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AD #3777 - Hyundai Invests $51 Billion In EVs and SDVs; BYD’s 2023 Earnings Soar; JD Power: EV Owners Not Happy with Tire Wear

Autoline Daily Mar 27, 2024 9 min

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About this episode

The episode covers major shifts in the automotive industry, including Stellantis' voluntary job cuts in Italy amid EV transition challenges and BYD's explosive growth, surpassing luxury brands with strong profits. Hyundai's $51 billion investment in EVs and software-defined vehicles highlights the industry's future focus. Other topics include Plastic Omnium's rebranding and US expansion, innovative automotive tech like Intrepid's Raspberry Pi platform and Via's adaptive LED headlights, and Neo's cutting-edge 900V drive unit for its flagship EV. JD Power's study reveals EV owners face faster tire wear, presenting new service opportunities for dealers.

Topics: stellantis job cuts byd financial growth hyundai ev investment plastic omnium rebranding intrepid raspberry pi platform citroën basalt suv honda formula one jd power ev tire wear via adaptive headlights neo 900v drive unit

- Stellantis Slashes 2,500 Jobs in Italy - BYD’s 2023 Earnings Soar - Hyundai Invests $51 Billion In EVs and SDVs - Plastic Omnium Changes Name to OPmobility - Citroen Reveals New Basalt Small SUV - Honda Establishes New F1 Base in the UK - JD Power: EV Owners Not Happy with Tire Wear - Forvia Intelligent Headlights Coming to U.S. This Year - Nio ET9 To Feature 1st Mass-Produced 900V Drive Unit

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

Stillantis is deeply worried about the transition to electric vehicles and intense competition from Chinese automakers, so it's cutting more jobs, this time in Italy. Last

week, it laid off four hundred engineering employees in the US, and now it reached deals with labor unions at several plans in Italy to slash at least twenty five hundred jobs. But the cuts are voluntary, with Stillantis offering buyout

packages to workers close to retirement or those looking for a new opportunity. Stalantis

says it will announce more agreements at other sites in Italy in the coming days, so it sounds like more layoffs are on the way. Stillantis currently employs

forty three thousand people in Italy, down from around fifty five and twenty twenty one when the automotive group was formed. Speaking of in tense competition from Chinese

automakers, BYD reported its twenty twenty three financial results and the company is experiencing rocket like growth. It sold three million vehicles last year, up forty five

percent from the year before that. Means it broke into the rankings of the

top ten car companies in the world, surpassing Mercedes, BMW and Renault, and it's right on the heels of Nissan. Revenue came in at eighty three

point three billion dollars, up forty two percent. Its gross profit margin hit

twenty percent. It posted an operating profit of nearly five point three billion dollars,

which was up nearly seventy seven percent, and it made a net profit of four point one billion, which was up eighty percent. And by the

way, that net profit nearly matches the four point three billion dollars Ford made last year. And just to give you an idea of how vertically integrated BYD

is, it has over seven hundred in three thousand employees, which is more than Volkswagen or Toyota. And keep in mind that BYD doesn't just make cars,

it also makes cell phones and semiconductors. But automotive accounts for eighty percent

of the company's business, which is up from seventy six percent the year before.

There's no question that the transition to EVS is costing a boatload of money.

The Hyundai Group announced it's investing fifty one billion dollars over the next three years and evs in software defined vehicles, and will also hire eighty one thousand new employees. More than half of the money will be used for new R

and D infrastructure and EV assembly lines, and most of the rest will go towards R and D for EVS, including software defined vehicles and battery technology.

Car sales in Europe are still running about five million units a year, lower than they were pre COVID, so the French auto parts supplier plastic Omnium wants to become less reliant on the European market. It's planning more investments in the

US, and it's also changing its name. As you can probably guess,

the company specialized in plastics, but it's growing its business to include EV and hydrogen technology, so it's changing its name from plastic Omnium to op Mobility.

It will open a new plant in Texas next month, and it's investing in one in Michigan for fuel cells. The company's CEO says it expects its US

revenue to double by twenty twenty eight. Last year, it was one point

six billion euros, or about fourteen percent of its total revenue. 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 canefting technology and Raspberry Pie compute module. The

neovipie 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 divine vehicles.

Citrowan revealed an all new compact fastback SUV called the Basalt that it's going to sell in India and South America. It's built on the same platform as

the C three and C three air Cross and features a similar design language to those vehicles, but development of the Basalt also benefited from direct involvement of teams in the region and in the future. Satron says it will produce vehicles locally.

While it's not revealing what will power the model, we would expect a similar lineup as the C three, which is available with a range of gas and diesel three cylinder engines, including hybrids, and there's even the option for pure electric. The Basalt will join the C three and C three air Cross

in India and South America in the second half of this year. Honda Engines

have been dominating Formula one the last couple of seasons, which has made it a sought after supplier. It currently has a partnership with the Red Bull teams

to provide them with power units until next year, and when rules change in twenty twenty six that will require about three times the electrical power. Honda will

also start supplying power units to Aston Martin Racing. In order to support those

efforts, the company's racing division is creating a new subsidiary in the UK called Honda Racing Corporation UK. It's main task will be performing post race maintenance and

preparation on F one power units, but it will also act as a logistics operation for the European region. EV owners will save money by charging at home

and having a lot less maintenance to do, like no need for oil changes and tuneups, but some of that will be offset by spending more on replacing tires. JD. Powers twenty twenty four US Original Equipment Tire customer satisfaction study

found that EV owners reported their tires wear out faster due to the weight and power of electric cars. Automotive News says this could be a good source of

business for dealerships, including servicing tires, but right now there's some variation in recommended service. Mustang mock E owners are told to rotate their tires every ten

thousand miles. For the Hyundai Ionix six it's every eighty five hundred miles,

and for the Hummer EV it's every seventy five hundred. One of the most

common complaints we hear are about bright headlights that blind oncoming drivers. Well,

for Via has a solution to that. It develop headlamps that use fourteen thousand

miniature LED pixels that are really bright, but the pixels can be individually turned on or off, so when you're coming towards a car like this at night, the headlights turn off the pixels that would normally shine right in your eyes.

Same thing for the car in front of you, your brights won't show up in their rear view mirrors. Once a car goes over twenty five miles

an hour, the headlights automatically go into high beam and you can practically drive with your brights on all the time without blinding anyone. This technology has been

available in Europe for a number of years, and for Via says they will probably hit the US market this year, but it will not identify which manufacturer will use them. These lamps can actually do a lot more than what we've

shown you here, and we'll be posting a video that gets into a line more detail. Neo is pioneering some interesting technologies on its new flagship EV,

the ET nine, which should be out sometime next year. We've previously reported

how it could be the first by wire vehicle, meaning the throttle gear, shifts, suspension, steering, and brakes will all be controlled with electronic inputs, and now Car News China reports the ET nine will feature the world's first mass produced nine hundred volt drive unit. It's a nine hundred and twenty five

volt w PIN synchronous permanent magnet motor that uses continuous wave winding technology. It

weighs just seventy nine kilograms or about one hundred and seventy five pounds, but it produces up to three hundred and forty kilowats or nearly four hundred and fifty six horse power. One of these drive units will power the rear wheels,

while an asynchronous induction motor with up to one hundred and eighty kilowats or two hundred and forty one horse power will drive the front wheels. Neo says the

nine hundred volt unit is also smaller and lighter by about thirty percent, and that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline a

part of your day. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridge Stone

Solutions for your journey and by Intrepid Control Systems over the air. Engineering boost

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