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– EV Inventory Much Higher Than ICE Inventory
– Cummins Gets Hit with Record Fine
– SEC Wants Money from Bankrupt Lordstown
– UAW Turns Its Attention to Mercedes
– BMW Converting Main Plant to EV Only
– U.S. Public Charger Rollout on Track
– Marelli Can Recover Energy from New Suspension System
– All Porsche Macan EVs Will Have Over 500KM Range
– Kia Working on Uber-Specific PBV
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EV INVENTORY MUCH HIGHER THAN ICE INVENTORY
The U.S. auto industry is rebounding from inventory shortages from a few years ago. According to Cox Automotive, inventory levels are now at 2.7 million vehicles, a three-year high. That represents a 71-day supply. A number of automakers have complained about softening demand for EVs and the inventory numbers bear that out. EV inventories ended 2023 at 113 days’ supply, compared to 69 days for ICE vehicles.
CUMMINS GETS HIT WITH RECORD FINE
Diesel engine maker Cummins just set a record and not in a good way. It was hit with the biggest fine for a Clean Air Act violation of any company ever. After court approval, Cummins will have to pay about $2 billion for installing defeat devices in diesel engine software that went into hundreds of thousands of Ram trucks. 630,000 2013 to 2019 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks had the defeat devices and another 330,000 2019 to 2023 pickups had undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices. A recall has already been issued for those nearly 1 million trucks. Cummins expects to take the roughly $2 billion charge in the 4th quarter of this year.
SEC WANTS MONEY FROM LORDSTOWN
Speaking of paying up for government violations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants Lordstown Motors, which filed for bankruptcy in June of last year, to pay $45 million. The SEC says this would be for “monetary remedies for violations of federal securities laws,” that stems from evidence that Lordstown lied to investors. It would be the biggest payout from an EV startup since Nikola settled with the SEC for $125 million for its own violations. However, Lordstown is seeking protection from having to pay the SEC and says anything it does pay to the Commission will reduce any money stockholders could get back, if they get anything at all.
UAW TURNS ITS ATTENTION TO MERCEDES
The UAW announced it’s making progress in its efforts to organize Mercedes’ plant in Alabama. The union says 1,500 workers or 30% of the workforce have signed up to join the union. UAW President Shawn Fain has said he will personally hold a rally if any non-union plant reaches 50% enrollment and at 70% it will demand the company recognize the union or it will hold a union vote with workers. This is the second non-union plant to reach the 30% threshold, with VW workers in Tennessee doing so last month. The UAW has failed to organize foreign automaker plants and EV startups for more the past 40 years, so it would be a huge victory for the union to organize any of them.
BMW CONVERTING MAIN PLANT TO EV ONLY
And speaking of milestones, BMW’s main plant in Munich, Germany will stop producing ICE powered vehicles by the end of 2027. The automaker announced it’s investing 650 million euros to retool the plant to only build electrics. BMW has been building ICE vehicles at that plant since 1922 and will be its first factory to transition to only producing EVs. The site will start making its Neue Klasse sedan in 2026 and a year later it will only build EVs. Last year, EVs accounted for 15% of BMW’s sales and the automaker expects EVs to jump to a third of its sales by 2026.
U.S. ON TRACK TO MEET PRESIDENT’S EV CHARGER GOAL
The U.S. is set to achieve President Joe Biden’s goal of establishing a network of 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030, possibly even surpassing it, according to a White House official. The U.S. currently has about 170,000 chargers and the Administration is set to award another $623 million in grants for EV chargers across the country, which is part of the 2021 infrastructure bill’s $2.5 billion discretionary grant program. It will fund the construction of nearly 7,500 EV chargers in 22 states. However, there’s still concern about the pace of public charger installation compared to EV demand. A federal study suggested the need for 28 million charging ports by 2030, requiring an investment of $53 to $127 billion. To meet that goal, 414 chargers would have to be installed daily over the next seven years.
