AD #3701 - EU Predicts Huge Jump in EV Sales; Sagging Jeep Sales Trigger Shakeup; UAW Targets All Non-Union Automakers

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

The UAW went to war with the Detroit based automakers over a new labor contract, and now it's going after all the others. UAW President Sean Fein said

he's going to organize the Japanese, Korean, and German automakers building vehicles in the US. Here's what Fain said in the latest video posted by the union.

So all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union, now it's your turn. Since we began our stand up strike, the

response from auto workers at non union companies has been overwhelming. Workers across the

country, from the West to the Midwest, and especially in the South are reaching out to join our movement and to join the UAW. Fein offered no

numbers or proof that the UAW is getting an overwhelming response from non union workers.

In the past, the uada W has said the same thing, only to lose election after election. But Fain is clearly a different union organizer,

and we expect him to launch an organization campaign very different from any of the earlier efforts. But will the UAW go after Tesla Faine says he wants to,

but last year Elon Musk famously dared the union to organize as workers and promised that Tesla would do nothing to stop it. Yesterday, at a forum

put on by The New York Times, Musk had this to say about unions, quote, I think unions naturally try to create negativity in a company and create a sort of lords and peasants situation. There are many people at Tesla

who have gone from working on the line to being in senior management. There's

no lords or peasants. Musk went on to point out that executives use the

same parking lots and eat in the same lunch air as the company's line workers, and it gives those hourly workers stock options that have made some of them millionaires. He said, if the UAW did organize Tesla, then the company

deserved it, because that would represent some sort of failure. And here's another

reason why Musk will fight any organization effort. Ford says the UAW strike last

month costs the company one point seven billion dollars and that the new contract will add eight point eight billion dollars in labor costs over the life of the contract, but let's shift away from the US and look over to Europe, where EV sales are set to take off next year thanks to low cost models.

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, EV market share will grow by forty percent twenty twenty four, which will be driven by cheaper evs equipped with LFP batteries. It predicts that the share will grow from about fourteen to fifteen percent

this year to twenty percent next year. Our dual chemistry battery packs the answer

to long distance EV driving. Our Next Energy or one put its dual chemistry

Gemini battery pack in a BMWIX and drove six hundred and eight miles or nine hundred and seventy eight kilometers on the WLTP tast That compares to a WLTP range of three hundred and eighty miles or six hundred and ten kilometers for an IX with the same battery pack that it leaves the factory with. One's Gemini battery

pack combines LFP cut which handle every day driving, together with high energy density anode free cells which take care of long distance. Those chemistries are also more

environmentally friendly with the reduction of nickel and cobalt, twenty percent less lithium, and fifty percent less graphite, which will help keep costs down as well.

But there's a few other important things to point out here. The Gemini pack

is massive. It's around one hundred and eighty five kilowod hours. The battery

from BMW is one hundred and eleven and a half kilowat hours, and you would really need to do a lot more long distance driving than you do motoring around town. The LFP cells only provide a range of around one hundred and

fifty miles. The anode free cells provide the remaining four hundred and fifty miles

to do long distances, so if you did a lot of city driving, you'd be dragging around a lot of extra battery weight that you really don't need to. Yesterday, GM announced that it was cutting its profit outlooked for the

year a little bit, but it's still going to make billions, and the refreshed versions of the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban will be some of its biggest revenue generators. Both models feature new front facias, updated front rear lighting, and

swanky new twenty four inch wheels. The interior see some changes as well,

and is highlighted by a new seventeen point seven inch center screen. The engine

lineup under the hood is mostly the same, but the Tahoe and Suburban get the new, more powerful three liter Duramac six cylinder diesel that was first launched in the Silverado pickup. Chevy also says it puts some more effort into improving

the ride and handling of the big SUVs, but interested buyers are going to have to wait, with sales not kicking off until late next year. Sales

of new vehicles in the US market are up more than eleven percent this year, but a Jeep its sales are down nine and a half percent, with six of its eight models doing worse than last year, and this is a long term trend. In twenty eighteen, Jeep sold nine hundred and seventy three

thousand vehicles in the US. Last year it was only six hundred and eighty

four thousand, and yesterday, Stalantis announced management changes at the Jeep brand.

Jim Morrison, who was running Jeep in North America, is being replaced by William Peffer, who had been running Maseratia North America. Morrison will now be

in charge of a new business unit that was just created called Jeep Performance Parts.

The changes at JEEP actually started at the beginning of this month, when the CEO of Global Jeep, Christian Muniere, was replaced by Antonio Filosa.

Jeep has been hit by a lot of competition, especially from the Ford, Bronco and Bronco Sport, but we think it may have also suffered from expanding its lineup too quickly, especially with models designed for suburban parking lots instead of off road trails. The all new, all electric Renault five won't make its

debut until next year's Geneva Auto Show in late February, but it's showing off a number of teaser pictures today. I think the coolest aspect of the design

we're seeing today is the hood. The spot where an air intake might normally

be on an ice car is now a charge indicators screen that displays the number five when it's fully charged. Renault also revealed key details like it will have

two battery packs. One is forty kilowat hours while the other is fifty two

and will provide up to four hundred kilometers or roughly two hundred and fifty miles of range. The five will support bi directional charging as well, and it's

scheduled to go on sale sometime next year with a start price around twenty five thousand euros. Everyone's complaining about the EV charging of its structure, but help

is on the way in the US, the EU and in China. The

first inductive charging public road in the US was just opened in Detroit. It

allows evs with an inductive charging receiver to pick up electricity as they drive down the road. It doesn't really recharge the battery, it just replenisters the electricity

the EV is using up. The quarter mile stretch of road features inductive coils

that were installed by an Israeli based company called Electrion. It's also installed charging

roads in Sweden, Germany, Italy and Israel. The idea is to extend

the range of evs, allowing them to use smaller batteries to cut cost.

Moving over to China, BMW and Mercedes teamed up to open a fast charging network in the country. The joint venture is aiming to build one thousand fast

charging stations with around seven thousand charging ports by the end of twenty twenty six.

The first stations will open next year, which will also be open to other brands, but BMW and Mercedes will offer its customers exclusive features and sports carmaker Lotus is launching its own branded fast chargers. It has already deployed them

in China and will open more in Europe and the Middle East next year.

The four hundred and fifty kilowatt chargers can add eighty eight and a half miles or one hundred and forty two kilometers of range to its Electra EV in just five minutes. It also showed off liquid cooled power cabinets for locations that require

high energy like highway rest stops. And lastly, Ford is teamed up with

a couple of companies to offer smart charging services to help European EV customers save money. Using a smartphone app, customers can input their desired state of charge

and departure time while charging at home. Their cars will automatically be charged using

tariffs that are designed to maximize cost savings and the use of renewable energy.

The service is available in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway early next year, starting with mock e owners. And while that brings us to

the end of today's show, don't forget to also make autoline after hours a part of your day. We think there could be big trouble looming for electric

pickups, and that debate goes live at three pm Eastern times. Auto Line

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