AD #3589 - Car Repair Prices Probably Going Up; EV Registrations Up; VW to Axe Models, Share More Platforms

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

Testless sales shot up fifty two percent in the US market in the first four months of the year. That's based on registration data from Experience that was

reported by Automotive News. The model Y was up ninety nine percent, for

three was up twenty eight percent, the AX was up fifteen percent, while the Model S dropped sixty seven percent. One reason for the big jump is

that certain Tesla models now qualify for the full seventy five hundred dollars tax credit.

Experienced data shows that registrations of evs from all automakers in the US grew seventy two percent for a total of three hundred and forty eight thousand, two hundred and fifty eight units, accounting for seven percent of all vehicles sold.

And that's up from four point four percent for the same period a year ago.

And along lines, JD Power released its latest consumer survey that measures how likely they are to buy an EV. It found that about twenty six percent

said they are very likely to get an EV, which is slightly higher than a year ago. About thirty five percent said they are somewhat likely to get

one. On the other side, twenty percent said they were very unlikely to

get an EV and nineteen percent said they were somewhat unlikely. And by the

way, we're going to dig a lot deeper into that survey on autoline after Hours this afternoon, we've got Brent Gruber, JD Power's executive director of Global Automotive, coming on the show, as well as Tom Maloney, who's an expert on EV charging. Some of the topics for the show include GM and

Ford going with Tesla's charging system, as well as Toyota's pivot to evs.

And that show goes live at three pm Eastern Time. With nearly every oem

making commitments to carbon neutrality, we're seeing a greater focus on reducing emissions that includes pretty much all things EV. And we've heard a lot about cleaning up

manufacturing plants, and now they're going after another big polluter, tires. All

the little flex of rubber that scrub off your car's shoes every day leach toxins into the ground and water. So tire makers like Continental have developed rubber compounds

that feature more sustainable materials. In fact, Continental claims it's the first to

launch a tire with a large amount of renewables. Its new Ultra Contact NXT

tire, which has up to sixty five percent sustainable materials, goes on sale in Europe next month. Some of that material includes rubber ground up from US

tires and polyester fibers made from old plastic bottles that it uses to help reinforce the tire, but manufacturers are going to have to do more. All tires

are still made with a chemical called six PPD, which is used to reduce cracking and tire rubber, but it's also the most harmful to the environment.

Reuters reports that the state of California is expected to tell tire makers later this year that they have to show that they're looking into alternative materials, and a US startup called Carbon Rivers may have the answer. Graphene nanoflakes. Graphene is

a carbon material that's strong, flexible, and thermally conductive, but it's also a nert and won't react negatively with the environment. Early test show that graphing

could replace most or all six PPD, and Carbon Rivers says it can be added to tires at a very low price. Testing with regulators could start as

soon as Q one of next year, and while it's not doing commercial testing with tire makers yet, the startup says tires with graphing nanoflakes could be on the road as soon as twenty twenty five. 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.

Use car prices in the US sword to all time highs when inventory got tied over the last three years, but they're expected to come down in the coming months. According to data from Mannheim and black Book, use car prices at

auctions dropped over the last two months, and that trend is expected to continue.

Use car prices are a big factor in how inflation is calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so as use car prices come down, so will the rate of inflation, which dropped to a four percent annual rate last month.

As we reported earlier this week, pension funds in the US and EU wanted to oust Akio Toyota as chairman of Toyota because they're unhappy with the company's evy strategy. And that snowball we were talking about is definitely a little puddle

now. At the vote the other day, shareholders did overwhelmingly vote to keep

Akio, but his support is declining. Last year he received ninety six percent

of the vote, but this year that dropped to eighty five percent. The

automaker revealed a bunch of information about its EVY efforts before the vote, seemingly to convince skeptic shareholders that it's serious about embracing evs, but obviously that didn't sway everyone's opinion. As we reported yesterday, the Volkswagen brand wants to boost

its earnings by ten billion euros by twenty twenty six in order to achieve a return on sales of six and a half percent. It also needs to invest

in future technologies. To hit those marks, it will focus on high volume

models and get rid of slow selling ones like the Ardon. It will also

cut model variants and reduce the number of option packages, which will reduce build complexity, and it's already started on the efforts. For example, the new

seven electric sedan has ninety nine percent fewer configuration options than the Golf. The

VW group also wants its different brands to share more assembly plants and boost the number of shared platforms. Electric vehicles perform really well in a lot of driving

situations, but they're still not well suited for hauling heavy loads or towing heavy trailers over long distances, and that's why automakers keep investing in their piston engines for heavy duty pickup trucks and full size SUVs. And yesterday, Ford showed

off its new six point eight Leader gasoline V eight, which replaces six point two Leader unit. The new engine develops four hundred and five horsepower and four

hundred and forty five pound feet of torque. It's actually a destroked version of

the seven point three liter V eight, but it gets new pistons, rings, and water manifold. Ford also updated it's six point seven liter diesel with

a bigger fuel pump with higher pressure and increase the fuel rate through the injectors by six percent. It dropped the compression ratio slightly to allow for more turbo

boost, and it added liquid cooling for the turbo compressor housing. Interestingly,

the lower part of the exhaust manifold is cast into the head, while the upper part is cast into the valve cover. There are two versions of the

diesel. The base one develops four hundred and seventy five horsepower and one thousand

and fifty pound feet of torque, while a high output version cranks out five hundred horse power and twelve hundred pound feet. The F four fifty super duty

pickup with the diesel and Ford's ten R one forty transmission is now rated at eight thousand pounds for payload, or it can tow a forty thousand pound trailer.

And I don't know how I miss this, and truthfully, I'm kicking myself for not catching it sooner. But on Tuesday, Nitza sent a letter

to automakers telling them not to comply with a Massachusetts law that allows open remote access to a vehicle's diagnostic system. Nitza claims that some shady individual could use

this access to remotely control a vehicle, crash it or make it drive dangerously, or attack a fleet of vehicles at the same time. So why was

the Massachusetts law overwhelmingly approved by voters in the first place. Some automakers started

adding what are called security gateways to their diagnostic systems. In order to get

past security, you need approval. Some automakers fought to make it hard to

get that approval, so the Massachusetts law was amended in twenty twenty to include the part about open remote access. This made it so third parties, mainly

independent repair shops, could get access to vehicle diagnostics and fix people's cars.

And I have a great fear that automakers will use this NITZA letter as an excuse to block independent repair shops from getting access to vehicle diagnostics. That's going

to give their dealers a lot more service work. It's going to be great

for dealers, but it's going to piss off a lot of customers. Repair

times are going to go up, and so will prices if this happens.

However, there is hope automakers don't have to block access to their vehicles.

Even with the systems right now that use security gateways, automakers have the ability to pick and choose who gets in and who doesn't, so you could know that you're getting the most trustworthy people. This creates more work for the independent

shops, but at least it doesn't mean the end of them altogether. And

if you feel like I'm a little more passionate about this subject than others, you're damn right. I was an automotive tech for over thirteen years, and

I still know a number of these folks who are mostly just really good people.

And that brings us to the end of today's show. Thank you for

tuning in. Altoline 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. At 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

AD #3589 - Car Repair Prices Probably Going Up; EV Registrations Up; VW to Axe Models, Share More Platforms

Tesla Model Y

Volkswagen Golf

About this episode

Original notes