AD #2827 – Tesla Profit Should Worry Competitors; Bollinger Shows Commercial EV; Hyundai Design Head Steps Down

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

TESLA PROFIT SHOULD HAVE COMPETITORS SHAKING
Tesla reported its first quarter earnings, and considering that the auto industry is getting slammed by the virus crisis, the numbers are surprisingly good. The stock jumped over $80 a share on the news in after hours trading. Tesla brought in almost $6 billion in revenue, posted an operating profit of $283 million, and for the first time ever in the first quarter, it reported a GAAP net profit of $16 million. Normally, sixteen million bucks would be considered pathetic, but the fact that Tesla posted a profit at all is going to send shivers down the spines of all its competitors, both traditional automakers and startups alike.

TESLA SAYS MODEL Y PROFITABLE IN Q1
There were lots of little nuggets of information during Tesla’s earnings call with analysts. Tesla made more Model Ys in the first quarter than it made Model 3s in its first two quarters. Tesla says the Model Y was profitable in Q1. It also says that thanks to a new heat pump design in the Model Y it has the same driving range as the 3, despite being a bigger and heavier vehicle. Elon Musk says the real range of the Model S and X is now 400 miles, which will be borne out the next time the EPA tests the car. He also said Battery Day has been tentatively moved to the third week in May and that they have very exciting news to announce. He then let it drop that Battery Day will be in California or Texas. And that makes us think that maybe he’s going to announce that the Cyber Truck will be made at a new plant in Texas.

MUSK GOES OFF ON STAY AT HOME ORDER
But then, inexplicably, Musk went on a tirade against the stay at home orders in the U.S. Sounding very much like President Trump he said that “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights… and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong is not why people came to America or built this country. WTF?” Only he didn’t use those three letters, he spelled the whole thing out. He went on to say, “… this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.”

MUSK COULD BE WORRIED QUARANTINE HURTING TESLA
Here’s my Autoline Insight. I think Musk is deeply worried about how the stay at home orders are hurting Tesla. Like every other automaker, the company is burning through cash. It spent $895 million in Q1, and the cash burn will likely be worse in the second quarter. Tesla has $8 billion in cash right now, so unless things improve it will be out of cash by Christmas. And if investors react negatively to that Musk could lose out on a massive bonus that could top a billion dollars. And I think that explains why he went off the nut on this tirade about fascism.

BOLLINGER SHOWS CLASS 3 COMMERCIAL TRUCK
EV startup Bollinger Motors has more ambitious plans than we realized. It just unveiled a platform for Class 3 commercial trucks. That’s like a Ford F-350-size truck. Bolliinger will produce and sell the all-electric B2 Chassis Cab, which it claims is the world’s first Class 3 electric truck platform. It will be offered with two-doors or four-doors, multiple wheelbase lengths and in both full cab and cut away variants. Other features include a 120-kWh battery pack, 5,000-pound payload, all-wheel drive and all-terrain capabilities. Bollinger’s chassis cab will be available for commercial outfitters in late 2021.

PORSCHE’S AR TECHNICAL SERVICE TRIPLES IN USE
Porsche has got a really cool way to help dealers solve complicated repair problems. It has techs called Field Technical Experts who normally visit dealerships when a technician runs into a complicated repair that the dealership can’t fix. But with lockdowns they’re not able to travel to shops. So Porsche rolled out what it calls Tech Live Look, which uses augmented reality smart glasses to connect technicians with Technical Experts. The Expert is able to see what the tech sees and help guide them through the repair. They can even send pictures or repair instructions right to the glasses. This method proved to reduce the time to find a fix by 40%. And Porsche says from February to March the number of Tech Live Look sessions has more than tripled.

PORSCHE EXTENDS VEHICLE WARRANTIES WORLDWIDE
In other Porsche news, it’s extending vehicle warranties worldwide. Any vehicle with a warranty that expires between March 1st and May 31st will be extended for another three months.

