AD #3305 – How GM Blew Launch of Bolt EV; Russian Auto Industry Collapsing Over Sanctions; Judge Hands Musk a Setback
April 18th, 2022 at 11:48am
Listen to “AD #3305 – How GM Blew Launch of Bolt EV; Russian Auto Industry Collapsing Over Sanctions; Judge Hands Musk a Setback” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 10:34
0:08 Federal Judge Hands Musk a Setback
1:11 France In Uproar Over Tavares Pay Package
2:02 Russian Auto Industry Collapsing Over Sanctions
3:20 Volvo Invests in Fast Charging Startup
4:15 Lexus RZ 450e Debuts on Wednesday
4:44 Tesla, Kia No Longer Offer Charging Cables
5:26 Who Uses the Most Gasoline?
6:54 Shanghai OEMs Able to Open Again
7:19 How GM Blew Launch of Bolt EV
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FEDERAL JUDGE HANDS MUSK A SETBACK
“False and misleading.” That’s what a federal judge said about tweets in 2018 from Elon Musk saying he had the financing to take Tesla private. Back when it happened, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Musk and Tesla $20 million over the tweets, and ordered Musk to get his tweets approved by a lawyer before he sent them out. And some Tesla investors are suing for damages because they say it hurt the stock price. Musk now says he actually did have the money to take Tesla private. But the investors asked a judge to force Musk from talking about it because they claim he’s just trying to sway public opinion and influence potential jurors in an upcoming trial in May. This story is rich in irony. Elon is trying to take over Twitter claiming it’s all about preserving free speech, at the same time a judge says his tweets, in this case, were false and misleading.
FRANCE IN UPROAR OVER TAVARES PAY PACKAGE
Eighty million bucks. That’s how much money Stellantis is giving its CEO Carlos Tavares. And that’s just his pay package for last year. The French are up in arms about it. France is in the middle of a presidential election and the top two candidates have both come out criticizing how much money Mr. Tavares makes. Stellantis is based in Paris, which is why it’s such a big deal there. Tavares got $20 million as his base pay package. He got over $32 million in stock, and over $27 million as part of his long-term compensation. By comparison, GM’s Mary Barra made about $24 million last year and Ford’s Jim Farley made about $23 million.
RUSSIAN AUTO INDUSTRY COLLAPSING OVER SANCTIONS
Here’s a good indicator of how hard sanctions over the war in Ukraine are slamming into the Russian economy. Wards Intelligence reports that sales of new cars and trucks in Russia dropped a devastating 62% in March. Some automakers did worse than others. Honda was down 70%, Jaguar Land Rover was down 74%. And there was no sign of support for the home team. The Russian car company Avtovaz, which is owned by Renault, was down 64%. Just you wait. As bad as these numbers are, we think they’ll probably be even worse when we get the results for April.
VOLVO INVESTS IN FAST CHARGING STARTUP
Volvo is investing in a company that will help its electric vehicles charge much faster. StoreDot is an Israeli startup that uses a unique battery anode material and related software to provide a faster charge to an EV. It claims it’s capable of adding 160 kilometers or roughly 100 miles of range in just 5 minutes. The batteries are lithium-ion that use silicon-dominant anode technology and come in either pouch or 4680 cylindrical cell designs. Daimler, Samsung and VinFast are other investors in StoreDot and it hopes to be in mass production by 2024. After that it plans to bring out semi- and full-solid state batteries that will provide 100 miles of range in 3 minutes by 2028 and 100 miles in 2 minutes by 2032.
LEXUS RZ 450e DEBUTS ON WEDNESDAY
The Toyota bZ4X already made its debut and so did Subaru’s version, the Solterra. And they’re about to be joined by another member of the family. Lexus will pull the wraps off the RZ 450e on a special website this Wednesday, April 20th. Mechanically and electrically speaking, we think it’s going to be exactly like the other two. But we’ll tune in to watch the launch and see if there’s any significant differences.
TESLA, KIA NO LONGER OFFER CHARGING CABLES
Bad news for new Tesla and Kia customers. Tesla is no longer providing charging equipment when you buy one of their cars. Elon Musk said on Twitter that its stats show the usage of the 120-volt chargers is “super low, so seemed wasteful.” The good news is Tesla does sell mobile connectors and is lowering the price from $275 to $200 for 120-volt ones. But Tesla isn’t alone, Kia isn’t providing any charging equipment for the new EV6. And to us, this is kind of akin to automakers getting rid of spare tires.
WHO USES THE MOST GASOLINE?
