AD #4152 – Ford F-150 Hit by Fire at Aluminum Supplier; China Makes Solid State Battery Breakthrough; Tesla FSD 14 Handles Point-To-Point Delivery

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

CHINESE SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCE SOLID STATE BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH
China’s Academy of Sciences announced a breakthrough in solid state batteries. Car News China reports that scientists created a flexible solid-state battery that withstood 20,000 repeated bends. And for those of you who understand the chemistry of these things, the battery is made from polymer molecules, ethoxy groups, and electrochemically active short sulfur chains. It also has a composite cathode with embedded polymer electrolyte that increases the energy density to 86%. The new battery is still in the research stage and probably has several years to go before it’s ready for mass production. But solid-state batteries could be a game changer for electric vehicles, and this breakthrough could bring them one step closer to reality.

FORD F-150 HIT BY FIRE AT ALUMINUM SUPPLIER
Automakers always plan for what they call Black Swan events, something unpredictable that comes straight out of the blue and causes massive disruption. Well, production of the Ford F-150 just got hit by a major Black Swan event. Ford buys most of its aluminum sheets from Novelis, and it just had a massive fire at a plant in New York that will cripple production until early next year. Ford is the biggest user of aluminum from that plant and is scrambling to find other sources. But it’s not just Ford. Around a dozen automakers get aluminum from Novelis, which supplies about 40% of the metal to the U.S. auto industry. Those automakers will likely have to turn to imported aluminum which now carries a 50% import tariff.

    

FORD & GM GANG UP ON STELLANTIS OVER TARIFFS
The Trump Administration sure does love tariffs. Now it’s going to slap 25% import tariffs on medium and heavy-duty trucks and that has got GM and Ford in a lobbying battle against Stellantis. Light duty trucks have had a 25% tariff since 1964, but it didn’t apply to mediums and heavy duties. Ford currently makes its bigger trucks in the U.S. though it’s tooling up a plant in Canada to make them. General Motors makes most of them in the U.S., but imports some from Canada and Mexico, while Stellantis makes them all in Mexico. Stella wants some sort of exemption from the tariff, but GM and Ford say that would put their U.S. made trucks at a disadvantage. Last year the U.S, imported over $20 billion of medium and heavy-duty trucks, mostly from Mexico and Canada. We’ll have to wait to see how the Trump Administration settles this, but for now that tariff starts on November 1.

TESLA FSD 14 HANDLES POINT-TO-POINT DELIVERY
Later today, Tesla is supposedly going to release the details on the cheaper version of the Model Y, with speculation suggesting it’s going to have a $30,000 price tag. That’s going to be big news, but the company also just released a significant upgrade to its Full Self Driving stack. Called FSD 14 it adds a bunch of features that come straight out of the company’s experience with its robotaxis. For example, it will automatically pull over for emergency vehicles like fire trucks and police cars. It can handle blocked roads and detours that come up in real time. It will automatically clean off camera lenses. But most importantly, it will now handle point-to-point delivery including parking as long as the driver is engaged and ready to take over. Elon Musk has been promising autonomous driving for an awfully long time. And FSD 14 seems to be the closest to making this a reality.

  

SPAIN IN UPROAR OVER 2,000 CHINESE AT CATL PLANT
The Trump Administration caused an uproar when it arrested and expelled 475 foreigners setting up the equipment at LG Energy’s battery plant near Savannah, Georgia. LG Energy vehemently denies that those workers, who were overwhelmingly from South Korea, were in the United States illegally. In fact, most of them are now being let back in to finish their work. But the U.S. isn’t the only country that is skittish about foreign workers. Spain is in an uproar over 2,000 Chinese workers that CATL brought into the country to set up a battery plant. It also set off concerns in the European auto industry that it is becoming too dependent on China. All we can say is that 2,000 workers sure is a lot of people. They’re not just going to set up equipment at the plant, they’re going to build the whole thing. And for a lot of people in Spain, that’s just too much.

GERMANY TO EXTEND EV SUBSIDIES
Germany is giving its auto industry some extra relief. Government officials, who are alarmed at all the automotive jobs that Germany is hemorrhaging, are planning on extending a tax exemption for new electric vehicles until 2035. EV sales are lower than expected and stiff competition in the EV market is leading to thousands of job cuts. The German auto industry is expected to lose 100,000 jobs by the end of the decade. But German automakers want more than EV subsidies. They’re also demanding that the EU roll back its 2035 ban on IC engines. One automotive executive told Autoline that the ban would end up handing half of the European market over to Chinese automakers.

NISSAN USES RENAULT TECH FOR SUV IN INDIA
Nissan is leaning on its partnership with Renault to launch a new SUV in India. The model is called the Tekton and its styling is inspired by the larger Patrol or what’s also known as the Armada. While the Tekton won’t be fully revealed until next year, it’s based on a shared platform between Renault and Nissan, which is used for other vehicles like the Dacia Duster. You may remember us reporting on an innovative new hybrid powertrain with a 48-volt motor and 2-speed gearbox for that model recently. No word on what will power the Tekton yet, but there’s a wide range of powertrain options for that platform. Renault will also produce the new Nissan SUV at its plant in India before sales kick off next year. The two automakers used to jointly share that plant, but Renault bought out Nissan’s 51% at the beginning of August, calling the move part of its ambition to make India a key pillar of its growth.

GEELY VTOL READY FOR MANNED TESTING
Aerofugia, the aviation division of Chinese automaker Geely, is showing off its first eVTOL or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Called the AE200, it can hold six passengers and has a range of 200 kilometers or 124 miles. Aerofugia says the model is the first eVTOL in China, and the second globally, to successfully complete full tilt-rotor transition flight tests. That’s where an aircraft takes off vertically like a helicopter, transitions to horizontal fixed-wing flight, and then lands vertically again, using a single, rotatable tilt-rotor system for the entire maneuver. Aerofugia says the next step is to start manned flight testing in its effort to receive full-scale certification.

And that brings us to the end of today’s report. Before we sign off I want to send a personal shout out to all our members who contribute to keep Autoline going. Your support is really making a difference and helps keep us on our mission to help everyone get a better picture of what’s going on in the global automotive industry.