This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

GM’S SUPER CRUISE GETS EVEN BETTER
General Motors keeps adding more features to its Super Cruise hands-free driving system, and is offering it on more models. Now it allows drivers who are towing a boat, camper or trailer to drive hands free on mapped roads. It also does automatic lane changes and with a Google Maps app it displays those compatible roads on the navigation screen. GM now offers Super Cruise on 6 models and by the end of 2023 it will be available on twenty-two.

RIVIAN SCOUTING FOR ANOTHER PLANT
Even though it’s not building production vehicles yet, EV startup Rivian is already looking for a second assembly plant in the U.S. According to Reuters, it will announce the location in a couple of months and break ground early next year. The facility will also produce battery cells. Earlier this week, Rivian announced it’s delaying the start of production of its R1T pickup until September at its plant in Normal, Illinois due to the chip shortage.

CHIP SHORTAGE ABOUT TO EASE UP
And speaking of that chip shortage, it could soon start to ease for automakers. That’s thanks to Taiwanese semiconductor companies boosting production in China to help meet demand. While that’s good news for automakers, Reuters reports the shortage could start to impact smartphones next and that it could last until the second quarter of 2022.

MAGNA BUYS VEONEER
There is so much consolidation going on in the automotive supplier industry that it’s hard to keep up. Here’s the latest. Three years ago, Autoliv, the Swedish supplier that makes seat belts and airbags, carved out its electronic safety component business and spun it off as a new company called Veoneer. It did so well that yesterday Magna bought Veoneer for $3.8 billion. Magna says this will cement its position as a global leader in ADAS or automated driver assist systems.

VW PUTS THE SPORT IN SPORT UTILITY
Volkswagen wanted to prove it’s possible to build an SUV that appeals to enthusiasts, so it developed the Atlas Cross Sport GT Concept. Building off a Premium R-Line as its base, VW threw a host of goodies at the concept. Under the hood is a turbocharged 2.0L engine from the Golf R that makes over 300 horsepower and is paired with a 7-speed automatic and all-wheel drive. Unique 22-inch wheels and tires help keep that power planted to the ground, while it also features coilover shocks and 8-piston front brake calipers. In the styling department, the GT Concept has blacked out accents, special GT badging, Recaro front and rear seats and a custom blue shift knob and seat belts. VW says it will show off the Atlas Cross Sport GT Concept at events across the U.S. this year.

MERCEDES TAPS F1 TEAM TO IMPROVE EVs
Mercedes is tapping its powertrain experts from Formula 1 to develop an impressive EV concept, called the VISION EQXX. It says it will have a real-world range of over 1,000 kilometers or 621 miles from a battery pack that would fit in a compact car. Mercedes is aiming for a single digit figure of kilowatt hours used per 100 kilometers, or over 6 miles per kilowatt hour while traveling at highway speeds. Right now, the most efficient EVs are hovering a little above 4 miles per kilowatt hour. While the VISION EQXX will debut next year, it’s not going into production. But Mercedes says technology advances made with the car could be adapted to new EV architectures.

TEST DRIVING HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID
The general public probably still sees Hyundai as an entry level brand. But Hyundai’s are becoming quite refined and sophisticated as our test drive of the new Santa Fe hybrid showed. Hyundai updated the styling with a new rectangular grille in place of the trapezoidal grille it’s been using over the last decade. It features an egg-crate kind of design with quite a bit of detail to make it look more upscale. The rest of the sheetmetal is pretty much carry-over, but the aerodynamics improved by one count thanks to better underbody treatment. The Coefficient of Drag is now 0.33. Inside is where Hyundai really spent its money. The seats look decidedly upscale, with quilted Napa leather on the seating surfaces, and soft touch padding strategically placed wherever you may rest an arm. The center screen grew from 8-inches to ten and a quarter inches and the audio display grew an inch to 8-inches. The Harmon Kardon audio system sounds excellent, and in a nice touch the speaker grilles kind of mimic the quilted pattern on the seats. Under the hood, the hybrid is powered by a 1.6-liter turbo mated to a 6-speed automatic. It generates 178 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 195-pound feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. On paper that doesn’t sound like a lot of torque and seems like you’d have to wind up the engine to get it. But the hybrid’s electric motor adds instant torque as well as an additional 59 horsepower, so off-the-line acceleration is plenty adequate for this class of vehicle. All wheel drive is standard on the hybrid model. One thing we found odd is that the Santa Fe all-wheel drive hybrid is only rated at 32 miles to the gallon. That’s far short of the 40 MPGs that the all-wheel drive versions of the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4 hybrids deliver. The good news is we got 34 MPGs during our test drive of the Santa Fe, so that’s slightly better, but still not up to par with the competition. Maybe that 6-speed transmission needs a few more gears. We drove the Limited trim line and it comes jam packed with all the safety, convenience and connectivity tech that you can imagine. In fact, the only option on our test model was $150 for carpeted floor mats. But the total price came to $41,290, and that alone proves that Hyundai is no longer an entry level brand.

RECYCLING EV BATTERIES FO R RAW MATERIALS
Automakers are scrambling to find the lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese they need to make electric cars. Ajay Kochhar, the CEO of Li-Cycle, says a great source of those materials will come from recycling used EV batteries. Right now, they’re only capturing 5% of those materials, but that’s going to grow quickly. Ajay was on Autoline After Hours yesterday and here’s what he said.

“Think about it this way. We’re getting, say the 5%, or whatever the number is today, of that ultimate manufacturing output. But that 95% is going to come back at some point. So they are thinking about that definitely today. And one of the points about the kind of trajectory of where we’re likely to go in this industry, the end products that we make–lithium, nickel, cobalt–these OEMs all have sourcing teams trying to get a secure supply of lithium, nickel, cobalt. So they definitely see this secondary source of that supply as something that they can then plug back into their supply chain. And that is the true circular economy model that when people think about this they say “Oh, getting back the materials and putting that back in the supply chain. Yeah, we’re generally moving in that direction.’ And I’m super encouraged. In the last 12 months the amount of activity from our customers is unprecedented.”

Ajay says that ultimately there are going to be enough batteries that can be recycled that it may no longer be necessary to mine them. But it’s going to take 30 to 40 years before there are enough batteries to recycle to be able to do that.

And that wraps up today’s report, we’ll see you right back here again on Monday.