AD #4139 - Range Extended EVs Gain Momentum Worldwide; U.S. Frees Up EV Charger Money; Porsche Goes Straight From Digital to Mass Production

Speaker 1: This is out of line Daily the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. It doesn't matter if

you call them REVS, E REVS, range, extended evs or extended range electrics. Vehicles that use a gas powered engine

as a generator to charge a battery pack are gaining in popularity. They're the fastest growing segment in China right now.

We think they look poised to take off in the US, and automakers in Europe want e revs to be given a larger role in meeting the EUCO two emission targets.

In fact, the segment is forecast to grow fifteen percent every year from now until twenty thirty. That's why horsepower Train,

the joint venture between Renault, gi Lie and Aramco, showed off its own range extender setup and why the supplier MALA is doing the same thing. While it didn't reveal

the size of its engine. Mala uses a small turbocharged

unit that can run on biofuels and is over forty two two percent efficient to spin an attached generator. That

generator uses direct motor cooling, which allowed Mala to get rid of any rare earth The entire system runs on eight hundred volts and is capable of a continuous output of eighty five kilowatts and can provide up to thirteen hundred and fifty kilometers or about eight hundred and forty miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. And In

related news, Hyundai says it will also start introducing range Extended EVS. It didn't release too many details about the setup,

but says that it uses in house high performance batteries quote achieving full EV power performance with less than half the battery capacity. Driving range is expected to come in

over six hundred miles or nine hundred and sixty kilometers, and will start seeing the option spread across its brands in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 2: This e revenues from Hyundai.

Speaker 1: Was actually just a small piece of its bigger twenty twenty five investment. Yesterday announcement these models are part of

a broader goal for Hondai to increase sales to five and a half million units by twenty thirty, not including Kia or Genesis, which would be up from about four point one million last year. Part of that growth will

come from getting into the mid sized pickup in commercial van business. That will help push its revenue even higher,

but the company expects its profit to shrink due to US terrace. However, to minimize those terrafs, Hyundai says that

eighty percent of the vehicles that it sells in the US will be made there, and they'll have eighty percent US content. Tesla is working on a redesign of its

door handles. Some passengers have been injured or killed because

the handles are electronic and can stop working if the vehicle loses power in an accident. Nitze has received more

than one hundred and forty consumer complaints since twenty eighteen, and it launched an investigation into whether the handles are defective.

Speaker 2: The vehicles are equipped with a manual.

Speaker 1: Door release inside the vehicle, however, they're in a different location, which can make it difficult for passengers to find in an emergency.

Speaker 2: Tesla's had a design.

Speaker 1: Franz van Holshausen says the company is working on a redesign that will combine the electronic and manual release into one button. But we'd point out this still doesn't address

the issue of first responders who can't open the doors from the outside after the car is involved in an accident.

After slamming the brakes on funding for EV charging stations, the Trump administration is freeing up that money after a review of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEV program.

It's also making changes that could see public charging stations get built more quickly. For example, under the Biden administration,

those stations had to be no more than fifty miles apart.

Now states can build them wherever they want.

Speaker 2: Under the old.

Speaker 1: Rules, they had to be built on specific sections of highway, now that no longer applies. Also gone are rules that

said forty percent of the chargers had to go to disadvantaged communities. Though the Biden administration allocated five billion dollars

to the NEVY program, only ten percent of that money was spent before the new administration ordered the freeze.

Speaker 3: The automotive and industrial sectors are undergoing a historic transformation electrification, digitalization, supply chain reinvention, regulatory shifts. The pace is accelerating and

the pressure to adapt is real. This is not a

time for hesitation. It's a time for bold decisions backed

by fast, effective execution. You need a partner who understands

complexity from factory floors to boardrooms and delivers measurable results.

That partner is Alex Partners when it really matters.

Speaker 1: Nissan is dropping the Aria EV from its lineup in the US for the twenty twenty six model year, and the automaker hasn't decided if it were return for twenty twenty seven. Nissan blames the decision on slowing EV demand,

the end of the federal EV.

