A militant environmental group attacked Tesla's Berlin plant, halting production and highlighting ongoing protests against the factory's environmental impact. Volkswagen faces lawsuits over a 2022 ship fire involving EVs, potentially raising shipping costs. Chinese EV maker Neo struggles financially amid fierce competition, while GM continues building Cruise robotaxis despite paused operations. Ford reports strong US sales growth, especially in electrified vehicles, and updates its E-Transit Van with a larger battery and faster charging. Warranty claims are rising sharply, costing automakers billions annually. Toyota buys out Panasonic’s stake in a battery joint venture, and a new platform for automotive software sales launches. Dodge reveals its new Charger will offer both electric and ICE options, with powerful specs and unique features.
Topics:tesla berlin attackvolkswagen ship fire lawsuitsneo ev financial lossesgm cruise robotaxisford ev sales growthford e-transit updateswarranty claims coststoyota battery joint ventureautomotive software marketplacedodge charger ice and ev
- Eco Militants Attack Tesla Berlin - VW AG Blamed for EV Ship Fire - NIO Sells More Cars, Loses More Money - Cruise Origins Piling Up at GM Grand Blanc - Ford U.S. EV Sales Up 33% This Year - Ford E-Transit Gets Bigger Battery, Updates - Warranties Cost OEMs Billions/Year - Toyota Buys Out Battery Subsidiary from Panasonic - GM Helps Create Software Sales Platform - Dodge Charger Offers Choice of ICE or BEV
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A militant environmental group in Germany launched an arson attack on a power station that brought Tesla's Berlin assembly plant to a standstill. A letter allegedly left behind by
militants calling themselves the Volcano group set and I quote Tesla consumes earth resources, people, workers and in return spits out six thousand SUVs, killer cars and monster trucks each week. The letter, twenty five hundred words long, also
attacked Elon Musk Police say they're investigating. Tesla wants to expand the plant and
double the capacity to a million cars a year, but environmentalists have protested against the company, cutting down trees, and some of them are actually camping out in the forest around the plant. Remember that ship with a bunch of evs
on board that burned off the coast to the Netherlands two years ago. Well,
Volkswagen is being blamed for it. It's facing a pair of lawsuits in
Germany which claim that the lithium ion battery and a Porsche tychon started that fire and caused the ship to sink with thousands of cars on board in twenty twenty two. VW is being sued by a half dozen plaintiffs, including the ship's
operator and one of the ship's insures. They say VW didn't inform them about
the danger and precautions needed to be taken to transport evs. VW isn't saying
anything, but if it loses in court, it could raise the costs for everyone shipping EV's by sea. Chinese EV maker Neo is feeling the heat from
that price war in China. It lost nearly three billion dollars last year,
even though its sales were up, and while its deliveries in the fourth quarter were up twenty five five percent, it delivered just over one hundred and sixty thousand vehicles in twenty twenty three, which was less than two thirds of its original target, and things probably won't get any better because it doesn't have any new cars on the way this year. But it is expected to unveil a
new mass market EV brand sometime this year, which could help turn things around.
But in the meantime, Neo is laying off ten percent of its workforce and could spin off some of its non core businesses. We love it when
you all send in pictures in information that we haven't seen anywhere else. And
this tidbit came from viewer Nick Thomas, who took these pictures of GM crew's Origin robotaxis that are being stored at a GM facility in Grand Blank, Michigan.
Even though General Motors stop Cruise's operations in the US, GM is clearly continuing to build the origin vehicles and store them until it starts things back up again. What surprised US is just how many of them it has. It's
hard to get an accurate count from these pictures, but there are clearly dozens and dozens and dozens of them. That means crews will be ready to quickly
expand operations once it gets the go ahead from GM. And remember, GM
wants crews to be generating a billion dollars a year in revenue by the end of next year and fifty billion by the end of the decade. And a
shout out to Nick Thomas for being our eyes and ears on this one.
