AD #3238 – CATL Files Patent for Sodium-Ion Battery; Lucid Wants to Open a New Plant; China Has Most Cars in the World

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

CATL FILES PATENT FOR SODIUM-ION BATTERY
CATL, the giant Chinese battery maker, just took a major step forward in developing a new type of lower cost battery for EVs. It filed for a patent on its next generation sodium-ion battery. Sodium is more abundant and easier to get than lithium. CATL first revealed its development work on the sodium battery last July. A key feature is that CATL eliminated the anode to improve the energy density. It’s currently rated at 160 kilowatt hours per kilogram, but CATL says it will come to market with 200 kw/kg. That’s not as energy dense as lithium-ion batteries, but it can charge to 80% in 15 minutes, retains 90% of its capacity at -20 degrees Celsius, and it’s far less likely to catch fire. CATL says the battery is suitable for EVs and for energy storage.

EU COULD STRUGGLE TO REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS
The European Union plans to reduce CO2 emissions from cars by 55% by 2030. But now a Dutch lawmaker wants that ramped up to 75%. Others say that’s not possible and even argue that it will be hard for Europe to eliminate ICEs by 2035. Climate change is a major topic in Europe and if automakers face a more aggressive timetable to phase out internal combustion engines it’s going to wreak havoc on their current plans.

BMW INVESTS IN CHARGERS THAT DON’T NEED INTERNET CONNECTION
If people don’t know where they can charge an EV they’re never going to buy one. So BMW is teaming up with a company that has a unique solution for expanding charging points. A good portion of chargers need an app or RFID card and internet connection for the customer to start using it. But HeyCharge developed a system that doesn’t need the internet. It uses bluetooth to communicate between an app on the user’s phone and the charger. This means that plugs could be installed in places like apartments or underground garages where it might have been difficult and/or costly to put in a charger that needs an internet connection. In fact, HeyCharge claims its entire system can reduce cost by as much as 80%. BMW announced it’s making an investment in HeyCharge, but did not reveal the amount.

NURO DEBUTS 3RD-GEN DELIVERY POD
Looks like delivering pizzas autonomously is a good business. Nuro just introduced its third-generation electric and autonomous delivery vehicle. It looks similar to its previous delivery pods and like those, the new one doesn’t hold any occupants, it’s only designed to deliver goods. Dominos Pizza made these pods famous by using them in its television ads. But the new pod can hold 24 bags of groceries and carry nearly 500 pounds. And the compartments are heated and cooled and can handle temperatures between 22F and 116F. The vehicle is 20% smaller in width than an average passenger car and has a top speed of 45 MPH. In the event of a collision with a pedestrian, it’s equipped with an external airbag at the front to reduce the impact. Nuro is building pre-production models now and partnered with BYD North America, to build hardware components for vehicle platforms at BYD’s manufacturing plant in California. Nuro is also planning to open its own manufacturing and test facility in southern Nevada to build the delivery vehicle.

LUCID WANTS TO OPEN NEW PLANT IN SAUDI ARABIA
Speaking of new manufacturing plants, here’s one that’s got us scratching our heads. EV startup Lucid says it wants to open a plant in Saudi Arabia. Lucid’s Chairman Andrew Liveris said they’re negotiating with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is Lucid’s largest shareholder, to open an EV factory in the country in 2025 or 2026. Well, when your largest shareholder comes up with an idea, you’ve clearly got to pay attention. Saudi Arabia has a big aluminum smelting plant, but the logistics cost of making cars could be horrific. So let’s see what happens. You might remember that in 2014 Jaguar announced plans to build a plant in the kingdom. But then it quietly scrapped those plans a year later.

ZF NAMES WINNER OF HACKATHON
If you caught our coverage of CES you might have seen that the supplier ZF held a virtual hackathon for the very first time. It was all about bringing programmers from outside of the company to develop new functions and features driven by open-source automotive software. It was able to get 80 participants from 12 countries who had 48 hours to come up with a solution for one of four categories. The winning team had the idea to use all the data from a smart city to route emergency vehicles as quickly as possible through the streets. It says almost all of the hardware is already in place for this, just not the control systems. ZF will now work with the winning team, which got a $10,000 prize, to further develop the idea.

We’re going to have a great debate on Autoline After Hours this afternoon. What’s the best way to sell cars? With traditional franchised dealers or by selling cars directly to consumers from the factory like all the EV startups are doing? We’ll have Tim Jackson from the Colorado Car Dealers Association as our special guest. And Alexa St. John of Business Insider will also be with us. So join John and Gary when they get the show going at 3 pm eastern time.

CHINA HAS 100+ MILLION MORE CARS THAN THE U.S.
China now has the largest car park in the world. According to China’s Ministry of Public Security there are 395 million vehicles registered in China. That’s over 100 million more than in the United States. About 302 million of those vehicles in China are automobiles. It just makes you wonder how big that car park could become. China has four times the population of the United States, so conceivably it could grow to about a billion vehicles over time.

AUDI CONSIDERS ENTERING FORMULA ONE
We’re just a few months away from learning whether or not Audi will get into Formula One. Reuters reports that Audi’s supervisory board will make a decision at the end of this quarter or in early April. The decision hinges on whether Formula One adopts a new rule in 2026 that would require that the engines in the racing series run on synthetic fuel. With synthetic fuel those engines would emit almost zero green house gasses. Most automakers believe that synthetic fuels will not achieve the scale or price that’s needed to compete with electric vehicles. But synthetic fuels could be perfect for aircraft and large ships—and for racing cars.

SIMULYTIC STUDIES IMPACT & SAFETY OF AVs FOR INSURANCE
German tech company Siemens is launching a new in-house startup called Simulytic that will use simulations to study the impact and safety of autonomous driving. That information will be provided to insurance companies that are interested in getting into the autonomous vehicle insurance market. Simulytic will use digital twins to create a digital replica of the environment the autonomous vehicle will operate in, so insurance companies have a better idea of how to create policies around AVs.

TOYOTA REVEALS NEW MINIVANS FOR JAPAN
Japan’s minivans are so much cooler than ours. Check out the new Noah and Voxy from Toyota that go on sale in the country today. Say what you want about the bold styling and massive grilles, at least these minivans have some real character. And still like any minivan they’re super versatile. There’s the option for 3-rows of seating, power sliding doors, remote parking and even 4-wheel drive. Pricing ranges from a little more than $23,000 up to about $34,000.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for joining us and we’ll be right back here again tomorrow.