Hyundai and Kia plan to build 50,000 range-extended electric pickup trucks annually in the U.S. by 2029, aiming to challenge traditional American brands. The episode also covers the UAW's complaint against Trump and Musk's strike remarks, rapid model updates frustrating Chinese EV customers, and South Korea's push for battery transparency after a Mercedes EV fire. Tesla's Supercharger network expansion improves charging satisfaction, while Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide faces regulatory hurdles. Challenges in securing enough minerals for EV batteries and innovative owl-inspired cooling fans for EVs round out the discussion.
Topics:hyundai kia erev pickupsuaw strike complaintchinese ev model updatesbattery fire and transparencytesla supercharger networkchinese autonomous vehiclesev battery mineral supplyev pricing and incentivesowl-inspired ev cooling fan
- Hyundai To Build EREV Pickup in U.S. - UAW Files Complaint Against Trump, Musk - Is Zeekr Coming with New Models Too Quickly? - Zeekr Claims 10 Minute 80% Charge Time - South Korea Wants OEMs To I.D. Batteries in EVs - NACS Improves Charging Satisfaction - WeRide AVs Get California OK for Passengers - U.S. and EU Lack Materials for EV Batteries - EV Prices Inch Up - Owls Inspire EV Cooling Fan
"...got caatl's newest batteries and an eight hundred volt electric system. Speaker 2: Earlier versions of t..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Traditional American pickup brands better beware.
According to a report from Koreahndai and Kia want to quote unquote conquer the US pickup truck market. It says
that after tearing down a Taskla cyber truck, the group decided to make trucks a priority, but they won't go after pure electric pickups. Instead, the plan is to build
fifty thousand range Extended Electrics or EREV trucks a year starting in twenty twenty nine. Lending a little more validity
to the story. At the end of last month, we
reported that Auto Fourcast Solutions says Kia will start making a pickup truck at the Hondi Group's new assembly plant in Savannah, Georgia in December of twenty twenty eight, and Hyundai will move the Santa Cruz production to the same plant in twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 2: So the timelines line up.
Speaker 1: And while the report from Korea didn't say where the EREV trucks will be built, it's highly unlikely that the automakers would want to deal with the twenty five percent tariff that slapped on all imported trucks coming into the US.
Sean Fain did not enjoy the interview between former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, so much so that the UAW filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board overcomments Trump and Musk made during their conversation on Monday.
The two talked about firing workers who go on strike, which the UAW says was a threat to intimidate workers.
It's against the lot of fire workers for going on strike and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. However, the NLRB has limited power
to punish those violations. Remember, the union filed a complaint
with the NLRB against Mercedes back in May after it lost a vote to organize the automaker's plant in Alabama, claiming.
Speaker 2: The election was unfair.
Speaker 1: It also filed complaints against GM, Stalantis, Hondi, Honda, and VW and so far we haven't heard anything about any of those, so we think this new complaint by the UAW will probably go nowhere. Are Chinese automakers coming out
with new models too quickly? Some of Zeker's customers sure
think so. In the last twelve months, Zeker launched three
new versions of its zero zero one sedan. It's not
that the body styling changed that much, it's that the batteries, motors, and intelligent driving systems were upgraded. In February, the zero
zero one got caatl's newest batteries and an eight hundred volt electric system.
Speaker 2: Earlier versions of the zero zero one.
Speaker 1: Have chips from MOBILEI, while the newest ones come from Nvidia, and they have longer range lidarving them more autonomy and safety capabilities. In other words, the older cars can't be
upgraded with over the year updates. Car News China reports
that this upset customers who bought the earlier versions of the car, and no wonder these updates in a way obsoleted their cars and will hurt the resale value because having the latest electronic features is extremely important to Chinese consumers.
And let's stay with Zeker for a moment, because yesterday it came out with the twenty twenty five version of its zero zero seven sedan that uses a seventy five kilowad hour LFP battery that can be charged from twenty to eighty percent in just over ten minutes. Zeker developed
the battery itself and says it can charge faster than an NMC battery. And speaking of EV batteries, South Korea
is thinking of asking automakers to publicly divulge who made the batteries in their electric cars. This was prompted by
a Mercedes Ben's EQE battery fire that started in an underground garage and Soul that destroyed forty cars, damaged one hundred others, and took eight hours to put out. The
buildings above the garage also lost power and hundreds of residents had to evacuate. Then it turned out that the
Mercedes had a battery pack from a Chinese company that most people have never heard of, Farisis, and two years ago SAIC had to recall thirty two thousand evs with Farisis batteries because they could catch fire.
