AD #3845 – Mercedes Halts Battery Capacity Expansion; Stellantis Going Hybrid Crazy; Ford Capri Coming Back as MEB-Based EV

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

MERCEDES HALTS BATTERY EXPANSION
Mercedes is holding back on expanding its battery capacity until it has “more transparency on demand” for EVs. In 2022 it said it would need 200 GWh of batteries by 2030, which was supposed to be supplied by 8 cell plants around the world. But now it’s pausing plans on at least two of those plants in Germany and Italy with current battery partner ACC. Mercedes will still rely on ACC for cells that come from a facility in France, as well as from other partners like CATL. But it also looks like Mercedes wants to make batteries in-house. It just opened a new cell center at its headquarters in Germany to develop batteries for future EVs and plans to reduce its battery costs by 30% in “the coming years.” Just before the July 4th break we reported that Mercedes is spending more money on combustion engines than it previously planned to. It’s an effort to keep its cars competitive because by 2030 it still expects 50% of its sales to come from models that have some sort of IC engine.

STELLANTIS OFFERING MORE HYBRIDS IN EUROPE
Stellantis is also reacting to the slowdown in EV demand and the increase of hybrid sales by equipping more models in Europe with a hybrid powertrain. The company says it will have 30 hybrid vehicles for sale by the end of the year and plans to introduce 6 more by 2026. It will especially leverage its eDCT technology, which combines a small IC engine with a 21 kW electric motor incorporated into the transmission as well as a 48-volt belt-driven starter generator and a nearly 1 kWh battery pack. Stellantis says its hybrid sales are up over 40% this year, which is part of the reason it invested another 240 million euros at a plant in Italy in April to be able to make up to 600,000 eDCTs a year.

BYD SPENDING $1 BILLION ON NEW PLANT IN TURKEY
BYD is expanding even more into Europe, which we see as a response to the EUs new tariffs on imported Chinese-made EVs. It agreed to spend a billion dollars on a new plant and R&D center in Turkey that will be able to make up to 150,000 vehicles a year. The facility is expected to start pumping out BEVs and PHEVs by the end of 2026 and employ up to 5,000 people. Even though Turkey is not part of the EU, it is one of its main trade partners and also has a customs union with the EU. So, presumably the BYD vehicles that come out of the Turkey plant will no longer be hit with a 17.4% import tariff. There’s also reports that Chinese automaker GAC is in talks with Turkish EV maker TOGG on a possible production joint venture. BYD’s European expansion includes providing New Energy Vehicles to businesses in the region as well. It signed a memorandum of understanding with European vehicle leasing company Ayvens and they expect to provide EV fleet services to over 30 companies in the first year. Initially the vehicles will be offered in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg and Ayvens will also help BYD expand into more retail locations in Europe.

  

FORD CAPRI COMING BACK AS MEB-BASED EV
The Ford Capri is coming back. Ford of Europe posted a video on social media of an old Capri 2.8 trying to plug into an EV charger with the text “The Legend is Back 10.7.24”. The model was last produced in 1986, but the new version is expected to be the second Volkswagen MEB-based EV that Ford gets. The first is the Explorer EV that just launched. Depending on how you read the date that was teased, we’ll either know more about the new Capri tomorrow or in the first week of October.

LUCID BOOSTS SALES BUT WITH BIG DISCOUNTS
Luxury EV startup Lucid Motors’ sales were up significantly in the second quarter but it relied on hefty incentives to help boost sales. The company revealed it delivered 2,394 Air sedans in Q2, which is up 71% compared to a year ago. But Lucid offered more than $16,000 per vehicle in factory incentives, which is $6,600 more than last year. Lucid also said production dipped slightly in the second quarter, down about 3% to 2,110 vehicles. For the first six months of the year, Lucid has produced more than 3,800 Air sedans, a pace that’s behind its target of building 9,000 vehicles this year. But it should get closer to that goal when its first SUV, the Gravity, launches later in the year.

A MOTORCYCLE THAT CAN RUN ON CNG OR GAS
Indian company Bajaj Auto, which makes motorcycles and scooters, introduced what it claims is the world’s first motorcycle powered by compressed natural gas. Called the Freedom, the 125cc bike has a range of 120 miles or 193 kilometers from its 12.5L CNG tank. But since CNG can be harder to find in some parts of India, the bike also features an auxiliary 2.0L gasoline tank, which provides an extra 80 miles or 129 kilometers of range. The bike has a top speed of 90.5 km/h or 56 MPH while running on CNG and it’s 3 km/h higher with gasoline. Bajaj claims that CNG cuts the cost of running the bike in half and that it reduces CO2 emissions by 25%.

NATRION MAKES SOLID STATE EASY
Battery companies all over the world are working on solid state batteries, and the race is on to see who can make it to mass production. A startup called Natrion not only thinks it has the solution, nothing in the battery plant has to change either. It’s a drop-in solution, where nothing in the battery has to change–you just eliminate the liquid electrolyte and replace it with a solid state fabric. You still use the same process and the same equipment. Alex Kosyakov, the CEO and Co-founder of Natrion explains what it’s about.

“Our technology is a material we call Lisic, and this replaces the liquid components that would typically be in a rechargeable lithium battery with a solid material, thereby making it a solid state battery with significantly enhanced performance and safety. There have been methods of doing this in the past, but what I think we’ve finally figured out is a way to do this with the existing battery manufacturing processes and techniques, and we make it as easy as possible to transition to solid state batteries to make them as scalable and low cost as possible.”

By the way, Natrion was the winner of this year’s GAMIC prize, the Global Automotive Mobility Innovation Challenge, where a panel of top automotive experts choose the most promising technology. We have a lot more info about the battery and the process to make them. You can find a link to the full interview in the transcript or description box.

MAZDA GIVES CX-50 A HYBRID
As we said earlier in the show, hybrids are hot sellers right now, and Mazda is finally entering the CX-50 crossover into the hybrid segment. The core of the powertrain is a naturally aspirated 2.5 liter four-cylinder, coupled to a CVT and three electric motors. The all-wheel-drive package delivers 38 miles to the gallon, compared to 25 mpg with the non-hybrid version. It also adds 100 more miles of range and can tow up to 1,500 pounds. Mazda says it tuned the CVT for responsive driving and we look forward to a test drive to confirm if that’s true. The CX-50 is offered in a slew of different trims across a wide price spectrum. A base, non-hybrid version starts at $31,720, the hybrid starts at $35,690 and a fully loaded non-hybrid turbo costs about $45,500.

And that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.