Speaker 2: Tax credit, and President Trump's tariffs.

Speaker 1: The aria is built in Japan, which means it gets slapped with a fifteen percent tariff. Nissan has sold just

over eleven six hundred Arias in the US in the first half of the year, which is up twenty four percent from a year ago. However, Nissan has relied on

discounts and incentives in order to sell the model. But

Nissan won't be without an EV for long in the US.

The next gen Leaf goes on sale this month. However,

Automotive News reports its initial US market allocation will be limited to five hundred units a month. Nissan says an

increase in supply will depend on quote, how the market goes and how the product does. Could Volkswagen workers at

the company's plant in Tennessee go on strike in April twenty twenty four, VW workers voted to join the UAW and contract negotiations kicked off that September, But now a year later, the two sides still haven't reached a deal.

VW says it just submitted its quote, last, best and final contract offer, which would increase wages twenty percent over four years, provide a four thousand dollars ratification bonus as well as cost of living adjustments, and reduce healthcare costs.

Speaker 2: VW will also give.

Speaker 1: Workers another fifteen hundred dollars bonus if they approved the deal by October thirty first, and it includes profit sharing based on results of VW passenger cars in Germany. However,

the UAW wants a twenty four and a half percent wage boost over three years, uncapped cost of living adjustments, free healthcare, contractributions to retirement, and profit sharing similar to what the Detroit three workers receive. So unless workers are

satisfied with VW's offer, sure looks to us like a strike could be coming. We keep hearing more and more

examples of how AI and digital twins are helping automakers design, engineer, and develop new cars faster and now, Porsche says that these technologies allowed it to significantly speed up the time it took to develop the new kyene Ev. Porscha was

able to go from testing the whole vehicle in the digital world directly into mass production. That's something it's never

done before and something we're not aware of any other legacy automaker.

Speaker 2: Doing this allowed Porsche.

Speaker 1: To skip right over the one hundred and twenty prototypes that it usually builds to test new cars. Those prototypes

can be very expensive and time consuming to build, but by doing all the testing digitally, Porscha said it's engineers could start testing the new Coyenn.

Speaker 2: While it was still in the design stage.

Speaker 1: The digital testing involved everything from everyday driving to lapping the Nerber Ring at the limit, and from running in temperature extremes from Death Valley to north of the Arctic Circle.

Porscha says the new process shaved twenty percent of its normal product development time and used far fewer resources. Have

you ever heard of the supplier Amovio before.

Speaker 2: Most people haven't.

Speaker 1: That's because it's a brand new company that just did an IPO this morning in Germany. Amovio is the automotive

operations that were spun off the giant tire company Continental.

The IPO values Amovio at three point four billion euros.

Speaker 2: Which is less than what the hard assets of the company are worth.

Speaker 1: Investors are worried about all the change that's going on in the auto industry right now. So the only way

that Amovio is going to increase its market cap is by coming out with new tech that leads.

Speaker 2: To stronger growth.

Speaker 1: And we're going to get into what that technology is on Autoline After Hours later today because we've got Aruna a Noon coming on the show. She's the CEO of

Ammoviio's North American operations. Nor from Reuters will also be

on the show. So join John and Gary for more

insights into what's going on in the global automotive industry at three pm Eastern time today. But that's a wrap

for this show and I hope to see you later.

Speaker 4: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by alex Partners.

When it really matters CSP, the Composites Solution Partner, Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air Engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon members.

Speaker 5: Developing today's vehicles issues can happen in an instant. What

good is knowing your problems without the data to solve them.

Meet Wireless neo vi Cloud your secure off the shelf solution, empowering real time collaboration for quick resolution. With Wireless neova Cloud,

your team can prevent issues before they can escalate. Driver

communication data and remote diagnostics to analyze and resolve your problems using OTA, allowing your executives to oversight throughout the process.

Wireless neovi Cloud your vehicle update solution in production and on the road in trapid control systems driven by your data.

Speaker 4: 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.

Hyundai Genesis

About this episode

Original notes