The first BEV is scheduled to roll off the production line in 2025 and will mark a significant moment in Bentley’s long and illustrious history. It is also a critical step in the company’s Beyond100 strategy – the ground-breaking plan launched in 2020 that will ensure Bentley is exclusively electric and end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030.

The significant investment programme will also result in a complete transformation of Bentley’s entire product portfolio, and the historic Crewe Campus by embedding an industry-leading greenfield facility into a world-leading, next-generation digital, low environmental impact, high-value advanced manufacturing facility.

Adrian Hallmark, Chairman and CEO of Bentley Motors said, “Beyond100 is the boldest plan in Bentley’s illustrious history, and in the luxury segment. It’s an ambitious and credible roadmap to carbon neutrality of our total business system, including the shift to 100 per cent BEV in just eight years.”

“Our aim is to become the benchmark not just for luxury cars or sustainable credentials but the entire scope of our operations. Securing production of our first BEV in Crewe is a milestone moment for Bentley, and the UK, as we plan for a long-term sustainable future in Crewe.”

Peter Bosch, Board Member for Manufacturing at Bentley Motors, added: “Today is arguably the most important day in Bentley’s modern history, and is a testament to the hard work and skill of our colleagues in Crewe. The journey really does start now. We are already marking the pinnacle in luxury car production and have already transformed our factory to become carbon neutral, with industry-leading environmental credentials. With our new ‘Dream Factory’ concept, we now go to zero also with water, waste and other environmental impacts until 2030. Unique craftsmanship, customer interaction and employee experience will be enhanced by digital tech, higher flexibility and new ways of personalisation. We will develop the best of Crewe into the future benchmark of luxury car manufacturing.”

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The fully-digital format is a creative reaction to the ongoing difficult situation for fairs and exhibitions: KROHNE Insights 1to1 is accessible worldwide with suitable time slots for all time zones. Depending on their areas of interest, attendees can select from a broad range of trending and industry-specific topics, or learn about new products, solutions or services. The video meeting will be hosted by product or industry specialists to discuss individual areas of interest, plus senior relationship managers if an existing KROHNE customer.

Frank Janssens, Vice President, KROHNE Middle East and Africa said, “KROHNE Insights 1to1 is the most effective way we can keep our existing and potential customers in the loop with the latest innovations coming out of our extensive global research and development facilities. By opening up our knowledge base in this bespoke manner, we feel we are able to deliver the personalised exhibition experience without restriction. We have leveraged our creativity to invite the world to learn more from our experts at their own convenience.”

There is opportunity to cover trending topics such as digital field communications, IT-OT convergence for greenfield and brownfield, Industry 4.0 and IIoT, smart flow control with FOCUS-ON, or plant safety and security.

For those focused on specific industry solutions, the KROHNE team are looking to demonstrate, amongst others, automation solutions for chemical, hygienic measurement solutions for Food and Beverage, measuring solutions for Oil and Gas from LNG to hydrogen, multiparameter measurement in Water and Wastewater, geothermal steam measurement in Power applications, or fuel consumption and emission monitoring for Marine vessels.

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The new plant and close ties with Northvolt will significantly strengthen Volvo Cars’ electrification strategy as the company aims to produce and sell only fully electric cars by 2030.

Construction of the plant will start in 2023 and it will produce state-of-the-art battery cells, specifically developed for use in next generation pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars.

The plant will have a potential annual cell production capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours, which would supply batteries for approximately half a Million cars per year.

The Swedish location of the plant, which will be built in Torslanda, Gothenburg offers benefits in terms of a direct route into Volvo Cars’ largest car plant, access to infrastructure, a strong pipeline of renewable energy supply and relevant job competences, as well as its proximity to both Volvo Cars’ and Northvolt’s research and development units.

“Our battery cell partnership with Northvolt is key to our strategic ambitions in electrification,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars chief executive. “We are committed to becoming a leader in the premium electric car segment and selling only pure electric vehicles by 2030.”

“Establishing this gigafactory in Gothenburg is a decisive move, both to continue to transform one of the most dynamic automotive regions in the world, and to become the leading global supplier of sustainable batteries”, said Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Northvolt.

As sustainable production is a central tenet of the partnership between Volvo Cars and Northvolt, the plant will be powered by fossil-free energy with focus on driving renewable energy capacity in the region and will integrate engineering solutions which prioritise circularity and resource efficiency.

Battery production for Volvo Cars’ and Polestar’s fully electric models represents a large part of each car’s total life cycle carbon emissions. By working with Northvolt, a leader in sustainable battery production, and producing batteries near its manufacturing facilities in Europe, Volvo Cars and Polestar can significantly reduce the environmental footprint attributable to battery sourcing and production for their future cars.

“Our new battery plant will support our ambition to have a fully climate neutral manufacturing network and secure a supply of high-quality batteries for years to come,” said Javier Varela, head of engineering and operations at Volvo Cars. “Through our partnership with Northvolt we will also benefit greatly from an end-to-end battery value chain, from raw material to complete car, ensuring optimal integration in our cars.”

The battery cell production joint venture between Northvolt and Volvo Cars will be a significant player in European battery cell production and will represent one of the largest cell production units in Europe. Volvo Cars and Northvolt have appointed former Tesla executive Adrian Clarke to lead the production company.

The research and development centre, which will become operational in 2022, will create a few hundred jobs in Gothenburg and positions Volvo Cars as one of the few automotive brands to make battery cell development and production part of its end-to-end engineering capabilities.

The partnership between Volvo Cars and Northvolt will focus on developing tailor-made batteries and vehicle integration concepts that give Volvo and Polestar drivers what they want, such as long range and quick charging times. Establishing deep vertical integration of battery development and production is important for Volvo Cars and Polestar, since the battery represents the largest individual cost component in an electric car, as well as a major part of the carbon footprint.

Taken together, the new battery plant and research and development centre will need a range of competences and the joint venture company is therefore actively recruiting highly skilled engineers and team leaders to advance the project. Large scale recruitment of operators and technicians will begin late 2023.

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Saeed Juma Bin Subaih Al Falasi, General Manager of EICMPF; Mutasher Awad Al Badry, Dy. GM and Business Dev. Manager of EICMPF, Muhammad Ashraf, Sales Manager, EICMPF; and Dr Medhat Elkatan, CEO, Othaim Pharma agreed to build cooperation by signing a memorandum of understanding on the development, sale, and distribution of Camelicious products such as Camel Milk Powder, Long-life Camel Milk, Protein Bars, Camel Milk Shampoo and Conditioners and Camel Milk Soaps in the Saudi Arabian markets.

This MOU was signed by EICMPF’s General Manager, Saeed Juma Bin Subaih Al Falasi, and Othaim Pharma’s CEO, Dr Medhat Elkatan.

The purpose of the MOU is to build a mutual commitment in complementing each other`s duties and functions for the development and implementation of Camelicious products distribution successfully in Saudi Arabia.

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Just before 6 am Moscow time Putin went on TV in what looked liked a taped speech and notified world that a special operation was taking place in the Donbass region of Ukraine. In turn, Ukraine said that Russia had launched a full scale invasion of the country, with missile attacks on military installations in multiple cities and reports of troop movements up from Crimea and down from Belarus.

A quick screen grab of the immediate scale of the reaction, as Brent oil trades well above $100/barrel, equities are off sharply, and the Russian ruble has dropped sharply.

Now for some quick comments on what may happen next.

NATO response

This latest escalation could see Article 4 invoked by NATO, which means alliance needs to mobilize and may increase its military presence in countries on Russia’s and Ukraine’s borders. We don’t dare guess where the risks lie here, but it heightens danger.

Severity of sanctions

The long list of sanctions that Western countries, whether from the US or the EU, have tried to box in Russia in various ways, but never targeted the actual flow or price of commodities, particularly oil and gas. That will now change: and the Western powers will have to hurt themselves if they are to hurt Russia as new sanctions are likely to affect the flow of commodities itself and possibly Russia’s financial system and its access to the world. This will in itself lead to much higher inflation both in the short and medium term.

Russia exports millions of tons of oil monthly to Western destinations and vast quantities of natural gas exports. The slowing of natural gas flows over the winter has already wreaked considerable havoc, but could get worse still if flows are slowed further. Of major EU countries, gas shortages would impact Germany and Italy the hardest. The EU political situation bears watching as the EU has been far too passive –  Europe will need to move forcefully now to avoid the fallout of an energy emergency. This is an extreme situation. There is the possibility of 110-125 Brent oil prices or higher inside next week, if the conflict deepens and escalates in the wake of sanctions.

Risk to corporate profits

A new spike in energy costs is a significant risk economic activity and with that, for corporate profits. Its not time to be panic in stock market, but the Fed had already pivoted hard on the need to tighten monetary policy in November and doesn’t have much to bring to the table with its tools to affect the reality of short supply, broken supply lines and uncertainty. This hurts sentiment and especially earnings. This means more downside is likely. Defensive areas in equities are likely to be: energy, commodities and defense.

Bonds will see short-term lower yield but will probably not offer usual safe haven as this conflict comes with higher inflation as by product.

March FOMC meeting: only a reaction function to the scale of market damage: Fed still priced as nearly certain to hike in March, but only doesn’t do so if markets are out of control.

Sanctions against Putin

Within the sanctions, we will watch whether Putin is personally sanctioned, a move that is unprecedented and some would argue, a direct attack on sovereign state.

What is peak impact? 

This is particularly tough to gauge, but in modern history, new shock negative “impulses” deliver about a 5% downside risk in equities on average. Meaning we have done a lot of the damage “relative to this baseline” already this morning, but remember this is unique situation. The shock comes in a world already with extremely high inflation pre-conflict (Germany PPI was 25% year-on-year in January!) and few paths from here lead to lower inflation.

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