Automotive Assembly

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STATESBORO, GA—Ecoplastic Corp., a Korean auto parts manufacturer, is investing $205 million to build a new manufacturing facility here. The company is a tier-1 supplier for Hyundai, producing parts such as consoles and bumpers.

Acommon process for welding thick metal parts is submerged arc welding (SAW). Typically, SAW and other processes require beveling the workpieces to give the torch access to the joint root. The multi-pass process requires high heat input to the weldment and can generate a large heat affected zone (HAZ) along with distortion.

Engineers at Stanford University have developed a new way to make lithium-ion battery packs last longer and suffer less deterioration from fast charging. It could enable electric vehicle batteries to handle more charge cycles and last longer.

Lightweight batteries will be one of the next big breakthroughs in EV technology. One possibility that intrigues engineers is structural batteries, which can be built into the structure of a vehicle’s body or chassis to fulfill load-bearing needs while producing power.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Sila Nanotechnologies $100 million to support the company’s new factory in Moses Lake, WA, and help Sila hire and train some 300 workers for the facility. It’s one of 21 projects that the DOE has funded to support domestic battery materials processing and manufacturing.

NORMAL, IL—Rivian Automotive is taking action after workers reported bedbugs on forklifts at its assembly plant here.

CHARLESTON, SC—Redwood Materials is spending $3.5 billion to build a new factory here to recycle batteries from electric vehicles (EVs).

In recent years, most efforts to develop autonomous vehicles have focused on last-mile delivery, driven by the rapid rise of e-commerce. The goal is to create machines that can deliver food and small packages directly to consumers in an affordable, quick, reliable and safe manner.

Heavy- and medium-duty trucks are one of the hottest segments of the electric vehicle industry today. Both legacy manufacturers and start-ups are scrambling to develop battery-powered machines. Vehicles are slowly starting to roll off assembly lines, but this new class of truck is expected to dominate the market within the next 15 years.

Assembly lines have been around for more than a century, but new technologies, processes, investments and strategies are accelerating production, increasing capacity and driving revenue growth.