Bosch, the world's largest automotive parts supplier, is reportedly re-negotiating contracts with carmakers for its planned price hikes, which might lead other suppliers to raise prices as well, according to industry sources.

Thailand holds an advantage over other Southeast Asian countries by providing automotive manufacturers with many incentives, according to sources at suppliers.

BYD has reported strong sales growth for April, defying supply chain disruptions. In the same month, China's automobile production declined by half due to COVID lockdowns.

Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong said Vingroup will provide incentives and assistance in leasing land and facilities in Vietnam to auto chip makers who sets up production in Vietnam.

In order to speed up the development of electric vehicles (EV), Mahindra & Mahindra is changing tack and is open to sourcing more EV components from suppliers, while the company expects more competitors to eat into its dominating market share in the electric three-wheeler market.

LED automotive lighting module maker Excellence Optoelectronics (EOI) expects to kick off volume production at its new plant in the US state of Michigan in the fourth quarter of 2022, instead of the second quarter set previously.

EMS provider Lite-On Technology expects power supplies used in cloud computing, invisible-light LED devices and devices used in EV (electric vehicle) power charging piles to be the three sources of business growth in the second half of 2022, according to company president Anson Chiu.

Carmakers are reportedly amassing automotive chips and other parts to prevent further impacts of their shortages. In fiscal 2021 (April 2021 to March 2022), Japan-based Toyota Motor registered a year-on-year growth of inventory assets by 32%, about JPY1 trillion (US$7.73 billion).

LFP (lithium ferro-phosphate) batteries are gaining momentum in EV applications, especially for electric buses and energy storage systems, with Foxconn's electric buses also adopting such batteries, according to supply chain sources.

The emerging trend of vehicles going electrical and adopting ever-more automotive electronics has not only brought new growth opportunities for the entire automotive industry, but also enabled semiconductor makers to use more of their solutions to solve the resulting technical problems. Texas Instruments (TI), for instance, has recently launched two solid-state relay chips to improve power isolation in EVs.

One month after Tesla recalled more than 120,000 units of its Model 3 in China, allegedly due to defects in rear motor inverters, the real causes of the defects remain unclear. As Tesla is the first carmaker to use silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in commercial cars, the recall has sparked debates about the reliability of SiC - the third-generation semiconductor material that is gaining favor.

LED chipmaker Everlight Electronics expects shipments of its miniLED backlight units (BLU) for automotive displays to rise in the second half of 2022, when its Taiwan production capacity for the offering will be expanded sharply, according to industry sources.

As power systems of EVs differ greatly from those of oil-fueled cars, automakers require innovative technologies to manufacture and assemble key system components, leading to a growing demand for 3D measurement and quality inspection solutions to boost precision and accuracy of the components, according to Road Ahead Technologies Consultant (RATC), a 3D measurement solutions provider in Taiwan.

Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) has taken another significant step into the electric vehicle (EV) market by signing a contract manufacturing agreement and a joint venture agreement with Lordstown Motors (LMC).

LED automotive lighting module maker Laster Tech has disclosed its first-quarter 2022 operating profit reached NT$6.2 million (US$210,500), decreasing 83.67% sequentially and 85.88% year-on-year.