AD #3122 – Mercedes S-Class PHEV & Hybrid Details; CR Slams Tesla FSD Beta; Buick Introduces GL8 Avenir Minivan

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

STELLANTIS HIRES AMAZON EXEC AS NEW CTO
Stellantis is hiring the vice president of Alexa Automotive at Amazon as its next Chief Technology Officer. Ned Curic will join the automaker at the end of August. He’s worked at Amazon since 2017 and prior to that he was an executive vice president at Toyota for its Connected software engineers, data scientists and designers division. But to us, this hiring shows that CEO Carlos Tavares believes the future of the company is with data, data monetization and connectivity, not with EVs or fuel cells.

NEW STUDY SHOWS EVs CLEANER THAN ICEs OVER LIFECYCLE
Do you know who the ICCT is? It stands for the International Council on Clean Transportation. And its members are former government regulators who’ve dealt with fuel economy and emissions. That’s the organization that blew the whistle on Volkswagen’s cheating on diesel emissions. And it just came out with a study that says today’s electric vehicles emit less greenhouse gas emissions compared to all other fuels and drivetrains over the life of the vehicle, from raw material extraction to recycling and disposal. It looked at the European Union, the United States, China, and India, and found that EVs were cleaner–even in China and India which primarily use coal to generate electricity. Want to learn more about the study? We’ve got a link in today’s transcript or description box below.

A quick correction here. Yesterday we reported that Stellantis plans to move production of the Jeep Cherokee from Belvedere, Illinois to Toluca, Mexico. What we neglected to say is that it was AutoForecast Solutions that reported the change, not Stellantis. We think AutoForecast Solutions is a rock-solid source of information and want to give credit where credit is due.

BAIDU REVEALS ROBOTAXI RIDER COST
Yesterday we reported how Baidu is going to offer robotaxi services in several cities in China. So we reached out to Baidu to find out how much they charge for a ride. Baidu told us that in Guangzhou they don’t charge anything because it’s still a pilot program. But in Beijing, where they’re in full launch mode they charge about 30 yuan, which is less than five bucks.

ANOTHER COMPANY LAUNCHES ROBOTAXI SERVICE IN CHINA
There sure is a lot of interest in robotaxis. Another Chinese company, DeepRoute.ai, launched a robotaxi service in Shenzhen that people can access via an app on WeChat. But the taxis still have a safety driver on board in case anything goes wrong. DeepRoute.ai was founded in 2019 and wants to become a Tier 1 supplier to OEMs, suppliers, and logistics companies.

FORD, ARGO AI & LYFT PLAN AUTONOMOUS RIDE HAILING SERVICE
But wait there’s more. Ford, Argo AI and Lyft plan to launch an autonomous ride hailing service before the year is out. Lyft users, first in Miami, Florida and then Austin, Texas in 2022, will be able to select a Ford self-driving vehicle for a ride. But it’s not going to be a huge fleet. The goal is to get at least 1,000 AVs in Lyft’s fleet over the next 5 years.

MOBILEYE TESTING AVs IN NEW YORK CITY
And lastly, Mobileye expanded its AV testing to New York City. Mobileye too is preparing for commercial deployment, but right now is running day and nighttime tests, looking for scenarios like jaywalkers, double parking, construction, tunnels and bridges. One other thing to note, look how sleek the Mobileye system is compared to others. You almost don’t even notice it. Mobileye uses a camera-only system as its first and main mode of identification, but also has a lidar/radar subsystem for redundancy. 

MERCEDES SHARES S-CLASS PHEV & HYBRID DETAILS
More versions of the new Mercedes S-Class are starting to launch, which means we’re getting more details. And here’s something you don’t see too often, the hybrid costs more than the plug-in hybrid. In Germany, the PHEV starts at a little over 123,700 euros, while the mild hybrid starts at more than 126,300 euros, or roughly an additional 2,600 euros. But look at the content list and you’ll see the reason why. Both produce about 500 horsepower but the mild hybrid does it with a big V8, which moves the heavy sedan from 0-100 km/h in 4.4 seconds, rather than the 5.2 seconds of the PHEV. The plug-in on the other hand features a 367 horsepower in-line 6-cylinder engine and a 150-horsepower electric motor. Battery size is not in the press release, but with 100 kilometers or 62 miles of range, which is pretty decent for a PHEV, it must be on the larger side. Both the mild hybrid and PHEV are available in short and long wheelbase versions.

BUICK INTRODUCES AVENIR VERSION OF GL8 MINIVAN
I’m sure you’ve probably heard of Avenir, Buick’s upscale trim line. Well, now it’s offering it on a vehicle you may never have heard of before; a minivan, called the GL8, which it sells in China. Sold in 4-, 6- and 7-seat variants, the GL8 Avenir features premium appointments, like wider head and armrests, thicker carpet, better materials, more USB ports, soundproof glass and rear reading lights. Pricing for the van starts between $71,600 and about $82,500.

TESLA TO OPEN SUPERCHARGER NETWORK TO OTHER AUTOMAKERS
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that it will open its Supercharger network to other automakers later this year. But he didn’t provide any other details, like if they’ll need plug adapters, since Tesla’s are different from everyone else. Musk has said he wants to help grow EV adoption and with 25,000 Superchargers globally, access to that network will help make his goal a reality.

CONSUMER REPORTS SLAMS TESLA FULL-SELF DRIVING BETA
And speaking of Tesla, Consumer Reports is once again criticizing the EV maker for allowing its owners to be beta testers for its Full-Self Driving prototype software. Tesla recently released the latest version, known as FSD beta 9, which automates even more driving tasks. But Consumer Reports still has concerns over its performance and safety based on videos posted by owners to social media. CR is critical of Tesla for testing the system on public roads since other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians aren’t aware they’re part of the experiment. It says at the very least Tesla should be monitoring the drivers in real time to make sure they’re paying attention while using the system.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching.