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Runtime: 10:41
0:00 Tesla Model Y Could Lose Full Federal Tax Credit
1:03 How to Identify a Chinese Tesla
1:23 Cybertruck Windshield Costs $1,900
1:59 GM Fires 9 Cruise Execs
2:48 BMW Gets Level 3 Permit in China
3:12 BYD to Sell Cars in Mexican Department Stores
4:25 VW Uigher Audit in China Creates Controversy
5:32 ACEA Bemoans Lack of EU Policy for EVs
6:17 GM Makes Top Management Changes
7:13 Ferrari Back with Philip Morris
8:11 Kia to Announce New PBV Strategy at CES
8:56 Nissan Ariya in Production Hell
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TESLA MODEL Y COULD LOSE FULL U.S. TAX CREDIT
Tesla is losing the full federal tax credit on some versions of the Model 3 at the beginning of the year and the Model Y is likely following. Tesla says reductions are likely for the electric SUV, but at this moment in time we don’t know what versions will lose the credit and whether it will just be half or the full credit. However, it’s very likely that the Y uses the same battery/battery supplier that disqualifies some versions of the 3 from the full credit, so we expect to see the same with the Y. At the beginning of the year battery mineral and component requirements for EVs to qualify for the credit goes up 10%. The requirement for critical minerals goes from 40% to 50%, which represents one half of the federal credit, while the other half is battery components, which goes from 50% to 60%.
HOW TO IDENTIFY A CHINESE TESLA
By the way, a lot of people are wondering if Tesla is importing Chinese-made 3s and Ys to the US. We don’t think so, but if you ever want to find out for yourself, just check the VIN. All vehicles that are made in China have a VIN that starts with the letter L.
$1,900 TO BUY CYBERTRUCK WINDSHIELD
Speaking of Tesla, the online parts catalog for the Cybertruck went live and the price of its huge windshield and wiper blade might surprise you. The company charges $1,900 for the windshield, not including installation charges, and $75 for the wiper blade. While those are certainly on the higher end, they’re really not that far off from similarly priced models. For example, it’s not uncommon to pay over $1,000 for a windshield these days with all the cameras and sensors that are mounted behind them.
GM CRUISE AXES 9 EXECS
General Motors is cleaning house at Cruise. It just fired nine executives at its autonomous vehicle unit. That’s in addition to CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt and its Chief Product Officer both resigning last month. GM said in an internal message that “new leadership is necessary” for Cruise to regain trust. Cruise is currently under investigation by NHTSA and the California DMV because one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian after that person was struck by another vehicle and knocked under the AV. Cruise faces fines for possibly misleading investigators about the incident. And that’s why Cruise suspended all of its operations in the U.S. until this gets resolved.
BMW GETS LEVEL 3 PERMIT IN CHINA
And speaking of autonomous vehicles, BMW was just approved to start testing Level 3 autonomous vehicles on highways in Shanghai. The license will allow the company to test the technology on designated roads in the city. The automaker already announced it will offer Level 3 driving in Germany next year, starting with the 7 Series.
BYD TO SELL CARS IN MEXICAN DEPARTMENT STORES
BYD sees great opportunity in Mexico, so it’s going to sell cars in all kinds of outlets. The Chinese EV maker partnered with a company called Liverpool to sell cars at stand-alone dealerships, separate dealerships in shopping center parking lots and inside malls that are operated by Liverpool. BYD hoped to sell 5,000 cars in Mexico this year but, they’re coming in at less than half that. So BYD wants to sell 50,000 vehicles next year by selling them in more outlets. It’s also adding a new model to the market, the Song Plus PHEV. Even though BYD offers five BEV models in Mexico, it only expects pure electrics to make up 20% of its sales in 2024, with the Song Plus plug-in accounting for the rest.
VW UIGHER AUDIT IN CHINA CREATES CONTROVERSY
Volkswagen is caught in an uncomfortable situation in China that it wishes would just go away. It runs a plant in China’s Xinjiang province that is home to ethnic Uighers. And Uighers accuse the Chinese government of trying to wipe out their culture, as well as forcing them to work in labor camps that are almost like prisons. The Chinese government denies all this, of course, but human rights groups have pressured Volkswagen to prove its not using forced labor in its plant. So VW hired a German audit firm called Loening Gmbh, which said it found no evidence of forced labor. But Reuters reports that 6 executives at Loening posted a statement on LinkedIn saying they neither support the report, nor had anything to do with it. That strongly suggests they think it’s just a whitewashing that is covering up human rights abuses. Volkswagen isn’t saying a thing because it doesn’t want to upset Beijing, but we’re pretty sure this issue isn’t going away.
