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Runtime: 10:50
0:00 Tavares 2023 Compensation Is $39.5 Million
0:59 GM Modifies Executive Compensation
1:28 GM Cruise to Restart Operations Soon
2:27 Beijing First Capital City to Offer Robotaxi Rides
3:05 e-Transit Gains Traction with Fleet Customers
4:13 VW Considers Electric Pickup for U.S.
5:23 Mazda Announces CX-70 Pricing
6:40 PHEV Sales Booming in China
7:28 Toyota Extends Production Shutdown
8:01 New Jersey Launches Bi-Directional EV School Bus Program
8:58 BYD Reveals Cheaper Dolphin EV
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TAVARES 2023 COMPENSATION IS $39.5 MILLION
Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, sure had a good year. His total compensation for 2023 came to $39.5 million. That’s $14.7 million more than he made in 2022 and he got that money because of the record profits the company delivered last year, which was over $20 billion. The compensation includes a base salary of over $2 million, short term incentives of more than $6 million, long term incentives of $8 million, and retirement and fringe benefits of $2.7 million. Now, that doesn’t mean that Tavares will be handed a check for $39.5 million, since some of those benefits haven’t vested yet. But he will take home over $25 million.
GM MODIFIES EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Speaking of executive compensation, GM is modifying how it gives out executive bonuses. Up to now it was based on EBIT profits and free cash flow. The Detroit Free Press reports that going forward, 60% of the bonuses will be based on those financial results, but 40% of it will now be based on hitting EV production targets, rolling out software and services, and ramping up GM Cruise.
GM CRUISE TO RESTART OPERATIONS SOON
And right on cue, Bloomberg reports that GM Cruise is going to resume operations soon. It suspended all of its robotaxi operations in the U.S. because one of its cars dragged a pedestrian after they were hit by another vehicle in San Francisco. Bloomberg says it will probably resume operations in Dallas or Houston, Texas. And at first it will have safety drivers on board until it determines that it’s regained the trust of the public and safety regulators. GM Cruise has also been gathering data on operating in Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Raleigh, North Carolina, so it will likely be targeting those cities as well. Several years ago, GM CEO Mary Barra told investors that Cruise would be generating $1 billion a year in revenue by 2025 and $50 billion by 2030, so she’ll be ready to get those robotaxis back on the street as soon as possible.
BEIJING FIRST CAPITAL CITY TO OFFER ROBOTAXI RIDES
The race is on between the U.S. and China to see who leads in autonomous technology. And China is moving fast. Beijing just became the first capital city in the world to offer robotaxi rides between the airport and downtown business districts. And it’s not just a little demonstration project. Pony.ai, Baidu, WeRide, and AutoX now have permission to run robotaxis from 300 different pick-up and drop-off sites in the city out to the Daxing International airport, which typically involve trips of about 30 miles.
E-TRANSIT GAINS TRACTION WITH FLEET CUSTOMERS
While Ford is seeing a slowdown in demand for its electric passenger vehicles, it’s a different story for its e-Transit commercial van. Navin Kumar, the CFO of its Ford Pro commercial unit, says that state and local governments and small businesses are opting for the e-Transit at a higher rate than the gas version. Kumar says those customer segments represent about half of Ford Pro’s business. And Ford’s commercial unit is a strength for the company. Last year, it made $7.2 billion in pretax earnings and this year Ford is forecasting it to grow between $8-$9 billion. That increase will be driven by subscriptions and service, which Ford Pro expects to grow to 20% of earnings in two years.
VW CONSIDERS ELECTRIC PICKUP FOR U.S.
At the Chicago auto show, the CEO of VW’s North American operations said a VW-branded pickup for the U.S. market was not in the plans anymore. But according to WardAuto he was only talking about an ICE-based truck. It reports the automaker is working on its own EV pickup that will share a platform and other major components with the vehicles from Scout. And VW doesn’t think it will step on Scout’s toes with a different positioning and brand profile, but we think that could be hard to pull off. Engineering development for the platform is being done by Magna and early targets include things like 4-wheel drive capability, torque vectoring and tank turns. And while VW will get a version of the truck, it’s rumored that Audi will get a sibling to the Scout SUV and they all would be built at Scout’s new plant in the U.S. in South Carolina. But remember we are talking years down the road. The Scout vehicles are currently scheduled to come out in 2026 and VW’s future electric models, including the pickup, are in the early stages of design.
