AD #4314 – Donut Battery Labeled a Fraud; Honda CEO Asked to Resign; BYD Expects to Double Scale in 5 Years

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

DONUT BATTERY LABELED A FRAUD
Uh-oh. It turns out that miracle battery from Donut Labs is actually a fraud. Elektrek reports that an investigation from over 20 battery experts found that the so-called solid-state sodium cell from Donut is actually a lithium-ion cell. The investigation uncovered a number of companies behind the fraud, and it found electrochemical evidence that the battery is nothing like the sensational claims that Donut made at CES in January, which sent shockwaves through the EV industry. Instead of the claimed 400 watt-hours per kilogram, it turns out that it only develops 298 watt-hours per kilo, no better than today’s lithium-ion batteries. And remember that electric motorcycle from Verge that was supposedly going to use the Donut battery? Yeah, well that never happened, either. Donut raised about $25 million, mostly from small investors, and no doubt the lawsuits will start to fly.

U.S. ACCUSES BYD & NIO OF MILITARY TIES
President Trump’s trip to China last month was supposed to smooth the waters between the two countries, but now the United States is accusing a number of Chinese companies of working with the Chinese military, including BYD and NIO. BYD immediately denied that it’s a military company, while NIO said this would not affect it. The Pentagon regularly publishes a list of companies that aid the Chinese military, and the two automakers were added when the updated list was published yesterday. That aid includes a wide ecosystem of technologies, including robotics, chips and bio-tech. This does not impose sanctions on the companies, but it prevents the U.S. Defense Department from doing any business with them.

FORMER EXECS TRIED TO OUST HONDA CEO
Things got so bad at Honda that several former executives, including a previous CEO, tried to oust current CEO Toshihiro Mibe. They blamed him for neglecting China, a “failed” commitment to EVs and even playing too much golf. Reuters reports the group started meeting late last year and in April, that former CEO, Nobuhiko Kawamoto, met with Mibe at Honda’s headquarters, trying to convince him to resign. But by that time the company’s board had already made its decision to keep Mibe around. However, he could be on the hot seat if his new 3-year plan announced in May doesn’t start showing returns. As we previously noted at the time, Mibe is no longer listed as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors.

BYD EXPECTS TO DOUBLE SCALE IN 5 YEARS
BYD has struggled this year to keep up with the success it had been seeing, but the company’s Chairman and President still expects huge growth. Within the next 5 years he predicts BYD will be the largest automaker in the world by scale. Right now Toyota holds that top spot with the capacity to make over 11 million vehicles a year, including its commercial divisions. Last year, BYD made about 4.5 million vehicles, so it would need to more than double its capacity to pass Toyota. That would be very impressive, but keeping costs down to maintain profits is key when chasing scale.

           

IIHS STARTS TESTING COMMERCIAL VEHICLES
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS released the results of its first evaluations of commercial vehicles. It tested nine cargo vans and Class 3 trucks for things that it considers essential for driver protection, like standard front and side airbags, seatbelt force limiters and pretensioners and effective seat belt reminders. The IIHS found that four vehicles, the Chevy Silverado 3500HD, Ford F-350 SuperCrew, Chevy Brightdrop 400 and the Ram ProMaster 2500, check all the boxes for driver protection. The institute says it’s evaluating commercial vehicles now because they don’t have the same safety requirements as passenger vehicles and it wants those features to become more common to help reduce traffic deaths. In 2023, 16% of all road fatalities in the U.S. involved medium and heavy-duty trucks or vans. The IIHS will also evaluate headlights and automatic emergency braking in commercial vehicles and it will test Class 4-6 trucks as well.

STELLANTIS STARTS ROBOTAXI TESTS IN EUROPE
Building on a previous partnership with autonomous company Pony.ai and European mobility provider Bolt that was announced last year, Stellantis is launching a robotaxi test program in Luxembourg. They’ll use Peugeot Expert mid-size vans to help validate the safety, performance and readiness of Pony.ai’s Level 4 tech for traffic environments in Europe. The companies hope to be ready for driverless services by the end of the test program, but didn’t say how long the test program will be.

LUCID GRAVITY GETS LEVEL 2 CAPABILITY AFTER DELAY
After a six-month delay, Lucid Motors is finally adding hands-free driving to its Gravity SUV. The feature is part of an over-the-air update that also includes navigation and headlight improvements. Lucid planned to roll out the updates at the end of last year but it ran into software and other quality issues which delayed its release.

BMW OWNERS RACKING UP HANDS-FREE DRIVING MILES
And speaking of hands-free driving, BMW says customers in Europe using its system have racked up more than 200 million kilometers or more than 124 million miles. The feature enables hands-free driving on the highway at speeds up to 130 km/h or 80 MPH along with automated lane changes.

HYUNDAI GROUP COULD PASS TOYOTA & HONDA U.S. CAPACITY
We’ve been doing some addition lately, and here are some numbers that add up to something interesting. Hyundai has an assembly plant in Georgia that can make 300,000 cars a year. They’re going to boost that to 500,000, and then they’re going to add another plant that can make 250,000. Hyundai also has a plant in Alabama that can make over 350,000 cars. And Kia has a plant in Georgia that can make 350,000. Add it all up and that’s over 1.4 million vehicles. While they’re not there yet, when and if they do, the Hyundai Group will be able to make more vehicles in the U.S. than Toyota or Honda currently do. And we think that shows the ambition Hyundai has for the American market. By the way, we published an article on our website that has a lot more insight about those two plants in Georgia.

But with that we wrap up today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.