A recent attack on Tesla's Berlin plant, labeled terrorism by German officials, caused major production disruptions and power outages affecting thousands. BYD aggressively cut prices on its Seagull EV amid a fierce China price war, while Chinese EVs gain ground in Australia, challenging established automakers. Trade tensions escalate as the EU investigates Chinese EV subsidies and Senator Rubio proposes hefty US tariffs on Chinese vehicles. Nissan struggles with high fleet sales impacting profits, and US EVs see a surge in long-range models and profitable public charging stations. GM pilots hydrogen microgrid tech, and Rivian leaks details on its upcoming R2 compact EV.
Topics:tesla berlin attackbyd seagull price cutchinese ev expansioneu china ev tariffsus china vehicle tariffsnissan fleet saleslong range evsev charging profitabilitygm hydrogen microgridrivian r2 leak
- Attack on Tesla Berlin Called Terrorism - BYD Cuts Seagull Price to Only $9,700 - Chinese EVs Could Hurt Toyota and Ford in Australia - EU Preps for China EV Tariffs - Sen. Rubio - Hike China Car Tariffs By $20,000 - Nissan Fleet Sales Hit 44% Of Total - Number Of EVs with 300 Mile Range Surging - U.S. EV Chargers Surpass Breakeven Point - GM Develops Silverado FCEV - Rivian R2 Details Leak
"... full frontal assault. You know that electric BYD Seagull with a base price of only ten two hundred dollars..."
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That attack on a power station near Tesla's assembly plant in Berlin has one German politician calling it a form of terrorism, and German police believed that a note claiming responsibility by extreme environmentalists called the Volcano Group is authentic. The attack
shut down electricity to the plant and to the surrounding area, and it's going to be costly. Taesla says the plant will be shut down for at least
a week, meaning the company will lose at least six thousand units of production worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even scarier, Tesla had to go into
emergency mode to shut down aluminum smelters for giga castings before that aluminum in them solidified, which would have caused enormous damage. This was the second attack on
the electric supply to the plant, and there was a third attack on a nearby rail system, and Tesla was not the only one affected by the latest attack. Electricity was cut to tens of thousands of people in the area,
including hospitals and retirement homes, and German police are pulling out all the stops to find the culprits. We've been talking about that price war in China,
and BYD just launched a full frontal assault. You know that electric BYD Seagull
with a base price of only ten two hundred dollars, Well now it only costs nine seven hundred bucks after another five percent price cut. We don't see
any changes to its major components or hardware, so we're guessing added scale allowed BYD to cut the price. It's sold over two hundred and eighty thousand examples
of the Seagull last year, and it continues to expand the model globally where it's called the Dolphin Mini in some markets. And if you'd like to learn
more about this EV, we've got a video that gets into some of the specs other ways BYD is able to keep the price so low, and we even take it on a test drive in the parking lot. But speaking of
that global expansion of Chinese evs, they're surging in Australia, which could have a big impact on automakers like Ford and Toyota who really don't have many evs to sell the customers. Not surprisingly, BYD is leading the charge, while
Tesla was first to the market in twenty fourteen and dominated with fifty three percent of the EV segment last year. BYD has increased its share of the EV
segment to fourteen percent in just two years, and it plans to launch three new models this year, which will bring its total to six. It's also
going to expand its dealer network in Australia and MG, which is owned by Chinese automaker Saic, will add three new models to the market as well.
And sess in exporting EV's has got politicians in Europe and the US clamoring for trade restrictions. In Europe, government officials say they have evidence the Chinese government
is subsidizing EV's exported to Europe through a quote direct transfer of funds and government supplies of goods and services quote for less than adequate renumeration end quote From a legal standpoint, that's important language. The EU will start registrations of Chinese evs
at customs this week, which means they could be hit with retroactive tariffs if the EU decides to impose them. The EU says that Chinese EV imports have
increased fourteen percent since it launched its investigation last October. And if they continue
at that rate, the EU says it could harm Europe's auto industry. The
Chinese Chamber of Commerce shot back, saying it's disappointed in the EU's decision and the boost and ev imports just reflects the growing demand for Chinese evs. The
EU is expected to finish its investigation by November. Meanwhile, over in the
US, Republican Senator Marco Rubio is proposing legislation to boost tariffs on Chinese made vehicles. He wants to increase import teriffs by twenty grand, extend tariffs to
vehicles made by Chinese automakers in other countries like Mexico, and limit subsidies for evs that don't meet North American free trade rules. Even though there aren't many
Chinese made vehicles exported to the US, with this being an election year, we can expect a lot of other politicians to jump on the anti China bandwagon.
