AD #3568 - Ford Starting Direct Sales in EU; Tesla to Make Pouch Cells; GM Develops New IC Engine

This was Autolyne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

Tesla's price cuts really worked their magic in the US, especially with the Model Why. Based on registration data from Experience, Tesla's US sales shot up

thirty seven percent in the first quarter, but the Model Y was up seventy nine percent. Tesla delivered one hundred and fifty five thousand, three hundred and

sixty cars to customers, and ninety three thousand, two hundred and ninety two of them were Model Whys. The Model three was up eleven percent to fifty

two thousand, eight hundred and eighty five units. The Models fell seventy one

percent, while the X was up thirty four percent. Tesla says the Model

S sales in the US were down so much because it was exporting it to other markets, and when you zoom out and look at the entire EV segment, Experience and says over two hundred and fifty seven thousand evs were sold in the US in the first three months of the year, which suggests over a million evs will be sold in the US this year alone. Stillantis halted all

construction on its battery planting Canada. It says the Canadian government quote has not

delivered on what was agreed to close quote, and it says that in terms of the subsidies it promised to provide. The two sides are talking and Canada

believes the dispute will be resolved. Stilantis and LG Energy Solution are investing nearly

four billion dollars to build the plant near Windsor, Ontario, and it will have an annual capacity of forty five gigawatt hours. Volkswagen has a lot riding

on reviving the Scout brand in the American market, but we're going to have to wait another three and a half years before we see the results of those efforts. Auto Forecast Solutions reports that the Scout SUV will not go into production

until November of twenty twenty six. The pickup version starts in May of twenty

twenty seven. They're going to get built at a new two billion dollars assembly

plant in Blythewood, South Carolina, with a capacity to build two hundred thousand trucks a year. There's been a flurry of fuel cell announcements in the US

ever since California announced it would start banning heavy duty ice trucks in twenty thirty six, and now the European joint venture between Foresia and Michelin called Symbio, which makes hydrogen solutions for light and heavy duty vehicles, has its eyes set on the US. It's now bringing in Stellantis as an equal partner and says

the addition will boost its development across Europe as well as the US. Simbio

says it will start producing fuel cells in the second half of this year and plans to make fifty thousand a year by twenty twenty five. Stellanti CEO Carlos

Tavaras says the company will use fuel cells to complement its growing electric fleet.

We want to know what drives you're testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics, remote

testing, Intrepid Control Systems is here to help you work from anywhere. Intrepid

Control Systems driven by your data. Ford revealed the all new Transit Courier in

April, which is a small European commercial van, and now it's showing off the passenger version, which is called the Tornado Courier. Like the Transit,

it will be available as an all electric model for the first time. Ford's

still not giving the battery size, but says customers can charge from ten to eighty percent and thirty five minutes and add up to eighty seven kilometers of range in ten minutes when charging at one hundred kilowat. Power will come from a

single one hundred kilowatt or roughly one hundred and thirty four horsepower electric motor.

And even though it's a modified ice platform, there's still a small front.

But if it wasn't an EV model, in the front's place would be a turbo charged one leader gas engine. Another first for the Tornado Courier is the

addition of an active model, which is meant to give off more of an outdoorsy vibe. It has a two tone paint job, roof bars, more

black molding, and unique seat fabrics. The gas version of the new Tornado

Courier will go into production later this year and the EV version will follow in the second half of next year. Both are built in Romania and to go

along with the Tornado Courier, Reveal for It also announced a massive shakeup of its European sales operations, and the big news here is that customers will be able to make entire p is online, but if that's not their cup of tea. They can visit the dealer in person or do a combination of both.

Ford will launch new online showrooms as well as an associated smartphone app where users can take virtual test rides or book a real one, access charging, schedule service appointments, and much more. This is the so called agency model,

where the dealer no longer plays a role in the sale price of a vehicle that set by the automaker itself, including any markups or commissions, so the customer orders the card that they want and picks the dealer where they want it to show up too. Ford would like to do something similar in the

American market, but the agency model is not legal in the US. After

years of touting the superiority of cylindrical battery cells, Tesla will start making its own pouch cells. It applied for regulatory approval in China to produce the pouch

cells, as well as expand production at its Shanghai plant. It will begin

making them on a very small trial basis, having an initial annual capacity of twenty thousand amp hours, which is the same amount of power in a single model Y battery pack. Well, goodbye range anxiety or at least if you're

able to get your hands on a Zeker double one in China with CTL's quill in battery, but they're only going to make a thousand of them. The

single motor version four door hatchback with a one hundred and forty kilowatt hour battery pack delivers over one thousand kilometers of range based on China's CLTC test procedure, that's six hundred and forty one miles, and the car is priced at just under fifty eight thousand dollars. Despite GM's big bet on evs, it's still

investing in piston power. GM Authority reports that the makers developing a new two

and a half Leader turbo charged inline four cylinder dual overhead cam engine. It's

based on GM's two point seven Leader turbo and is in the final stages of development. We don't have the specks or what vehicles it will go into,

but for comparison, the two point seven Leader produces three hundred and ten horsepower and three hundred and forty eight pound feet of torque in the Chevy Silverado, and in the Colorado it delivers between two hundred and thirty seven and three hundred and ten horses. There's a lot of uncertainty in the auto industry whether consumers

will buy enough evs and so legacy automakers are hedging their bets by keeping their icy power trains up to date, and that brings us to the end of today show. Thank you for tuning in. Alto Daily is brought to you

by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey, Intrepid Control Systems over the year, Engineering boost your game, and by Scheffler We Pioneer Motion. At Scheffler We Pioneer

Motion electrifying mobility, manufacturing smart, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean. Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the world moves

AD #3568 - Ford Starting Direct Sales in EU; Tesla to Make Pouch Cells; GM Develops New IC Engine

Tesla Model Y

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