Back in 2005, when gas prices were rising, some OEMs, as well as local dealers, offered consumers pre-paid gas cars. Mitsubishi, for example, depending on model, provided $1,500 to $2,500 for a vehicle purchase.
What’s interesting is that 2005 wasn’t really all that bad a year gas-price-wise.
That is, in 2002, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gas averaged at $1.38 a gallon. It was something of a steady climb to $3.29 a gallon in 2008. The average price in 2005 was $2.31.
Today Kia America and Electrify America announced that buyers of the Kia EV6 electric SUV will get 1,000 kilowatt-hours of free charging at Electrify America stations.
In a clearer context: that’s enough energy to drive from 3,500 to 4,000 miles. Depending on the model. And the comparative heaviness of one’s right foot.
While that is certainly a nice bonus, it is puzzling that when there are vehicles ostensibly as good as the EV6 that the pot needs to be sweetened with some electrons.
To be sure it is a customer convenience, but doesn’t it, in some way, undercut the basic goodness of the vehicle (i.e., “Hey, you might be thinking of something else, but we’re going to put a cherry on top, so it is better!”)? Not that I have anything against free energy, but somehow the value proposition of the vehicle itself ought to be sufficiently compelling.
Motor racing is a space where many OEMs have the opportunity to test out new technologies and to obtain learnings about performance at the edge.
Mazda Motor Corp. is participating in the Japanese Super Taiku Series, endurance racing that consists of seven rounds, including a race titled the “24 Hours of Fuji” (what a great name!).
Mazda is campaigning the Mazda2 Bio concept. This is a Mazda2 production car that has a Skyactiv-D diesel engine under its hood.
What makes this conceptual is that it will be running on bio-fuel, a product called “Susteo” that was developed by Euglena Co. Ltd.
This biofuel is made from things like microalgae fats and used cooking oil. Some biodiesels compete with food crops. Not this.
The fuel can be run in the diesel engine without modification.
The point is to help develop Mazda’s growing portfolio of vehicles that are meant to help the company reach climate neutrality.
There is a lot of discussion of powertrains for vehicles that can, like the Mazda2 Bio, use existing engines with varying degrees of modification rather than wholesale replacement, engines that can run on advanced liquid fuels or even hydrogen.
Let’s face it: There are lots of engine plants in the world, so keeping them running might be something that automakers would not be opposed to doing versus shutting them down.
However, as James Martin, associate director, IHS Markit Automotive Advisory Practice, an expert on powertrains, points out on this edition of “Autoline After Hours,” if there is combustion involved—whether it is spark- or combustion-ignited—there is going to be emissions.
So running hydrogen to power an engine and using hydrogen to power a fuel cell may both turn the wheels, but only the latter is going to be emissions-free.
Credit to Mazda for trying. But ultimately, the Super Taiku Series is likely to be powered by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Martin says that there is momentum behind electric vehicles that is unlikely to be stopped, particularly as automotive companies announce billions of dollars of investments and investors announce their support of these advances by supporting the shares of the companies that are making the transition.
However, Martin notes, this isn’t going to be a flip-the-light switch phenomenon. Yes, Ford will sell you a Mustang with a 760-hp V8 under its hood. And Ford will also sell you a Mustang Mach-E with a 314-mile all-electric range. And that is likely to be the case for some time to come. (Yes, the same holds for an F-150 with and without an electric powertrain.)
This is what the future doesn’t look like–a Chevy LT5 crate engine. (Image: Chevrolet)
Internal combustion engines aren’t going away next week, but Martin points out that while there are likely to be some new engine programs, there are unlikely to be new engine platforms. That is, what’s there can be modified. What’s not there will not be designed from the proverbial clean sheet.
Martin talks with “Autoline’s” John McElroy, Lindsay Brooke, editor-in-chief of Automotive Engineering, and me on the show.
Among the areas visited are what becomes of some existing engines and how OEMs can wind down their production—which turns out to be a tricky proposition (Martin, when he was at GM, worked on the LT5 Corvette engine program, a 375-hp, 5.7-liter small-block V8 that was produced for GM by Mercury Marine; Martin was there when the engine was taken out of production: you’ll be surprised at the complexity of stopping production).
And, of course, the landscape of electric powertrains.
Last November Toyota announced a $240-million investment in its plant in Buffalo, West Virginia, its only combined engine and transmission plant in North America. The monies will be invested in a production line for hybrid transaxles.
And today the company announced that it was adding an additional $73-million to its spend for not only more hybrid transaxle production but to assembly rear motor stators.
All of which is to say that Toyota is amping up its spend on hybrid vehicle production capacity.
In addition, it is spending $17 million at its Toyota Motor Manufacturing Tennessee plant for casting hybrid transaxle cases and housings.
