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AD #4155 - New Chevy Bolt Will Be Limited Run Model; Tesla Boosts Sales in China; Lyft Buys Robotaxis For First Time

AD #4155 - New Chevy Bolt Will Be Limited Run Model; Tesla Boosts Sales in China; Lyft Buys Robotaxis For First Time

Autoline Daily Oct 10, 2025 10 min
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About this episode

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk's pay package and sales growth in China highlight the company's evolving market position, while GM's new Chevy Bolt will be a limited run model signaling an end to its line. China is tightening control over battery material exports, impacting global supply chains. Lyft is expanding into robotaxi ownership with Tesla Auto, and Mercedes is innovating ultra-fast and convenient EV charging technologies. Cybersecurity threats continue to challenge automakers, with recent data breaches reported. Bosch is testing a fuel cell truck to advance zero-emission logistics. These developments showcase shifts in EV technology, market strategies, and industry security.

Topics: elon musk pay package tesla sales china chevy bolt limited run china battery export controls lyft robotaxis mercedes fast charging ev charging innovation automotive cybersecurity bosch fuel cell truck
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Speaker 1: This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Last month, Tesla's board proposed
a new ten year pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could eventually be worth a trillion dollars. But in
order to earn all of that, the board said Musk would need to hit quote Mars Shot milestones and that he would get zero unless he meets the goals. However,
a new in depth analysis by Reuters found that Musk can still rake in tens of billions of dollars without meeting most of those targets. Some of the product development
goals he must achieve are vaguely written and could earn Musk a big payout without significantly boosting Tesla's profit. For example,
there's no requirement that Tesla makes FSD fully autonomous. Instead,
it only needs to deliver a quote advanced driving system.
Musk can earn twenty six billion dollars alone from hitting two two of the easiest targets, along with modest stock growth, which would be more than the next eight best paid CEOs combined. There's a lot more detail in Reuter's report,
and we'll provide a link if you want to dive deeper.
In other Tesla news, the ev maker has started to flip the script on car sales and several key markets around the world, and now we can add China to that list. From January to September, Tesla Chinas sold a
little over six hundred thousand vehicles, which includes exports. While
that's down just over ten percent from a year ago, it's sales in the third quarter we're up over twenty six percent compared to the second quarter, and sales of about ninety one thousand units in September were up both over last month and over last year. So there's some
very encouraging signs from Tesla right now. In China. Ford
is following in GM's footsteps. It's also getting rid of
its workaround to be expired EV tax credit. In its place,
Ford says it will continue offering the same EV lease payments that it does today until the end of the year.
As we reported yesterday, GM and Ford were said to have cleared the workaround with the IRS, which would have still allowed them to claim the seventy five hundred dollars credit, but some criticized the plan and urged for the loophole to be closed, and as you can see, it didn't take long for either automaker to change their mind. And
in another follow up from yesterday, Chevy finally put out an official press release about the new Bolt, and it slipped in a little detail that we didn't have yesterday.
It says it will be a limited run.
Speaker 2: Model to us.
Speaker 1: That means the new Bolt will have at least a year on the market, but there certainly won't be a next gen model. Chevy didn't provide any other info, but
GM obviously sees a clear end in sight for the new Bolt. China is tightening its grip on its battery supply.
The country's Ministry of Commerce announced that exports of some lithium ion batteries, cathote and graphite anode materials, as well as certain related technology and equipment, will now require government permits for exports. China dominates global production of the materials,
and analysts believe this is a move to protect its market control while also slowing development of a battery supply chain outside of China. And while this requirement could hurt
battery production, analysts don't believe that China will be as restrictive as it was with rare earth exports earlier this year, which forced several automakers to temporarily halt production, and there is a glimmer of hope for battery production outside of China.
Check out our interview at the Battery Show with Bob Gallian, one of the people that helped start CATL. He says
that the US is working on battery production tech that could leap frog China.
Speaker 3: 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: Right hailing company Lift is adding robotaxis to its fleet for the first time. The company has reserved hundreds of
robotaxis from Silicon Valley startup Tensor Auto, which will be deployed in Europe and North America starting in twenty twenty seven.
In addition to that, Tensor will install Lift's platform in all of its vehicles, which will allow owners to offer rides through lifts network where Level four autonomous technology is available.
Financial details weren't revealed, and the companies didn't say exactly where the vehicles will initially operate. Lift does have partnerships
with other companies like name Mobility and weimo to offer robotaxi rides, but this is the first time it will purchase and own its own fleet robotaxis. This might just
look like an electric Mercedes V class van with a bunch of decals on it, but there's some interesting tech under those stickers. For one, it's testing ways to adapt
the megawat charging system that it developed for heavy duty trucks into passenger vehicles. It says it will take those
findings to develop long distance vehicles and fleet solutions with short downtimes. But this van actually has dual charging capability.
It's also equipped with a CCS charging port as well, but Mercedes is testing how to really ramp up the charging rate. It says the van is capable of charging
at nine hundred kilowatts, which could fully charge a one hundred kilowat hour battery pack in ten minutes. To pump
out that power, the company converted one of its megawat chargers for big trucks by slapping a CCS cable on it, and it sounds like Mercedes plans on supplying these units to charging stations in the future, but it's also testing ways to make charging more convenient it's looking into inductive charging, which requires no physical connection, and wants to know things like the best place to put the hardware on the vehicles.
Automated conductive charging could be another solution as well. There's
still a physical connection between the vehicle and charger, but Mercedes is testing how to do that automatically with a charger that pops out of the ground and plugs into the bottom of the vehicle. So it looks like Mercedes
has identified charging time and charging convenience as key aspects of improving the EV ownership experience. Cyber Security is a
growing concern in the auto industry. As we've reported, Jaguar
land Rover was hit with a cyber attack that crippled its operations for more than a month, but it's not the only automaker that's been hit recently. Earlier this week,
Renault's UK operations set a hacker stole customer details from a third party supplier. Stalanta said some customer contact information
in Europe has been exposed recently. In Germany, both BMW
and Volkswagen had data stolen earlier this year, and some Volvo North America employees had personal data stolen, and this could turn into some scary stuff. According to password manager
nord Pass, the hackers are testing the maturity of the auto industry cybersecurity and that they could be gathering data for attacks in the future. The giant supplier Bosch says
it's operating a fuel cell truck at one of its plants in Germany for the first time. It's an ive
Eco truck that's been fitted with Bosch's own fuel cell stack, which gives it a range of up to eight hundred kilometers or nearly five hundred miles. The truck will primarily
transport products from the plant and is expected to cover twelve thousand kilometers or about seventy five hundred miles a year.
In addition to reducing emissions, Bosch will also take what it learns from the project to further develop its fuel cell system. And that brings us to the end of
today's show and this week, thanks for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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