WITH electric vehicles (EVs) sales soaring and regulations increasingly favoring zero-emission vehicles, a flurry of latest announcements showed how the global auto industry has kicked into a higher gear as it races to speed past the fossil-fuel car era. As part of its own 30 billion euros (US$34.7 billion) electrification plan Stellantis — born out of a merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler earlier this year — said Monday it had entered a preliminary agreement with battery maker LG Energy Solution to produce battery cells and modules for North America, where the world’s No. 4 automaker expects more than 40 percent of its U.S. sales will be EVs by 2030. That follows a recent announcement that Daimler AG will take a 33 percent stake in battery cell manufacturer Automotive Cells Co. (ACC), founded in 2020 by Stellantis and TotalEnergies in 2020. Carmakers are racing to secure battery supplies as they switch to electric, with dozens of new battery plants planned across Europe and America. Ford Motor Co.’s plans to go electric in Europe received a boost Monday as the company said it would invest up to 230 million pounds (US$316 million) to retool an engine factory in northern England to produce electric car power units instead of combustion-engine transmissions. The No. 2 U.S. carmaker has said its car lineup in Europe will be all-electric by 2030. The shift to electric has also been accompanied by changes in the automotive landscape, with a large number of startups hoping to become the next Tesla Inc. Foxconn unveiled its first three EV prototypes Monday made by Foxtron, a venture between Foxconn and Taiwanese carmaker Yulon Motor Co. Volkswagen’s CEO Herbert Diess has made no secret of his ambitions to chase and overtake Tesla. Diess said that VW needs faster decisions and less bureaucracy for what he called the biggest transformation in the company’s history.(SD-Agencies) | 