AD #3553 – SAE: EVs Fall Short in EPA Estimates; Chrysler Shows Dealers New Electric Sedan; GM & Hyundai To Make More Batteries in U.S.

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

GM Q1 SALES DIP DUE TO 24% DROP IN CHINA
General Motors and Hyundai reported their first quarter earnings this morning, and let’s hit the highlights, starting with GM. While it sold more vehicles in North America than last year, sales were down in South America and China, which dragged its overall sales down 3%. That total came to 1.38 million vehicles in the last three months. Thanks to selling more vehicles in North America at higher prices, its revenue hit almost $40 billion, which was up 11%. Its operating profit hit $2.5 billion, up 17%, but its net profit of $2.3 billion was 16% lower than last year. That’s because GM got far less income from its Chinese joint venture partners, where sales fell 24%. And GM had to pay $400 million more in taxes versus a year ago. Even so, GM’s earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations and it told analysts it’s going to raise its profit forecast for the year.

HYUNDAI POSTS MASSIVE FINANCIAL GAINS
Meanwhile, the Hyundai Group posted massive financial gains over last year. It sold just over a million vehicles worldwide in the last three months, up 12.5%. Its revenue hit $28 billion almost up 25%. And now the numbers are red hot. Hyundai’s operating profit shot up 86% to more than $2.6 billion, while its net profit skyrocketed by 92% hitting $2.5 billion. Even if you compare Hyundai’s earnings to the fourth quarter of last year, they are up significantly. 

GM TO OPEN U.S. BATTERY PLANT WITH SAMSUNG SDI 
GM and Hyundai also announced plans to make more batteries in the US. GM is joining forces with Samsung SDI to build prismatic and cylindrical nickel-rich batteries. The plant will make 30 GWh of batteries at full production, bringing GM’s total US battery capacity to 160 GWh. Neither company said where the plant will be built, but remember, GM and LG had a falling out over a battery plant that was supposed to be built in Indiana, so maybe the plant with Samsung will go there. 

HYUNDAI BOOSTS CAPACITY AT PLANNED U.S. BATTERY PLANT
We already knew that Hyundai was building a battery plant in Georgia, but it looks like it’s going to be bigger than was first announced. Earlier reports said the plant would make 20 GWh, now Hyundai says it will produce 35 GWh of batteries, which it says will support about 300,000 electric vehicles. 

 

CHRYSLER SHOWS DEALERS NEW ELECTRIC SEDAN
Ford CEO Jim Farley recently said the Chinese market is saturated with 2-row crossovers and really the same could be said of Europe and the U.S., especially with new EVs. That’s why we’re excited to see a report from MoparInsiders that cites dealer sources who say they were shown an all-new, all-electric sedan from Chrysler. It’s said to be a sleek, fastback sedan, similar to an outline shown during its EV Day in 2021 and about the same size as the Dodge Charger Daytona concept. That would indicate that it’s based on the STLA Large platform. And the obvious thing to speculate is that this could be the EV replacement of the Chrysler 300. MoparInsiders also claims Chrysler is expected to add the Airflow to its lineup late next year.

TESLA SHOWS MINIMAL BATTERY DEGRADATION
Some people are worried that EVs will be like our phones or laptops, where the battery works fine at first but over the course of 3-5 years it struggles to hold a charge. And then they’ll be stuck replacing an expensive battery pack. But EV batteries are designed to last 10-20 years, while maintaining up to 70% of their original capacity. And new data released by Tesla, shows that the Model S and X do really well at retaining battery life. It reports that after 200,000 miles of driving the batteries in those models are only degrading about 12%. And Electrek reports that model type and battery size plays a role in the amount of degradation and also that ealy data on the Model 3 & Y shows a loss of less than 15% over 200,000, but obviously, there’s a lot less of those vehicles that have reached that mileage yet since they came out later. 

BMW EXPANDS IN-VEHICLE LIVE SPORTS STREAMING 
Do you remember a recent report we had about BMW bringing live football or soccer on the giant rear cinema screen of the 7 Series for customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Well, now it’s expanding the pilot test into more European countries, the Americas as well as Asia. The test lasts until March of next year and while BMW will likely have a deal to stream live American football in the U.S., I wouldn’t mind watching some of the playoff hockey that’s going on right now in the back seat of a 7 Series.

SAE STUDY FINDS EVs FALL SHORT IN EPA ESTIMATES
A new paper published by SAE International says electric vehicles are more likely to fall short of EPA estimates in real world highway testing than ICE vehicles. The study used data from Car and Driver’s real-world tests going back to 2016. In its 75-MPH test, more than 350 ICE vehicles averaged 4% better fuel economy than their EPA figures, while EVs got 12.5% less range than what is on their labels. One reason for the difference is how range is calculated. The EPA only provides a combined rating, which is weighted more in favor of city driving where EVs perform better, which boosts estimates. The SAE suggests providing a city and highway rating, like the EPA does with ICE vehicles. Car and Driver’s real-world test is done at a constant 75 MPH but in the EPA test, the speed varies, which allows EVs to use regenerative braking and that helps improve range as well. And the EPA test is also done at lower speeds and there’s two different formulas it uses to simulate the effects of higher speeds. Automakers can choose which formula they prefer, which means range figures aren’t perfectly comparable. The SAE suggests the tests should be standardized, so all vehicles are tested equally to get more accurate results.

BOSTON CONVERTING SCHOOL BUSES TO ELECTRIC
Boston, Massachusetts is converting its entire fleet of 750 public school buses to electric by 2030. And the city just received its first 20 buses from the Blue Bird Corporation. The buses, which can carry up to 71 students, have a range of 120 miles and can fully recharge in four hours using a Level 3 30-kW fast charger. Blue Bird says energy costs for its electric buses are 14 cents per mile compared to 49 cents per mile in fuel costs for its diesel buses. And we wonder if the city of Boston will take advantage of bi-directional charging, where they can sell electricity in the vehicle’s batteries to the utility. We learned at CES that two school districts in Massachusetts and Vermont did this and earned $10,000 per bus as part of a pilot project.

SIEMENS OPENS NEW EV CHARGER PLANT IN TEXAS
The German supplier Siemens just opened a new plant in Texas to make EV chargers. They’re Level 2 AC chargers, which range from 11.5 to 19.5-kW and will probably mostly be used at homes and small businesses but could really be installed anywhere. It’s Siemens second charger plant in the U.S. and it plans to build 1 million chargers for the market.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching.