AD #3773 - BEVs Far Cleaner Than ICE; Tesla Berlin Workers Deny Union Full Control; BMW Neue Klasse Cuts Pack Cost in Half

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

Automotive electrical engineers have talked up the benefits of switching to a forty eight volt electronic architecture for decades. It allows the ability to deliver much higher levels

of power to electronic devices across thinner, lighter, and lower cost wiring.

But to go to a full forty eight volt system would require everything that typically runs on power from the battery, like things like the bulbs, window motors, and wipers, to be redesigned for forty eight volts. That's what's been

holding it back until now. Tesla is pioneering a forty eight volt system on

the cyber Truck, but there's been some confusion around it, even though Tesla has confirmed it. The cyber Truck is not a full forty eight volt system.

It uses what's called a zonal architecture, which means forty eight volts runs throughout the vehicle, but clusters or zones of the vehicle uses devices to step down the forty eight volts to twelve volts so existing components can still be used.

We got an up close and exclusive look of this at Caresoft, a company that does automotive benchmarking, cost reduction, consulting, and more. The

team has already started tearing into a cyber truck and invited us in to share some of its insights. They showed us how Tesla is using light blue connectors

to indicate what's forty eight volts, so orange indicates high voltage and blue is now forty eight volts, while it looks like things like interior bulbs are still twelve volts. There's a surprising amount of blue connectors throughout the cyber truck.

And one thing we can for sure tell you that's gone forty eight volts is the motor connected to the steering column on the inside of the vehicle. Caresoft

president Terry Wachowski thinks this motor could be used to provide steering feedback to the driver, so they think the steering wheel is connected to the wheels on the road and not the steer by wire system that it actually is. And if

you want to learn more about the cyber trucks steering system, its battery pack, and extensive use of large castings, you can check out our interview with Terry Wachowski on the autoline website or YouTube channel. German union ig MATTAL lost

its bid to gain more control over Testless plant in Berlin. Workers at the

plant voted for a majority of non union members for its new works council, but the union IGATTAL still expects to take sixteen to thirty nine seats, making it the largest group in the works council. And here's how that works.

By law in Germany, workers must be represented by a works council, but it doesn't have to be a union, and different areas of the plant are represented by different leaders. Ig MATTAL wanted to get more influence over pay and

working conditions, but apparently the workforce didn't want the union to have that much power. No doubt, you've heard some people claiming that evs actually put out

higher emissions than icye vehicles, but let's put that urban legend to rest.

A study from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that the life cycle emissions of b evs are significantly lower than vehicles with internal combustion engines, up to seventy percent cleaner. It studied medium sized vehicles that are driven two hundred and fifty thousand

kilometers or one hundred and fifty five thousand miles and included factors like emissions from manufacturing and recycling batteries, emissions from generating electricity, and more. Even in

countries or areas that use a lot of coal to generate electricity, evs are cleaner than icy e vehicles. Interestingly, the study did not include emissions from

drilling, refining, and distributing petroleum products like gasoline and diesel, so b evs are even cleaner than stated here. Evs do create emissions, though,

especially in the manufacturing process, but in the US after twenty five thousand miles, evs on average become cleaner than ice vehicles. Bloomberg NEF says studies that

claim evs are dirtier rarely stand up to scrutiny. It says quote they typically

rely on outdated information about how fast the power sector is changing, old battery manufacturing data, or artificially low total vehicle mileage assumptions. Car makers in Europe

had a strong month in February. Sales were up ten percent, falling just

under a million units. More than one hundred and thirty one thousand b evs

were sold, also a ten percent gain, but hybrids were even more popular with two hundred and eighty seven thousand sales again of twenty four percent, and plug in hybrid sales were also up twelve percent. The Volkswagen groups, Delantis,

and Renault were the top three automakers in February. Intrepid's NEOVIPI allowing automotive

engineers to interface, capture, and monitor vehicle data using Raspberry Pie. As

