AD #3294 – Ford Sold Most +$50,000 Vehicles; Charge An EV Battery In Only 9 Seconds; EV Sales Explode In China
April 1st, 2022 at 11:55am
Listen to “AD #3294 – Ford Sold Most +$50,000 Vehicles; Charge An EV Battery In Only 9 Seconds; EV Sales Explode In China” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 10:11
0:07 EV Sales Explode in China
0:53 UPS Tests E-Bikes for Delivery
1:40 Ram Readies A Ford Maverick Competitor
2:19 Ford Sold Most +$50,000 Vehicles
3:11 Toyota Corolla GR Is A Monster
5:25 Toyota Strategy with Solid State Batteries
7:28 Tesla’s Charging Network Gets Even Bigger
8:18 Charge an EV Battery In Only 9 Seconds
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
EV SALES EXPLODE IN CHINA
Yesterday we reported that China was going to hit Peak ICE sales this year. And today we’re putting an exclamation point on that. Sales of electric cars in China absolutely exploded last month compared to a year ago. All the major Chinese EV startups saw rocket growth. NIO was up 37%, Li Auto was up 125%, XPeng shot up 202%, and Hozon, which owns the EV brand NETA, saw sales grow a staggering 270%. No word yet on Tesla’s March sales in China. That will depend on how many cars it sold in China, versus how many were exported to Europe.
UPS TESTS E-BIKES FOR DELIVERY
Micro mobility could be the future of urban transportation. UPS testing electric four-wheel cargo bikes for last mile delivery in Europe. Called the eQuad, they have a range of 40 miles or 64 kilometers, can carry 440 pounds or 200 kilograms of cargo and have a top assisted speed of about 15 MPH or 25 KPH. UPS will test 100 eQuads in seven European countries and also plans to test it in the U.S. and Asia. It’s only 36 inches wide, so it can legally use bike lanes and pedestrian zones that a truck can’t access.
RAM READIES A FORD MAVERICK COMPETITOR
Ram says it can make a pickup like the Ford Maverick, too. At a local media event in Brazil, the president of Stellantis South America, Antonio Filosa, said Ram will introduce a small pickup in Brazil called the 1200. He supposedly also said the truck will also be sold in the American market. It will be built on the company’s Small Wide 4×4 platform that the Jeep Renegade uses and come with four-wheel drive and a nine-speed automatic. In Brazil, the model is expected to be available with two engine options, a gas and diesel.
FORD SOLD MOST +$50,000 VEHICLES
Here’s a fascinating factoid. Last year in the U.S. Toyota sold more vehicles priced under $50,000 than anyone else. So who do you think led the sales race for vehicles priced over $50,000? If you think it was Mercedes-Benz that’s a good guess. But it was Number Two. Bloomberg reports that last year, the automaker that sold the most vehicles priced over $50,000 in the US market was the Ford Motor Company.
TOYOTA COROLLA GR IS A MONSTER
Enthusiasts rejoice! Hot hatches are far from dead. Last night Toyota unveiled the 300 horsepower, all-wheel drive Corolla GR. And this isn’t some lame marketing job with blacked out bits and a blatty muffler. It’s got some serious engineering cred.
The 1.6L, 3-cylinder direct/port injected turbo engine delivers 300 hp and 273 pound-feet of torque. And this engine revs. Max horsepower is at 6500 rpm. All the power is fed through a 6-speed manual transmission.
Let’s dive inside the engine. Multi-oil jet piston cooling, large-diameter exhaust valves and a part-machined intake port show the attention to detail this car got. The turbocharger is integrated in the exhaust manifold for lower weight. The wastegate bypass gasses are even used to heat up the catalytic converter faster.
The all-wheel drive system is awesome. It offers customizable front-rear power settings. You can have a 60-40 split for mainly front wheel drive daily commuting, a 50-50 split for autocross or track days, or a 30-70 power split to kick the rear wheels out. And to make sure that max amount of power hits the pavement it’s got front and rear Torsen Limited-Slip Differentials.
The Corolla GR is assembled at Toyota’s Motomachi plant in Japan, but Gazoo Racing recruited highly skilled technicians from throughout the company to make it. Some of the other details that set it apart from run-of-the-mill Corollas include enhanced frame reinforcements, functional exterior air vents and aerodynamic tweaks, more weld points in the frame, and extensive use of structural adhesives.
