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Runtime: 12:01
0:00 Anti-Musk Lawyers Want $7B In Fees
1:33 Tesla Stock on A Tear
1:54 EU Tariffs Hit China EV Exports
2:27 BMW Wants Lower Tariffs on Chinese Mini
3:06 CDK Hack Hurts U.S. Car Sales
3:44 EVs & Hybrids Up Strong in U.S.
4:38 Stellantis Loses Another Top Exec
5:26 Legacy Suppliers Key to Tesla 48v System
6:48 Not Enough Copper to Make EVs
7:40 Ampere Pioneers Pouch-To-Pack Tech
8:30 Aramco Buys 10% Of Renault’s HORSE
8:55 Waymo Hits AV Milestone
9:25 NASCAR Demonstrates 1,300HP Electric
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
ANTI-MUSK LAWYERS WANT $7B IN FEES
Wow, the fighting over Elon Musk’s massive pay package is really turning into a soap opera. A group of shareholders, led by a guy named Richard Tornetta, sued Tesla to block the package from going through. Tornetta, who only owns 9 shares of Tesla, won that fight, and now he wants the company to reimburse his lawyers to the tune of $7 billion in legal fees. That would be an all-time record for legal fees in U.S. courtrooms. So another group of shareholders is asking a judge to cut those outlandish fees to a fraction of that. Tornetta’s lawyers argue they deserve the $7 billion payout, because when they blocked Musk from getting $56 billion in stock, there were 266 million Tesla shares that were reserved for stock options. And since those shares, which are worth $67 billion today, were essentially returned to the company it was a great benefit to Tesla, and so they deserve the record payout. But Tesla argues they should only get $13.7 million. And now we’ll have to see how the judge rules on this.
TESLA STOCK ON A TEAR
Meanwhile, Tesla shareholders have shrugged off the legal issues. The stock is up 38% over the last 8 weeks. And it’s trading around $248 per share, which is where it started the year at, before taking a long downward slide that bottomed out in late April.
EU TARIFFS HIT CHINA EV EXPORTS
The EU’s new tariffs on EVs made in China are already crimping Chinese exports. According to the China Passenger Car Association, prior to the EU’s investigation into Chinese made EVs several months ago, China’s EV export growth was at least 30-40% for the year, but after the EU threatened tariffs, EV export growth dropped to 10%. Even so, China’s overall car exports were up 28% in June.
BMW WANTS LOWER TARIFFS ON CHINESE MINI
Speaking of those tariffs, BMW wants the EU to lower them on electric Minis made in China. They’re currently being hit with the highest 37.6% tariff, but BMW wants that dropped to 20.8%. Production of the electric Minis only started a few months ago and the models weren’t included in the EU’s investigation into Chinese made vehicles, so they were automatically slapped with the highest tariff. The EU is allowing automakers to petition for lower tariffs for new EVs but a decision won’t be made until the fall.
CDK HACK HURTS U.S. CAR SALES
Looks like that cyber-attack on CDK, the company that handles most dealer management systems in the U.S., really hurt new vehicle sales in the U.S. last month. Car dealers had a hard time processing purchases, and as a result, sales fell 4% to 1.3 million units. Worse, the SAAR, or seasonally adjusted annual rate, came in at only 15.2 million vehicles, down from the 15.8 million that analysts expected, and that was down from the 16.1 million SAAR that they were forecasting at the beginning of the year.
EVs & HYBRIDS UP STRONG IN U.S.
General Motors saw its sales increase only 0.6% in the second quarter. Ford was only up 0.8%, Stellantis had a disastrous quarter, with sales plunging 21%, led by big drops at Ram and Jeep, which are the company’s strongest brands. However, Toyota bucked the trend, posting a strong 9% growth in sales. Interestingly, the strongest segments in the market right now are EVs and hybrids. GM’s EV sales shot up 40% compared to the second quarter of last year, with the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Blazer posting good sales. Ford’s EVs were up more than 61%, with hybrids up 55%. Toyota’s electrified vehicles, which are mostly hybrids, were up 63%.
STELLANTIS LOSES ANOTHER TOP EXEC
Speaking of troubles at Stellantis, it just lost another top executive. Mamatha Charmathi, who was the head of software, is the 5th senior executive to leave the company this year. Christiani Campos was hired to replace Charmathi. On her LinkedIn page, Campos is listed as the Chief Financial Officer at MobileDrive & SiliconAuto in the Netherlands. She previously worked at Stellantis in Brazil in business development.
