AD #3756 - Tesla Steals More New Buyers Than Anyone Else; Yanfeng Makes Seating Cheaper; Isetta-Like EV Could Come to U.S.

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

While many European countries are concerned about Chinese ev imports, they have no problem with Chinese companies building vehicles in the EU. Bloomberg reports that BYD has

been contacted by the Italian government to manufactures vehicles in the country. Fiat is

really the only major automaker that builds vehicles in Italy right now, and the government wants to lure another automaker to boost jobs, but BYD isn't committed to Italy just yet. It confirmed it will open its first EU plant in Hungary

and says a second EU plant will depend on its sales. And Chinese evmaker

x Pong is also looking to expand into Italy. It currently sells vehicles in

Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Later this year it will begin

selling vehicles in Germany, France and the UK. Hey and now Xpunk says

Italy will be added to the list, but it didn't say when or what models it will sell in the country. If Cadillac really wants to grow,

it needs to get into new markets, and that's exactly what it's doing.

Cadillac sells well in China in the US, but it's unlikely to dramatically grow its sales in either of those markets, and so it's looking to Europe as its best opportunity to find more customers. It's already selling the Lyric in Switzerland,

where it retails for over ninety three thousand dollars, and now it's going into France and Germany is likely to be next on the list. But rather

than establish a dealer network, it's using a direct sales model that will reduce the time and expense of re establishing itself in the EU market. General Motors

pretty much got out of the EU market in twenty seventeen, and it sees battery electric cars as its opportunity to get back in. This also helps explain

GM's strong interest to go into Formula one racing with Cadillac, since F one is so popular in Europe. We estimate that Cadillac sells about three hundred and

thirty five thousand cars a year globally, with one hundred and eighty three thousand sales in China, one hundred and fifty thousand, five hundred in North America, and about fifteen hundred in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, Mercedes

sells about two million cars globally a year and BMW sells two and a half million. SNP Global Mobility released its annual automotive Loyalty Awards and General Motors and

Tesla took home the top awards. GM won the overall Loyalty to Manufacture category,

while Tesla won the overall Loyalty to Make award, and that's a repeat for both companies. Tesla also won the highest conquest percentage alternative of Powertrain to

Make and the Ethnic market Loyalty to Make categories, and those are repeat wins as well. The Lincoln Nautilus won the newly created overall Loyalty to Model category

and overall loyalty levels in the industry had declined the past several years, but in twenty twenty three it was zero point eight percent to fifty one percent, and S and P says it increased thanks to improve inventory levels, new products, and unique marketing initiatives. Charging an EVY battery can almost be as fast

as filling up a tank of gas. Now. Chinese automaker Liatto has demonstrated

real world sessions of its new Megavan charging from ten to eighty percent in under eleven minutes, adding five hundred kilometers or about three hundred and ten miles of range in that time. But it takes a lot of power to charge that

fast, thanks to the Megavan's eight hundred volt electronic architecture and one hundred and two kilowat hour keelan battery pack from COTL charging power peaked at over five hundred and twenty one kilowatts. For comparison, a Tesla supercharger tops out around two

hundred and fifty kilowats, and the fastest public chargers in the US are around three hundred and fifty kilowatts. So to make sure its customers get the best

charging experience, le Auto also plans to build out its own charging network, and each site will have at least one four hundred and eighty kilowat charger.

It currently has about three hundred and fifty charging spots in China, but wants to increase that to two thousand before the end of the year and ten thousand by the end of twenty twenty five. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is

making it harder for vehicles to earn its top safety pick plus and Top Safety Pick awards. The organization updated its test to evaluate backseat safety and revised its

requirements for pedestrian crash avoidance systems. But despite the tougher criteria, seventy one

models qualified for the awards. Twenty two received the Top Safety Pickplus, while

the rest earned a Top Safety Pick. The Hyundai group including Kia and Genesis

had the most with sixteen, followed by Toyota and Lexus at thirteen, and Mazda had the most Top Safety Pick Plus awards of any brand with five.

That price war in China that kicked off over a year ago looks like it's starting to spread to other parts of the world, and unless automakers figure out how to cut the cost of making their cars, any price cuts are gonna come right out of their profit margins. And the best way to cut costs

is to come up with clever designs that are cheaper to make. And here's

Young Fun's idea for a low cost seat module. The frame, foam and

covers, seatbacks, headrests, floor training console all get assembled as one unit that goes into the car. The center console houses a display screen mounted on

a goose neck, where the screen also doubles as the steering wheel. We

think it's likely the whole module lends itself to automated assembly to further bring down costs. Yan Fung is just showing this concept off to automakers, so it's

probably still a number of years away from production. Did you know Jeep has

a model without all wheel driver four by four? Up until now, the

Jeep Avenger, which is a compact crossover that it sells in Europe, only powered its front wheels, but it's launching a new four bi E version that customers can order by the end of the year. The system pairs the Avengers

one point two liters three cylinder engine, which features forty eight volt mild hybrid technology, with two twenty one kilowat or twenty eight horse power electric motors and a six speed automatic transmission. Not only will the system provide more traction,

the Avenger four YE is capable of driving solely on electric power, and just for a little extra info on the Avenger, it's also available as an IC and pure electric model, and its platform, which is also used by the Fiat five hundred eight and Nu launchia Epsilon, was developed with its Chinese joint venture partner Dong Fong, the Microlino, which is like an all electric modern day version of the Ista, could be coming to the US. Regular viewers

of this show will know that we've been following this cute little electric car ever since we first laid eyes on it at the Geneva Auto Show in twenty twenty one. The company has already started selling some versions in Europe that cost around

thirteen thousand dollars, but now it's coming out with a new, less powerful model that it would like to have in the US before the end of the year. The micro Lino Light is limited to forty five kilometers an hour or

twenty eight miles an hour, which means it could qualify as a neighborhood vehicle like all those golf carts you see roaming around Florida. In Europe, the

micro Lino Light can be leased for about one hundred and seventy dollars a month for two years. While the cyber truck is grabbing all the headlines these days,

the auto industry is actually a lot more interested in a car at the other end of the spectrum, the byd Segull, and that's because this compact or electric car comes very nicely equipped with a retail price in China of only eleven five hundred dollars. Even though it doesn't meet US crash standards. The

Seagull has stunned auto executives with its level of execution and low price. So

how did BYD pull it off? Well, we just got a chance to

test drive the car, and Tarry Wachowski, the president of Caresoft, pointed out one of the reasons why BYD's costs are so low. Another thing very

interesting here the headlamps made in house. And that's one of the secrets to

BYD, Right, they're very vertically integrated. I think that's the secret sauce,

to be honest with you, is it's incredibly vertically integrated. When you

look at the car in totality, you know it starts with the batteries LFP blade batteries. They make them, well, they make a million cell phone

batteries and either will make batteries for the car and leverage your expertise in making these batteries. The electric motor made by BYD. These headlamps, you can

see the logo in the lamp is a very attractive lamp. By the way,

the front facia made in house. The rear facia maid in house,

the door trim panels maiden house, the IP is made by bid, the council is made by a bid. So all these things that typically you know

you'd have a supply base in loop, but then they're also in the value chain and they have their own pricing and markup and margins to meet and such things. Here they've just integrated that all. And by the way, you

can watch that entire video on our website or on our YouTube channel. But

that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline a

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AD #3756 - Tesla Steals More New Buyers Than Anyone Else; Yanfeng Makes Seating Cheaper; Isetta-Like EV Could Come to U.S.

Cadillac Lyric

Lincoln Nautilus

Hyundai Genesis

Dodge Avenger

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