AD #3886 - U.S. EV Effort Suffers Setback; All Future Volvo's Based on Same Core; India Says No EV Incentives Needed
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive in history. Toyota took longer than the
other major automakers of the world to start its EV transition and made a smart decision to stick with a multi powertrain lineup. But like everyone else, it looks like
Toyota overestimated its EV plans. The nick A reports the
company now plans to build a million evs in twenty twenty six, which is a third less than its previous goal, and even reaching that could be a stretch. Last year,
Toyota sold just over one hundred thousand fully electric vehicles around the world, But Japanese automakers have to do something because with so few evs to offer, they're probably the most threatened from Chinese EV expansion. So the Japanese government
is going to invest up to two point four billion dollars in battery production, including their parts and materials. Toyota
revealed that it's getting support to make square performance and all solid state batteries. Initial production will be small at
nine gigawot hours, but they'll start launching in vehicles in twenty twenty six. Nissan announced its getting investment to make
five gigawatt hours of LFP batteries that will go into electric mini vehicles in twenty twenty eight, and Automotive News reports that Mazda and Subaru are getting money to make cylindrical lithium ion batteries.
Speaker 2: With all this.
Speaker 1: Investment, Japan expects to increase its production capacity by fifty percent to one hundred and twenty gigawat hours a year.
And speaking of battery production, more bad news for the German auto industry, Volkswagen's battery subsidiary power Co is only going to build one of two planned production lines at a plant in Germany. According to the company's works council.
That means it will only be able to produce twenty gigawot hours of batteries instead of forty, and the second line is on hold as demand for VW's evs has dropped, but even so production is still scheduled to start next year.
You know, there's still skepticism about autonomous vehicles becoming a reality and concerns over safety. So WEIMO is revealing records
to the public through a data hub so its claims can be verified by third party researchers. The data compares
crash rates to humans where it operates in San Francisco and Phoenix. Weaimo says in over twenty two million rider
only miles driven, its vehicles have been involved in eighty four percent fewer crashes with airbag deployments, seventy three percent fewer crashes that caused injury, and forty eight percent fewer police reported crashes compared to humans driving the same distance in those two cities. Weimo is planning to expand its
operations to Los Angeles and Austin in the coming months, so it's hoping this info will help build public trust with self driving technology. You know, we think avs and
driver assistance technology will be important to improving traffic safety.
But it's also important to remember these are comparisons only to the GEO fenced areas where Weymo operates and does not include all driving scenarios and weather conditions a human might face.
Speaker 3: 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 downe to runza EV tires with
a fifty thousand mile limited warranty.
Speaker 1: Renault thinks its employees should benefit directly from its performance, so for the last few years it's been offering free stock in the company with the option to buy more at a discount. This year, it's giving out seven free
shares and offering more at thirty percent off. It expects
to have nearly one hundred thousand employee shareholders. They currently
controlled just over five percent of shares in the company, and Renault wants to grow that to ten percent by twenty thirty. Speaking of Renault, it resto moded in R
seventeen from the nineteen seventies. It says it's based on
the same structure as the original, the same cabin doors, windows, seals and underbody, but it remade the chassis out of carbon fiber and widened the body by seventeen centimeters or over six point six inches, and unlike some other Resto mods, the interior and exterior styling has been changed a lot.
It's still inspired by the original, but with much more modern flare. It has the word electric in its name,
but Renault didn't reveal any details about the powertrain. Hopefully
we learn more when it's on display at the Parisato Show next month. Car sales in China were down for
the fifth month in a row. According to estimates from
the China Passenger Car Association, automakers sold one point nine million vehicles in August, down one percent from a year ago.
While the overall market was down, sales of new energy vehicles, which includes b EV's pehabs and Extended Range electrics, continues to surge. More than a million enevs were sold in August,
which is a forty two percent gain from last year, and they now account for fifty three percent of the new car market. While overall sales have declined for five
straight months in China, through August, sales are up two percent to a total of thirteen point five million vehicles.
Speaking of sales, BYD was the third best selling brand globally in July. It sold three hundred and fifteen thousand,
six hundred vehicles that month. Toyota was number one one
with more than six hundred and fifty one thousand sales, and Volkswagen was in second with more than three hundred and forty six thousand, only about thirty thousand units ahead of BYD and through the first seven months of the year, BYD is the eighth best selling brand globally, with more than one point seven million vehicles sold. It's now closing
the gap with seventh place Nissan, only seven thousand, six hundred units behind the Japanese automaker, and this should help boost BYDS sales even more. It just introduced a new
plug in hybrid suv called the Sea Lion O five DMI, which is based on BYD's song Pro crossover. The Sea
Lion shares similar proportions with the song Pro, but it is shorter. Its powertrain consists of a one point five
liter engine with ninety nine horse power, a one hundred and twenty kilowatt or one hundred and sixty horse power electric motor, and an eighteen point three kilowat hour LFP battery pack. Its all electric range is ninety three kilometers
or fifty seven miles, and its fuel economy is rated at four point nine liters per one hundred kilometers or forty eight miles to the gallon, which gives it an impressive range of two thousand kilometers or twelve hundred and forty miles based on the Chinese test cycle. The CA
Lion five goes on sale later this year, and while official pricing hasn't been revealed, it's expected to be in the fourteen to twenty one thousand dollars range. Hyundai is
about to grab access to more of the EV tax credit in the US. The updated twenty twenty five version
of the Ionic five is its first EV to be produced at its new plant in Georgia, and it will go on sale this fall. That means it will be
eligible for three thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars off a purchase the full seventy five hundred dollars for a lease vehicle. Updates include new front rear bumpers, a new
rear spoiler, redesigned HVAC controls and steering wheel, and a brand new off road looking XRT trim. It's a good
time for the refresh model to hit the market. The
Ionic five had a record sales month in the US in August, selling nearly five thousand units. The company also
says all new or refreshed Hundai evs will come exclusively with Tesla's Naxport in the fourth quarter of this year.
And in one last bit of Hyndai Group EV news, Genesis is launching the new Electrified G eighty. Styling is
not all that different, even though it extended the wheelbase by one hundred and thirty millimeters or over five inches, giving rear seat passengers a lot more legroom. Genesis also
made improvements to the suspension and added rear wheel steering so it's easier to maneuver despite being longer. The new
electrified G eighty just went on sale in Korea and Europe, and the US should follow soon. But that brings us
to the end.
Speaker 3: Of today's show.
Speaker 1: Thanks for making autoline a part of your day, and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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