AD #4125 – Kia Wants EU to Keep ICE Ban; VW Says Amazon Will Save It Millions; Chinese Vacuum Maker Targets Bugatti

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

EVs DRIVE UP SALES IN EUROPE
In general, it seems like we’ve been reporting mostly negative things about the European auto industry, but here’s some good news. New car sales last month were up a strong 6% and it all came from electrified cars. EVs were up more than 33%, PHEVs were up 52% and hybrids were up 11%. Meanwhile, gasoline and diesel powered cars were down by double digits. The Volkswagen Group, Renault Group, BMW, Volvo and Ford were some of the biggest gainers. But the biggest percentage gain came from BYD, which was up 206% and sold 30% more cars than Tesla did. And it was another disastrous month for Tesla, which dropped 42%. With the overall market up in July, new car sales in Europe are now even with last year.

KIA WANTS EU TO KEEP ICE BAN
Yesterday, lobbying groups representing automakers and suppliers in Europe sent a letter to the EU urging it to ease off its CO2 targets. They say it’s impossible for them to eliminate 100% of CO2 emissions by 2035. But not Kia. It wants those regulations just as they’re written because it based its product planning all around them. Kia’s head of European operations says he wants to keep the 2035 ICE ban in place because it has “an avalanche of electric cars coming” and that it would cost the automaker “a fortune” if it had to reverse its plans. We’ll soon see which side wins the debate, but our money is on the legacy European automakers, because there’s a bigger worry about losing jobs.

 

TESLA & WAYMO TAKE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ROBOTAXI EXPANSION
Tesla’s and Waymo’s approach with robotaxis couldn’t be more different. Waymo is taking a slower, more methodical approach to expanding. It first maps a city before it tests vehicles with drivers and after that, it phases in its autonomous ride-hailing service. Tesla on the other hand, says it can scale much faster because it doesn’t use sensors or extensive mapping like Waymo does and instead relies on just cameras and artificial intelligence to train its software. Elon Musk claims its robotaxis will be available to “half the population of the U.S.” by the end of the year and will have “millions of Teslas operating autonomously” by the second half of next year. Waymo currently has a fleet of 2,000 vehicles and operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles and Atlanta, which would cover about 3% of the U.S. population.

CHINA COULD LOSE ONE OF ITS PROFIT MAKERS
Li Auto is one of the few Chinese car companies that makes a profit, but that may not last long. It just reported lower sales, lower revenue and lower profits for the last quarter. It made a bit over $152 million in net profit, which is only a 3.6% profit margin. And things are going to get even worse. Li Auto expects its revenue this quarter to drop about 40%.

    

MERCEDES REVEALS EV EFFICIENCY EFFORTS
Mercedes recently set a bunch of records with a prototype it calls the CONCEPT AMG GT XX. But more importantly to us it’s releasing a lot of the car’s technical details. And we’re going to go over a few that we think will actually make it to production vehicles. One is the Central Coolant Hub. It’s like a brain for the entire cooling system and can heat or cool the coolant depending on which part of the car it’s going to because components like the drive units operate in a different temperature range than the batteries. The concept also deploys active aero, but instead of just some louvers that open and close behind the radiator, the coolers in the wheel arches were added to the system as well. They stay closed most of the time to improve aero, but open when additional cooling is needed. Lastly is a new fast-charging system. For its record runs, the AMG GT XX charged at an average of about 850 kW thanks to a specially developed charging unit that’s capable of transmitting currents of up to 1000 amps. For comparison, the fastest fast-chargers available to the public right now are 400 kW, so matching the charging performance of the concept is not currently possible. We’ll provide a link to the rest of the press release because there’s a few more interesting details. But we tried to stick to the stuff that we think will make it into production because it’s hard to imagine a vehicle that you or I could buy would have all of this tech packaged into it.

DESIGNER REIMAGINES SKODA FELICIA FUN
Have you ever heard of the Skoda Felicia Fun? Don’t worry if you haven’t. It’s a small pickup truck that was made in the Czech Republic and only sold just over 4,200 units in its three year run from 1997 to 2000. It’s a cool little vehicle and now a French designer has reimagined the Felicia Fun, but in Skoda’s current design language. This is what he came up with. It’s a bit more sporty than the original and I think it kind of looks like a hot-hatch with the hatch cut off. But the picture of it by the beach is perfect because that’s exactly where I imagine a vehicle like this driving around.

VW EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH AMAZON
Volkswagen is extending its partnership with Amazon to provide digital services at its factories worldwide. VW is using Amazon Web Services digital production platform, which provides cloud computing services at 43 sites in the U.S., Europe and South America. VW says plants connected to the platform operate more efficiently by optimizing assembly and it expects the service to save it tens of millions of euros in the medium-term.

RENAULT TEASES NEXT-GEN CLIO
The Renault Clio was the best-selling car in Europe in the first half of the year with roughly 130,000 units sold. And the automaker revealed that it’s going to debut the new 6th-gen version at the Munich auto show in the second week of September. However, based on this teaser it doesn’t look like the styling is going to change all that much. But we don’t have anything else to go on right now, so we may have to wait until September to find out more.

CHINESE AUTOMAKERS NOT BACKING OFF PRICE WAR
Remember a couple of months ago when the Chinese government told automakers to stop the price war because it was going to damage the industry? Well, nothing’s happened. Automakers have barely reduced their sales incentives. For example, BYD only cut them 0.4%, while others even increased incentives, or offered other perks like 0% loans and free connectivity. The Chinese industry has massive overcapacity and sales are softening as the Chinese economy seems to be slowing down. Last month, the average price of a new car in China dropped $200 to $16,000. The Chinese government has a firm grip on so many parts of its economy, but maybe not so much when it comes to automotive retail prices.

CHINESE VACUUM MAKER TARGETS BUGATTI
You know, another thing the Chinese government wanted to stop is more car companies coming into the business. But a company that makes vacuums, called Dreame Technology, says it’s going to make a supercar that will challenge the Bugatti Veyron. It makes a vacuum motor that can run at 200,000 rpm, and it says it wants to apply its electric motor technology to supercars. Even though the government doesn’t want new players, they’ll probably ignore this one. Bugatti only sells 45-75 cars a year, and Dreame Technology probably won’t sell much more than that.

Before we go, don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours today. We’re going to talk next-gen chassis technology, the possibility of the U.S. & EU sharing regulations and that war brewing between dealers and direct sales. That discussion kicks off live at 3PM EST on our website and YouTube channel.

And with that we wrap up this show. Thanks for tuning in and I hope to see you later today.