AD #4137 - EV Battery Prices Could Drop 50% From 2023; Mexico Tariffs Hurt GM the Most; JLR Still Crippled by Cyber Attack
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Speaker 1: This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Three weeks ago, we reported
that Jaguar land Rover was crippled by a cyber attack and had to stop production. Well it still hasn't started
back up. The Telegraph reports the shutdown could actually last
until November, but Jailer says that won't be the case and put out a statement saying it will restart production on September twenty fourth. The attack has impacted the automaker's
entire global operations, and now there's concern about the financial impact on JLR suppliers, which could lead to job losses if production doesn't resume soon. We've been reporting on how
Mexico is going to slow down a flood of imported Chinese cars by slapping them with a fifty percent import tariff, but Warren Brown, an analyst and forecaster, points out that General Motors will probably be hurt the most the move over sixty percent of the cars GM sells in Mexico are made in China. Mexico is also putting fifty percent
tariffs on cars from South Korea and India, and GM Mexico sources a lot of cars from there too. In fact,
seventy seven percent of GM sales in Mexico come from those three countries. At the end of last year, the
International Energy Agency says that the price of an EVY battery pack dropped to about one hundred and twenty dollars per kilowad hour, and now Goldman Sachs projects that those prices will continue to fall. It claims by the end
of this year, battery pack prices will be one hundred and eleven dollars per kilowad hour, and that by next year they could be around eighty dollars per kilowad hour.
That would be a fifty percent drop from twenty twenty three and could provide the tipping point for when evs reach cost parity with ice vehicles. Several factors are all
coming together. They're at the same time to hew drive
down those prices. Energy densities are increasing, newer battery chemistries
are eliminating expensive materials. Lithium and cobalt prices are down,
and companies are cutting costs from manufacturing. Ford is moving
its world headquarters several miles to the west into a spectacular new building. The current headquarters, nicknamed the glass House
was built in nineteen fifty six. The new building is
officially called the Henry Ford the Second World Center, but Ford personnel have already nicknamed it the Hub. Over its
one hundred and twenty two year old history, the Ford Motor Company has had a handful of headquarters. It moved
into the first one in nineteen oh three on mac Avenue in Detroit, but it quickly moved out of there into its new Piquette plant in nineteen oh four. In
nineteen ten, it moved into the Highland Park plant. Then
in nineteen thirty six it moved its headquarters to Schaefer Road in Dearborn, which was very close to the Rouge plant, And in nineteen fifty six it moved into the Glasshouse.
And then sometime in the second quarter of next year, Ford will move everyone into the new HQ, which will also house the company's design studios. It's located at the
company's engineering and technical centers, and Ford says fourteen thousand employees will be within fifteen minutes walking distance of the nerve center of the company.
Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer and more eco friendly vehicles.
Learn more at vcsp dot com.
Speaker 1: Despite slow sales growth and its stock dropping fifteen percent from an all time high in February, Bloomberg reports that two thirds of the financial analysts that attracts now have a buy or equivalent rating on Ferrari, and that's the highest it's been since late twenty twenty. In the first
half of the year, Ferrari sold nearly seven one hundred vehicles, up just one percent from the year before, but its revenue and net profit both rose by nine percent. A
good portion of that growth was driven by owners spending extra to customize their car. The company has also expanded
its lineup with a number of limited edition models, which carry a higher price tag. But even with more models,
Ferrari is not trying to significantly ramp up sales. True
demand for its vehicles is estimated to be two to three times its actual yearly shipments, and that's why those analysts are expecting Ferrari's earnings to rise at a double digit pace in the next five years. It's becoming harder
and harder to find factory workers. At the same time,
labor costs are becoming more expensive, so lear the and seat supplier is pushing to make its factories completely automated without any human intervention. The company is opening an innovation
center north of Detroit, which will be able to demonstrate its fully automated production. Lear's CEO Ray Scott says automation
is a benefit for humans by taking undesirable jobs and improving ergonomics. But make no mistake, this is also about
cutting costs and keeping factories running, and that's a big goal for many suppliers right now. A new study from
financial analytics firm Rapid Ratings found that about twenty percent of suppliers are in financial distress, and that was before the impact of tariffs. With the terraffs, it could lead
to a twenty three percent increase in the number of suppliers under financial distress. And because of that, a quarter
of suppliers have delayed investments and laid off workers, and another the other third are considering doing the same moves.
According to a survey from MIMA, a group that represents suppliers in the US, Microvision, a company that makes LDAR, says it's cracked the code on how to make it cheaper.
Traditional lightar has been bulky power hungry and expensive, which means it's been limited to higher end cars. Movias flips
that script. It's smaller, ultra efficient, and built with everyday
car costs in mind. The company's new try ldar splits
the workload between short and long range sensors, just like the industry used to do with radar and cameras. That
means easier packaging think behind the windshield or in the grill instead of a big box on the roof, and at much lower cost. Microvision says the next gen sensors
will come in under two hundred dollars for short range and about three hundred bucks for long range when production kicks off in twenty twenty eight. If they can hit
those targets, Lighter could finally move beyond luxury and premium cars and find its way into more mainstream models. And
that wraps up today's report. Thanks for watching Autoline Daily.
Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Alex Partners.
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