Listen to “AD #3089 – New Bill Would Boost EV Incentives; Wall Street Loves Ford's Growth Plan; Lucid Shares UX Details” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:54
0:07 New Bill Would Boost EV Incentives
1:03 Wall Street Loves Ford’s Growth Plan
3:59 GM & Lockheed Martin Team on Lunar Rovers
4:39 Lucid Shares UX Details
7:02 China Sets Battery Swapping Standards
8:05 BMW Kicks Off e-Drive Production
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NEW BILL WOULD BOOST EV INCENTIVES
A Senate panel is advancing a bill from Democrats that includes a boost to EV incentives and eliminates tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry. The proposal would increase EV tax credits to as much as $12,500 for vehicles assembled in the U.S. by union workers. And it would only apply to EVs that are $80,000 or less. The credit would start to phase out once half of all new vehicles sold are EVs or fuel cells. The bill also boosts incentives for electric commercial vehicles and ends $24.5 billion in tax breaks to oil, gas and coal companies. But the bill faces opposition from Senate Republicans and Bloomberg reports the legislation likely won’t face a vote in the full Senate, but portions could be implemented in an economic package Democrats will vote on later this year.
WALL STREET LOVES FORD’S GROWTH PLAN
Ford is making headlines with the new growth plan, what it calls Ford +, that it just laid out. What seems to be grabbing most people’s attention is its boost in spending on electrification. Ford will invest $30 billion into EVs by 2030, which is a third more than what was previously announced. We wouldn’t be surprised if the popularity of the all-electric F-150 helped influence the decision. It says it now has more than 70,000 reservations for the Lightning. It will also electrify nearly every model in its lineup and anticipates 40% of its global volume to be all-electric by 2030. In order to power all of those EVs, Ford is bringing more battery development under its wings. It plans to have a range of EV batteries that it will call IonBoost. They’ll consist of lithium ion, lithium iron phosphate for commercial applications and long-range, low-cost solid state batteries that it’s developing with Solid Power. Ford will also build battery cells at two plants in the U.S. from its joint venture with SK Innovation, which is called BlueOvalSK, to use in future vehicles. Another big aspect of Ford’s plan is how it interacts with customers. It wants to make everything easier from getting a vehicle serviced to reducing the time it takes to purchase a vehicle or extend a lease. Huge focus is being put on its commercial customers with the launch of Ford Pro, a one-stop-shop for repair, charging and data services. It’s all about keeping vehicles on the road, reducing complexity for customers and ultimately making everybody a little bit of money. And Wall Street loved what Ford was saying. It’s stock jumped 8.5% yesterday to almost $14.00 a share, which is more than double what it was in October of last year when new CEO Jim Farley took over.
GM & LOCKHEED MARTIN TEAM ON LUNAR ROVERS
General Motors and Lockheed Martin are teaming up to develop lunar rovers. It’s part of NASA’s Artemis project that will send astronauts to the surface of the Moon to explore and conduct science experiments. While the companies didn’t provide specifics, the press release indicates the rover will use GM’s battery-electric and autonomous vehicle technology. This isn’t the first time GM developed lunar vehicles for NASA. It helped develop the rovers used in the Apollo 15 through 17 missions but unlike those vehicles, which were only able to travel about 5 miles, the next-gen ones will have a longer range.
LUCID REVEALS UX DETAILS
Lucid Motors revealed more information about the User Experience or UX system that’s going into the Air sedan. It said it wanted to design a system that keeps all the good stuff of old systems but improve upon what wasn’t good. And Lucid wants to grab your attention the moment your butt hits the seat. Facial recognition identifies the user and automatically adjust settings just for them. At its heart of its UX system is a large 34 inch display panel that’s aided by a smaller, lower and centrally located screen. Both panels were designed so front passengers don’t have to reach far. The upper screen has important information the driver needs, but if the user needs more detail they can slide things from the upper to the lower screen, which also retracts for additional storage. Lucid is really playing up the audio system as well. Not only can it adjust sound from front to back and side to side, but also up and down. That should make music sound great, but it can also provide directional audio cues, so the driver has a better idea of where an issue might be coming from. Lastly, Lucid will have some level of autonomy with its Dream Drive system, which uses a suite of 32 sensors. But when we’ll actually see a Lucid Air on the road is still unclear. CEO Peter Rawlinson said “Covid has wreaked havoc with our process,” which, along with the chip shortage, is causing supply chain disruptions and delays. Lucid is even looking at alternative semiconductor chips to see if they’ll work in its existing systems.
CHINA SETS BATTERY SWAPPING STANDARDS
As we’ve reported, China wants more EV battery swapping stations and the national, as well as local and provincial governments, are subsidizing their construction. But their deployment was being held back by a lack of uniformity in standards. That’s why the government just approved a national standard for battery swapping requirements that goes into effect on November 1st. The standard, which was drafted by Chinese EV makers including NIO, Geely, and Beijing Electric Vehicle, sets safety standards, test methods and inspection rules. Models with snap-on batteries must support at least 5,000 swaps while vehicles with bolt-on batteries need to support at least 1,500 swaps. China is pushing battery swapping stations because many citizens live in apartments and don’t have a place to charge a vehicle. That’s why some buyers are reluctant to buy an EV but China hopes the swapping stations will alleviate that problem.
BMW KICKS OFF E-DRIVE PRODUCTION
BMW kicked off e-Drive production at its plant Dingolfing, Germany for the upcoming iX and i4 electric vehicles. BMW’s e-Drive system combines the electric motor, power electronics and transmission in a single housing and is also paired with a high-voltage battery. Each vehicle is equipped with up to two units. BMW is investing 500 million euros between 2020 and 2022 to expand production at the Dingolfing facility and starting next year it will build e-Drives for half a million EVs. And the battery modules were developed in a way that allows different module variants to be produced on the same production line. The iX goes into production soon at the Dingolfing plant and the i4 will be built at the company’s plant in Munich this fall.
And hey be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon. Our special guest is Mark Allen, the head of Jeep design. Some of the topics we’ll dive into include, what effect electrification is having on Jeep design? And what are the design challenges of a long wheelbase Grand Cherokee? Join John and Gary at 3PM eastern time, to learn where Jeep is going with its future designs.
But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.