|
|
On May 10, AD Plastik Group announced new deals with the customer SMP Automotive for the European market, with an expected revenue of EUR 7.4 million in the projected nine-year project duration.
New deals have also been sealed for this market with the customer Ford with an expected revenue of EUR 1.8 million in the projected seven-year project duration.
AD Plastik Group is a leading company specializing in the development and production of interior and exterior car components.
On May 9, Ford CEO Jim Farley said during the company's annual shareholders meeting, that 20%-25% of F-150 pickups currently being produced are now hybrids, a key goal for electrification alternatives as EV sales lag.
Farley said the F-150 and the Maverick compact pickup are among the key pillars of the automaker's hybrid strategy.
In April, the company said it intends to offer hybrid variants across its North American lineup by the end of the decade.
"Our hybrid lineup is going to get stronger and stronger in '25 and '26", said Farley.
Overall, Ford's hybrid sales are up 47% in the first four months of 2024.
Farley admitted that the road to electrification was "a bumpy one" but said the company would continue investing in ICE vehicles, hybrids and EVs. He said semisolid-state batteries could be in production models "in the coming years" but did not elaborate.
Ford in recent months has delayed roughly USD 12 billion in EV investments and postponed production of multiple new models after admitting it misread customer appetite for higher-priced vehicles.
(multiple sources on May 9, 2024)
On May 8, Siemens unveiled its new Simatic Automation Workstation, which allows manufacturers to replace a hardware PLC, a conventional HMI, and an edge device with a single, software-based workstation. The solution also brings Internet Technology (IT) workflows to Operational Technology (OT) environments.
The Siemens Simatic Workstation uses Siemens industrial edge technology to allow high data throughputs with low latency, allowing manufacturers to expand a variety of modular applications. The workstation is used in automation tasks like motion control, sequencing, and safety, as well as new automation tasks that use industrial AI-in-the-control-loop, such as visual inspection and robotic grasping and placing.
According to the company, the initial deployment of Simatic Workstations will be deployed across several Ford Motor Company manufacturing facilities. The workstation is the newest addition to the digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator and will be adapted to various industries.