The discussion covers the evolving automotive landscape with a focus on electric vehicles, hybrids, and powertrain innovations. Jeep unveils its first U.S. electric Wagoneer S with impressive performance and fast charging. Ford highlights the profitability of hybrids over traditional engines, while Renault and Geely launch a new company to develop advanced internal combustion and alternative fuel engines. The episode also touches on BMW's hydrogen fuel cell initiatives, a child labor lawsuit involving Honda, and new performance and armored vehicle models from Subaru and DS Automobiles. Lastly, Renault's plans for affordable electric cars through Chinese partnerships are explored.
Topics:electric vehicleshybrids and phevsjeep wagoneer s evford hybrid profitabilityrenault geely horsepower trainhydrogen fuel cell developmenthonda child labor lawsuitsubaru wrx tsarmored vehiclesaffordable electric cars
- Only 20% of Americans Want an EV - Ford's Hybrids More Profitable Than ICE - Renault, Geely Join Forces to Make ICEs - EU Invests in Fuel Cell Vehicles - Hyundai Sued Over Child Labor - Jeep Launches 1st EV for U.S. Market - Subaru WRX tS Gets Performance Tweaks - DS Adds Armored SUV to Lineup - Renault Turning to Chinese to Develop Cheap EVs
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This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
This transition to electric vehicles sure is looking a lot more challenging than it did just a few years ago. A study from KPMG says that only twenty
percent of US consumers would buy an EV over an IC or a hybrid.
Of course, if twenty percent of them did buy an electric, it would immediately double today's EV market share. But automakers need a lot more than twenty
percent of the market to switch to electric if they're ever going to make decent profits selling evs. And this new reality has General Motors and Ford putting more
emphasis on selling hybrids and p haves, but they have different ideas of where that strategy will take them. GM says that pas are just a bridge technology
until the market goes all ev Ford says that phs and hybrids are not a bridge technology because they're going to be around for a long time to come.
Ford CEO Jim Farley says many of their hybrids are now more profitable than their IC versions, and interestingly, he also says that evs should not be subsidized.
That could mean that skunk Works project he's got going to slash the cost of EV's is making real progress, and there's no question that hybrids PHEVs and E revs or extended range evs like the Volt are suddenly looking a lot more attractive to car buyers. In the US and Europe, hybrid sales are up
strong and are outpacing the market. In China, the fastest growing segment is
with E revs, and since they all use internal combustion engines, that means piston power is going to be around a lot longer than automaker's thought a few years ago. This is why Renault and Gely officially created a new company called
Horse power Train that will make ices including highbridge systems and batteries. Horse will
also work on engines that can run on methanol, ethanol or hydrogen for low carbon emissions, and it's a big operation. Horse has seventeen factories worldwide,
five R and D centers, around nineteen thousand employees, annual revenue of fifteen billion euros and an annual production of about five million powertrain sets. It will
supply them to Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Geele's brands. There's still
a lot of skepticism about whether hydrogen vehicles will ever catch on, but Europe believes it will play a key role to achieve carbon neutrality by twenty fifty, so it launched an aid program called Hi to Move to help companies develop hydrogen powered products. BMW was the only automaker part of its latest round of funding,
which handed out a total of one point four billion euros. Michelin and
Airbus also receive grants. BMW will announce more details soon, but it's already
testing a fleet of fuel cell powered versions of the X five suv. In
all, eleven companies will take part in thirteen projects in the High to Move program, and the EU says it will create thirty three hundred jobs by twenty thirty one. Hondai is in hot water in the US over the illegal use
of child labor at a parts plant in Alabama. Yesterday, the Department of
Labor sued the automaker, along with auto parts company Smart Alabama and the labor recruiting firm Best Practice Service, for employing a thirteen year old. The Labor
department says the child worked up to sixty hours per week at Smart's plant and ran heavy machinery to make parts for Honda's plant in Alabama. At the time,
Smart was a subsidiary of Hondai, and the Labor Department says they were quote so integrated that the two companies were a single employer for purposes of liability under US law. The Labor Department also wants all three companies to return any
profits related to the use of child labor. In a statement, Hondi says
it no longer has any ownership and Smart and that it took immediate measures once it learned about the issue. There's nothing wrong with heavy metal. Hey light
enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly. Jeep pulled the wraps off the production version
of the Wagoneer S, which is based on the Stella Large platform. But
while that platform can accommodate both gas and electric powertrains, the Wagoner S for now is exclusively a battery electric. It features a one hundred kilo hour battery
pack that will returned more than three hundred miles or four hundred and eighty two kilometers of range, and it comes standard with an all wheel drive system that puts out six hundred horse power and helps the Wagoneer S do zero to sixty and three point four seconds. It's also a four hundred volt system which allows
the Evy to charge from twenty to eighty percent as fast as twenty three minutes.
Styling wise, it stays pretty true to the concept, including the thin seven slot grill and a somewhat large spoiler off the roof that creates a large gap between it and the backglass. Inside, there's four display screens mounted on
the dash, including one for the front passenger, and there's a light bar that stretches across the dashing into the doors that helps tie it all together.
Jeep says the Wagoneer S will go on sale in the US and Canada in the fall of this year, before heading to other markets around the world.
The first version available is called the Launch Edition, and it starts at seventy two two thousand dollars including destination charges, but before any ev tax breaks or incentives. Now, if you're thinking that the Wagoneer S doesn't live up to
Jeep's off road persona, while it also showed off the Wagoneer S Trailhawk concept, which would fit that bill, It features a raided suspension system, rugged all terrain tires, a rear axle locker, and an off road rock mode.
However, this is still just a concept for now. Subaru is launching
a new, more performance focused version of the WORX called the TS. It's
equipped with a new STI tuned suspension that features electronically controlled dampers which help improve performance in handling. It also comes with nineteen inch wheels that are filled with
high performance Brembo brakes and gold color calipers. The interior features an all new
twelve point three inch digital gauge cluster. We're car racing seats in bluetrim accents.
Like the standard WRX, the TS is powered by a two point four liter turbocharged boxer engine made in to a six speed manual. That set up
produces two hundred and seventy one horse power. The TS goes on sale early
next year in the US and pricing will be announced later this year. You
know, this looks like a normal suv from DS Automobiles, which is part of Stilantis, but it's actually an armored version that costs one hundred and sixty five thousand euros and can stop a bullet from a handgun based on the plug in hybrid DS seven. It was upfitted with special materials that are especially resistant
to heat and impacts, high performance polyethylene, armored steel and safety glass.
And despite all that extra stuff, DS says it only added one hundred and sixty four kilograms or three hundred and sixty pounds to the overall weight. It
only expects to convert a small number of them to armored vehicles, and that conversion is done in France, not too far from where the vehicle is made.
Renault and Volkswagen recently ended talks to jointly developed small affordable electric cars, and now we may know why. Reuter's reports that Renaul is going to link
up with a Chinese automaker to build the next gen version of the TwinGo, which should have a starting price under twenty thousand euros. Renault is making the
move to slash its development costs and time, which it plans to cut to just two years. It's not known who Renaul will team up with, but
it has a number of companies to choose from. It currently has partnerships with
dong Fung and Jeeli, and back in January, CEO Luca Demeyo met with leaders from Liatto and Jomi. But that brings us to the end of today's
show. Thanks for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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