ACEA BEMOANS LACK OF EU POLICY FOR EVs
European automakers sure wish they had an industrial policy for electric vehicles that matches what China and the United States are doing. The ACEA, or European Automobile Manufacturers Association, says the European auto industry is falling behind when it comes to establishing an EV supply chain. Even though there have been lots of announcements to make battery cells in Europe, the ACEA says most of the raw materials are coming from China. Worse, it says that Europe has a patchwork of regulations that are growing by 8 or 9 new regulations a year. All that does, it says, is raise costs and slow things down.
GM MAKES TOP MANAGEMENT CHANGES
GM announced several important management changes. Doug Parks, who was running product development and purchasing is retiring after a nearly 40 year career. Ken Morris is getting promoted from vice president to senior vice president, and will take over product development, safety and motorsports. Josh Tavel goes from vice president of aftermarket to senior vice president of energy storage and propulsion, R&D and manufacturing engineering. Rory Harvey, currently president of North America will now run a newly created position called Global Markets. And Marissa West, who currently runs GM Canada, will now be the president of GM North America. Keep an eye on these execs. When Mary Barra and Mark Reuss eventually retire, this is where the next generation of leadership will likely come from.
FERRARI BACK WITH PHILIP MORRIS
Here’s an unexpected evolution of a long partnership. Ferrari first kicked off its partnership with tobacco company Philip Morris in 1973, made most famous by Marlboro’s sponsorship of the Ferrari Formula 1 team. But now the two are collaborating on ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their factories in Italy. I joked that maybe they could put some of those cigarette filters to better use, but really they’re turning to electrification. Specifically, they’re looking at using more renewable energy as well as energy generation and storage. While Ferrari and Philip Morris aren’t revealing exact details of the types of systems they will integrate into their plants, we could see more projects like a plant that Ferrari built last year that produces electricity with fuel cells, which provides 5% of the energy required for producing cars in Maranello.
KIA TO ANNOUNCE NEW STRATEGY AT CES
Kia is going back to CES for the first time in 5 years and it’s going to show off its strategy for PBVs, which it’s now calling Platform Beyond Vehicles instead of Purpose Built Vehicles. We expect this to include vehicles both big and small that will move people and things and make deliveries. Kia will also show its strategy for dedicated hardware solutions, digital technology and fleet integration. Additional EVs, including the concept EV3 & 4, the EV9 and EV6 GT will be on display as well. By the way, Autoline will be covering CES with daily posts about the newest technology at the show.
NISSAN ARIYA EV IN PRODUCTION HELL
You don’t see many Nissan Ariya EVs, do you? That’s because it’s gone through production hell trying to make them. The Ariya was supposed to debut in mid-2021 but it didn’t go on sale in Japan until May 2022. And in the U.S. Nissan told dealers to stop taking orders. But now the company says it’s worked out production bugs at the plant in Japan where it’s built and things are running smoother. But even though production is rising, it’s not nearly where it needs to be. The plant is only running at two-thirds capacity, so Nissan wants to add another model, and it’s even looking at using gigacastings to boost efficiency.
And that brings us to the end of today’s show. But don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours, which goes live on our website and YouTube channel at 3PM EST.
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If Tesla wants $1900 for a windshield, then that means you’ll be able to get an aftermarket one for $1000.
Isnt it pretty much a flat plane? Seems like that would make it cheaper.
It’s hard to know what VINs mean these days. L seems to be the standard first letter of the VIN for Chinese cars sold in the US, whether Tesla, Buick, or Volvo. On the other hand, W, which used to mean Germany, can now mean Germany, South Africa, UK, and who knows what else.
Isn’t the Cybertruck windshield unbreakable, like the side windows?
I wonder what technology Ferrari needs that Philip Morris has. Probably the skill to write big cheques.
What is happening at GM? They are dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you will have to use their infotainment system. Problem with that is that I travel a lot for business and one of the greatest boons to business travel for a lot of people is the standardization that CarPlay in particular has offered as we travel around the country. I hope that the large rental car companies push back on GM and don’t buy their cars if they no longer offer CarPlay.
Maybe Mary Barra thinks this is a way to increase profits, but it most likely a way to turn off potential customers.
