AD #3763 - Tesla Berlin Down Longer Than Expected; GM Closer to Offering Military Vehicles to UAE; Rivian Cuts Shift on Efficiency Gains
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
The attack by extreme environmentalists that shut down Tesla Berlin is going to take a bit longer to fix than originally expected. Tesla says the plant will be
shut down at least until the end of next week. That means the plant
will lose at least two weeks of production, which would equate to about twelve thousand vehicles. We estimate that represents lost revenue of about six hundred million dollars.
Tesla might be able to make up some of that loss production with overtime, but the plant was already running flat out, so it could take many months to make up for that loss production. Japanese auto makers have benefited greatly
from the week yen over the last few years, but the days of easy money may be about to start fading away. The Bank of Japan is considering
raising interest rates from the extremely low levels. Get this, a ten year
bond yield is at zero percent and short term interest rates are actually negative, which means the bank pays you to borrow money since it made no sense to invest in the yen. It plummeted in value over the last four years,
it fell thirty percent against the dollar, and that week, yen helped Japanese automakers export cars at lower prices, and it bolstered their bottom lines thanks to extremely favorable FORIGN exchange rates. But even just a hint that the Bank at
Japan might raise interest rates spook the stock markets. Toyota stock dropped almost three
percent on the news, Honda dropped almost four percent, Nissan was down five point six percent, and Mazda was down more than six percent. That's quite
an impact, and it shows just how much investors are worried about a stronger YEA and hurting the car companies. There's so much focus on all the automotive
investment pouring into Mexico that everyone's missing out how much investment is also pouring into Brazil. General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Stilantis are making
mega investments in the country. GM will invest one point four billion dollars,
Toyota is good for two point two billion, VW is going in with one point eight billion, Hondai will spend over a billion bucks, and Stilantis will plunk down more than six billion dollars over the next five years. All together,
that's well over twelve billion dollars. Brazil initiated a new decarbonization program called
Mover, and the automakers are reacting to that plan. Some of that investment
will go into making electric cars, but since more than eighty percent of the vehicle sold in Brazil run on ethanol, most of it will go into making what are called bio high or hybrids that run on ethanol. We want to
know what drives your testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics, Remote Testing Intrepid Control
Systems is here to help you work from anywhere Intrepid control systems driven by your data. For the first time ever, the Military Product arm of General Motors
sent a vehicle to the Summer trials in the United Arab Emirates, which is a pretty demanding on an off road test. The Infantry Squad Vehicle or ISV
from GM Defense had to travel nearly two thousand kilometers or over twelve hundred miles across highways, sand dunes, and rocky trails, sometimes loaded to its maximum payload, but it was able to finish and received its certification of Completion, which is one of the steps required to see if the ISV can meet the technical and tactical needs of UAE armed forces and other regional countries. Just over
a year ago, GM Defense signed a cooperation agreement with an entity of the UAE government to eventually deliver solutions to military, security and government customers from the region, and this is part of GM's larger goal to see if its defense unit can generate a billion dollars a year in revenue by the end of the decade. Valvo Trucks dominates the electric heavy duty segment in Europe. It ended
last year with a nearly fifty percent share of the market and total sales were up two hundred and fifty six percent, But it's not as impressive as you might think. Valvo Trucks doesn't give the exact number of electric heavy duty trucks
it sold in Europe. However, it does give its global sales number,
which was one thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven units in twenty twenty three, so that means with some number less than one thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven, Valvo Trucks was able to claim nearly half of the EV heavy duty truck segment in Europe. By comparison, it sold over one hundred and
forty three thousand, four hundred gas and diesel trucks globally last year. Automakers
are saying that the public has to be on board with any drunk driving detection technology that's mandated, or it's going to fail. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation,
a lobbying group that represents most automakers in the US, told NITZA that technology and cars that can detect drunk drivers quote, becomes a point if it's not accompanied with public awareness and acceptance. The Infrastructure Law from twenty twenty one
mandated that NITSA must issue a final rule by the middle of November to require that new vehicles must be equipped with technology to prevent drunk people from driving.
NITSA is still trying to figure out what the standards will be once it issues the final rule. It has to be standard equipment in all new passenger vehicles
by twenty twenty seven, but the suppliers who are developing the technology told Autoline they're skeptical it will be ready by then. Rivian is cutting the third shift
at its plant in Normal, Illinois, but it's not laying off any of the about eight thousand people it has at the plant. Rivian is shutting down
the facility next week to retool it for greater efficiency and lower cost, and with that greater efficiency, it says it doesn't need the third shift. Even
so, Rivian said that production at the plant will remain flat this year and it only expects to build fifty seven thousand vehicles. Tesla is dipping its toes
into the commercial side of the business with its passenger evs. It developed a
two seat version of the model Y for France that has over twenty one hundred liters or about seventy six cubic feet of cargo space in five hundred and sixty five kilometers of range, which is about thirty kilometers or over eighteen miles of range, more than versions with the second row. In France, commercial vehicles
with two or three seats don't have to pay the vehicle tax, which is twenty percent where it can. Tesla has already started replacing Chevy and Mercedes mobile
service vans with its own models, so we could probably see similar vehicle upgrades in France. In other Tesla news, it's offering a bunch of free supercharger
miles to anyone in the US who trades in a vehicle to lease or buy a new Tesla before the end of the quarter in March. Those that lease
will get five thousand free supercharger miles, and it's double that or ten thousand miles for those that buy. We typically see a significant bump in Tesla sales
at the end of every quarter, and one way it does that is with incentives like these. Chinese automakers continue to expand globally. Great Wall Motor is
jumping into the luxury suv segment in South Africa with a model called the Tank three hundred, becoming the first Chinese automaker to sell a luxury suv in the country. But great Wall is no stranger to South Africa. It's been selling
vehicles there for seventeen years. And that brings us to the end of today's
show. But don't forget to tune into auto Line after hours at three pm
Eastern Time today to see if John and his guests can't figure out this affordability problem for automakers. Thanks and I hope to see you there. Auto Line
Daily is brought to you by bridge Stone Solutions for your journey and by Intrepid Control Systems. Over the air Engineering Boost your game,
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