AD #4019 - Hyundai Makes Massive U.S. Investment; ICE Sales Drag Down Entire EU Market; VW Partners on AV Tech for ICEs
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Speaker 1: This is aut Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The Hyundai Group is making
a massive investment in the US over the next three years between now and twenty twenty eight. It's going to
spend twenty one billion dollars to expand production, invest in technology, and help grow the evy charging infrastructure. The US is
the group's biggest sales market, which helps explain the company's willingness to pump so much money into the region, but it should also allow the group to avoid any import tariffs and comply with any rules or agreements around the amount of local content required in a vehicle. And here's
a breakdown of how that twenty one billion dollars will be spent. Nine billion will go towards expanding and upgrading
its production facilities, with the goal of increasing US production to one point two million units. Six billion dollars is
being allocated to localized production of certain parts like battery packs, and build a new steel mill in Louisiana that can make up to two point seven million tons of steal a year. Another six billion dollars will help the Hondai
Group expand partnerships including robots with Boston Dynamics, AI and AV solutions with Nvidia, EV talls with Supernal and supplying robotaxis Duweimo, and the last six billion is being invested into energy projects like the EV Charging Network. The group
says these investments will result in fourteen thousand new direct full time jobs and more than one hundred thousand total job opportunities. Speaking of Hyundai, it teased a new video
game inspired version of its inster Ev that it says it will officially unveil early next month, with a massive rear wing, large fenders with air loovers on top, and what looks like a big front diffuser that Insteroid, as it's called, looks like it's ready to race up Pyek, but for now this is a one off concept. Car
Volkswagen's attempts to develop its own software through Carread, a division it's set up to specifically develop software, have not gone well. It posted an operating loss of two point
four billion euros last year. Issues have caused vehicle delays,
and according to reports, VW is going to slash a significant amount of Carriad's workforce. This is why the automaker
is turning to Riviant and Horizon Robotics for help on software aid ass and autonomous driving, but those partnerships really only cover VW's electric vehicles, so it's teaming up with v LAO and Mobili to develop driver assistance systems for ICSE.
The two suppliers will provide all the hardware, including cameras and radar, and the software needed to run the systems, which are all controlled by a centralized unit which replaces multiples.
The tech will be implemented into upcoming vehicles based on the MQB platform and will have up to level two plus hands free driving capability. GM hopes to cut thousands
of dollars from its vehicle logistics costs and compete more with automakers that offer direct sales by expanding its use of regional hubs. These hubs are filled with rows and
rows of vehicles just waiting to be shipped off to a nearby dealer, so if a certain brand or model isn't available at a particular dealer, one gets sent from the hub, which can cut shipping time from as much as three months to as little as four days. Only
evs have filled these hubs since they launched in twenty twenty two, but now the three row Chevy Traversus being thrown into the pool with the speedier delivery through its online sales tool. GM says it will eventually lead to
savings of two thousand dollars per vehicle, and there's no to be advantages for dealers too. GM owns the vehicles
while they're at the hubs and it covers all the costs to ship them, but that also causes problems because GM owns the vehicles, they're only listed on dealer and GM owned sites online, not the popular car buying sites that most people visit. For that reason, four dropped a
very similar program because its dealers never really got on board and it's reverting back to which traditional sales process.
So will be interested to see if the same thing happens to GM.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: Waimo continues to expand. It announced plans to launch its
autonomous ride hailing survey in Washington, DC next year. However,
it does still need approval to deploy its fleet because the city doesn't currently allow fully autonomous operations. Right now,
Weaimo operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, and later this year the service expands to Atlanta and Miami.
WEAMO says it's now providing two hundred thousand fully autonomous paid trips each week. Car sales in Europe were down
in February. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, automakers
sold around nine hundred and sixty three thousand, five hundred vehicles last month, down three point one percent from a year ago. Spain was the only major market in the
region to see an increase in sales. It was ice
vehicles that dragged down the car market in February. Sales
of gas powered cars were down more than twenty three percent and diesel sales dropped twenty eight percent. While sales
of electrified vehicles increased, it wasn't enough to offset that drop in IC sales. Hybrids were up eighteen percent, Pe
have sales were flat and more than one hundred and sixty four thousand pure electrics were sold, up twenty six percent compared to a year ago. But despite that big
game for Beev's testless sales slump forty percent in Europe last month. Chinese ev startup shao Me is seeing impressive growth,
and it just raised a bunch more money. The company
announced that it raised five and a half billion dollars in a share sale on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Shaomi says the money will go towards expanding its business and its research and development. As we reported last week,
the company is hiring former auto executives for its operations in Europe, and Shaomi also recently increased its sales target this year to three hundred and fifty thousand vehicles, which is fifty thousand units higher than its previous forecast. Audi
is adding plug in hybrids to both the sedan and wagon versions of the A five. Two power levels are
offered two hundred and twenty and two hundred and seventy kilowatts.
The setup features a two liter gas engine, a one hundred and five kilowat electric motor, and a nearly twenty six kilowat hour battery that has forty five percent more capacity than previous p have batteries. That bigger pack helps
return an electric range of one hundred and ten kilometers or sixty eight miles, which is pretty good for a p have. The two hundred and twenty kilowatt version moves
from zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in five point nine seconds, while the two hundred and seventy kilowatt version does it in five point one seconds. The plug
in Hybrid A five is available for order at the end of the month. In Europe, the sedan starts at
sixty two thousand, five hundred euros and the wagon starts at sixty four thoy, one hundred and fifty euros, just over sixty nine thousand dollars. That brings us to the
end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline a part
of your day.
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