https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/white-house-official-us-track-meet-and-exceed-ev-charger-goal
MARELLI CAN RECOVER ENERGY FROM NEW SUSPENSION SYSTEM
Remember this radical new active suspension system from ClearMotion that we showed the other day? It’s scheduled to debut on NIO’s new ET9 electric car at the end of the year and while it looks like it’s first to market with a new active suspension, it’s not the only one with a system like this. The supplier Marelli has developed its own active electromechanical suspension system, which is a little bit different from ClearMotion. ClearMotion’s system sits in the place of a normal shock absorber or strut and uses a hydraulic pump attached to the bottom of a damping rod to control the suspension. Marelli instead uses an electric motor with an arm or rod attached to it to control the suspension. In the front the motor attaches to the upper control arm and in the rear it connects to the lower control arm. The result should be similar to what we see with the ClearMotion system where the vehicle stays relatively stable over rough road and flat in corners. Marelli also says it could harvest and recover energy generated by the movement of the motor, which could be used for other systems or stored in the battery. Although, it doesn’t say how much energy it could recover.
ALL PORSCHE MACAN EVs WILL HAVE OVER 500KM RANGE
The all-new Porsche Macan is on track to launch in the next several months and it’s going through some of its final testing right now. Porsche says all-electric versions of the crossover will have over 500 kilometers or 310 miles of range, partly thanks to a drag coefficient of down to 0.25, which is close to the Tesla Model Y at 0.23. The up to 450 kW motors for the battery electric version will be made by Audi in Hungary. The new Macan is built on the PPE platform, which will be used by Audi as well, first on the new Q6 e-tron. It’s an 800-volt architecture that features a battery pack with 95 kWh of usable space in the Macan that can charge from 10-80% in 22 minutes. Those electric motors, which are mounted on the front and rear axle of the Macan, produce over 1,000 Nm or over 735 pound feet of torque.
KIA WORKING ON UBER-SPECIFIC PBVs
Yesterday we talked about Kia’s new PBVs or Platform Beyond Vehicles and it’s already got a deal to provide them to another company. Kia signed a memorandum of understanding with Uber to develop and offer PBVs specifically for Uber’s drivers and fleets. No word yet when we’ll see these Uber-specific vehicles, but Kia said it would launch its mid-sized PBV the PV5 sometime next year.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Don’t forget there won’t be an Autoline After Hours today because John is still out at CES in Las Vegas bringing you videos and interviews of the latest technology that the auto industry has to offer. So, continue to keep an eye for those.
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2 Billion dollar fine. That seems a bit excessive. GM only had to pay 900 million dollars for its ignition switch issue that actually killed 124 people. Ford paid 1 billion in roll-over deaths from Explorers that killed 250. But I guess if they continued to cheat after seeing what VW went through in 2016 then I guess they get what they deserve.
Establishing 500,000 chargers and maintaining them is two different things. Where is the money to insure, they are still working a year after install? Nothing more devastating than to be in range of only one charge location and to get there and find it out of order. Thats a recovery service call. Hopefully these charge locations are fast chargers or at least able to be upgraded. Doesn’t do much good to say we have lots of charge locations if they are just 120V outlets. The level is just as important as quantity.
Suspension as a source of energy is a great idea, particularly in my area where all roads are concrete, suspension gets a workout! I too am curious as of how much energy such low amplitude motion gets.
Ohio was the first to open NEVI funded DCFC in December 2023. Nice for those traveling through but there no state incentives to buy an EV here in thr Buckeye state. So we wait for others to buy new with an extra $2,000-4,000 in incentives at state level and for Ohioians to bring the used ones here.
Cummins deliberately and knowingly sold hundreds of thousands of engines that fouled the air millions of people breathe. GM made some ignition switches that could be a hazard for unbelted drivers who run off the road and crash. Yeah, it’s unfortunate that some of those people died, but it’s hard to say GM killed them. Was the Ford thing to do with specifying underinflating tires, or a different issue?
If all suspension motion could be converted to electricity, it would be substantial, and the “generator” built into the suspension could be very useful for controlling adjustable damping.
I think the subsidies for chargers should be directed differently, to come up with a way to make home charging available for apartment dwellers at utility rates. Another useful option would be to make level 2 charging available at utility rates at every sit-down restaurant. If that were the case, an EV would work for nearly all of my driving, except for my twice-a-year 1100 mile trip between FL and IN.
So, when will the new building codes be revised to require each home to have one or two home charger capabilities?
