AD #2894 – Bentley Reveals the Ultimate Bentayga; CATL Battery Breakthrough; Is This GM’s 1st OTA Update?

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

TESLA ANNOUNCES DIVIDEND FOR SHAREHOLDERS
Tesla announced a very nice dividend for shareholders. They’re all going to get four additional shares of Tesla stock for every share they now hold. With shares trading over $1,300 apiece, Tesla says it wants to make the stock more affordable for employees and investors. The stock split could drive the price down to well under $400 a share. Maybe we should have all seen this coming. Back in late April, Elon Musk tweeted out that he thought Tesla’s shares were too high.   The new shares start trading on August 31st. All those shares also allow Tesla to raise more money through the stock market and that may well be the real reason behind this move.

CATL BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH
CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric cars, says it’s come up with a significant breakthrough. The Chinese company says it can integrate battery cells into the chassis of a vehicle, instead of packaging them into boxes or modules. That means more cells can be packaged into a vehicle, which would extend the range up to 500 miles or 800 kilometers, according to CATL’s chairman. He also said this technology will be in use before 2030. CATL supplies batteries to Tesla, Volkswagen and Mercedes, and just signed an agreement to supply Honda. 

U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE BUYS OEM FINANCE ARM BONDS
Maybe the U.S. government is not going to help the auto industry during the Covid pandemic, but the Federal Reserve is sure helping out. Bloomberg reports the Fed bought another $224 million worth of bonds from the U.S. finance arms of Daimler, Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford. The Fed is allowed to buy bonds from companies that mostly employ Americans. Automakers use their finance subsidiaries to lend money to dealers so they can buy cars from the factories. And then they lend money to consumers so they can buy those cars from dealers. In the biz, those captive finance arms are referred to as fincos, and they represent a great source of profits for the automakers who have them.

IS THIS GM’S FIRST OTA UPDATE?
GM is quickly learning the benefits of its new electronic architecture. Chevrolet is already recalling 2020 Corvettes for an issue with its front trunk. Turns out engineers forgot to program the release button to work when the car enters a low power mode after it’s shut off, which takes about 10 minutes. The good news is, it’s a relatively simple software fix. The better news is that the Corvette uses GM’s new electronic architecture and the software fix can be done via an over-the-air update. Obviously, Tesla owners have been benefiting from such fixes and updates for a long time, but we think this is probably the very first OTA update to fix a problem that GM has ever done and maybe that any automaker not named Tesla has done. 

POLESTAR DETAILS SALES PROCESS IN NORTH AMERICA
Polestar, the 50-50 joint venture between Volvo and Geely, is already selling electric cars in Europe and now we’re getting details of how it will sell them in North America. In a Zoom call with reporters yesterday, Thomas Ingenlath, the CEO of Polestar, said only existing Volvo dealers will get a Polestar franchise, but not every Volvo dealer will get one. Those that do get one have to provide separate showrooms and be able to conduct the entire selling process online, including home delivery. The EV startup is going to launch in cities where EVs sell relatively well and hopes to expand over time. Ingenlath is an interesting choice for CEO. His background is in design at the Volkswagen Group where he worked at Audi and Skoda. Maybe they chose him because he keeps saying that Polestar will differentiate itself from others by designing a better customer experience. And who better to design that than a designer? 

SKODA SHARES ENYAQ iV SKETCHES
Skoda is debuting its all-new electric utility vehicle, called the ENYAQ iV next month and so it released a couple of design sketches. Since Skoda is part of the VW Group, the ENYAQ iV will ride on VW’s MEB platform and is a cousin to the ID.4. But it looks like the ENYAQ iV will have a more aggressive design than the ID.4. While the overall shape is the same, hard angles in the front fascia and lighting give it that meaner look. 

VW ID.3 USES VITESCO DRIVE CONTROL UNIT
Last week, we reported that Ford is sourcing the drive unit for the Mustang Mach-E from BorgWarner. But it’s not the only OEM turning to suppliers for EV drive units. The Volkswagen ID.3 is equipped with a drive control unit from Vitesco Technologies, the former powertrain division of Continental. The device activates the electric motor, controls commands from the accelerator pedal, helps with charging and energy management as well as manages the high-voltage electrical system. In addition to that, it’s an interface between the other control units in the vehicle and its software can be updated at any time. Volkswagen will use the component in future electric vehicles, across all brands that use the MEB platform.

JEEP NAMES TOP CANINE FINALISTS
Last month, Jeep launched a contest asking owners to send in pictures of their dogs hanging out in or on their Jeeps, to become the face of the brand. The company received thousands of entries and now its narrowed that down to eight finalists. You can go to JeepTopCanine.com to vote for your favorite pup. The winner will be announced on August 26th, which is National Dog Day in the U.S. and will be featured on Jeep’s social media channels for the next year.

HYUNDAI & APTIV NAME JV “MOTIONAL”
Nearly a year ago, Hyundai and Aptiv, the technology company spun-off from Delphi, formed an autonomous driving joint venture. And the companies just announced the $4 billion JV will be known by a new name, Motional, which is a combination of the words Motion and Emotional. Motional is based in Boston but it also just opened an office and testing site in Seoul, South Korea. It will focus on selling its software to autonomous taxi fleets because it says that’s where the biggest opportunity is.

BENTLEY INTRODUCES THE ULTIMATE BENTAYGA
Bentley made some mild changes to the Bentayga. Dark-tinted headlights, body-color side skirts and unique front and rear bumpers are just a few. And those same updates are made to the Bentayga’s sportier version, called the Speed, which also features unique radiator and bumper grilles, 22-inch wheels, elongated tailgate spoiler, Speed badging and oval exhaust tips that signifies it has a W12 powertrain. That setup delivers over 625 horsepower from a 6.0L twin-turbo 12-cylinder engine and helps the Bentayga hit 100 km/h in under 4-seconds. The interior of the Bentayga Speed also matches that sporting character with unique materials, material designs and stitching. Bentley says the Bentayga family will be complete when it soon launches the Bentayga Hybrid.

BENTLEY DEVELOPING E-AXLE
But it’s going to be a while before we see a fully electric Bentley. The company says it will have a hybrid option for all its models by 2023, which still seems like a long time, but it won’t be until 2026 until we see a Bentley EV. It’s currently working on a fully integrated e-axle with a number of companies that combines the electric motor, power electronics and transmission into one unit. They claim it is free from rare earth magnets and copper windings and performance exceeded the latest permanent magnet motors. It sounds like one of the big challenges for Bentley is integrating the e-axle into vehicle platforms and assembly process.

In the good old days, aftermarket companies could make almost any kind of alteration to a car and never have to worry about the impact on emissions or safety. Well, the good old days are gone forever. Today, any aftermarket company that ignores those regulations faces fines and lawsuits. That’s why we’ll be looking at the proper way to adjust ADAS sensors after a vehicle has been modified. We’ve got several experts from SEMA who will fill us in on the details. Todd Lassa from Motor Trend will also be joining us. That’s tomorrow on Autoline After Hours. 

But that brings us to the end of today’s show, thank you for watching.