LEGACY SUPPLIERS KEY TO TESLA 48v SYSTEM
While Tesla is the first automaker to take the plunge into a mostly 48-volt electronic architecture, engineers have wanted to make the switch from 12-volts for decades. The reason for not doing it was always said to be cost. The cost to convert all the motors, switches, actuators and everything else in a car to 48-volts. But even some of the traditional suppliers in this industry were willing to take the plunge with Tesla. Not long ago we were back at vehicle benchmarking specialist Caresoft to follow along with its teardown of the Cybertruck, this time diving into its 48-volt system. And we saw several suppliers with 48-volt parts, including Brose who makes the window motor, Bosch makes the blower motor and Valeo makes the wiper motor. Elon Musk says Tesla will give the blueprint for its 48-volt system to any automaker that wants it, so more are likely to follow. And it looks like these suppliers are going after common parts that a lot of automakers would want to convert to 48-volts. Caresoft estimates that Tesla was able to reduce the size of its wires in the 48-volt system by about 50% on average and that it cut an additional mile of wiring by going to a zonal electronic architecture.
NOT ENOUGH COPPER TO MAKE EVs
Here’s another reason automakers might want to go to 48-volt. An EV requires three to five times more copper than an ICE vehicle. The grid also needs a lot of copper. And a new study says the current supply of copper just isn’t enough to meet future demand. The study was conducted by professors from the University of Michigan and Cornell, sponsored by the International Energy Forum. They say as many as six new copper mines need to open every year over the next several decades and that 40% of production from new mines would be needed for EV related upgrades to the electric grid, mainly for developing nations. The researchers suggest it might be more feasible to focus on hybrids instead.
AMPERE PIONEERS POUCH-TO-PACK TECH
Ampere, which is the EV division of Renault, says it will be the first to premiere cell-to-pack technology that uses pouch battery cells. Battery cells are typically arranged in a module and then multiple modules are combined together inside the pack. But cell-to-pack eliminates the modules, which clears up space to put more cells in the pack. Most automakers use cylindrical or prismatic batteries in their cell-to-pack setups because the cells can also provide some structure to the pack. But Renault doesn’t say exactly what allowed it to use pouch cells. Along with an effort to incorporate LFP batteries from LG and CATL, Renault says it will reduce the cost of the batteries in its vehicles around 20% by the start of 2026.
ARAMCO BUYS 10% OF RENAULT’S HORSE
Speaking of Renault, but this time switching over the ICE side of the business, oil giant Aramco is buying a 10% stake in HORSE, the powertrain JV between Renault and Geely. Part of the agreement also includes a collaboration with Aramco and Valvoline on technologies, fuels, and lubricants that will help lower engine emissions.
WAYMO HITS AV MILESTONE
Self-driving startup Waymo just hit a milestone and has opened up its service to everyone in San Francisco. It operates 24/7, in all weather conditions and now anyone can use it by just downloading an app. Previously, the robotaxi service was only available to a select number of users who signed up to join Waymo’s waitlist. Waymo also operates an autonomous service that’s open to anyone in the Metro Phoenix area.
NASCAR DEMONSTRATES 1,300HP ELECTRIC
NASCAR hopes to have zero carbon footprint by 2035 and to help promote those efforts, it revealed an all-electric all-wheel drive prototype race car with over 1,300 horsepower. The car was developed with ABB Group, who is also a major sponsor of Formula E. It’s based on a modified chassis of the Next Gen car that came out in 2022 and still uses the steering, suspension, brakes, and wheels from the current Cup Series car. However, I think we’re a long way off from watching an all-electric NASCAR race.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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Any wonder why lawyers are not trusted? (Not all lawyers, generically)
I had an interesting conversation about a Stellantis decision this weekend. A guy test drove a Ram 1500 with the turbo six, and said he really liked the way it drove, but he bought a Silverado. He just didn’t want of the the complexity of the new engine. He is a Stellantis employee. If there are many people like that, and there may be, it appears that it was a big mistake to replace the “hemi” with the six in nearly everything.
I guess most F-150 lovers got over it, though, and are buying a turbo six, even though a V8 is still available. From what I could find, fewer than a quarter of new F-150s have the V8, and the 2.7 turbo is the most popular engine.
Looks like we’ll start hearing some good EV news now that second quarter EV sales have been announced:
Kia up 131%
Ford ytd up 72%
Toyota Ev up 289%
Lexus EV up 333%
Subaru EV up 163%
These are small volume players but it is an encouaging sign.
For those that just must be negative, Tesla and VW were down.
The push to hybrids and phevs is just more proof of oil and gas industry stirring things up.
I think John or Sean characterized EV sales appropriately a couple of weeks ago… ups and downs based on government/OEM incentives. So, the sales data is not yet stabile enough to accurately predict the slope of a trend line.
