Elon Musk has shut down Tesla's Dojo supercomputer project, with staff moving to competitors and Tesla now relying on external tech firms. The Lordstown assembly plant is transitioning into a data center under SoftBank's AI venture. Ford delays its electric pickup and transit van launches until 2028 amid slow EV sales. Chinese automakers continue to innovate, with BYD's Yangwang supercar boasting over 3000 HP. Tesla unveils new long-range Model Y and Model 3 versions for China. Dodge introduces gas-powered Chargers alongside EVs, while Jeep teases a refreshed Grand Wagoneer. Battery supply challenges persist, with GM and BMW importing Chinese LFP batteries amid US production delays.
Topics:tesla dojo shutdownlordstown plant data centerford ev delayschinese ev marketbyd yangwang supercartesla model y and model 3 updatesdodge gas chargersjeep grand wagoneer refreshlfp battery importsbattery supply challenges
- Musk Kills Dojo Project - Lordstown Assembly Plant to Become Data Center - Ford Delays Blue Oval Plant, Again - China Car Sales Up in July - Xiaomi Poaches Another BMW Designer - Yangwang Supercar Boasts +3000 HP - Tesla Model 3+ Gets More Range - ICE Dodge Charger Gets 430-550 HP - Grand Wagoneer Gets Mild Facelift - GM to Import Chinese LFP Batteries to U.S. - BMW To Import Chinese EV Batteries to U.S. - Lyten Snaps Up Northvolt’s Assets
"charger will start at just under fifty grand, while the high output version is five thousand dollars more. And speaking of stillantis brands, Jeep revealed a single picture for the refreshed version of the Grand Wagoneer. The front end looks a little more squared off and the grill appears to be inspired by the all electric Wagoneer S. Although we'll"
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Speaker 1: This is out Aligning Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. In a stunning move, Elon
Musk is closing down Tesla's Dojo supercomputer project. Bloomberg reports
that twenty people who were working on Dojo quit their jobs and moved to a competitor called Density Ai, which itself was started by former Tesla employees who had been working on Dojo. The rest of the team working on
the supercomputer project will be assigned to other jobs at Tesla, and it will now rely on outside tech companies like Nvidia to continue.
Speaker 2: With the work.
Speaker 1: Elon has been bragging about Dojo for years, claiming it would give Tesla a big advantage over any other automaker, especially for developing autonomous vehicles. Two years ago, Wall Street
firm Morgan Stanley predicted that Dojo would add half a trillion dollars to Tesla's market cap. So far, the market
seems to have rugged off the news. Tesla stock was
up in pre market trading, but with its car sales and profits falling, this is yet another piece of bad news for Tesla. It looks like the assembly plant in Lordstown,
Ohio will never build another car again. Earlier this week,
fox Kind announced that it sold the plant to a company called Crescent Dunes, which it described as an existing business partner. Now Bloomberg reports that Japanese investment firm SoftBank
was part of that transaction and will be taking ownership of the plant.
Speaker 2: SoftBank wants the.
Speaker 1: Facility to jumpstart its AI joint venture with Open Ai and Oracle. The jv is called Stargate and is investing
five hundred billion dollars to build data centers and related infrastructure across the US. Fox Con will operate the plant
for its own AI server manufacturing business, and SoftBank could use the site to host a data center.
Speaker 2: Years ago, Ford.
Speaker 1: Broke ground on its Blue Oval City assembly plant with great fanfare and with all the top management on hand, including its battery partner Skon. The Blue Oval project represents
a five point six billion dollar investment, but now it's being put on the back burner. Ford confirmed that a
full size electric pickup scheduled to be built there will be delayed.
Speaker 2: Until twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Initially it was supposed to debut this year, then it was pushed back until twenty twenty seven, and now it's being pushed back by another year. With electric pickups selling
in small numbers, we wonder if it's ever gonna get built, and Ford's next gen electric transit van, which was supposed to be built in Avon Lake, Ohio, will also be delayed until twenty twenty eight. Car sales in China were
up more than six percent in July compared to last year, hitting one point eight million units, but they were down six percent compared to June, indicating the market growth is slowing down. Sales of nevs were up twelve percent to
just under a million units as the segment continues to boom, and exports jump twenty five percent to four hundred and fifty five thousand units. The China Passenger Car Association expects
sales to keep picking up pace because a tax break for buying new cars expires.
Speaker 2: At the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Chinese ev maker Shaomi poached another BMW designer, Kai Langer, the head of design for BMW's I series of electric vehicles, announced on LinkedIn that he joined Shaomi. Langer worked at
BMW for more than two decades, but he didn't reveal what role he'll have at Shaomi or where he'll be based.
