Following Volvo Cars‘announcement this month that all new cars it sells by 2020 will be battery powered, German automaker BMW last week it said it will accelerate the launch of its electric vehicles.
Only it does not burn rubber when doing so.
The company, one of South Carolina’s largest manufacturers, said it expects electrified cars to account for at least half of all annual sales by 2025.
But unlike Volvo, BMW is not ready to give up the old-fashioned internal combustion engine yet. With the exception of the Mini, which will become fully electric in early 2030, the automaker’s other models will run on gasoline or hybrid “until there are no customers” for them, said the president of BMW Oliver Zipse.
“We are much more flexible than the world thinks we are,” said Zipse during a news conference to announce the new electric sedan i4, which will start selling in Europe later this year and early next year in the United States
Zipse said that BMW plans to have an electric version for 90 percent of the market segments in which it competes by 2023. This includes the SUV model Xs that BMW builds on its $ 11.1 billion manufacturing campus in Spartanburg, the largest automaker in the world.
Phil LeBeau, automotive industry analyst and journalist at CNBC, said BMW is late for the game when it comes to the EV move. In an appearance last week on the cable financial news channel, LeBeau said sales of electric vehicles by the luxury car maker in 2020 represented only 2.6 percent of the global market. In 2030, this market is expected to reach 26 million cars, accounting for about a third of all sales, compared to 2.7 million last year.
“They have a very strong brand, there is no doubt about that,” said LeBeau of BMW. “And they have a very loyal customer base. But that customer base is looking around and saying, ‘Where are the EVs?'”
BMW and Volvo are the main attractions of the South Carolina automotive industry, where manufacturers and suppliers generate $ 27 billion a year in economic impact and are responsible for more than 72,000 jobs.
Volvo’s $ 1.1 billion manufacturing campus near Ridgeville makes it the Sedan S60 and employs around 1,500 workers.
Mediterranean Shipping Co. is adding a new service that connects Charleston to ports in Asia via the Panama Canal. Provided / Purcell English / State Port Authority
New big ship on the way
Container transport line Mediterranean Shipping Co. is reinforcing its presence in the Charleston Harbor with a new service connecting the local port area with China and Vietnam.
The service will operate through the Panama Canal.
“This new service will allow us to improve the distribution of cargo flows across our existing network and improve the reliability of the schedule for our customers, across all service chains in the trade,” said MSC in a statement.
The service is scheduled to start in May, subject to regulatory approval. In addition to Charleston, it will call at East Coast ports in New York and Savannah.
MSC and MaersK Line invent the 2M Alliance from shipping companies, which currently has seven weekly services with a stopover in Charleston from ports in Asia and Europe.
A representation of the INDEVCO Plastics factory to be built in Orangeburg. Supplied / Frampton Construction
Plastic package
INDEVCO Plastics and Frampton Construction Co. started building a 100,000 square foot factory in Orangeburg.
INDEVCO – based in the United States in Doswell, Virginia – manufactures recyclable plastic film and bags for manufacturers in the beverage, building material, chemical and petrochemical, lawn and garden and material handling sectors. The rail access will allow the transport of plastic resin – also known as nurdles – to the installation, where it will be manufactured in flexible packaging and distributed throughout North America.
The prefabricated metal building will also house storage, office and laboratory space for the company. Construction is due to finish this fall.
“We are looking forward to establishing a presence in the southeast,” Robert Laird, president of INDEVCO Plastics, said in a statement.
The project is being developed by Brookwood Capital Partners.
Zeb Portanova, CEO of the GEM Opportunity Fund, has a bowl of tomatoes similar to those to be grown on the $ 314 million agricultural technology campus, announced in 2020 in Hampton County. File / provided
Fruit and vegetable blockchain
A company led by the former director of operations for Microsoft to provide blockchain technology for $ 314 million Agricultural Technology Campus under construction in rural Hampton County.
Core Scientific, an artificial intelligence and blockchain company, said it will develop a secure database in which products grown on campus can be traced from the origin of the seed to the table.
“Thus, consumers can guarantee the origin of their food while producers can identify and correct various problems along the supply chain,” said the company in a statement.
For example, if it is determined that a healthy tomato grown in the center cannot be sold simply because of its appearance, it can be sent to another part of the facility to be processed and packaged in another product, such as fresh parsley.
Hampton’s high-tech campus is considered the largest agricultural investment in South Carolina’s history and the largest agricultural investment in a federal government Opportunity zone. It is a joint venture between Mastronardi Produce, Clear water farms and Food & Drink LiDestri. THE GEM Opportunity Zone Fund, a private investment company, will build and own all the structures on site, which will include greenhouses, a distribution center and co-packaging facilities.
It is expected to be operational in 2022 and will provide more than 1,500 jobs when it is at full capacity three years later. It will provide locally grown products without pesticides to about 60 million Americans living in the Southeast, according to organizers.