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Runtime: 11:47
0:00 Tesla Wins Lawsuit Against Chinese Protestor
0:45 Judge Rules That Tesla Knew About Defect
1:30 Northvolt Develops Sodium Battery
2:51 Toyota Solid State Battery Will Be Low Volume
3:23 Ford Cuts Back on EV Battery Plans
4:06 Stellantis Breaks Ground on Canada Battery Center
4:59 Hertz & EVgo Offer EV Renters Special Charging Rates
5:32 Tesla Now Charging Supercharger Congestion Fee
6:08 Pony.ai Tests Platooning on Public Roads
7:19 Ji Yue Offers Yoke, Eliminates Shift Lever, Door Handles
8:07 Carbon Fiber Wheels Can Save 33-lbs/Wheel
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TESLA WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST CHINESE PROTESTOR
Tesla is spending a lot more time in court these days, and it’s got some good news and some bad news. First the good news. It just won a case in China against a woman who claimed that the brakes on her Model 3 malfunctioned and caused an accident. She famously protested Tesla at the Shanghai auto show in 2021 wearing a shirt that said “brake failure” in Chinese. Tesla sued the woman and a court ruled that there was no defect with the brakes, so it ordered her to pay damages, cover the cost for evaluating her car and publicly apologize to Tesla.
JUDGE RULES THAT TESLA KNEW ABOUT DEFECT
OK, now the bad news. A U.S. judge in Florida is allowing a lawsuit over Tesla’s Autopilot system to go to trial because he said there is “reasonable evidence” that Elon Musk and Tesla were “acutely aware” that there was a defect in the system, but they still allowed the cars to be driven. The lawsuit involves a fatal crash in 2019 in which a Model 3 owner drove under the trailer of a semi-truck that crossed in its path and sheared the roof off, killing the driver. Autopilot never detected the truck. So the judge ruled the man’s family can proceed with the lawsuit and seek punitive damages from Tesla for intentional misconduct and gross negligence.
NORTHVOLT DEVELOPS SODIUM BATTERY
We’ve got a lot of battery news today. And we’ll start out with this report on Northvolt, the Swedish battery company. As you know, everybody is working on batteries that have fewer critical materials, which are controlled by China. And Northvolt is one of the first to come out with sodium-ion cells, which replace materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite with iron and sodium. Because those materials are much more abundant and easier to get, sodium-ion batteries are cheaper to make. Some estimates put the current cost of sodium-ion batteries around $80-85 per kWh, compared to about $125 per kWh for an average lithium-ion battery. With the same kind of scale as lithium, they’ll be even cheaper. They’re also safer, especially at high temperatures. So, you might be wondering, why don’t we hear more about sodium-ion batteries? The cells produced by Northvolt have an energy density of 160 Wh/kg, which is about half of today’s lithium-ion batteries. That means they’re really not suited for cars right now and why Northvolt will first use them for energy storage. However, it didn’t say when we would see those systems.
TOYOTA SOLID STATE BATTERY WILL BE LOW VOLUME
Speaking of battery chemistries, there’s been a lot of headlines made about solid-state batteries being the breakthrough needed for mass EV adoption. So you might be a little disappointed at Toyota’s production targets for the technology. According to its own in-house media outlet, the automaker will start coming out with solid-state batteries in 2027 or 2028, but even by the end of the decade it will only have enough capacity to make “several tens of thousands of vehicles.”
FORD CUTS BACK ON EV BATTERY PLANS
Ford is cutting back on its EV battery plans because it says EV adoption is not growing at the pace it expected. So, it’s slashing its investment, output and number of new jobs at the battery plant it’s building in Michigan with CATL. Ford is trimming $1.5 billion from its budget, will hire 1,700 new workers, instead of 2,500 and will make 20-GWh of batteries, instead of 35-GWh. Production of the LFP or lithium iron phosphate cells starts in 2026 and once it hits its 20-GWh output that will be enough to power around 230,000 EVs.
STELLANTIS BREAKS GROUND ON CANADA BATTERY CENTER
But while Ford is scaling back its EV operations, Stellantis is building its up. Literally. It officially started construction of its new battery center in Windsor, Ontario. Stellantis will use the site to test batteries. For example, it has 35 climate test cells. And it will also have the ability to make development battery packs. The battery center is part of its $2.8 billion investment to make EVs in Canada and Stellantis expects the new site to be open in the middle of next year.
HERTZ & EVGO OFFER EV RENTERS SPECIAL CHARGING RATES
Hertz and EV charging network EVgo are partnering to offer people who rent EVs special charging rates. Drivers who sign up for the promotion and rent any EV model through Hertz, can use any EVgo station across the U.S. with no monthly subscription fees or session fees for one year. But the deal is only available to new EVgo customers who sign up for an EVgo account, for a limited time only. And the charging rates will vary depending on region and time of day.