Last December Toyota announced that it would be launching 30 battery electric vehicles globally by 2030, which would represent sales of 3.5-million EVs per year.
Then it would, by 2035, have 100% of its global vehicle sales be EVs by 2035.
However, between now and then there will evidently be more hybrids available at Toyota and Lexus dealers in the U.S.
Back in 2017 Bollinger Motors revealed two vehicles, the B1 a bona-fide SUV (it actually has a frame, which makes it more SUV than crossover), and the B2, a Class 3 pickup.
Both are electric vehicles.
What was absolutely remarkable about the two is that there is a design aesthetic that is all about straight-up functionality rather than either copying the design, more or less, of an existing vehicle with an internal combustion engine or going completely futuristic. As there are more announcements of electric pickups the B2 stands in a place of its own.
And in 2019, when the company announced the pricing for the fully electric, all-wheel drive vehicles, some took in a quick breath: $125,000.
Bollinger Motors B2 (Image: Bollinger)
Be that as it may, reservations came rolling in to the company that had moved from New York to greater Detroit in order to be in the midst of automotive development.
On January 14, 2022, Bollinger Motors announced a change in direction:
“We started Bollinger Motors in 2015 with a dream and a desire to make the best trucks possible,” said Robert Bollinger, CEO of Bollinger Motors. “We’ve put countless hours of hard work and passion into making something that makes us proud. However, today, we’re postponing the consumer trucks’ development and shifting our focus to commercial trucks and fleets.”
The company would be focusing its efforts on vehicles in the class 3-6 category, trucks that are typically bought by businesses in volumes of more than one.
Bollinger engineers had developed the underpinnings for electric trucks in terms of the battery system as well as the structure, so that, rather than the exterior sheet metal, is where the company will now be focusing its development efforts.
So why the change?
On this edition of “Autoline After Hours” Robert Bollinger explains the thinking behind addressing the commercial market first rather than pursuing the personal, or individual, market. He notes that the work they’ve done beneath the skin provides the solid workings for commercial vehicles, a place where he—and many others—think that there will be a significant deployment of electric vehicles.
It is worth noting that the B2 was from the start a robust truck and so that is just being amped up for these new applications.
Bollinger discusses this move with “Autoline’s” John McElroy, Greg Migliore of Autoblog, and me.
It becomes clear that Bollinger isn’t just the guy whose name is on the company but a man who is deeply committed to the development of first-rate vehicles.
That is something that makes a tremendous difference between builders who want to make a quick buck and those who want to make something that people will appreciate.
If you were to draw an inverted triangle between Liverpool, Manchester and Crewe, with Crewe being the point at the bottom, that gives you a sense of the location in northern England where some 4,000 people work building Bentleys.
Bentley is 102 now. It clearly plans to be in the game for many more years to come. (Image: Bentley)
Today it was announced that Bentley is making a £2.5-billion investment in sustainability, which includes building at Crewe what is being called a “Dream Factory” for the production of electric vehicles.
Bentley’s first EV will be built at Crewe in 2025, and by 2030, when the brand is fully electric, there will be four more vehicles.
As Adrian Hallmark, chairman and CEO of Bentley, put it:
“Our aim is to become the benchmark not just for luxury cars or sustainable credentials but the entire scope of our operations. Securing production of our first BEV in Crewe is a milestone moment for Bentley, and the UK, as we plan for a long-term sustainable future in Crewe.”
Automotive manufacturing in the UK needs all the help it can get, and clearly the Volkswagen Group, of which Bentley is a part, is giving it some.
“Let’s determine what must be true to make it happen—and then let’s make it happen.”
Although it sounds rather simple, what Nicole Kraatz is referring to is the approach that she and her team took to product development under the restrictions that were presented to them because of COVID-19.
Business wasn’t as usual.
And what they were, and are, developing is something that is unlike what had been done before and absolutely important in the offerings of GM:
Kraatz is chief engineer of the Chevrolet Silverado EV.
Imagine: they had to develop a new vehicle while, in many cases, working at their kitchen tables, not the engineering center where there is immediate access to people and tech, not situations where you have to ask the kids to stop streaming because the Internet connection is wonky.
Determine what needs to be done. Then do it.
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Pickup trucks are essential to the offerings of Chevy in particular and GM in, well, general.
In 2021 Chevrolet delivered a total 1,437,671 vehicles, of which 529,765 were Silverados.
GM sold a total of 2,218,228, vehicles, so Silverado is nearly a quarter of all of its sales.
2024 Silverado EV RST, style meets capability and electricity. (Image: Chevrolet)
In addition to which, GM is committed to transforming its vehicle portfolio to all-electric in the years to come, and is in the process of spending some $35-billion in transforming from combustion, including $2.2-billion at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, which has been transformed to Factory ZERO, where the Siliverado EV will be built.