HYUNDAI GROUP DESIGN LEADER STEPS DOWN
Here’s an item that caught us completely by surprise. The Hyundai Group’s chief of design, Luc Donckerwolke, who is 54, is stepping down citing “personal reasons.” He said it was an honor and privilege to help shape the look of the group. Donckerwolke only joined Hyundai in 2015 and took over his current role in 2018 when then head of design Peter Schreyer started to lessen his duties. We most remember Donckerwolke, who was Bentley’s design chief at the time, for criticizing the similarities between the Lincoln Continental Concept and the Bentley Flying Spur, asking Ford, “Do you want us to send the product tooling?” Hyundai has not named a successor, but SangYup Lee, the head of Hyundai and Genesis design or Karim Habib, the head of Kia design are likely high on the list.

GMC HUMMER EV REVEAL DELAYED
If you watched the Super Bowl you may remember that the all-new GMC Hummer EV was supposed to make its debut soon, but that’s not going to happen. GM is pushing the truck’s reveal date back, which was scheduled to take place on May 20th. And there’s no new debut date to check off on your calendar just yet.

FILL UP WHILE GAS IS CHEAP
Here’s an Autoline Tech Tip for some of you to take advantage of while gas prices are low. If you have a vehicle with port injection, not direct injection, go and fill up and run a tank or two of premium fuel from a Top Tier fuel provider, like Shell. Shell premium has enough detergents that it can actually clean carbon deposits off internal engine parts. In some cases we’ve seen engine power restored and fuel economy improve after a couple of fill ups with Shell premium. Then after those tankfulls, switch back to a lower grade gas from a Top Tier fuel provider, which will help prevent more deposits pilling up. If you’ve never heard of Top Tier fuel, do an online search. It’s the only gasoline that gets the official blessing from automakers. And the good news is, most gas stations already provide Top Tier fuel. This can be a cheap and easy way to keep older vehicles running properly, because they’re more likely to have port injection.

BENEFITS OF A COMPOSITE BATTERY CASE
Most of the battery packs, or battery trays, that we’ve seen are made out of aluminum. But the supplier Continental Structural Plastics or CSP, is making composite ones. I spoke with Mike Siwajek from CSP and he talked about the benefits of making battery packs out of composites instead of aluminum.

Mike Siwajek, CSP
“We think that’s where our value proposition comes from, in all our composite applications across the board, but especially in batteries. With the fact we can mold in the features in one tool, not have to worry about multiple parts being joined together. So you don’t have to worry about seal surfaces as much. You don’t have potential sources for leak, where you know, if we’re doing a cover and a tray and we put them together with one seal that’s really our only issue. Where If you’re doing multiple pieces of aluminum stamping, we can get much more elegant designs where we can use more features that are molded into the part as opposed to having to stamp it. We think parts consolidation and design freedom is one of our biggest assets.”

You can watch that interview on our YouTube channel.

If you love classic cars that show the patina of history, you won’t want to miss today’s Autoline After Hours. We’ve got Tom Cotter from Hagerty’s popular YouTube show Barn Find Hunter and known woody wagon fanatic. Tom scours the country looking for tucked away relics all while sharing his tips and tricks for finding such cars and telling the stories behind the metal. So, join me, Gary and Mike Austin from Hemmings live at 3pm eastern time for some of the best discussions in the automotive industry.

BMW DRIVERS HONING SKILLS ON SIMULATOR
Simulators are playing a larger role in vehicle development, not only for passenger vehicles but also motorsports. BMW’s simulator in Munich, which it uses for Formula E and the DTM series, helps drivers get to know a new track, work on their strategy or experiment with different vehicle setups. It’s also used to develop new race cars. To simulate movement, it features actuators and a turntable and the system is able to do 100 billion calculations a second, which helps it react quickly to inputs. And three projectors display the race track for the driver. The simulator not only helps speed up development, it also cuts costs by allowing engineers to try multiple configurations in the virtual world.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.