The state of Washington is kicking off an interesting study. It wants to learn about gasoline super-users, or people who buy at least 1,000 gallons of gas and drive more than 30,000 miles a year. Super-users only make up 10% of light-duty vehicle drivers in the U.S. but they use 32% of all gasoline. Washington state wants to find out who these people are, where they live, what they drive and what it would take to get them to switch from gas to electric and the results will be given to the Governor and state government at the beginning of next year. The hope would be not to compel super-users to buy an EV. Rather provide vehicles and infrastructure that fit their needs and maybe even offer bigger EV incentives based on how much gasoline a person uses.
SHANGHAI OEMs ABLE TO OPEN AGAIN
There’s good and bad news for automakers in China. Shanghai is starting to ease COVID lockdowns, which means companies like Tesla and Volkswagen, can begin to resume production, which has been shut down for nearly three weeks. But the bad news is, workers will have to live on site for the time being to keep the plant open, while the rest of the city remains lockdowned.
HOW GM BLEW LAUNCH OF BOLT EV
Did you know the Chevrolet Bolt EV is one of the most efficient electric cars on the market? The EPA rates it at 28 kilowatt hours per 100 miles. Only the Tesla Model 3 and Y and the Lucid Air do better than that. So GM got a lot of things right with the car. But it also got things wrong. Mark Reuss, the president of GM, was our guest on Autoline After Hours, and he spoke very openly of how GM blew it when it came to marketing the car. Take a look.
“I’d also say the way we went to market with the Bolt was a company that did not believe that battery electric were going to become mainstream. And I say that very transparently and very clearly because we did not get behind the car from a marketing and retail standpoint. We had a lot of people who didn’t believe in it–sort of a self-fulfilling thing. And that’s not the way we should have done that. And so lessons learned on that piece of it as well. Very little advertising. Very little awareness of what the car could do and what it was, other than in the EV media community. And, you know, to be honest the market was very different when we introduced the car, too, from the acceptability and the readiness to buy an EV. That was not what it is today. Having said that, the Bolt EV community is one of the most loyal, passionate communities that we have in Chevrolet. It’s almost Corvette-like in terms of the passion for the car. And that’s something that we want to have happen across all our products that are EVs. And I think it can. I go to the site a lot, the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV website, the owner’s site. And they have pictures of the Bolt being transported from Orion (the assembly plant) to the dealerships. And then they go to the dealerships and they want to buy the new car. And this happened (the battery recall and production stop) just as we were launching the mid-cycle enhancement of the Bolt, and the Bolt EUV with Supercruise. And so, unfortunate timing. It’s the way it is. We did the right things. Tried to do it as fast as we can, with care and do it once and do it right, and then move on and re-launch the car, which is what we’re doing.”
This show probably has the most comprehensive information about GM’s EV strategy you’re going to find anywhere. The soundbite we just showed you is just a fraction of what Mark Reuss talked about. And you can watch the entire show at our website or on our YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
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Comments (25)
April 18th, 2022 at 12:17 pm
If I bought an EV, I’d expect it to come with what you need to charge it using both 120v and 240v home outlets. It’s almost a given, that anyone buying an EV is going to have provisions for charging at home, and will want to do so.
April 18th, 2022 at 12:17 pm
Mr. Reuss, “Corvette-like”? Friends of ours sought help from MI A.G. to have GM purchase back.
Partly, the dealer packing the sell-price, partly under-performing range-wise. (Tesla replacement ordered.)
Like me, both of them grew up Detroit “automotive” families.
We have to get right.
April 18th, 2022 at 12:56 pm
False and misleading is almost everything that comes out of Musk’s mouth…
April 18th, 2022 at 1:07 pm
GM and also the dealers weren’t excited about the Bolt. My Houston Chevy dealer steered me away from the bolt saying – “you don’t want that. It’s electric, like a microwave”. I left the dealer at that moment
April 18th, 2022 at 1:08 pm
Musk taking control of Twitter is clearly an attempt to fully control his message and to silence the fact checkers.
April 18th, 2022 at 1:23 pm
We are enjoying our Bolt with the new battery. No question GM dropped the ball on the Bolt, not just the launch but also the lack of effort at updating.
It sounds bad not to have a 120v charger included but they’re about a useful as teats on a bull. Even at 12 amps & 120 volts, our Bolt would take 2 days to charge from 0% to 100%. We don’t carry ours anymore. Easier to find a public charger than sit in one spot for days.
April 18th, 2022 at 2:08 pm
5) People who think they will find “facts” on Twitter are the problem. I am not sure Musk can ever fix that problem.
April 18th, 2022 at 2:14 pm
2 I know someone with a Bolt who really liked it, at least before the firestorm. I have seen him since then, so I don’t know his thoughts on what happened. I suspect we will know in a few months if the new batteries do, in fact, fix the problem. I assume the the similar Hyundai and Kias with the same batteries were recalled, and while there are few of them in the US, there are a lot of them other places in the world. Over 100,000 Kona electrics have been sold.
