Major EV investments are underway in North America with Honda committing $11 billion to build EV and battery plants in Canada, aiming for 240,000 EVs annually by 2028. Toyota is investing $1.5 billion in Indiana for a new three-row electric SUV and battery assembly. Honda and Mazda also revealed new EV models in China, expanding their electric lineups. Ram launched the RHO, a high-performance off-road truck with a powerful Hurricane engine. The UAW scored a historic union vote at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant, signaling increased labor activity in the US auto industry. Additionally, NHTSA is investigating Tesla's autopilot recall due to ongoing safety concerns.
Topics:ev investments north americahonda ev planstoyota electric suvram rho truckunionization auto industrytesla autopilot investigationmazda ev chinanissan ev conceptsus car sales trendsbattery manufacturing
- Honda Makes $11 Billion EV Investment in Canada - Honda Introduces Two New EVs In China - Toyota To Build 3-Row Electric SUV In Indiana - U.S. April Sales Expected to Slightly Dip - NHTSA Opens Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Recall - Mazda Unveils Two New NEVs For China - Nissan Reveals Four Electrified Concepts - Ram Shows Off New RHO Performance Truck - Republican Governors Likely to Ramp Up Anti-UAW Efforts
"...e recently reported that Toyota is converting the Highlander to EV only and that it would be made in Kentucky,..."
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This is outdoled daily. The show is dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive
industry. There's some big time investments going into North America for future evs.
First, Honda confirmed that it, along with its joint venture partners, are going to invest eleven billion dollars to create an EV and battery manufacturing hub in Ontario, Canada. Those partners include Asahi Kasai, who Honda joined forces with
to make battery separators, and it partnered with Pasco to produce battery cathode materials.
Each operation will have its own standalone plant that will not be connected to the other, and Honda expects production to start in twenty twenty eight. Once
at full line speed, it will be able to make two hundred and forty thousand evs and thirty six gigawatt hours of battery a year and will create at least one thousand new jobs. So this gives us a clear picture of Honda's
path as it tries to reach one hundred percent sales of electric and fuel cell vehicles by twenty forty. It's currently building another EV hub in the US and
Ohio, which is scheduled to be up and running by late next year, then its Canadian hub will come online a couple of years after that, and it's also releasing new evs in China as well. Honda is expanding its een
lineup of electric vehicles in the country, which first launched in twenty twenty two.
Now on sale is the ENP two, which rides on a dedicated platform that provides up to five hundred and forty five kilometers or three hundred and eighty eight miles of range on the Chinese test cycle. The ENP two is made
with Honda's joint venture partner GAC, while another version called the ENS two, which will probably have slightly different styling, will be produced with its other joint venture partner, Don Fung. These two evs, along with the other two
en vehicles it already has on sale, Honda plans to have ten Honda branded EV's in China by twenty twenty seven. But now let's move back to EV
investments in North America, where Toyota is pouring one and a half billion dollars to make an all new b EV. It says the investment at its Indiana
plant in the US will allow it to build an all new three row electric SUV and to add a new battery pack assembly line there, which will be supplied by its battery plant in South Carolina that's supposed to start production sometime next year. We recently reported that Toyota is converting the Highlander to EV only and
that it would be made in Kentucky, but it's possible it's actually going to Indiana, which would make some sense because that's where the Highlander is currently made.
However, we'll have to wait a little bit to find out for sure.
We should also note that there will be a Lexus version of the Highlander EV as well. Car sales in the US are expected to decline slightly this
month. JD Powers for Casting that a little more than one point three million
vehicles will be sold in April, a drop of nearly one percent compared to a year ago, but last April did have one more selling day than this year. The new April numbers include both retail and fleet sales, but if
you take out fleet sales, retail sales are expected to increase two point one percent to over a million units, while fleet sales are expected to drop thirteen point six percent, and thanks to higher inventory and increased incentive spending, the average transaction price of new vehicles is expected to come in at just over forty five thousand dollars, which is a drop of nearly twelve hundred bucks compared to a year ago. Used vehicle prices are also on the decline. The average
price is about twenty eight thousan five hundred dollars, or about thirteen hundred and fifty bucks less than last April. Thettagent Automotive Technologies. We combine world class
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NITSA, announced that it's opening an investigation into Tesla's recall of over two million vehicles last December involving autopilot, but it wasn't a traditional recall to fix a component. Instead, Tesla issued an
over the air update to address concerns about drivers misusing the system. The OTA
made alerts more noticeable, simplified how the system is turned on and off, and implemented a policy to penalize drivers that ignore the warnings, but NITZA says it's investigating that recall because there have been additional crashes involving autopilot since the software update was issued. The agency also said that Tesla has stated that owners can
decide if they want to opt in to parts of the recall and allow them to reverse some of it. NITZA says the investigation will evaluate if the updates
address the misuse, confusion, and use in areas where Autopilot wasn't designed to be used. Mazda unveiled two new electrified vehicles at the Beijing Auto Show.
