To make cheaper EVs, Nissan takes a cue from Tesla
requests for comment. Boeing said the termination was amicable.
Chief executive officer Dave Calhoun ousted Keating, who had been at Boeing for more than 14 years, in
CORNERSTONE had helped navigate the aftermath of two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346
2021 and tapped Ojakli, a former Ford Motor Co. lobbyist, as his successor. The transition is said to have been bumpy: Ojakli and many staffers he hired are still coming up to speed on the aerospace business, according to people familiar with the matter, and so far haven’t forged ties with many lawmakers who’d advocated for Boeing in the past.
“Boeing has made significant
BOEING was long celebrated as an American industrial icon, winning a range of Washington allies and safety experience to the organization, and they are communicating transparently with government officials and policymakers every day.” Boeing was long celebrated as an American industrial icon, winning a range of allies in Washington. Yet its recent controversies could pose risks to its defense contracts, slow its commercial operations and lead to more stringent government oversight, according to lawmakers, congressional staffers and former and current company lobbyists.
The company spent $14.4 million on lobbying in 2023 and has more than 100 lobbyists and 17 government affairs firms on its payroll. Its political
BUT recent controversies could pose risks to the company’s defence contracts
changes across our leadership group since 2019, and our government operations team is no exception,” said company spokesperson Connor Greenwood. “We’ve added new leaders with significant transportation action committee is currently the second-largest corporate PAC in the US based on receipts, according to Federal Election Commission data.
“They’ve had a huge influence in DC for a long, long time,” said Ed Pierson, a former Boeing engineer who runs an aviation-safety foundation and is scheduled to testify at Wednesday’s hearing. “The whole world is questioning what they can trust from Boeing. Our legislators are finally waking up. Boeing’s protective shield has been damaged.”
Beyond Congress, Boeing is facing friction across the US government. The Federal Aviation Administration, which for decades has deputized Boeing employees to sign off on some safety matters on the agency’s behalf, has forced it to limit production. And the Justice Department has launched a criminal probe of the door-plug episode and is reviewing whether the incident constitutes a breach of a deal protecting Boeing from prosecution related to the earlier crashes.
Bradley Akubuiro, a former Boeing employee and current consultant, said its lobbyists are dealing with “a company that was already recovering from the first set of crises” from the Max crashes. Those sparked a global grounding of the aircraft and unleashed bipartisan fury on Capitol Hill, which helped cost then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg his job.
Cornerstone had a key role in containing that controversy, said four people with direct knowledge of the matter. Cornerstone lobbyists, particularly principal and director Jim Richards, helped Boeing arrange meetings with every member of Congress following the crashes, according to two of the people.
Nissan Motor Co. will use gigacasting, a manufacturing process pioneered by Tesla Inc., to make part of its electric vehicles (EVs) as the automaker joins global rivals in pursuing the innovation to cut costs.
The carmaker will use machines with about 6,000 tonnes of force to make the rear floors of EVs to be sold from fiscal 2027 onwards, according to an announcement on Tuesday. The process will reduce manufacturing costs by 10%, the company said, and is part of its broader strategy to achieve cost parity between electric and combustion engine vehicles by fiscal 2030.
Japanese carmakers are playing catchup with the likes of Tesla and Chinese giant BYD Co. to carve out a share of the global EV market. For manufacturers like Nissan, which makes Japan’s most popular EV, the high prices of battery-powered cars are proving a major hurdle to more widespread adoption.
That’s where gigacasting comes in. The process uses huge machines to cast entire sections of a chassis in a single step, replacing the need to weld together dozens of separate parts and wringing out savings of time, equipment, labour and cost. Tesla spearheaded the approach, and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. is among carmakers committing to use it.
The process is similar in principle to die-casting, which is already used to make small auto parts.
“We have been using casting boards for front air conditioner structural parts at our Tochigi plant for more than 10 years,” said Hideyuki Sakamoto, executive vicepresident for manufacturing and supply chain management. Nissan is “quite experienced in casting car structures,” he said at the company’s plant in Yokohama.
The factory houses Nissan’s all-solid-state battery pilot line, which will have initial production capacity to make batteries for 2,000 to 3,000 EVs. The carmaker has previously announced a target for an additional one million vehicle sales within three years and will introduce 30 new models, including 16 EVs.
Nissan will use gigacasting to make the rear floors of EVs to be sold from fiscal 2027 onwards