MAZDA ANNOUNCES CX-70 PRICING
Mazda announced pricing for the new CX-70 mid-size crossover in the U.S. It starts just under $42,000 and the plug-in hybrid version starts at $55,775. The PHEV powertrain combines a 17.8-kWh battery with a 2.5L four-cylinder, which produces 323 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. It has an all-electric range of 26 miles. The standard version comes with a 3.3L inline turbo 6 with a 48-volt mild hybrid that produces 280 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque. It gets an EPA estimated 25 MPG combined. A more powerful version of that setup is also offered which produces 340 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. Mazda says it’s the most powerful mass production gasoline engine in its lineup. All of the powertrains are mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission and are standard with all-wheel-drive. The CX-70 will start arriving in showrooms this spring.
PHEV SALES BOOMING IN CHINA
PHEV sales are booming in China. While BEV sales were up 21% last year, PHEVs shot up 83%. Bloomberg reports that BEV sales fell 39% in January compared to December, while PHEV sales only fell 16%. So they’re showing more resilience. BEVs still outsell PHEVs two-to-one, but PHEVs are more popular in smaller cities and rural areas. China’s goal is to have BEVs account for 90% of all electrified car sales by the end of next year. But thanks to the popularity of PHEVs and EREVs, battery electrics only account for 66% of all electrified vehicle sales.
TOYOTA EXTENDS PRODUCTION SHUTDOWN
Toyota is extending a shutdown of two production lines at two plants in Japan run by subsidiary companies until March 1st. The automaker originally suspended production at the end of January because it discovered irregularities in diesel certification tests. One of the lines builds the company’s Alphard and Vellfire minivans, while the other one produces the HiAce van. Toyota will decide on March 1st if it will restart production.
NEW JERSEY LAUNCHES BI-DIRECTIONAL EV SCHOOL BUS PROGRAM
In the U.S., the state of New Jersey is offering big bucks for school buses with bi-directional charging. It launched a 3-year pilot program that provides districts with up to $320,000 to buy an electric school bus and bi-directional charger. They’re allowed to lease or buy anywhere from 2 to 24 buses and they should see their energy bills go down, since they’ll be using power from the buses. And even if the district doesn’t want to go with bi-directional charging, they can still get $270,000 to buy or lease an electric bus and a Level 2 charger. But they may want to go with bidirectional. Manoj Karwa at Rhombus Energy, which makes bidirectional chargers, told Autoline that school buses can earn $10,000 a year by charging when rates are low and selling that electricity back to a utility when the rates are high.
BYD REVEALS CHEAPER DOLPHIN EV
BYD is coming out with an even cheaper version of its Dolphin EV. Thanks to a smaller 32 kWh LFP battery pack, it was able to cut the price by almost 5% to just under $14,000. The model also features a 70-kW electric motor and provides up to 302 kilometers or 187 miles of range on the Chinese test cycle. Other versions have options for 45 kWh and 65 kWh batteries as well as a more powerful 130 kW electric motor. I’m pretty impressed with BYD’s pricing power and its ability to expand so quickly into global markets, which now also includes Saudi Arabia. It just launched 5 of its models on the market and now operates in 70 countries and regions around the world.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show and this week. I hope you have a great weekend.
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Anyone want to bet me that Cruise wont be generating 1 billon by next year? Double or nothing on 50 B by 2030?
Hey US automakers pay attention to what’s going on in China. PHEV sales up 83% while BEV are about a quarter of that at 21%. I wonder what poeple really want? Keep making BEV trucks that no one asked for and prepare to count your losses. The whole EV truck thing was started by a publicity stunt typical of Tesla. To generate chatter and excitement they took $100 reservations of the Cybertruck. Which much like in demand concert tickets people slapped down their $100 bucks thinking when it launched if they were one of the first to get one at $39,990 they could easily flip it for an easy 10K. They didn’t want the truck they wanted to take advantage of the Tesla fan boys. So as Tesla is asking for a $1000 non-refundable deposit its been crickets when asked where those reservations stand. GM and Ford saw all the interest Tesla was getting and thought we gotta make a truck too and no one bothered to do a market research study to see if anyone really wanted one. Opps!
But as we are seeing China the sweet spot is PHEVs and they need to get on-board quickly.
Whatever vehicle they build it needs to have an all EV range that takes care of 90% of my driving (80 mile range) while still having the ability to go on trips. Then the charging infostructure becomes a mute point as long as you have home charging. They might want to pay attention, but I doubt if they will.
If an EV school bus can generate $10,000 a year in buying low a selling high electricity how much to just buy the EV battery and bi-directional charger? I mean if the batteries are 20K that’s a two year pay-back and maybe the school should just look at buying a few battery banks too.
I’m guessing if it were true everyone including the power companies would be doing that.
Also once everyone is doing that, will there still be a huge difference in charging rates? Seems it would cause the influx to flatten out making electricity a flat rate no matter the time of day.