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Control Systems driven by your data. Fords US sales are doing better this year
than they were last year, especially it's electrified vehicles. Last month, it
sold a little over one hundred and seventy four thousand cars, trucks and SUVs, which was an increase of ten and a half percent, but sales of PEVs and hybrids did even better. They shot up more than forty five percent
compared to last February to over eighteen thousand units, and even compared to January they were up a little over sixteen percent. For the first two months of
the year, Ford sold over thirty four thousand electrics, a gain of more than thirty three percent. And speaking of Ford evs, the E Transit Van
is getting several updates and the biggest deal is a much bigger battery is available, which has eighty nine kilowad hours of usable space compared to sixty eight kilowad hours. It provides up to one hundred and fifty nine miles of range,
an increase of twenty six percent, and low roof models high roof models see a range jump of thirty two percent. Fast charging speeds up to one hundred
and seventy six kilowatts, which can cut charging time by nearly fifty percent, and Ford also added on board power for tools and other power equipment. Pricing
for the new E transit starts at just over fifty one thousand dollars, and it may qualify for the full seventy five hundred dollars tax credit as well.
A company called Warcloud, which processes warranty claims on cars, says the volume of warrant claims is up seventeen percent, the cost is twenty eight percent higher as a percent of revenue, and it takes forty seven percent longer to process those claims than it did in twenty twenty. War Cloud blames the increase on
more technology going into cars, and it says it takes longer to repair those problems. Warranty claims, which also includes recalls, now account for one third
of a car dealer's service business, and it's overwhelming them. Seventy five percent
of the dealers that war Cloud surveyed are outsourcing the claims process to streamline the paperwork. Warantie. He claims also cost automakers of fortune. Last year,
Tesla spent one point two billion dollars, General Motors spent four billion, Ford spent four point eight billion, and Stilantis spent nine point seven billion dollars.
Toyota is becoming more vertically integrated. It's buying out the remaining roughly twenty percent
share Panasonic owned in a joint battery subsidiary called Prime Earth ev Energy, which makes batteries for its hybrid vehicles. Toyota will continue battery development with Panasonic,
and Prime Earth will also start making batteries for plug in hybrids and beeves.
It says the move allows it to respond more flexibly to the market, But we wonder if this is a move the Detroit three would be able to pull off because any wholly owned subsidiary would have to have UAW labor. They already
have the highest labor costs in the industry, and a move like this would push it even higher. US Oh, they're going to struggle to stay competitive,
especially with evs, General Motors, automotive supplier Magna and we Prolimited, a technology services and consulting company, are launching a sales platform for buying and selling automotive software called sdverse. It focuses on connecting software buyers and sellers through
a digital platform instead of the traditional captive software development approach. Sellers can list
their features and attributes, while buyers can easily search for the available software.
The platform already has several well known companies that will participate, including Renault's EV division and Peer for via NXP Semiconductors and Valayo. We've got the latest info
on the electric Dodge charger and there's a ton to talk about. And first
off, it's not just going to be electric. The new charger is built
on the stuff, a large platform which can handle different powertrains, so the choice is yours pure electric or plenty of piston power. The IC side of
the house delivers a five hundred and fifty horse power high output version of the three liter twin turbo inline six cylinder Hurricane engine, as well as a four hundred and twenty horse power version, but the IC engines are not available until early next year. The electric version start production this summer. All of them
comes standard with all wheel drive, though the front axle can be disconnected when not needed for longer driving range. They feature a four hundred volt architecture,
a nickel cobalt aluminum, one hundred point five kilowatt hour battery pack with prismatic cells, and a peak five hundred and fifty kilowatt discharge rate. At the
top of the lineup is the six hundred and seventy horse power Daytona version that will run zero to sixty miles an hour in three point three seconds. Add
a SCAT pack to it and it will do the quarter mile in eleven point five seconds. There's a Daytona RT version that comes with four hundred and ninety
six horse power, but Dodge didn't release any pricing yet. Other details include
massive sixteen inch six piston brumbo breaks up front and four piston calipers in the rear, a staggered tire and wheel combo include Goodyear Eagle F one supercar threes with three to zero fives up front and three twenty five's in the rear.
Dodge promises the electric chargers will have hellcat sound levels thanks to what it calls the Fratzonic chambered exhaust. And this is just a fraction of all the details
on the car. We'll provide a link if you'd like to learn more,
but that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline
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