AD #3621 – Pepsi Loves Tesla Semi; GM Says EVs Don’t Need Fewer Workers; Nissan Outearns Toyota In North America

  

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

GM SAYS EVs DON’T NEED FEWER WORKERS
Everyone knows that you need fewer workers to make electric cars. Ford says that EVs require 40% less labor. And that has the UAW concerned about more job losses. But curiously, General Motors doesn’t see it that way. Gerald Johnson, the head of GM manufacturing, says he doesn’t believe they need fewer workers to produce EVs. He even expects GM to hire more workers next year. That kind of flies in the face of what everyone else is saying about making electric vehicles. And maybe that means GM is going to start in-sourcing more work. 

LUCID ENTERS THE PRICE WAR
EV startup Lucid tried to avoid jumping into the EV price war. But it finally had to throw in the towel. The base version of its Air sedan now costs $82,400, a drop of $5,000 and it slashed the prices of the more powerful Touring and Grand Touring models by $12,400. They now start at $95,000 and $125,600 respectively. Lucid says the price cut will remain as long as supplies last but, so that suggests it has too many vehicles in inventory. Lucid will report its second quarter earnings later today and analysts expect more losses due to a drop-in production caused by supply chain issues.

CHINA MADE 61% OF GLOBAL EVs IN H1
China is by far and away the number one market for BEVs. According to the China Passenger Car Association, 7.2 million BEVs were sold globally in the first half of the year and 61% of them were sold in China. Not surprisingly, Tesla and BYD are the top two BEV automakers in the world and they’re followed by SAIC, Volkswagen and Geely/Volvo.

PEPSI’S EXPERIENCE WITH TESLA SEMI
Pepsi has been operating a fleet of 21 Tesla Semis in California for some time now and a group called the North American Council for Freight Efficiency produced a video that has some really interesting details about the project. The site in California has had to bring in almost 3 MW of additional power over a 3-year period for its electrification efforts, which also includes other EVs, like Ford E-Transits. The Tesla Semi chargers run off of their own dedicated service, one because it allows Pepsi to more easily calculate things like fleet rates and EV credits, but also to allow them to charge at up to 750 kW. Officially, trucks can charge from 0-80% in 45 minutes at that rate, but drivers also say it can take 20-30 minutes to go from roughly 5-10% to 95%. Most of the trucks make 8-12 stops a day over 12 hours and travel under 100 miles, but 3 of them do what they call long-haul, which is 250-450 miles a day and “fully loaded.” Although, it doesn’t specifically say what they’re loaded with. To be able to travel that many miles with a load, the Tesla semis feature a tandem axle. One axle is high torque and primarily used to get the truck up to speed and the other axle is meant for cruising and efficiency. Pepsi says its entire electric fleet uses less than 1.7 kWh per mile and that it will continue to build out more dedicated charging sites at other locations, which it’s planning for 18 months to 2 years in advance.

AUDI, BMW, MERCEDES FOLLOW DIFFERENT EV STRATEGIES 
Audi, BMW and Mercedes all want to sell a lot more electric cars. But each of them has a different strategy. Mercedes has the most aggressive plans. After 2025, it’s only going to come out with EVs. And while it wants to go all electric globally by 2030, it thinks 30% of its sales in the US market will still have internal combustion engines. BMW is not as aggressive. It wants half of its global sales to be electric by 2030. Audi is trying to make its model names less confusing. So all EVs will have names with even numbers, and ICE vehicles will have odd numbers. So, for example, an A6 will be electric while an A7 will be piston powered. BMW uses the letter i to identify its EVs, as in i7, while Mercedes uses EQ, as in EQS.  

CADILLAC CELESTIQ STARTS AT $340,000
Speaking of electric luxury cars, Melissa Grady Dias, the chief marketing officer of Cadillac, announced on LinkedIn that the price of the hand-built Cadillac Celestiq will start at $340,000. When we first learned about the Celestiq almost two years ago, we speculated that the car would cost around $400,000. And after customers choose the options and custom features they want in their cars, that’s probably where the price will be. Cadillac is supposed to start building and delivering the cars this year. But you’re probably not going to see one anytime soon. Production of the car will be less than two a day.

OPEL DEVELOPS ANTI-LOCK SEATBELT
Opel is using a new piece of technology that we had never seen. It’s a new seat belt system that debuted in the Mokka and is now standard on the Astra Electric. Opel calls it an Anti-Lock Braking System for the seat belt. It uses sensors to determine how bad an accident is and then electronically controls the seat belt to maintain the proper tension over the course of the entire crash. Opel says this can help reduce injuries, especially to the upper body.

JAPAN MOVES TO DE-RISK CHINA DEPENDENCE
Japan is the latest country trying to reduce its dependence on China for materials needed to make EVs. Reuters reports the Sumitomo Corporation is partnering up with Australian mining company Liontown to study producing lithium hydroxide in Japan. It’s used in batteries and other products. They’ll take about two years to figure out how much lithium concentrate they need to ship from Australia and build up a supply chain so it can then be turned into lithium hydroxide in Japan. 

NISSAN OUTEARNS TOYOTA IN NORTH AMERICA
We keep wondering what’s going wrong with Toyota’s North American Operations. Here’s why. Last quarter Toyota sold 682,000 vehicles in the US, Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, Nissan sold 328,000. So Toyota sold twice as many as Nissan. And Toyota brought in over $28 billion in revenue, compared to only $11 billion for Nissan. Again, more than twice as much. But Toyota only made $841 million in profits, while Nissan made $928 million. Or, to put it another way, Nissan made $2,800 on each vehicle it sold, while Toyota made $1,200. So Nissan made 133% more per vehicle than Toyota did. This all comes from both company’s latest financial reports. And when you see numbers like that, it makes you wonder what’s going on.

And so we’ll leave you pondering Toyota’s North American possible issues. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day today.