AD #3711 - Nissan Ariya in Production Hell; BYD to Sell Cars in Mexican Department Stores; Cybertruck Windshield Costs $1,900

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Tesla is losing the full federal tax credit on some versions of the Model three at the beginning of next year, and the Model Why is likely following.

Tesla says reductions are likely for the electric suv, but at this moment in time, we don't know what versions will lose the credit and whether it will just be half or the full credit. However, it's very likely that

the Y uses the same battery Slash battery supplier that disqualifies some versions of the three from the full credit, so we expect to see the same with the Why. At the beginning of next year, battery mineral and component requirements for

evs to qualify for the credit goes up by ten percent. The requirement for

critical minerals goes from forty to fifty percent, which represents one half of the federal credit, while the other half is battery component HINTS, which goes from fifty to sixty percent. And by the way, a lot of people are

wondering if Tesla is importing Chinese made threes and wise to the US. We

don't think that's happening, But if you ever wanted to find out for yourself, just check out the vin All vehicles that are made by Tesla and China have a VN that starts with the letter L. Speaking of Tesla, the

online parts catalog for the cyber truck went live, and the price of its huge windshield and wiper blade might surprise you. The company charges nineteen hundred dollars

for the windshield, not including installation charges, and seventy five bucks for the wiper blade. While those are certainly on the higher end, they're really not

that far off from similarly priced models. For example, it's not uncommon to

pay over one thousand bucks for a windshield these days with all the cameras and sensors that are mounted behind them. Romoters is cleaning house at Cruise. It

just fired nine executives from its autonomous vehicle unit. That's in addition to CEO

and co founder Kyle Vote and its chief product officer both resigning last month.

GM said in an internal message that new leadership is necessary for Cruz to regain trust. Cruz is currently under investigation by NITZA and the California DMV because one

of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian after that person was struck by another vehicle and knocked under the av Cruz faces fines for possibly misleading investigators about that incident, and that's why Cruz suspended all of its operations in the US until it gets this resolved. In speaking of autonomous vehicles, BMW was just approved to start

testing Level three autonomous vehicles on highways in Shanghai. The license will allow the

com need to test the technology on designated roads in the city. The automaker

already announced it will offer Level three driving in Germany next year, starting with the seven series Sedan. Byd sees great opportunity in Mexico, so it's going

to sell its cars in all kinds of outlets. The Chinese evmaker partnered with

a company called Liverpool to sell cars at standalone dealerships, separate dealerships and shopping center parking lots and inside of malls that are operated by Liverpool. Byd hope

to sell five thousand cars in Mexico this year, but they're coming in at less than half of that, so Byd wants to sell fifty thousand vehicles next year by selling them in more outlets. It's also adding a new model to

the market, the Song plus pH Even though byd offers five Beev models in Mexico, it only expects pure electrics to make up twenty percent of its sales in twenty twenty four, with the Song plus plug in accounting for the rest.

Volkswagen is caught in a situation in China that it wishes would just go away. It runs a plant in China's Shinjiang Province that is home to ethnic

Wigers, and Wigers accused the Chinese government of trying to wipe out their culture, as well as forcing them to work in labor camps that are almost like prisons. The Chinese government denies all this, of course, but human rights

groups have pressured Volkswagen to prove it's not using force labor in its plan.

So VW hired a German audit firm called Loaning GmbH, which said it found no evidence of forced labor, but Reuter's reports that six executives at Loaning posted a statement on LinkedIn saying they neither support the report nor had anything to do with it, and that strongly suggests that they think this is just a whitewashing that is covering up human rights abuses. Volkswagen isn't saying a thing because it

doesn't want to upset Beijing, but we're pretty sure this issue isn't just going away. European automakers sure wish they had an industrial policy for electric vehicles that

matches what China and the United States are doing. The ACEA, or the

European Automobile Manufacturers Association, says the European auto industry is falling behind when it comes to establishing an EV supply chain, even though there have been lots of announcements to make battery sales in Europe. The ace CEA says most of the

raw materials are coming from China. Worse, it says that Europe has a

patchwork of regulations that are growing by eight or nine new regulations a year, and all that does, it says, is raise cost and slow things down.

GM announced several important management changes. Doug Parks, who was running product

development and purchasing, is retiring after a nearly forty year career. Ken Morris

is getting promoted from vice president to senior vice president and will take over product development, safety and motorsports. Josh Tavel goes from vice president of aftermarket to

Senior vice president of Energy, Storage and Propulsion R and D and Manufacturing Engineering.

Rory Harvey, currently President of North America, will now run a newly created position called Global Markets, and Marissa West, who currently runs GM Canada, will now be the President of GM North America and keep an eye on these execs when Mary Barr and Mark Royce eventually retire. This is where the

next generation of leadership will likely come from. And here's an unexpected evolution of

a long partnership. Ferrari first kicked off its partnership with tobacco company Philip Morris

in nineteen seventy three, made most famous by Marlboroughs sponsorship of the Ferrari Formula one team. But now the two are collaborating on ways to reduce the carbon

footprint of their factories in Italy. I joke that maybe they could put some

of those cigarette filters to better use, but really they're turning to electrification.

Specifically, they're looking at using more renewable energy as well as energy generation and storage. While Ferrari and Philip Morris aren't revealing exact details of the types of

systems they will integrate into their plants, we could see more projects like a plant that Ferrari built last year that produces electricity with fuel cells, which produces five percent of the energy required for producing cars in Marinello. Kia is going

back to CES for the first time in five years, and it's going to show off its strategy for PBVS, which it's now calling Platform Beyond Vehicles instead of purpose built vehicles. We expect this to include vehicles both big and small

that will move people and things and make deliveries. Kia will also show its

strategy for dedicated hardware solutions, digital technology and fleet integration. Additional evs,

including the Concept EV three and four, the EV nine, and the EV six GT will be on display as well. And by the way, Autoline

will be covering CES with daily posts about the newest technology at the show.

You know you don't see many Nissan Aria evs, do ya. That's because

it's going through production hell trying to make them. The Aria was supposed to

debut in mid twenty twenty one, but it didn't go on sale in Japan until May of twenty twenty two, and in the US, Nissan told dealers to stop taking orders, But now the company says it's worked out production bugs at the plant in Japan where it's built and things are running smoother, but even though production is rising, it's not nearly where it needs to be.

The plant is only running at two thirds capacity, so Nissan wants to add another model, and it's even looking at using gigacastings to boost efficiency. And

that brings us to the end of today's show. But don't forget to tune

into Autoline After Hours today, which goes live on our website and YouTube channel at three pm Eastern Time. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions

for Your Journey and by Intrepid Control Systems over the Air Engineering Boost your game.

At CS January ninth through twelve, twenty twenty four, Intrepid'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

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Nissan Aria

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