AD #3646 - AVs Getting Closer to Human Drivers; India Moves to Phase Out Diesels; Stellantis' 1st EV on New Platform

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

Two more days. That's the countdown to a potential UAW strike when the

current contract expires at midnight on Thursday. But we are starting to see some

more progress. Automotive News reports that the union lowered its wage demands. Instead

of a forty five percent increase, it signaled that it would settle for thirty six percent. Ford offered a sixteen percent increase, up from fifteen percent.

Stilantis made a counteroffer yesterday, and while we don't have the details, the company set it's making progress and remains committed to avoiding a strike. GM had

no comment on its counteroffer. The automakers have now put in two offers on

the table, which the union counteroffered, and we think there's one more offer to go. That final offer will probably not be made until tomorrow early on

Thursday. But when we say final offer, we mean mostly final. There's

always a bit more haggling over minor issues that takes place, and if that goes well, who knows, maybe there won't be a strike. It looks

like India is taking the first steps to get rid of diesel powered vehicles.

The country's Transport minister announced a proposal to increase attacks on diesel vehicles by ten percent and warned it could go higher if automakers don't start selling more environmentally friendly vehicles. India currently has a twenty eight percent tax on diesels, and an

additional charge is added depending on the size of the engine. Diesels have already

been falling out of favor in India, with its market share dropping to eighteen percent from fifty percent a decade ago. Stellantis revealed its first production EV based

on one of its four new EV architectures. The Pujo E three thousand and

eight rides on the Stella Medium platform, the same one used for the Dodge Charger Daytona concept. The E three thousand and eight will be available in a

number of setups. The base model will come with a single two hundred and

ten horse power electric motor, a seventy three kilowatt hour NMC battery pack, and an estimated five hundred and twenty five kilometers or three hundred and twenty six miles of range. Somehow, the dual motor version with the same battery pack

and three hundred and twenty horse power, has the same estimated range as the single motor and rounding out the EV versions is another single motor model, but it has slightly more power at two hundred and thirty horse power and a larger ninety eight kilowatt hour NMC battery pack that provides an estimated seven hundred kilometers or four hundred and thirty three miles of range. A four hundred vold electrical system

will allow DC fast charging of up to one hundred and six to kilowatts, but Stellanta says there will also be hybrid powertrains available depending on the market.

The interior of the E three thousand and eight is very futuristic looking. It's

very wedgy and angular, features a large twenty one inch floating display screen and a lot more use of fabric on the doors, dash in center console.

Production should kick off soon in France and sales will start in February of next year. If you're an automaker, how do you get more people to buy

an EV? You form a partnership with one of the public charging companies.

That's according to a study from Escalent, which set partnerships that offer custom charging programs or membership privileges and discounts appeals to people that are considering an EV.

It found that a partnership with Shell Recharge, which used to be known as Greenlots, really appealed to consumers because they likely associate it with Shell gasoline.

Intriguingly, consumers also like the idea of automakers working with tech companies to design evis like Amazon, Google, or even Facebook. Nissan is bringing back company

baseball teams in Japan. It shut down its two company back baseball clubs in

two thousand and nine during the Great Recession, but now they're coming back in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five as a way to get employees more engaged in company activities and bring people together. Nissan thinks by bringing back its baseball

teams, it will help change its corporate culture. And here's something we didn't

see coming. Chinese ev startup Expong is going to ditch its direct sales model

and use dealerships instead. It will gradually phase out its direct sales outlets and

expand the number of authorized dealers it uses to help cut operational costs and expand market coverage, especially in second and third tier cities in China. In most

parts of the world, the latest and greatest technology first gets applied to high end models, but not in China. Baojan, which is an entry level

brand under GM's Chinese joint venture, is about to launch the latest generation of its eight AS system in the new Yun Duo, which means cloud in Chinese.

And you may remember this is that new EV with those really comfy looking seats. But back to the tech. It's a level two system that allows

for hands free driving up to one hundred and thirty kilometers an hour or eighty miles an hour, automatic lane changes in even autonomous parking. While many automakers

offer similar capabilities, almost none of them offer it in a car that sells for roughly thirteen thousand to seventeen thousand dollars. So it's not just that Chinese

automakers can make evs cheaper than most companies. They can also pack them full

of the best gadgets at a better price. There's a massive amount of money

going into Tesla's new plant in Mexico. According to the governor of the state

where the plant is getting built, Tesla Innit suppliers will spend fifteen billion dollars over the next two years, which is triple what was previously announced. Tesla

hasn't announced when cars will start rolling down the line in Mexico, but last week it was reported that a couple of its suppliers said production won't start until twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven. Our autonomous cars safer than human drivers?

Not yet, but they are getting closer. That's according to the research

firm id tech X. One way to measure the safety of avs is how

many miles they can drive before they have to disengage and let a human take over. Last year, GM Cruise hit ninety six thousand miles between disengagements,

but four out of nine of those disengagements were caused by humans. Take that

out, and Cruise's AV technology can go one hundred and seventy thousand miles between disengagements. Id tech x says that's about eighty five percent as good as a

human. It also looks at the miles per collision and miles per fatality,

and while humans are still better than av's by those measures, id tech x says humans are not getting better, while avis are improving at an exponential rate and have the potential to far exceed human drivers. But we should also note

that all of Cruz's avs operate in GEO fenced areas, and that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning. In. Autoline Daily

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AD #3646 - AVs Getting Closer to Human Drivers; India Moves to Phase Out Diesels; Stellantis' 1st EV on New Platform

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