The 2024 model is interesting compared with the cross-town rival’s F-150 Lightning in that the Chevy is a new vehicle from the tires up, with nothing being brought over from the conventional truck, while the Ford is largely the combustion-based truck that is electrified.
(In the case of the Chevy, the Ultium platform is being used, an all-new EV battery-based architecture that provides a range of modularity such that pickup trucks and midsize SUVs—as in the Cadillac Lyriq—and other vehicles can be based on it.)
The Silverado EV will come in two versions at the start: the WT and the RST. The former is the work truck version, the sort of thing that contractors would be interested in as it will offer 8,000 pounds of towing and 1,200 pounds of payload.
The RST is the truck that someone will boast to their neighbors about was it offers everything from four-wheel steering to automatic adaptive air suspension, and when the Wide Open Watts mode is activated, it will have a 0 to 60 mph time of less than 4.5 seconds. (Remember: this is a full-size pickup truck.)
Both will have an estimated range of 400 miles on a charge and be capable of handling DC fast charging (up to 350 kW).
The Silverado EV represents an opportunity to Kraatz and her team to take the learnings of more than 100 years of GM trucks and make it something new.
Kraatz talks all about the Silverado EV on this edition of “Autoline After Hours” with John McElroy, Joann Muller of Axios What’s Next, and me.
At present, Stellantis has 33 electrified vehicles on offer to consumers. In the next 18 months it will be rolling out eight full battery electric vehicles.
By 2024 Abarth and DS will be all electric. Then Maserati in 25, Lancia in 26 and Alfa in 27. Opel and Chrysler go all electric in 28. Fiat and Peugeot in 2030.
Yet CEO Carlos Tavares was recently quoted as saying related to the European Union, “What is clear is that electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not by industry.”
On the one hand, politicians are pretty much the last ones who ought to be making technical decisions.
On the other hand, given a choice between keeping the status quo and making a change, industry would opt for the former.
Were it not for the massive success of Tesla, what is the likelihood that either politicians or industry would be talking about electric vehicles?
The number of electric vehicles being offered–or announced that they’re on their way–by traditional OEMs is increasing with a beat that it reminiscent of that person in the apartment above yours tapping his or her giant foot: BAM! BAM! BAM!
And in addition, there is the influx of new manufacturers, which are seeing the opportunity to get into automotive manufacturing, something that, say, 10 years ago, was about as appealing as a session at an endodontist who had just run out of Novocain.
According to LMC Automotive, the startup EV brands in the U.S. are going to have nearly 40 models on offer in the U.S.
(Image: LMC)
However, LMC reckons that few of the new brands are likely to have sales of more than 50,000 units per year.
That said, a sufficient number of 50K-selling OEMs means that the sales are likely to be taken from the traditional OEMs.
However, LMC thinks that it is going to be costly for the upstarts that build factories. The firm calculates that the capacity utilization of a given plant is going to be on the order of 30%, which is about 60% less than it really ought to be. (I.e., 30% capacity utilization means that 70% of the personnel and equipment are not making vehicles, which is the whole point of their being there.)
“In 2020, 48% of all EVs on the road could be found in China — more than the combined figure for the US and Europe. China’s EV fleet will be 60% of the world’s total by 2030. Xi Jinping has extended both the sales tax exemption on EVs and subsidies for domestically built EVs to the end of 2022.
“China’s large domestic market, raw materials access, and favorable government policies mean it will continue to dominate the EV landscape and won’t be as disadvantaged by the lithium shortage. Xi Jinping has facilitated the growth of the domestic EV market, causing Tesla to lose market share in China to BYD. This is not only to cement China’s dominance in EVs but also to help meet the net zero target year of 2060.”–Amrit Dhami, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData
Volkswagen Group—Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, SEAT, CUPRA, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati, Porsche—announced its combined electric vehicle sales on a global basis for 2021.
The company delivered 452,900 battery electric vehicles in ’21, a 95.5% increase over ’20 numbers, when it delivered 231,600 units.
The vehicles that are the biggest contributors:
Volkswagen ID.4: 119,600 units
Volkswagen ID.3: 75,500 units
Audi e-tron: 49,200 units
ŠKODA Enyaq iV: 44,700 units
Volkswagen e-up!: 41,400 units
Porsche Taycan: 41,300 units
Of that, the ID.3, Enyaq iV and e-up! are not available in the U.S. market. That represents a total of a non-trivial 161,600 units.
Here’s something to consider about that 452,900 EVs:
The Group delivered a total 8,882,000 vehicles in 2021.
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