AD #3877 – BMW EVs Outsell Tesla in EU; Ford Axes 3-Row EV, EREV to Follow?; Lucid Preparing 3 More Models

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

STELLANTIS SAYS UAW CAN’T STRIKE OVER BELVIDERE DELAY
As we reported earlier this week, UAW President Shawn Fain went after Stellantis at the Democratic National Convention, threatening to launch a strike against the company because it will delay the launch of a mid-size pickup truck at its plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Now, Stellantis is firing back, claiming the union can not call a strike just because it wants to delay a product launch. The automaker cited specific language in an addendum to the contract called the Investment Letter. That letter gives Stellantis veto power over product investment based on changes in market conditions and consumer demand, as well as plant performance. It was going to launch a mid-size truck at the Belvidere plant in 2027 to compete with the likes of the Toyota Tacoma. Stellantis was also going to establish a parts depot, stamping operations and battery assembly around the plant. Those plans are on hold for now, and while Shawn Fain can still make a lot of trouble for the company, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to legally call a national strike.

TAVARES SPENDING MORE TIME AT CHRYSLER GROUP
Even so, the North American operations at Stellantis have hit a rough patch. Sales have slumped, profits dropped sharply and the Detroit Free Press reports that CEO Carlos Tavares is spending a lot more time at the Chrysler group headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. He’s working on a strategy to turn things around that should be finalized by the end of the week. The Freep reports that Tavares wants to show he is personally involved in the effort.

STELLANTIS HIRES MANUFACTURING VP AWAY FROM RIVIAN
Stellantis also just hired the head of manufacturing from Rivian to run all of its plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Tim Fallon spent two years at Rivian and prior to that he spent 16 years at Nissan, ultimately becoming Vice President of Manufacturing in Canton, Mississippi.

FORD AXES 3-ROW EV, EREV TO FOLLOW?
Speaking of changes in product plans, Ford just made it official. It will ax a 3-row electric SUV that it was going to make in Oakville, Canada. It will also delay by two years the full-size electric pickup it’s going to make at a new plant in Tennessee. That truck is now scheduled for 2027. As a result, it’s going to take a $1.9 billion charge and write-down on the investments it already made for those products. We think Ford will likely come out with an EREV version of that 3-row SUV and make it in Oakville. It’s also going to come out with an electric mid-size pickup based on the platform that its skunkworks team is developing in Irvine, California.

BYD NARROWS MEXICAN PLANT SITE
While Stellantis and Ford are delaying manufacturing plans, BYD is closing in on a location for its first plant in Mexico. The automaker’s director general of Mexico told Reuters that it narrowed its choice to three states. BYD says the states have offered incentives including fiscal, land, management and preferential pricing. The U.S. government is reportedly pressuring Mexico’s federal government to prevent those states from providing any incentives to the Chinese. BYD didn’t reveal which states it’s considering. But it plans to build a plant with an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year and eventually ramp that up to 400,000 or 500,000 vehicles.

LUCID PREPARING 3 MORE MODELS
Lucid is working on a bigger lineup of EVs than we realized. Last year the CEO confirmed it’s developing new mid-size models in the $50,000 range that are “a Tesla competitor [of] Model 3, Model Y” and teased an SUVish vehicle under a cover. But according to CarBuzz Lucid is also working on a third model. Head of design Derek Jenkins called it a mid-size program and talked about having three vehicles. It’s probably another SUVish vehicle, but it’s fun to imagine something like a truck or van. But either way these will be really important models for Lucid. Its sales were up 70% in the most recent quarter and the Gravity SUV is entering production, but that big jump in sales came on price cuts of more than $16,500 in some cases because the market for bigger, expensive EVs is limited. The startup will also need a lot more money to fund these new models. Right now it has enough assets to last until the fourth quarter of next year, but good thing for Lucid its majority owner has deep pockets and is willing to spend. The Saudi PIF has already invested around $9 billion and Lucid says it’s committed to being a long-term partner.

XPENG DEVELOPS CAMERA-BASED L3 SYSTEM
Chinese EV maker Xpeng is taking a page out of Tesla’s book and is developing a vision-based system for its hands-free driving tech. The company’s CEO says its P7+ sedan, which goes on sale later this year, will be the first vehicle equipped with its next-gen XNGP driver assistance package. Even though it no longer requires lidar, Xpeng says it delivers Level 3 plus capability with Level 2 hardware and at a lower cost. The P7+ will be priced in the $20,000 range.

NIO WILL SHARE CHARGING REVENUE WITH NEW PARTNERS
Now that NIO has EV charging deals with more than 7 significant automakers, it’s planning to expand its network across most of China by 2026. But in order to do that it’s looking for partners to help fund new sites, in exchange for some of the revenue. Right now NIO has 7,000 charging and swapping stations, but it wants to have traditional charging stations in all provincial-level regions of China by the end of June of next year and swapping stations in 14 of those same regions. This will require partners and NIO envisions several ways they can help from providing the site, electricity and covering construction costs to investing in the equipment and charging location. And then NIO will share the revenue generated by the station depending on their investment.

CHINESE OEMs SPREAD ACROSS THE WORLD
AlixPartners says Chinese companies will control a third of the global automotive market by the end of the decade. And right on cue, they’re spreading out across the world. GAC announced that it’s launching in Vietnam, testing the market with two models, a van and an SUV. BYD continues its expansion in South America. It just opened its 9th store in Chile, which also happens to coincide with the amount of models it has on sale in the country. And lastly, AVATR, which is a joint venture between Changan, Huawei and CATL, is going to sell vehicles in Qatar.

BMW EVs OUTSELL TESLA IN EU
Here’s something that’s a bit of a shocker to us. BMW just outsold Tesla in electric cars last month in the European market thanks to strong demand for the X4 and iX1. Bloomberg reports that BMW sold 14,869 EVs in July, just squeaking past Tesla at 14,561 vehicles. That translates to a nearly 30% increase for BMW’s EV sales, while Tesla’s dropped 16%. Overall EV sales in the EU were down 6%, so Tesla’s sales fell twice as fast as the overall market. For the full year, Tesla is still well ahead of BMW and the Model Y is still the top selling model. But Tesla’s year to date sales are down 12%, while BMW’s are up 49%. So, it will interesting to see how the rest of the year plays out.

UPDATED ESCALADE STARTS AT $89,590
Cadillac revealed pricing for the new Escalade. It starts at $89,590 for 2WD models and 4WD versions start at $92,590. Its other trims range from $98,790 to $118,890 with 2WD and $101,790 to $121,890 with 4WD. And the top of the line V-Series with all-wheel-drive starts at $161,990. All prices include destination charges.

CADILLAC LAUNCHING $5,000 SHOES
And speaking of Cadillac, it partnered with a shoe company called Surgeon to create custom sneakers. The design of the shoes are inspired by Cadillac’s electric vehicles, the Lyriq, Optiq, Celestiq and Escalade IQ. And they incorporate features of the vehicles like interior leathers, upholstery patterns, stitching techniques, paint colors and other design cues. Cadillac will only sell 5 pairs of each sneaker or 20 total and they’ll be available to purchase online beginning September 8th for a limited time. They aren’t cheap, costing $5,000 each but Cadillac is donating all the proceeds to charity.

Ethernet communication technology that controls all the different components in today’s cars can be a complicated subject. That’s why we’ve got Dave Robbins and Colt Correa from Intrepid Controls coming on Autoline After Hours later today. Not only are they experts in this field, they’ve also got great insights into what legacy automakers need to do to become more competitive. Intrepid Controls, as you probably know, is one of our sponsors, but you may not know just how deep their industry knowledge is. So join us when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time, or catch it later on our website or YouTube channel.

But that’s a wrap for today’s show. I hope to see you later.