discovered:

bEVCurrent TMS has processed 24 million tweets since June 11, 2018. We see that Tesla dominates social media in the global auto industry space: Of the 79,000 Relevant Tweets TMS has captured with a URL, 32,830 (42%) include Tesla. For BMW, with the next largest auto manufacturer presence on twitter, bEVCurrent TMS captured just 4,840 Tweets.

Toyota auto dealerships in the US do not want to sell Prius Prime. Author shares they could be selling 5K to 10K/mo.. (333/5)

iTRANSFORM’s take: We can’t summarize this any better than the author: Toyota could easily be selling 6,000 to 10,000 PHEVs every month if they wanted to. Obviously, at this point, they don’t want to. Toyota needs to re-think its electrification strategy. 

Norway #1 country in Europe placing orders for the Tesla M3. (1,230/131)

iTRANSFORM’s take: Tesla Motors is now focused on taking orders for the Model 3 from Europe and China and expects to start deliveries in 1Q, 2019. 

Great Wall Motor has announced the ORA R1. The 33 kWh battery affords a range of up to 194 miles and a projected top speed of 62 mph. Selling price after rebates: $8,680 (590/5)

Handelsblatt report sheds light on why Bosch decided to exit the Li-ion battery business in February, 2018.

iTRANSFORM’s take: We think we now understand Bosch’s decision to exit the Li-ion cell and battery business in February, 2018. They see it as a commodity business dominated by manufacturers in China, Japan and South Korea. They don’t see a path to success. What they do see is an opportunity is to deliver value in AI, AVs and connected vehicle products and services. 

Renault taking a “significant stake” in JMEV a Chinese electric vehicle company. Renault needs to sell 40K bEVs/y to meet Chinese ZEV rules. (366/3)

iTRANSFORM’s take: This move by Renault helps it meet China’s zero-emission mandate, which requires automakers to have zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) represent 10% of new car sales as soon as 2019 & 12% by 2020. Renault is planning to grow its sales to 400K units/y in China and therefore must sell 40K bEVs. 

Tesla M3 production overview: 40 distinct process steps (Typical ICE, 130 to 200); 1,000ft mfg. line; Mfg. cycle time, 90 minutes (186/7)

iTRANSFORM’s take: We’ve not been inside Tesla’s Fremont mfg. facility but we trust Pierre Ferragu’s (New Street Research Analyst) observations. He shares the ramp up to producing 7K M3s/week should be achievable in the short term and with minimal capital investment, Tesla should reach it’s goal of 10K units by y/e 2019. 

And lots more…..

Fueling Innovation:  Want to learn more?

Contact:

Dick Lee – Founder, iTRANSFORM and bEVCurrent, & Value Innovations, Inc.:

dick_lee@valueinnovations.net, +1-720-291-0758, @ViRKL

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