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The competition in electric vehicles comes down to one thing: batteries.

To better understand who’s employing the best batteries on its cars — and how much they’re spending to do it — analysts at the investment bank UBS compared seven cells from all major manufacturers, including Tesla and its suppliers, as well as those for Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota, BMW, and more.

Perhaps unsurprisingly based on pasts tests, Tesla once again came out on top by most measures. But because it relies on suppliers like CATL, LG Chem, and Panasonic who also supply other automakers, the lead is only slim, UBS says. 

“While Tesla continues to lead with the best overall powertrain technology,” the analysts write, “the cost lead in battery cells is minor by now and will depend on its new proprietary cell design in the future.”

And after Tesla posted record profits earlier this week, UBS says the company has likely lowered its battery costs even further since it completed its study. That was a charge issued by Elon Musk at Tesla’s “Battery Day,” when he outlined a plan to in-source battery production and further drive down costs.

“We’ve got to get the cost of batteries down,” Musk told investors in September. “We’ve got to make — and we’ve got to be better at manufacturing, and we need to do something about this curve.”

That’s not just a Tesla problem, even if competitors try to copy things like its cylindrical cell design, as UBS predicts. Allied Market Research predicts the market for the lithium-ion batteries used in EVs will grow more than three-fold by 2027, from $36.7 billion in 2019 to $129.3 billion.

And the only way for anyone to catch up, in UBS’ eyes, will be to go all-in like Volkswagen.

“A steep cost reduction curve in combination with an ever-improving regulatory environment in favor of EVs makes it a necessity for auto companies to pursue an ‘all-in’ EV strategy, meaning that purely CO2-compliance strategies are likely to fail,” UBS said.

“Tesla will likely remain the cost and technology benchmark for several more years, and Volkswagen is the fastest follower on a global scale. Its €33bn committed EV investments of over a 5-year period are still unmatched.”

Read more: How much Tesla pays its employees, from software engineers to product managers

SEE ALSO: Wall Street analysts were blown away by the Tesla Model 3’s ‘next-gen, military-grade’ tech — and say that’s why …read more

Source:: Business Insider

Summary List Placement 
People in their 40s are often pulled between two groups who need them — their kids and their aging parents.
But saving for your own retirement is critical — there is no one else to do it for you.
By 40, you should be saving the annual max in your 401(k) and an IRA, and aiming to put away whatever you need to in order to meet your retirement savings goals.
Use Blooom to analyze your 401(k) today and see how you can grow your retirement savings »

If you are a worker in your 20s, it is solid advice to say that, at a minimum, you should be contributing enough to your 401(k) each year to get your company’s full match. And even in your 30s, as a baseline, it is acceptable to continue taking this path. 

However, in your 40s, retirement becomes a much more real conversation, and if you are not making the maximum allowable contribution to your 401(k) plan every year, you need to develop a plan to begin doing so immediately.

Contribute the maximum to your 401(k) and an IRA

It is often said that when it comes to saving for retirement, the earlier, the better. However, even for those in their 40s who have not made any meaningful efforts to save to this point, it is not too late. With that said, it will take a serious commitment to making up ground, which will need to begin with making the maximum allowable contribution to all retirement accounts from here on out. 

A person in their 40s who is serious about saving for retirement should also be in the habit of contributing to an Individual Retirement Account by this point. In 2020, those two contributions combined would cap out at $25,500. All things remaining equal, that would amount to over half a million dollars in additional savings over the next two decades. That is to say nothing of the impact that investing and compounding will inevitably have on those savings over time as well. 

The challenges facing the ‘sandwich generation’

That may sound simple and straightforward, however, Gen Xers, or those in their 40s, face a different and unique problem from those in the generations just before or just after them. In fact, Gen X is referred to as the sandwich generation — and for good reason. They are being …read more

Source:: Business Insider

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Source:: Calgaryherald.com

There’s no need to deny it: even the most serious foodie can be drawn in by a good restaurant gimmick. With so many restaurants upping their take-out game and most of us still a little wary of dining out in public, it’s smart business for restaurateurs to add a little bit of incentive to get people into their dining rooms. This is what Clay Pot Rice owner Alex Guo had in mind when he purchased a pair of very kitschy robot waiters for the launch of his new restaurant. But even with that hook, Guo also wants to be clear that there’s much more to his restaurant than a clever gimmick. He hopes that customers will come for the robots, but stay for the traditional rice dishes that remind him of his own childhood memories. Read More
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Source:: Calgaryherald.com