AD #3087 – Denso & Honeywell Partner on Aircraft; Is This the Audi Landjet?; SUVs 8-Times More Profitable Than Sedans?

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

DENSO & HONEYWELL PARTNER ON URBAN AIR MOBILITY
A number of companies in the auto industry are investing in or developing aircraft for urban air mobility. And we can add another to the list. The supplier Denso announced its forming a partnership with the aerospace company Honeywell, to develop and manufacture electric propulsion systems for aircraft, initially focusing on air taxis and delivery vehicles. The companies plan to test the electric motors within the next year and say they’re already in advanced talks with other unnamed customers to use its system. It’s easy to see why there is so much activity in this field. Honeywell estimates that the urban air mobility market could be worth $120 billion by 2030.

HYUNDAI REVEALS NORTH AMERICAN IONIQ 5
Hyundai revealed the IONIQ 5 for North America and we have some details to add from our last report on the EV in late February. Here’s something that might surprise you. The IONIQ 5 has the longest wheelbase in Hyundai’s lineup, even longer than the Palisade. That, along with the flat floor, gives it great interior space. The only battery that’s available for the region at this point is a 77.4 kWh pack, which is estimated to return up to 300 miles of range. Two motor setups are available; a single motor, RWD setup and a dual motor, AWD setup. The single motor produces 168 kW or 225 horsepower. The top-of-the-line dual motor setup produces 239 kW or 320 horsepower and will do 0-60 in under 5 seconds. But it also drops the estimated range to 244 miles. Another AWD setup is offered that provides an estimated 269 miles of range. But all configurations, including RWD models, are rated to tow up to 1,500 pounds. But even if you are sucking up electrons while towing, IONIQ 5 buyers get unlimited 30-minute charging sessions at any of Electrify America’s stations for the first two years. And that’s going to come in handy for anyone that uses the EV’s Vehicle-to-Load or V2L function. It allows you to use the IONIQ 5 as a power station, so you can charge up a phone, laptop, e-bike or even another EV. The IONIQ 5 goes on sale this fall in the 10 ZEV states, plus Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. More states will be added next year and Hyundai says it’s bringing back its subscription service for IONIQ buyers in the future.

This is a big year for Jeep, with all-new versions of the Grand Cherokee and the Wagoneer coming out. And we’ve got Mark Allen, the head of Jeep design coming on Autoline After Hours this Thursday. So join John and Gary for insights into where Jeep is going with its future designs.

MERCEDES INVESTS IN GREEN STEEL
There’s a big push in Europe to make steel and aluminum that is CO2 free. BMW is investing in clean steel. The wheels on the Audi e-Tron GT are made from sustainable aluminum. Volvo Trucks will build trucks made from fossil-free steel. And now Mercedes is taking an equity stake in the Swedish startup H2 Green Steel, a company that makes fossil-free steel. Mercedes didn’t disclose how much it’s investing but did say it’s “a single-digit million amount.” So anywhere between one and nine million euros. H2 Green Steel developed a new process that uses hydrogen and electricity from 100% renewable sources instead of coking coal in steel production. Mercedes will start using “green” steel in its vehicles in 2025 as part of its goal to become carbon neutral by 2039.

AUDI BEV CONCEPT HINTS AT PRODUCTION CAR
The Audi AI:CON concept is giving us a strong hint of Audi’s new form language. And it could become the so-called Landjet model that Audi will put in production. That same BEV architecture will be used by Porsche and Bentley. Autoforecast Solutions reports that the Audi Landjet will go into production in Hannover in June of 2025. Two months later the Porsche K1 will roll down the same line and three months after that the Bentley D-Lux will follow. If the Audi looks this good we can’t wait to see what the other two will look like.

TESLA TESTS LUMINAR LIDAR
Elon Musk has said using lidar for self-driving cars is a fool’s errand because everything on the road is set up for people that see and a vision- or camera-based system is best. But a Tesla Model Y was recently spotted in Florida with a lidar rack on top. While it’s not the first time a Tesla vehicle like this has been seen, Bloomberg reports it’s now known that Tesla has a contract with Luminar to use its lidar sensor for testing and development. It’s very likely that Tesla is using the lidar to validate its camera-based system. To us this goes to a point made by Mircea Gradu of Velodyne on a recent Autoline After Hours that there’s scenarios where lidar performs better than cameras. I still think Elon Musk is right that you first have to figure out the vision aspect of an AV system first. But I think we’ll probably see camera-heavy systems that rely mostly on cameras but also have lidar, radar and other sensors to back it up.

CUPRA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST EV
Spanish automaker SEAT’s performance brand Cupra just introduced its first all-electric model called the Born, which is a version of the ID.3, since the automaker is part of the VW Group. Three battery sizes are available. A 45-kWh pack provides 340 kilometers or about 211 miles of range based on the WLTP cycle. A 58-kWh pack delivers 420 kilometers or around 260 miles of range. And a 77-kWh pack is available that provides 540 kilometers or 335 miles of range. The 58-kWh battery with the optional e-Boost performance pack is the quickest of the bunch, with a 0 to 100 km/h time of 6.6 seconds. In addition to purchasing the model, it will also be available through a subscription service. The Cupra Born goes into production this September at VW’s Zwickau plant in Germany.

JAGUAR REFRESHES TELL STORY OF TODAY’S INDUSTRY
Jaguar says it will only sell electric cars starting in 2025. But in the meantime it needs to sell all the IC cars that it can. To help lure more customers into its showrooms, the F-Pace and XF get all new interiors. That includes new seats, steering wheels, and door trim. The only carry-over part is the glove box door. The re-do includes a 7-inch TFT instrument cluster and a bigger 11.4-inch touch screen that runs on Blackberry’s QNX. Jag says the screen reacts 15 times faster than before, and features large format icons that can be dragged to where you want them. One notable part of the UX system is that it will learn your regular driving routes and automatically make suggested alternatives if there is traffic congestion or construction along the way. To make the XF more competitive, Jaguar slashed trim lines and option packages, reducing build complexity by 70%. That allowed it to cut the base price by $7,000 to about $44,000, and that puts it below the BMW 5-Series, Mercedes E-Class, Volvo S90 and Audi A6. Jag also slashed the build complexity of the F-Pace but it actually raised the price by about $4,000. And boy, doesn’t that tell the story of where the industry is today. You have to cut the prices of sedans to sell them, but you can raise prices with SUVs because the segment is so hot.

SUVs GENERATE A LOT MORE PROFIT THAN SEDANS
You know, it costs about the same to develop a sedan as it does an SUV. So if you ran a car company where would you invest a billion dollars? In low-profit sedans, or in SUVs that can make you eight times more profit? You heard right. Scott Keogh, the CEO of Volkswagen of America, says they need to sell eight Passat sedans to make the same amount of profit as one Atlas SUV.

But that’s all for today’s show, thanks for watching.