TESLA NOW CHARGING SUPERCHARGER CONGESTION FEE
And in other EV charging news, Tesla is now charging a congestion fee at some Supercharger locations in the U.S. to shorten session times. It’s charging $1 per minute after you reach 90% state of charge. Owners will receive a message if the station has congestion fees and there’s a five-minute grace period. This new congestion fee is replacing the idle fee it introduced a few years back that would limit owners to only an 80% state of charge at busy stations.
PONY.AI TESTS PLATOONING ON PUBLIC ROADS
Remember like 5-7 years ago when pretty much everybody was talking about truck platooning? But even then it was not a new idea. That’s where a number of semi-trucks, usually up to three, essentially play follow-the-leader. They’re all wirelessly connected to each other, so they know when the others are going to speed up, brake or turn and the two trucks behind go exactly where the lead truck takes them. The goal is to dramatically increase productivity because it allows one human driver to control multiple trucks. The first experiments with truck platooning actually started in Europe during the late 1980s under a program called Prometheus. While that did not lead directly to platooning on public roads, the idea is still alive and kicking. In China, Pony.ai just got permission to test Level 4 platooning on public roads around the city of Guangzhou. It says platooning allows trucks to drive much closer together, so they can literally draft each other for better aerodynamics and fuel efficiency.
JI YUE OFFERS YOKE, ELIMINATES SHIFT LEVER, DOOR HANDLES
Looks like Tesla and Toyota are not the only ones interested in a yoke steering wheel. Ji Yue, the car brand that is a collaborative effort between Geely and Baidu, is offering customers the choice of a steering yoke at no extra cost over a regular steering wheel. Ji Yue says the yoke really improves visibility of the big screen that sits on top of its instrument panel in its 01 model. And being able to see that screen is super-important because Ji Yue got rid of all the physical controls in the car, including the gear selector, shift paddles, center console buttons and even the door handles. All those operations are done through the big screen.
CARBON FIBER WHEELS CAN SAVE 33 LBS/WHEEL
Carbon Revolution, the Australian company that makes carbon fiber wheels, is going to open a factory in North America, because it sees strong growth ahead. Up to now its wheels have been aimed at high performance cars, since the lighter wheels can improve handling and cornering speeds. But their lightweight efficiency is also making them attractive for big SUVs and electric vehicles. Jake Dingle, the CEO of Carbon Revolution, tells Autoline that they’re developing a 24” wheel for a major OEM program that saves 15 kilograms, or 33 pounds, over an aluminum wheel. That’s a savings of 132 pounds for all 4 wheels, or 165 pounds if it includes the spare. And that kind of weight savings, for a bolt-on technology, is the kind of solution that automakers love to see.
A programming note here. The Autoline staff will be off for the next two days for the Thanksgiving holiday. So there won’t be an Autoline Daily or an Autoline After Hours while we’re off. But we will be back here on Monday, and for those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving, we hope you have a wonderful holiday.
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Currently there are a couple of vehicles being sold in China that use Sodium ion batteries. LFP batteries help to lower the cost of EVs, but I believe the only way we are going to see an EV in the 20K range in the US is with Sodium batteries.
Sean, Are any of the ‘alternate chemistry’ battery makers committing to producing batteries in ‘legacy’ sizes? A new cheaper, legacy format battery would be great for if/when the original expensive batteries die. In a perfect world, the lithium recovered from your dead batteries might even pay for new sodium batteries!
Platooning could be good if it allows a passing vehicle to slip in between them as that could be needed to exit the highway if you didn’t realize you were passing 3 or more trucks plus its dangerous on a two-lane road.
In the flat states of the US you could save even more fuel by getting one large rig and just pull three trailers. which is already being allowed on certain highways.
Sean you said the sodium-ion batteries have about half the density of energy storage but how do they compare in weight? Because in some of the very large applications like EV trucks or SUVs they might have the room to package more batteries to get a similar range but not if it becomes super heavy. Plus if you need twice the amount of batteries and they are only half the cost it’s a wash and you’re paying the same to get the same range.
I’ve said this before but – platooning, great idea and maybe we can do a bunch of them and if there’s enough maybe give them there own road …hmmm what does that sound like ???? oh yea, a train! How about we just use a train.
The platooning I see most often is a bunch of motorcyclists on 2 lane roads driving 2 abreast close together at 10 kph below the speed limit angering drivers and preventing passing.
At least with trucks there is commerce.
Platooning also has fuel/battery efficiencies as the following vehicles have much lower wind resistance than the lead vehicle.
… and Happy Thanksgiving to all. Travel safely. Enjoy your time with family and friends.
