Political shifts impact EV mandates as Virginia opts out of California's strict EV sales requirements, while New York cancels congestion fees citing inflation concerns. Battery supply tensions rise with calls to ban Chinese firms linked to forced labor, threatening US EV production. JD Power reports improved public EV charging satisfaction, and autonomous vehicle testing expands in US cities with new tech partnerships. Mercedes leads automaker profits per car, overtaking Tesla amid price cuts. Toyota launches the hybrid Crown Signia, replacing the Venza. Supplier relations vary widely, with Toyota and Honda favored over Ford and Stellantis. Plus, innovative airbag designs and automotive tech tools highlight industry advances.
- Virginia Backs Out of California EV Mandate - New York Axes City Congestion Plan - Republican Group Wants to Ban CATL and Gotion - J.D. Power Finds EV Charging Getting Better - Zoox Expanding Robotaxi Testing - Mercedes to Use Chinese AV Tech - GM-SAIC Develop AV Validation Process - ZF Packages Airbag Into Steering Wheel Rim - Mercedes Dethrones Tesla with Profit/Car - Toyota Expands Crown Lineup
"...against each other. The vehicle that replaces the Venza in Toyota's North American lineup is now on sale...."
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This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. US politicians are watching which way the political winds are blowing, and
some are backing off on efforts to fight climate change. In Virginia, Republican
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Virginia will back out of the California EVY mandates starting next year, but Democrats promised to keep the plan in place. The standard
requires thirty five percent of sales to be zero mission vehicles by twenty twenty six and one hundred percent ZEV by twenty thirty five. About a dozen other states
still adhere to the California standard, but Virginia will now follow the federal standards, which are not as strict. Governor Youngkin says the government shouldn't tell consumers
what type of vehicle they should buy, and he also cited low demand for EV's for his decision. Last year, ev accounted for nine percent of car
sales in Virginia, or slightly higher than the national average. And in New
York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochel just acts New York City's plan to start charging congestion fees to try and reduce traffic jams in the city. The city was
planning to start charging fifteen dollars to drive into Manhattan starting on June thirtieth, to help pay for improving public transportation. Hochel says she made the decision because
inflation has increased the cost of living in New York, and she says the fee would hurt middle income people the most traffic jams are not. The fee
was highly unpopular, so it was an easy decision for her to scrap and no doubt about it. Eves are a political flashpoint in American politics, and
as we get closer to the November presidential election, the heat will only get hotter. A group of Republican representatives and at least one senator wants CATL and
Goshen banned from the United States. Both companies are involved in battery plants in
Michigan. CTL is helping Ford and Goshen, which is partially owned by Volkswagen,
could supply VW with batteries for its assembly plant and possibly for Scout motors as well. The Republican group calling for the ban accused both companies of using
forced labor by weaker people in China, which both companies Deny. Now it's
up the Department of Homeland Security to determine if the company should be banned.
If they are banned, it's going to put a big dent in Ford in Volkswagen's plans to build evs in the US. One of the biggest complaints against
evs is that there aren't enough public chargers and that they're not reliable, But a new study from JD Power shows that charging networks are actually making improvements.
It found that satisfaction with public DC fast charging and Level two charging networks was up significantly in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year. EV drivers say charging speeds are up, they're easier to use,
and there's more chargers available. At the same time, broken or malfunctioning
chargers drop from seventy one percent in Q four of last year to fifty nine percent in Q one of this year. And while Tesla is the leader among
EV charging networks, JD Power says the biggest gains in satisfaction were with non Tesla networks. When the peace and quiet of your morning commute is as comforting
as your morning machiato, that's what really matters. Bridge done taranzo Ev tires
less noise for more quiet comfort. Autonomous vehicles start up Zekes, which is
owned by Amazon, announced that it's expanding testing in the US. Austin,
Texas and Miami, Florida are the fourth and fifth cities where it will launch a fleet of Toyota Highland or test vehicles with safety drivers on board. That
fleet will map the areas so zekes can determine the best geo fence part of the cities to deploy its robotaxis in. Zekes first started testing in San Francisco
in twenty eighteen, then went to Las Vegas, then Seattle, and now comes Austin and Miami, but it has not launched commercial operations yet or in other words, it hasn't started charging people for rides. It says that will
first happen in Las Vegas in San Francisco. Speaking of autonomy, reports out
of China say that Mercedes is teaming up with a Chinese company to improve the autonomous capabilities of the new CLA, which is expected to go into production in April of next year. Mercedes will reportedly use av tech for Momenta that will
give it hands free driving ability on both the highway and city roads. Here's
a video from Momenta of its system on another Chinese automaker's car. It uses
multiple lightar, radar, and cameras, but the system seems to be able to navigate some pretty complex driving situations. And one last bit of av news,
GASCU reports the GM and its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC have launched what they call the Robotest Autonomous Vehicle testing platform. The way I understand it is
a person comes out and equips a vehicle with devices, radars, and cameras that allow it to drive on its own. Then the vehicle can be run
through various development and validation procedures by another person in a control center. The
benefit is less variation in the testing compared to a human and the ability to test multiple vehicles at once. GM and SAIC expect the Robotest platform to speed
up their R and D cycle. Remember when airbags first went into cars in
the late nineteen eighties. Well, I don't because I was only a few
years old, but I'm told by a source that I trust pretty well that they were awful, at least from an appearance standpoint, big, ugly and heavy. It looked like there was a shoe box in the center of the
steering wheel. Designers hated them, But fast forward to today and ZENAF,
a sponsor of the show, has come up with an amazingly compact airbag design for steering wheels that we think designers are going to love. It actually deploys
from the top rim of the steering wheel, not from the center hub.
ZF says this frees up space on the center and spokes to the wheel, allowing designers to use that space for something else, like an interface similar to a smartphone. ZEF recently rebranded its passive safety division as Lifetech, and this
is one of the newest products since it got rebranded a couple of years ago.
Tesla made the most profit per vehicle of any automaker in the world nine thousand, five hundred and fifty seven dollars to be exact, but in early twenty twenty three it started cutting prices to offset slowing sales, first in China, then elsewhere in the world, and that really hurt its profit per unit.
Now Mercedes Benz makes the most money per car eight thousand, five hundred and sixty bucks, and Tesla has dropped to number three on the list.
So where does everyone else stand? Well? Check out our industry report card,
which has all the data on the biggest automakers in the world. You
can find the video on the autolne website or on the Autoline Network on YouTube.
The video is eighteen minutes, but it will give you a great understanding of how the car companies stack up against each other. The vehicle that replaces
the Venza in Toyota's North American lineup is now on sale. The Crown Signia
starts at just under forty five thousand dollars including destination. That's a bit more
than the Venza, but it comes standard with a hybrid power train in all wheel drive. The four cylinder engine is a two and a half liter unit
that, one paired with the electric drive system, makes two hundred and forty horse power. The setup returns an epaight estimated thirty eight mpg, and if
buyers want to step up to the limited grade, prices start a little over forty nine thousand dollars. Most automakers rely heavily on their suppliers for cost reduction
and innovation, but some do a better job of it than others. Suppliers
prefer to work with Toyota and Honda, while relations at Stilantis and Ford are the worst in the industry. So what's working and what's not while That's what
we'll be getting into on today's Autoline After Hours. Dave Andrea from Plant Moran,
which does the annual supplier survey, will be on the show digging into the details of that report. Canzeno will also be on the show, and
John and Gary welcome you to join them as well when the show goes live on the Autoline website and on the Autoline YouTube channel at three pm Eastern Time.
But that's a wrap for this show. I hope to see you later.
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