AD #3679 - EV Demand Slowing Fast; UAW Strike Costs Ford $1.3 Billion; bp Orders $100 Million of Tesla Superchargers
Autoline Daily
AD #3679 - EV Demand Slowing Fast; UAW Strike Costs Ford $1.3 Billion; bp Orders $100 Million of Tesla Superchargers
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This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry for GM and STILLANTIS. This is day forty three of the UAW strike,
and here's the latest. Reports say there's a flurry of bargaining at GM and
STILLANTIS with the union, and that could lay the groundwork for a quick resolution in a matter of days. But even a quick agreement doesn't mean that production
will resume quickly. Ford is already warning that it will take some time to
get supply and assembly lines back up to full speed, and even then, there's no guarantee that UAW workers will approve the new contract. Mac Truck and
the UAW reached a tentative deal earlier this month, but that was overwhelmingly rejected by workers, and no agreement is in sight. Even so, the fact
that the UAW president told Ford workers to go back to work before the contract was approved strong suggest he believes they will vote in favor of it, and it's no wonder why Ford wanted to settle the strike as fast as possible.
It says the strike is going to reduce its EBIT profit this year by one point three billion dollars, and that the new contract will end up increasing the cost of its vehicles by eight hundred and fifty to nine hundred dollars. Now
over to the EV segment, where automakers are starting to worry about the pace of customer demand. General Motors is delaying retooling an EV plant to make electric
pickups, and it dropped its guidance for EV sales this year. Ford is
delaying one of the battery plans it's building in Kentucky with SK and is cutting overall EV spending by twelve billion dollars. Honda and GM gave up on co
developing a low cost EV, and the CFO of Mercedes describes the EV segment as a quote pretty brutal space. An LG Energy Solution says that EV demand
may not be as high as everyone thought a year ago. Here's the problem.
Even though the EV segment is still the fastest growing in the market, is not growing as fast as last year. Moreover, there are more and
more electric models hitting the market, which is slicing up the pie into smaller pieces. Ford announced it lost one point three billion dollars on EV's in the
third quarter. But to help drive our point home, all the legacy automakers
are losing money on their evs, and the price war that Testla triggered at the beginning of the year is only making things worse. So we may be
at an inflection point where OEMs are backpedaling on their EV plans and will put more effort into hybrids and improved ic power trains until they can get their next generation electrics to the market and the public charging network becomes more widespread and reliable.
GM's autonomous unit Cruise, is having a rough week. On Tuesday,
the company was forced to stop its driverless operations in California after the state's Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its permits. It also accused the company of withholding a
video of an accident involving a pedestrian, which is being investigated by NITSA, and now the company is halting all of its driverless operations across the US.
In addition to San Francisco, Cruz had avis operating in Phoenix, Austin, and Houston. Crewe says it's not related to any new incidents, but it's
pausing its driverless operations in order to rebuild public trust and to help do that, Cruz says it will continue to operate vehicles, but with a safety driver on board. Renault is working with the supplier Valeo to develop a new generation
of electric motor that will power its future evs, scheduled to come out at the end of twenty twenty seven. They have targets of reducing the carbon footprint
and size of the unit by thirty percent while still making about the same power as Renault's Kerrent electric motors. To reach those efficiency gains, the new motor
generation, called E seven A, is being built for an eight hundred volt electronic architecture and won't use any rare earth metals by ditching permanent magnets for a wound hairpin motor design. As a result, it will be able to make
up to two hundred kilowatts or two hundred and sixty eight horse power and do it without using up more electricity. The new motor will be built at one
of Renault's factories in France. Ford took all of its EV operations and put
it under one division run by one person called Ford Model EE. Toyota is
doing the same with the BV factory, and now Hyundai is doing something similar with its designed departments. It established the Global Design Division, which will be
run by Luke Donkerwolka, the group's president and chief design officer. It will
encompass all designed departments, including Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, and will be in charge of designing future evs and mobility solutions like purpose built vehicles and EV talls. Each of the major designed departments will still have their own person in
charge of making sure that the cars look different from one another, but with the Hondai Group already sharing a common EV architecture across its brands, it makes a lot of sense for more collaboration to make the process more efficient. Oil
Giant BP is making a huge investment into testless ultra fast chargers for its BP Pulse EV charging network in the US. The company announced it placed a one
hundred million dollar order for the two hundred and fifty kilowatt chargers and will begin installing them next year, starting in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC. The chargers will be compatible with both ccs and
Tesla's NAX connectors. BP plans to invest a billion dollars by twenty thirty to
build a charging network in the US. Globally, BP has installed more than
twenty seven thousand EV charge points and plans to boost that to one hundred thousand worldwide by the end of the decade. China's x Punk not only makes electric
vehicles, but it's also developing flying cars and just revealed two new prototypes.
The first one is a two door coup that features eight rotors on its hood that can fold in and out of the vehicle. It has transparent door to
increase visibility while flying, as well as flush mounted door handles and wheel covers to improve aerodynamics. The vehicle weighs one thousand kilograms or about twenty two hundred
pounds, and it's scheduled to go on sale next year with a starting price of one hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars. The other flying car xpun revealed
is a modular concept that has a person sized electric drone inside of it that can separate from the body. The vehicle looks like a combination of a van
and truck and seats up to five people, while the drone seats two people and can be flown manually or automatically. Unlike Stalantis, Nissan doesn't have to
worry about a UAW strike, and so it will be attending this year's Semachhew in Las Vegas, which kicks off at the beginning of next week. And
the thing I like about the vehicle's Nissan is taking is that they're not the wild and crazy stuff. While that is cool, Nissan's vehicles highlight the same
kind of upgrades real owners will make, like this CenTra with a prototype Nismo suspension, Nismo wheels, and a tuned version of the car's two liter turbo engine which makes nearly one hundred and ninety horsepower in stock form, or a Frontier pickup fitted with actual Nismo off road parts. And it's even thinking about
how to upgrade the new Rogue with more prototype off road parts from Nismo, and if Nismo is anything like Jeep and Mopar, many of these prototype parts and pieces will become production components that you can buy. But that brings us
to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline a part of your
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About this episode
The episode covers the ongoing UAW strike's impact on major automakers like Ford, GM, and Stellantis, highlighting Ford's $1.3 billion loss and increased vehicle costs. It discusses slowing EV demand, with companies delaying projects and cutting spending amid fierce competition and price wars. Cruise's autonomous vehicle operations face regulatory setbacks, while Renault develops a new efficient electric motor. Automakers like Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai are consolidating EV design efforts. BP invests heavily in Tesla-compatible ultra-fast chargers, and Chinese startup Xpeng unveils innovative flying car prototypes. Nissan showcases practical Nismo upgrades at the upcoming SEMA show.
Original notes
- UAW Strike Costs Ford $1.3 Billion - EV Demand Slowing Fast - GM Cruise Stops Driverless Ops - Renault and Valeo Develop Rare-Earth Free EV Motor - Hyundai Creates New Design Department - bp Orders $100 Million of Tesla Superchargers - Xpeng Shows Off VTOLs - Nissan Reveals Three SEMA Concepts
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