Nissan is struggling to sell new cars to retail customers in the US, so it's turning to fleet sales to keep its volume up. Selling new cars
to fleets can be an attractive business as long as it only constitutes about ten percent or less of a company sales, But Automotive News reports that last month, fleet sales accounted for forty four percent of all of Nissans sales, and that's a clear danger signal. Nissan's goal is to cut fleet sales to about
fifteen percent, but it's been running around twenty five percent until this latest surge.
When fleets like daily rental companies buy large amounts of cars, they get sold at a discount, which hurts a car company's profit margins. Worse,
the rental companies like hurtz Avis and Enterprise typically only keep a car for six to eight months and then sell them just before they hit thirty thousand miles.
Then they sell those cars, which dumps a bunch of nearly new car onto the market, which hurts the residual value of brand new cars. Clearly,
Nissan needs to boost its retail sales, and that means a lot of sales incentives could be on the way. When it comes to electric cars, Americans
seem to have a fixation on range anxiety, and so automakers are reacting to it. Bloomberg reports that there are now thirty different EV models that offer more
than three hundred miles of range or four hundred and eighty two kilometers, and that's a five hundred percent increase in long range evs over the last three years, and another twenty evs with over three hundred miles of range will hit the market this year. But the demand for longer range comes at a price.
They require bigger batteries that add a lot of cost and weight to a car.
And in a related development, public EV charging stations in the US are seeing a big surge in usage. Their utilism rate doubled last year from nine
to eighteen percent, which is actually something of a magic number because once a charging station hits a fifteen percent utilization rate, it becomes profitable, so many stations are making money for the first time. Some parts of the country have
even higher usage rates, with Illinois being the highest at twenty five percent.
Bloomberg reports that the US now has one fast charging station for about sixteen gas stations, and that by the end of last year, every fast charging court in the country was plugged in for an average of nearly five hours a day.
GM got twenty six million dollars in funding to help demonstrate real life applications of fuel cell technology. It's launching a pilot project to test out an entire
hydrogen based microgrid at a power company in the US and Georgia. Medium duty
trucks built on a similar frame to the Chevy Silverado fifty five hundred will be used for the test, and they feature a hydrotech fuel cell system which produces up to three hundred kilowatts of power and over three hundred miles of driving range.
They also operate on a native eight hundred volt architecture and have a nineteen thousand, five hundred pound gross vehicle weight rating. Fuel Cell powered EVY chargers
to charge up other electric vehicles at the company will be used as well, but we think the most important part of the test is on site hydrogen generation.
GM partnered with Nell Hydrogen to incorporate its electrilizers into the microgrid, which can produce green hydrogen for the vehicles, and a recent guest on Autoline after Hours thinks producing hydrogen on site could be a big business in the future.
Larry Burns, former head of R and D at GM and someone who led groundbreaking work on fuel cells, sees a day when Amazon produces hydrogen at its distribution centers and then brings canisters right to you. Not only for your car,
but for your home as well. Rivian will reveal its new R two
compact crossover tomorrow, but some details about the model have already leaked. A
test led Rivian owner posted on x that he found source code data on Rivian's website with info about the ev It says it will have a starting price of forty seven five hundred dollars before shipping, a range of three hundred and thirty miles, and it will be about the same size as a Tesla model Y.
Other details include a maximum ground clearance of nine point eight inches, a zero to sixty time of three seconds, and seating for up to five people.
Rivian declined to comment on the leak, but the R two goes into production in twenty twenty six at Rivian's new plant in Georgia that's still under construction.
Even though there's a price war raging in China, in the US, there's a problem with affordability. So how does the auto win resolve it.
Be sure to tune in to Autoline after hours tomorrow when Jim Hall, Jack Keebler, and Chris Thomas tackle the problem. We invite you to learn about
who they are and what they have to say, well, that's a wrap for this show. Thanks for making autoline a part of your day. Auto
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