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Runtime: 11:21
0:00 Ford in Talks to Return to India
1:00 Ford Pays EV Owners to Not Charge During Peak Hours
1:21 Lucid Teases New Mid-Size Model
2:45 Honda Retools Ohio Plants to Make ICEs, Hybrids & BEVs
3:43 Stellantis Prepares U.S. Plants for Electrified & ICE Models
4:51 VW Paves Way for Job Cuts in Germany
5:45 Europe Faces Overcapacity Issues
6:37 NHTSA Proposes New Pedestrian Safety Rules
7:25 Renault Measures Road Noises to Determine Road Conditions
8:03 DS Creates Concept Inspired By 1970’s Citroen
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FORD IN TALKS TO RETURN TO INDIA
Ford could be headed back to India. It stopped selling vehicles there in 2021 and ended production in 2022. It sold one of two locations to Tata, but the chief minister of the Indian state where the other plant is located posted on social media that they had a discussion with a team at Ford about renewing their partnership. While India has the potential to be a massive growth market for automakers and is a reason so many are investing there, it doesn’t sound like Ford would make vehicles for India. They would likely be exported. I also wonder if Ford sees its India plant as an asset for Chinese automakers to produce models so they could potentially avoid new import tariffs. And to be fair, Ford never completely left India. It has suppliers there and builds engines for the Ranger.
FORD PAYS EV OWNERS TO NOT CHARGE DURING PEAK HOURS
In other Ford news, its EV owners can get paid to unplug. It teamed up in California to help reduce demand on the electrical grid during peak hours by allowing Ford to automatically pause their charging. Owners will earn $1 for every kWh of energy reduced during those peak times.
LUCID TEASES NEW MID-SIZE MODEL
Lucid held a Technology & Manufacturing Day yesterday where it revealed details about upcoming models. It says it will start making production versions of the Gravity SUV later this year and that it will get Tesla’s NACS charging connector next year. The company has started production on a new manufacturing site in Saudi Arabia, which is where its majority owner is located. It says the plant will start making EVs in 2026 and eventually have the capacity to make 150,000 vehicles a year. That’s way more than it currently needs. Lucid expects to make about 9,000 vehicles this year. But 2026 is when it also plans to launch its all-new mid-size model. That vehicle will feature Lucid’s next-gen drive unit, called Atlas. CEO Peter Rawlinson says it will be smaller, lighter, more cost effective and be much more efficient than the competition. It will make less power. Lucid says around 335 horsepower, compared to the 670 horsepower its current drive unit makes. But it could make its way into Gravity and Air to give Lucid even lower priced options. The new mid-size will also help with a starting price under $50,000.
HONDA RETOOLS OHIO PLANTS TO MAKE ICEs, HYBRIDS & BEVs
Honda is sharing an update about its progress on its EV hub in Ohio. The automaker is retooling its Marysville and East Liberty assembly plants and its Anna engine plant to prepare for its upcoming EVs. The changes will allow it to produce gas, hybrid and electric vehicles on the same lines. A model based on the Acura Performance EV Concept, which debuted at Monterrey Car Week this year, will be the first EV to go into production at the Marysville plant in late 2025. Honda says it has also started installing the first of six, 6,000-ton die cast machines. The megacastings make up the cases for the Intelligent Power Unit, which houses the EV battery and serves as part of the structure of the vehicle. Honda is investing $700 million to re-tool the plants and it also is building a $3.5 billion battery plant in Ohio with LG Energy Solution.
STELLANTIS PREPARES U.S. PLANTS FOR ELECTRIFIED & ICE MODELS
And Stellantis is also retooling plants in the U.S. to produce electrified and ICE models on the same line and announced it’s investing more than $400 million at three plants in Michigan to do so. The automaker confirmed its Sterling Heights plant will be the first to build a fully electric vehicle in the U.S., the Ram 1500 REV, which launches at the end of this year. That plant will also produce the range-extended and ICE version of the Ram 1500. Its Warren Truck plant will make an electrified Jeep Wagoneer, that launches next year, along with ICE versions of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. And lastly the Dundee engine plant will be retooled to make components for batteries, while still building IC engines.
VW PAVES WAY FOR JOB CUTS IN GERMANY
Last week, Volkswagen sent shock waves through the auto industry, warning it could shut down plants in Germany due to slumping sales. And it just scraped a jobs guarantee that was supposed to protect workers until 2029 at six plants in Germany, which paves the way for job cuts that could start the middle of next year. VW says it may need to close as many as two plants in Germany because its sales are down about a half a million units since the Covid pandemic. But we think it could be more. VW has the capacity to make about 14 million vehicles but last year sold roughly 9 million. Not surprisingly, labor unions and VW works councils have vowed to put up a fierce resistance to any plant closures. So this could turn into an ugly battle.
