AD #3951 - VW May Move ID Buzz Out of Germany; EV Raw Material Costs Plummet; Toyota Delays Next-Gen EVs

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Volkswagen workers are cranking up the

pressure on the company. As we reported last week, workers

held a four hour strike today at nine plans in Germany to protest the automaker's plan to cut jobs and wages.

Union leaders and management are also holding talks today about a new deal. But before negotiation started, the ig Mattal

union issued a warning to VW that it has quote one last chance to reach a deal before the end of the year, or it will face strikes in twenty twenty five. That quote this company has never experienced before.

VW says it needs to make the cuts in order to remain competitive. But so far the two sides are

close to a deal. And here's another thing that isn't

going to sit well with the union. A report from

a local German newspaper says that VW is considering moving parts or all of the id buzz production out of Germany to its plant in Poland. A VW spokesperson confirmed

that it is discussing different scenarios, but says it hasn't made a final decision yet.

Speaker 2: Even so, something is holding the van back.

Speaker 1: VW set a sales target of one hundred and thirty thousand a year, but in the first half of the year it's only delivered fifteen thousand ID buzzes. The prices

for raw materials needed to make EV batteries are dropping fast.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that in the last two years, lithium prices dropped eighty six percent, cobalt fell forty six percent, and nickel fell forty three percent. But that's not really

good news for the EV sector. Those prices are down

because EV demand slowed, especially in the US and the EU, and there's actually a glut of those materials. While the

price competition in evs gets all the headlines, the price competition for battery makers is even more brutal. Another reason

why cobalt and nickel prices are down is the growing popularity of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which don't use those materials, So battery experts don't expect prices to pick back up again for a couple of years. Remember when everyone said

that cylindrical battery cells were best for.

Speaker 2: Evs, Well not anymore. They don't.

Speaker 1: Robin Zeng the CEO of CATL even made fun of Elon Musk, saying he doesn't know how to make batteries and that the cylindrical forty six eighty cells will never be successful.

Speaker 2: Meanwhile, BYD, which is.

Speaker 1: The second largest EV battery maker in the world and makes LFP blade batteries, says it will cut their cost fifteen percent when the next generation launches in the first half of next year.

Speaker 2: It will also.

Speaker 1: Increase the energy density from one hundred and fifty one watt hours per kilogram to two hundred and ten watt hours and will have a three C charging rate, which is how charge rates are described in China. A one

S charge rate means a battery can be fully charged in one hour. A two C rate means it can

charge two times in an hour, so a three C charge rate means it can be fully charged in twenty minutes.

BYD says the new blade batteries will offer performance close to typical lithium batteries, but at LFP prices. According to

Goldman Sachs, global battery prices are now around one hundred and eleven dollars per kilowatt hour and are expected to drop to eighty by twenty twenty six. And as long

as we're talking about evy batteries, here's an interesting factoid.

Half of all the foreign direct investment for restoring manufacturing in the United States since twenty twenty one was for EV battery production. The rest went to computer chips, farmceuticals,

solar panels, and raw materials like lithium, rare earth, and hydrogen.

President Trump is talking about eliminating all subsidies for evs and batteries, but that would slam the door shut on the greatest reassuring effort going on in the country.

Speaker 2: So what do you think.

Speaker 1: Will Trump actually get rid of the EV subsidies or keep some of them, or what will he do?

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Speaker 1: Looks like Nicholas having some teething issues launching its hydrogen powered semi trucks. Coyote Container, a shipping and logistics company,

was one of the first to get the fuel cell truck earlier this year, but says operating costs are more that there's no way to tell how much the fuel actually costs. There's also weight limitations and reliability issues. It's

said the first time power cut out unexpectedly, the truck had nine hundred miles on it, but it's happened five more times, the most recent one with nearly thirty thousand miles on the odometer, which has resulted in Coyote filing complaints to NITSA. On top of that, it says the

hydrogen powered Nikola sells for five to ten times more and can weigh anywhere from seven five hundred to eleven thousand pounds more than a standard Class eight diesel draage truck, which hinders how much cargo you can carry.

Speaker 2: Due to on road weight limits.

Speaker 1: These are some of the very first models to reach customer hands, so I think some issues should be expected, but unlike early EV adopters who typically had a second or third car to go to, it's not as easy for a trucking company to just grab another semi out of the garage, so we may not see these trucking companies get the same free pass.

Speaker 2: As some automakers.

Speaker 1: According to reports out of Japan, Toyota is pushing back its next gen EV's for most of the world, but this seems less to do with a slowdown in EV demand and more to do with Toyota needing more time to develop its future production technology like gigacastings and cars that can drive themselves to different assembly areas. They say

it's pushing back production of an electric three row Toyota suv in the US from twenty twenty five until the first half of twenty twenty six, and delaying Lexus's next EV into the middle of twenty twenty seven. But Toyota

is pushing ahead with new evs in China with its joint venture partner GAC. It just opened up orders for

its newest electric suv, the BZ three X. The model

features a one hundred and fifty kilowatt or roughly two hundred horse power electric motor up to six hundred and twenty kilometers or three hundred and eighty five miles of range, and hands free driving capability. The BZ three X is

scheduled to go on sale in China in March with a starting price under fourteen thousand dollars. Stillantis is going

to rejoin the ACEA, or the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, a lobbying group that represents the European auto industry. Two

years ago, Stillantis left the group because former CEO Carlos Tavares wanted to set up his own lobbying forum. Tavares

was unhappy with the ACEA support of the EU's EV transition plan. He wanted the EU to ease off the

EV mandate and allow more hybrids and plug in hybrids.

But with Tavara is gone, Stalantis is rejoining the ACEA, which is welcoming it back with open arms. As we

said earlier in the show, the Trump administration wants to get rid of the seventy five hundred dollars federal EV tax credit. It also wants to scale back fuel efficiency standards,

and now Reuter's reports that Trump wants to stop the US Postal Services transition into electric vehicles. Sources tell Reuters

that the Trump transition team is looking into canceling multi billion dollar contracts that the USPS signed with Oshkosh and Ford to purchase electric delivery vehicles. In twenty twenty three,

Congress gave the USPS three billion dollars to purchase sixty six thousand electric vehicles and charging equipment. However, it will

be legally challenging for the Trump administration to cancel those contracts because the USPS is an autonomous federal agency with its own governing board. Mercedes AMG is officially kicking off

its new limited edition series called Mythos, and the first car to come out of that is the Peer Speed.

The two door, two seat sports car is one of just a few models in the world that comes with no top or windshield, but it also features an F one.

Speaker 2: Style halo bar, which we had hoped was.

Speaker 1: An indication of an F one inspired power but it actually comes with an AMG staple, a four liter twin turbov eight.

Speaker 2: In the Peer Speed.

Speaker 1: It sends roughly five hundred and eighty horse power to all four wheels through a nine speed automatic trans which gets you from zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in three point six seconds. Other highlights include a semi

active suspension system, standard ceramic brakes, four wheel steering, and it looks like you get your own matching custom helmet, but with only two hundred and fifty examples being built, you know it won't be cheap.

Speaker 2: But that brings us to the end of today's show.

Thanks for making.

Speaker 1: Autoline a part of your day.

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AD #3951 - VW May Move ID Buzz Out of Germany; EV Raw Material Costs Plummet; Toyota Delays Next-Gen EVs

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