Listen to “AD #3281 – China’s Zero-COVID Policy Hurts Automakers; Russian Invasion Sends VW Scrambling; NADA Is “All In” On EVs” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 8:32
0:07 China’s Zero-COVID Policy Hurts Industry
1:04 Russian Invasion Sends VW Scrambling
1:44 Tesla Raises Prices, Again
2:13 NADA Says It’s All in On EVs
3:37 Bentley Going Electric
4:01 Honda Testing Fuel Cell Generators
5:56 Cadillac Readies V-Series Escalade
6:17 Brembo Redesigns F1 Brakes
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CHINA’S ZERO-COVID POLICY HURTS INDUSTRY
China took a drastic, zero-tolerance approach to controlling the Covid pandemic, with mandatory mass testing and lockdowns. And it seemed to have the virus under control, until recently. Now the virus seems to be spreading, and while China has a miniscule fraction of cases that we’ve seen elsewhere in the world, its drastic lockdowns are impacting all kinds of industries, but especially the auto industry. Millions of people have to stay at home which forced Volkswagen and Toyota to suspend production at several factories in China. Several chip makers had to do the same, and that’s going to ripple out across the entire industry. Reuters quotes one factory owner as saying China needs to drop its zero-Covid strategy and move on like the rest of the world did.
RUSSIAN INVASION SENDS VW SCRAMBLING
OK, now over to the war in Ukraine because Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess warns investors that VW may not hit its financial target this year because of the invasion which caused a surge in raw material prices. VW is shifting parts production from Ukraine to North Africa and Eastern Europe, as well as to China and the Americas because of that wire harness shortage we reported on yesterday. Diess says if VW doesn’t find an alternative wire harness source in the next 3 to 4 weeks, it will be forced to revise the guidance it gave investors just last week.
TESLA RAISES PRICES, AGAIN
The Russian invasion is also hitting Tesla. Last week it raised prices because of soaring raw material costs. And now it’s doing it again. It raised prices across the board in the U.S. by 5 to 10%. In China, it’s charging about 5% more for some Model 3s and Ys. Yesterday, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that “Tesla & SpaceX are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistics.”
NADA SAYS IT’S ALL IN ON EVS
EV proponents have accused car dealers of dragging their feet when it comes to selling EVs. But now car dealers are trying to change that perception. At last week’s National Auto Dealer Association, or NADA Convention, there were workshops for dealers with titles like “Win in the EV Market.” And there were dealership training programs on how to educate consumers about EVs and charging infrastructures. Wards quotes the NADA’s CEO, Mike Stanton, as saying that dealers are now “all-in with EVs.” And so we’d like to ask you our viewers: have you bought an electric car from a traditional dealer? If so, how would you rate the buying experience?
BENTLEY GOING ELECTRIC
Now it’s Bentley’s turn to jump on the EV band wagon. It’s going to introduce a new electric model every year for five years. But it won’t start doing that until 2025. Bentley had a great 2021. It sold more than 14,600 vehicles, up 31% from the prior year, and it posted a profit of 390 million euros.
HONDA TESTING FUEL CELL GENERATORS
Honda is one of the leading names in generators, but they run on gasoline, which means they’re not going to meet Honda’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. So, it’s testing stationary fuel cell generators at its campus in California. But these are nothing like your at-home generators. They feature up to four fuel cell units from the Honda Clarity car that, when combined together, produce over 1150 kW-DC or 1 MW-AC. Honda hopes the project will help it learn more in the areas of power supply, supply chain, grid connection access and more. But don’t think Honda is giving up on fuel cell powered vehicles, it says it’s still dedicated to developing those, too.
RIGHT TO REPAIR DEBATE
Independent repair shops are running into problems trying to access the data they need to repair cars. Automakers are making it increasingly difficult to get that data, to try and thwart hackers, and to make sure no one tampers with the emissions programming, and of course, they want customers to take their cars to dealerships, not independent repair shops. So now Congress is getting involved. Legislation called the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act, is working its way through the halls of the Capitol. And that’s the topic for this week’s Autoline After Hours. Gabrielle Hopkinds, from the Auto Care Association will be our guest. So join us for one of the top issues affecting the automotive industry.
CADILLAC READIES V-SERIES ESCALADE
The majority of automotive news these days is electric, but here’s a little gasoline for your veins. Cadillac announced it will reveal the Escalade V in all its piston pounding glory on May 11th. This will be the first V-Series SUV in Cadillac’s history.
BREMBO REDESIGNS F1 BRAKES
The Formula One season is about to kick off this weekend with an all-new design for the cars. One of the changes includes tires and wheels going from last year’s 13 inches to this year’s 18 inches. And since Brembo now supplies all the teams with brakes, that meant it had to change the brake design. The 6-piston calipers are nickel plated and are machined from aluminum billets. Obviously the brake rotors had to increase in size, but here’s some weird technical details. Until last year the F1 teams could drill 1,480 holes in the rotors for cooling and lightweighting. But now they’re limited to between 1,000 and 1,100 holes in the front rotors, and 900 in the rear. That means F1 drivers will have to change their braking points on track because Brembo says the new rotors don’t offer as much cooling.
AUTOLINE CRANKS UP THE CONTENT MACHINE
If you hadn’t noticed we’ve cranked up the content machine at Autoline. Over the weekend we posted a couple of videos you might like. One takes a deeper dive into Pingree Detroit, a company that makes dog leashes, shoes, bags and more, from old automotive scraps and now the supplier Autoliv is providing them with more scraps. In the other video, I lay out my argument for why legacy automakers made a strategic mistake when they started developing BEVs and are now scrambling to correct that mistake. That is, all of them made this mistake, except one automaker. Think you know who it is? I think you might be shocked. And if you’re missing out on these videos make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel so you get notifications when new ones go up.
And that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.