AD #4067 – Battery Prices Drop Significantly; VinFast Shuts Half of Canada Stores; Honda Wants to Refuel Satellites

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

TESLA EU SALES DOWN, BUT NEW Y COULD BE BRIGHT SPOT
Elon Musk is stepping away from the work he was doing with President Trump and he’s going to have his hands full repairing the damage his political announcements did in driving customers away from Tesla. We’re starting to get May sales results in Europe and the numbers are terrible. Sales plummeted in France, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. But there is one bright spot. Sales of the new Model Y shot up 213% in Norway, which is where it debuted in Europe. Now we’ll have to see if the same thing happens in other countries as it becomes available.

MANAGEMENT CONFUSED OVER TESLA $25K CAR
Reuters reports there’s confusion in Tesla’s management ranks over whether or not the company is going to make a $25,000 car. Insiders say that Musk cancelled the project, but when Reuters previously reported that it was cancelled, Musk said “Reuters is lying” in a post on X. That’s when Tesla managers then asked Musk if the project was actually back on again, he told them it was still cancelled. So, as we’ve reported before, Instead of an all-new, low-cost model, it looks like Tesla is working on a stripped-down version of the Model Y.

WILL AUSTIN RESIDENTS SHOW INTEREST IN TESLA ROBOTAXI?
And the reason it looks like Tesla is not doing a new, low-cost car is that it’s pivoting to robotaxis, where it sees a lot more upside. Tesla is reportedly targeting June 12 for a limited launch of its robotaxi in Austin, Texas. Keep in mind that Austin is the most left-leaning and liberal city in Texas, a place where anti-Musk protests were held at a Tesla showroom there. So it will be interesting to see if the residents of Austin show any interest in using Tesla robotaxis.

CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON 0-KM USED CARS
There’s a growing controversy in China over what’s known as “zero-kilometer used cars.” It’s kind of a scam, where some automakers sell new vehicles to their dealers or third-party companies, who then turn around and sell them as used cars, even though they’ve never been driven or have very few miles on them. They’re sold for as much as 30% off the new price. Automakers do this to goose their sales and it helps dealers get rid of inventory. But this also destroys the residual prices of used cars and distorts what’s really happening in the market. The chairman of Great Wall Motors is speaking out against it and last week the Chinese government held a meeting with major automakers to put an end to the practice.

 

BATTERY PRICES DROP SIGNIFICANTLY
Battery prices saw a decent drop last year, so hopefully that starts translating to cheaper EVs. According to the International Energy Agency, the cost of lithium battery packs fell 20% in 2024, the biggest drop since 2017. There’s a couple of factors at play here. There was a lithium surplus last year, which led to lithium prices hitting their lowest level since 2015. And more automakers are turning to less expensive LFP or lithium iron phosphate battery packs as well. Diving a little deeper into the numbers, China saw the biggest drop in battery prices and was also responsible for making 80% of all the cells in the world last year. One last interesting finding, despite being smaller, hybrid packs spread their component costs across fewer cells, so a 20 kWh battery in a plug-in hybrid vehicle was about the same price as a 65 kWh BEV battery pack last year.

HONDA WANTS TO REFUEL IN-ORBIT SATELLITES
Honda already provides mobility solutions for both the land, sea and sky, but now it has its sights set a little higher. The company’s R&D division is trying to co-develop a way to refuel satellites that have already been launched into low Earth orbit. Obviously, refueling in orbit is a little harder than pulling up to the pump at your local gas station, so Honda is specifically working on the connecting system between the refueler and the satellite. And it’s not filling up with 87-octane either. In this case, they’re transporting hydrazine, which the satellites use as a propellant for thrusters. There’s starting to be a little bit of a satellite traffic jam in space, so this solution could reduce the need to send up new ones.

VINFAST SHUTS HALF OF ITS CANADA STORES
VinFast is struggling in Canada. The EV startup from Vietnam says it’s closing 5 of its 10 showrooms in the country to “refocus resources and enhance long-term performance.” VinFast started selling vehicles in Canada in 2022 and though it doesn’t report sales numbers, data from Canada’s Incentives for Zero-Emission vehicles shows that about 2,000 rebates were claimed for its VF8 model last year. The company also sells its VF9 model in Canada but it didn’t qualify for the incentives. Despite closing half its stores, VinFast says it’s committed to selling vehicles in Canada. However, those EV subsidies were phased out at the beginning of the year, which has hurt sales of electrics in Canada even more.

U.S. ALSO WORRIED ABOUT CHINA’S RARE EARTH RESTRICTIONS
As we reported last week, India’s auto industry warned production will soon come to a halt because China is restricting supplies of rare earth magnets. And now automakers in the U.S. are raising the same concerns. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers in the U.S., sent a letter to the Trump Administration last month, warning that production will be impacted by the rare earth shortage. The letter was also signed by MEMA, which represents suppliers. Rare earths are used in many components including motors, power windows and speakers. China, which controls 90% of global rare earth production, restricted supplies of rare earths in April, in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs.

MACK MAKES HYBRID MILITARY PROTOTYPES
We’ve heard that the cost of moving fuel during military operations can be astronomical, so that’s why we were interested to see that a division of Mack Trucks was awarded a contract to build two hybrid prototypes for the Marine Corps. The hybrid tech used in the Medium Tactical Trucks will not only improve fuel economy and range, but allow for silent operation as well. These trucks are also meant to be a new family of vehicles that can handle many tasks, so they’ll come in several variants that have multiple bed lengths and configurations.

AUTOLINE POLL RESULTS
We have the results from our latest poll, which was available to our Patreon and YouTube members. We wanted to get your input on battery swapping for EVs and whether it will spread from China to other parts of the world. Fifty-five of you participated and simply 24% of you said yes, but 60% said no, and 16% had other opinions. Here’s some of what you had to say.

Dave believes that “Battery swapping makes sense.. it’s just a matter of which applications, regions, and timeframes. We swap AA, AAA, power tools, ebike batteries, for example.

Kylerobinson sees the good side to swapping, too, He says, “I believe swappable batteries would be a good alternative for fleet vehicles and for people who don’t live at a location that can charge overnight.”

But irvin wright says, “So many things wrong with this idea; standardized design required, wear & tear on connections, high cost of inventory, facility is much costlier to install than chargers and, all things considered, not much faster. Never going to fly!”

And A C Held made a point that quite a number of you pointed out. “Forget the swapping,” he says. “If you can get a battery that charges in 100 seconds, who would need swapping?”

Thanks to all of our members that participated in the poll. We appreciate all of your support and feedback.

But that brings us to the end of today’s report. Thanks for watching.