AD #3856 - Tesla Profit Tanks; GM Delays Electric Pickups Again; Tula Boosts EV Motor Efficiency

This is Autoline Daily, the shows dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

In its shocking Q two financial statement, Tesla reported that its net profit plummeted forty five percent as new car deliveries fell five percent and production dropped fourteen percent, Making matters worse. Operating expenses shot up thirty nine percent while automotive

revenue fell seven percent. Revenue from energy, storage and other services made up

the difference, and free cash flow was up thirty four percent, but those were the only positive developments. Otherwise, this was a disastrous quarter for the

company and shows that slashing the prices of its cars really had a big impact, so that might not have been the right move. We think this explains

why Elon Musk has pivoted to a narrative all about robotaxis robots in Generative AI.

That ROBOTAXI did see a recent delay because Elon requested some changes. It's

now going to be shown off on October tenth instead of an August reveal, but he says that extra time will allow Tesla to quote show off a few other things, but he did not elaborate on what those things will be.

Elon would also be quote surprised if it didn't have unsupervised self driving by next year. However, he's been saying that every year since twenty nineteen, and

in our opinion, its financial results show that Tesla's automotive operations desperately need Elon's attention. General Motors is once again delaying production of its electric pickups, the

Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra evs. The models were originally supposed to start production

at the company's plant in Orion, Michigan, in early twenty twenty five, but last year GM pushed that bat until late twenty twenty five, and now the pickups are being delayed again till mid twenty twenty six. GM CEO Mary

Barra also revealed that the company is delaying the introduction of Buick's first EV to North America, but she did not say when that model will now make its debut. This adds to last week when Barra announced that GM is backing off

its goal of selling a million evs in North America by the end of next year due to the slowdown in EV demand. Weaimo is getting a massive investment

that will allow it to continue to expand its autonomous ride hailing operations. Parent

company Alphabet says it's going to pour five billion dollars into weimo over multiple years, not only for its expansion into new areas in California and Texas, but also for development of self driving tech and AI. And speaking of avs,

GM Cruz's former co founder and CEO had some harsh words for the automate after it announced it's dropping the Origin shuttle. Kyle Vote said he's disappointed GM is

killing the Origin, adding it would have been amazing for cities, but then he dropped this little nugget quote. GM repeatedly finds themselves with a five to

ten year head start, but then fumbles the ball, shuts things down, and loses the lead. Anyone remember the EV one. It's like someone keeps

letting them look into a crystal ball and then they just go, nah, we're good. End quote. Weoll ouch to be honest. I don't think

he's really wrong, but it also seems like he's been eating sour grapes.

If we're to believe the reports, Vote wasn't the best leader, and if he had been better, maybe he'd still be CEO and the Origin wouldn't have been killed off there's nothing wrong with heavy metal hey light enough, but with world class composite material taging Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly. While it's not just automakers teaming up with Chinese companies on ev

tech, LG Energy Solution says it's looking to set up long term supply deals or even joint ventures with up to three Chinese materials companies so it can get access to LFP or lithium iron phosphate battery cathodes. It says it would use

those supplies to make batteries for Europe, which are not only cheaper for automakers and consumers, but LG claims it would allow it to bring its costs for making LFP batteries level with its Chinese rivals in just three years. Remember Tula,

the company that invented skip fire, which shuts off cylinders in an ic engine when they're not needed. GM is pretty famous for using the tech and

most of its pickups, SU and even the Corvette. Well. Tula figured

out that if you do pretty much the same thing with an electric motor, sends strong pulses of electricity instead of a continuous flow the motor is more efficient, and that can increase the range of an EV or allow an automaker to keep the same range but use a slightly smaller battery pack. The pulses are

virtually imperceptible and only last for a few milliseconds, but they can increase the efficiency of an electric motor up to three percent, which means the battery could also be downsized by three percent. That may not sound like a lot,

but let's say a battery cost eight thousand bucks. A three percent downsize equates

to a two hundred and forty dollars savings, and in an industry that fights over every penny of cost, two hundred and forty bucks is a lot.

Tula calls it DMD or dynamic motor drive, and claims it can make a magnetless motor as efficient as a permanent magnet motor, which will get rid of the need for rare earth minerals. Best of all, TOOLESS solution is all

software, no hardware or modifications are needed, and it can also be updated over the air. Toulis says we could see this tech in production as early

as next year. Fleet operators sure like the idea of getting evs COX Automotive

found that eighty seven percent of the fleet operators that it surveyed in the US want to add evs, and in the next five years they expect forty three percent of their vehicles to be electric. That's for both fleets with and without

evs, but the ones that already have evs expect to have fifty eight percent electrics in the next five years. Despite the fact that fleet owners say evs

need slightly more maintenance than ICEE vehicles, forty eight percent say they prefer electrics.

On the other side, twenty seven percent say they prefer ices, and twenty four percent said they didn't see any difference. Right now, only fourteen

percent of fleets have evs, but Cox expects that to expand in the coming years. Mitsubishi says it's pivoting to North America to help drive the automaker's growth

through the end of the decade. The company was trying to make inroads in

Southeast Asia to boost its growth, but intense competition from low cost Chinese brands and sluggish sales, which have dropped eleven consecutive months, is causing Mitsubishi to switch. Currently, North America accounts for twenty five percent of its global revenue,

but it's aiming to boost that to thirty percent by twenty thirty. To

help achieve that, Mitsu will introduce one new model in the market every year until the end of the decade. Its sales in the US are still relatively

small. Last year, it sold just over eighty seven thousand vehicles, but

in the first six months of this year, Mitsu is old more than fifty one thousand vehicles, which is a twelve percent increase from last year. Jomi

must have gotten a lot of positive feedback on that nearly fifteen hundred and fifty horse power version of its all electric SU seven sedan. The company CEO says

it will build a production version with the same battery pack, trimotors, and chassis as the prototype, but without the carbon fiber body panels to help keep costs down. The Su seven Ultra is scheduled to go on sale in China

in the first half of next year, and in other Chinese car news, E revs, or extended range electrics, are the fastest growing segment in the country. So now Avatar, which is a joint venture between Changan Huawei and

CTL, is coming out with e REV versions of both its one to one suv and one two sedan. They'll feature a one and a half liter engine

that charges an LFP battery pack that feeds a roughly two hundred and thirty kilowatt or three hundred horse power electric motor. Battery size wasn't given, but they're

expected to have around two hundred and one kilometers or one hundred and twenty five miles of all electric range. Honda is giving the Civic SI an update.

The Performance model gets a more aggressive front end and grill, along with revised tail lights and a new wheel design. It also has a stiffer body,

so the suspension was retuned to match the increased stiffness. It's still powered by

the same one and a half liter turbocharged engine that's made it to a six speed manual transmission. That set up cranks out two hundred horse power and one

hundred and ninety two pound feet of torque while delivering a combined thirty one miles to the gallon. The new Civic SI arrives at dealer showrooms this August.

The starting price just over thirty one thousand dollars including destination charges. And speaking

of Honda, we've got the VP of Sales coming on tomorrow's Auto Line after hours to talk all about it's jump into the ev war, how it outsold Stilantis in the US, and if strong sedan sales are just a temporary blip.

You can catch that live at three pm Eastern Time. But that's a

wrap for this show. Thanks. Tuning in Autoline Daily is brought to you

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AD #3856 - Tesla Profit Tanks; GM Delays Electric Pickups Again; Tula Boosts EV Motor Efficiency

Gmc Sierra

Ford Orion

Chevrolet Corvette

Honda Civic

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