EUROPE FACES OVERCAPACITY ISSUES
But it’s not just VW that’s struggling in Europe. Car sales in the region are down about 3 million units from pre-Covid levels and that means automakers have had to significantly cut production. According to Just Auto data, nearly a third of plants from Europe’s five largest automakers; VW, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes and Renault; last year produced less than half of the vehicles they have the capacity to make. That means those plants are likely losing money, so jobs are going to be at risk. But the auto industry is very important to Europe’s economy, accounting for over 7% of the EU’s gross domestic product and employing 13 million people. So, this is why some European countries are trying to lure Chinese companies to open plants and help preserve those jobs.
NHTSA PROPOSES NEW PEDESTRIAN SAFETY RULES
Pedestrian fatalities have gone up sharply over the last decade in the U.S. Between 2013 and 2022, pedestrian deaths increased 57% from almost 4,800 to over 7,500. So to help reduce that, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA, proposed new rules to require all passenger vehicles 10,000 pounds or less, to be designed to mitigate pedestrian deaths and injuries. The standard would establish test procedures and requirements that simulate and reduce head injuries for children up to adults. NHTSA estimates that the standard will save 67 lives a year and will cost the auto industry roughly $50-$60 million.
RENAULT MEASURES ROAD NOISES TO DETERMINE ROAD CONDITIONS
Renault is helping to determine the condition of roads in France by literally listening to the sounds they make. It says the difference in road noise between a good piece of pavement and a bad one can vary by a factor of 1 to 10. So, Renault is using the sensors on a car and a specially developed device, called Apache, to map the acoustic condition of roads. 30 Meganes will measure noise levels in a region of France over a 2-year period, which local authorities can use to determine the condition of the roads. But no word if it plans to expand tests to other areas.
DS CREATES CONCEPT INSPIRED BY 1970’S CITROEN
And here’s something for fans of classic Citroen design. First, the CX, which was designed to replace the iconic DS, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. So, congrats. And second, the DS brand, which is also under the Stellantis umbrella, showed a concept that’s inspired by the Citroen SM of the early 1970’s. It has similar proportions as the original and gets that funky rear end, but it uses a two-tone paint job to break up the design. I especially like the cover over the rear wheel. It’s a styling element you rarely see anymore.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. I hope you have a good rest of your day.
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NHTSA regularly underestimates the cost of its regulations. And the estimated 67 lives saved will still be hospitalized with severe injuries.
The real opportunity lies in avoiding the accident. V2X technology can do it. As nearly every pedestrian has a cell phone, a simple app can communicate the pedestrian’s presence to a V2X-equipped vehicle.
I can only imagine that if I own an EV and it needs charged, its much like needing gas. I won’t wait until off peak hours to fill up. I need the range now. So maybe this only applies to home chargers, which I suppose could be fine as long as when I get up in the morning the charging is done. I would think in time with enough EVs charging off-hours there won’t be off-hours anymore.
Renault should consider measuring suspension travel along with noise and then you can maybe detect potholes and other conditions in need of repair. Thats all great technology as long as the municipality has funds to conduct the repairs. Otherwise your just collecting data.
Drew- I agree that the NHTSA should provide a bit more data. Like how these pedestrians are being struck?
They always look for ways to reduce injury or death by mandating safety features to the car, but maybe the crosswalks need to be better designed or controlled. Maybe they were jaywalking, or half those people were on their phones and not paying attention. Why does it always fall on the automaker to fix the problem? Without the whole story it’s hard to say why these accidents occur, but I doubt it has much to do with the car.
It’s like saying I handle paper all day and got a paper cut so redesign the paper so I don’t get injured rather than require me to wear gloves.
The main cause of pedestrian fatalities, other than texting while walking, is all of the huge trucks and SUVs with front ends that are head-height to kids and small adults. If this regulation goes into effect, it will get even worse, as manufactures will make their already huge vehicles even bigger, so they will be over 10,000 pounds GVW and can evade the rule.
The point of off-peak rates is to flatten the demand curve over time of day. I suspect the usage by hour would vary a lot by location. Cold weather areas where a lot of homes use electric heat might not have very low usage at night, when they need more heat.
In the beginning, both cars and pedestrians just went from point A to point B. And both drivers and pedestrians were fully engaged in their surroundings.