April 18th, 2022 at 2:27 pm
6 If I had an EV and 120v charging, it would work for essentially all of my driving, except for highway trips. 12 hours of charging a day, even at a low estimate of 3 miles/hour, would give 36 miles of charge a day. That’s 13,140 miles/year, more than I generally drive any one vehicle in a year. Yeah, plugging it in overnight would be less convenient than getting gas once every 450-500 miles.
April 18th, 2022 at 3:06 pm
If you remember, as referring to what Mark Reuss said about enthusiasm with Bolt owners, this same enthusiasm was very similar to what Volt owners represented (most owners really, really liked the vehicle). As Mark said, or at least alluded; had GM supported the launch and sales of the Bolt, it could have been a much better experience for owners. GM dropped the ball with Volt support as well. Third time, the charm???????? Currently there is a push for Hummer and Lyriq though even now the pre-order patrons are kind of in limbo, and hard data about when they might get their car is nebulous at best. Mark Reuss, you need to get on this launch for Lyriq, Hummer and the upcoming Silverado EV; even when the news may not be as positive as you’d like to convey, explain (informing) your buyers goes a long way to at least them knowing what’s going on.
April 18th, 2022 at 3:09 pm
1 When you install a home charger it comes with a cord much like the public charging stations. So I could see how the cord provided would only be used for plugging into 120V outlet. In most cases never used. I think I would want that extra sense of security too tho.
3,5 Perhaps Elon owning Twitter would allow false stories to be posted. Not much different than any other media site. Kinda like free speech so do your research.
Mark Reuss only said, what everyone already knew. To his point I wouldn’t say EVs are mainstream even still. However why build an EV if your not even going to attempt to sell it? Very obvious it was a half-hearted attempt on GMs part.
I truly think most companies are putting way to much stock into being first on the EV front. Any company could sit back and wait for EVs to truly come into their own, like Toyota or Honda has done. They are dabbling but waiting until you can release a truly well developed from the ground up EV I don’t think puts you at a disadvantage. Let everyone else throw tons of cash at their EV lineup and then swoop in later and release something that is truly remarkable. But the stock holders want to appear on the leading edge of technology so they all dive in producing ok EVs that are still evolving rapidly. Creates a lot of waste but I guess when you can pay a CEO 80 Million there is lots of cash to go around.
April 18th, 2022 at 3:25 pm
Volvo will charge enough electric energy to store 100 miles of range in 5 minutes. That stinks. My 2021 Cadillac CT4-V in 5 minutes at the pump will store 280 miles of range, using gasoline. In less than 10 minutes (somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes), my car will have stored 560 miles of range. [32.0 mpg, 17.5 gallon tank). This was a combination of highway and some city driving from start to end, to the same starting location (so elevation is factored out). Measurement was over 1,771 miles.
April 18th, 2022 at 3:29 pm
The Chevy dealer where I bought my Corvette seemed to have little interest in selling either Volt or Bolt. In a few weeks, I’ll visit the Cadillac/Buick/GMC dealer in the same town to find out what they are saying about Lyriq. Hummer is such a niche product, that it will probably sell itself to the few people who would want to pay $110K+ for something like that, but Lyric is almost “mainstream,” with a base price similar to Tesla Model Y and top trim Mach-E.
April 18th, 2022 at 4:18 pm
When the Bolt launched it was the only way an average person could go electric. And Mark Reuss is right–it was almost as though the produced the car and then hid it out of sight. Hopefully, GM won’t do what it did to Saturn–another vehicle that was beloved by its owners and starved by GM.
April 18th, 2022 at 5:00 pm
What seemed to hurt and evenytually kill the Volt, was all the focus on whether it was a true EV, with a ICE generator to recharge the batteries, or if it was in fact a hybrid. GM insisted it was an EV, which in most situations, as I understand, it was. Yet, the way the mechanicals worked, at times, in certain (extreme) circumstance, it would in operate like a hybrid! This no way kept it from being a great car and it has a strong fan base to boot, but all of this backlash seemed to hurt the car’s reputation and street cred. Even though it did get a 2nd generation, GM didn’t give it much support. It seemed as if all that negative press and the lack of success for it’s stable mate, the Cadillac ELR, put it on the chopping block. It is kind of like the Pontica Fiero. Right after GM/Pontica fixed the styling and put a decent engine in it, they put it out to pasture! IMHO, GM should do a BEV CUV/Crossover styled after the Camaro or Corvette and call it the Volt. This way they get to capitalize on the brands Halo or muscle cars, without enraging those two fan bases. The Volt still has a number of loyal fans and their is a lot of equity in its name. This way, too, GM can make the vehicle live up to what they aways said was, a true EV!
