AD #3453 – A Problem with PHEVs; GM Dealers Fix Teslas; Does Hyundai Not Know Its Lineup?

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

BNEF: EV SALES GOING HIGHER THAN EXPECTED
Subsidies for people to buy electric cars are a political hot potato. But they sure do help sell EVs. Bloomberg NEF estimates that over 10.6 million passenger electric vehicles will be sold globally this year–about 63% higher than last year. In the U.S. the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which will hand out incentives up to $7,500 will really accelerate EV sales. BNEF says the EV fleet will be 20% larger in 2030 than it previously forecast. About 64% of the EVs sold in the first half of the year would qualify for at least a portion of the new incentives, compared to 31% that would have qualified under the old policy. That’s because the sales cap on Tesla and GM vehicles is removed. Better still, BNEF says there’s enough planned battery cell production to support higher EV sales. 

MACRON: DON’T MAKE EVs IN THE U.S.
Foreign governments are really ticked off by that Inflation Reduction Act. After it was enacted in August, a wave of foreign automakers announced plans to open plants to make EVs and batteries in the U.S. Europe, South Korea and Japan all lobbied against the bill and now French President Emmanuel Macron is twisting arms so companies don’t move operations to the U.S. He met with company CEOs earlier today but we don’t know yet exactly what he told them. But he wants Europe to pass its own version of the IRA.

GM DEALERS FIX TESLAS
Elon Musk has bragged that one of Tesla’s competitive advantages is that it doesn’t use franchise dealers. But maybe it’s not that big of an advantage after all. One of the biggest complaints from Tesla owners is how long it can take to get their vehicle repaired. And some of them are turning to car dealerships to get them fixed. GM President Mark Reuss says that GM dealers have repaired more than 11,000 Teslas since 2021. Reuss made the claim during GM’s investor day last week but he didn’t provide any specifics like what kind of repairs they were.

  

BYD LAUNCHES TWO NEW EV BRANDS
Chinese automaker BYD is on a tear. It sold 1.2 million EVs and plug-in hybrids the first nine months of the year, which is an eye-popping gain of 250%. And it plans to grow even more next year by launching two new brands in China. One is a high-end EV brand called Yangwang, which will have vehicles ranging in price from $112,000 to more than $200,000. The first one is an electric SUV that’s said to be a competitor of Mercedes’ upcoming electric G-Wagon and will have “unprecedented high-performance.” Yangwang launches in the first quarter of next year. The other brand is yet to be named but will offer “family cars and luxury cars.” It too launches next year. With these two new brands, BYD now has five brands in its portfolio.

RENAULT REVEALS HYDROGEN-POWERED MINIBUS
Fuel cells keep making progress. Take a look at Renault’s first hydrogen-powered minibus for Europe. Based on the automaker’s Master van, it features a 30-kW fuel cell, a 4.5-kilogram hydrogen tank and a 33-kWh battery. Interestingly, the fuel cell and tank are mounted in the roof of the vehicle. And that 4.5-kilogram tank is actually less than what the Toyota Mirai holds. But the setup provides up to 300 kilometers or 186 miles of range and the bus can accommodate up to 15 riders. It will be made in France and you should start seeing them roam the streets in Europe around the middle of next year. 

DOES HYUNDAI NOT KNOW ITS LINEUP?
Does Hyundai not know its own lineup? The company’s Global COO, Jose Munoz said that it’s considering developing additional pickups for the U.S. market, including a “lifestyle” truck. Um, excuse me, but what is the Santa Cruz then? It was referred to as a lifestyle truck when it came out. Oh, maybe he meant a different class because the Santa Cruz is small- to mid-sized? Nope. Munoz said “I don’t see us competing in the full-size market.” So, what is Mr. Munoz talking about? We think it could be an electrified version of the Santa Cruz or a similarly sized truck. No one currently has a small- to mid-size electric truck, so Hyundai could be the first.

 

DOMINO’S ORDERS 800 BOLT EVs
General Motors just got a big order for 800 Chevrolet Bolt EVs and it’s all about attracting drivers to deliver pizzas. Domino’s Pizza, which is the world’s largest pizza company, saw its sales falling off this year because it could not get enough drivers to deliver pizzas. So it’s buying the electric Bolts to entice people to become delivery drivers. That way they don’t have to use their own cars, and it’s especially attractive for people who don’t own a car. Domino’s says the Bolt EV offered the lowest cost of ownership, and it’s going to use Enterprise, the car rental company, to maintain them. Domino’s also expects to order more Bolts. GM got a black eye when it had to stop selling the Bolt because of potential battery fires. But now it’s quickly ramping production back up again. This year GM will make 44,000 Bolts and next year it will ramp that up to 70,000.   

CATL RAMPS UP BATTERY SWAPPING
Battery swapping keeps expanding in China. Now CATL, the giant battery manufacturer, is helping Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen to get in on the game. CATL developed a common battery for swapping, and Dongfeng modified one of its models, the Fukang ES600, for battery swapping. It takes 3 minutes to swap a battery pack. Right now CATL’s battery swapping service called EVOGO, operates in 10 Chinese cities. But it expects to expand that to 200 cities by 2025. 

A PROBLEM WITH PHEVs
A lot of people believe that plug-in hybrids are the perfect bridge to an EV world. Thanks to on-board internal combustion engines, PHEVs don’t have range anxiety and don’t need a nation-wide charging infrastructure. In fact, when the Biden Administration set a goal of 50% EV sales in the US by 2030, that included PHEVs. But at the SAE’s North American International Powertrain Conference last week, we learned that PHEVs are very expensive to manufacture, so expensive that if PHEVs have a large enough battery to deliver 50 miles of electric range, they cost about the same to manufacture as pure battery EVs. Even more problematic: automakers can’t get the pricing they need to cover those costs. And that means that PHEVs probably don’t have much shelf life in this transition to an electric world.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.