AD #4148 - German EV Sales Surge w/out Subsidies; U.S. DoE Invests in Lithium Mine; BMW Runs Hydrogen Pipeline into Assembly Plant
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Speaker 1: This is Autolye Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Yesterday was the end of the
third quarter, and in about another two days we'll have a pretty good picture of how car sales are going in the US market. That's because a lot of automakers
only report sales on a quarterly basis, so we'll finally get the data we need to figure out what's going on.
But here's what we know so far. Cox Automotive is
forecasting that automakers sold over one point one million vehicles in September, up six percent from a year ago. A
key reason for the healthy market was a big surgeon EV sales as customers rushed to buy an electric car before the seventy five hundred dollars federal subsidy got yanked.
Cox estimates that consumers bought four hundred and ten thousand evs, up more than twenty percent from a year ago and probably hitting close to ten percent market share.
Speaker 2: As we reported yesterday.
Speaker 1: At least one automaker, Lucid, will pay for its own seventy five hundred dollars discount, while General Motors and Ford figured out a clever workaround yesterday they made down payments on their evs that the dealers already have on their lots, and now those cars can be leased with a seventy five hundred dollars discount already factored into them. But make
no mistake about it, everyone now expects EV sales to plummet.
Ford's CEO, Jim Farley even says he won't be surprised to see them drop to five percent market share. And
here's our autoline insight. When Germany yanked its EV subsidies
at the end of twenty twenty three, sales fell off a cliff. They dropped by more than one hundred and
forty three thousand units, or down twenty seven percent.
Speaker 2: But guess what.
Speaker 1: Over the last year and a half, sales have come roaring back. EV sales in Germany are up more than
thirty nine percent this year through August and are on track to almost hit where they were before the subsidies went away. And it happened because automakers came out with
better evs with more competitive prices. And that's a very
likely scenario of what's going to happen in the American market.
Give it a couple of years, and EV sales have a good chance of recapturing all of their lost market share.
It's highly unusual to see the US government actually invest in private companies, but the Department of Energy is taking a five percent steak in Lithium Americas and a five percent steak in its thacker Pass joint venture in Nevada with General Motors. Lithium America says it finalized to deal
with the DOE to unlock the first four hundred and thirty five million dollars from a previously announced two point twenty six billion dollar loan for its thacker Pass project.
One's complete thacker Pass will be the largest source of battery lithium in the Western Hemisphere. GM invested six hundred
and twenty five million dollars in the mind last year and has the rights to buy all of the project's lithium from its first phase, which is expected to be enough for eight hundred thousand evs.
Speaker 2: The deal also allows GM.
Speaker 1: To buy a portion of the output from its second phase for twenty years. The new DOE deal is part
of an effort by the Trump administration to invest in private sector companies seen as vital to national security. It
has also taken stakes in intel and MP materials.
Speaker 3: Performance that shines even in the rain. That's what really matters.
Rich don't pretends to tires, improved grip and wet conditions.
Speaker 1: Ford was the top seller of electrified vehicles in Canada through the second quarter of this year.
Speaker 2: Since twenty twenty two, it's doubled.
Speaker 1: Its market share of hybrid PEV in pure electric vehicles to just under thirteen percent, according to data from S and P Global. Chevy is in second at nine zo
point seven percent market share, followed by Kia at nine and a half percent, then Toyota at nine point three and rounding out the top five at eight point seven percent is Hyundai. Despite including hybrids. Tesla used to dominate
EV market share in Canada in twenty twenty two, it sat at nearly forty seven percent, but that's now dropped to seven point eight percent. The company was already losing
ground to better competition, but Elon Musk's involvement in the Trump administration and comments made about the country have really ramped up that decline. As a result, the entire b
EV segment in Canada has suffered. In the fourth quarter
of last year, market share sat around fifteen percent. But
in Q two of this year it came in just under six percent. Through August of this year, Chinese automakers
have sold over four hundred and thirty thousand vehicles in Europe, an increase of seventy four percent compared to the same period last year, and they're doing that in a market that hasn't grown much, meaning European automakers are losing market share.
This is why the EU slapped import terrace on Chinese made evs, and now we're seeing individual countries offer incentives for locally produced models. France introduced EV bonuses that basically
block any vehicle that's made in China from getting them based on environmental criteria. Automotive News reports that France is
now considering boosting that bonus if the battery.
Speaker 2: Is also made in Europe.
Speaker 1: The UK is also launching a similar electric car grant, and Italy and Spain are both looking into it. While
these moves have limited Chinese evs, the teriffs don't apply to hybrids or e revs, so that's what Chinese automakers have turned to and that's what's driving their growth in Europe right now. We believe if this growth leads to
more layoffs in the region. Europe could decide it needs
terrace on all Chinese imports, not just electric cars. Solid
state battery maker Quantum Scape is partnering with materials company Corning to jointly develop high volume ceramics separator manufacturing capabilities for solid state batteries. Corning is a world leader in glass,
ceramics and material science, and solid state batteries offer longer range, faster charging, and are safer compared to conventional lithium ion batteries.
It seems like every week we report about robotaxis expanding into new markets, and today is no different. Autonomous startup Zeukes,
which is owned by Amazon, announced it will start testing its vehicles in Washington, DC. It will first map the
city with retrofitted SUVs with safety drivers on board before progressing to autonomous testing later this year. Zekes is now
testing autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, and last month in Las Vegas, Zekes became the first company to offer fully driverless rides in a purpose built ROBOTAXI. Speaking of robotaxis, Chinese autonomous
driving startup we Ride announced that its robotaxi fleet in Abu Dhabi is now available through the new autonomous category on Uber's app.
Speaker 2: We Ride says that since.
Speaker 1: The app was launched, weekly orders have risen around twenty percent.
BMW is so committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its manufacturing operations that it's going to run a hydrogen pipeline directly into one of its assembly plants in Germany.
The hydrogen will be used as a fuel to bake the pain on BMW one and two series and the Mini Countrymen. It will also be used for fuel cell
powered forklifts, tug trucks and.
Speaker 2: Logistics vehicles in the plant.
Speaker 1: The hydrogen pipeline will be about two kilometers long and is expected to be completed in mid twenty twenty seven.
And don't forget that tomorrow's Auto Line after Hours will be about carbon captures for internal combustion engines. We've got
Yabs Kabeti, the director of engineering from a company called Ramora, coming on the show and I think you'll be fascinated with their technology.
Speaker 2: And that's it for today's report.
Speaker 1: Thanks to all our members for your support, and thanks to all of you for watching Autoline Daily.
Speaker 4: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridge Stone Solutions for your journey CSP the composites solution partner Intrepid Control Systems over the year engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon members.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Don Hatfield from Trapping Control Systems and I'm presenting the wireless BEMS solution from Intrepting Control Systems. Come
and see us in this demo at Booth forty six hundred.
Speaker 1: At the Battery Show and so analog device will be there as well.
Speaker 2: Be happy to talk to you and help you with your solution.
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 THECSP dot com
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