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Runtime: 11:30
0:00 U.S. Does 180 on EV Chargers
1:15 GM Jumps Back Into AVs
2:05 Bosch Teams with VW’s CARIAD
3:29 CATL Slashes EV Battery Repair Costs
4:49 Renault to Use Geely Platform
5:36 VinFast Pivots Away From U.S. & EU
6:16 Volvo Takes Axe to U.S. Lineup
7:11 Ford Reveals Model T of EVs
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Sometimes you wake up in the morning and find that the world is a different place compared to when you went to bed. Here are three surprising changes we woke up to today.
TRUMP DOES 180° ON EV CHARGERS
First, the Trump Administration decided it isn’t going to gut the subsidies for building public EV charging stations. In fact, not only is it going to keep the $5 billion NEVI program in place, it’s going to streamline and slash the red tape that has bottled that money up. NEVI stands for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, a program that was put in place by the Biden Administration, but originally President Trump not only promised he would gut the program, he actually suspended it in February. But the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, said withholding funds that Congress approved was not legal, so the Trump administration faced a legal battle it was likely to lose. As the old saying goes, ‘if they give you lemons, make lemonade’ and it’s entirely possible that EV charging stations will be built faster under Trump than they were under Biden.
GM JUMPS BACK INTO AVs
The second surprising development is that General Motors says it’s reviving its work on autonomous cars. Last December GM shut down Cruise, the Silicon Valley startup it bought in 2016 that was working on robotaxis. But now it’s even trying to get back some of those Cruise employees that it let go. GM CEO Mary Barra is in favor of autonomous cars and hired Sterling Anderson from Aurora to come run all of GM’s product development, including ICE vehicles. Aurora is developing autonomous technology for heavy trucks and Anderson was clearly hired for his AV experience. But it’s no longer going after robotaxis. Bloomberg reports that GM will now concentrate on developing autonomous cars for retail customers, not for robotaxi fleets.
BOSCH TEAMS UP WITH CARIAD
In somewhat related news and our third surprise this morning, the supplier Bosch and Volkswagen’s software subsidiary CARIAD, say they’re going to deliver a software stack for Level 2 and 3 autonomous driving in production vehicles next year. We find this surprising because CARIAD has had all kinds of problems, enough so that VW ran to Rivian to get a zonal electronic architecture after CARIAD couldn’t deliver. But VW clearly isn’t giving up. One specific aspect we find interesting is that CARIAD and Bosch are using artificial intelligence to improve the AV systems. It’s being used for object recognition, combining sensors, decision making and the automated control of the powertrain, steering and brakes. The system is currently being tested in VW ID.Buzz’s and Audi Q8s on public roads in Europe, Japan and the U.S. VW will then integrate the automated driving system into its architecture for software defined vehicles. And Bosch will offer the software to other global automakers as well.
CATL SLASHES EV BATTERY REPAIR COST
Many EVs are adopting a cell-to-pack layout, where there’s no battery modules and the cells are integrated directly into the pack. This allows battery makers to fit more cells into the same size area, which can also free up more interior space, and there’s several production advantages as well. But the high level of integration into the vehicle can make these types of battery packs hard to service. The China Insurance Association looked at 59 EVs currently on sale with cell-to-pack technology and found that the battery makes up just over half of the total cost of all the parts in the vehicle. The average price of those vehicles was roughly $28,000, so the cost to replace the battery would be about $14,000. However, CATL created an independent service company a year ago and that company just opened its first store aimed directly at cell-to-pack repair. It claims it can bring those battery service costs down to roughly $1,500-$3,000, but it also sounds like that includes things like battery testing, maintenance, inspection, refurbishment and recycling. With EV accounting for over 50% of sales in China right now, I’m sure this is a needed service, but it is currently limited to vehicles with CATL batteries.
RENAULT TO USE GEELY PLATFORM
Renault and Geely are growing their partnership to include electric vehicles for overseas markets, like Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and South Korea. Reports say Geely will provide Renault with its GEA platform for a series of pure electric and plug-in hybrid SUVs. This is the same platform that underpins the Geely Xingyuan, which is the best-selling model so far this year in China and would represent the first time that Geely has allowed another brand outside of its core group to use it. If you’re wondering, the architecture is different then the one used by Volvo and Polestar. The new SUVs will be styled by Renault, but pretty much everything under the skin will come from Geely, which should help speed up development and reduce costs.
VINFAST PIVOTS AWAY FROM U.S., EU
VinFast is shifting its growth strategy away from the U.S. and Europe and focusing it on Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Last year VinFast delivered a little under 100,000 vehicles, which is pretty good, but 90% of those sales were in its home market of Vietnam and it reported a $3.2 billion loss. So, now it’s expanding production in Vietnam as well as building new plants in India and Indonesia in an effort to boost sales and revenue. While VinFast isn’t giving up on the U.S. and Europe it is delaying expansion in those areas, which included a new plant in South Carolina, until at least 2028.