a matter of fact, it's the automotive industry's first robust platform for Raspberry Pie, featuring Intrepid cannefting technology and Raspberry Pie compute module. The NEOVIPI is designed

for automotive environments, allowing use with relative power ranges and applications. In addition,

the NEOVIPI enables you to use the Raspberry Pie for compute while avoiding additional development to adapt to network environments. That makes the NEOVIPI powerful enough to solve

your vehicle network problems, yet small enough to fit in your backpack. One

of many Intrepid tools used for developing zonal architecture and software divined vehicles. Several

years ago, prices of platium and platinum surged, but now with more evs, prices are tumbling. The metals are used in catalytic converters, but since

evs don't have an exhaust system, demand is falling. Palladium was as high

as three thousand dollars and ounce in early twenty twenty two, but now it's down to one thousand dollars an ounce. Prices of platinum are down nine percent

so far this year after dropping eight percent in twenty twenty three, and the auto industry accounts for forty percent of platinum demand and eighty percent of palladium.

Palladium prices are expected to keep falling in the future because there isn't another industry that can help offset the drop in demand, but platinum could fare better since it's used in jewelry. BMW reported its financial results for last year, and

the numbers are a bit of a mixed bag. It sold a record two

and a half million cars, beating its previous pre COVID record. Revenue was

up nine percent to almost one hundred and eight billion euros, and its ebit was up seven point eight percent to seventeen billion, but its net profit fell nearly thirty one percent to four point three billion euros, mainly because of higher expenses and a significant drop in the results of its investments. BMW management says

it expects all these results to be slightly better this year, and interestingly, it says that sales of its high end evs like the seven series X seven and Rolls Royce Spector will drive profits higher. We also got more information on

BMW's next generation EVS, what it's calling the New Class, which will be the company's first dedicated EV platform. It will offer thirty percent more range,

thirty percent faster charging time, sixty percent lower CO two emissions from the battery manufacturing process, and a forty to fifty percent cost reduction in the EV battery pack and powertrain. Even more specifically, the wheel break and tire commodation will

save nine watt hours per kilometer. A new heat pump improves efficiency forty percent

in the winter, while the weight of the heating and cooling components were cut twenty five percent and the cost came down twenty percent. By the end of

the decade, it expects evs to account for fifty percent of its sales and it will have an EV model in every major segment of its lineup. And

sticking with BMW for the moment, it's testing out an interesting process called wire arc additive manufacturing, but really think of this like three D printing with a welder. A robot welds together aluminum wire layer by layer to build components or

tools. BMW says it works particularly well with large parts like body, drive

and chassis components, and while they come out of the machine looking a little weird, they can be lighter and stronger than die cast parts thanks to the use of generative design, which optimizes the size and shape. Parts that customers

can see would probably need to go through some sort of finishing process to remove the wavy surface, but others that are more hidden, like this upper strut tower brace might not need to be. Vehicle trials start next year and it

hopes to one day use the process with production cars. We showed you teasers

the other day, but now we've got a better look at the Kiak four, which will replace its other small cars, the fourte Seed or Serrato, depending on the market that you're in. The body surfaces are much more angular

than before, and the K four will use its lighting as a distinctive design element. The interior design appears a little more toned down to me, and

it features a layered dashboard with a thin display tucked into the upper section.

We expect to get more details on the new Kiak four when it debuts at the New Yorkado Show next week, and we've got an interesting Autoline after hours coming up later today. Mickey Bligh is the head of Global propulsion Development at

Stilantis. He'll be talking about all the work they're doing with beevs, phs

and fuel cells, but he's also a total small block V eight gearhead, and we'll learn about Stella's efforts to keep its IC power trains going until the market goes fully electric. Larry Webster from Haggarty will also be on the show,

so joined John and Gary when the show goes live on the Autoline website as well as our YouTube channel. That's a wrap for this show. Thanks

for tuning in. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for

your Journey and by Intrepid Control Systems over the air engineering boost your game.

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