Two trim lines are available: Core and Circuit, the latter adds a forged carbon fiber roof, vented bulge hood and a sporty rear spoiler, suede-trimmed sport seats and more. In fact, Toyota provided quite a bit of detail on this car and if you’d like to learn more check out the link in the transcript.
TOYOTA STRATEGY WITH SOLID STATE BATTERIES
Solid state batteries could be a game changer for electric cars. They’re smaller and can be charged faster. But there’s still a big learning curve ahead. So Toyota is going to start out using solid state batteries in a hybrid car to see what it can learn. Gill Pratt, the chief scientist at Toyota explained to me why they’re taking this approach.
“But we actually think that because the cost of the battery cells are still quite high–no one has really figured out how to manufacture them in high volume at low cost–that a hybrid vehicle is actually the right place to start. And the reason is that the battery pack in a hybrid vehicle is actually much smaller than in a battery electric vehicle. The power levels of charging and discharging, because that battery pack is smaller, when you press on the brakes and have regenerative braking, or you hit the accelerator, the actual power per cell is somewhat higher than it is in a BEV, and the number of cycles that it’s going to go through are quite a bit more. So actually it’s a tougher job to put a battery inside a hybrid electric vehicle than it is in a BEV. So we’re starting there so we can learn the most by doing it.”
That interview, by the way, has a ton more information about solid state batteries and Toyota’s EV strategy. You can find the entire show on our YouTube channel or in the Autoline This Week section of the Autoline website.
TESLA’S CHARGING NETWORK GETS EVEN BIGGER
One of Tesla’s key advantages in selling cars is that it’s the only car company in the world with its own charging network. And that network is only getting bigger. Bloomberg reports that last year alone Tesla added about 10,000 superchargers to its global network. That’s 2 and a half times more than the number in 2020. And it’s only going to grow more. Tesla plans to triple the size of its network over the next two years. Most of them are going in China, which accounts for about 43% of all installations. One advantage Tesla has over public chargers is reliability. Volkswagen says 30% of public chargers in China are usually not available because they don’t work or they’re blocked by gas-powered cars.
CHARGE AN EV BATTERY IN ONLY 9 SECONDS
There have been so many companies claiming that they’ve achieved a battery breakthrough that we’ve become a little bit leery of reporting about them. But this is so interesting, and potentially such a game changer that we couldn’t resist. Scientists at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea claim they have a way to fully change an EV battery in 9 seconds. You hear that right. Nine seconds. That’s with a Level III fast charger. At home you could recharge in 3 minutes. Here’s how it works. Today, batteries charge in parallel independently of each other. With this new way, scientists are using quantum physics to recharge each cell at the same time. And they say that is 200 times faster. By the way we want to thank our viewer Tim Driver for bringing this story to our attention.
We get a lot of good suggestions from viewers. So if you’ve got an idea or see something you think we ought to take a look at, let us know. We can’t promise we’re going to use it all, but you can help us be the eyes and ears of the automotive industry.
That wraps up today’s show, hope you have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again on Monday.
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Comments (40)
April 1st, 2022 at 12:28 pm
I think Tesla is very smart to have there own charging network since we know that subscription based businesses usually do very well. Gillette doesn’t make so much or very little money on the razor, the money is in the constant supply of the blades.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:29 pm
Toyota’s hot hatch, only Toyota could make such a hot car look so boring.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:33 pm
One of Teslas ” moat is its massive charging network and how simple it is to use, it just works , compared to EA, or any other systems.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:39 pm
It looks like they are significantly upsizing the Toyota GR for the US market, because it is a Yaris with that same ~300 hp powertrain in the rest of the world. Still, it should be a fun car, but will probably be pricey.
That Ram 1200 sounds more like a Hyundai Santa Cruz competitor, than a Maverick competitor, with no hybrid mentioned.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:43 pm
It would be interesting to know what kind of government incentives were in play last month in China to drive that kind of surge in EV sales. That’s still the only way to get any growth in that segment.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:45 pm
#4: Yaris GR sold elsewhere has less power than the US bound Corolla GR.
April 1st, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Why are thieves not cutting and stealing all these copper filled charging cables from Tesla Charging Stations?
