AD #3840 - ONE Gets Lifeline from Foxconn; BYD Struggling in Japan; Rivian Slashes Manufacturing Costs

This is out Aline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Stalantis CEO Carlos Tavares has been critical of new tariffs imposed on Chinese

made vehicles, calling them quote a trap and a defensive strategy. In order

to compete, he has turned to aggressive cost cutting strategies and pressuring governments to step up. We've been told these told suppliers to cut costs up to thirty

percent, and now reports say Stilantis could stop production in the UK or possibly even pull out of the region altogether if the government doesn't do more to boost demand for evs so it can more easily comply with new regulations. Those REGs

say twenty two percent of all new cars sold this year have to be evs, or automakers could face fines up to fifteen thousand euros for every vehicle they sell that doesn't comply with the rules. However, data shows that eve's only

made up just over sixteen percent of sales in the region through May of this year, so Stilantis could mess with its UK production in order to hit the twenty two percent ev batteries start up. Our next energy or one is getting

some much needed help. While the company showed early promise last year, it

replaced its CEO, cut head count, stop production lines, and said it only had enough money to last until the end of this year. But Automotive

News reports that Foxcon is investing in taking a partial stake in one which it will use to help scale up production. However, One no longer plans to

make batteries for electric vehicles. As part of last year's restructuring, it announced

a switch to stationary storage devices with LFP batteries and said it hopes to make twenty GIGAWOTT hours of seals by twenty twenty seven. Automakers say that HESP speed

automatic emergency braking isn't feasible with current technology, so the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most automakers in the US, sent a letter to NITSA urging it to back off speed. In nighttime rules, NITSA is mandating AEB in

all new light cars and trucks by twenty twenty nine. The vehicles have to

be able to automatically stop to avoid a crash with another car up to sixty two miles an hour and automatically apply the brakes up to ninety miles per hour when a crash with another vehicle is imminent. They also have to detect pedestrians

at speeds up to forty five miles an hour, and the systems must work at nighttime. NITSA says the rules will prevent three hundred and sixty deaths and

twenty four thousand injuries a year, but that will only be if the systems work. Japanese consumers are highly nationalistic, and BYD is learning that the hard

way. It only sold twenty two hundred evs in Japan last year, and

this year is looking even worse. Sales were down twenty six percent in April

and twenty eight percent in May compared to last year. But BYD is in

it for the long haul, and it just introduced its third model in the country, the Seal. It has an eighty two kilowaate hour battery pack and

a price tag of only thirty three thousand dollars, and it's opening up more dealerships. It wants to have ninety dealerships in Japan by the end of this

year and one hundred by next year, which is up from fifty five today.

Is autonomous technology finally going to take off. The chairman of Japung thinks

so he predicts that twenty twenty five will be the chat GPT moment for autonomous driving. Gascou reports. He wrote in weymos av in San Francisco and tested

Tesla's FSD version twelve in Silicon Valley and said he admired the rapid progress Tesla's making. Car dealers are warning that the cyber attack on cdk's dealer management system

could impact their finances. Dealer groups including Sonic, Penske, Group One,

AutoNation, Lithium Motors, and Asbury Automotive all filed disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission warning of a potential material impact to their finances because of that attack.

All of the groups, with the exception of Penske, have seen their stock prices drop since the attack. Last week, CDK was hit with a

cyber attack that took down its dealer management system, which is used by fifteen thousand dealers across the US. The system generates sales, leads, handled trade

ins, car loans, vehicle registrations, orders, service parts, and schedules service appointments. CDK says it expects the service to be restored in the coming

days, and we're learning more about the group that pulled off the attack.

Bloomberg reports it's called Black Suit and is demanding tens of millions of dollars from CDK, which the company plans to pay. The US Department of Health and

Human Services recently warned that Black Suit should be closely watched as a threat because of the organization's association with other extortion groups. Michigan is leading to charge in

mobility and innovation, and I can't think of a better state to be in.

Volkswagen is making some modifications to the twenty twenty five model year Jetta.

You'll notice some minor changes to the front, rear styling and to the interior as well, including a new three bar dat design with eight inch standard displays and more powerful wireless charging with built in cooling. The powertrain lineup remains the

same for twenty twenty five. The base engine is a one and a half

liter four cylinder that makes one hundred and fifty eight horse power and is made it to an eight speed automatic transmission. The manual is only available on the

Gli now, which comes with a two hundred and fifty eight horse power two liter four cylinder engine, or it can be paired with a seven speed auto.

When asked during a presentation for the new Jetta why it didn't do more to update the model, Folkswagen said, it's all about keeping it affordable because that's what customers seem to want, and it's working so far. This year,

vw is sold more than seventeen thousand Jettas, which is up one hundred and twenty one percent. To keep that momentum, it cut the starting price

of the base automatic by two hundred and fifty dollars to just under twenty two grand. Production kicks off soon, and twenty twenty five Jettis will go on

sale at the end of the third quarter. Even though the exterior styling barely

changed, the second generation of the Rivian R one S and R one T has significant changes under the skin that will slash manufacturing costs. By dropping its

domain electronic architecture and going with a zonal layout, Rivian got rid of sixty percent of the ECUs and one point six miles of copper wiring, and now writes eighty five percent of the software for its vehicles in house. It also

added a heat pump for greater efficiency. The battery pack was redesigned using high

pressure castings to eliminate parts and welds, and that cut the weight of the pack by one hundred and fifty five pounds or seventy kilograms at its factory in Normal, Illinois. It removed one hundred processes to make the batteries, eliminated

five hundred pie in the pickups and SUV's body, and got rid of fifty two pieces of equipment in the body shop. Rivian says it cut the cost

of materials thirty five percent for those vehicles and the electric vans that it makes.

While the company will likely continue to lose money in the short term, these changes are going to greatly reduce its losses. But not all of the

changes were made to cut costs. Rivian added air springs and redesigned the suspension

to significantly improve the ride. It added different wheel and tire packages for more

range, higher performance, or all around driving, depending on what the customer wants. In fact, Rivian made so many changes that we'll have to report

on more of them and tomorrow's show. Automakers believe they can generate big bucks

in the future from collecting consumer data and offering owners features based on their preferences.

But according to a new survey from air insurance savings app Jerry, consumers aren't on board with giving up their data. It pulled thirteen hundred adults,

and ninety six percent said they want to own any and all data generated by their vehicle. Eighty percent said they were uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable if automakers shared

that data with law enforcement without their knowledge, and the same amount said they would be uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable if vehicle data is used for insurance rates.

Eight and ten drivers also said they'd be less likely to use a vehicle for sensitive or private trips if they knew the location data was being shared. But

we would like to point out that anyone who uses a smartphone has pretty much already given up their location anyway. As automakers move to software to find vehicles,

they're finding they can significantly slash the time it takes to calibrate the steering, break, traction and chassis dynamics. ZF, which is a sponsor of

the show, has developed a tool called Cubics, which allows an engineer to control all of those features with a laptop. And we've got Kyle Williams from

ZF coming on Autoline after Hours this Thursday to explain how it all works, and we invite you to join the action live at three pm Eastern Time.

But that's a wrap for this show and thanks for tuning in. 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 there's nothing wrong but heavy metal high light enough but with world class composit material Taging Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

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 NEOVIPI is 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 device vehicles. Trusting tires designed for the long haul because you'll always go

the distance for friends, that's what really matters. Bridgetone a lens of tires

with an eighty thousand mile landed warranty.

AD #3840 - ONE Gets Lifeline from Foxconn; BYD Struggling in Japan; Rivian Slashes Manufacturing Costs

Byd Seal

Volkswagen Jetta

Volkswagen Gli

About this episode

Original notes