AD #2734 – GM EV Sales Target, Why Automakers Attach Screens to Dashboards, USMCA Close to Approval

This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.

USMCA CLOSE TO APPROVAL
The USMCA, the trade deal being negotiated to replace NAFTA, looks like it could soon be approved. Officials from the U.S. and Canada are travelling to Mexico today to hammer out the final details. The deal would then need approval from lawmakers in all three countries. Automakers and suppliers are keen to see the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact signed, sealed and delivered because it would eliminate uncertainty and enhance the free flow of cars and parts across borders. It looks like the trade pact will be approved by the U.S. before the year is over.

GM EV SALES TARGET
Thanks to General Motors announcing its plans to build a battery plant, we have a good idea on its initial sales target for electric vehicles. GM and LG Chem are investing over $2 billion to build that battery factory which will be able to make 30-gigawatt hours of battery capacity a year. That’s 50% more than Tesla’s Gigafactory. 30-gigawatts translates into 30 million kilowatt hours. Let’s says GM wants to install 80 kilowatt-hour batteries in those vehicles, which would deliver close to 300 miles of driving range, That means GM could make enough batteries for 375,000 EVs. No one is selling that many electrics yet, not even Tesla. And maybe GM will sell batteries to other automakers. But it’s clear GM is ramping up to sell a lot of electrics in the coming years.

GM LOANS WORKHORSE $40 MILLION
GM is also going to loan $40 million to Workhorse, the EV startup that bought its Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant. The loan is to help Workhorse buy the plant. The EV startup has ambitious plans to launch its Endurance pickup by the end of next year. And presumably it could buy batteries from GM.

We have a great Autoline After Hours coming up this Thursday. The whole show will be dedicated to the new C8. That’s because we’ll have Tadge Juechter on board, and he is the executive chief engineer of the Corvette. So get ready for a deep dive into how the Corvette team designed and developed its first production mid-engine car. And if you’d like to ask Tadge something about the C8, send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv, or you can Tweet us. We can’t answer every single question we get so here’s a hint on how to get your question asked: keep it simple and to the point.

WHY AUTOMAKERS ATTACH SCREENS TO DASHBOARDS
Want to know why automakers are bolting big screens to their dashboards instead of integrating them into the IP? That’s because those screens keep getting bigger and better at a faster rate than automakers redesign their cars. So if they were integrated into the instrument panel, they’d have to retool the IP to accommodate a bigger screen when it gets refreshed, and that’s expensive. Instead, just about every automaker is attaching them outside the dashboard so they can make a change cheaper and much more quickly.

FORD ENDS GORIDE HEALTH SERVICE
Ford is giving up on another of its startup mobility services. Earlier this year, it scrapped its Chariot hailing business and now it’s dropping GoRide Health, a non-emergency medical transport service. It was available in five cities in the U.S. and allowed customers to arrange a ride to a medical appointment for a fee. But GoRide Health isn’t completely going away. It will become part of Ford’s self-driving program in Miami.

MERCEDES & BOSCH LAUNCH AUTONOMOUS SERVICE
And speaking of autonomous vehicle services, Mercedes-Benz and Bosch are launching a self-driving, ride-hailing pilot program in San Jose, California. It will use modified S-Class’s, is initially available to a select group of users and a safety driver will be behind the wheel. The goal is creating a Level 4/5 autonomous vehicle.

ASTON & AIRBUS TEASE HELICOPTER
Aston Martin and Airbus teased a new helicopter they’re developing. Designers from both brands have been working on a helicopter for the last 12 months, which will be revealed in early January in France. No other details were shared. But it’s interesting to see Aston Martin stick with a more traditional aircraft, when so many other automakers are investing in autonomous, passenger drones.

CAR SALES DOWN IN CHINA
The car market in China continues to slump. Automakers sold 1.97 million passenger vehicles in November, which is a drop of 4% compared to a year ago. It’s the 17th decline in the past 18 months in the country. And sales of new energy vehicles, which includes battery electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, were down 42% last month. But it looks likely that new car sales will be down for the second consecutive year in China, which is bad news for automakers that have invested heavily in the market.

GM SELLS JV STAKE TO AVTOVAZ
General Motors will no longer build cars in Russia. The country’s largest automaker, Avtovaz is buying GM’s 50% stake in their joint-venture. The two companies build the Chevrolet Niva and the small SUV will continue to wear a Chevy badge for a “certain period of time” but then gets rebadged as a Lada. GM is pulling out of countries where it can’t make a decent profit.

HOW UPS SAVES MILLIONS IN GASOLINE COSTS
A while back UPS got an idea of how to save gasoline: make sure its drivers only made right hand turns. So every day they plan out delivery routes to have the most right hand turns possible. With left hand turns you have to wait for traffic to clear, so the engine spends more time idling, wasting gas. Also, left hand turns are more dangerous and a leading cause of head on collisions. Using navigation technology to design routes to maximize right hand turns saves UPS 10 million gallons of gasoline and 100 thousand metric tons of CO2 every year. And obviously it saves them tens of millions of dollars.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.