April 1st, 2022 at 1:02 pm
Funny, the Corolla Hatchback is on the Consumer Reports “do not buy” list. But one should look at a Hyu Dai or Mazda instead!
April 1st, 2022 at 1:24 pm
3 Is that comment from experience or just repeating what John said for cheerleading purposes?
Considering Ford sells so many trucks and most which are likely over 50K that’s not really so surprising. However if GMC Chevy and Cadillac were grouped together under just GM I bet they would be #1.
2 Yep the Toyota is not very attractive beyond specs.
April 1st, 2022 at 1:25 pm
Charge an EV battery in 9 seconds. This is far-out theory that seems overly optimistic and even if it partially works, it would be very dangerous, and is many years out from being a reality.
Today, the fastest charging rate is 350 kWh at 800 volts from Electrify America connected to a Rivian, and the charging cable needs to be water cooled. To charge an EV battery in 9 seconds you would need thousands of volts and huge current flow. The cable and connectors would be so large that they would unpractical. Theories are great, but reality brings us back to earth.
April 1st, 2022 at 1:31 pm
@10 Agreed. But Autoline doesn’t just make this stuff up. I wonder if there are capacitors involved???
April 1st, 2022 at 1:51 pm
10 Maybe induction charging with a lighting bolt coming from the ground.
I was thinking the same thing. Even if the charging was split to each cell you still need to get massive amounts of power to the multiple feeds.
April 1st, 2022 at 1:52 pm
Ford is dying as a company. Worldwide volume is down over 50% in the last 5 years. They dropped to #8 last year with total production of only 3.9M. Now they’re stuck with fully loaded pick-ups/SUVs in a super tight market. Once the market opens up and the next recession hits, Ford is in the worst position of any OEMs especially considering their super high debt levels.
April 1st, 2022 at 1:58 pm
6 Yeah, I found that Yaris GR in Europa is 261 hp, so probably only about the same power/hp as the Corolla.
April 1st, 2022 at 2:12 pm
It’s great news that Ford sold the most $50,000+ vehicles. The only problem with that is they are chasing away so many customers because the prices are so high. The average buyer can’t afford the vehicles Ford sells so once the market levels out there won’t be buyers for all the high price products at Ford. Remember Henry Ford made his millions and millions by making a car for the masses, his company now make cars for the elite. Henry must be rolling over in his grave.
April 1st, 2022 at 2:25 pm
15 Yep, Ford sells a lot of expensive trucks, but all of the former Detroit Three will be in trouble in depending so much on big trucks, as long as gas remains almost as expensive, in real terms, as it was in 2008.
April 1st, 2022 at 2:27 pm
#10 & #11; Would they make things up on 4/1/22?
April 1st, 2022 at 3:01 pm
17 Yep, pretty definitely related to 4/1/22. To charge in 9 seconds would require a charge rate of a few billion watts, and even if you could supply the power, the battery would instantly explode if charged at that rate.
April 1st, 2022 at 3:22 pm
18 Well, I exaggerated. A quick calculation finds the charge rate to be only 40 million watts for a 100 kWh battery. Still, it look completely relevant to 4/1/2022.
April 1st, 2022 at 3:27 pm
The quantum charging has been discussed in the Physics journals (American Physical Society peer review letters) for the past 5 years. It looks promising by using quantum physics and charging each cell at once instead of having the physical limitations listed above. They aren’t just giving the battery more juice and forcing the charge in there even faster.
I was disappointed that we didn’t get any April Fools content from AD, and I thought this was at least one joke, but looking into the background of Quantum Charging, it is “real”, just not real yet.
April 1st, 2022 at 3:55 pm
20 I’ll have to read about what quantum charging is, but wouldn’t it still take 100,000 amps at 400 volts, or 50,000 amps at 800 volts to do the charging?
April 1st, 2022 at 4:33 pm
On a quantum level, things get very different. The usual, simpler electrical equations we are all used to don’t equate the same once it gets down to quantum levels of waves and vibrations. The best (simplified) way it was explained to me is equating wires to guitar strings. On a physical level, the string has all the usual parameters of length, width, resistance, temperature, etc.
Picture a microscopic string being plucked and not even being a solid. It will still have calculable values of vibration, energy, harmonics, but will differ at the quantum level from the limitations on a larger physical scale.
