Listen to “AD #3455 – EV Costs to Fall Below ICE; ZF Pioneers Braided EV Motor Wiring; Mercedes G-Wagon Going All-Electric” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 10:32
0:08 I’ve Been (Not) Working on The Railroad
0:56 Baidu AV Is Only $37,000
1:36 EV Costs to Fall Below ICE In 2025
2:52 Jeep Compass Gets New ICE Powertrain
4:00 Mercedes G-Wagon Going All Electric
5:18 Ford Launches E-Tourneo
6:53 Audi Q8 e-tron Uses Recycled Plastics
7:32 ZF Pioneers Braided EV Wiring
8:44 What’s with Automakers and Giant Art Displays?
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
I’VE BEEN (NOT) WORKING ON THE RAILROAD
Boy if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. The auto industry keeps getting hit by supply chain disruptions. Whether it’s Covid, or the chip shortage, or a big ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal, the industry can’t seem to get a break. Now there’s another problem looming. A railroad strike in the United States. There are 12 railroad unions in the U.S. and so far, four of them have rejected a new labor contract. The deadline for a final agreement is December 8th, and the White House is now directly involved to try and resolve the dispute. Congress has the power to mandate a settlement. But even a short strike could totally disrupt the flow of raw materials going into car factories and the shiny new cars coming out of them.
BAIDU AV IS ONLY $37,000
Everyone says that autonomous cars will cost too much, but Chinese tech giant Baidu seems to have cracked the cost code. It’s getting set to launch the sixth-gen version of its all-electric, autonomous, robotaxi next year. Called the Apollo RT6, it has Level 4 self-driving capability, it’s equipped with 38 sensors including 8 lidars and 12 cameras and it features a detachable steering wheel. Even more impressively, it’s priced at only $37,000. And that is going to make it very appealing to companies that want to offer robotaxi service.
EV COSTS TO FALL BELOW ICE IN 2025
2025 or 2026. That’s when electric cars are expected to be cheaper to manufacture than ICE cars. That was one of the predictions at the SAE’s North American International Propulsion Conference last week in Chicago, which is attended by most of the top powertrain executives in the industry. Battery prices fell 89% from 2010 to 2021, and they’re going to continue to fall. By 2030 they’re expected to drop to only $60 per kilowatt hour, which will make it much easier for automakers to come out with entry level EVs that are priced for the masses.
JEEP COMPASS GETS NEW ICE POWERTRAIN
Let’s take a short side track off all the EV news and look at the new ICE powertrain going into the Jeep Compass. The small SUV used to offer a naturally aspirated 2.4L 4-cylinder engine that produced 177 horsepower and 172 lb-ft of torque and could be mated to either a 6- or 9-speed automatic. For 2023 that’s being upgraded to a 2.0L turbo 4, which is mated to a new 8-speed automatic. The engine features a cast-aluminum block with cast-in iron piston liners, a diamond-like coating on the piston pins for reduced friction, direct injection and a twin-scroll, low inertia turbo that’s mounted directly to the cylinder head. Instead of 177 horse and 172 torque, the new turbo engine makes 200 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque. Jeep says it provides a quick 0-60 launch but it didn’t provide any stopwatch times.
MERCEDES G-WAGON GOING ALL ELECTRIC
Mercedes says the new electric G-Wagon will offer “unparalleled combination of luxury and off-road ability for electric vehicles.” Testing of the EQG is going on right now and WardsAuto has some interesting details. It is built on the same platform as the ICE version, which means it will roll down the same assembly line. That plant is operated by the supplier Magna and is the same one in Austria that also makes the Fisker Ocean. The EQG will feature a four-motor layout with varying levels of performance that will drive the wheels individually. But no, these are not hub motors. Power from each motor is fed through a mechanical 2-speed gearbox for low- and high-range 4X4 settings. Mercedes says it’s too early for performance figures but says it should be able to match the performance of the ICE vehicle, which includes an AMG version that can do 0-60 in around 4 seconds. It says it’s also too early for range figures, but the battery will have around 100 kWh of usable space. Sales of the EQG are expected to kick off in the U.S. in 2024.
FORD LAUNCHES E-TOURNEO
Speaking of EVs, Ford revealed the all-new Tourneo van in both plug-in and all-electric forms. The BEV version uses the same cell technology as the F-150 Lightning which allowed it to cram more usable energy in its pack than the bigger E-Transit. The E-Tourneo features a 74-kWh battery vs the Transit’s 68 kWh pack. But its 160 kW or 214 horsepower electric motor is smaller. The setup returns up to 370 kilometers or 229 miles of range. As for the PHEV, it features a 2.5L gas engine paired to an electric motor and a 11.8 kWh battery pack, which returns over 50 kilometers or 31 miles of range. The all-new Tourneo is built in Turkey and deliveries to European customers start in the middle of next year.
AUDI Q8 E-TRON USES RECYCLED PLASTICS
Automakers are good at recycling metal used in vehicles but not so much when it comes to plastics. So Audi is making seat belt latch covers from recycled plastics in the Q8 e-tron. The covers are manufactured from waste plastic using a chemical recycling process. Plastic components are stripped from cars, then broken down into smaller pieces and then processed into pyrolysis oil by chemical recycling. The oil is then used as a raw material to manufacture new plastics. Audi says the recycled plastics meet the same standards as virgin plastic.
ZF PIONEERS BRAIDED EV WIRING
Earlier in the show we reported on how the cost of making BEVs will drop below ICE vehicles somewhere around 2025 or 2026 as battery prices come down. But it’s not just the batteries. ZF is coming out with a new generation of 800 volt electric motors that use a new kind of wiring on the stator. Today, most EV motors use what they call hairpin wiring because the wiring looks like a bunch of hairpins connected together. In fact, there are 200 weld points that are needed with hairpin wiring. So ZF developed what it calls braided wiring, in which the hairpins are braided together just like women might braid their hair into pigtails. That takes the motor from 200 weld points down to only 24. And that reduces the overall size of the wiring by 10% which eliminates 10% of the copper wiring. So just by changing the wiring on the stator, ZF is coming out with an EV motor that is smaller and lighter, with lower cost and more power density. And all that is going to make electric cars even more affordable.
WHAT’S WITH AUTOMAKERS AND GIANT ART DISPLAYS?
What’s with automakers creating gigantic outdoor art displays for their cars? At the auto show in Detroit, Jeep captured national headlines with a giant inflatable rubber duck outside the convention center. At the LA Auto Show, MINI had an over-sized EV charger shaped like an RC controller at its display. And now Porsche is using a giant display at an art museum in Miami. It’s a regular 911 Carrera 4S that looks tiny next to a large figure wearing a racing helmet. It’s part of Porsche’s “Art of Dreams” initiative it launched last year to display interactive art installations in major cities around the globe. But it sure is amazing that in these days of social media, virtual reality and the metaverse, that displays which look like parade balloons are getting all the attention.
A programming note here. Autoline Daily will be off for the next two days as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. We hope you enjoy it too, and we’ll see you back here again on Monday.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.