Toyota reveals an ambitious new EV strategy under its bEV Factory, shifting over half its R&D budget from ICE technology to advanced battery chemistries, including solid-state and LFP by holder batteries, aiming for faster charging and longer range. The company also plans aerodynamic improvements and streamlined manufacturing. GM continues heavy investment in profitable ICE vehicles to fund its EV transition. Renault introduces bidirectional charging technology for energy flexibility, while Ford expands EV production in Germany. Senator Joe Manchin criticizes U.S. Treasury's EV tax credit rules. Daimler launches a powerful electric heavy-duty truck, and Mercedes-Benz commits to green steel for carbon neutrality by 2039.
Topics:toyota ev strategybattery technologyev manufacturing innovationsgm ice investmentsrenault bidirectional chargingford ev productionus treasury ev tax creditsdaimler electric truckmercedes green steelautomotive industry trends
- Toyota Launches All-Out EV Effort - For Akio, It's About Saving Face - GM to Make $50 Billion on ICE Investments - Renault to Offer Bi-Directional Charging - Ford Opens BEV Factory in Klon, Germany - U.S. Treasury Scolded for EV Loopholes - Daimler Launches Long-Haul EV Semi in Europe - Mercedes Lines Up Green Steel Supplies
"... EV to come out of there will be the new Electric Explorer, which launches next year and is base based on VW..."
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Yesterday we reported that pension funds in the US and the EU want Akio Toyota thrown out as chairman of Toyota because he's been dragging his heels on supporting evs well. Today, Toyota unleashed a torrent of information about its new EV
efforts that are being developed under its new business unit called the b EV Factory.
Here's the highlights. Toyota is shifting more than half of its R and
D budget away from ICE technology. It's working on different battery chemistries and shapes,
including square batteries that will deliver one thousand kilometers of range or about six hundred and twenty miles. They'll charge from ten to eighty percent in less than
twenty minutes. Toyota is developing LFP by holder batteries, where an electrode acts
as both the anote and cathode, and that will offer twenty percent more range than today's LFP batteries, will cost forty percent less and will charge from ten to eighty percent in under thirty minutes. It's also claiming a breakthrough insolid state
batteries that solves their durability issues, and the all solid state ones will charge to eighty percent in less than ten minutes. Toyota says it wants to offer
customers all these different kinds of batteries so they can choose lower cost or higher performance. It will also use silicon CARBYE chips in its battery inverters for higher
efficiency, and the efforts go way beyond batteries. It's also using hypersonic rocket
technology to improve the aerodynamics of its evs. Toyota says it can hit a
coefficient a drag of only zero point one. Today's best cars are around zero
point two. It's shrinking the size of the rear e axle so it can
lower the roofline for better arrow and not sacrifice any rear seat head room.
Like Tesla, Toyota will use giga castings to make its evs and says they will be made from only three main components. It's going to get rid of
moving assembly lines in its factories and will use self guided shuttles for far greater flexibility. Put it all together, and Toyota says it can cut its ev
production lead time, its manufacturing processes and its investment in half. Also,
like Tesla, the b EV factory will have all of its people in one location, all reporting to one leader to improve communication and slash the time it takes to make decisions. By twenty thirty Toyota expects to be making three and
a half million b evs a year, one point seven million of which will be from the BEV factory. As we also said yesterday, there's a snowball's
chance in hell that Akio would ever be removed as chairman just because some American and European asset managers are complaining. But in Japan, saving face is embedded
deeply in the culture, so even if a small fraction of Toyota shareholders voted to remove them, it would be deeply embarrassing. Since the shareholders meeting is
tomorrow, no doubt, Toyota wanted to release all this information today to convince everyone that the critics don't know what they're talking about. GM says it's committed
to an all electric lineup by twenty thirty five, but it's investing heavily in its IC vehicles, which will bring in the profits needed to pay for those evs. Over the last week, GM announced three billion dollars in investments to
upgrade plants in North America that produce light and heavy duty pickups and SUVs.
Writers estimates that GM will produce those models for the next ten to twelve years and could earn as much as fifty billion dollars in profit during that time.
And GM's plant in Arlington, Texas, which builds its full size SUVs, is considered the most profitable plant in the world, according to an autoanalyst at Benchmark. Last year, that plant generated twenty five billion dollars in revenue and
four billion dollars in EBIT, which is nearly thirty percent of the company's total EBIT. And remember, GM also announced earlier this year that it's investing about
a billion dollars to build new engines that will go in a lot of those vehicles. God Schiffler 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. Like most automakers making evs, Renault is going to offer bidirectional
charging, which basically allows the energy stored in an EV's battery to be used for non car related activities. The Renault five, which comes out in twenty
twenty four, will be its first vehicle with this capability, but Renault says it's bidirectional charger will be available on other future evs as well. One way
to tap into the benefits of the system will require an additional power box that attaches to the home, but it's essentially the brains of the system, and it will determine whether it should recharge the battery, sell energy back to the grid, or power electronics inside the home, all while factoring in incentives from the energy market and power providers. Renault will also offer a special adapter that
plugs right into the charging socket on the vehicle and has a standard European outlet on the other side, so owners can power something right from the battery.
Ford has said it plans to make two million evs a year by twenty twenty six, and a good chunk of those are going to come from its newly opened Cologne Electric Vehicle Center in Germany. The plant was first founded in nineteen
thirty, but Ford invested two billion dollars to add a new EV production in battery assembly line, as well as new tools and equipment. The first EV
to come out of there will be the new Electric Explorer, which launches next year and is base based on VW's MB platform. The Explorer EV will be
followed by a sports crossover, and while it didn't say if it too will be MB based or not, Ford's GM in Europe previously said it would probably have two vehicles that use the platform. Ford's plant in Germany will eventually have
the capacity to make over two hundred and fifty thousand evs a year. Senator
Joe Manchin is still ticked off how the Treasury Department interpreted mineral and battery component requirements for EV tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. He says the Treasury's
guidance quote deviates from the will of Congress in at least three major respects.
First, he's upset that percentages of critical minerals sourced or produced in the US is not higher. He also argues that the Treasury's interpretation of battery materials discourages
domestic production of battery components. And Lastly, Mansion is critical that the Treasury
is allowing free trade agreements involving only battery minerals to count. He says a
true free trade agreement removes restrictions for substantially all trade and not just quote a mineral here or a mineral there. Daimler is getting ready to launch the production
all electric long haul version of its big heavy duty commercial truck that it sells in Europe, the Actros. Its official name is the Eactro six hundred,
and that number refers to its six hundred plus kilowatt hour LFP battery pack.
Range is expected to be around five hundred kilometers or three hundred and ten miles, but it doesn't say if that's what a full load or not. The
truck utilizes an eight hundred architecture, which will allow that big battery to charge from twenty to eighty percent in well under thirty minutes when using a charging station with an output of about one megawatt. The e Actro six hundred also features
a new in house developed e axle that combines two electric motors for six hundred kilowatts of output or over eight hundred horsepower. Deimler says it put the truck
through the same durability tests that it does with its diesel trucks. Mercedes Benz
has set a goal of having a net carbon neutral new car fleet by twenty thirty nine, and to help meet that target, the automaker has made deals with several steel producers to supply it with green steel. Within this decade,
Mercedes plans to use more than two hundred thousand tons of COO to reduce steel annually. Steel production creates a lot of CO two and it accounts for up
to twenty percent of the total CO two emissions in the production of an EV and that brings us to the end of today's show. Thank you for tuning
in. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey,
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