The episode covers three major automotive industry shifts: the Trump administration's unexpected continuation and streamlining of EV charging subsidies, GM's renewed focus on autonomous vehicles for retail customers, and Bosch and VW's collaboration on AI-enhanced autonomous driving software. It also discusses emerging trends like integrated EV battery packs and their servicing challenges, Renault and Geely's partnership for electric SUVs, VinFast's strategic pivot to Southeast Asia and other markets, Volvo's US lineup cuts favoring crossovers, and Ford's revolutionary modular EV platform aiming to simplify assembly and reduce costs. Ford's upcoming mid-size pickup EV is highlighted as a key launch in 2027.
Topics:ev charging infrastructureautonomous vehiclesbosch and vw softwareev battery pack integrationrenault and geely partnershipvinfast market strategyvolvo us lineup changesford modular ev platformford mid size pickup evai in autonomous driving
- U.S. Does 180 on EV Chargers - GM Jumps Back Into AVs - Bosch Teams with VW's CARIAD - CATL Slashes EV Battery Repair Costs - Renault to Use Geely Platform - VinFast Pivots Away From U.S. and EU - Volvo Takes Axe to U.S. Lineup - Ford Reveals Model T of EVs
"...s, and two thirds of the welds compared to a Ford Escape. Thanks to a zonal electronic architecture, four ..."
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Speaker 1: This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. You know, sometimes you wake
up in the morning and find that the world is a different place compared to when you went to bed.
And here are three surprising changes that we woke up to today. First, the Trump administration decided it isn't going
to cut subsidies for building public EV charging stations. In fact,
not only is it going to keep the five billion dollars NEVY program in place, it's going to streamline and slash the red tape that has bottled up that money.
NEVI stands for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, a program that was put in place by the Biden administration, but originally President Trump not only promised he would gut the program, he actually suspended it in February. But the GAO, the
Government Accountability Office, said withholding funds that Congress approved was not legal, so the Trump and administration faced a legal battle it was likely to lose. And as the old
saying goes, if they give you lemons, make lemonade. And
it's entirely possible that EV charging stations will be built faster under Trump than they were under Biden. The second
surprising development is that General Motors says it's reviving its work on autonomous cars. Last December, GM shut down Cruise,
the Silicon Valley startup at bought in twenty sixteen that was working on robotaxis. But now it's even trying to
get back some of those crews employees that it let go.
GM CEO Mary Barra is in favor of autonomous cars and hired Sterling Anderson from Aurora to come run all of GM's product development, including ice vehicles. Aurora is developing
autonomous technology for heavy trucks, and Anderson was clearly hired for his av experience, but it's no longer going after robotaxis.
Bloomberg reports that GM will now concentrate on developing autonomous cars for retail customers, not for robotaxi fleets. In somewhat
related news and our third surprise this morning, the supplier Bosch and Volkswagen software subsidiary Cariad say they're going to deliver a software stack for level two and three autonomous driving in production vehicles next year. We find this surprising
because Carriad has had all kinds of problems enough so that VW Randerrivian to get a zonal electronic architecture after KREAD couldn't deliver, but VW clearly isn't giving up on carread.
One specific aspect that we find interesting is that Cariad and Bosch are using artificial intelligence to improve the av systems.
It's being used for object recognition, combining sensors, decision making, and the automated control of the powertrain, steering and brakes.
The system is currently being tested in vwid buzzes and Oudiq eights on public roads in Europe, Japan, and the UA.
VW will then integrate the automated driving system into its architecture for software to find vehicles, and BOSH will offer the software to other global automakers as well.
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Speaker 1: Many evs are adopting a sell the pack layout where there's no battery modules and the cells are integrated directly into the pack. This allows battery makers to fit more
cells into the same size area, which can also free up more interior space, and there's several production advantages as well, but the high level of integration into the vehicle can make these types of battery packs hard to service. The
China Insurance Association looked at fifty nine evs currently on sale with sell them Pack technology and found that the battery makes up just over half of the total cost of all the parts in the vehicle. The average price
of those vehicles was roughly twenty eight thousand dollars, so the cost to replace the battery would be about fourteen grand. However,
CATL created an independent service company a year ago, and that company just opened its first store aimed directly at sell the Pack repair. It claims it can bring those
battery service costs down to roughly fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars, but it also sounds like that includes things like battery testing, maintenance, inspection, refurbishment, and recycling. With evs
accounting for over fifty percent of sales right now in China, I'm sure this is a needed service, but it is currently limited to vehicles with COTL batteries. Renault and Jely
are growing their partnership to include electric vehicles for overseas markets like Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and South Korea.
Reports say that Jili will provide Renault with its GEA platform for a series of pure electric and plug in hybrid SUVs. This is the same platform that underpins the
Jili jing yu Wan, which is the best selling model so far this year in China and would represent the first time that Jili has allowed another brand outside of its core group to use it. If you're wondering, the
architecture is different than the one used by Volvo and Pollstar.
The new SUVs will be styled by Renault, but pretty much everything under the skin will come from Gili, which should help speed up development and reduce costs. Vin Fast
is shifting its growth strategy away from the US and Europe and focusing it on Southeast Asia, the Middle East in Africa. Last year, VinFast delivered a little under one
hundred thousand vehicles, which is pretty good, but ninety percent of those sales were in its home market of Vietnam, and it reported a three point two billion dollar loss.
So now it's expanding production in Va Vietnam, as well as building new plants in India and Indonesia in an effort to boost its sales and revenue. While Vinfest isn't
giving up on the US and Europe, it is delaying expansion in those areas until at least twenty twenty eight, which included a new plant in South Carolina. Speaking of
shaking things up, Valvo is taking an axe to its lineup in the US, its ditchings to edans and wagons in favor of crossovers and more gas powered vehicles. Starting
next year, it's dropping the S ninety sedan and V sixty wagon from its lineup. The raised versions of the
V sixty and V ninety wagons will remain next year, but Valvo hasn't committed to the models beyond that. It's
also cutting back on evs. It already stopped selling the
EC forty, and while the EX forty will remain next year, Valvo hasn't addressed its availability after that. It's expected to
focus its EV efforts on the EX thirty and will also boost the availability of hybrid and p have versions of the XC forty, XC sixty, and XC ninety crossovers, which accounted for eighty five percent of its US sales in the first half of the year. The Ford Motor
Company is credited with inventing the moving assembly line to make cars in nineteen thirteen, and it will become the first legacy automaker to abandon it. To US, it looks
like Ford is going to beat Tesla to the market with unboxed assembly, but let us know what you think in the comments. Ford's next EV program will make vehicles
assembled from only three modules front, center, and rear. Each
module is built on what the company calls aluminum unicastings, which are just like Tesla's gigacastings. Ford expects dramatic improvements
in productivity with twenty percent fewer parts, twenty five percent fewer fasteners, forty percent fewer workstations, and fifteen percent faster assembly time. The body alone gets rid of three quarters
of the parts, half the fasteners, and two thirds of the welds compared to a Ford Escape. Thanks to a
zonal electronic architecture, four thousand feet of wiring was removed compared to a typical first gen electric suv that's over twelve hundred meters and represents twenty two pounds of weight.
Ford calls this its universal EV platform, and it could provide derivative models, including a small pickup as well as small, mid size and three row crossovers, and a small commercial van.
The first to launch will be a mid size pickup, which Ford says will start at thirty thousand dollars. It
will have the interior room of a RAV four, but with a bet and front. Ford says it will offer
super fast charging thanks to an LFP small battery pack, yet deliver impressive range, and it will have bi directional charging.
Ford CEO Jim Farley says it's aimed at customers who can charge at home and who drive less than three hundred miles a day. It will be built at Ford's
Louisville assembly plant and go into production in twenty twenty seven.
Though Ford didn't release much more, there is a lot more info more than we have room to get into here, and so we'll take a deeper dive on autoline after hours this Thursday and put out a separate video on everything that we've learned. That's a wrap for today's show.
Thanks for making autoline a part of your day.
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