WCA MAY 2015

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2015
From the Americas
In several regions, utilities – big companies experienced
in financing, building, and managing power infrastructure
as well as selling electricity – are getting into the vehicle
charging business. Their goal, Ms Cardwell wrote, is
nothing less than making the electric car a viable alternative
for millions of consumers; and, “in the process, helping
shore up their own flattening business” of supplying
electricity. (“Utilities Push Into Fuel Stations for Electric
Cars,” 19th February)
In Kansas City, Missouri, for example, the main utility is
building a network with more than 1,000 charging stations
for the metropolitan area. But Ms Cardwell sees California
as the spearhead of the trend. Although it leads the nation in
electric vehicle sales, with about 40 per cent of the market,
California is under pressure to meet aggressive goals
that would require 100,000 chargers that are faster than
traditional home outlets – enough to support one million
vehicles – by 2020.
Accordingly, three major utilities envision building as many
as 60,000 chargers in California. Pacific Gas and Electric
(PG&E) recently became the last of the three to file a
proposal with regulators that would allow the installation of
25,000 public chargers – cost: $654 million – in a state that
currently has about 6,300 public chargers at some 2,000
stations. (For context, the US Energy Department says that
nationwide there are approximately 22,900 public chargers
at about 9,000 stations.)
“We’re looking to really remove barriers to EV adoption, to
really build to scale where all business models can work,”
James Ellis, director of electrification and electric vehicles at
PG&E, told the Times.
 Mr Ellis would seem to have the wind at his back.
Automakers in the US market face strict federal
mandates to improve fuel efficiency and reduce carbon
emissions. By 2025, their fleets must average at least
54.5 miles a gallon, more than double the current
average of around 25 miles a gallon. To reach that goal,
analysts consulted by Ms Cardwell say, automakers
have little choice but to expand the consumer market
for vehicles that require a plug-in charge beyond the
120,000 sold in the USA in 2014.
 But another of the Times ’s interviewees pointed that
EVs may not have the field all to themselves.
Questioning the fairness of burdening California
ratepayers with building up the EV charger network,
Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform
Network, noted that Toyota Motor Corp appears to be
betting on hydrogen-powered vehicles. “They are not
a fringe player,” the consumer advocate said. “So that
makes me wonder. Is [hydrogen] the technology that at
the end of the day takes off?”
Automotive
Japanese brands account for six
of the top ten sellers in the USA
Jerry Hirsch, automotive editor for the Los Angeles Times,
reported (13th February) that Honda Motor Co has overtaken
Toyota Motor Corp in car sales in California. Honda’s
Accord took the lead last year – if only by a razor-thin
margin – with a 17 per cent increase over its 2013 sales.
The sedan edged out the Toyota Prius, the popular hybrid
whose sales were up two per cent over the previous year.
Mr Hirsch noted that Honda has seen higher sales for
the Accord, both nationwide and in California, since the
automaker overhauled it for the 2013 model year.
Japanese brands accounted for six of the top ten sellers
in the USA last year, and for eight of the top ten sellers in
California.
“California just doesn’t have the ‘buy American’ culture
of the Midwest and other places where the American
car companies manufacture their vehicles,” Jake Fisher,
automotive test director for Consumer Reports, told the
Times . “The environment also has been a bigger issue in
California car sales, and that helps brands like Toyota and
Honda that have pioneered fuel-efficient and less polluting
vehicles.”
 In other news of Honda, the company said 11th February
that it will be investing $85 million in its assembly plant
in East Liberty, Ohio. Brent Snavely of the Detroit Free
Press noted that Japan’s number two automaker already
produces the Acura MDX – the brand’s best-selling
model – at a plant in Lincoln, Alabama, but needs the
ability to increase its production capacity to meet
demand for the popular, three-row luxury SUV.
“The importance of the MDX for the Acura brand is
hard to be overstated,” Mr Snavely wrote. He reported
that Acura sold 65,603 MDXs in 2014, a 23.7 per
cent increase over the prior year. Sales of the model
accounted for 39 per cent of Acura’s total US sales for
2014.
 US safety regulators levied fines of $14,000 a day on
Japanese auto parts supplier Takata Corp, alleging
failure to cooperate with a Department of Transportation
investigation into defective air bag inflators implicated in
at least six deaths and more than 60 injuries in the USA
and overseas.
Some Takata inflators, which use an explosive charge
to quickly inflate the air bag to provide a cushion
for vehicle occupants in a crash, are blowing apart,
sending shrapnel into the cabin. Most recently, Honda
said, an air bag inflator in a 2002 Accord exploded on
18th January in Texas, killing a 35-year-old man.
“Safety is a shared responsibility and Takata’s failure to
fully cooperate with our investigation is unacceptable
and will not be tolerated,” Anthony Foxx, US
Transportation secretary, said on 20th February. “For
each day that Takata fails to fully cooperate with our
demands, we will hit them with another fine.”
 Kobe Steel, which supplies aluminium sheet to half of
Japan’s auto industry, is considering building a plant in
the USA to provide the product to Japanese carmakers
operating in North America.
North American sales of aluminium sheet for automotive
body panels are seen rising from 150,000 tons in 2014