VOLVO AXES MODELS FROM U.S. LINEUP
Speaking of shaking things up, Volvo is taking an axe to its lineup in the U.S. It’s ditching its sedans and wagons in favor of crossovers and will offer more gas-powered vehicles. Starting next year, it’s dropping the S90 sedan and V60 wagon from the lineup. The raised versions of the V60 and V90 wagons will remain next year but Volvo hasn’t committed to the models beyond that. It’s also cutting back on EVs. It already stopped selling the EC40 and while the EX40 will remain next year, Volvo hasn’t addressed its availability after that. It’s expected to focus its EV efforts on the EX30. And will also boost the availability of hybrid and PHEV versions of the XC40, XC60 and XC90 crossovers, which accounted for 85% of its U.S. sales in the first half of the year.
FORD GOES WITH 3-MODULE EVs
The Ford Motor Company is credited with inventing the moving assembly line to make cars in 1913. And it will become the first legacy automaker to abandon it. To us it looks like Ford is going to beat Tesla to the market with unboxed assembly. But let us know what you think in the comments. Ford’s next EV program will make vehicles assembled from only three modules: front, center and rear. Each module is built on what the company calls aluminum unicastings, which are just like Tesla’s gigacasting. Ford expects dramatic improvements in productivity, with 20% fewer parts, 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations and 15% faster assembly time. The body alone gets rid of three-quarters of the parts, half the fasteners and two-thirds of the welds compared to a Ford Escape. Thanks to a zonal electronic architecture, 4,000 feet of wiring was removed compared to a typical 1st-gen electric SUV. That’s over 1,200 meters and represents 22-pounds of weight. Ford calls this its Universal EV Platform and it could provide derivative models including a small pickup, as well as small, midsize and 3-row crossovers and a small commercial van. The first to launch will be a mid-size pickup, which Ford says will start at $30,000. It will have the interior room of a RAV4, but with a bed and frunk. Ford says it will offer “super fast charging” thanks to a LFP small battery pack, yet deliver “impressive range.” And it will have bidirectional charging. Ford CEO Jim Farley says it’s aimed at customers who can charge at home and who drive less than 300 miles a day. It will be built at Ford’s Louisville assembly plant and go into production in 2027. Though Ford didn’t release much, there is a lot more info, more than we have room to get into here. And so we’ll take a deeper dive on Autoline After Hours this Thursday and put out a separate video on everything we’ve learned.
But that’s a wrap for today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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I think that the resumption of the E.V. charging stations is a good idea. What is holding back a broader appeal to BEV is charging anxiety (not range anxiety). As Sean mentioned, hopefully the current administration gets more bang for the buck (this includes number of stations especially) that get built, put into operation and are maintained. The Biden attempt was pure waste (and delay); spend the money, but for crying out loud, gets some production and get those station on line. I’m still reserved though, because when the government does most things, they are over analyzed, under utilized and generally under performing……………well, here’s hope.
The $5b doled out or allocated for three years only eight(8) were installed.
Going forward EV is going to be in everybody’s garage. Plus whatever gas-guzzer you decide.
Besides, they make great house-hold battery backup for a few thousand dollars used compared to permanent battery backup that could cost tens of thousands.
The chargers should help, especially if they end up being at every restaurant, Walmart, doctor’s office, supermarket, etc. That might encourage some of us without home charging to consider an EV. Still, doing 500 miles of local driving on $20 of gas that takes three minutes to pump is pretty cheap, and convenient. Or 500 miles on $35 worth of gas, if I need more room and drive the Highlander.
How is the Ford Model T event much different than a pickup truck off an Equinox EV? The seem more similar than dissimilar to me?
As encouraging to hear Ford say SOMETHING about their “shunkworks” project, from what I’ve seen and read, they’ve mostly talked about the assembly of their products and not a lot about product itself. A pickup around the size of the Maverick, about 300 miles of range and so forth. It was more about Ford getting the cost down to make it affordable to them and the public. Yet, most customers don’t know and might not care about where or how the next purchase was assembled, but what it looks like inside and out and how much it will cost to get and operate and maintain! On that it seems Ford missed the boat and with the pickup still not coming out until 2027, as a 2028, we still have three years to wait until the rubber meets the road!
I watched the whole Ford “reveal” yesterday, and it pretty much seemed like a lot of patting themselves on the back and not a lot of reveal. They essentially said they were single handedly changing the whole industry by reinventing automobile assembly by doing what has never been done before! They are borrowing Tesla’s ideas and assembly process to create a cheaper Ford.
