AD #3994 - Renault Solves EV Battery Fires; Trump to Kill California ZEV Waiver; Scout EREV Motor Near Rear Axle

Speaker 1: This is Utoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. There sure seems to be a

lot of interest in Scout Motors, and we just got more details about its powertrain setups from CEO Scott Keo.

He says the Extended Range Electric or EREV version will feature a non turbocharged four cylinder engine that's mounted just in front of the rear axle and will help charge a sixty or seventy kilowad hour battery pack. That pack

is expected to provide a battery only range of about one hundred and fifty miles, but combine the battery and engine should provide over five hundred miles of range. The

pure electric version will have about double the battery capacity one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty kilowad hours, which should put range around three hundred and fifty miles.

Both packs use different chemistries, with Keyo hinting that the EREV has a cheaper chemistry than the BEEV, which could suggest it's an LFP or lithium iron phosphate battery, while the BEEV is expected to do zero to sixty miles an hour and three and a half seconds, a full second faster than the e rev over half of all reservations so Farfore, the range extender the Traveler suv is also more popular than the Terra pickup truck, accounting for seventy percent of orders, but the models aren't expected to

launch until sometime in twenty twenty seven. Well, well, well,

that Honda Nissan merger may not be dead after all, but The Financial Times reports that Honda will only resume talks if Nissan gets rid of its CEO, Makoto Yucheitah.

It also says that Nissan's board members and its partner Reno on him gone, so it's hard to see how this guy survives. Earlier this month, merger talks between Honda

and Nissan fell apart when Honda demanded that Nissan become a subsidiary of Honda, which Nissan rejected. In the meantime,

Nissan is looking for or another partner, and Fox Con and the private equity firm Kkar say they're interested in buying part of the company. In another sign of how

the EV segment has failed to reach expectations, ZF is considering selling off all or part of its EV drivetrain division.

It says that slow EV adoption and high costs are dragging down the profit margins of its traditional powertrain business.

It almost seems ironic because when the giant German supplier merged its EV drivetrain business into its traditional powertrain business back in twenty twenty, employees on the IC side worried that they would lose their jobs in the future. Now

it looks like they have the safest jobs of all.

General Motors may have delayed plans to build more full size electric SUVs, but it's still going forward with them.

Auto Fourcast Solutions provided some great intel which says GM is going to start building the Tahoe EV code name BT one at its Orient plant in Michigan in June of twenty twenty eight. That's the plant that had been

building the Chevrolet Bolt and was supposed to start building the Silverado and Sierra Evis this year. Now those trucks

have been pushed back to twenty twenty six, and it's interesting to see that GM is adding an electric suv there Right now, full size electric SUVs and pickups aren't selling very well, so we think GM is adding more vehicles for the plant to build so it has better capacity utilization.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal, hey light enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

Speaker 1: If you can't beat them, join them. We've already seen

Stilanti's team up with Chinese automaker Leap Motor, and now Renault and Geli are expanding their partnership to Brazil. They're

going to produce and sell zero and low emission vehicles there.

Gili will become a minority shareholder in Renauldu Brazil, giving it access to Renault's plants, sales and service outlets. Those

plants would make vehicles for both Gili and Renault in addition to the current Renault lineup, and Renault will also distribute and sell Gili vehicles in the country. No financial

details were disclosed, and the deal still needs approval from regulators.

Renault and Gili have a similar agreement in South Korea, and the two companies also have a joint venture called horse Powertrain, which makes IC components. While EV fires are

not as common as gas cars going up in flames, it can take hours and tens of thousands of gallons of water to put out an EV fire. So nearly

four years ago, Renaul developed a way to put out EV fires in minutes and with ten times less water, and now it's making that patented piece of tech available for free to any automaker supplier, called Fireman Access. It's

basically a sticker that goes over a hole in the case of the battery pack. If a fire breaks out,

the pressure from the fire hose rips the sticker off and firefighters can pump water directly into the pack. Renault

says anyone can get a free license to use Fireman Access, but in return, it says if they make any upgrades, they have to share that with everyone else. In his

first term in office, President Trump rescinded California's waiver from the EPA that allowed it to set its own CO two emission standards. When President Biden came into office, he

restored that waiver and then had the EPA redraft it in a way that would make it very difficult to overturning Quartz. The waiver now cites traditional pollutants like Knox,

carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons as the justification for California's waiver, not CO two, so Trump is going straight to Congress to repeal the EPA's a thought to grant California a waiver.

With Republicans in charge of both houses in Congress, Trump will probably get what he wants and get it fast, but California will almost certainly sue, and this case will likely end up in the Supreme Court. Automakers and dealers

are opposed to California zero mission vehicle regulation, which about eleven other states have also adopted, because thirty five percent of all vehicles sold in those states have to be electric by the end of the twenty twenty six model year, and that model year has already started. Even California will

probably not be able to meet its own mandate, and it has the highest EVY sales rate in the nation.

The Volvo XC sixty got a mild refresh. Highlights include

a new front facia, including a redesigned grill and a bigger center screen. That interior screen also features Volvo's new

look User Experience display, and it runs off a Qualcom snap Dragon platform, which is faster and provides better graphics than before. Valvo says, depending on what market you're in,

the new XC sixty can be ordered right now. Japan

has one of the oldest populations in the world, so Toyota launched an initiative to assist older people with bathing.

It installed a miss sauna in its high as van, which provides a similar effect to bathing after sitting in the room for about ten to fifteen minutes. Believe it

or not, the number of older people who drown in bathtub accidents in Japan is twice as high as traffic fatalities.

But the sauna eliminates the risk of drowning, and by installing it in a vehicle, caregivers can travel to a person's home. Toyota says the trial run of the program

went well and it's now looking into commercializing the service.

But that's a wrap for this show. Thanks for making

Autoline a part of your day.

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AD #3994 - Renault Solves EV Battery Fires; Trump to Kill California ZEV Waiver; Scout EREV Motor Near Rear Axle

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