I’m not going to pretend to understand how they would use this to charge full-sized solid objects like an automotive battery. Perhaps inducing a harmonic frequency correlating with the vibrations of the voltage line frequency?
I guess I’m going to have to read more articles and find someone to explain it to me, but I’m optimistic that some people smarter than me are working towards that breakthrough. I’m sure it’s probably at least a decade away from a physical sample.
April 1st, 2022 at 5:15 pm
22 I’m definitely going to need to read more about it.
April 1st, 2022 at 5:45 pm
22.23.I going to place Quantum Physics in the same place I have Fusion Power, and a low-cost/efficient process to make Hydrogen. Nice idea, but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for it.
Maybe, we should be talking to Mr. Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation!
April 1st, 2022 at 5:47 pm
I thought the April Fools Day story was the one about Stellantis planning a small pickup truck based on the Jeep Renegade.
The Fiat Toro and Strada small pickups already exist in Brazil, but it seems desperate to try to sell them in North American market.
April 1st, 2022 at 7:41 pm
https://carbuzz.com/news/canceled-tesla-cybertruck-is-dead
Probably an April 1 thing
April 1st, 2022 at 9:39 pm
25 Any pickup will sell in the US. This one needs to be cheap to sell, though, not much over $20K. If they wanted to distinguish themselves from everyone else, they could sell a 2 door version with a 6 1/2 foot bed, rather than a 4 door, 4 or 4 1/2 foot bed like Santa Cruz and Maverick.
April 1st, 2022 at 10:31 pm
27 Of what’s now in the market, or likely to come along soon, there seems little doubt that Maverick will dominate the unibody pickup market. The price is right, and they have the right powertrains. They are the only game in town with their hybrid, for those who care about gas mileage, and the Maverick’s 2 liter turbo gets better EPA gas mileage than the somewhat smaller Santa Cruz. The Ford’s turbo even does better than the non-turbo Hyundai in the FWD versions.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=44476&id=43984&id=44473&id=43982
Honda Ridgeline is much pricier than the Ford or Hyundai, so doesn’t really count.
April 2nd, 2022 at 1:34 am
The “quantum entanglement” battery articles read like a Ponzi scheme. One claim is a 1 to 200 speed increase. There are many curious quantum effects but multiplication of ‘entanglement’ is not one of them … pairs YES but 1 to “n” hundreds or thousands is beyond credibility.
If it worked, one could have 2, 4, 8, 16 … cell batteries and use the lower cell count batteries to transfer charge to the larger number of cell batteries and make as many megawatts of stored energy as desired.
April 2nd, 2022 at 7:43 am
#13, 15, 16) All go points that you make, but there are a few things to keep in mind. While Ford many the OEM that sells the most vehicles above $50K, they are far and away not the only one that sell at or near that price point. Most of those are probably pick-ups, yet, with their twin turbo V6s, diesels and hybrids, they (along with other OEMs) are producing the most powerful and fuel efficient vehicles in their history! Where they have a vulnerability is, I don’t think the diesels and hybrids are on their full size SUVs, midsize pick-ups and CUVs, like the Edge and Nautilus. Adding a hybrid or two to the next gen Ranger, would give Ford a hybrid in a compact, midsize and full size pick-ups! With Ford and GM also having introduced plans to build BEV pick-up work trucks that start in the low $40K (whether someone will ever be able to find one is another story), would no doubt add to their bottom line.
April 2nd, 2022 at 8:53 am
30 They have hybrid Escape and Explorer, but not Edge.
I fail to see how the Ranger is “midsize” and the Maverick “compact,” though those terms are generally used. Yeah, the Ranger has a 6 inch longer bed than the Maverick, but the Maverick, while being a little, shorter, is 5 inches wider than the Ranger. The Ranger is much lighter, though, nearly 800 pounds.
April 2nd, 2022 at 11:40 am
31 Sry, the Maverick is much lighter.
April 2nd, 2022 at 7:59 pm
#32/32.) Yes, but my point was that the Edge/Nautilus and the Expedition/Navigator are the only Ford CUV/SUVs that do not yet have hybrids. With crossovers being popular, if these four vehicles had hybrid versions, Ford would be in a very good position, relative to the current spike in gas prices!
