Viewer Mail

Hello Autoline team,
I’ve been an avid subscriber of your Youtube channel for years now & absolutely look forward to the autoline daily videos well, DAILY ! 😎
I had a suggestion to throw in for the After hours podcast – could you bring in a subject matter expert focused on what level of reliability & lifetime testing the OEMs & suppliers are doing on these multiplex of touch screens in newer cars? I’m sure I’m not the only analog loving consumer worried sick about how these massive touchscreen will fare the test of time, repair costs, reliability etc, so having some insight into their development & validation would really help!

Thanks again for your incredible coverage.

Regards,
Hardik

Sean,

Interesting segment in Autoline Daily today about Australia & VW & Kangaroo. Clearly, hitting a kangaroo or a deer is a multi-faceted problem = economic, vehicle damage, and occupant injury.

Here is a related topic associated with deer strikes and commercial vehicles. As an accident reconstructionist who does passenger and commercial vehicles, an interesting fact was brought up at a training class in August, 2022 at Prime Trucking in Springfield, MO. When I was there they were putting deer guards on the front of all their trucks because deer impacts cost $5,000 and UP.

Attached, and below, are photos I took of their trucks at the Heavy Vehicle EDR Class.

Keep up the great reporting.

Sincerely,

Robert

Please do an in depth on this….

Why no interest from other automakers?

Sandy Munro?

Thanks,

– A

Your recent after hours show mentioned Toyota was not seriously into EVs but, it was not mentioned that their plug-in-hybrids were selling well.
Despite all the criticism Toyota has received about their EV strategy, it appears their strategy is on the mark.

Regards
Frank
London, Ontario Canada

Your latest AAH with Micky Bly was FANTASTIC! This guy is FANTASTIC! His knowledge and field of expertise is vast and all encompassing ! Your show is FANTASTIC.! I just wish I could get the meathead politicians in Washington to view this episode and realize that the market drives sales and preferences not their mandates, regulations and HUGE incentives.Thanks !

Danny

I propose a follow up to today’s Autoline Daily snippet on extending BEV battery warranties to 15 years. There have been some horror stories about dealers quoting total replacements for batteries on brand new BEVs, where a modest pack dent was caused by a road hazard (via Motormouth). So I suggest the feds should also mandate lifetime road hazard warranties for batteries.

Nothing stinks quite so much as spending $50,000 on a new Ioniq 5, then running over a road hazard two weeks after purchase, and then being quoted $50,000 by a dealer because that dent on the battery requires a full replacement. OEMs love to tell us how tough their packs are – so let’s make them back that up with mandatory warranties.

Thanks for considering!

Scott from Asheville

John, Gary, Sean,

We can say Stellantis has a good range of powertrains and platforms to address current perceived needs – the global 80 million (and declining) vehicle market. Declining due the long life of new vehicles.

Tesla and most OEMs demonstrate that vehicles can be packaged in different ways, but the variation is small.

The US has a vehicle per citizen (330 million vehicles). The world probably has 2 billion motor vehicles. The world probably has 2 billion combustion engine bikes – mainly in Asia and Africa.

The annual market for motorised transport (2 to 4 wheel) is probably a billion vehicles at prices from US$300 to sky is the limit.

BEV powertrains allow a bluring of the distinction of vehicle types due to the compact nature of electric powertrains. But most major OEMs (except perhaps Honda and BMW) are not interested in growing new markets enabled by the compact nature of electric powertrains particularly when sized for typical city and town motoring.

Last year Hyundai showed a terrible concept called the ‘Uni-wheel’ (for 4WD and steer) with the intent of showing how to reduce the size electric powertrains. However, the concept included a small cheap induction motor per wheel with a separate inverter. Induction motors can free-wheel, but PM motors can’t (they either give or take energy). Induction motors are far cheaper and only slightly less efficient.

Steer-by-wire systems are available, but the Tesla system shows it is not cheap due to the artificial feedback from the road mechanism.

Side-stick controls for drive by wire, motors sized for the cities of the world, other systems sized for use, all mean a great deal of cost can be cut out of EVs that can’t be cut-out of hybrids and full combustion engine vehicles.

Stellantis and others seek to keep the market they have, rather than chase a global market where they may not succeed.

Regards
Peter Egan

Hi John,

Just a quick question – Why are 11 Lotus Eletre sitting in a shared parking lot just south of the Rivian R and D Office in Plymouth (Haggerty and Plymouth Roads)?

Jim

P.S. Fold down the rear seats in the Eletre and I think my Caterham 7 (Lotus 7) could fit right in.

P.S.S. Think you could arrange a test drive?

Hello, love your shows as they are accurate and very informative. I was wonderring if you could do an expose on Aptera. This company has been leading the path to solar mobility and are very close to production.

Thanks again for your great work!

Klaas

You have had some great shows in the last few weeks, last Thursdays was a fascinating perspective on the issue of applying innovation. Really made me think- at eighty that’s not as easy as it used to be😃 ! That initial idea of that modular interior really impressed me, I would like that but would still bring my SVT steering wheel along!!

Just finished reading “Ludicrous.” Fascinating perspective on Musk! He is not a simple character, brilliant but complicated.

Don