This decision shows the deafness that GM executives show to consumer requests. Possibly it’s not deafness it’s stupidity…!
Its somewhat funny that GM thinks changing leadership at Cruise is somehow going to gain public trust? Willing to bet 99.9% of the public had no idea who Kyle Vogt was/is. Not dragging pedestrians down the road will gain trust but that already happened. Which to me, just points out the obvious flaw that these autonomous vehicles still have some gaps to be filled. Certainly, while writing the software no-one asked the question; What happens when a pedestrian is struck by another vehicle and thrown under ours where we may or may not have sensors? These are the various scenarios that have yet to be discovered.
It’s similar to designing manufacturing equipment. We have to make it so fool proof that a monkey can run it. Not because operators are dumb (because they are not) but lack of training, distractions or out of spec parts come in and people will find ways to mess up. Machinery is not smart enough to know that something is wrong. It doesn’t have the ability to just think “this doesn’t seem right”! The FMEA for driverless cars has to be extensive and so inclusive and much like a PFMEA it is a living document and needs to constantly be updated to include every scenario that happens. Stuff I’m sure they havent even thought of yet. So do I blame Cruise or the leadership? Not really. This was certainly something I would say falls under a freak accident and thankfully only happened to a single person. Now they need to be able to prevent it from ever happening again. Which is another reason I’ve said a pure 100% AV vehicle capable of touring the country is a long way out. Sad as this accident is it is part of the learning curve and will make a better product in the end.
I’m with Lambo on the whole Cruise thing. It’s understandable that the system isn’t designed with pedestrians hit by other cars in mind, and the management is not responsible for freaky things like that. Maybe autonomy is trusted too much at this point, given the Cruise incident, and Teslas going full speed ahead into the side of tractor trailers when their system is in use.
I watched AAH today, with a half hour segment about seats and interiors, but not a microsecond of discussion about lack of color in interiors. The discussion about making seats cheap and comfortable was interesting, but disappointing, overall. Some of us would be more than willing to pay a few bucks extra for a non-grey interior, but car companies don’t seem to realize that. You shouldn’t need to buy a Rolls-Royce or Bentley to have a choice of interior color.
@Kit, about interiors, white, black, brown predominant with maybe colored stitching. The only other vehicle that has a modicum of choice, that I can think of, offhand, is Corvette (but you already knew that). 😀
@Chuck, Corvette has some choice, but you need to go up-trim and/or packages to get beyond black, grey, and bright red, with the red only for the seats and no other trim for the 1LT.
There is a little color choice with Porsche, but not much. I got black/Bordeaux red in my Cayman.
Kit- Having worked in seating and closely with Adient from a supplier standpoint the color and seat material is dictated by the manufacturer. The focus has been on providing articulation and seat features from a structure’s standpoint. The supplier can present and offer a variety of colors and fabrics but can only sell what the manufacturer is willing to buy. So, in that regard their hands are tied. Your dissatisfaction with choices ultimately falls at the feet of the manufacturers. So, I haven’t watched AAH yet but the fact that fabric or color was not mentioned doesn’t surprise me. I’m willing to bet the Chinese will change that. A new competitor in the mix tends to try and offer something no one else has and they seem to be willing to offer very customizable vehicles. So maybe when they start flooding our market it may force manufacturers to expand their pallet. We can hope but no doubt it will only be in response, they are never bright enough to get ahead of the game.
Lambo, do you know how things were done, back when you had a choice of about 8 interior colors in a 1966 Dodge Coronet, like one I had? Were the seats made, and the other interior work all done in the assembly plant? Did they have warehouses of seats of different styles and colors in the plant, or did they cover/assemble things when a car was ordered? As I remember, it took about 6 weeks to get the Coronet 500 with gold bucket seats, an optional steering wheel, one of about 6 available engines, and some other individual options. My parents ordered and bought the car new, and I had it later.
With any option, it has to be tested thoroughly to make sure it withstands the same things that other options withstand. So if it is another color of the interior, it has to be tested to make sure that the green doesn’t fade worse than the grey; or that the cloth doesn’t degrade faster than the vinyl or faster than the leathers in all the color options. It gets to be a complex testing cycle with all the various color combinations and that gets to be very expensive. Due to testing alone, the price of the vehicle has to rise. Then, because of just in time deliveries, you have to store the various options somewhere and have them available for use on demand. If not enough of a particular color is ordered, like a green for instance, then any remaining stock of that color/material is scrap cost….which raises the vehicle price. These days OEMs are using AI to look at what people are ordering and thusly what the most popular color/material combinations are. With that they look at how much they would save by focusing on only those high running colors/materials. If there is a savings to be had on the cost end, then that becomes what they do. You have to pay for those UAW contracts somehow.
