AD #3596 – Aston To Use Lucid Tech; Toyota To Build Its Own In-House Gigapresses; Fiat Ditches Gray Car Colors

  

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

ASTON TO USE LUCID TECHNOLOGY
Lawrence Stroll, the chairman of Aston Martin, sure isn’t wasting any time. Ever since the billionaire Canadian took control of the storied British sports car company, he’s been on a tear to modernize its product line and put everything on a solid financial foundation. Today, Aston announced it’s going to get access to Lucid Motors’ twin motor drive unit, battery technology, and its onboard charging system called Wunderbox. Lucid will also work with Aston to integrate its technology. The deal is worth over $450 million for Lucid, and this is big news for both companies. For Lucid, it’s a big financial development as well as a strong endorsement of its technology. For Aston Martin, this is a quick path to getting some of the best EV technology in the world for its first all-electric car which is scheduled to hit the market in 2025.

TOYOTA TO BUILD ITS OWN IN-HOUSE GIGAPRESSES
Toyota was stunned when Tesla’s Model Y pushed the Corolla aside to become the best-selling car in the world in the first quarter. Now Toyota has a new business unit dedicated to developing electric vehicles, what it calls the BEV Factory. If followed in Tesla’s footsteps by announcing that it would use large castings instead of stampings to make part of its body structures. But Toyota is also going to build its own in-house gigapresses. Currently the biggest casting machines made in Japan are 4,000 tons but 6,500 ton machines are needed for its gigacastings. Toyota says it takes 30 minutes of combined manufacturing time stamp out and weld body panels, versus about a minute and half to make a gigacasting. Toyota plans to have its own large castings in its electric vehicles by 2026. 

       

ICE VEHICLE SALES WON’T RETURN TO PRE-COVID LEVELS
Alix Partners released its annual Global Automotive Outlook this morning and here are some of the top bullet points.
• New car sales in Europe will never return to their pre-Covid levels and run at an annual rate that is 3 million units less than before. 
• The ICE is melting and sales of piston powered vehicles will never recover to where they were before Covid. 
• Chinese brands will outsell foreign brands in China this year and by 2030 they’ll have 65% of the Chinese market.
• Chinese brands are outperforming in exterior and interior design and with tech features, especially with driver assistance systems.
• The raw materials needed to make EVs cost $4,600 more than what’s needed for ICE vehicles. But that’s based on NMC batteries, LFP batteries cut that cost differential in half. 
• There will likely be a UAW strike this fall but the real question is whether it lasts a couple of weeks or 3 to four months. A couple of weeks is manageable. Several months would be a disaster.

ALPINE TO EXPAND INTO THE U.S. & CHINA
Renault has big plans for Alpine, its sports car brand. And the big news is, it’s expanding into the U.S. and China. More on that in a moment. By the end of 2026, Alpine expects to generate 2 billion euros in revenue and to have a fully electric lineup. But that’s not that hard considering it only sells one model, the A110. That changes sometime next year when it’s scheduled to launch the all-electric A290, which is Alpine’s version of the Renault 5 hatchback. The A290 is followed in 2025 by what it calls a C-segment Crossover GT or likely a fastback SUV. For models beyond these Alpine is developing its own high-performance EV platform that will support up to 7 vehicles by 2030. The first of which will be an all-new version of the A110 that is scheduled to come out by the end of 2026. We wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the first model Alpine offers in the U.S. and China. It says its first vehicles will be on sale in those markets by 2027. 

ALPINE RACING RECEIVES €200 MILLION INVESTMENT
But that’s not the only way Alpine is expanding. It’s got its sights set on Hollywood. Alpine’s racing division, which competes in Formula 1, is getting a 200-million-euro infusion from a group of investors and there’s some pretty big names in that group, including Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney and Michael B. Jordan. The investors now control a 24% equity stake in Alpine Racing. With the expansion of its lineup, market presence and racing efforts, Alpine expects an operating profit above 10% and to generate 8 billion euros in revenue by 2030. And who knows, maybe Alpine Racing will have a Hollywood ending like the Wrexham football club.

GM SIGNS MANGANESE SUPPLY DEAL
General Motors is locking up the raw materials it needs to make batteries for electric vehicles. It recently made deals for lithium and nickel and now it just signed an agreement with Australia mining company Element 25 to supply it with 32,500 metric tons of manganese sulfate. As part of the deal, GM will invest $85 million in Element 25 to help it build a facility in Louisiana which will process manganese mined in Australia starting in 2025. GM says the deal will help it reach its goal of producing 1 million EVs annually in North America.

PALLADIUM PRICES PLUMMET
But as automakers scramble to lock up raw materials for EVs, there’s not as much demand for materials needed for ICE vehicles. Palladium, which is used in catalytic converters to help reduce emissions, has seen its price drop dramatically over the past year. In 2022, it hit a peak of $3,440 an ounce but since then the price has tumbled more than 60% to $1,270 an ounce. Part of the reason for the drop is the growth in EVs, which don’t need catalytic converters. And with EV sales expected to reach 15 million globally this year, analysts expect palladium sales to fall by 1.5 to 2.25 million ounces, so prices will likely go down further.

HYUNDAI HITS 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
This may help explain why automakers are so optimistic about being able to generate big profits from connected car technology, like certain OTA updates and subscription services. The Hyundai Group first launched connected car tech in Korea in 2003, which then started expanding to the rest of the world in 2011. But it took the group until 2021 to hit 5 million subscribers. However, in under two years that number has doubled to 10 million and it expects to go to 20 million by 2026. With that kind of growth and that kind of reach, automakers are expecting to be able to connect with people even more throughout the day. Plus, they’ll be generating a lot of data.

CAR PRICES IN RUSSIA SKYROCKET
Car prices in Russia are skyrocketing due to a lack of inventory and a weak ruble. Prices have doubled or even tripled in some cases because of the high costs of importing vehicles. And even Russian made vehicles like the recently revived Moskvich brand are becoming more expensive. But demand for luxury vehicles remains high, which is pushing up prices more. One BMW dealer is selling X5, X7 and 7 Series between $181,000 and $242,000. And even Chinese vehicles are pricey. Voyah, which is the premium EV brand from Dongfeng, is selling its Passion sedan for nearly $100,000. Through May, more than 290,000 vehicles have been sold in Russia, which is a drop of nearly 14%.

FIAT DITCHES GRAY CAR COLORS
Here’s something we can get behind. Fiat announced it’s no longer making any gray cars. From now on, all its paint colors will be inspired by the Italian sun, sea, sky and earth. Its first model to go gray-less is the Fiat 500e.

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