While investors watched dramatic surges in the stock prices of Chinese electric car makers like Nio and Xpeng, tens of thousands of companies jumped on the bandwagon as the industry grew, according to business database Qichacha…The number of new Chinese businesses related to "new energy vehicles" surged by 81,000 this year through mid-August, bringing the total to more than 321,000, Qichacha said in a report...The growth this year comes after 78,600 businesses entered the industry in 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in China, the database showed...New energy vehicles refers to a general category consisting primarily of pure-electric and hybrid-powered cars. China is the world's largest market for automobiles, and would like 20% of new cars sold to be new energy vehicles by 2025...Shares of major electric car makers fell Monday after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated there could be sector consolidation…"This is just version 2.0 of the central government looking to trim the [number] of entrants as they did when they limited manufacturing licenses [and] permits in 2017," said Tu Le, founder of Beijing-based advisory firm Sino Auto Insights…"They likely [saw] a buildup of overcapacity [and] too many brands that won't be able to compete in the market with product," he said. "This has happened often in the Chinese market across sectors and leads to a race to the bottom where companies compete solely on price. It stresses the entire sector since these non-competitive companies are happy to throw good money after the bad."…Qichacha found investors poured more than 82 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) into 50 electric car-related projects in the first half of this year in China.

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt’s new electric-scooter factory aims to build 10 million two-wheelers annually, or 15% of the world’s e-scooters by 2022, in an operation run and managed entirely by women… “At full capacity, Futurefactory will employ over 10,000 women, making it the world’s largest women-only factory and the only all-women automotive manufacturing facility globally,” he wrote in a blog on Monday…Backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management, Ola Electric looks to roll out a scooter every two seconds after completing a planned expansion next year. The factory will be substantially automated and include 3,000 robots working alongside the all-female workforce. Aggarwal’s goal is to eventually assemble a full lineup of electric vehicles including three-wheelers and cars. Ola’s inaugural S1 e-scooter will be priced at 99,999 rupees ($1,360) to compete with traditional two-wheelers in India. Exports are to begin later this year.

Mitsubishi Motors plans to stop developing car platforms for the Japanese market and instead use vehicle bases made by ally Nissan Motor beginning around 2026, Nikkei has learned, the latest indication of realignment in an industry that requires huge investments in technology…Mitsubishi aims to shift its research and development investment into electric vehicles and other technologies…The platform is a car's foundational component, serving as a base for the engine, interior and exterior. Developing one can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, or about half the development cost of a new car. For this reason, several models often share the same platform…Other carmakers have also cut down on costly platform investment. Subaru has folded two types of platforms into one since 2016…Honda Motor will work with General Motors to develop platforms for EVs sold in North America, while Ford Motor is sharing EV platforms with Germany's Volkswagen.

Many Chinese producers continue to put more effort into developing LFP batteries that have better safety performance and lower average production costs compared with nickel-cobalt-manganese/nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCM/NCA) batteries amid lower government subsidies on EVs. But LFP batteries have lower energy density and shorter EV driving ranges than NCM/NCA batteries…China's total output of power batteries rose to 92.1GWh during January-July, up by 210.9pc compared with the same period last year, according to data from the China Automotive Manufacturers Association. Output of LFP batteries also rose by 51.1pc to 47GWh over the same period.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has called for a review of mining contracts signed with Bejing in 2008 by the previous administration, in a bid to get fairer deals from China…Tshisekedi called for the "technical and financial details of Sino-Congolese contracts" at the next meeting, Al Jazeera reported following a cabinet meeting on Friday…"DR Congo is sorely lacking in infrastructure and this hampers its development," the statement said…Joseph Kabila, former President who ruled from 2001-2019, had negotiated a highly contentious minerals-for-infrastructure contract with the Chinese in 2008 valued at USD 9 billion…Later, the deal was reduced drastically under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So far, some USD 2.74 billion has been given by China…President Felix had said that his predecessors in Kinshasa signed lopsided contracts with mining companies that denied the Congolese people their fair share of benefits from the sale of their nation's minerals.