Shaomi's current had a design Lee Tian Yuan, was also a designer at BMW for nine years before joining the ev maker in twenty twenty one.
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Speaker 1: This might be the closest thing you can get to an aircraft carrier jet taking off, which will do zero to one hundred and sixty five miles an hour or two hundred and sixty five kilometers an hour in about two seconds. A Chinese regulator revealed that byd z Yangwang
brand is coming out with a new version of its U nine hypercar that will have roughly three thousand horse power.
The Track Edition features four five hundred and fifty five kilowatt electric motors, one at each wheel, and a more aggressive arrow package. It also looks like there could be
some upgrades to the brakes, wheels, and tires, and a sportier interior wouldn't be surprising either. The version of the
U nine that's already on sale in China has nearly thirteen hundred horse power and does zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in under two point four seconds, so the new Track Edition should challenge or beat other hyper cars like the Rimmet Novara, which only has about nineteen.
Speaker 2: Hundred horse power.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's trying to take back the nurburg Ring lap record from Shao me and. The same regulator that
revealed the Yang Wang also detailed ranges for the new six seat version of the Tesla Model Y and the new rear drive long range version of the Model three.
On China's test cycle, the Model YL, which is one hundred and fifty millimeters or about six inches longer, gets seven hundred and fifty one kilometers or four hundred and sixty six.
Speaker 2: Miles of range.
Speaker 1: That would be about three hundred and fifty miles of range on the EPA test. The Model three Plus, which
combines a more powerful single rear motor with its more powerful battery pack for the first time, is rated at up to eight hundred and thirty kilometers or five hundred and fifteen miles of range. That's about eighty kilometers or
about fifty more miles of range compared to the all wheel drive version of the Model three with the same battery pack.
Speaker 2: Both models should be going on sales soon in China.
Speaker 1: The all new Dodge charger won't be evy only for much longer. Gas powered versions with Stalantis's turbocharged inline six
cylinder Hurricane engine will start hitting dealerships before the end of the year. They'll be available as two or four
door models and with both the standard output four hundred and twenty horse power version and the high output five hundred and fifty horse power version. The engines are madeed
to an eight speed automatic transmission and all wheel drive is standard. However, there's a driving mode that allows owners
to send one hundred percent of the power to the rear wheels, as well as a line lock mode for burnouts.
Speaker 2: Straight line performance.
Speaker 1: Is pretty good, with the high output version doing zero to sixty and three point nine seconds with the cooling and exhaust requirements for the combustion engine. Obviously, there's a
few changes to the front rear styling, but the interior looks mostly untouched. The standard eye output version of the
charger will start at just under fifty grand, while the high output version is five thousand dollars more. And speaking
of stillantis brands, Jeep revealed a single picture for the refreshed version of the Grand Wagoneer. The front end looks
a little more squared off and the grill appears to be inspired by the all electric Wagoneer S. Although we'll
have to wait and see if there's any new powertrain announcements, Jeep says the new Grand Wagoneer is coming out later this year. Ford is gonna get LFP batteries for its
evs from a plant it's building in the US with CTL, and now comes word that GM will import LFP batteries made by CATL in China for the new Chevy Bolt, though GM has a deal with LG Energy Solution to make LFP batteries in the US. The Bolt will go
into production late this year and the LG plant will not be ready for nearly two years. LFP batteries are
up to thirty five percent cheaper than NMC batteries, but any batteries imported from China get hit with a twenty five percent tariff, so that will wipe out a good chunk of the savings, and next year the tariff could go to eighty two percent.
Speaker 2: GM is not the.
Speaker 1: Only automaker looking to import Chinese EV batteries into the US, though, so is BMW.
Speaker 2: The battery company.
Speaker 1: AESC was building a plant in South Carolina to supply BMW with batteries, but with the EV segment in the US expected to stall out or even shrink, AESC halted construction.
BMW will start making its new class evs at its assembly plant in South Carolina late next year, so that's why it's considering a Chinese supplier, but it will undoubtedly want to find a.
Speaker 2: US source at some point.
Speaker 1: Last year, AESSE also stopped building another plant in Kentucky which was going to supply Mercedes Benz, so we could see a similar move from BMDA use German rival. And
one more quick note on batteries, Lighten, the American company that's developing lithium Solfur Batteries is buying up the assets of Norfolk, the European battery maker that went bankrupt. Though
Lighton didn't disclose what it paid for the assets, it sounds like it got a mega deal and it says this will help it expand more rapidly into the European market.
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