AD #2506 – Nissan’s Jose Munoz Takes Leave of Absence, Tesla Breaks Ground in China, Infiniti Teases New Electric SUV

On today’s show…Tesla breaks ground for a new assembly plant in China…battery experts say that solid state batteries are a long way off…and here are wheelchairs that look like they could be fun. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

TESLA BREAKS GROUND IN CHINA
Tesla just broke ground on a new assembly plant in Shanghai. It’s also a Gigafactory which will make batteries. It will have the capacity to make 500,000 vehicles a year, starting with the Model 3 and later the Model Y SUV. It’s the first wholly foreign owned plant in China. Tesla plans to start building Model 3s at the new plant by the end of this year, which means that plant will be going up in record time.

AUTOPILOT RACKS UP A BILLION MILES DRIVEN
In other Tesla news, its Autopilot system has racked up over a billion miles driven, according to researchers at MIT. They estimate that the average miles driven with Autopilot engaged on a daily basis is about 4.5 miles or about 14% of the total miles driven by the car in a day. The researchers say that by January 1st, 2020, Autopilot will hit 2.3 billion miles driven.

EV MILEAGE BASED FEE PROPOSED
California, like most states, funds its road repairs with taxes on diesel and gasoline. But since electric vehicles don’t use fuel, the state is going to start charging EV owners an annual registration fee of $100. But a new report from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, says that the fee won’t adequately fund road repairs. It suggests a per-mile charge instead, which it says is a relatively low cost and sustainable solution.

FORD REVEALS POLICE VERSION OF THE EXPLORER
Ford is giving us our first public look at the new Explorer, but only in Police trim, for now. In terms of styling, the front end drops the boxy grille for a hexagonal one, which flows into a sleeker set of headlight assemblies. From what we can see, the side profile looks very similar. The standard 3.7L V6 in the Police Interceptor Utility has been switched out in favor of a hybrid powertrain. Not only is its fuel economy 41% better, but it’s also much quicker in acceleration tests. The passenger version of the new Explorer will be revealed later this week.

INFINITI TEASES NEW ELECTRIC SUV
Speaking of reveals, Infiniti will have a new electric SUV concept making its debut in Detroit next week. The QX Inspiration is said to represent INFINITI’s plans for high-performance electrified vehicles and hint at future design.

And we’ll be back with more right after this.

The CES show in Las Vegas started out as a consumer electronics show, but it has kind of morphed into an auto show. And Autoline will be there this week covering the top stories from automakers and suppliers. Look for our reports starting later this week, and if you’re at CES look for us at the ZF booth, number 8500.

NISSAN’S JOSE MUNOZ TAKES LEAVE OF ABSENCE
The battle between Nissan and its former CEO Carlos Ghosn just ramped up. Now Jose Munoz, one of Carlos Ghosn’s top lieutenants, is taking a leave of absence from Nissan. So he will not be at CES in Las Vegas to unveil the new Nissan Leaf. It was supposed to debut at the LA auto show in November, but when Ghosn was arrested Nissan delayed the unveil until CES. Here’s our Autoline Insight. Nissan is likely going to purge any executive, especially non-Japanese, who were part of Ghosn’s inner circle. It’s probably a good time for them to dust off their resumes and contact a head-hunting firm.

SOLID STATE BATTERIES A LONG WAY OFF
Are solid state batteries going to be the game changer for electric cars? Maybe. But Bloomberg reports they’re many years away. Automakers and others believe solid-state batteries, which do not use a liquid electrolyte, are the only solution to long distance driving with short charging times. But they probably will not go into large scale production until after 2030. In fact, Mercedes-Benz just locked in a contract for lithium batteries until 2030 because it does not see solid state batteries appearing before then.

ITALDESIGN CREATES AUTONOMOUS WHEELCHAIR
Almost all of the mobility solutions we see are for able bodied people, but Italdesign is working on services for people in wheelchairs. Its solution, called Moby, would allow someone to ride their wheelchair right into a mobility pod, which then closes a couple of gates to help keep the rider in place. The user can drive the pod themselves or let it take over in autonomous mode. Sensors integrated into the pod are used to determine if there’s enough space for it to get around obstacles. Moby is one of the five finalists in Toyota’s Mobility Unlimited Challenge.

Did you see Autoline After Hours last week? Sandy Munro took us on a deep dive into the Tesla Model 3 and coming up next, he compares it to the BMW i3 and Chevrolet Bolt.

MUNRO COMPARES MODEL 3 TO BOLT AND i3
On last week’s Autoline After Hours we were joined by Sandy Munro to talk about his company’s teardown of the Tesla Model 3. His team has also done a deep dive into the Chevy Bolt and BMW i3 and in the following clip he shares the strengths of each electric vehicle from an engineering standpoint.

(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

You can watch that entire discussion right now on our website, Autoline.tv, or on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.