It is interesting that a lot of the wiring in some EVs is aluminum and perhaps it could be a lot less copper used depending on the price of aluminum vs copper. The main cost of aluminum is the smelting of the bauxite to aluminum which requires huge amounts of electricity which could be solar though most today is provided by hydro.
Kit, any new engine is going to have more issues than one that has been around awhile until the bugs are worked out, that’s just machine nature, but the inline six does have a number of advantages over the V8, namely better harmonic balance, easier to work on, less valve train parts and complexity, etc. Did he get the Silverado with the 5.3 L V8 or the inline four turbo? That four is probably more complex than the new Hurricane 6 but it has been out a while, so it does have that advantage. Where I think OEMs are really stacking on the complexity is with their cylinder deactivation, the cost to benefit ratio just doesn’t seem worth it considering how many problems it produces.
Zonal architecture/raspberry pi interesting stuff.
Ziggy, he got the 5.3. He just didn’t want turbochargers. I’ve had several turbo engines and cylinder deactivation with no problems, but none with high mileage. Cylinder deactivation clearly improves mpg. A Corvette wouldn’t get 29+ mpg mpg at highway speed without it. If it causes trouble early on, though, it wouldn’t be worth it. I was surprised at how frequently my C7 and C8s would go to 4 cylinders, even at 80 mpg. At that speed, it’s probably letting you know you are going slightly downhill, and didn’t know it. I’d think it would be less useful in a heavy, high drag pickup truck than in a Corvette. It would activate a lot less often with the truck.
Dave, I’ve read that aluminum is a compromise for motor windings, because higher conductivity of wire in a given volume makes for better efficiency. Also, the high expansion coefficient of aluminum can be an issue with motor windings, which get fairly hot at times, even with liquid cooling. I’d think aluminum could replace a lot of copper for general wiring, though. I remember seeing a big aluminum casting replacing some wiring in a teardown of some Tesla, maybe Cybertruck.
There are a couple Equinox EVs at the local dealer. They are about $50K MSRP, and are bkack with black wheels. Is that what people want?
Kit, “if it’s black, take it back.” I have well water wherein dark colors show water spots. I’ve added a portable softener to the house, but no saw improvement. Black paint is beautiful when clean and in the sunshine, but it just seems to be a dust/dirt magnet… clean for only an hour.
I find black wheels to be tragic. Just think of the wasted time a designer spent shaping those wheels, only for the design details to be lost in the shadows of darkness. Also, in the era before the proliferation of aluminum wheel, blacks wheels were an indication of a sloven owner… too lazy to clean the brake dust or too cheap to replace the lost wheel cover.
I know this view may offend some people. But I like light colors (and bright colors for small/sports cars to be easier to see in traffic). Simply, the grocery store or home improvement store parking lot is so sad… just a sea of vehicles in the gray spectrum from silver to black.
If it’s black, take it back.
Drew, I share your disdain for black wheels, they always remind me of spares, and I wonder how you know if the oil change shop really rotated your tires if you can’t see the dirtier wheels on the back positions or if the wheel treatment you paid extra for at the carwash really happened.
Kit, I’m not a fan of the monochromatic look either, I don’t even like when the door handles, fender flares, and mirror caps are the same color as the body, black plastic is fine with me, less paint to wax too if you are into that.
Black wheels remind me of my earlier days of driving, after the wheel covers fell off of ’50s and ’60s cars that were near their end of life.
My most recent new car is a 2023 Mini that I factory ordered, “Island Blue” with white roof and mirrors.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WVrD76vVDrPBXMKq5
Kit, love that blue color, cool car, two doors forever!
Thx, Ziggy
Drew, great post, though some, or many feel differently, given the proliferation of grey and black vehicles with black wheels.
Quite Ironic that a group of lawyers took on a case to prevent Elon from being paid too much. Then request a pay that is too much for the job they did. Ohh lawyers. If I were the judge, I would grant them the same going rate as a public defender gets. Cause it was about injustice not money right?
The 48V system will happen soon now that someone has made the leap. It just takes one to get the ball rolling and I have no doubt that others will follow with very little reasons to not do it.
Electric NASCAR. lol. Might as well place the nail in the coffin with that move. However, it would make for much shorter races though. Change the 500 miles races to what 80 miles?
Will 48v be used much on ICE vehicles? With Cybertruck, they get the 48v with a DC-DC down converter from the big battery, but with an ICE vehicle, you’d need a 48 volt battery which would be expensive. I guess there may come to be more “mild hybrids” which have a 48 volt battery. In the video, it looked like the 48v power lines in Cybertruck are half the cross sectional area of those for 12v. Why wouldn’t 1/4 the area be enough?