AD #4184 – China Accused of Manipulating Critical Materials Market; GM Tries Selling Vehicles to UK Military; Ford Tops UK EV Market Share

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

FORD TOPS EV MARKET SHARE IN THE UK
Thanks to strong sales of its Puma and Explorer electric vehicles, Ford had the highest BEV market share in the UK last month. Its market share was at 9%, about 1.5 percentage points ahead of Audi and Volkswagen. Renault and BYD rounded out the top 5 in BEV market share. Overall, fully-electric vehicles accounted for 25% of vehicle sales in October. And while Ford was number one last month, Tesla has the highest BEV market share over the last three months, but Ford is only 100 units behind Tesla over that period.

FORD TRANSIT VAN GETS NICER INTERIOR
And speaking of Ford, it just updated the interior of its Transit van. It features a new 8-inch driver display along with a 12-inch center screen and it’s now standard with the SYNC 4 infotainment system as well as push button start. New technology features include a built-in 5G modem, lane-keeping assist, automatic emergency braking. And there’s new tools to help make fleet operations more efficient.

CHINA ACCUSED OF MANIPULATING CRITICAL MATERIALS MARKET
The U.S. is trying to eliminate its reliance on China for critical materials such as rare earth minerals and lithium. And China is trying to prevent the U.S. from doing that. At a Congressional hearing in Washington DC yesterday, executives from the materials industry said China manipulated the supply of rare earths to drop the price just as a company called MP Materials was about to launch a refining plant in California. That spooked investors and destroyed the incentive to invest in the California plant. Executives testified that China is also manipulating prices of lithium and other critical materials to scare off investment capital. We’ll see what the U.S. Congress does with this testimony, but it sure suggests that tensions between the U.S. and China show no signs of easing up.

  

GEELY FOUNDER SEES MORE OPPORTUNITY IN U.S. FOR NEW ELECTRONICS COMPANY
And that makes this next story all the more interesting. Li Shufu is the founder of Geely Motors, which owns Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Lync & Co, Lotus, Smart and a handful of other brands. He also controls an automotive electronics company called Ecarx Holdings. And he’s moving most of its engineering and manufacturing out of China and mainly over to Europe. Li Shufu wants to merge Ecarx with another un-named automotive supplier and get listed on the NASDAQ, which would greatly reduce its Chinese ownership. And he wants to do that because being based in China means the company can’t export to the U.S. He’ll still have to get through a bunch of regulatory hearings in the U.S. before he can proceed. But it’s interesting that a Chinese entrepreneur sees more opportunity for his company in the United States than he does in China.

 

PORSCHE DETAILS ALL-NEW CAYENNE ELECTRIC
Over a third of all new Porsche’s sold around the world are now purely electric and the company just pulled the wraps off the all-new Cayenne Electric. The model will initially launch in two trims that offer one battery size and come standard with all-wheel drive. That battery is a newly developed 113 kWh pack, which provides up to 642 kilometers or just under 400 miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. Thanks to the Cayenne’s 800-volt architecture, it’s able to charge at up to 400 kW, which can charge the battery from 10-80% in as little as 16 minutes. And as reported recently, the model will also have the option for a factory installed inductive charging system. The more base version of the two trims produces 300 kW or about 400 horsepower from its two drive units and will do 0-60 MPH in about 4.7 seconds. While the Turbo trim is capable of putting out 850 kW or about 1,140 horsepower and going from 0-60 in 2.4 seconds. However, it can only put out that much power for 10 seconds at a time and its normal output is closer to 850 horsepower. Both trims come standard with an air suspension system, but the Turbo also comes with a limited-slip rear diff and the option for an active suspension system. There’s a carbon ceramic brake option for the Turbo as well, but most customers probably don’t need it. The Cayenne Electric is capable of generating 600 kW during regen braking and Porsche claims 97% of all braking in everyday driving can be handled by the electric motors. Orders are open now and the company says it will offer three powertrain types in the Cayenne, including ICE, past 2030.

BENTLEY CAN CUSTOMIZE PUDDLE LAMPS
Bentley has the most elegant welcome lamps I’ve ever seen. I usually call these puddle lights, which are used to project an image onto the ground. But Bentley can now customize these however an owner wants and even add a little animation to them. This one is a concert hall in Bucharest that features music notes flying around it. The technology needed to pull this off requires nearly 416,000 microscopic mirrors that are each one fifth the width of a human hair. Bentley says these animations could be as simple as a handwritten projection or as detailed as a floating feather. And it plans to offer these lighting solutions in its customization process, just like it does with nicer woods, leathers and metals.

GM WANTS UK MILITARY TO ADOPT ITS VEHICLES
The UK is expected to add to its military fleet next year and even General Motors hopes to provide some of those vehicles. And we find a couple pretty interesting. One is based on the Chevy S10 pickup that it still sells in countries like Brazil and features a 207-horsepower diesel. And another is a model based on the Silverado 1500 ZR2 which is also powered by a diesel, but with 305 horses. The models were developed by Team Lionstrike, a partnership between GM Defense, BAE Systems and NP Aerospace.

HORSE ALREADY HAS 8 MILLION ENGINE ORDERS
Should GM, Ford and Stellantis outsource their powertrain operations? That’s been a topic of debate ever since the late Sergio Marchionne wrote an essay in 2016 titled “Confessions of A Capital Junkie” which proposed exactly that. And now comes Horse Powertrain, the company that Renault spun off to make all its IC engines and transmissions. It’s making powertrains for Volvo, Geely, Mercedes, Nissan, Mitsubishi and others. Keep in mind that this is a company that was only officially formed in May of 2024 and it’s already got orders for 8 million engines a year. The company’s economies of scale are so big, it can sell an engine to an automaker cheaper than that automaker can make it in-house. Last week we had Tom Lewis from Horse Powertrain on Autoline After Hours. He’s based in Detroit and said he’s getting a lot of inquiries about what Horse can supply. So this is clearly a topic of conversation in Detroit, Dearborn and Auburn Hills. If you haven’t seen that segment yet, I highly recommend it.

Speaking of Autoline After Hours, coming up later today we have Matt Anderson, the automotive curator at the Henry Ford Museum. He’s got some fascinating insight on how people who hated the horseless carriage came around to accept them. And there may be history lessons there to change the hearts of people who currently hate EVs. We also have Steve Purdy coming on the show. He published a book called Mascots in Motion about the history and evolution of hood ornaments, grilles and tailfins over a 40 year period. The stories behind them are as interesting as the ornaments themselves. So join John and Gary when the show goes live at 3 pm Eastern time.

But that’s a wrap for this show. And I hope to see you later today.