The episode covers major developments in the global EV market, including China's battery production surge and VW's increased investment in local EV platforms. It highlights Blink Charging's US expansion amid infrastructure needs and Ford's hefty tariff fine. The IIHS's new safety ratings reveal most partial automation systems underperform, with only Lexus scoring well. Volvo partners with Breeze Battery Technologies to speed charging, while Nissan struggles to sell 2023 Rogues, offering dealer incentives. Mercedes extends the A-Class lifespan due to high EV costs, and Morgan Olsen unveils a Canadian electric mail truck based on Rivian's platform, signaling potential collaboration.
- Smaller Chinese Automakers Form Battery JV - VW Makes Big Investment in China - Blink Tripling EV Charger Production - Ford Gets Big Fine for Evading Import Tariff - IIHS Says Partial AV Systems Aren't Good Enough - Volvo Partnership Could Reduce Charging Time by 30% - Nissan Turning to Incentives to Boost Sales - EVs Too Expensive So Mercedes Keeping A-Class Longer - Rivian Provides Base for New Canadian Mail Truck
"...ieving full electrification by twenty thirty. The Rogue is Nissan's best selling model in the US, but it'..."
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This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. So far this year, over fifty gigawatt hours of batteries have been
installed into nyvs in China, which is an increase of thirty two percent compared to last year, and the top three companies control nearly eighty percent of the market. The biggest by far is still CATL, and it just formed a
joint venture to make battery sells in Beijing for a couple of smaller Chinese automakers, BAIC and phone turned automaker Jomi announced a partnership with CATL to develop, produce, and sell lithium ion batteries for nyvs and storage devices. Together,
they'll invest roughly one hundred and forty million dollars into the new joint venture and plan to have enough capacity to power one hundred and twenty thousand vehicles a year.
So it's clearly not a massive deal, but we expect to see more partnership like this if the EV price war in China continues. That way,
the smaller automakers get the batteries that they need without having to spend as much money. VW sales in China are down by something like a million units over
the last five years, but it's pumping more money into the market to help try and turn that around. VW is boosting its investment in its joint venture
with JAC by an additional six hundred and eighty three million dollars, while JAC will invest another two hundred and twenty three million dollars as well. It also
has jvs with faw, SAIC and Xpun, but its partnership with JAC is the only one it owns a majority of. In twenty twenty, it increased
its ownership to seventy five percent. In November of last year, VW said
it planned to use more local content and develop a platform for low cost evs in China, so this fresh investment will likely go to towards those efforts.
There's government incentives to build and install EV chargers in the US, and the charging infrastructure isn't big enough to meet future evy targets, so we're not surprised to see that Blink Charging is going to triple production of its EV chargers in the US, which replaces previous plans to make chargers overseas. It announced that
it's going to build a new thirty thousand square foot production facility in Maryland with a capacity to make over fifty thousand charging units a year. Blink says it
hopes to become a key player in this rapidly expanding industry. Ford is being
slapped with a huge fine for evading US import tariffs. The company is paying
three hundred and sixty five million dollars to settle allegations that it misclassified and understated the value of hundreds of thousands of Transit connect vans that were imported from Turkey between two thousand and nine in twenty thirteen, which allowed it to avoid paying higher tariffs. The Justice Department says it's one of the largest custom penalty settlements
in recent history. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is launching a new ratings
program for partial driving automation systems to help try and push car companies to improve their safety. Out of the fourteen systems that it tested, only one,
the Lexus ls's Teammate system, received an acceptable rating, while two were de marginal and eleven were rated poor. The evaluation covered systems from BMW four,
General Motors, Genesis, Lexus, Mercedes, Benz, Nissan Tesla, and Volvo IIHS president David Harkey said most systems lacked adequate measures to prevent misuse and maintain driver focus on the road. The test highlighted deficiencies and monitoring driver attention,
attention reminders, emergency procedures, driver involvement, and adherence to safety features.
The IIHS was also concerned how quickly these systems are being integrated, but did say improvements are possible through software updates. The IIHS hopes the ratings will
lead to enhancements to reduce misuse and improve safety in the systems. Volvo is
partnering with Breathe Battery Technologies to get access to its charging software. Volvo will
integrate Breeze software into its battery management platform to optimize charging performance with faster charging times of up to thirty percent. These adaptive charging software dynamically controls the battery
in real time, significantly reducing charging times while preserving battery health in lifespan.
Vado says the partnership is part of its goal of achieving full electrification by twenty thirty. The Rogue is Nissan's best selling model in the US, but it's
having trouble selling twenty twenty three model year examples. According to Edmunds, there
are about twenty four twenty twenty three model year Rogues at Nissan dealerships, or about two thirds of Rogue inventory. To put that in perspective, twenty twenty
three Hundi Tucsons account for one point seven percent of Tucson inventory and twenty twenty three Equinoxes account for two point seven percent of the crossovers inventory at Chevy dealerships.
So to help boost sales of the Rogue, Automotive News reports that the company is offering dealers one thousand dollars for each twenty twenty three Rogue that they sell in March if they meet their sales target for the model. But the
Rogue isn't the only model Nissan is having trouble selling. Its supply of vehicles
was at one hundred and twelve days at the end of January, compared to the industry average of eighty days. So to help clear that inventory, Nissan
spent three thousand, two hundred and ten dollars per vehicle on incentives in February.
EV demand has slowed and EV prices are still relatively high, which has some automakers bringing back and extending IC programs. Mercedes was supposed to stop production
of the A class this year, but it will stick around a few more years, at least into twenty twenty six. The A Class is Mercedes entry
level car in Europe, and CEO Ola Collenius says Eves won't reach cost parity with ICs for many years, which likely factored into keeping the A class.
Americans aren't the only ones getting a new mail truck. Morgan Olsen revealed a
new right hand drive electric mail truck for postal workers in Canada. The model,
called the C two point fifty, is actually based on the Rivian Delivery Van chassis and uses Rivian's electronic architecture, but the body is installed by commercial vehicle upfitter JB. Poindexter. No word when the vehicles might go into service,
but Rivian told publication Fleet Owner that this is quote potentially the first step of a very strong partnership and that brings us to the end of today's show.
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