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AD #3964 - Panasonic Eliminating Its Chinese Content; Afeela Launching with $103K Price Tag; ZF Develops New Hybrid Braking System

AD #3964 - Panasonic Eliminating Its Chinese Content; Afeela Launching with $103K Price Tag; ZF Develops New Hybrid Braking System

Autoline Daily Jan 07, 2025 10 min
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About this episode

Panasonic is accelerating efforts to eliminate Chinese materials from its US-made batteries amid tightening EV sourcing rules and potential tariffs. The UAW won a settlement with Lucid Motors over unfair labor practices. European automakers are pooling emissions with Tesla to avoid hefty fines. Tesla faces an NHTSA investigation over its Smart Summon feature. The UK narrowly surpassed Germany as Europe's top EV market due to price cuts and incentives. Honda and Sony's Afeela EV will launch in 2026 with advanced sensors and a $103K price. ZF is developing a hybrid brake-by-wire system, and Toyota is opening its futuristic Woven City near Mt. Fuji. Ram unveiled new heavy-duty pickups with powerful engines and upgraded tech.

Topics: battery supply chain labor relations emissions pooling tesla safety investigation ev market trends afeela ev launch hybrid braking system woven city project ram heavy duty pickups
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Speaker 1: This is online daily. The show dedicated to enthusiasts of
the global automotive industry. Battery maker Panasonics says its number
one objective is to eliminate Chinese materials from the batteries that it makes in the US. While the company claims
it doesn't have a lot of Chinese suppliers, it has accelerated efforts to get rid of them and is working with its other suppliers from Japan, South Korea, and Canada to set up operations in North America. Panasonic already operates
one battery plant in Nevada and plans to open another in Kansas this year. Sourcing requirements for evs to be
eligible for the US federal tax credit continue to tighten, and President elect Trump has pledged to raise tariffs on Chinese goods, so Panasonics moves could potentially open itself up to new partners. Meanwhile, the largest battery maker in the
world might have a harder time finding new partners in the US. The US Defense Department just added CTL to
a list of companies that it says works with the Chinese military, which could lead to an investment ban. CTL
denies the claim and will likely appeal but even so, its stock price was down on the news. The UAW
just got a win from the National Labor Relations Board.
In twenty twenty three, the union filed unfair labor practices against evy startup Lucid Motors over the company firing three workers at its plant in Arizona for organizing with the UAW, And now the workers have reached a settlement with the automaker to have their jobs reinstated, pay them nearly two hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars in back pay, as well as a cease and desist order that stops Lucid from quote committing a long list of unfair labor practices.
Tesla is in line for a nice little payday in Europe.
Automotive of News reports that Ford, Mazda, Stalantis, Subaru, and Toyota are going to pool their emissions with Tesla in Europe in order to avoid emission fines. The EU's emission
rules ramp up this year, and automakers have to pay out ninety five euros for every gram of CO two over the limit, multiplied by every vehicle sold. The ACEA,
a lobbying group that represents European automakers says the fines could potentially top fifteen billion euros. So by paying to
pool with Tesla, the automakers can lower their fleet emissions and avoid the fines, and it could be a lot of money. Between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one, Stalantis
paid two point four billion dollars to pool its emissions with Tesla and Europe. And speaking of Tesla, the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the company's actually smart Summon feature, which allows owners to remotely move their vehicle using a smartphone app. The investigation was sparked
by reports of crashes like not detecting posts or parked vehicles while the technology was being used. It involves two
point six million Tesla vehicles.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 1: The UK passed Germany to become the number one EV market in Europe last year, but only barely. UK EV
sales were just under three hundred and eighty two thousand vehicles, an increase of twenty one percent, while Germany sold three hundred and eighty thousand evs, a drop of more than twenty five percent. As we reported yesterday, EV sales in
the UK surged last month because automakers cut prices in order to meet EV sales mandates. EV sales sload in
Germany because purchase incentives were eliminated at the end of twenty twenty three, which put a dent in demand, but EV sales in Germany could pick back up towards the end of the year when EV owners with three year leases come back to the market. Afela, the joint venture
between Honda and Sony, will launch its all electric Afeela one sedan in the middle of twenty twenty six, with a trim line called Signature and a starting price of one hundred and three thousand dollars a. FeelA is billing
this as a smart car that you'll be able to more easily interact with, as well as offer unparalleled entertainment and relaxation through audio and visuals. The vehicle will also
have an aid ASS system that sounds similar in capability to Tesla's FSD system, and will rely on forty censors, including eighteen cameras, one ledar, nine radar and twelve ultrasonic sensors.
The car will come standard with Tesla's next charging port and claims a range of up to three hundred miles.
There will also be a trim line called Origin that launches in twenty twenty seven, which has fewer color options, screens, and smaller tires and will start at ninety thousand dollars.
The supplier ZF is working with a global automaker to introduce a new hybrid braking system. The front brakes are
a standard hydraulic setup, but the rear uses no brake fluid at all. It's a break by wire system where
the rear calipers are controlled by electric motors. This is
a solution that ZF has developed to addressed automakers software defind vehicle needs, and it also allows for expanded use of the braking system, like the ability to use the brakes to steer the car and on top a ditching part of the hydraulic braking system the same vehicle as ditching hydraulic steel hearing. ZF is also supplying a forty
eight volt electrically powered ball gear to the global automaker, which was not revealed in the press release, but it does say these types of breaks are used on passenger cars and like commercial vehicles, and it will equip the system on nearly five million vehicles over the life of the contract. Toyota is building its own little city at
the base amount Fuji in Japan, and it's just about ready for people to start moving in. Called Woven City,
it's meant to be a place where people can live, work, innovate, play, and it will focus on the mobility of its residents, goods, information, and energy. It says about three hundred and sixty people
will start moving in this fall, and it already has several businesses confirmed to offer services in the future. Toyota
expects about two thousand people to live in the city and expand to include autonomous rides not just on the ground but also in the sky, and robots that not only help people with tasks, but also pets to provide comfort.
The city will be opened to Toyota employees and their families, as well as students, retailers and retirees. Ram unveiled new
versions of its twenty five hundred and thirty five hundred heavy duty pickups. Two engine options are offered, a standard
six point four liter HEMIV eight that produces four hundred and five horse power and four hundred and twenty nine pound feet of torque. The second engine is an all
new six point seven leter inline six cylinder Cummins diesel which cranks out four hundred and thirty horses, one thousand and seventy five pound feet of torque and has a towing capacity of thirty six thousand, six hundred and ten pounds.
Both engines are madeed to a new eight speed automatic transmission.
The interior comes standard with an improved twelve inch display screen or a new fourteen inch touchscreen is also available, and for the first time, a ten and a quarter inch passenger display is offered, which has an HDMI plug for phones or tablets. The new RAM heavy duty pickups
go on sale this quarter. The twenty five hundred starts
at forty seven five and sixty dollars including destination charges, and the thirty five hundred is one thousand dollars more.
But that brings us to the end of today's show.
Don't forget to look for our cees content and we'll see you back here again tomorrow.
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