Speaker 2: So now Hyundai, Kia, BMW.
Speaker 1: And Mercedes are posting who makes their batteries on their Korean websites.
Speaker 3: Intrepid's Neovipie 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 neovipies to design 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 divine vehicles.
Speaker 1: EV charging satisfaction is improving thanks to Tesla opening up as supercharger network to non Tesla vehicles. According to JD
Powers US Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study, satisfaction with public EV chargers grew in the first half of the year compared to a year ago, and it's the first time the experience improved for two consecutive quarters since JD Power launched the study four years ago. Non Tesla owners
using Tesla's network report at higher levels of satisfaction than with other public charging networks. However, at the same time,
Tesla owners are reporting a slight decline in satisfaction due to more evs using the supercharger network. Other factors that
helped improve the charging experience were charging companies fixing and expanding their networks, but charging reliability is still an issue, with nineteen percent of public charging attempts failing because the charger was out of service or justin't work. Chinese autonomous
tech company we Ride may have picked the wrong time to expand in the US has been operating self driving test vehicles in California since twenty twenty one, accumulating over forty two thousand miles last year, but it recently received permits from California to ad passenger to its tests and to give rides with or without a backup driver. We
Ride also announced last week that it's planning to do an IPO in the US with a potential five billion dollar value, But all this could go nowhere because the Commerce Department is expected to propose a new rule in the next couple of weeks that will ban level three and higher autonomous vehicles that use Chinese software, as well as connected cars that use Chinese develop wireless communication. It's
all about national security, but we Ride does have a few things going in its favor.
Speaker 2: It's been operating in the US for years.
Speaker 1: It's still only doing tests. The rides won't be open
to the public, and it can't charge passengers. Even so,
it will still be interesting to see how this all turns out. The US and Europe may not have access
to enough minerals to meet demand for EVY batteries. A
study by the International Energy Agency says that at the current pace of production, only seventy percent of global demand for copper and fifty percent for lithium will be met by twenty thirty five. The University of Michigan and Cornell
also released a study that says there isn't enough copper to meet future demand. The slowdown in ev sales has
ease supplies and cause prices to drop, but that's expected to be short lived, with ev production forecasted to grow later in the decade. Battery mineral supplies will also be
further constrained because the US Inflation Reduction Act restricts where materials.
Speaker 2: Can come from.
Speaker 1: Battery recycling could also help, but that business isn't expected to be fully up and running for another decade or so in order to meet future demand. The IEA says
eight hundred million dollars in new mining investment is needed around the world by twenty forty. Even with generous incentives,
EV prices actually went up last month and are only down slightly year over year.
Speaker 2: The average transaction price.
Speaker 1: For an EV in July was just over fifty six five hundred dollars, down one and a half percent from twenty twenty three, but still over eight thousand dollars more than the industry average. Plus the incentive packages offered on
new EV's last month averaged more than twelve percent of the price, which is nearly double last year and the highest level in three years, and when compared to the industry average, EV incentives or seventy four percent higher. But
despite all that, many experts believe EV prices will come down quickly because more lower price models are coming into the market and lithium, a key ingredient in.
Speaker 2: Batteries, has seen prices drop sharply.
Speaker 1: Nature can be a great inspiration for trying to solve engineering problems, so when the engineers at Mala wanted to reduce the noise of cooling fans and evs and fuel cell ca they studied the wings of owls and that's because owls make almost no noise when flying or gliding.
Somala put little ridges on the edges of the fan blades that mimic the trailing edges of an owl's wing.
It says this cuts the fan noise by four decibels, which actually cuts the noise in half. And better still,
the fan is ten percent more efficient and ten percent lighter than conventional ones. While you might not think about it,
evs use cooling fans to keep the battery in power electronics at the proper temperature.
Speaker 2: And with that we wrap up today's show.
Speaker 1: Thanks for making autoline a part of your day.
Speaker 4: Auto Line 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 future of mobility, and by Tajent Automotive Technologies the formula for better mobility.
Speaker 5: Keeping your heart racing in and out of the gym, that's what really matters. Bridge don't pretend to sport as
tires with a fifty thousand mile limited warranty.
Speaker 6: So when we did our research for the talent that we need for this program, Michigan was really the top of the list. In order to be successful in this space,
you really have to have the right people, the right mindsets, the right environments.
Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal. Hey light enough, but
with world class composite material, Tagent Automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
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