AD #2974 – Snakes Slow Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory; Quantumscape Claims Battery Breakthrough; New Genesis GV70 Crossover

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

HIBERNATING SNAKES SLOW TESLA’S BERLIN GIGAFACTORY CONSTRUCTION
And we kick off today’s show in Germany, where hibernating snakes are slowing construction of Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory. A German court is forcing the EV maker to suspend clearing a forest at the site because environmentalists say cutting down more trees could harm hibernating snakes. The activists are also concerned that the construction is putting a type of lizard in danger as well. Tesla is aiming to have the plant up and running by the beginning of July next year, but we’ll have to wait and see if this issue leads to any delays.

QUANTUMSCAPE CLAIMS SOLID STATE BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH
Quantumscape, which is backed by Volkswagen and Bill Gates, claims it solved all the problems facing solid state batteries for electric cars. Quantumscape says its batteries will increase the range of EVs by 80% compared to today’s lithium batteries. They can be recharged to 80% in 15 minutes. They will last for hundreds of thousands of miles and can operate at 30-below Celcius. It all sounds fantastic, but here’s a dose of reality. The tests were only conducted on a single row of cells and they were done in a lab. We still don’t know if they can be mass produced and we need to see how they actually perform on the road. Even so, the stock market reacted well to the news. Quantumscape stock was up more than 3% yesterday.

GM TO IMPROVE BATTERY DENSITY AND COST
But Quantumscape is not the only company improving batteries. GM says that by removing materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium, which can cause manufacturing and cost constraints, it will be able to significantly improve energy density and cost. Specifically, GM says its packs will have double the energy density of today’s packs and will cost 60% less. And it expects this to happen by the middle of the decade. GM says it doesn’t want to have to buy credits anymore and is pushing to build a million EVs a year by 2025. Sustainability efforts, like reducing water use and adding wind and solar fields, will also help reach that goal. It says these practices are already saving it $100 million a year in operating costs.

FORD F-150 GETS TREMOR PACKAGE
As people continue to flock to the great outdoors during the pandemic, Ford is yet again expanding its range of off-road trucks. Like the Super Duty and Ranger, the F-150 will soon be available as a Tremor model. It comes in SuperCrew configuration with a 5.5-foot box, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, 10-speed automatic transmission and standard 4-wheel drive. The springs, both front and rear have been retuned, the front hubs and upper control arms have been revised, there’s monotube shocks at the front, twin tube at the rear, 33-inch tires and locking front and rear differentials. Optional limited slip differentials or a torque-on-demand transfer case will be available in higher trims. You’ll also notice a few unique styling elements, like the grille design, Temor badging and orange accents both inside and out. The new F-150 Tremor will start hitting dealer lots next summer.

TOYOTA EXPECTS ITS FUEL CELL BUSINESS TO EXPAND
Toyota expects its fuel cell business to significantly expand in the coming years. So much so that it established the new Fuel Cell Business Group in Europe to support and stimulate hydrogen growth in the region. That will include making its fuel cell technology available to commercial partners, which is one of the reasons it “dramatically increased our production capacity.” Toyota says “in the short term… we expect our global sales of fuel cell systems to increase by a factor of 10.” One such growth opportunity is a new test program Toyota is operating in Japan with truck partner Hino and a few other local retailers. Next year the stores will test out light-duty fuel cell vehicles to transfer goods between multiple distribution centers and stores. If the trials go well, they’ll look for ways to improve and will continue into 2022 and beyond.

GENESIS REVEALS MORE OF GV70 CROSSOVER
After a couple of months of teases, Genesis officially unveiled its mid-size GV70 crossover. Three engines are available, a 2.5L gasoline turbo that averages 25MPG, a 3.5L gasoline turbo that gets 20MPG and a 2.2L diesel that gets 32MPG. The GV70 is available in two-wheel and all-wheel-drive. A Sport package is also available for customers that want a sportier look both inside and out. Some of its technology highlights include Launch Control, for improved acceleration, a Fingerprint Identification System that’s integrated with the in-car payment service, a rear-occupant alert that uses radar sensors and it’s available with a number of advanced driver assistance systems. The specifications and features are based on Korean versions, so some of them will vary by market.

HONDA OFFERING NON-CERTIFIED USED VEHICLES ON WEBSITE
As you know, there’s a shortage of new and used car inventory in the market. So how can an automaker instantly give customers more choices when looking for a new vehicle online? Honda came up with a way. It’is adding non-certified used vehicles to its HondaCertified.com website. Honda claims it’s the first mass-market brand to offer non-certified used vehicles through its own website.

TOYOTA SHOWS DEDICATED EV PLATFORM
Toyota has been dragging its heels when it comes to battery electric vehicles. It thinks that hybrids and fuel cells are a better solution. But any automaker that doesn’t have EVs in its lineup in Europe and China is going to instantly lose sales. So Toyota is bowing to market realities and is going to come out with electric SUVs for both the Toyota and Lexus brands. They’re based on the e-TNGA platform, which is a modular design that will provide various model variants. Toyota says the first EV to come off this platform is production ready and it will release more details in a few months.

TOYOTA SAYS IT COULD SELL MORE HYBRIDS IN THE U.S.
But even though Toyota is finally working on EVs, it’s heart is still with hybrids. Bob Carter, the executive vice president of sales for Toyota Motor North America, says they could sell more hybrids if they could get them. So far this year, over 17% of Toyota and Lexus sales are hybrids and PHEVs. Carter says that could go to 20% or 25% as production frees up. He also brags that if you look at all the green cars sold in the US market, including hybrids, PHEVs, EVs and fuel cells, Toyota has 44% market share.

It seems like everytime you turn around someone is coming out with another hypercar. The market for these cars is over saturated. So have hyper cars jumped the shark? That will be one of the topics on Autoline After Hours this Thursday when Bill Warner, the founder of the Amelia Island Concours, will join us. And what about what’s going on in motor racing? Honda is dropping out of Formula One. Volkswagen is closing down all of its racing operations. BMW and Audi just quit Formula E. What’s the future of motorsports? We’ll be getting into that with Ray Evernham, a crew chief and team owner who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He’s joining us too. So be sure to join John and Gary, and if you’ve got questions for Bill and Ray, be sure to send them our way.

And that’s a wrap folks. Thanks for watching and we’ll be right back here again tomorrow.