Listen to “AD #3369 – VW EV Strategy Now at Risk; Renault Isolates Battery Pack with Foam; GM Ready to Answer Your EV Questions” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:19
0:08 VW Fires CEO Diess, EV Strategy Now at Risk
3:10 Cadillac Celestiq Design Details
4:08 Renault Isolates Battery Pack with Foam
4:54 Jaguar Develops Predictive Regen
6:42 Toyota Forgoes Supplier Price Cuts
7:27 Xpeng VTOL One Step Closer
7:55 GM Ready to Answer Your EV Questions
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
VW FIRES CEO DIESS, EV STRATEGY NOW AT RISK
Whenever automakers have bad news to report, like massive recalls, they like to announce it on a late Friday afternoon. That way it misses a lot of media coverage, and most people already have their minds on the weekend anyway.
That’s exactly what Volkswagen did last Friday evening when it announced that its CEO Herbert Diess was fired by a unanimous vote by the board of supervisors. But this didn’t just happen overnight. The labor representatives on the board have been angry with Diess for years, starting when he set the company’s strategy to go all-electric and warned that 30,000 workers could lose their jobs. The rest of the board was reluctant to get rid of him but two years ago it stripped him of his duties running the Volkswagen brand. Then the board started to lose confidence in him when there were problems launching the ID.3 and ID.4, and when sales of those EVs failed to reach their targets. It looks like the final straw was when Cariad, which Diess called VW’s moonshot effort to develop a software defined car, ran into problems and delays. That’s when he was informed his services were no longer needed.
Instead, the board nominated Oliver Blume, the head of Porsche, to take over as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. Blume is considered a consensus-builder, and he’s not as gung-ho on going all-electric as Diess was. In fact, Blume has called for the development of low-carbon, synthetic fuels for internal combustion engines, instead of going all electric. And all this calls into question VW’s massive bet on EVs. Under Diess, the company committed to spending €89 billion on EVs by 2026. For now, it will likely stick to that commitment. But after that, who knows? Oliver Blume is going to want to put his own stamp on the company, and that suggests he’ll come up with a different strategy that isn’t so reliant on EVs.
Meanwhile, what will become of Herbert Diess? Some are speculating that Elon Musk will hire him to run Tesla. We don’t think that’s likely to happen. Even though Herbert and Elon have a lot of respect for each other, Musk may be reluctant to hire him for the same reasons the VW board just fired him.
CADILLAC CELESTIQ DESIGN DETAILS
You may have noticed the fully revealed Cadillac Celestiq show car in Friday’s show last week. We didn’t talk about it then because those pictures came out after we had already recorded the show. So, let’s do it now. The Celestiq’s body shape has a nice flow to it with a long hood and slowly tapering roofline thanks to its hatchback rear end. Distinctive lighting, especially at the rear, breaks up the flow of the body lines and acts as an anchor point for your eyes. Designers say they were inspired by classic architecture and the artisanship and customization of past Cadillacs. As for the interior, it’s said to use the finest genuine materials and features 5 digital displays, the largest a 55-inch screen that stretches from one A-pillar to the other. More of the Celestiq’s technical specs will come later this year.
RENAULT ISOLATES BATTERY PACK WITH FOAM
Renault is incorporating a new material into the electric version of the Megane that reduces noise inside the cabin. Traditionally, its ICE vehicles use several elements under the carpet, including a heavy resin material, as soundproofing. But now it’s using a new shock-absorbing foam that is sandwiched between the battery pack and the floor, rather than under the carpet, and absorbs vibrations, which improves vehicle sound insulation by 10-dBs. It also allowed engineers to reduce the thickness of the floor. That reduced weight by 3 kilograms or over 6.5 lbs. And, in terms of overall weight and range, every gram counts in an EV.
JAGUAR DEVELOPS PREDICTIVE REGEN
Here’s an interesting stat: Formula E race cars regen around a third of the energy they need to complete a race. In order to maximize this effort, the team creates highly detailed models of every race track to know the ideal place to lift off the accelerator. Well, the software Jaguar created for this use is now being applied to its passenger vehicles. Jaguar’s plug-in hybrid vehicles now come with Predictive Energy Optimization. When a destination is entered in the navigation, this so-called driving coach takes into consideration the GPS data, the type of roads, average speed of those roads and even their gradient, to tell the driver when it’s best to lift off the accelerator. The system also prioritizes electric use in urban areas and the gas engine for motorways and highways because that’s where they’re most efficient.
TOYOTA FORGOES SUPPLIER PRICE CUTS
Suppliers are struggling right now because automakers are building so many fewer vehicles, and because their costs are skyrocketing. So to help shoulder some of the pain, Toyota won’t ask its suppliers for lower prices in the second half of the year. The automaker is also considering helping out with their energy costs as well. It’s because of things like this that Toyota gets the highest ratings from suppliers year after year as their favorite car company to work with. Speaking of suppliers, we posted a video from John explaining why Congress should be helping out suppliers instead of car dealers. He’s so mad you might see fire coming out of his ears.
XPENG VTOL ONE STEP CLOSER
Flying cars keep getting closer to reality. Chinese automaker Xpeng began trial production of its Voyager X2 VTOL. And its passenger drone business raised $500 million in its latest fundraising round with investors. Xpeng is making good progress with its VTOLS, last month it demonstrated a 0 to 100 km/h test of that same vehicle.
GM READY TO ANSWER YOUR EV QUESTIONS
Are you thinking of getting an EV but still have a lot of questions? Then General Motors has a program for you. It’s going to make EV experts available to answer your questions. Yes, with real live people, not with bots or chat rooms. GM is setting up a website, EVlive.gm.com where anyone in the United States over 18 years old, can talk to SMEs, or subject matter experts, on a wide range of topics, including range, batteries, home chargers, public chargers, the grid, costs, you name it. The experts are available to anyone, not just GM customers. It’s also open to fleet operators, GM employees and dealers. The SMEs can also provide info on all of GM’s electric vehicles, including its Brightdrop delivery vans.
But that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for joining us.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.