April 18th, 2022 at 5:44 pm
The credibility of ‘funding secured’ is an issue for the trial. It sounds more like a soft ‘gag’ order to not taint a jury pool. Regardless, the judge may have been a little premature.
As for GM, need to see a Bolt-class car demonstrating the low-end Ultium system. Show vehicles with the upper and lower Ultium limits and we can then understand if GM truly has EV engineering.
April 18th, 2022 at 6:01 pm
14 I probably would have bought a second generation Volt, if I’d had home charging at my condo. It would work for most of my driving on electric power, and since it had mechanical connection from the ICE to the wheels at highway speed, it would get decent mpg on the highway. I don’t think many people even knew how it worked, and the Volt was horribly politicized early on.
April 18th, 2022 at 6:13 pm
14 The ELR was grossly over priced at $66K in 2016, after they cut the price substantially. It was $76K in 2014. No wonder it didn’t sell, even though it looked pretty good.
Fiero was pretty close to what it should be when they dropped it, but it still didn’t have power steering, expected in about everything at that time, except the tiniest econoboxes like Geo Metro/Chevy Sprint.
April 18th, 2022 at 7:30 pm
Kit, my 2018 CT6 2.0E plug-in sees 45 miles of EV range in 12 hours. That is with 3.4 kw per mile where a more efficient FWD Bolt can see 5 kw/mile. I don’t see a reason why one couldn’t add 100 miles of EV range plugged into 120v 12-amp wall outlet or 1,350 watts like high output microwave for any EV.
April 19th, 2022 at 7:57 am
17 Actually the Fiero did get power steering in 1988. It was an electrically assisted unit. Where I was working at the time Pontiac had sent us a few development cars which had a turbo 4cyl with the new suspension and it was a great car. The problem was it out performed the Corvette and GM didn’t want that. The engine fires provided enough bad publicity that they just killed he car rather than try and overcome the bad press.
April 19th, 2022 at 8:02 am
GM has historically gotten involved in electrification yet not supported it. Seems quite foolish to build something and not even promote it. The Volt got so many people ramped up and the plant was visited by the president no less than three times during the Volt launch yet I don’t think I ever saw one commercial for the car. The dealerships were not interested in selling them the company wasn’t interested in promoting them. It really just seemed to be an exercise in sufficing the EPA and green energy. Kinda like maybe the oil industry told them to go ahead an build it but let it fail.
April 19th, 2022 at 8:29 am
18 Did production Fieros ever have power steering? I knew they developed a system using an electric pump with a conventional hydraulic PS unit, but I thought it was for the ’89 model year, which didn’t happen. Maybe I’m wrong, though, and some ’88s got it.
I liked the idea of the Volt, which actually is a short range EV, unlike most plug-in hybrids which have only partial power from the electric motor(s). Since the Volt mechanically connects the ICE to the wheels at highway speed, it would get decent mpg on gas when the battery was depleted, much better than the i3 REx which is purely series operation.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=40924&id=43746
April 19th, 2022 at 10:49 am
22) The fiero planned to have EPS and it was even on the early order sheets. Actual production Fieros were never fitted with EPS though as GM cancelled the option just before the 1988 model year release. A few of the MY88 pilot Fieros that had EPS installed escaped though and they come up for sale from time to time. They are extremely rare and single digit numbers. Of course there are no service parts for the Fiero EPS so if it ever failed, you are simply out of luck.
The people that own Fieros however adapt EPS from Toyota as it is pretty easy to do. I left my Fiero alone as I don’t find turning the wheel at low speed difficult. I really like the feed back the manual rack gives at higher speeds though and I don’t ever want to change that. I think most Fiero owners get into trouble when they use heavy aftermarket wheels and tires, specifically wheels that are larger than stock. I have 15″ wheels on my Fiero but I chose a wheel and tire combination that is actually lighter than the stock set up. Turning, even at low speed, is a breeze with the manual rack.
April 19th, 2022 at 10:59 am
The bottom line is GM never knew how to market it’s product and probably never will.
April 19th, 2022 at 11:57 am
We have multiple cars, with a Bolt being one of them. We also like our local Chevy dealer. Because of the supply issues, and the dealership down on inventory, I did offer to sell the car back to them. They couldn’t buy it or even sell their new Bolts until the batteries were replaced. That was actually fine with me. I did ask my salesman what Bolt owners thought of their cars. He said they all love them, and none, other than me, offered to sell back to the dealer. I get it. Just not waiting in lines at the gas station makes it a good deal for me. The dealership has not replaced my batteries yet, but that’s fine with me. The stock batteries are doing fine. I’m good with keeping the car, as it meets all my needs, and range for local driving is not an issue.