AD #3410 – Chinese Battery Company to Invest in U.S.; Hertz To Buy 175,000 GM EVs; NTSB Wants Drunk Driver Monitor

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

GM & EDF JOIN FORCES
My, my my, how times have changed. Automakers and environmentalists used to be sworn enemies. And the car companies always fought against stricter emission regulations. But today we have General Motors not only collaborating with the Environmental Defense Fund, but also calling for stricter emission standards. GM and the EDF want a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as NOx and particulate emissions from vehicles by 2030 compared to 2021. And they want 50% of the vehicles sold in the US from 2030 to have zero tail-pipe emissions. Obviously, this would benefit GM’s all-in approach to EVs, but even so, you know this industry has changed when General Motors and the Environmental Defense Fund team up together.

CHINESE BATTERY COMPANY TO INVEST IN U.S.
Chinese car companies and battery makers would love to get into the American market. But they decided that the political climate was not right–until now that is. The Detroit News reports that a Chinese battery maker called Gotion wants to build a $3.6 billion battery plant near Big Rapids, Michigan and it could ultimately employ 2,000 people. Even though Volkswagen is the largest shareholder in the company, Gotion reportedly has a deal with a U.S. car company to supply it with batteries. If the deal goes through that could throw open the door for other Chinese EV investment in the US. But this probably only applies to privately held Chinese companies. The government owned Chinese car companies are highly unlikely to invest in the U.S. 

AMAZON GOING WITH E-FUELS
Formula One is going to start using low carbon fuel in a couple of years. Porsche wants to make it available to its customers. And Amazon is going to do it ahead of both of them. It just signed a deal with a company called Infinium to supply low carbon fuel for its delivery trucks starting next year. They call them e-fuels or electrofuels. Even though e-fuel is based on fossil fuels, it’s mixed with carbon waste and manufactured with renewable power to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint. Amazon says it will replace diesel fuel and will start using it in southern California where its fleet of trucks rack up 5 million miles of driving a year.

BMW CAN SPOT A FAKE
Don’t you wish you could tell if something was fake just by looking at it? Well, BMW is working on it. It invested in a company that’s developed smart optical technology that can identify any item. Using any off-the-shelf camera, like the one in your smartphone, the system will look at the item, including small surface details and create a unique profile. Then it can compare that image to others to determine if it’s the Real McCoy, or a fake. BMW says the tech can be used to spot counterfeits, catch part misidentification or prevent someone from just using the wrong part altogether. Better still, no hardware investment, changes to manufacturing or physical change of the item are needed.

 

DURANT GUILD LAYS OUT ITS LINEUP
We now know some of the vehicles that GM will sell through The Durant Guild, which is its new direct-to-consumer brand in China. It will offer big trucks and SUVs, like the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe and Silverado; sports cars like the Corvette; and EVs, including the Hummer EV and Cadillac Celestiq. All those vehicles will be made in the US and exported to China. The brand also wants to be seen as more than just vehicles, so it’s launching a dedicated digital community on WeChat, which is the biggest social media platform in China, where it will provide special events for its customers. The president of The Durant Guild said, “It’s about making friends before making any deals.”

RIVIAN AERO CLAIM VERIFIED
Pickup trucks are like bricks going through the wind and that’s true for most EV pickups, too. The Lightyear 0 is setting top marks for any production vehicle with a coefficient of drag of 0.175. But the Ford F-150 Lightning sits at .44 and the Hummer EV is .5. There is one exception, the Rivian R1T. It claims a drag coefficient of .3. So, a company called AirShaper on YouTube put a 3D scan of the model through its virtual wind tunnel to see if the Rivian lives up to its claim. And it does. AirShaper came up with a figure of .322 and it says that small difference can likely be chalked up to the choice of wheels used in the simulation. What’s more impressive is that the Rivian will also likely be more aerodynamic than the edge-shaped Tesla Cybertruck, which is estimated to be around .39.

HERTZ HANDS GM BIG EV BUY
EVs represent the fastest growing segment in the car market and Hertz just handed General Motors a big order. The rental car company is going to order 175,000 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop EVs over the next five years. The Chevy Bolt EV and EUV will be the first models added to its fleet starting in the first quarter of next year. Hertz wants one out of every four of its rentals to be electric by the end of 2024.

NTSB WANTS DRUNK DRIVER MONITOR
Should your car know when you’re drunk and stop you from driving? The NTSB, or National Transportation Safety Board, wants blood alcohol monitoring systems mandated in all-new vehicles to stop drunk drivers. It wants to require passive alcohol-impairment systems, driver monitoring systems or a combination of the two, to prevent a vehicle from operating if it detects the driver is drunk. The NTSB also wants technology that can prevent speeding, but it doesn’t have any authority to set any mandates. That has to be done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2020, an estimated 11,654 people died in alcohol related accidents in the US, which is a 14% jump from 2019. The same year, there were another 11,258 deaths in crashes involving at least one car that was speeding.

NVIDIA UNVEILS ALL-IN-ONE COMPUTER FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Nvidia unveiled its next-gen centralized computer for autonomous vehicles. Called DRIVE Thor, it combines several functions into a single architecture including; automated and assisted driving, driver and occupant monitoring, the digital instrument cluster, as well as infotainment and rear-seat entertainment. Nvidia says the new system lowers cost but didn’t provide any numbers. ZEEKR, the luxury electric brand owned by Chinese automaker Geely, will be the first to use the computer starting in 2025.

Dodge has done a brilliant job of marketing the Challenger and Charger. Even though they sit on what’s probably the oldest platform in the business, sales keep going strong thanks to specialty models like the 392, Hellcat, Demon, R/T, Scat Pack and Widebody. But now that those cars are going electric, can it keep that success going? We’ve got Tim Kuniskis, the head of Dodge coming on Autoline After Hours to defend the move to battery power. And we welcome your questions. You can post them below and send an email to [email protected].

And that brings us to the end of today’s show. We hope to see you again tomorrow.