Rivian is investing heavily in plant upgrades and refreshed models to reduce costs, despite current losses on each vehicle sold. Honda reports record operating profits driven by hybrid sales, especially in the US and Japan, while adjusting its China sales forecast due to market shifts. BMW tests humanoid robots for assembly line work, and Mercedes Benz intensifies efforts against counterfeit parts globally. Waymo expands its autonomous ride service in California, growing its user base. Hyundai and Kia's software update significantly reduces vehicle thefts. Ford launches a new hybrid police SUV with fuel-saving benefits and advanced tech.
- Rivian Burns Through Cash to Prepare for New Models - Honda Posts Record $3.3 Billion Operating Profit - Honda Launches New EV In China - BMW Tests Humanoid Robots in South Carolina - Mercedes Goes After Counterfeit Parts Makers - Waymo Expands Service in California - Software Upgrade Cuts Hyundai and Kia Thefts in Half - Ford Launches New Explorer Police Vehicle
"... across the US. Officially called the Ford Police Interceptor Utility, the model is the best selling police veh..."
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Speaker 1: This Zotolne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Rivian is burning through cash as it
makes upgrades to its US plant in Illinois for the significant refresh it did to its R one models and as it prepares for the all new R two. It
sold nearly fourteen thousand evs in the second quarter, but those plant upgrades slowed production to nine thousand, six hundred units and also contributed to its operating expenses, which grew to nearly a billion dollars. Total revenue came to over
one point one billion dollars, but Rivian is still losing almost forty three hundred dollars on every vehicle that it sells.
The refresh models and the plant upgrades are helping to slash its costs, so that's why they're so important to the company, but it will take time before we see the full effects that they have. Rivian says it still
has as nearly five point eight billion dollars in cash and cash equivalents and is sticking with its most recent full year production forecast of fifty seven thousand vehicles. Honda
also posted the results from its most recent quarter and it's really benefiting from an increase in hybrid sales. While
car sales were down a little more than three and a half percent. Those sales helped generate thirty six point
seven billion dollars in revenue for the quarter, up almost seventeen percent. An operating profit for the company had an
all time record of three point three billion dollars, a jump of nearly twenty three percent a week or yen was part of the reason for the increase, but Honda also made more money by selling more higher priced hybrid models.
That hybrid growth mostly came in the US in Japan, but in China sales were down about thirty three percent.
Honda says the IC market there shrunk fatster while the any V market grew faster than it expected, and it cut its sales forecast in China by two hundred and twenty thousand units for the full year. But Honda hopes
to make up for some of those lost sales with a brand new series of evs for China called Ye.
And now we have some of the specs for the E S seven, which is a smallish suv. The model
will have a dual motor all wheel drive set up with a one hundred and fifty kilowat or two hundred horse power unit in the front and a two hundred kilowat or two hundred and sixty five horse power motor in the rear, and the nearly ninety kilowat hour battery pack, which comes from COTL, provides six hundred and twenty kilometers or three hundred and eighty five miles of range on the Chinese test cycle. Honda's Y series of vehicles is
supposed to go on sale before the end of the year, and pricing for the S seven will reportedly start a little under thirty thousand dollars. Another humanoid robot is making
progress with its training to become an automotive assembly line worker.
BMW and robotics company Figure recently completed a test for the latest generation of its robot, the Figure O two, where it loaded stamp sheet metal parts into a fixture so they could be welded together. BMW says it's learned
valuable insight into how to integrate robots into automotive manufacturing, including how they communicate with the production system, and it will continue to collaborate with Figure on future applications and its plants.
Speaker 2: Knowing that when it's time to unplug, your tires were built to get you to the place you recharge. That's
what really matters. Reached doone to unza Evy tires with
a fifty thousand mile limited warranty.
Speaker 1: Every year, Mercedes Benz highlights its effort counterfeit parts from being sold in the aftermarket. This includes things like wheels, brakes,
body and steering components. Working with law enforcement agencies, Mercedes
says it was able to seize more than one point six million fake parts worldwide last year. That was about
the same as twenty twenty two, but last year raids also increased by twenty percent, averaging just over to a day, and not surprisingly, Mercedes says more counterfeit networks are moving online and last year it deleted more than one hundred and forty two thousand offers for fake parts on social media and other online platforms. Waimo continues to expand its
autonomous service. Last month, it opened up to everyone in
San Francisco, and now it's adding more cities in the San Francisco Bay area as well as growing to more areas around Los Angeles. The service operates twenty four to
seven and in all weather conditions. In San Francis, Scoe,
anyone can use it by just downloading the app, but in Los Angeles there's a wait list of about one hundred and fifty thousand people, so Weaimo is inviting them to join in chunks. It also operates the autonomous service
in the Metro Phoenix area and between the three cities.
Waimo says it now provides paid rides to more than fifty thousand users per week. A software upgrade Hyundai and
Kia rolled out early last year to prevent vehicles from being stolen is having a big impact. As you probably remember,
the automakers were hit with a big wave of thefts after videos on social media showed how to easily steal vehicles without engine immobilizers, which prevents the car from starting if the Kia isn't nearby. They were easy to steal
with a simple hack, so in February of twenty twenty three, Hyundai and Kia began offering a software upgrade for around two dozen twenty eleven to twenty twenty two models to fix the issue. According to research from the Highway Loss
Data Institute or HILDY for short, theft claim frequencies for vehicles with the update were fifty three percent lower than ones without it. It only looked at data as of
December of twenty twenty three, when about thirty percent of the eligible vehicles had received the update, but the automaker's claim that has doubled to about sixty percent as of July.
Even though the upgrade is working. Hildy says Hyundai's and
Kia's theft claim frequency is still higher than other brands, but it does expect that to decline as these learn they're not as easy to steal anymore. Ford is now
shipping the new police version of the Explorer to law enforcement agencies across the US. Officially called the Ford Police
Interceptor Utility, the model is the best selling police vehicle in the country. Departments will have three engine choice is
a two hundred and eighty five horse power three point three liter V six, a four hundred horse power three liter Eco Boost V six, or a three point three liter V six that has a hybrid system that produces three hundred and eighteen horse power. Since police vehicles idle
so much, Ford says the hybrid can save up to eight hundred and thirty eight gallons of gas a year.
Upgrades include new safety equipment standard, advanced driver assistance technology, and a new twelve point three inch instrument cluster that has a clearer display. But that's it for today's show.
Thanks for tuning in.
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