Ford said that the EV Lightening would be $40k, and they were 100k. Tesla said the Cybertruck would be 40k, it also was 100k. Who really believes that $30k will be the MSRP of any EV pickup they manage to get out 3 years of inflation from now? They’ve announced a pipe dream.
It seems that few people want EV pickups, period. I know at least two pickup owners who could afford any vehicle, could use home charging, and have pickups they never drive farther than 75-100 miles from home. One has a Denali pickup, and another has a high trim Chevy truck. They just don’t want EVs.
The EV truck was the vehicle no one ever asked for. It was boardroom morons that saw gas pickups sell and could easily package a battery and were fetching 60k which was within the EV target. Had they done some actual market research the large SUVs would have made more sense and maybe saw more interest. But hey what do I know.
Large SUV owners I know wouldn’t want EVs either. Some I know actually drive them on highway trips, and one even tows an RV. Driving empty, with the huge battery, you’d need nearly an hour of charging for 200-250 miles. Towing a big trailer, you’d need an hour of charging for 100 miles. EV pickups would make sense for trades people working locally, and people who use trucks only for local driving, but neither of those groups seem to want them.
“Trump … going to keep the $5 billion NEVI program” helps justify the $9k spent this year for a replacement Model 3 battery. This should give another 150,000 mies, 5-6 years, of service … cheaper than buying any of today’s new EVs.
I conducted a study (see webpage) that the fastest block-to-block speed occurs with the shortest charge time, 10 minutes or less. This uses the fastest charge rate for the distance driven. Having shorter distances, 120 miles or less, between fast DC chargers makes this work.
As for funding the extra fast DC chargers, THANKS Joe!
We’ll thank Trump after any EV chargers show up.
aBSOLUTELY ludicrous reporting today. I have no time to point out all the ways,
Wishful thinking on EVs up and down the street
Ford Fairy Tales and Pigs Flying
Mary Barra the clueless DEI hire was the one who did the 180, Sean and John, NOT Trump, who was FORCED to keep the chargers being built, because he cannot legally stop it!
https://carsandbids.com/auctions/KDDmJVk8/2019-tesla-model-s-performance
Further Evidence that the rumors about ‘falling used Tesla prices” are 100% BUNK.
This is the latest model S sold on C&B.
It is a 6-7 year old with 64k miles, and sold for $28,000
Compare with my Magnificent 7, the 98 I bought in 2005, so same age, and the owner asked for $9,000 AS IS, but I instead asked him to fix everything, detail it inside and out, and still paid only $10.5k.
Even adjusted for inflation, I paid far less than $28k in 2025 dollars.
THese are the FACTS Sean. Do your research and you will confirm this every day. Report facts, not fairy tales.
Oh, and BTW, in response to the WISE comment above, how do Tesla used prices compare to those of OTHER EVS, it is also an undeniable fact that the Tesla Model S, its flagship EV, is holding its value used FAR, FAR better, not worse, than its peers, the Mercedes EQS and the Porsche Taycan, both of which have suffered such DISASTROUS depreciation that they appear as screaming bargains.
Yes, Model S holds its value well compared to upstart expensive EVs, but not well compared to, say, gas Toyotas, or even Lexi.
Yes, 7 Series, A8, and to a somewhat lesser extent, S-Class have always had notoriously high depreciation.
BTW, the 2019 Model S Performance cost $100K new. Losing 72% of value in 6 years is pretty high depreciation, but yeah, not nearly as bad as EQS.
In my view used EV prices will be volatile until the technology matures and becomes stable. Why would one buy a used EV with obsolete battery and charging technology and the low range/long recharge times that comes with that old tech? Or even worse a battery that is old and in need of replacement. Even if you spent the money and replaced the battery, you would still be stuck with obsolete tech and all the limitations that come with that obsolete tech. It is why nobody bothers buying old iphones. Old iphones can still work, but nobody wants them because even if you replaced the battery you would still be left with an old iphone. So everyone just buys a new iPhone to get the latest of everything and that 10 year old iPhone is thrown in the trash. Thus will be the fate of every EV built in 2025 and for the near term future. In ten years they will all be worthless because the tech which sounds amazing in 2025 will be undesirable/worthless in 2035. The used prices will reflect that until the tech stabilizes.
ICE cars have the same fate but it is a little bit different because the tech is mature and the time frame to reach obsolescence is much longer. Witness Dodge and their 15 year old platform for the Durango that they are still able to pass off as new.
There is nothing wrong with the “tech” of a 2017 Model S, but I’d be uninclined to buy one, because the battery would be off warranty, and it might soon need a new one costing $10-15K. EV powertrain tech is nearly mature, except that ways will be found to lower the manufacturing cost.
As far as batteries, if some amazing new tech comes along, there should be no reason the new batteries couldn’t replace batteries in an existing EV, with changes in the charging electronics, and changes in “state of charge” readout software in the car.