China must have much MUCH better charging infrastructure for apartment dwellers than the. US, to be selling all of those BEVs and PHEVs. Probably half or 2/3 of people in China live in apartments. Whatever the number, it is much higher than in the US.
A $13,000 premium between the ICE and PHEV models of the Mazda CX-70 is the size of premium normally demanded by pure EVs with much larger batteries. Mazda doesn’t appear to have any idea on how to be successful at the CHANGE.
A number of years ago our provincial government proposed a change to the building code requiring wiring for chargers in new and renovated homes as well as condos and apartments.
With an election and the change in administration I don’t know if some or all of that good idea got canned.
In exchange we got buck a beer. Doug Ford, classy to the end.
I know that figure of $10K/year selling energy to the grid has been quoted a few times here on AD. Those of us here question it as we watch each time it comes up, but I finally found the time to research it. As far as I can find, the term “Net Metering” comes up often to describe energy in/energy out, getting paid for the excess energy through battery, EV, and/or solar. Looks like for the average consumer, energy companies are not fond of the Net Metering, and many are limiting the amount individuals can get back, and most don’t cut you a check, They just give you a credit, so you can use the value to keep a running positive/negative balance, but never “cash in”. Your investment may pay for itself in time through $0 electricity bills, but you would never receive a big payout.
I wonder if anyone can clarify, maybe the $10K/year/bus is a special deal made for public education systems? Maybe school districts have such an enormous energy bill that they can save tens of thousands of dollars off the total each year?
Albemarle, there is a $14-18K premium for the Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrids, with 17.3 kWh batteries. There may be additional standard equipment, though. If the Jeeps, or the Mazda are comparably equipped with the ICE versions with that much price premium for the plug-ins, you would never make up the difference in operating cost, even if nearly all of your driving was with plug-in power.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=47378&id=47278&id=47191&id=47277
I’d think the shorter battery lifetime with the extra cycling of bidirectional charging could easily eat up whatever money would be made/saved by using it. Buses have big batteries, 150-200 kWh which are expensive, like $30-40K. Maybe they’ll be a lot cheaper in a few years when replacements are needed, but maybe not.
I too was wondering how many decades you would have to keep the new Mazda PHEV to recoup the 15K premium price over the ICE model. Only 26 miles of range (and less in the winter) no thanks.
Ford/Lincoln had PHEV Fusions/MKZs in 2013 with that type of range. They didn’t sell very well then, but would they be in high demand now if their styling/tech were kept up to date? In the case of the MKZ hybrid they were touted as having the same starting price as the gas version back then.(Too far ahead of their time)?
Interesting how the automobile market is all about timing and trends.
I thought the MKZ hybrid was nice. It didn’t get the MPG of a Camry or ES hybrid, but still, very good. I kind of like the front end styling.
Is Mazda’s 2.5L turbocharged? If it is NA, that 323hp is impressive. Unless it is all at 7,00 rpm. Drivability needs power off idle, not just when screaming.
JoeS
The 2.5 in the PHEV is naturally aspirated. I suspect 100-some of the 323hp are from the electric motor.
Thank you Kit. That went right over my head.
According to Mazda, the CX-70 PHEV has a 68 kW electric motor, so 91 hp. Less than expected, but there’s so much insta-torque. Its range is also on the low side for that battery, but maybe they added a considerable margin of error, or just cite the lowest possible range, under most adverse conditions.
I like all those inline sixes cropping up (yes, the 2.5 is a four). They’re remarkably compact too. The Duramax 3l Turbodiesel weighs about 210-220kg, from memory, which is excellent for such a powerful Diesel engine.
gm only has to dust off the Atlas.
I know Carlos Tavares comments on competing with China were not in Friday’s report, but, there is a measure of truth to his statement. Yet, there is also an opportunity in all of this too! China has way more assembly capacity then the country needs, so exporting their automotive goods to other countries is were there looking and really need. That is where the opportunity lay! Think about this, when western countries were looking to enter their market, they setup rulers and laws to do business in their country. Why couldn’t the countries they want to enter do the same?! In the US for example, why couldn’t they require Chinese automakers to partner or create a JV with a local automaker, build assembly plants in this country and that they must disclose all intellectual property to their partner/JV, with regard to all the vehicles assembled and sold in the country! If they choose to import those vehicles instead, they would be subjected to a 25 to 50% tariff on all those vehicles, or some such. This way, local companies would be able to take advantage of the opportunities Chinese companies had for so long, even though, only recently, the Chinese government has walked back from that practice. Local companies would be able to right away, get up to speed on their Rising Sun counter parts, in the same way they benefited from western expertise for so long! In the US, this would not work for Stellantis, for, though they have a North American headquarters, they are not a local company.
