AD #4398 – Acura Preps 8-Passenger SUV; Damning Documentary Excoriates Musk; Doug Field to Make Robots for Rivian

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

DAMNING DOCUMENTARY EXCORIATES MUSK
There’s a new Elon Musk documentary that’s about to drop, portraying him as the ultimate con man and stock-pumper of all time. The piece, called Musk, was done by the director Alex Gibney, who also did scathing documentaries on Enron and Scientology. Gibney tells Bloomberg he actually started out thinking this would be a friendly and admiring story on Elon, but the more he dug into his background, the more he came to see him as a con man. The series will start streaming on HBO which outbid Netflix to get the rights. Universal Pictures also paid millions more to show it elsewhere. We’re only covering this story because Tesla sales took a nosedive when Musk began interjecting himself into U.S. and European politics. Those sales are only just recovering, but a documentary like this could cripple them again, along with all the suppliers and others who do business with Tesla. 

BYD’S DENZA WANTS FINCO IN EU 
Chinese automakers aren’t wasting any time trying to embed themselves into the European market before lawmakers put a cap on what they can do there. Now Denza, the luxury brand from BYD, wants to set up its own finance unit in Europe, instead of relying on outside finance companies. One problem Denza faces is that it’s so new to the market that it doesn’t have much history of how well its cars hold their value. And that makes it difficult to set lease prices, because they depend so heavily on residual values. But with an in-house finance company, Denza could just set its own competitive lease rates. Bloomberg reports that a Denza Z9GT currently has a monthly lease rate of €899, compared to a comparable Audi A6 Avant e-tron for €619 a month. A captive finance company could help Denza slash those payments.

HYUNDAI BETS $15.5B ON INDIA
New car sales in all the major markets of the world stopped growing sometime around 2017. That includes North and South America, Europe, South Korea, Japan and China. It’s what they call Peak Auto, because that’s when car sales hit their peak. One of the last growth markets left in the world is India, and the Hyundai Group just placed a $15.5 billion bet there. It’s going to boost production, establish an R&D center, build up its supply chain, all with an eye on boosting sales as well as using India as a major export hub. That’s all expected to be in place by 2032 and Hyundai says it represents a 30-year commitment to India.

NISSAN’S L2++ ROBOTAXI EXPERIMENT
Nissan is taking a page out of autonomous startup May Mobility’s book and is operating a robotaxi service in a small service area before it grows. Nissan is expanding a pilot program in Kobe City, Japan, which is open to participants who apply to the service. It’s using Serena vans with Level 2 autonomous technology, which will be monitored in real-time remotely. Nissan aims to launch a paid service in 2027 and begin full commercial operations in an area of Kobe City by 2030. 

GM DROPS IN CHINA, ALONG WITH REST OF MARKET
Like most automakers, General Motors is struggling in China. The company sold around 358,000 vehicles in the third quarter, a drop of 24% compared to a year ago. And through the first nine months of the year, GM has sold just over a million vehicles, down 21%. However, it actually hasn’t lost market share this year because the overall Chinese market is down 22%. And there was one silver lining in its Q3 results, electrified models accounted for more than 60% of its sales, a record high for the automaker in Q3. And while the Chinese car market is currently shaky, GM is in it for the long haul. Back in August it signed a deal with SAIC to extend its joint-venture for another 20 years to 2047.

GM OPEN TO STARTUPS IN ITS BATTERY LAB
And speaking of GM, the automaker is considering opening its new battery cell development center to startups. When asked what could be done to help promote battery innovation in the U.S. during a panel at the Battery Show in Detroit, GM’s VP of battery and sustainability, Kurt Kelty, revealed that it’s talking about allowing startups in the lab so they can learn how to make cells. However, a GM spokesperson said there are no imminent plans to allow startups in the labs. The $145 million facility is being built on GM’s Global Technical Center just outside of Detroit and is scheduled to open in December.

And circling back to the Battery Show, we’ll be posting interviews from some of the companies attending, so be sure to be on the lookout for our coverage.

          

ACURA PREPS 8-PASSENGER SUV
North America accounted for 40% of Honda’s global sales last year, but in July the company’s CEO said “I want to increase the number of sales in North America a lot.” One way it’s going to do that is by entering new segments. Acura announced that it will introduce 3 new SUVs in North America starting in early 2028. The first will be a new off-road ready SUV that’s expected to share a platform with the Honda Passport, which is built in Alabama. That will be followed later in the year by the next-gen RDX, which is the first Acura model to feature Honda’s 2-motor hybrid system. Even though the company has avoided large American utility vehicles, it says it’s developing a new 8-passenger SUV, which is expected to be built in Ohio. And since it still expects hybrids to be a strong player in the market, Honda is also developing a new V6 hybrid system for its larger vehicles.

DOUG FIELD TO MAKE ROBOTS FOR RIVIAN
Doug Field, the guy that went from Segway, to engineering the Tesla Model 3, to running Apple’s EV efforts and then establishing Ford’s EV skunkworks program, just got a new job. He was hired as president of Mind Robotics, a spinoff from Rivian that’s focused on making purpose-built robots for manufacturing. The robots have human-like features and could include developing humanoids. The company was founded less than a year ago and it’s already raised more than $1 billion. Field will be in charge of product, engineering, and operations, which suggests Mind could be getting ready to scale up. And we find it interesting that Rivian seems to be leveraging its technology for projects that are at least adjacent to the auto industry. It used its EV know-how to launch e-bike company Also and now it’s using its production knowledge for manufacturing robots. 

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