Inventory levels in the US auto industry have rebounded, with EV inventories notably higher than ICE vehicles, reflecting softening EV demand. Cummins faces a record $2 billion fine for emissions violations linked to RAM trucks. The UAW is making strides in unionizing foreign automaker plants, notably Mercedes in Alabama. BMW plans to convert its Munich plant to EV production by 2027. The US is on track to meet its goal of 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030, though challenges remain. Innovations in active suspension systems and Porsche's upcoming electric Macan highlight advancements in EV technology. Kia partners with Uber for new platform vehicles tailored to ride-share fleets.
Topics:ev inventory levelsemissions violationsuaw unionization effortsbmw ev plant conversionus public ev chargersactive suspension technologyporsche electric macankia uber partnershipev demand challengesautomotive industry trends
- EV Inventory Much Higher Than ICE Inventory - Cummins Gets Hit with Record Fine - SEC Wants Money from Bankrupt Lordstown - UAW Turns Its Attention to Mercedes - BMW Converting Main Plant to EV Only - U.S. Public Charger Rollout on Track - Marelli Can Recover Energy from New Suspension System - All Porsche Macan EVs Will Have Over 500KM Range - Kia Working on Uber-Specific PBV
"...version will be made by Audi and Hungary. The new Macan is built on the PPE platform, which will be used ..."
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
The US auto industry is rebounding from inventory shortages from a few years ago.
According to Cox, automotive inventory levels are now at two point seven million vehicles, a three year high that represents a seventy one day supply. A
number of automakers have complained about softening demand for evs, and the inventory numbers bear that out. EVE inventories ended twenty twenty three at one hundred and thirteen
day supply, compared to sixty nine days for ice vehicles. Diesel engine maker
Cummins just set a record, and not in a good way. It was
hit with the biggest fine for a Clean Air Act violation of any company ever.
After court approval, Cummins will have to pay about two billion dollars for installing defeat devices and diesel engine software that went into hundreds of thousands of RAM trucks. Six hundred and thirty thousand twenty thirteen to twenty nineteen. RAM twenty
five hundred and thirty five hundred trucks had the defeat devices and another three hundred and thirty thousand twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three pickups had undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices. Our recall has already been issued for those nearly million trucks. Cummins
expects to take the roughly two billion dollar charge in the fourth quarter of this year. Speaking of paying up for government violations, the US Securities in Exchange
Commission wants Lordstown Motors, which filed for bankruptcy in June of last year, to pay forty five million dollars. The SEC says this would be for quote
monetary remedies for violations of federal securities laws that stems from evidence that Lordstown led to investors. It would be the biggest payout from an an evy startup since
Nicholas settled with the SEC for one hundred and twenty five million dollars for its own violations. However, Lordstown is seeking protection from having to pay the SEC
and says anything it does pay to the Commission will reduce any money shareholders could get back, if they get anything at all. The UAW announced its making
progress in its efforts to organize Mercedes plant in Alabama. The union says fifteen
hundred workers, or thirty percent of the workforce have signed up to join the union. UAW President Sean Fain has said he will personally hold a rally if
any non union plant reaches fifty percent enrollment, and at seventy percent, the UAW will demand that the company recognize the union or it will hold a union vote with workers. This is the second non union plant to reach the thirty
percent threshold, with VW workers in Tennessee doing some last month. The UAW
has failed to organize foreign automaker plants and EV startups for more than the past forty years, so it would be a huge victory for the union to organize any of them. And speaking of milestones, BMW's main plant in Munich,
Germany, will stop producing IC powered vehicles by the end of twenty twenty seven.
The automaker announced its investing six hundred and fifty million euros to retool the plant to only build electrics. BMW has been building ICE vehicles at that plant
since nineteen twenty two, and it will be the first factory to transition to EV only. The site will start making its new class Sedan in twenty twenty
six, and a year later it will only build evs. Last year,
EV's accounted for fifteen percent of BMW sales, and the automaker expects evs to jump to a third of its sales by twenty twenty six. The Tagent Automotive
teck Anologies. We combine world class composite materials expertise with cutting edge designs because
frankly, there are better ways to lightweight vehicles, So lighten up with Tjing Automotive Technologies the formula for Better Mobility. The US is set to achieve President
Joe Biden's goal of establishing a network of five hundred thousand public EV chargers by twenty thirty, possibly even surpassing it. According to a White House official,
the US currently has about one hundred and seventy thousand chargers, and the administration is set to award another six hundred and twenty three million dollars in grants for EV charges across the country, which is part of the twenty twenty one Infrastructure Bills two and a half billion dollar discretionary Grant program. It will fund the
construction of nearly seventy five hundred EV chargers in twenty two states. However,
there's still concern about the pace of public charger installation compared to ev demand, and a federal study suggested the need for twenty eight million charging ports by twenty thirty, requiring an investment of fifty three to one hundred and twenty seven billion dollars. To meet that goal, four hundred and fourteen chargers would have to
be installed daily over the next seven years. Remember this radical new active suspension
system from clear Motion that we showed the other day. It's scheduled to debut
on Neo's new ET nine electric car at the end of the year. And
while it looks like it's the first to market with a new active suspension, it's not the only one with a system like this. The supplier Morelli has
developed its own active electro mechanical suspension system, which is a little bit different from Clear Motion. Clear Motion system sits in the place of a normal shock
absorber or strut and uses a hydraulic pump attached to the bottom of a dampening rod to control the suspension. Morelli instead uses an electric motor with an arm
or rod attached to it to control the suspension. In the front, the
motor attaches to the upper control arm, and in the rear it connects to the lower control arm. The result should be similar to what we see with
the clear motion system, where the vehicle stays relatively stable over rough road and flattened corners. Morelli also says it could harvest and recover energy generated by the
movement of the motor, which could be used for other systems or stared in a vehicle's battery, although it doesn't say how much energy it could recover.
The all new Porscha Macon is on track to launch in the next several months, and it's going through some of its final testing right now. Porsche says
all electric versions of the crossover will have at least over five hundred kilometers or three hundred and ten miles of range, partly thanks to a drag coefficient of down to zero point twenty five, which is close to the Tesla Model Y at zero point two three. The up to four hundred and fifty kilowatt motors
for the battery electric version will be made by Audi and Hungary. The new
Macan is built on the PPE platform, which will be used by Audi as well, first on the new Q six E Tron. It's an eight hundred
volt architecture that features a battery pack with ninety five kilowatt hours of usable space in the Macan that can charge from ten to eighty percent in twenty two minutes.
Those electric motors, which are mounted on the front and rear axle of the Macan, produce over one thousand newton meters or over seven hundred and thirty five pound feet of torque. Yesterday we talked about Kia's new pbvs or Platform
Beyond vehicles, and it's already got a deal to provide them to another company.
Kia signed a memorandum of understanding with Uber to develop and offer pbvs specifically for Uber's drivers and fleets. No word yet one will see these Uber specific
vehicles, but Kia said it would launch its mid sieve PBV, the PV five, sometime next year. That brings us to the end of today's show.
Don't forget there won't be an Auto Line after hours today because John is still out at CS in Las Vegas bringing you videos and interviews of the latest technology that the auto industry has to offer, So continue to keep an eye out for those. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for
your Journey, Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air Engineering Boost your Game and by Tajun Automotive Technologies the formula for Better Mobility see Yes January ninth through twelve, twenty twenty four, and Trupid's looking forward to seeing you at our booth three six sixty sixth Las Vegas Convention Center in the West Hall. We'll be
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