Listen to “AD #3419 – EVs to Reach Cost Parity in 2025; GM Adds Ex-Tesla Exec to Board; U.S. Ramps Up Manganese Mining” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:50
0:00 EVs to Reach Cost Parity in 2025
0:54 GM Adds Ex-Tesla Exec to Board
1:20 AVs Good for Hauling Beer
2:11 EV Chargers Out Number Gas Stations in NY & SF
3:32 Multimatic Preps Mustang GT3 Race Car
4:23 Cadillac Shows More of LMDh Race Car
5:08 Audi Unveils More Powerful R8 V10
6:55 U.S. Sales Hurt by Hurricane
7:50 U.S. Ramps Up Manganese Mining
8:26 Hyundai Has Fix for Car Thefts
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EVs TO REACH ICE COST PARITY IN 2025
Everyone knows that EVs cost a lot more to make than piston engine cars. But that’s going to change by the middle of the decade. That’s according to Sylvain Filippi, the head of Envision Racing, which competes in Formula E. He says sales of EVs are only a few years away from really taking off because electrics will reach cost parity with ICEs by 2025 or 2026. He adds that it will become more expensive to produce ICE vehicles and that their resale values will plunge and people won’t want to be stuck with a dead asset. And once that happens, he says the “floodgates will open” and that the “transition will accelerate really rapidly.”
GM ADDS EX-TESLA EXEC TO BOARD
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? General Motors is about to find out. It’s adding a former Tesla executive, Jonathan McNeill, to its Board of Directors. He served as Tesla’s president of Global Sales, Delivery and Service and he was also chief operating officer at Lyft. He left to found the capital venture firm DVx Ventures in 2019.
AVs GOOD FOR HAULING BEER
Some people wonder what autonomous vehicles will ever be good for. Well, we found the answer. They’re good for hauling beer! The trucking company C.H. Robinson has been using Class 8 semis with Waymo’s autonomous technology to haul 1 million pounds of beer from Houston to Dallas. That route has a lot of fog, rain and bugs that can interfere with the system’s sensors and lidar, so it’s a good test of AV technology. But C.H. Robinson says it hasn’t had any problems with the trucks. Those trucks currently have a safety driver on board and the company says it’s still a few years away from using autonomous trucks with no one on board. By the way, just so you know, Bloomberg reports that the trucks are hauling Modelo and Corona.
EV CHARGING STATIONS OUTNUMBER GAS STATIONS IN NY & SF
Here’s something we’ll likely see more of in the future. Public EV charging sites now outnumber gas stations in Manhattan by more than a 10 to 1 margin. There are 320 charging locations compared to just 29 gas stations in the borough. But it’s not just because of EV growth, the main reason is it’s just too darn expensive to operate a gas station in Manhattan because of sky high property prices. The stations are being torn down to build condos or office buildings. Even still, it’s not just happening in Manhattan. EV charging sites in San Francisco also out number gas stations 139 to 92.
MULTIMATIC PREPS MUSTANG GT3 RACE CAR
When Ford introduced the 7th generation Mustang it said it wanted to see the car raced in every class possible. That includes an all-new GT3 car that will compete in IMSA’s GTD category. Two of those cars will be fielded by racing specialist Multimatic, the same people that also make the Ford GT. They’ll be built in North Carolina and will be powered by a Coyote-based V8 engine. But it’s going to be a while before we see these cars. Their first race is at Daytona in 2024. However, we’ll see Ford’s GT4 race car, which is also made by Multimatic and builds on the development of the current GT4 racer, sooner than the GT3 car. It’s going to be available later in the 2023 season.
MORE DETAILS ON CADILLAC LMDh
Speaking of race cars, Cadillac continues to develop its brand-new LMDh car that can compete in both the IMSA and WEC series and, like the Mustang, will make its return to Le Mans. As you can see the real race car has some differences from the prototype that was shown in June. Most notably, the tall fin that runs down its spine is no longer see-through. The front end also has more and bigger air inlets, same could be said of the engine intake on top of the cabin, it has proper side view mirrors, the rear wing design is more robust and it doesn’t look like it will have the same radical taillights. Cadillac’s first race is in January of next year.
AUDI UNVEILS POWERFUL R8 V10
Let’s stick with the sporting theme for the moment. Audi revealed a new version of the R8, called the R8 Coupe V10 GT RWD. That’s a mouthful for sure, but basically it’s an R8 with an even more powerful version of Audi’s 5.2L engine and a new 7-speed DCT that offers faster shifts. The naturally aspirated V10 now puts out over 610 horsepower vs. more than 560 horsepower before and it now does 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. The car also comes with lighter weight 20-inch wheels, ceramic brakes, bucket seats, carbon fiber anti-roll bar and performance suspension. There’s also a sportier suspension setup available and a new Torque Rear Drive Mode, which kind of seems like a drift mode and offers seven levels of slippage, from very little to a lot. Only 333 examples will be made and they’ll be available at dealers next year with a starting price of 225,000 euros.
U.S. SEPTEMBER SALES HURT BY HURRICANE
New car sales in the U.S. last month were OK, sorta, I guess. Automakers sold just over 1.1 million vehicles. Wards Intelligence says Hurricane Ian probably wiped out around 200,000 sales since Florida is one of the biggest new car markets in the US. And people aren’t out buying new cars when they’re running away from a hurricane. Even so, all the damaged cars in Florida and other places the hurricane hit will have to be replaced and that will help sales in the months to come. In September the SAAR, or seasonally adjusted annual rate came in at 13.5 million vehicles. BMW; General Motors; Tesla; Mercedes; Toyota, the VW Group; Subaru, the Hyundai Group and Nissan all saw their sales go up. Everyone else was down.
| U.S. September, 2022 Sales | |
|---|---|
| GM | +68.6% |
| Tesla | +19.3% |
| Mercedes | +19.1% |
| Toyota | +17.1% |
| VW Group | +15.6% |
| Subaru | +8.6% |
| Hyundai Group | +8.1% |
| Nissan | +4.2% |
U.S. RAMPS UP MANGANESE MINING
Automakers in the U.S. are scrambling to find local sources for raw materials so they can qualify for EV battery incentives. So a mining company called South32 Limited is opening a new manganese mine in Arizona. It’s also going to invest in processing the material in the US. Demand for manganese is expected to surge ninefold by the end of the decade. Today, most manganese is mined in South Africa, Gabon and Australia and 95% of it is refined in China.
HYUNDAI HAS FIX FOR CAR THEFTS
Hyundai finally has a fix for all those cars that are getting stolen. For a quick recap, Hyundai and Kia have seen a big uptick in thefts after people showed on social media how you could steal their cars that don’t have an electronic immobilizer. Now there’s a retrofit security kit available. It costs $170 not including installation. But it only works on vehicles from 2016 to 2021, which doesn’t cover all of the affected model years. So, some owners are still out of luck.
JEFF HEMPHILL ON AAH
Whoops, a correction here. Yesterday we said that Bob Boniface, the director of Buick design, would be on Autoline After Hours. Well, he will be. But that’s next week. This week we have Jeff Hemphill, the CTO of Schaeffler coming on the show. Schaeffler is working on a lot of advanced technology and you’ll be impressed by the advancements it’s making.
And that’s the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.
