Listen to “AD #3181 – ZF's Solution for Commercial Truck PTOs; VW Productivity Behind Tesla; GM Sees Dealers as Advantage in EV Race” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:25
0:08 VW Productivity Lags Behind Tesla
1:12 Battery Production in China Soars
1:40 GM Sees Dealers as Advantage in EV Race
2:56 Concern Over Raw Material Supply for EV Batteries in Europe
3:38 Tesla Signs Nickel Supply Deal
5:14 Bringing AI to the Shop Floor
7:17 Honda Shows Off New Jet Concept
7:55 ZF Creates All-In-One Solution for Commercial Vehicle PTOs
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VW PRODUCTIVITY LAGS BEHIND TESLA
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess says the company will lose 30,000 manufacturing jobs if it doesn’t transition faster to BEVs. Reuters points out that Tesla will make 500,000 BEVs a year in Germany with 12,000 employees, while VW makes 700,000 ICE cars a year at its plant in Wolfsburg with 25,000 employees. In other words, each Tesla employee makes the equivalent of 41 cars a year, while VWs workers make 28. VW’s unions don’t believe they’ll lose 30,000 jobs and they say that predictions like this are absurd and baseless. But here’s our Autoline Insight. Volkswagen cannot afford to give away a 46% productivity advantage to Tesla. And if VW’s works council refuses to help VW boost its productivity, it’s going to end up losing a lot more than 30,000 jobs.
| Manufacturing Productivity Comparison | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Production/yr | Employees | Cars/Employee |
| Tesla Berlin | 500,000 | 12,000 | 41 |
| VW Wolfsburg | 700.000 | 25,000 | 28 |
| Source: Reuters | |||
BATTERY PRODUCTION IN CHINA SOARS
Battery production in China is soaring, up nearly 200% this year. So far in 2021, China has made almost 135 gigawatt hours of battery power. Even more amazing, CATL made over 50% of all those batteries. For comparison, BYD, the second largest battery maker in China only has 16% market share.
GM SEES DEALERS AS ADVANTAGE IN EV RACE
EV startups in the U.S. that are selling directly to consumers could run into retail problems as they try to scale up without using franchised dealers. Tesla, which just moved its headquarters to Austin, and is building a massive assembly plant there, cannot legally sell its cars in Texas. And it’s not just Texas. There are about 18 other states that either ban direct sales or limit Tesla to just a few stores. That’s why GM’s President, Mark Reuss, tells Wall Street analysts that “Our dealers are a huge advantage.” 80% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a GM dealership. Reuss told analysts that GM’s goal is to surpass Tesla in the EV segment. And it clearly sees its dealer network as a key way to do that.
CONCERN OVER RAW MATERIAL SUPPLY FOR EV BATTERIES IN EUROPE
Most automakers in Europe have announced plans to go all-electric within the next ten years. But companies and analysts are worried that the supply of raw materials needed for EV batteries isn’t enough to meet demand. Automakers are scrambling to lock up supplies of lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt. If they can’t get the materials needed it could slow the growth of EVs, make them more expensive and hurt automaker’s profits. At first, companies thought they could rely on importing the materials from Asia but that won’t be enough to meet demand. Recycling batteries can help but it can currently only meet 10 to 20% of demand.
TESLA SIGNS NICKEL SUPPLY DEAL
But Tesla is working on the supplies it needs. It just signed a deal with Prony Resources to supply it with nickel. Financial numbers weren’t disclosed but Reuters reports Prony, which is based in New Caledonia, will provide Tesla with 42,000 tonnes of nickel over the multi-year deal.
Ford’s designers were really challenged to come up with a good-looking truck with a base price of $20,000 when developing the new Maverick. While the interior is basic, it doesn’t look cheap. One way they got a good look at a low price, was using reground carbon fiber in the door trim panels. There’s a million stories in that truck and we’ll be getting into a lot of them tomorrow afternoon when Scott Anderson, who led the interior design of the Maverick joins us for Autoline After Hours. And we invite you to join us too, for some of the best insight into how new products get developed.
BRINGING AI TO THE SHOP FLOOR
Artificial intelligence could revolutionize the factory floor. But how do you make it easy for line workers to use AI? A company called Detect-It came up with a simple tool running on AI that people on the shop floor can use even if they don’t know anything about coding. We ran across Detect-It at the recent Motor Bella event near Detroit and Kevin Kerwin, the President & CEO of Detect-It, explained how it works.
(The Detect-It sound bite is only available in the video version of today’s show)
HONDA SHOWS OFF NEW JET CONCEPT
Air travel is soaring as people start to feel more comfortable getting back onto planes and so Honda is considering expanding its jet lineup. It showed off the HondaJet 2600 Concept, the first light jet that’s capable of flying across the U.S. It also features seating for up to 11 people and is estimated to cut carbon emissions by up to 20% compared to other light jets. No word yet if Honda is going to for sure make the new plane and based on how long it took for the last HondaJet to come out, it could be a number of years before we find out.
ZF CREATES ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION FOR COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PTOs
There’s a lot of focus on electrifying commercial fleets, but less so on the trailers that some of these large trucks have to tow around. And when you think about a cement mixer or dump truck, they need some sort of Power Take-Off or PTO to operate, which, in the past, has typically been linked somewhere to the vehicle’s powertrain. But because the architecture of an ICE driveline is different from an electric driveline, familiar interfaces can’t be used. So, the supplier ZF developed eWorX, an all-in-one solution to electrify PTOs for operating work equipment. It includes the battery, battery management and charging system, which could also be used to power other equipment. eWorX can hook up to any truck cab, doesn’t matter if it’s powered by gas, diesel or electric and a remote-control feature means it can be operated whether it’s hooked up to the truck or not. ZF says it already has interested customers.
But that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for joining us.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.
