AD #3692 - Renault’s Ampere Has Bold EV Plans; UAW Labor War Far from Over; GM Acquires Gigacasting Company

This is outline daily. The show is dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive

industry. Uh oh. The more this UAW contract voting keeps going on,

the more that union members seem to be opposed to it. At least at

General Motors. So far, only fifty two percent of GM members voted in

favor of the contract, compared to sixty six percent at Ford and eighty percent at Stilantis. Five GM locals have rejected the contract and nineteen have yet to

vote. At Ford, two locals rejected the contract and nine have yet to

vote, and at Stalantis two locals rejected it and seventeen have to vote.

So this thing is far from over. Labor expert Merrick Masters at Wayne State

University says that if GM workers reject the contract, the UAW will face serious questions. It will have to decide if it sends workers back on strike,

it will face a problem of maintaining a pattern agreement with all three Detroit automakers, and it's going to have to figure out a way to convince its members that it actually got the best contract possible. We think UAW President Sean Fain

probably raised expectations too high when he started out demanding a forty six percent raise, a return to full pensions, and a thirty two hour work week.

The bad news continues for General Motors autonomous unit Cruise. A few weeks back,

the company halted all of its driverless operations in the US, and now it's even suspending rides with drivers inside while it expands a safety review of the company. Cruise announced it's hiring a permanent safety officer and a third party expert

to do a full study of its safety operations and culture. Cruz previously hired

a third party consulting firm to investigate the root cause of an incident in October in which one of its autonomous vehicles dragged a pedestrian after they were hit by a different vehicle. That accident is also being investigated by NITSA. We think

GM CEO Mary Bara is apprehensive about any kind of safety issue because of the lessons it learned from the Ignition switch fiasco, which costs GM billions of dollars.

So maybe she's just being super careful. But while GM is pulling back

on its av operations, China is going flat out. We ride as testing

a fleet of robotaxis in Inner Mongolia. Yeah, Inner Mongolia, not the

place you'd expect. And Japang announced that it's acquiring all of ride hailing company

DD's Intelligent Vehicle assets, which includes AV technology as well as EV technology and DD's ride hailing platform. But here's some good news for General Motors. In

fact, some very good news. Reuter's reports that GM bought TEI, or

Tooling and Equipment International, which played a critical role in helping Tesla develop its giga castings. GM is using TI, which is based in Lavonia, Michigan,

to make large castings for the Cadillacs Celestic. TEI developed the way to

use three D printing to make sand molds to make the castings, so the tooling is literally dirt cheap and it can easily be modified. Reuter says GM

may have bought TI for only eighty million bucks, and the deal indicates that giga castings will play a big role in GM's future evs. The tagin automotive

technologies, we combine world class composite materials expertise with cutting edge designs because frankly, there are better ways to lightweight vehicles, So lighten up with TJ.

In Automotive Technologies the formula prove Better Mobility. Renault has some pretty lofty targets

for its new EV division, am Peer. It officially carved out and Peer

from the rest of the company two weeks ago and gave it its own diamond sh logo. And Peer will use two EV platforms to launch seven models in

the B and C segments by twenty thirty one. By twenty twenty five,

it expects to reach the break even point with its operating margin and sell roughly three hundred thousand eves. Twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight is when it

expects to reach cost parity with ice vehicles, and by twenty thirty one it hopes to sell about a million evs a year and control ten percent of the European market. One of its first all new vehicles will be the Renault five,

which will offer up to four hundred kilometers or nearly two hundred and fifty miles of range and a starting price around twenty five thousand euros. The five

will be followed by the Renault four and twenty twenty five, and then by an all new model called the quote unquote Legend, which is a compact car that will have a starting price under twenty thousand euro and Peer will also make models for Renault's other brand LP, which has at least two vehicles in the pipeline, and Dacia and alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi will get models as well.

It confirmed that it will make the Micro for Nissan, but did not say what the model for Mitsu will be. When the time comes for ampeer

to launch the second generation of its new evs, it expects even more gains.

It forecasts total variable costs to go down by forty percent, including reductions to battery, powertrain and platform costs. More streamlining will come by slashing its

number of suppliers. Around forty percent of its suppliers won't be used in the

future, but it will give the ones it does use more opportunity to invest in and develop alongside the company. But ampeer needs to make money too,

and will offer a number of services through its software to find vehicle platform with apps, connectivity, autonomous driving add ons, and charging and energy services.

It projects to generate five hundred euros per year per vehicle, and the next big step for Ampire will be an IPO. It says that would give it

the funds it needs to operate into the future, but it's already put off those IPO plans at least once, and it may not do it until the middle of next year. Toyota revealed the new Crown model for the US that

it previously teased. This is the Signia, a crossover with seating for five

that's expected to start hitting dealer lots in the summer of next year. Right

now, there's only one powertrain, Toyota's two motor hybrid system that pairs with a two and a half liter four cylinder engine. The setup makes two hundred

and forty three horse power. All wheel drive is also standard. While there's

clearly a styling difference between the Crown that's sold in the US right now and the Signia, but from what I can tell, the interiors are exactly the same. The new model will be built in Japan and then shipped to the

US, but no word on pricing yet. In other Toyota news, the

Camri is going hybrid only. The redesigned model will also use Toyota's two motor

hybrid system that pairs to a two and a half liter four cylinder engine, but in front wheel drive form, it will make two hundred and twenty five horse power, while all wheel drive versions will have two hundred and thirty two horse power. Styling is more in line with other Toyota vehicles. We see

inspiration from the Prius in the camera's new front lighting signature, and I like how it extended the slats on the air VENs into a styling element on the dash, as well as incorporating similar material from the seats and doors. Toyota

expects the new camera to start hitting showrooms in the spring of twenty twenty four.

ZAFF announced that it developed a new break by wire system without any brake fluid. Instead, it uses an electric motor at each wheel. The company

says the system them offer shorter breaking distances, better recovery of breaking energy, and lower maintenance costs. With automatic emergency braking, the breaking distance when traveling

one hundred kilometers an hour can be up to nine meters or about thirty feet shorter than a typical braking system, and evs can get up to seventeen percent more range thanks to better recuperation of energy. Formula one has always been something

of a circus, with plenty of action both on and off the track, and you may know that Michael Andretti is trying to enter the racing series in twenty twenty five, but he's been opposed by almost all the F one teams.

There are only ten teams currently in Formula one, and they're afraid that another team would only slice up the prize money even more thinly. The FIA,

or Federation of International Motorsports, already endorsed Andretti's application, but the team owners are still opposed. Andretti is backed by General Motors for a team that

would be branded Andretti Cadillac. One. Industry insider told Autoline that Mark Royce

promised GM CEO Mary Bara that he will make Cadillac a top global luxury brand again and that F one is key to making it happen. Andretti originally wanted

to launch his F one team in twenty twenty five with an engine from Alpine, which is the racing branch of Renault, but yesterday GM president Mark Royce announced that GM will build an F one engine for Andretti that will be ready in twenty twenty seven. That could be up to a billion dollar commitment on

GM's part, and it will be fascinating to see if the F one team owners are willing to put their own interests ahead of something that we think would be good for the sport. That brings us to the end of today's show.

Thanks for tuning in. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone

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