AD #3551 - BYD, CATL Unveil Sodium-Ion Batteries; Li Auto 800V = 400KM in 10 Min; Farley: Ford Needs to Rethink China

This was Autoline Daily, but shows dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

Auto shows aren't what they used to be. Most automakers have pulled out,

preferring to host their own private events to launch new models. In fact,

what used to be the top auto shows in the world, Frankfurt and Geneva, don't even exist anymore. But there is one show that is still

as big and as important as they ever were, and that's the Shanghai Auto Show. It's running this week, and here are some of the highlights that

we've learned. About. Three weeks ago, STILLANTA CEO Carlos Tavrez warned that

there isn't enough lithium to build all the batteries needed for b evs. So

BYD and c ATL said, oh yeah, we'll take a look at this, and they're both going into mass production with sodium ion batteries later this year.

And those batteries don't use any lithium at all. They don't use any

nickel, manganese or cobal either, and they're not as affected as much by cold weather. CTL sodium batteries reportedly have an energy density of two hundred watt

hours per kilogram, which is better than LFP or lithium iron phosphate sodium batteries will likely be used mostly for base models or cheaper evs, but that will still offset a lot of demand for lithium. Another complaint about evs is that

they take too long to charge, but at the Shanghai Show, Chinese ev startup Lee Auto introduced an eight fast charging system that can provide an impressive four hundred kilometers or nearly two hundred and fifty miles of range in just ten minutes.

Lee Auto plans to install three hundred of the chargers along highways in China this year, and by twenty twenty five, it wants to have three thousand fast chargers covering ninety percent of highways and major cities in the country. So

if automakers are getting down to a ten minute charge today, where will it be in another five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley says the company has to

rethink what its brand is going to be in China. He says the middle

of the market in the country is completely saturated, especially with two row crossovers.

There's a ton of overcapacity and automakers in that segment are largely losing money.

We think that means Ford will have to play to its strengths in China, which would include electric commercial trucks and vans, as well as electric versions of the Mustang Broncho, Ranger and Raptor. Farley also commented on Tesla's rapidly

rising and lowering prices of its cars. He said that Elon Muska is going

to learn that refreshing your product is very important in the auto industry, and by that he means Tesla needs visual updates to its styling, not just over the air updates. God Scheffler we pioneer motion electrifying mobility, manufacturing smarter,

reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean. Scheffler pioneer's motion to advance

how the world moves. If you want to get into EV, but you

live in a condo or apartment, where are you going to plug in?

Well, Honday's working on that. It's partnering with a company called It's Electric

to test curbside charging in New York City. They're installing six charging posts in

two locations in Brooklyn that will be used by selected EV users in the area for two months after the initial test. The posts will remain operational for an

extra four months so they can study how to scale that up for wide scale use. Its Electric is partnering with building owners. It taps into the building

for electricity and share some of the charging revenue with the building owners. That

eliminates waste of time getting permits from the city or more power lines from electric utilities. The Level two chargers have between two hundred and twenty and two hundred

and forty volts and don't have charging chords attached. Instead, those are provided

to customers to keep in their cars. Its Electric installs, operates, and

maintains the chargers at no cost to the city or to the property owner.

Europe is going to ban sales of all new ices after twenty thirty five unless they only run on e fuels, so Stilantis is jumping on the e fuel bandwagon. Finalizing tasks of e fuels on twenty eight gas and diesel engine families

that were built from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty nine. That represents a total

of twenty eight million vehicles. The company is testing tailpipe emissions, startability,

engine power reliability, and the entire fuel system. E fuels can reduce CO

two emissions by up to ninety percent. But unless I've missed something, Stellantis

is missing one big part of the equation. It made no mention of any

efforts to help develop and produce e fuels, which take three times as much energy to make and cost three times as much as gasoline, and unless someone figures out how to slash those costs, e fuels are only going to be affordable for wealthy owners who want to tool around in their expensive classic cars.

Vita X, or Vehicle to Everything communication, means your car can talk to other cars or just about anything else, like traffic lights, and it could be a massive improvement in safety because it could literally prevent cars from crashing into one another. But v to X requires access to the Wi Fi network,

and Porsche is testing the system to a level we've never seen before. It

wanted to see how a vehicle's speed affects bandwidth. It found that up to

one hundred kilometers an hour or sixty two miles an hour, the data rates remain pretty constant, with upload speeds of one hundred and fifty megabits per second.

At two hundred kilometers an hour or one hundred and twenty four miles an hour, the upload speed drops to one hundred and twenty megabits per second, and it's not until quote significantly higher speeds that it really starts to decrease.

But Porsche says the upload speed is still sufficient for VI to X communication at ninety megabits per second, so that means V to X should still work just fine when you have your foot to the floor. We want to know what

drives you're testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics remote testing in trepid control systems is

here to help you work from anywhere intrepid control systems driven by your data.

Volkswagen bet big on electrics, and that bet is starting to pay off, at least in some markets. Let me explain. It delivered one hundred and

forty one thousand b evs to customers worldwide in the first three months of the year. That's up forty two from the ninety nine two hundred it's sold a

year ago. Most of the growth came from Europe, which accounted for seventy

percent of all those sales. VW sold twenty one thousand, five hundred evs

in China and fifteen thousand, seven hundred in the US. That China number

is kind of shocking. Shockingly bad. VW's EV sales actually dropped twenty five

percent in China, and those are group sales including Audie and Portia. Not

only as China the biggest car market in the world, it's VW's largest market, and it needs to sell more b evs in China than in Europe and the US combined, the Inflation Reduction Act kicked off a California gold rush to build battery plants in the US, but the Canadians didn't want to get left out, so it's providing nearly ten billion dollars to Volkswagen to build a battery plant in Saint Thomas, Ontario. That's about the same amount of money v

W would have got if it opened the plant in the US. Canada is

also talking to LG Energy Solution and stillantis for incentives for battery plants. Developing

countries with the raw materials needed to make batteries are deciding they want a piece of the action. Last year, Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits. In twenty

twenty, Indonesia banned exports of nickel or and now Chile announced it's going to nationalize its lithium industry. Chile is the second largest lithium producer globally and has

the largest lithium reserves in the world. The government won't terminate current contracts,

but over time lithium miners will have to transfer their operations to a state owned company. On top of this, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Mexico

want a band together to form a lithium consortium for even more control, and they account for more than half of the lithium reserves in the entire world.

Scheffler, which is one of our sponsors, is hitting something of a milestone.

It's going to start production of its electric hubmotors in China this year.

That will be used by at least three companies which make small municipal vehicles.

We find that interesting because no one has really had any success with hubmotors so far. Lordstown is trying, but its future looks kind of hazy. Even

so, we do think that in wheel motors have the potential for big growth because they offer up a lot of interior room, greater maneuverability, and our ideal for autonomous driving. That brings us to the end of today's show.

Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you have a great Weekend. Autoline

Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your Journey, Intrepid Control Systems, over the year Engineering boost your game, and by Scheffler we Pioneer Motion.

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AD #3551 - BYD, CATL Unveil Sodium-Ion Batteries; Li Auto 800V = 400KM in 10 Min; Farley: Ford Needs to Rethink China

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