Now drivers have a multitude of distractions built right into their cars, and pedestrians are tethered to their handheld distractions. A perfect storm for traffic fatalities. But it sounds like this problem could be easily solved by both parties simply becoming fully engaged once again.
Makes me wonder if a national campaign to get people to pay attention (think Smokey The Bear) might have any noticeable impact, versus the cost of extra engineering to make 3,000lb projectiles ‘pedestrian friendly’ in a crash.
NHTSA, proposed new rules to reduce pedestrian fatalities looks similar to the European rule, where they want the hood to attenuate the energy of the impact during initial contact of the head and to provide
sufficient clearance (open areas) to prevent the head from bottoming out on objects beneath the hood.
I imagine it would be more difficult to meet pedestrian safety standards with vehicles over 10,000 pounds but I think it should be legislated too. Whether you’re killed by a motorcycle or Mac truck, you are just as dead. All vehicles on the road should be able to meet basic safety standards. If the government deems it important to save one phone staring jaywalker at a cost of 60 billion quatrillion dollars who am i to think that’s a waste of money?
I jaywalk quite a bit, but am very careful about it, not looking at my phone, and not walking unless I am very sure I won’t get stuck in the middle of the street between the opposing traffic.
I know it’s not a popular thing to say and maybe not even politically correct to support natural selection. But I was raised by parents that didn’t provide much sympathy when I got hurt doing dumb things. It was called personal responsibility. You were required to use your head and think about what might go wrong with any situation. I fear we are losing this skill on younger generations as we protect everyone from everything. If you walk in front of a car because you had your nose in your phone and survive, I bet you don’t do it again. In fact, you probably are a spokesman for others to not make the same mistake. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt or worse. However, it’s really hard to support error proofing everything. So, when the NHTSA collects this data I hope they throw out the accidents caused by such errors. It’s not a problem that needs fixing by correcting the vehicle, it’s a problem that needs corrected by the pedestrian.
I doubt OEMs will bloat their vehicles to 10,000 pounds. But distracted walking (primary) and driving (second) are major causal factors for pedestrian accidents in the US. In Europe, the major causal factor was drunk pedestrians, staggering out of the pub which is very close to the curb.
Again, any impact is going to result in major injuries at best. So, the main approach should be to avoid the impact.
Albemarle- Again that’s where the data becomes so important. A vehicle over 10,000 lbs typically has a huge radiator and tall engine. Not practical to have a low hood like a car. Also, of all these accidents how many are caused by large trucks? If none, then it’s not even an issue. But yes the concern would be as Kit pointed out automakers could pack on the pounds to avoid regulation but 10k is a pretty steep jump almost double the average pickup truck weight. Not likely.
In the factory I work in to protect workers from forklift traffic at crossings we have gates that have to be swung inward. So, you can’t just walk through the plant push your way through a gate and step out in front of a high-low. You have to stop pull the gate open which yes can be a PITA but no one gets hit by a forklift. We didnt add padding to the forklift to minimize the damage we took steps to avoid the accident all together and I think the NHTSA should be looking at this problem that way. IMO
Lambo,
The NHTSA data states that 86% of the pedestrian fatalities were in urban areas. This is as expected as that is the area most likely for cars and people to mix. Also, 77% of those fatalities were due to jaywalking. 70% of those jaywalking incidents occurred at night. The others that occurred in a crosswalk area are not identified if they should have been crossing then or not. The data is not that refined. It also does not state whether the person was on their phone or not.
When I was in HS, a HS Student jaywalked right in front of a senior student who was driving to school at 25MPH. The impact to the car was not the problem, despite being a huge 70s boat. The impact to the ground was the problem and the HS student died on scene. The driver was not charged as he was not speeding and the student was jaywalking. So there was nothing they could charge the driver with as there was no negligence on the drivers part. A soft impact does not do much to prevent a hard landing.
Even though Kit does not like them, a truck has an advantage to a pedestrian that sedans do not. The frontal area of the truck tends to push the body as most of the body is covered by some type of piece of the truck, usually up to the shoulder. So a person does not lose their balance when struck…at low speed. A car tends to undercut the body at the legs and sends the pedestrian flying in the air ready for their hard landing. Doesn’t matter the speed, the car will send them flying. Especially low slung sports cars like corvettes. That is far more dangerous than a truck. At higher speed, there is nothing car or truck is going to do for a pedestrian. At speed they will be un-alived by both equally. Which is why Jaywalking is illegal in every city in the USA. Maybe people need to be ticketed again for jaywalking and doing stupid stuff.
Merkur, sorry about the loss of your HS classmate. Your description of the differences between a pedestrian impact with a car vs a relatively flat faced truck is accurate. In many collisions, injuries occur from the second impact against unregulated infrastructure.
