Tesla is cutting production at its Shanghai plant due to slowing sales in China, while U.S. new car sales are projected to rise over 12% in March, driven by growing inventory, price drops, and tax refunds. Ford delays its electric three-row SUV launch, causing concern among Canadian plant workers. Aston Martin appoints Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark as its new leader. Spain’s Cupra plans to enter the U.S. market with two electric crossovers by decade’s end. Nikola opens its first hydrogen refueling station for trucks in California. Ford offers a free off-road driving school for Ranger Raptor owners. Tesla’s bug bounty program rewarded hackers $200K for a major vehicle vulnerability. New 48-volt electrical tech is easing transitions for legacy automakers.
Topics:tesla production cuts chinaus new car sales growthford electric suv delayaston martin new ceocupra us market entrynikola hydrogen stationford ranger raptor driving schooltesla vehicle hacking48 volt electrical systemselectric vehicle launches
- Tesla Cuts Production in China - U.S. March Car Sales Expected to Grow 12% - Ford Canadian Workers Want Answers About Delayed EV - Aston Martin Hires Bentley Chairman as New CEO - Spain’s Cupra To Enter U.S. Market - Zeekr Launches New Electric Minivan - Nikola Opens 1st Hydrogen Station - Ford Opens Driving School for Ranger Raptor Owners - Tesla Awards Hackers for Finding New Vulnerability - Vicor Has 48-Volt Solution for Legacy Automakers
"run by Nichola's hi Labrand, which is responsible for producing, distributing, and dispensing hydrogen for its fuel cell trucks. The station is capable of fueling up to forty trucks a day, and Nikola plans to have fourteen stations operational by the end of the year. If you buy a Ranger Raptor, Ford wants you to go to school to learn how to drive it. But I mean"
"...bility in a Tesla. Tesla kicked off a forty eight volt frenzy when it announced the cyber truck uses a f..."
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Tesla's slowdown in sales in China could be turning serious. Tesla's cutting back
production at its Shanghai assembly plant by eliminating weekend shifts. Bloomberg reports that in
the first two months of the year, only half of Tesla's production in China was sold in China. The rest was exported. The fact that Tesla is
not trying to export more cars to make up for the slowdown means it didn't think there was that much export demand. Sales of new energy vehicles in China,
which includes beevs and pheas, are expected to grow twenty five percent this year, but so far Teslas sales in the country are down six percent.
Meanwhile, new car sales in the US for March are expected to come in at one and a half million units, up more than twelve percent from last year. Fleet sales will account for nenineteen point seven percent of the mix,
while evs will hit nine point one percent market share, says JD Power.
It forecasts that the Star will hit sixteen point four million units and says consumers will spend one hundred and thirty nine billion dollars on new vehicles, an all time record for the first quarter. Several things are powering sales right now.
Inventory is growing, prices are coming down, and automakers are offering more incentives.
Another thing to keep in mind is that people who have filed their taxes early are starting to get their refunds, and that always helps car sales.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Ford is delaying plans to launch a three row electric suv, and now Canadian workers at the plant where it's scheduled to be built want answers. Ford's plant in Oakville, Ontario is scheduled to
be retooled at the end of April to build the electric suv, but the plants chair at the facilit says Uniform, the union that represents Canadian workers, haven't received quote unquote official word from Ford about the upgrade since November of last year, so it's now pressing the company for answers about the delay and says it is extremely disconcerting they haven't had clarification from the company. The model was
scheduled to go on sale in twenty twenty five, but now reports say it's been delayed until the end of twenty twenty six. Ford is remaining tight lip
for now. A spokesperson told Automotive News that it doesn't comment on speculation.
Aston Martin has a new CEO. The automaker announced that it hired Bentley chairman
and CEO Adrian Hallmark as its new chief executive. Hallmark is replacing Amadeo Felisa,
who will remain CEO at Aston until Hallmark takes over no later than October first. Hallmark has been the head of Bentley since twenty eighteen, and he's
also held positions at Volkswagen and Portie. But he shouldn't get too comfortable in
his new position. Hallmark is the force CEO that Aston chairman Laurence Stroll has
hired since he took over in twenty twenty. When the elements are working against
you, being confident in your grip on the road is what really matters.
