AD #4108 - Rivian Sues Ohio Over Direct Sales Ban; Buick Unveils Sleek EV Sedan; Hyundai Launches 1st BEV in China

Speaker 1: This is out Aline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Now it's Rivian's turn to

fight US states banning direct sales. The evy startup filed

a lawsuit yesterday against Ohio, arguing the ban is unconstitutional and limits competition by protecting franchise dealers from new competition.

Rivian also says the law is unfair because it includes a special exemption for Tesla, which allows it to operate three stores in the state and still sell directly. Rivian

does operate service centers in Ohio and helps customers register vehicles in the state, but buyers have to finalize their purchase in another state and then arrange for delivery. Yesterday

we reported that Tesla sales in China have fallen for nine of the last ten months, and it's a similar story in Europe. Last month, Tesla sales in France were

down more than two twenty six percent, in Germany they fell fifty five percent, and in the UK it was fifty nine percent. Meanwhile, sales of other b evs in

Europe were up fifty eight percent in July. Even more

worrisome is that BYD is now selling as many pure evs in Europe as Tesla does. The slump really started

when Elon Musk began putting himself in the middle of European politics with loud support for far right parties and politicians that turned off so much a Tesla's customer base that sales took an immediate nosedive, and as the latest sales figure show, there are still no signs of it turning around. The Wildcat concept that debuted in twenty twenty

two has strongly influenced all of Buick's design since then, but could it be transitioning to a new look. It

just revealed the electra orbit concept in China in all electric two plus tu sedan that's roughly nineteen and a half feet long. While it still has a sharp nose

front end, it's much lower, almost forming the bumper of the car, and the winged headlamps are gone too, replaced by three individual light bars on the left and right, the kind of look like little hockey sticks turned on their side. Moving along the body, the roofline doesn't stop

at the trunk, forming a hatchback rear end which comes to a sharp point and extends particularly far from the back wheels. All of the doors on the Orbit concept

scissor up just behind the wheels, and feature lights that project beams into the sky. That leaves a pillarless opening

leading into the interior, which has four individual seats for passengers.

To me this kind of seems like Buick's version of the Cadillac Celestick. Mazda reported its latest financial earnings, and

the numbers are dismal. It sold three percent fewer vehicles

in the last quarter, revenue fell nine percent. It posted

an operating loss of three hundred and twelve million dollars and a net loss of two hundred and eighty five million.

US tariffs alone took a three hundred and thirty four million dollar bite out of its earnings. A stronger yen

didn't help either. Mazda thinks it can turn a profit

for the year, but its biggest market by far is the United States, and except for a plant that it shares with Toyota in Alabama that makes the CX fifty, it imports everything else, and that means everything else is now subject to a fifteen percent tariff. Toyota and Honda

will report their earnings later this week and are expected to see profits drop by at least a third.

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Speaker 1: The paint shop is the most expensive, the hardest to maintain, and produces more emissions than any the other part of an automotive assembly plant. But previously we covered a story

about BMW switching out natural gas for electricity in the drying section at one of its paint shops in Germany.

Over the New Year break, it installed a new thermal oil system, which uses electricity to heat the oil to several hundred degrees celsius. Then the hot oil is passed

through a heat exchanger and that warms the air in the drying chamber. The oil based system can also be

heated by almost any energy source, so BMW can more easily make changes in the future or use a different energy source depending on where the plant is located. In

this German trial, BMW says the energy consumption of the drying equipment was reduced by about forty percent and will cut the plant's carbon footprint by the equivalent of four hundred and eighty tons of CO two per year, which according to AI is roughly the same as one hundred and four gas line powered vehicles. It's hard to believe

that Hyundai doesn't currently sell any electric vehicles in China, but that's about to change. The automaker, along with its

joint venture partner BAIC, is launching its first pure EV in China, called the Alexio. However, Carnws China reports it

will be called the EO in China. It comes in

both front and all wheel drive. Front drive models have

a one hundred and sixty kilowat motor, while all wheel drive versions have a combined output of two hundred and thirty three kilowats or three hundred and twelve horse power.

The EO features an LFP battery from BYD with an estimated seven hundred kilometers or four hundred and thirty five miles of range based on the Chinese test cycle. The

EO goes on sale next month in China, and it's estimated to cost around twenty thousand dollars. The model is

the first of at least five pure evs that Hondai plans to launch in China over the next three years.

While Tesla's sales are falling in the US, it's still the top EV performer. But where do the others stack up?

According to Electric, GM sold nineteen thousand evs in July, more than double what it sold last year, and the Equinox EV made up about forty five percent of that total, selling roughly eighty five hundred units. That was the most

EV's that any automaker other than Tesla has ever sold in the month of July in the US. It was

also over two thousand units more than the Honda Prologue and about three thousand more than the Hyundai YAYANIK five and Ford Mustang Mache. Since GM only reports on a

quarterly basis, Electric estimates, Chevy is sold about thirty six thousand Equinox EVS in the US so far this year, which would put it about nine thousand units ahead of the MAK. Last week, Jaguar Land Row CEO Adrian Mardell

retired after holding the position for three years and spending more than three decades at the company. So now the

automaker has named PB Belagi as his replacement. Bilagi has

been the chief financial officer at Tata Motors since twenty seventeen and Tata, as you know, owns Jaguar Land Rover.

Bilagi will officially take over as CEO of JLR in November.

They call them our EEV's or e revs, range extended evs or extended range evs, but either way they're the same thing, and they happen to be the fastest growing segment in China. A good example is the latest models

from im Motor, the LS six Sedan and LS nine suv.

They offer fifteen hundred kilometers of total range and four hundred and fifty kilometers of pure battery range. That's on

the CLTC test cycle, China's rather generous mileage test. We

think equivalent EPA rating would be six hundred and five miles of total range and one hundred and eighty one miles of battery range, which are still really good numbers for an e REV, but that's accomplished with a rather large sixty six kilowatt hour battery pack. The eight hundred

volt system can add three hundred and ten kilometers of range in fifteen minutes of charging using a fast charger at two hundred and sixty eight kilowatts. Im Motor uses

a one and a half liter ic engine as the range extender and uses noise cancelation to keep the cabin under thirty six decibels when it's running. The LS six

at AN starts at around thirty two thousand dollars. No

word yet on the price of the LS nine SUV, which will be the flagship of the brand. We also

think this is worth reporting on because im Motor is owned by Saic and the new Audi brand that Audi is launching in China will leverage im Motor's EV platform, so it's poss Audi will have the same EREV tech in China. But that's a wrap for this show. Thanks

for tuning in.

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AD #4108 - Rivian Sues Ohio Over Direct Sales Ban; Buick Unveils Sleek EV Sedan; Hyundai Launches 1st BEV in China

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