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BMW, Ferrari, VW cars use tungsten mined by terrorists

Bloomberg Markets is reporting that BMW, Volkswagen and Ferrari have been using tungsten ore sourced from Columbia's FARC rebel terrorists. The extensive story focuses on Columbia's illegal mining trade and calls into question the provenance of the rare ore that is used not only in crankshaft parts production, but is also found in the world's computing and telecommunications industry for use in screens.
The ore is mined by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army), and exported to Pennsylvania, where it is refined. The refined ore is then sent over to Austria, where a company called Plansee turns it into a finished product. Now, it's important to note that we aren't talking about the world's supply of tungsten here. In 2012, Plansee's American refinery purchased 93.2 metric tons of tungsten, valued at $1.8 million. That's peanuts, with the entire Colombian tungsten mining industry producing just one percent of the world's supplies.
That doesn't make indirectly supporting FARC any more acceptable, though. BMW, VW and Ferrari are all committed to not accepting mineral supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also in the grips of a guerrilla insurrection funded, in part, by illegal mining. The same commitment would figure to extend to Colombian mining, but as BMW points out, it's difficult for a multi-national manufacturer to know where every item in its supply chain comes from. A company spokesperson says as much, telling Bloomberg, "These few grams out of the billions of tons of raw materials passing through the BMW supply chain are of no practical relevance."

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Recharge Wrap-up: Porsche adds third 919 Hybrid for Le Mans, Audi to heat factory with geothermal

Porsche will be running a third 919 Hybrid LMP1 car in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The extra Porsche will race in the six-hour May 2 WEC race at Spa-Francorchamps as a lead-up to the legendary 24-hour race on June 13 and 14. Porsche hasn't announced the driver lineup for the third 919 Hybrid, but drivers will remain the same for the other two cars. Including the third car is meant to help further test performance and efficiency as part of development for future hybrid systems. Read more at Green Car Congress. BMW i Ventures is investing in Zendrive, a driving focused data and analytics company. The cooperation of the two companies is meant to help advance safety and efficiency by making the "in-car mobility experience even smoother by optimizing commuting and driving patterns," according to BMW i's Ulrich Quay. The venture capital arm of BMW's i brand also invests in JustPark, Chargepoint, Life360, Chargemaster and MyCityWay, and says it will have more strategic investment announcements in the coming months. Read more in the press release below. The Audi Hungaria factory in Gyor, Hungary will soon be getting geothermal energy from a nearby plant being constructed in Per. When the facility is finished, Audi expects to source 82,000 megawatt hours of geothermal energy per year from it, or about six percent of its total heating needs. The clean energy helps Audi move "step by step along a path to developing a CO2-neutral production plant," says Audi's Dr. Hubert Waltl. "The mobility of the future must be CO2-neutral – and that applies not only to the use of our vehicles, but also to their production." Read more in the press release below. Supporters have begun a petition drive for the passage of an E15 ordinance in Chicago. Despite pushback from oil companies, the city council is close to passing the "Chicago Clean Air Choice Ordinance," which includes the requirement by retailers to sell the 15-percent ethanol gasoline blend in the city. The ordinance includes an exception for stations selling less than 850,000 gallons of fuel per year. More than 4,000 people have signed the petition so far, with others leaving messages to voice their opinion on the matter in opposition to Big Oil's attempt to block it. Read more at Domestic Fuel. BMW i Ventures announces strategic investment in Zendrive. - Further Increasing safety and security through innovative mobility services. New York City, NY.