Breach through in the lens of tires, Improved acceleration in wet conditions. Coopra,
the performance brand of Spanish automaker Sayat, which itself is part of the Volkswagen Group, announced it's going to enter the US market by the end of the decade. It will launch two electric vehicles. One of those will be
the b EV version of the Forementor, which is a small crossover that it currently sells, but right now it's only available with gas and hybrid power trains.
The other model is a bigger crossover that will be built in North America, including Mexico. Cooper says it will incorporate a new distribution model for sales,
which sounds like they will initially kick off in states that have adopted the same or similar emission targets as California. Chinese automaker Zeker, which is part
of Gile, is coming out with a new vehicle called the Mix that I think looks like a modern day interpretation of the old Dustbuster minivans. It's an
interesting shape with very short front and rear body overhangs. Reports say it will
have up to a three hundred and ten kilowatt or four hundred and fifteen horsepower electric motor and CATL batteries, but no size for the pack was given.
It looks like the Mix will incorporate a number of sensors, including LIGHTAR based on its positioning for advanced driver assistance features, and that would make a lot of sense because Weimo is likely going to get a version of this model for its Robotaxi fleet through a partnership to develop with Zeker, and it's said that Weimo could launch that vehicle in the US before the end of the year.
Nikola is celebrating the opening of its first hydrogen refueling station for Class eight trucks, located in southern California in the city of Ontario. The station is being
run by Nichola's hi Labrand, which is responsible for producing, distributing, and dispensing hydrogen for its fuel cell trucks. The station is capable of fueling up
to forty trucks a day, and Nikola plans to have fourteen stations operational by the end of the year. If you buy a Ranger Raptor, Ford wants
you to go to school to learn how to drive it. But I mean
really drive it, like flat out across the desert floor, clawing up steep, rocky slopes and flying over big humps on the road. Ford built what
it calls the Ranger Raptor Assault School, a two hundred and twenty acre facility outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. The idea is to teach owners how
to use the different driving modes in all wheel drive settings to achieve maximum performance, and it has a range of off road courses to hone your skills.
There's even different courses for the range of Raptor versus the F one fifty Raptor.
Ford equip students with helmets and Hans devices and then takes them out with expert instructors to build up their skills step by step, starting out in normal mode with full stability and traction control, then moving to Sport mode, which backs out some of that stability and traction, and then going to Baja mode, which takes everything off. And here's the best thing about it. It's
free. Well, okay, nothing in life is free these days, but
the cost of the one day school is included when you buy a Raptor and all you have to do is get yourself there. Tesla pretty famously started a
bug bounty program where it pays hackers to find vulnerabilities in its vehicles, and because of one issue that was just found by a team of hackers, it paid out two hundred grand and gave away a free Tesla Model three. That
seems like a pretty big sum to me, but they were able to get into a Tesla ECU or electronic control unit and its cann bus system, which probably means they could have taken over any part of the car. What's more,
that same hacker group got one hundred grand back in January for finding a completely different vulnerability in a Tesla. Tesla kicked off a forty eight volt frenzy
when it announced the cyber truck uses a forty eight volt electrical system, but not everything on the cyber truck is forty eight volts. Some of it's still
twelve volts. It steps down the voltage where needed with a transformer. This
also means that legacy auto makers whose suppliers can't convert their components to forty eight volts quickly, can still implement forty eight volts as their suppliers make the transition.
But transformers can be bulky and heavy, So a company called Ycore uses what it calls sign application conversion that can do it with small silicon chips, and it says legacy automakers and suppliers are very interested in its technology. This
makes it much easier for them because they don't have to build their plan upind having all of the loads and the door forty eight bolts or all of the loads in the front end module forty eight bolts. They can have the local
twelve volt and as I said, you can add these to step up power.
You can also subtract these as your power needs to go down. So
as you take some of those twelve volt loads and you convert in the forty eight bolts and you need less power, you can simply use one less module.
If you want to hear more, We've got that interview on the auto Line website or on our YouTube channel, and we'll also provide the link.
But that brings us to the end of today's show and this week. Thanks
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