Cali should be all over that. However, they should start by requiring businesses to have a percentage lust like handicap spots. Not that I’m for increasing the cost to build a home by requiring something you may not want but if they truly believe that’s all that will be available by 2035 they had better get ahead of it.
Most houses with garages already have everything you need to charge a car used for typical commutes, a 120v outlet. That will give ~40 miles of driving with a 12 hour overnight charge, for a reasonably efficient EV, like a Tesla M3 or Chevy Bolt. That will cover a majority of commutes.
Kit-I wouldn’t consider that sufficient. I would want at least a 240V plug if I had an EV. My commute is about 28 miles so round trip to work 40 miles isn’t gonna do it.
I’m not saying a 120v outlet would work for everyone, but millions of people have round trip commutes of less than 20 miles. Overnight charging with a 120v outlet would work for them, with extra “spare” miles being added for driving other than the commute.
Kit, we drove our CT6 2.0E plug-in 700 miles from OH to MA, drove 700 miles for two weeks and used 1.5 gallons of gas sight seeing, then drove home on gas. We charged overnight on 120v outside the rental house.
We do similar at home on 120v but can open basement windows and run 240v portable EVSE from the dryer outlet.
Kit & Lambo — Lambo, I would agree with the 240V, for if you have two and three vehicles? A household with more then one vehicle, may require more access to charging outlets. Or would a household/garage be able to support two or three 120V outlet?
While it may be argued that EV demand is down or not materializing as first thought, I say again that the way that some OEMs and dealerships treated potential buyers, Carrie’s at least some of the blame! From price hikes by both automakers and dealers on popular models, may have turned a lot of individuals away, for what as already an expensive proposition to begin with.
Energy from the suspension system may be a interesting way of claiming previously untapped power, even if it is a little at a time. That’s great is regenerative braking is, in most instances it only works when you take your foot off the accelerator and/or apply the brakes. Yet, energy captured from the suspension system to charge a vehicle’s battery, is retained while the vehicle is moving. So, even if it is only a little, it may add up quickly with all the steady movement of a vehicle over the surface of a road. Even if the road service seems fairly smooth to the vehicle’s occupants, doesn’t mean that they’re not dips and uneven sections that would cause the suspension to articulate and produce energy. It could very quickly add to the vehicles overall efficiency.
Norm T., the CT6 plug-in is a cool car. Do they still sell it in China?
wmb, regen braking, along with Atkinson cycle tuning of the ICE about doubles the mpg in short trip/city driving of small battery hybrids like I’ve had. Even in steady speed highway driving, the mpg is substantially better than non-hybrids, because of the engine tuning.
perhaps next time we could have ev inventory broke out by brands there is significant differences between brands plus one can spread out their electrical distribution in their garage by watts, plugs, time for instance if one has 100amp service with three ev cars it will be difficult to balance no matter what but with a 200 amp service and a medium subservice like 60 or 100 amp subservice subpanel you could service 3 evs although if they are all Uber cars that is a bit different it is all physics and you can calculate it in advance
wmb- Yeah, my concern with charging capabilities is getting ahead of the curve. If you look back at housing from the 1920’s to 1950’s and beyond, we have been here before. Cars were just becoming popular in the 1920s and homes had carports which evolved into garages in the 1940s-50. But as new homes were built, they typically only built a single car garage. But as more women hit the workforce and families needed more than one car and the two-car garage started to become the standard. Now lots of homes in sub-divisions with HOA’s will have three car garages. I expect the same thing when it comes to EV’s. As new homes are built EV charging isnt even a consideration right now. So, over the next few years we will likely see some changes, but it will be to provide a single charger. But as most homes have multiple vehicles a single charger probably won’t work for long. If I were building a new home in the next year or two, I would make sure I have at least three 240V outlets in the garage and maybe even one outside to prepare for the next 10-20 years.
I have a welder and air compressor so I would already require some even without EV charging. In a pinch I would think a single outlet could be shared with a charger and my welder since I could make sure to not use both at the same time. But the point is new homes should be taking charging into consideration as adding it later is so much more expensive.
There are apparently already codes requiring new houses to be “EV ready,” at least for one car. That, basically, means a 240v outlet in the garage.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/ev-charging-us-building-codes/