Regarding the CUV/Crossover based Ram, if that was not an April Fool joke, I have my doubts that Stellantis will follow through. They’ve promised a midsized Ram pick-up for years and even though they have the Jeep Gladiator as a bases, they have yet to pull the trigger! I would have more faith in such a vehicle to compete with the Maverick, if they said it was going to be a Jeep. As a Jeep it could/would cost more then the Maverick, not be as fuel efficient and still sell everyone they make! As a Jeep, it would not have to directly compete with the Maverick, but would have to be a more serious off-roader then the Santa Cruz. As a Ram, it would have to beat the Ford on price, utility and ingenuity (being a better looker wouldn’t hurt either)! While not insurmountable tasks, they would be large orders to fill. Yet, as a Jeep, there would be none of that ‘over head’ and expectation, along with a dedicated fan coming along for the ride, before a single vehicle is even built! So,…why would Ram want to make a CUV/Crossover based, four pick-up?
April 2nd, 2022 at 8:00 pm
#33.) *four door pick-up?
April 2nd, 2022 at 8:35 pm
33 Yeah, if Ford had a hybrid Edge with equal, or near equal mpg to the Highlander hybrid, and 7 feet of flat floor, I would have considered it when I bought my Highlander hybrid. The Explorer hybrid was not competitive with the Highlander in mpg.
If they sold the Fiat unibody pickup in the US, I doubt that they’d expect to nearly match Maverick sales numbers, but if they could make it legal to sell in the US without much modification, it might makes sense to sell if, even if the volume were only 50K/yr. Yeah, it would sell better as a Jeep than as a Ram, if they gave it a proper Jeep “look.” Jeep buyers tend to overlook crudity and bad gas mileage.
April 3rd, 2022 at 4:08 pm
#35.) If they were to graph a truck bed onto the current Renegade, IMHO, it could be enough for a lot of people to except as a Maverick/Santa Cruz competitor. They might even get those who are not Jeep fans to convert! The Renegade is a little smaller then the Escape/Bronco Sport donor platform for the Maverick, though. Again, as a Ram, I doubt that Stellantis would pull the trigger, but as a Jeep, they could follow the same recipe as that of the Gladiator! Buyers might even be willing to more for it, over the Maverick. If I’m not mistaken, Jeep already have a mild-hybrid for the engines they use in the Renegade and Compass, so outside of adding the bed, there is already a lot that the two vehicles would have in common, though not the same. We’ll have to see if Jeep/Ram/Stellantis is truly serious about what they could do, by making this into something they would do!
April 3rd, 2022 at 4:38 pm
36 I suspect the Brazilian Ram 1200 is stretched from the Renegade, as the Maverick is stretched about 20 inches from the length of the Escape. I’m not familiar with a mild hybrid powertrain in Renegade and Compass, but other Chrysler mild hybrids’ mpg isn’t too great.
They don’t need to “add a bed” to sell a smallish unibody pickup, since they already sell one in other markets, but they’d need to federalize it. If it’s sold in Europe, that should be easy, but South America, maybe not so much.
April 4th, 2022 at 8:27 am
Maybe another April fools day joke but I’m not sure because I had a friend at a recent Expo where a Tesla spokesperson made this same claim last week.
Tesla to head toward Hydrogen by 2024. Oh how silly that will make those Tesla cheerleaders feel after all that Fool-cell comments. All the badmouthing of Toyotas direction just to see Tesla head in that direction.
https://www.whichev.net/2022/04/01/elon-musk-announces-tesla-will-switch-to-hydrogen-in-2024/
April 4th, 2022 at 8:38 am
38 BTW the article claims 3 models an H a 2 and O (H2O) that have crazy acceleration claims. The high performance mode is Hindenburg mode.. So it sounds like an April fools Day joke but would have thought that would have been kept to Twitter and not part of a Expo presentation. Either way I wonder if it will make it to todays show.
April 4th, 2022 at 9:17 am
38,39 Yep, definitely looks April Foolsy. The linked article starts out with:
“Elon Musk shocked followers on Twitter early this morning with his announcement that, after many years of scepticism, he will be switching Tesla from batteries to hydrogen power in 2024.”
There is nothing like that on Elon’s twitter, or the Tesla one, though it could have been there, and deleted.