How this may not work out as intended, is that those Chinese companies would partner with failing US companies, like Faraday Motors, Lordstown and others that are in the automotive equivalent of the ICU or are moments away from being taken off of life support! They could use their carcasses as a shell and back door their way of getting their products in the country, around the rules and the tariff! Or such a rule could/would cause Chinese auto companies to place an even greater focus on entering the Mexican market. Building assembly plants and investing there, along with their deep pockets, I could see them discouraging leaders from adopting rules like those suggested above. Then, with the current North American trade agreement in place, they could use that as a launching point for their vehicles to enter the U.S. market.
Still, the fact that China wants to/needs to export their excess product off their shores, could be used to the benefit of the countries that want to do business in!
Sharing this Lyriq appreciation thread over a reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CadillacLyriq/comments/1az829p/lyriq_drivers_what_do_you_love_about_it/
The Bolt aside, it’s clearly gm’s best shot at present, not only for building critical mass and actually selling an EV at a profit, but also to introduce new drivers across the globe to the Cadillaq brand.
I’ve seen very few Mach-E’s here in Switzerland, as in single digits. Less than Mustangs, actually. When EVs have taken off, with the Model Y being last year’s best-selling vehicle overall, and VW’s crossovers not doing too badly either.
Correction.
Mazda’s CX-70 ‘Spec Deck’ (page 12) lists the following for the PHEV (which makes more sense):
Engine 189 hp @6000 rpm, 192 lbf @ 4000 rpm
Electric Motor 173 hp @5500 rpm, 199 lbf @400 rpm (sic)
Curb weight 4863/5198 lb (High PT/PHEV)
No disrespect to those who have bought PHEV’s or EVs because they can be a great vehicle if that’s what you want and you can afford it. The problem automakers are running into is the public isn’t as dumb as they had hoped. For many people it’s a simple economic decision. When you are on a budget and have to take into consideration the vehicles payment, insurance and fuel into account then there are very few situations where a EV or PHEV can come out on top. Sure, you have some buyers that are impulse buyers and decide with their feelings and not their head. But most people have to justify that extra 10-15k and with most vehicles getting around 30mpg and an average of 15,000 miles a year and gas at only $3.40 a gallon that’s only $1700 a year in gas. Meaning it takes almost 6 years to save 10K in gas and that’s not including what you pay for electric.
If you spend $500 a year to drive on elect. means you really only save $1200 a year which changes that payback to 8.3 years.
Most people want money in their pocket now not in 8 years and who knows if they’ll keep it that long. I mean buying and EV under the premise it’s a financial benefit is a gamble with the odds not in your favor. So, for the general public its going to continue to be a hard sell when it doesn’t make financial sense. Cant really remember anytime where a product that cost more is less convenient and has the potential to depreciate to nothing by time its paid off has ever been a big seller.
Sean W., interesting Lyriq reddit. It sounds like it’s quiet, rides well, and is faster than what most buyers have had in the past. They still must not be building many. I’ve seen only one on the road.
Lambo, I have 120v & 240v run to my garage already, so it would be really convenient for me to never have to stop at a gas station, just plug the wall charger into the car when I get home (possibly just once a week or so, since I don’t drive very many miles/week). I wouldn’t get an EV based on savings, though in the long run, it would be good since I keep vehicles for a long time. I would get one mainly for the convenience and the low maintenance. I am waiting until the prices get closer to ICE, and for them to work out some of the issues still up in the air like having a common (Tesla style) plug for example and maybe solid state battery.
Sean, that Lyriq reddit was good info (pros & cons). We have dedicated EV spots with chargers here at my work place, and besides the Teslas I’ve seen many VWs and a couple Mach Es, now someone has a Lyriq here too.
Not having home charging, I’m not in the market for an EV, but I may test drive a Lyriq to see what it’s like. The dealer in my area has three in stock, according to their web site.
Not having home charging, I’m not in the market for an EV, but I may test drive a Lyriq to see what it’s like. The dealer in my area has three in stock, according to their web site.
The bi-directional charging is called V2H (vehicle to home) by Cadillac. As an EV incentive, my power company (Cobb EMC) offers free electricity overnight (something like midnight to 8am). With V2H and my low miles, I could theoretically store the free electricity at night and feed it back to the house when I get home from work. I still would like to see data on how it impacts battery life.
I like how the Lyriq styling looks more like a station wagon than an SUV.
Update: I just looked, and Cobb EMC now limits the amount of free energy to 400 kWh/month. I guess too many people were taking advantage of it!
https://cadillacsociety.com/2023/08/24/vehicle-to-home-tech-coming-to-all-cadillac-ultium-evs/