AD #4184 - China Accused of Manipulating Critical Materials Market; GM Tries Selling Vehicles to UK Military; Ford Tops UK EV Market Share

Speaker 1: This is underlying daily the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Thanks to strong sales of its

Puma and Explore electric vehicles, Ford had the highest b EV market share in the UK last month.

Speaker 2: Its market share was at nine.

Speaker 1: Percent, about one and a half percentage points ahead of Audi.

In Volkswagen, Renault and Byd rounded out the top five and b EV market share. Overall, fully electric vehicles accounted

for twenty five percent of vehicle sales in the UK in October, and while Ford was number one last month.

Tesla has the highest BEV share over the last three months, but Ford is only one hundred units behind Tesla over that period. Speaking of Ford, it just updated the interior

of its transit van. It features a new eight inch

driver display along with a twelve inch center screen, and it's now standard with the SYNCFOD infotainment system.

Speaker 2: As well as push button start.

Speaker 1: New technology features include a built in five G modem, Lane Keeping assists automatic emergency braking, and there's new tools to help make fleet operations more efficient. The US is

trying to eliminate its reliance on China for critical materials such as rare earth minerals and lithium, and China is trying to prevent the US from doing that. At a

congressional hearing in Washington, DC yesterday, executives from the materials industry said China manipulated the supply of rare earths to drop the price just as a company called NP Materials was about to launch a refining plant in California. That

spooked investors and destroyed the incentive to invest in the California plant. Executives testify that China is also manipulating prices

of lithium and other critical materials to scare off investment capital.

We'll see what the US Congress does with this testimony, but it sure suggests that tensions between the US and China show no signs of easing up, and that makes this next story all the more interesting. Li Shufu is

the founder of g L Motors, which owns Volvo, Pollstar, Zeker, Lincoln Co, Lotus Smart, and a handful of other brands.

He also controls an automotive electronics company called e Carx Holdings, and he's moving most of its engineering and manufacturing out of China and mainly over to Europe. Li Shufu wants

to merge e car X with another unnamed automotive supplier and get listed on the Nasdaq, which would greatly reduce its Chinese ownership. And he wants to do that because

being based in China means the company can't export to the US. He'll still have to get through a bunch

of regulatory hearings in the US before he can proceed, but it's interesting that a Chinese entrepreneur sees more opportunity for his company.

Speaker 2: In the United States than he does in China.

Speaker 3: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on the journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.

Learn more at VCSP dot com.

Speaker 1: Over a third of all new portions sold around the world are now purely electric, and the company just pulled the wraps off the all new Kyene Electric. The model

will initially launch in two trims that offer one battery size and come standard.

Speaker 2: With all wheel drive.

Speaker 1: That battery is a newly developed one hundred and thirteen kilowat hour pack which provides up to six hundred and forty two kilometers or just under four hundred miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. Thanks to the Coyennes

eight hundred volt architecture, it's able to charge at up to four hundred kilowatts, which can charge the battery from ten to eighty percent.

Speaker 2: In as little as sixteen minutes.

Speaker 1: And as we reported recently, the model will also have the option for a factory installed inductive charging system. The

more base version of the two trims produce us is three hundred kilowatts or about four hundred horse power from its two drive units and will do zero to sixty in about four point seven seconds, while the turbotrim is capable of putting out eight hundred and fifty kilowats or about one thousand, one hundred and forty horse power and going from zero to sixty to two point four seconds. However,

it can only put out that much power for ten seconds at a time, and its normal output is closer to eight hundred and fifty horse power. Both trims come

standard with an air suspension system, but the Turbo also comes with a limited slip rear diff and the option for an active suspension system. There's a carbon ceramic brake

option for the Turbo as well, but most customers probably don't need it. The Cayen Electric is capable of generating

six hundred kilowats during regen braking, and Porsche claims ninety seven percent of all breaking in every day driving can be handled by the electric motors. Orders are open now

and the company says it will offer three powertrain types in the Cayenne, including IC Past twenty thirty. Bentley has

the most elegant welcome lamps I've ever seen. I usually

call these puddle lights, which are used to project an image onto the ground, but Bentley can now customize these however an owner wants, and even add a little animation to them. This one is a concert hull in Bucharest

that features music notes flying around it.

Speaker 2: The technology needed to pull.

Speaker 1: This off requires nearly four hundred and sixteen thousand microscopic mirrors that are each one fifth the width of a human hair. Bentley says these animations could be as simple

as a handwritten projection or as detailed as a floating feather, and it plans to offer these lighting solutions in its customization process, just like it does with nicer woods, leathers and metals. The UK is expected to add to its

military fleet next year, and even general motors hopes to provide some of those vehicles, and we find a couple pretty interesting. One is based on the Chevy S ten

pickup that it still sells in countries like Brazil and features a two hundred and seven horsepower diesel engine, and another is a model based on the Chevrolet Silverado fifteen hundred ZR two, which is also powered by a diesel, but with three hundred and five horses. The models were

developed by Team Lyons Strike, a partnership between GM Defense, BAE Systems, and NP Aerospace. Should GM, Ford and Stilantis

outsource their powertrain operations. That's been a topic of debate

ever since the late Sergio Marcion wrote an essay in twenty sixteen titled Confessions of a Capitol Junkie which proposed exactly that. And now comes Horse Powertrain, the company that

Renault spun off to make all its ic engines and transmissions.

It's making powertrains for Volvo, Jili, Mercedes, Nissan, Mitsubishians. Keep

in mind that this is a company that was only officially formed in May of twenty twenty four, and it's already.

Speaker 2: Got orders for eight million engines a year.

Speaker 1: The company's economies of scale are so big it can sell an engine to an automaker cheaper than that automaker can make it in house. Last week we had Tom

Lewis from horsepower Train on Auto Line after Hours. He's

based in Detroit and said he's getting a lot of inquiries about what Horse can supply, so this is clearly a topic of conversation in Detroit, Dearborn and Auburn Hills.

If you haven't seen that segment already, I highly recommend it.

Speaking of Autoline after Hours, coming up later today, we have Matt Anderson, the automotive curator at the Henry Ford Museum, coming on the show. He's got some fascinating insight on

how people who hated the horseless carriage came around to accept them, and there may be some history lessons there to change the hearts of people who current we hate evs.

We also have Steve Purdy coming on the show. He

published a book called Mascots in Motion about the history and evolution of hood ornaments, grills, and tail fins over a forty year period. The stories behind them are as

interesting as the ornaments themselves. So join John and Gary

when the show goes live at three pm Eastern Time today.

That's a rap for this show, but I hope to see you later today.

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