Yokes only really work if you are moving them less than 90 degrees from center, after that they are hard to hold onto and that is why they are primarily used in vehicles that don’t steer wheels but instead stop or slow down tracks or wheels to steer, such as in an M113 tracked armored personnel carrier or a Russian BRO atv that has two wheels on each side that slow down or stop in order for the vehicle to make sharp turns.
Happy Thanksgiving,enjoy your time off.
Carbon fiber wheels sound like a win-win until you price them out! Maybe in volume they will get a little closer in price to an aluminum wheel, but I doubt they will ever get close enough. Question: would a regular tire shop be able to mount these wheels, I kind of doubt it. Even if they could, what price would the special handling and/or special mounting equipment add to the cost to mount a tire on these rims?
There is a very good reason why these rims are only seen on race cars and $150K and up exotic vehicles.
While I am a fan of Ford, IMHO, the claim that they are cutting back on battery investment, due to EV adoption is not growing at the pace they expected, does not seem to pass the smell test. When they came out with the Lightning and the Mach E, with years long waiting list, back orders and sky high demand, everything was sprinkles and pixie dust! Yet, between EVs already being a tad expensive, the price hikes (from both the OEM and dealers), those same long wait times, along with the reality of BEVs being great and incredible, but far from perfect, Ford’s reaction seems to put all the blame on potential customers! I also believe that some of the weaning of customer interest in Ford’s offing, may have as much to do with their not highlighting future EV products. GM, to their credit, has shown the EV equinox, Blazer, Escalade IQ, Celestiq and now the Optiq! While those who watch Autoline may know that Ford and Lincoln has three BEV’s coming to market for each brand, but where does that leave the average consumer? If the Mach E and Lightning are too big or small, or out of your price range, what do you do? At least with GM and KIA you know what they have in the pipeline and can built some excitement.
Even Tesla was willing to admit that yokes are stupid for road cars, and again started putting steering wheels in Models S and X.
Platooning should clearly not happen on two lane roads. It’s bad enough that idiots in smaller vehicles charge up behind other vehicles, but then won’t pass, so you have 4 or 5 vehicles close together, and need to pass all of them at once if you want to pass.
Buzzerd, yeah, trains are a great idea, and many times as efficient as trucks, but they are ripping up most of the tracks in the US. Also, airplanes are used to move people 200 miles, when trains would do it using less than 1/10 the fuel.
Freight trains are doing great in the US, and very economical. It’s passenger trains that have been left to whither, while once ubiquitous trams were ousted in a coordinated campaign after WWII.
Btw, Cybertruck mania is bubbling over in some parts of Tesladom. Is anyone reminded of the reactions to the first generation Ford Taurus way back when? I don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes, but I can already picture the day when dilapidated Cybertrucks are a dime a dozen, and the look becomes so stale people won’t even notice when they’re gone. And ultimately, some will be collector’s items, which is not likely the case for many a Taurus.
Then someone will come along and drop a V8 in the bed.
When I was out west a few years ago in Wyoming, I remember seeing a long, fairly fast freight train every few minutes, probably moving stuff from west coast ports to places farther east. Also, lots of coal goes to US power plants by rail.
I recently saw a video of a Prius with a Hellcat V8, and was surprised that the engine was in the front. I would have expected them to put it under the liftgate. Maybe too wheelie prone. There would be a lot of options for where to put an engine in a Cybertruck.
I suspect a few Taurus SHOs are “collected,” especially the first generation ones with manual transmissions, but I suspect parts could be hard to find for the Yamaha built engine.
I had completely forgotten about the Taurus SHO! People will shoehorn a V8 into the most unlikely places, but a Prius takes the cake. Now I’m looking forward to that Cybertruck with a growl.
Btw, saw a Ranger Raptor parked downtown here in Switzerland, and it looms over the other cars. Although in general, vehicles have grown in Europe too, no thanks to so many bigger SUVs.
When I was most recently in Europe in 2012, mostly northern France, SUVs were starting to invade. There seemed to be a lot of Hyundai small crossovers, given the generally low market share of Asian brands in Europe. Probably a lot has changed since then.
Yes, vehicles have grown substantially, and the mix of bodystyles has changed, like ‘everywhere’. The new Mustang fits in perfectly, though. Still the best way to get an affordable, modern V8. About as rare as Mach-E’s, but a fantastic halo car.
Shake a stick, and you’ll likely connect with a Tesla. But in China, the marque is one among many. A leading EV-market participant, but nowhere else is so competitive in that segment, with many smaller electric cars being widely sold.
Meanwhile, VW is upping the ante with massive investments in better localization, and finally making some inroads in China, now selling 12K ID.EVs 3 per month there. Chevrolet’s pretty nice Menlo managed 6K in all of 2022.
Do they still sell the 4 cylinder turbo Mustang with a manual trans in Europe? They are dropping it in the US.
Nope, only the V8, with both transmissions. It’s really a pretty unique kind of car. And the days of low-tech US engines are mercifully behind us.