AD #3599 - Ford Cut 1,000 More Jobs; VW Overestimated EV Demand; Public Charging Needs a Lot More Investment

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

Last week, we reported that Ford is planning to lay off more salaried employees, but it wasn't known at the time how many employees it was planning to let go, But now we know. A source told the Detroit Free

Press that the company laid off around one thousand white collar workers, mostly engineers, across all of its divisions, and that includes its ev ice and commercial businesses. Ford says it's providing severance benefits and assistance to find new jobs outside

of the company for the workers that it laid off. Ford is trimming its

head count in order to cut costs. It laid off three thousand salaried workers

in the US last year and another thirty eight hundred more in Europe a few months back. Ford is aiming to save three billion dollars annually by the middle

of the decade. Automakers are pushing back against stricter emission rules in the US.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a lobbying group which represents the auto industry, plans to file comments to the EPA criticizing its emission's proposal. The agency

wants to limit carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles to eighty two grams per mile by twenty thirty two, and they'll ensure that around two thirds of new car sales will be evs by that time as well. But the Alliance says the cap

isn't reasonable or achievable within that time frame, and it says it will result in fewer choices for buyers and higher prices. Chinese automaker Wouling, builder of

that very popular mini EV, is launching a new commercial NEV brand called Lynxes.

It will make both hybrid and electric vehicles and says they'll come in sizes from micro to large size truck. Its first model looks like a decent sized

truck, a hybrid with a one hundred and sixty three horsepower Atkinson cycle engine and a starting price around twelve to thirteen grand. Links Has hopes to sell

a million commercial nvs a year by twenty thirty but what we find most interesting is that only half of those sales are expected in its home market. The

rest will come from outside of China, and Japan could be a popular landing spot. Foreign automakers have never really sold a lot of vehicles in Japan.

But because Japanese automakers aren't building very many evs right now, it's left the door open for the Chinese to swoop in. BYD already cracked the fortress this

year and has more models on the way. And now Chinese automakers are making

electric versions of the kinds of small commercial vehicles that are very popular in Japan.

So we'd say the threat to the entire Japanese auto industry is only growing.

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. Oh, this isn't a good sign for Volkswagen. The company

is investing billions to transition to an all electric lineup, but now it's scaling back EV production at one of its plants in Germany because demand isn't where it expected. In an interview with a German newspaper, the hat of the works

council at its end in plants said the company is can't link a shift for the next two weeks, which leads into a four week summer shutdown for EV line workers. This will affect production of the ID four and eighty seven.

The plant also produces ICE models, but those won't be affected by the shutdown.

VW is cutting EV production because demand is thirty percent below its original plan production figures, and the eight seven, which was scheduled to start running down the line in July, has now been delayed until quote later this year.

VW produces evs at three other plants in Germany. Ford revealed the new Mustang

g T four race car, and like the Mustang GT three, the GT four is based on the all new Mustang dark Horse and is being built in partnership with Canadian racing specialist Multi Matic that's the same company that also makes the four GT. The new GT four is powered by a coyote based five Leader

V eight that was developed in house by Ford Performance, but the company didn't share any of its performance numbers. Other features include multimatic DSSV dampers, paddle

shifters with pneumatic actuation, a Holinger dog green gearbox, natural fiber body panels, and a unique arrow package. The Mustang GT four will compete globally starting

next year, and in other four news, the automaker is helping people get back behind the wheel of a car after a bad accident. It's using an

adapted race simulator to train and retrain patients at a paraplegic hospital in Spain.

The simulator features the same kind of hand controls they'll use in a real vehicle, but this allows them to get used to the controls while operating in a virtual environment. And sometimes those patients are there because of a car crash,

and they might all will be scared to get back behind the wheel again, and this could be a tool for helping people like that ease back into driving.

I think it sounds like an interesting concept that seems like it would be pretty easy to adopt almost anywhere. President Biden set a goal of having half

a million public EV chargers built by twenty thirty, but the US needs significantly more chargers and investment to support the millions of evs expected on the road by the end of the decade. According to a study from the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory, which is part of the Energy Department, the US will need twenty eight million charging ports to handle thirty three million evs on the road by twenty thirty, and that includes both private and public chargers. The study says the

US needs one hundred and eighty two thousand fast chargers along highways, one million Level two public chargers, and twenty six point eight million Level one and Level two chargers installed at private homes and workplaces, and that will require a significant investment of fifty three to one hundred and twenty seven billion dollars by twenty thirty.

Currently, only about twenty four billion dollars in public and private investment has been committed to building public chargers. I love learning about cars that I've never

heard of before, so I hope you think this one is as cool as me. NSU, which is one of the brands represented in the Four Rings

of Audi, is celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and as part of the festivities, AUDI is highlighting NSU's history in a ten part series.

In the fourth episode, it's taking a look at a very rare model called the NSUP six and P ten. It was made in the late nineteen sixties

and early seventies in South America by an importer of NSU cars that was operating on its own authority, and that's why it looks nothing like the Prince one thousand that it's based on or any other NSU car of that time. The

straight body lines likely made it much easier to manufacture, and because of the body changes, the engine didn't fit under the hood, so it's mounted in the back, which means there's almost no cargo space. And before we go,

don't forget to tune into Autoline after Hours this afternoon, and hooray, I will be making my hosting debut. Now, don't worry or get too

excited. It's just for this week. While John and Gary are out,

I'm bringing on a pioneer in EV repair in training. You know, people

always say the evs need a lot less repair work, but I want to find out how true that really is, and we should get some great insight into Tesla repair as well. Also joining me on the show are Dan Neil

from The Wall Street Journal and Sam Fiorani from Auto Forecast Solutions. Tune in

live today at three pm Eastern Time. But that brings us to the end

of this show, and I hope I see you later. Autoline Daily is

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