The first is called the Easy six, which was developed with Changan, Mazda's joined Feduer partner in China. The automaker didn't share details about its powertrain,
but it will be available as both a BV and a plug in hybrid.
The BV is expected to deliver six hundred kilometers or three hundred and seventy two miles of range, while the p HAVE is estimated to achieve one thousand kilometers or six hundred and twenty one miles of range. The Easy six will launch
in China by the end of the year. The other model Mazda revealed is
the Arata crossover. The automaker didn't reveal many details, but it will be
also off as a BEEV and a p HAVE. The Erata will go into
production by the end of next year. Nissan also introduced new electrified concepts at
the Beijing show, two evs and two plug in hybrids. They were jointly
developed with its Chinese joint venture partner, Dong Fung. Nissan didn't share any
powertrain details about the models, but it did reveal some of their technology.
The first model is the Epoch, an EV sedan that features a virtual personal assistant. The next concept is an all electric suv called the Epic that Nissan
says will feature autonomous driving for both the city and highway and a can function as a mobile power source. The third vehicle it revealed is the Era Concept,
a plug in hybrid suv. It features an advanced version of Nissan's E
Force electric all wheel control system and an active air suspension setup. And the
last is a pe HAVE sadan called the EVO that come with an AI enhanced Virtual Personal Assistant. Nissan also announced that it's planning to introduce one more NEV
for China than it previously disclosed, which means it will have five new nevs in China by the twenty twenty six fiscal year. Production of ram's high performance
off road truck, the t Rex, came to an end at the end of last year, so now it's coming out with another high flying off roader called the RHO, but instead of a Hellcat under the hood, the RHO features the high output version of Stalantis's Hurricane engine, which makes five hundred and forty horse power and five hundred and twenty one pound feet of torque. The
setup is one hundred and fifty pounds lighter than the Hellcat powertrain and the t Rex, which helps the RHO do zero to sixty and four point six seconds only a tenth of a second slower than the t Rex. All that power
is sent through a BORG one our full time active transfer case and a Dana sixty rear axle with an electronic locking differential. The front suspension is an independent
system with forged aluminum upper and lower control arms and adaptive Bilstein shocks, while the rear features the same adaptive shocks and a five link coil system which offers a lot more wheel travel. Orders for the RHO are open now pricing starts
at just under seventy two thousand dollars including destination charges and sales kickoff. In
the third quarter of this year, the UAW won a historic victory by getting over seventy percent of the workers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to vote in favor of the union. This happened despite five Republican governors from southern
states speaking out against the union just days before the workers voted on autoline after hours yesterday, Merrick Masters, a labor x from Wayne State University, predicted that the governors are going to ramp up their efforts against the union as it now moves to have workers at the Mercedes Benz plant Advance, Alabama vote on whether or not they want the union. You will see these anti union forces
become much more aggressive in terms of what they do on the ground and mobilizing at the grassroots level among the work sites themselves, the surrounding communities, and the lawmakers. Georgia, I think is interesting, just passed the law that
the governor signed. And this is a Republican governor. Although he's not President
Trump's favorite governor, I might say Camp, but I should say that he signed a law which said that you cannot continue to get the incentives of the state that they invested they gave to companies for investing in the auto industry.
There you will relinquish those if you voluntarily recognize the union. So I think
that one thing that's interesting is that Woltzwagen never voluntarily recognize the union. It
could always do that. And I think what the UAW has done in Volkswagen
and Mercedes by filing unfair labor practice charges and the other companies as well, set the stage that if they don't win the election, they're going to ask for the National Labor Relations Board issue a mandatory bargaining order and say you have to bargain with them because you interfere with the election and there's no point in having another election. There's a lot of great insight into the uaw's organization efforts
and the impact it could have on the US auto industry, and we'll provide a link to that show if you'd like to watch more. That brings us
to the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope
that you have a great weekend. Auto Line Daily is brought to you by
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