Tensions between Elon Musk and former President Trump appear to be cooling, with Musk expressing regret over past attacks. GM is adjusting its production strategy, balancing electric and gas-powered vehicles in the US while maintaining Mexican plants. Ford Canada urges repeal of strict EV mandates due to plummeting sales after incentives ended. BMW unveils its new iX3 EV with advanced battery tech and hands-free driving, while Chinese automakers push autonomous tech but face financial and export challenges. Toyota showcases a liquid hydrogen prototype, and Volkswagen considers a smaller electric van to complement the ID Buzz.
Topics:elon musk and trump feudgm production strategyford canada ev mandatebmw ix3 ev featureschinese automakers financial issuesautonomous driving technologytoyota hydrogen prototypevolkswagen electric van plans
- Musk Regrets Attacking Trump - GM Invests $4 Billion To Boost U.S. Production - Ford Calls on Canada To Repeal EV Mandate - BMW Shares Next-Gen EV Details - Xpeng Develops In-House Chips for Autonomous Driving - Chinese OEMs Agree to Speed Up Supplier Payments - Chinese Car Exports Slow - Toyota Develops Liquid-Hydrogen Le Mans Race Car - VW Considers Small Electric Van
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Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Elon must now regrets how he
tore into President Trump after the two of them engaged in what is probably the most famous social media fight in history. Yesterday, on x Must posted that he regretted
some of his attacks on the President, saying they went too far. For his part, the President backed off a
bit too quote I wish him well, very well. Actually,
Trump also left the door open for Elon to call quote if I were him, I'd want to speak to me.
So maybe this is the end of the feud, but they probably won't rekindle their romance. Speaking of Trump, General
Motors made an announcement yesterday designed to match up perfectly with the president's policies. GM announced that it's investing four
billion dollars at three plants in the US to boost production.
The Orient assembly plant in Michigan, which was retooling to build electric pickups, will now build gas powered full sized trucks and SUVs starting in twenty twenty seven. Instead, GM's
Factory zero plant in Detroit will become its dedicated facility to produce full size electric trucks. And SUVs, but it's
not part of the new investment. The Fairfax plant in
Kansas will start building gas powered equinoxes and the new Bolt EV in twenty twenty seven. GM says it will
also make investments at the plant to build its next generation of affordable evs. And lastly, the company will start
producing the gas powered Blazer at its spring Hill, Tennessee plant in twenty twenty seven. And yet GM said it's
not going to close any of its plants in Mexico or layoff any of its Mexican workers. So there's clearly
more to the story that we haven't heard yet. And
at the same time that GM is backpedaling on some of its EV products for Canada, is calling on Canada to repeal its EV mandate. Canada requires that twenty percent
of twenty twenty six model year sales be zero emission vehicles or zev's. That number increases to sixty percent in
twenty thirty and one hundred percent in twenty thirty five.
But EV sales in Canada collapsed after a five thousand dollars federal incentive program ended at the beginning of the year.
According to data from Statistics Canada, ZEVs sales plunged forty four percent in February in March, accounting for only six point six percent of overall sales, and since that is well below the requirements, Ford of Canada CEO is calling on the government to repeal the mandate.
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: More details are coming in about BMW's first new class ev which is currently being tested in France. It says
the IX three will make its debut at the IAA Auto Show in September and start of production kicks off at the end of the year. The model is based
on BMW's new eight hundred volt EVY platform, which offers more range, faster charging, better interior tech, and expanded driver assistance capability. Its battery pack is now stuffed with cylindrical
cells that have twenty percent more energy density and provide up to eight hundred kilometers or about five hundred miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. The IX three
will also introduce bi directional charging and Level two plus driver assistance technology. Those charging functions allow owners to use
their vehicle as a power bank, to charge other devices, as a home energy storage unit, or to receive and distribute power back to the grid. And terms of hands
free driving, the system in the IX three has twenty times faster processing speed and can navigate on highways and even city streets with traffic lights. As a little side note,
BMW shows how silly the differences are between the major test cycles. The company estimates that the IX three will
get nine hundred kilometers of range on China's CLTC test, or one hundred kilometers more than the WLTP, while it predicts that the EPA test in the US would come out around four hundred miles. That's only six hundred and
forty five kilometers of range or about one hundred miles of range difference between the EPA and the WLTP. While
BMW is definitely upping its game in hands free driving, Chinese automaker Jippung is about to introduce a new version of its G seven suv with its own in house developed chips that will provide level three and possibly even level four autonomous driving capabilities. Car News China reports that
the model will come with three of Japang's new Touring AI chips, which will also enhance its smart interior tech.
Each chip has a computing power of seven hundred and fifty tops, or trillion operations per second. I know that
number won't mean much to some of you, so for comparison, in Vidia's current chips have about five hundred tops. Volvo
says later this decade it will have vehicles with two of Invidia's chips for one thousand tops of computing power, but the new G seven will have more than double that, and it's supposed to be out before the end of the year. Plus it's expected to be priced around thirty
six thousand dollars. If there's one thing that automotive suppliers hate,
it's when automakers don't pay their bills on time. Historically,
car companies typically pay in sixty days, but they've been known to stretch that out to ninety days when money is tight. Well, mint times got so out of handed
China it looks like the government had to step in.
CARNWS China reports that BYD and Gily were not paying suppliers for one hundred and twenty seven days. Saic, great
Wall and li Otto were closer to one hundred and sixty days, Neo was at one hundred and ninety five and Changan was over two hundred days. As a result,
suppliers were suffering from severe cash flow problems. But earlier today,
all of the automakers agreed to make payments within sixty days, and the fact that they all made the same announcement within hours of each other strongly suggests that the government was behind the move. As impressive as the Chinese auto
industry is, it has structural problems. It has massive amounts
of overcapacity, almost none of its automakers are profitable, and a raging price war threatens to harm the industry. And
that suggests to us that the government is going to have to step in and do a lot more than just make sure that the car companies are paying their bills on time. And oh, there's actually one more thing
to add to the list of problems Chinese automakers are facing, and that's a backlash to all the cars it's exporting.
The US has practically banned any Chinese imports. The EU
slapped higher tariffs on Chinese made evs next year. Chinese
cars face a thirty five percent tariff in Brazil and Russia, which considers itself a close ally of China, put a seventy five hundred dollars fee on imported cars, which are virtually all Chinese, and while China is still exporting cars, the rate of growth is now running at less than one third of where it was a year ago. Toyota
Kazoo Racing unveiled its liquid hydrogen powered Lamas prototype, called the gr LH two concept. The company didn't share many specs,
but it's based on Toyota's current hybrid hypercar that competes in the FIA World Endurance Champion. The automaker created the
concept to help develop its hydrogen technology and infrastructure and to achieve its overall goal of a carbon neutral society.
The liquid hydrogen prototype is currently being shown at this year's twenty four Hours of LAMA. Do you think that
Volkswagen needs a smaller all electric van? According to sources
that spoke to Autocar, that's one of the things that's being internally discussed at the automaker. It says VW is
considering a mini van like EV that would slot below the ID buzz and could replace the TOURN for markets like Europe.
Speaker 2: And China.
Speaker 1: The automaker has even reportedly dusted off old concepts for inspiration, like the Bully from twenty eleven and the Buddy from twenty sixteen. The id Buzz currently has a starting price
of around fifty five thousand euros or about sixty three thousand dollars in Europe, so a smaller, less expensive electric van could drawn more customers. That brings us to the
end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in.
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