Elon Musk's Tesla gains approval to test full self-driving in Shanghai and Hangzhou, while North American automakers face significant EV overcapacity challenges, impacting profitability. Chinese EV imports surge in Mexico and Latin America, raising US concerns. Fiat introduces the Grand Panda EV and hybrid on a shared platform, aiming for annual new models. Stellantis reverses remote work policy to boost collaboration. Tony Roma becomes Corvette's sixth chief engineer, hinting at a future electric model. Lucid Air achieves impressive 5 miles per kWh efficiency, with ambitions for 6, promising smaller batteries and competitive range. Plus, a rugged Chinese luxury off-road EV debuts with extreme features.
Topics:tesla full self driving chinaev overcapacity north americachinese ev imports mexico latin americafiat grand panda ev hybridstellantis remote work policycorvette chief engineer appointmentlucid air ev efficiencychinese luxury off road evautomotive manufacturing capacityev tariffs eu
- China Approves FSD Testing for Tesla - 1 Million EV Overcapacity in N. America - Mini Hit with EU’s Highest China Tariff - China NEV Exports to Mexico Up 443% By Value - Fiat Panda Offers Hybrid and BEV Choices - Stellantis Says ‘Back to Work!’ - Tony Roma To Head Corvette Program - 917 Dragon Armor Edition Is Wild Chinese SUV - Lucid Air Now Gets 5 Miles Per kWh
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This Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The good news keeps rolling in for Elon Musk. Last week's shareholders overwhelmingly approved his roughly fifty six billion dollar pay package, and now Tesla has been given the green light to start testing full self driving on some public roads in Shanghai, and the city of Hangzhou may also give approval to the ok to test FSD is the first step towards offering the system to owners in China.
Tesla currently charges eight eight hundred dollars for FSD in China, compared to eight grand in the US, but very few owners in China have purchased it since it's not available yet. And unless your name is Tesla, it looks like none of the automakers in North America are going to make a profit on EV's this year or next.
Automakers in the US, Canada, and Mexico have the manufacturing capacity to make two point six million electric vehicles a year. The only problem is this year they will only sell one point four to seven million of them, according to Warren Brown Consulting, which is going to leave them with one point one million units of over capacity and that is going to make it very difficult to turn a profit on those cars.
It estimates that next year BEEV manufacturing capacity will grow to three point three million units, but the average plant utilization rate will only be fifty six percent, meaning there will be one point eight million units of over capacity, and that almost guarantees that those plants will not be profitable.
Mini's electric vehicles built in China are going to be hit with the highest EV terra from the EU. Writers reports that the automaker didn't provide investigators with enough info to be classified as a company cooperating in the EUS probe into unfair subsidies for evs built in China.
That means the electric version of the Mini, Cooper and Aceman will get slapped with a thirty eight point one percent import tariff. Companies that did cooperate were given lower terraffs between seventeen and twenty one percent, but many will only have to deal with the tariff for a couple of years because it plans to build those models at its plant in England starting in twenty twenty six.
More and more Chinese vehicles are being imported into Mexico. According to S and p Global Market Intelligence EV and P have imports increased four hundred and forty three point nine percent by value in the first quarter compared to last year.
Seven new brands entered the market in the last year, and one in ten cars sold in Mexico are now from a Chinese automaker. The growing presence of Chinese companies in the country has US lawmakers concerned that the open plants there to build vehicles as a back doorway to enter the American marks market and avoid tariffs.
Chinese automakers are also expanding into Latin America as a whole, and they now control eighty six percent of the EV market in that region. And in Brazil, Chinese EV sales are up ninety one percent and byd Cherry and great Wall are now three of the top five brands in the country.
There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hiy light enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly. It's not as efficient to make vehicle platforms that can accommodate a mix of powertrains compared to a dedicated platform, but some of those inefficiencies can be made up for with scale.
That seems to be the strategy Stilantis is taking, and a good thing for it is that it has so many brands. Fiat just introduced the Grand Panda, a new small B segment suv that will be available as both a pure electric and hybrid in Europe, the Middle East in Africa.
It's based on the same platform as the Citroan C three in Opal and Vauxhall Fronterra, so it should be a pretty affordable model. The hybrid C three starts at about fifteen thousand euro and the BEV Fronterra starts under thirty thousand.
The platform utilizes a one point two liter turbocharged three cylinder engine maded to a forty eight volt motor and DCT for the hybrid setup, and the base version of the Beev comes with a forty four kilowat hour LFP battery pack in an eighty three kilowater or one hundred and thirteen horsepower electric motor.
That setup provides around three hundred kilometers or one hundred and eighty six miles of range, but there will also be a longer range version that gets about four hundred kilometers or two hundred and forty eight miles of range.
Fiat says it's going to introduce a new vehicle every year until twenty twenty seven, and the Grande Panda was the first of those. Two years ago, Stilantis said it would allow most employees to work from home permanently, but now it's changed its mind.
Employees have to be at work three to five days a week now, and during a new car launch, they may be required to be their six days. At first, remote work was seen as a way to cut costs because the company would not need as much office space, but now it recognizes that it needs designers and engineers to be physically together to get work done faster.
Since it debuted in nineteen fifty three, Corvette has only had five chief engineers. Well, we better make that six. Tony Roma was named as the sixth executive chief engineer of the Corvette program. Most recently, Roma, who's fifty three years old, was running the Cadillac Celestic program that three hundred and fifty thousand dollars hand built ultra luxury sedan bud.
He also has worked on the Cadillac V series and Black Wings earlier in his career, and even Corvette powertrains. In addition to Corvette, Roma will also head up GM's luxury and performance teams. We find it interesting that GM would name someone working on an EVY platform to head up Corvette, and maybe that's further confirmation that an all electric VET is somewhere out there in the not too distant future.
The same Chinese luxury off road brand that brought us the m Hunter back in April has partnered up with an action movie to launch a much more extreme version of its nine to one seven SUV called the Dragon Armoor Edition.
The body work is even more embellished, it gets big off road wheels and tires, a stronger front bumper and grill guard are fitted to the front, and there's extra tie down points in storage as well. It's available as a quad motor BV that provides over a thousand horse power or as a more than eight hundred horse power e REV.
Pre Orders are open now and starting prices range from about one hundred and six thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. When it comes to ev efficiency, Lucid CEO Peter Rollinson says that quote, no one else is even close.
The Evy startup announced that a version of its Air Sedan recently hit five miles per kilowod hour, while Rolinson says, quote some of the competition is under three miles per kilowat hour. That is true, but others like Hyundai and Tesla have cracked four miles per kilowod hour.
However, Rolinson points out its better efficiency will have another advantage. Quote That means that we can make a car with a significantly smaller battery pack with competitive range, and that gives us a unique and profound commercial advance as a company.
No word if that philosophy will be applied to the air, the upcoming Gravity Suv, which is scheduled to start production later this year, or a mid sized vehicle that's supposed to come out in twenty twenty six.
But Lucid isn't stopping at five miles per kilo wat hour. Rolinson says, quote, I think six miles per kilo wat hour is the holy grail. That's what we need to save the planet. End quote. And with that we wrap up today's show.
Thanks for making autoline a part of your day. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey. Intrepid Control systems over the air, engineering, Boost your Game, MEDC where Michigan businesses are powering the future of mobility, Tagent Automotive Technologies, the Formula for Better Mobility and by ZF Intrepid's NEOVIPI allowing automotive engineers to interface, capture, and monitor vehicle data using Raspberry Pie.
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