AD #3704 - Ford's EVs Post Strong Sales Gains; GM's Barra Undecided on Hybrids; Nordic Unions Target Tesla

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

GM CEO Mary Barra gave a debriefing to reporters at an Automotive Press Association meeting last night in Detroit, and we wanted to share some of the highlights with you. The Chevrolet Bolt EV will be back in production in twenty twenty

five, using an ultim battery pack. She said. GM has not decided

to bring back hybrids to the US market. They're still studying it. She

pointed out that GM offers hybrids in China, and Auto Line already reported that GM is developing hybrids for the South American market, so it would be easy for GM to put them back into its US lineup. But Barra is clearly

focused on evs and pointed out that the industry is still in the early phase of electrification. She said, quote, we're in the first turn of the

first lap, maybe the second turn. Evs are the endgame, and you

want to get there as fast as possible. Barrow wouldn't say anything about cruise,

except to point out that GM has two assessments of the business going on and they won't announce anything until those assessments are done, but Barr admitted GM needs to be more transparent with regulators and needs to build a better relationship with first responders and the communities where avs get deployed. Even so, she said

avs are safer than human drivers, and we expect GM to expand the number of cities where Cruz operates once those assessments are over. At the same time

that Barra seems to be unsure whether they should bring back hybrids, Ford reported that its hybrid sales shot up seventy five percent in the US market in November.

It sold over twelve thousand hybrids for the month, and it posted some good numbers with its EVS two. Sales of the f one to fifty light

being shot up one hundred and thirteen percent, with nearly forty four hundred units delivered to customers. So far this year, Lightning sales are up nearly fifty

four percent. Mustang mock e sales were up more than twenty one percent in

November, with nearly forty three hundred of them going to customers in the US.

Globally, Ford is on track to sell over one hundred thousand mock ease this year, which would be twice as much as the IC Mustang As for electric vans, sales of the E Transit fell fifty eight percent last month to only two hundred and seventy one units, but they are up six and a half percent for the year. Car sales in Germany fell six percent last month.

Sales of BEVs were down twenty two percent, while pehabs were down nearly sixty percent compared to a year ago, so they lost market share. Automakers

sold almost forty five thousand beeves, and nine percent of them were Chinese imports, but almost all the Chinese brands saw their sales drop. So while there's

a lot of consternation in Europe over Chinese beevs flooding the market, so far it hasn't happened, at least not in Germany. Unions in the Nordic countries

are showing solidarity the strike against Tesla and Sweden is spreading to Denmark. Reuter's

reports that Danish dock workers will stop off loading Swedish bound Teslas to support labor groups in Sweden. The unions are trying to force Tesla to sign collective bargaining

agreements with Mechanics and the blockade could spread even further. Transport unions in Finland

and Norway are also discussing joining the effort, and that would mean Tesla would have to import vehicles by truck from Germany at see as January ninth through twelve, twenty twenty four and trupid's looking forward to seeing you at our booth three six sixty six Las Vegas Convention Center in the West Hall. We'll be demonstrating

the latest and greatest in the software defined vehicles and zurnal architectures, automotive ethernet technologies like ten base two one s in multi gigibbit cus CS twenty twenty four Las Vegas Convention Center in West Hall, Booth three six sixty six or visit interpidcs dot com slash sales. The Fiat five hundred E will make its North

American debut in a few months or less, and the company is sharing details about the first version that will launch, called the five hundred E RED.

For those of you familiar with the European version, some of this will sound kind of similar, but it features a forty two kilowat hour battery pack in an eighty seven kilowat or one hundred and eighteen horsepower electric motor that drives the front wheels with a curb weight of roughly three thousand pounds. That setup provides

up to one one hundred and forty nine miles or two hundred and forty kilometers of range and will do zero to sixty miles per hour in eight and a half seconds. The new five hundred E is built in Italy and will be

shipped to North America. While there will be additional versions available. The five

hundred E red has a starting price of just over thirty four thousand dollars, including destination charges but not any ev incentives. Jeep is dropping the Renegade from

its lineup in the US and Canada. It's giving the model the Axe because

it wants to focus quote its resources on SUV segments in North America that continue to grow. Sales of the Renegade are down thirty five percent through the first

nine months of the year. The Compass is now the new entry level model

for the brand, and its sales are up seven percent so far this year.

The Renegade will continue to be built in Italy and Brazil and will be sold in Mexico, Europe, South America, and the Asia Pacific region.

Stillantis seems to believe strongly in fuel cells. Symbio, which is a joint

venture between Stalantis for VA Michelin, opened its first gigafactory in France to build fuel cell systems, and the units made at the plant will go all over the world. Not only will they power mid and large sized vans in Europe,

but also RAM pickups and heavy duty trucks in North America. The site

can currently make about sixteen thousand fuel cells a year, but it wants to increase that to fifty thousand by twenty twenty six. Stillantis also has plans to

build a second gigafactory with support from the European Union and French government, that would double its fuel cell production capacity to one hundred thousand units a year by twenty twenty eight. And along the same lines, BMW is testing a fleet

of hydrogen powered x fives. You may have seen these models on this channel

before, but the luxury brand is operating a fleet of one hundred of these that it will use as a test bed for future models. BMW said it

followed a similar path before coming out with its first EV, but unlike Stalantis, BMW's plans aren't as near term. It hopes to be selling hydrogen powered

vehicles, which will be built on the same platforms as its beevs, by the end of the decade, but for that to happen, it says it needs to improve things like cost and power density, and that a better infrastructure needs to be built out. There's a lot of complaints that there's not enough

EV chargers. That's why automakers are helping to grow the network. Ford's commercial

division, ford Pro, is partnering with energy company Excel Energy to install thirty thousand EV charging ports by twenty thirty, which would be used for business fleets in Excel service territories across the US. Most of the upfront costs for the

charging equipment and insulation will be offset by Excel, while ford Pro will offer charging products to Excel's business customers. They also use telematics data to promote charging

during off peak times. And speaking of EV chargers, General motors, Evygo

and Pilot Travel Centers open the first seventeen locations of their EV charging network at existing Pilot and Flying Jay locations in thirteen states. By the end of the

year, they plan to have twenty five locations with one hundred fast charging stalls, and that will grow to two hundred by the end of twenty twenty four.

Each site will have multiple stalls with up to three hundred and fifty kilowat chargers. At the end of last week, Daimler Truck's North America announced it

was going to start integrating electric semis into its own logistics operations. But it's

not just doing it in North America. This is its plan for most of

the world. A Mercedes Benz truck plant in Germany wants to electrify one hundred

percent of its delivery fleet, so somewhat uniquely, it's just going to give electric Mercedes trucks to the companies that supply to the plant. This was made

possible by a fund from the country's federal Minister for Digital and Transport. Initially,

it's giving away twelve e Actros trucks, which will make about fifty deliveries a day, but that will increase to twenty trucks. Daimler is also installing

thirty charging stations around the plant, including in a parking lot just outside of its gates. But that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks

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AD #3704 - Ford's EVs Post Strong Sales Gains; GM's Barra Undecided on Hybrids; Nordic Unions Target Tesla

Ford F-150 Lightning

Ford Mustang

Jeep Renegade

Jeep Compass

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