AD #3460 – Elon Drops Details On 1 MW Charging; Nobody in China Wants This EV; November Sales Weaker Than Expected

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

U.S. NOVEMBER SALES WEAKER THAN EXPECTED
Analysts thought new car sales in the US market would come in strong in November. But after they counted up the numbers they were lower than expected. Wards Intelligence says the SAAR came in at 14.1 million vehicles, not the 14.5 million it expected. Surprisingly, pickup trucks and full size SUVs posted sales declines even though inventory was up. Wards says talk of a recession, higher interest rates, higher prices and tight inventory overall probably explains why sales were not where it thought they’d be.

EU OEMs MIGHT GET IRA EV SUBSIDIES
Looks like European automakers could get some sort of EV subsidies in the U.S. market. French President Emmanuel Macron met with President Biden yesterday and Biden promised to tweak the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA stipulates that EV subsidies are only for vehicles assembled in North America with batteries made in the U.S. that have raw materials sourced in the U.S., or from countries that have free trade agreements with the United States. But now Biden says the intent of the IRA was to include allies, not just those countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S. So that could open the door for European automakers, and maybe even the Japanese and South Koreans too. However, it’s up to Congress to make changes to the IRA and it’s anyone’s guess how long that would take or if it will get done.

 

ELON DROPS DETAILS ON 1 MW CHARGING
Tesla unveiled its Semi Truck in an event last night and CEO Elon Musk revealed a few interesting details. He confirmed that the truck will use its 1 MW ultra-fast charging technology and it will feature “liquid cooling technology” in the charging cable for higher output. It will also feature 3 of the same motors that are used in the Model S Plaid and can operate somewhat independently of each other, depending on demand. Other big news that Elon revealed is that the Cybertruck will use the same fast charging technology and that it will be available at its Superchargers next year. Tesla also said future vehicles will use the Semi Truck’s 1,000-volt powertrain but it did not say which models.

BEV SALES HIGHER THAN EXPECTED IN ASEAN
Sales of BEVs in the ASEAN region, specifically Thailand and Indonesia, are growing faster than anyone expected. And that’s a real threat to Japanese automakers who dominate the region.  According to LMC Automotive, last year only 1,900 BEVs were sold in Thailand. This year automakers will sell 13,000. Chinese brands dominate the segment with 87% market share in Thailand. Last year, in Indonesia, only 667 BEVs were sold. This year LMC expects that to jump to 9,000. And the reason Japanese automakers are losing all that share because they don’t offer electric vehicles.

VW UPDATES THE ID.3
VW is refreshing the ID.3. And based on these renderings, the only real change to the exterior styling is to the lower front fascia, which now features air curtains in front of the front wheels. VW said it listened to customer feedback for other upgrades and one of the complaints we’ve always heard is a perceived lack of quality on the interior. So, it’s upgrading the materials and comes standard with a new 12-inch center display screen, which runs on the newest version of VW’s software system. Pricing for the new ID.3 will start at just under 44,000 euros in Germany, but customers are going to have to wait. Due to an order backlog and delays caused by the chip shortage, people who order an ID.3 today won’t take delivery until at least the 4th quarter of next year.

BMW STARTS LOW-VOLUME FCEV PRODUCTION
Fuel cells continue to make progress. BMW started production on a small batch of X5s that run on hydrogen. It’s making them at a pilot plant in Munich, Germany. But these are not for customer sale. The iX5 Hydrogen models will be used as a test fleet and technology demonstrator in selected areas in the spring of next year. BMW says it hopes to offer “an attractive product range once the hydrogen economy becomes a widespread reality.”

BMW PATENTS SUSPENSION FOR EV REGEN
When we had Christian Steinmann from ClearMotion on Autoline After Hours recently he talked about how his suspension technology could be used to capture energy from the shocks while they move up and down. Looks like BMW had the same idea. It filed a patent for a suspension system that converts energy from the shocks upward movement into electricity and sends it directly to the battery. There’s no clear timetable for when it could launch, but the big questions are going to be, how much does it extend range and what does it cost?

NOBODY IN CHINA WANTS THIS EV
What if you launched an electric car in China and nobody bought it? Almost sounds impossible, doesn’t it? BEV sales are soaring in China. Even so, EV maker Evergrande had to shut down its assembly lines because it couldn’t find enough customers. Last summer the company’s chairman bragged that they would build a million EVs a year by 2025. But now that looks like a pipe dream. Here’s the problem. Evergrande is also a huge real estate developer that built millions of apartments and then ran out of money. Many apartments are not finished, even though they were sold. Thousands of people who bought those apartments have to pay their monthly rent even though they can’t move in. It’s a national scandal that everyone knows about. So who would want to buy a car from a company like that?

THE ADVANTAGES OF OFF-ROADING WITH AN EV
Hard core off-roaders know they can climb up a 45-degree angle, but not much more than that. Any steeper and the engine gets starved of oil unless you modify the engine, like with a dry sump. But electric off-road vehicles don’t have that problem, as Jim Morrison, the head of Jeep in North America explained yesterday on Autoline After Hours. 

(Today’s soundbite is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

 

Morrison had a lot more to say about Jeep and you can watch the entire show on our website or YouTube channel.

OPEL SHOWS OFF WILD DESIGN CONTEST VEHICLE
Here’s your automotive eye candy for the day. Opel held a design contest to come up with a cool or crazy version of the Rocks-e, which is Opel’s version of the Citroen Ami. And this is the winning design, called Rocks e-xtreme, which looks like a tricked out buggy on steroids. We like the look of the external roll cage and huge spoiler off the back and can’t help but smile at the ridiculously wide track that extends the wheels well outside of the body. And I bet this would fly off the shelf faster than the Citroen Ami Buggy, which was first shown off as a concept, then turned into a production car and sold out in just 18 minutes.

But that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you have a great weekend.