I lament actual choice in interior colors/materials, but sadly everyone buys grey cars with grey interiors. There just is not enough people out there wanting vibrant reds, deep greens/blues etc.. It was popular for a time to have brick red color seats in cars not too long ago, that has all been wiped out as people still choose tan and grey in droves even when given the choice. People in general make boring safe choices. They may like a vibrant red interior, but their brain thinks about resale value of their Camry and will this red make it non-saleable in the future? You can get away with choices in vehicles like the corvettes as those are cars sold to vehicle enthusisasts. Guess who is most likely to wander from the herd of grey/tan/black? The enthusiasts which I feel are the posters here. The public at large that buys Camries/accords are generally not going to be enthusiasts and will go for the safe interior color choice of grey/tan/black(GTB color). It is definitely not a case of if you build it they will come. Not in mass market vehicles.
Tesla still offers a white interior option. That exact shade of white is terrible, but at least it is not a GTB color. Sadly though, most used TESLA’s I see are generally a black interior. So people, given the choice, are choosing the boring option. I wish they would order white as at least it makes the stark boring interior design mildly interesting. Black on a TESLA interior makes it look bleak and boring. In black they remind me of those old 6V kids powerwheels interiors that were all unicolor and featureless LOL.
Yep, people buy grey/tan/black interiors, and grey/white/black paint, not because that’s what everyone wants, but because that’s all you can get. In some cases, there is no interior choice at all. It’s nothing but grey in a Sienna LE, and nothing but black in a Pacifica Touring. I got a blue interior in my 1989 Caravan, but probably by the mid-90s, nearly all choice was gone. Yeah, I suppose my blue interior would have faded more noticeably than grey, if it had been parked outside most of the time. Being garaged most of the time except when driven, it still looks ok after 34 years.
Tesla seems to switch things around periodically, regarding standard colors. Pearl white was the standard paint color on Model 3 for a while, with the other 3 or 4 colors extra cost. Now, dark grey is standard, and the other paint colors are $1000-2000 extra. Black interior is standard, and white $1000 extra.
The Mini I ordered is blue with a white roof, but the interior is black. The few other options cost too much.
Kit- I don’t know how it was done back in the day, but my guess is that most was done in-house. Because as Merkur pointed out the complexity increases testing and with so many things being out-sourced its managing a number of suppliers. The seats need to match the door panels and the headliner and the center console etc, etc…
I used to work for a fascia supplier and take any car front bumper and you have maybe 6 different body colors (that’s low) then you have ones with fog lamps and ones without in each color now you have 12 options. Then they offer front parking sensors in both fog and non-fog, so you have 24 then a body color grille and you’re up to 48. Add in active cruise radar mounted in the grille and you’re at 96. At this point you add in one new color, and you added 16 more fascia’s to stock. It was not uncommon to have over 100 different part numbers for a single model.
As a supplier you not only have to match the color of everybody, but all other suppliers that supply painted parts like mirrors, door trim, rocker panels all have to match the car too. I’m guessing the interior has even more suppliers than the exterior so I could see how it gets very complicated. Start-ups and manufacturers that keep that stuff in-house are probably able to offer a wider selection as they likely build it as needed. A supplier although a JIT supplier typically has to have a warehouse near the assy plant to sequence parts and react quick enough to support the assy line changes.
Yeah, using more suppliers would complicate things. Also, today’s cars with multiple painted plastic parts would be more complex to match things than cars with steel bodies and “chrome” bumpers, and no painted plastic parts. Also, quality expectations for accurate color match, etc., are higher than they would have been in the ’60s.
As far as choice of paint color, Porsche will oblige, but at a high price, I think $13K+. In addition to the cost, there would be a long wait for the ordered car.
Actually, I’m ok with grey paint in some cases, if I can get some color in the interior. My Cayman is light metallic grey, GT Silver in Porsche-speak, and the interior is Bordeaux red and black.
Years ago I liked any interior color as long as it was black, Have to laugh as we now have 2 vehicles with tan/kalahari interior, one with blue gray, & the BDR roadster with black.
I guess our tastes can change over time,