AD #4017 - Tesla Trade-Ins Hit Record Pace; GM and Hyundai To Share Pickups and EV Vans; BYD Reveals 30,500 RPM EV Motor
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Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We're getting a clear picture of
the partnership between GM and Hyundai that was officially announced in September of last year. In January, we learned that
Hondai will supply electric commercial vehicles for GM to rebadge and sell in North America, and now we know those are two evy Van models which will have Hondai equivalents and will initially be imported from South Korea. But Honda
is also considering making the commercial vans in North America by twenty twenty eight, which could require expanding production at a current plant, building a new facility, or getting someone else to make them. As a tradeoff, GM might supply
Hondai with pickup trucks to rebadge and sell in North America, with talks focused around the mid size Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon. However, Honday also reportedly wants to get a
version of GM's full sized trucks, but we think that GM would have to be pretty desperate to give access to the platform that likely generates its most profits outside of North America. Hyundai could supply GM with compact crossovers
to add to its lineup in Brazil and globally, they're considering purchasing and or developing computer chips, batteries, and battery materials together. Elon Musk held an impromptu meeting with Tesla
employees in Austin, Texas yesterday to help reassure them about all the negative headlines about the automaker. During the meeting,
which was live streamed on x, Musk told workers that despite the company's stock dropping forty percent this year, they should hold onto their shares, saying that the quote future is bright and exciting. But on top of the company
stock dropping, more owners are trading in their Teslas at a record pace. According to data from Edmunds twenty seventeen,
and newer teslas made up one point four percent of all all the vehicles traded in through March fifteenth, up from zero point four percent last March. That would be
the highest monthly share that Edmunds has ever seen for people trading in their Teslas to a dealership. However, it's
not all bad news for Tesla today. The senior director
of its forty six to eighty battery cells told the information that versions of the cyber truck will feature its new dry cathode batteries later this year. By applying the
cathode material in a dry powdered form instead of with liquid solvents, Tesla is able to greatly reduce complexity and the energy needed to make batteries, which significantly cuts cost as well. The company has previously said the dry coding
process could save it a billion dollars in manufacturing costs.
Prior reports have also indicated that Tesla will use the same method for the batteries that it puts in the Robotaxi Fisker. Ocean owners are getting a lifeline from an
unlikely source. Rivian has partnered with Chase Bank to allow
Ocean owners to offload their vehicle. They have three options.
Sell your car to Rivian, trade it into Rivian for a discount on one of its vehicles, or sell it back to Chase Bank if it doesn't work anymore. According
to reports, they're offering over thirty six thousand dollars for some oceans, which is likely a lot less than the original sticker price, but also significantly more than they're worth on the open market.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composite material Tagent Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: As we reported earlier this week, Chinese evy startup Shoomi is growing at a rapid pace. It only started selling
vehicles about a year ago, but it's already sold two twoe hundred thousand vehicles in China, and it just raised its sales target for the year by fifty thousand units to three hundred and fifty thousand vehicles. And now Shaomi
has its site set on the European market. Reuter's reports
that the company has hired at least five executives, including ones from BMW, for a new ev research and development center that will be located in Germany. It's also hiring
engineers and designers for its European operations. Earlier this week,
Shaomi's president said the company is aiming to sell vehicles outside of China in twenty twenty seven, and the price war in China is putting a big dent in dealer profits.
According to a survey of dealers by the China Automobile Dealers Association, only thirty nine percent were profitable last year, while nineteen percent broke even, and the remaining forty two percent of dealers reported losses. Part of the problem is
that eighty four percent of the dealers said they sold new vehicle for less than the price that they paid to automakers, and while sales of new passenger vehicles were up five point five percent last year, dealers aren't very optimistic about this year. Only fifty one percent said they
expect sales to improve, twenty three percent believed they'll decline, and twenty six percent said they think sales will be flat.
China's car market is saturated with too many brands, so automakers have been fighting it out in a prolonged price wark in an effort to sell as many vehicles as possible.
Europe's tariffs on Chinese made evs are having mixed results.
While sales of those evs did drop last year, Chinese automakers are making up those losses with ICs and plug in hybrids. According to market researcher Data Force, Chinese automakers
sold about thirty eight nine hundred vehicles in Europe in February, up sixty four percent compared to a year ago. Sales
of BEVs and cowarded from China fell three point four percent to just over eleven thousand units, compared to the overall b EV market, which was up twenty six percent. Meanwhile,
though p have, sales from the Chinese brands, which we might add don't face tariffs, skyrocketed three hundred and twenty one percent to four thousand, seven hundred vehicles, and sales of non hybrid Chinese models were up twenty seven percent to about eleven thousand, eight hundred units. Cherry BYD and
Seic's MG brand accounted for most of the games. Looks
like there's a new top EV motor in town. Last August,
GAC claimed it had developed the fastest spinning EV mootor with a top speed a thirty thousand rpm, which was better than Lucid at twenty thousand rpm, Tesla at about twenty three thousand, and shall Me at over twenty seven thousand rpm. But now BYD is introducing a new motor
that can spin at over thirty thousand, five hundred rpm.
Introduced at the same event as its new one thousand VOLD architecture, Each motor module is set to generate five hundred and eighty kilowatts or about seven hundred and seventy five horse power, which provides impressive performance, but it should also boost range by quite a bit. GAC said its
motor could add fifty kilometers or thirty one miles of range to an EV or one hundred and fifty kilometers or ninety three miles of range to an E rev Okay.
Time for another autoline poll. If you watched yesterday's show,
you saw our story about how Amazon is going to start selling used vehicles online, and that made us wonder how you would prefer to buy a used car. One
I want the ease of buying online, Two I go through the dealer, or three I like to go with a third party seller. You can vote by going to
the post tab on the Autoline Network homepage on YouTube, or you can leave the answer in the comments section on our website. We'll reveal the results on Monday's Autoline Daily,
and with that we wrap up today's show. Thanks for watching,
and I hope that you have a great weekend.
Speaker 3: Autoline Daily is brought to you by Intrepid Control Systems over the Air Engineering Boost Your Game, and by Tajent Automotive Technologies the Formula for Better Mobility.
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