AD #3582 - GM Developing New EV Architecture; Ford Quadruples BlueCruise Price; Tesla Plug Could Become Standard

This is Autolyne daily to show dedicated to enthusious of the global automotive industry.

Ford significantly raised the price of its Blue Cruise hands free driving technology, and customers are not happy about it. It costs twenty one hundred dollars for a

three year subscription on the Mustang Machee, but Ford is now charging an annual rate of eight hundred bucks to renew it. Previously, it costs two hundred

dollars annually, and there are plenty of comments on moche forums from owners upset with the price increase. Automakers are hoping to generate billions in subscription services in

the future, but as we've reported, customers aren't completely on board paying fees for extra features. Could testless charging system become the national standard in the US,

That's what some people think. Ford's deal to use Tesla's chargers starting next

year could force other charging companies like charge Point, EVgo Blink, and Electrify America to start offering Tesla's NACS or North American Charging standard as well as the current CCS or combined charging system, but it does go both ways. In

Europe, Tesla was forced by regulators to offer CCS plugs and to qualify for IRA subsidies in the US, Tesla agreed to put CCS plugs at some of its stations. So far, US subsidies for chargers are only for ccs,

but if enough charging stations include n acs, maybe that'll change. And Tesla

is going to be one of the biggest benefactors of the Inflation Reduction Act.

According to estimates from researcher Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Tesla and its battery partner Panasonic will at one point eight billion dollars in tax credits this year for producing batteries in the US, and thanks to that, an analyst at Piper Sandler says, the average price of a Tesla could fall by one hundred and twenty five dollars every quarter for the next two years and still not impact the company's margins.

GM and LG Energy are expected to get four hundred and eighty million dollars in battery production credits this year, while Ford won't receive any credits until twenty twenty five, which is when it will start battery production. The IRA hands

out ninety dollars per kilowatt hour in total for building battery packs, cells and modules in the US. And that would be about forty five hundred dollars in

credits for a vehicle with a one hundred kilowatt hour battery pack. As expected,

EV leasing is taking off in the US, and that's because lease evs are classified as commercial sales and the vehicles don't have to meet domestic content requirements under the Inflation Reduction Act to qualify for the full seventy five hundred dollar credit.

Back in December, before this loophole went into effect, the percentage of least b evs was about ten percent, but according to JD Power, that soared to forty one percent in April. And despite all our reporting on evs,

it's no secret that legacy automakers will use profits generated from selling gas burning vehicles to fund their electric futures. And GM is spending over a billion dollars

to make improvements for the next gen version of its full size pickups, some of the biggest money producers in its portfolio. It's investing in its Flint assembly

plant, where it makes the Silverado and Sierra HD to expand and buy new tools and equipment. Last year, sales of those pickups were up almost forty

percent year over year. It doesn't sound like GM is gonna make much money

on the all new Equinox EV that's coming out this fall. CEO Mary Barras

said battery costs are still too high to make profitable mass market vehicles that sell for thirty to forty thousand dollars, and GM has promised that the base Equinox EV will have a starting price right around thirty K, although the base Equinox EV is not the one that will hit the market this fall. Barra also

said the same thing as Ford CEO Jim Farley, that evs will not reach cosparity with ice vehicles until twenty thirty or later. That's when Farley expects Ford's

third gen evs to be hitting the market, and GM will probably be right along the same timetable. We originally thought GM's Altium platform would underpin its evs

for many, many years to come, and I feel that's the way it was presented to us. But Altium must not have been good enough, because

GM is already working on a new EV architecture, and its design studio in China just revealed a new Buick sedan concept called the Proxima that's made on this new architecture. And will be used for internal research. Also take note of

how the Proxima's design language has been changed from the Wildcat and Electra acts that were shown off not all that long ago. The large gallwing doors are a

nice touch as well. Presumable Legm is making improvements to its new EV architecture,

and it's probably why Bara doesn't see cost parity coming until twenty thirty or later. And one last thing, what do you think this could be on

the background monitor? In this picture it looks like it has a Chevy bow

tie and it looks low and sporty. Could GM be designing the electric corvette.

STILLANTIS is getting into car flipping. It's going to take end of life

vehicles, recover parts that it can reuse or remanufacture, and then recycle the rest. It will then take those old parts along with new ones, fix

up used vehicles at refurbishing centers, which in some cases will be old manufacturing sites, and then it will resell those vehicles. STILLANTIS is like the wheeler

dealers of automakers, and now it's expanding those activities. Stillantis is forming a

joint venture with a company called Galou to do the first part of that process.

Get end of life vehicles to tear apart. They'll start by the end

of this year in France, Belgium and Luxembourg before expanding across Europe, and they say they're open to working with other automakers. As we've reported, there's

a growing battle over AM radio in the US. Lawmakers introduced a bill last

month to prevent automakers from getting rid of AM radio and vehicles because they say it's more reliable in an emergency than cellular networks. But the Alliance for Automotive

Innovation, a lobbying group for the industry, will speak at a House panel later today to argue against the bill. Automakers say AM radio isn't necessary since

emergency alerts are sent out over several platforms. Seven automakers have gotten rid of

AM radio in their evs because they say electromagnetic interference disrupts AM signals. Ford

had planned on dropping AM but decided not to after pushback from lawmakers. Pougeot's

new interiors are gonna be wild. It calls its interior design I Cockpit and

this is the newest generation that will debut in the all new All Electric three thousand and eight cross over. This September. Overall, it's a Wedgie look

with angular and somewhat blocky components which seem imbedded into surfaces, yet contrasting materials and well defined lines helps create separation. There's also a large scallop section out

of the upper dashing doors that's highlighted with a bright mesh pattern. Rounding out

the highlights is a large floating twenty one inch display screen that combines the instrument cluster and infotainment together, and that brings us to the end of today's show.

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