MURKUR DRIVER,
I don’t know where you got your information, but the research arm of the insurance industry found that pickups, SUVs and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45% more likely to cause deaths in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile.
I checked the GVWR of a 4wd Chevy Suburban, and it is 7700 pounds, so it’s unlikely that companies would bloat such vehicles to 10,000 to avoid any regulations. I thought it might be higher than that, closer to 10,000.
https://apnews.com/article/vehicle-suv-pedestrian-iihs-2ce4b56c395fd64c299c5a065fffbe2c
In the small city where I live (22,000) it is much safer to jaywalk than cross at intersections. When I cross mid-block there are no cars at all in the block. At intersections, there are many distractions from right turning cars on red, to bicycles and later and slow pedestrians. We are a retirement community so reaction times are measured with a minute not a second hand. Extremely frustrating to drive here but all accidents here occur at intersections. Undoubtedly different in other places.
There was a Citroen mechanic living in my home town that ran a small repair shop for many years. Cars would show up from all over the place,for various reasons. Fun to watch.
If it is difficult to enforce and stop people from texting and driving, it may be near impossible to get people today from walking and texting or even not looking at their phone while walking. I mean, people are learning the bad, destructionary habit, while they are in middle school, or when parents deem the their child is old enough to have a phone! I think most parents teach their children to look both ways before the cross the street, but when phone is in hand, all that training goes out the window, even for adults! If the information about fatal pedestrian accidents are correct ( not that I doubt what has been said, but I just don’t know or seen the info for myself), it would seem that those fatalities were adults not paying attention and not children. In other words, individuals who are old and experienced enough to know better. That’s the thing, many ADULTS are quick to point out that they are grown and can do what they want. Only if they can see the seriousness of doing it, the law, moral code or legislative body will be able to require them to do what they don’t take seriously, despite its good intentions. Are we serious going to ticket or arrest people who are walking and looking only at their phone? That’s why, sadly, they are putting the burden on automakers to protect the pedestrians, like it or not, right or wrong, whether qe agree or not! What might make since, just as cameras in vehicles monitor the driver, could cell phone cameras be outfitted to monitor the viewer, determine if they are walking/moving as they are scroll in or texting and periodically stop and force the view to look up and check their surrounds? Like with the reminders to Che k fir babies or pests left in vehicles? Just a thought.
wmb… yes, V2X can be an app on the phone and provide such a warning.
…On a different, unrelated, point, I just saw a Cadillac Vistiq with a manufacturer plate and it looked very, very impressive. It looked like a cross between the Lyriq and an Escalade iq, but did not look as physically imposing and intimidating as the EV Escalade. I also saw another Charger EV and pictures do not do it just, IMHO.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen a Charger EV, given the huge Chrysler presence where I am in Indiana.
Lucid’s compact vehicle, is certainly exciting news! Yet, with the potential for more buyers, along with not being built in a region not known as an assembly powerhouse, production and getting the vehicle (s) out fast enough to customers may be their initial challenge. I’m sure they’ll build the more expensive Dream Edition first, but like Tesla experienced, demand could be high and getting a new plant with new product up and running could be a challenge. Lucid bills itself as a luxury vehicle maker, so flawless execution will be the expectation, especially against models like the EV Macan and its Audi sibling, upcoming models from Volvo and Polestar, BMW’s New Class iX1 and the upcoming Mercedes EQC SUV (or whatever they will be calling their compact electric SUV). That said, when competition is good, the consumer wins!
Unfortunately for Lucid, their majority owner hasn’t earned the sobriquet of ‘dumb money’ for nothing. As neat as their tech is, engineering for lower cost and real mass production is where the competition is headed.
I also doubt the ability of 3-row EVs to enter the mainstream in the near future. They’d be better all round in hybrid guise.
Merv, good story about the Citroën mechanic! I wish active hydropneumatic suspension had been pushed more, but the marque unfortunately was relegated to the bottom end of the market by its owners. Which is why they needed to create ‘DS’ as a separate entity.
Been seeing a lot of new Charger EVs on the road as well. Not really impressed with them. They look plain to me. They also look incredibly cheap quality just seeing it on the highway. I can’t imagine seeing it up close. There is nothing exciting about it to me. Maybe it is was because they all are mono-grey. Hard to make anything mono-grey look exciting.
By many accounts, Lucid has the most efficient, and maybe smallest/lightest for their power EV powertrains out there. Maybe they should just sell powertrains, if NIH-obsessed OEMs would buy them.