AD # 2885 – Could GM Change Its Name?; Panasonic Improving 2170 Battery Cells; Our Best Look at GMC’s Hummer EVs

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

COULD GM CHANGE ITS NAME?
Say, could General Motors end up changing its name? Adam Jonas with Morgan Stanley posed that question to GM CEO Mary Barra on yesterday’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts. He suggested that with a new name and an emphasis on electric cars, GM might be able to get a much higher stock price. Barra’s answer was intriguing. She said that’s something they’ve looked at. But she added that they would have to decide when the time is right and have enough “proof points” so that everyone believed GM was truly becoming an EV company.

COULD GM SPIN OFF ITS EV OPERATIONS?
And then, Emanuel Rosner from Deutsche Bank asked her if GM would consider spinning off its entire EV operations into a separate, stand-alone company? Barra did not say yes, but noted that GM is open to any idea to improve shareholder value, and added that “nothing is off the table.”

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
So what would you do if you were Mary Barra? Would you rename General Motors? Adam Jonas suggested changing the name to Ultium, which is the name of GM’s new generation of EV batteries. What would you call it? And would you spin off GM’s EV operations?

GM GROWS ITS EV LINEUP IN CHINA
Barra also talked about how GM is growing its EV lineup in China. Despite the pandemic, GM’s EV deliveries were up by more than 25% in the first half of the year. And it’s adding new entries such as the Chevrolet Menlo, the all-new Baojun E300 and E300 Plus, which can be charged in an hour using DC fast charging. There’s also Wuling’s first EV, the Rong Guang electric minivan and the Hong Guang Mini EV, and the Buick Velite 7, Buick’s first all-electric SUV.

Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon when we’ll take a deep dive into how Ford designed the new Broncos. Our guest is Paul Wraith, the program chief designer for the Bronco. We’re curious to know how they decided on the form language and we want to know how customer centric design played a role in developing the Bronco and Bronco Sport. Chris Paukert from Roadshow by CNET will also be on the program, so join John and Gary to go behind the scenes on how Ford went about designing the Bronco.

EVs STILL 10 YEARS AWAY FROM PRICE PARITY WITH ICE
One thing holding more people back from buying an EV is the price difference compared to a similar vehicle with an internal combustion engine. According to a new survey from WardsIntelligence, we’re still about 10 years away from reaching that break even point. Most of the participants said that the price of lithium-ion battery packs wouldn’t reach $100 per kWh until 2025 or after. $100 per kWh has long been considered the magic number to make EVs cost competitive with ICE. But there’s a lot of factors, like what segment a vehicle fits into – it’s a bigger deal for a Hyundai Sonata than say a Porsche Taycan – and then we must also consider the chemical makeup of the battery. The Wards survey says lithium-ion will still dominate the market between 2025 and 2030 but lithium-sulfur and solid-state batteries will start to gain share.

PANASONIC WORKING TO IMPROVE 2170 BATTERY CELLS
Another popular option could be cobalt-free batteries and Reuters reports Panasonic wants to make cobalt-free versions of its 2170 battery cells, the same kind it supplies to Tesla, within the next two or three years. These kinds of batteries are cheaper and last longer, but also have less energy density, which means less range. So, Panasonic also plans to increase the energy density by 20% in the cobalt version of those 2170 cells and it hopes to do that in 5 years. Panasonic first debuted the 2170 lithium-ion cell in 2017 with the Tesla Model 3.

BMW READIES PILOT PLANT FOR BATTERY CELL PRODUCTION
BMW is developing a closed and sustainable material cycle for battery cells and will open a pilot plant to produce recyclable battery cells in order to improve performance and demonstrate large scale manufacturability. The automaker wants to control all aspects of the value chain, including selection of raw materials, battery cell composition and design, all the way to near-standard production and recycling. The main focus will be optimizing production efficiency, costs and quality of the cells. The pilot plant, which will be located near Munich, will be capable of testing new technology and production processes. And it will go into service beginning in late 2022 at a cost of about 110 million euros.

NORTHVOLT SECURES $1.6 BILLION FOR NEW BATTERY FACTORIES
Speaking of battery cell production, Swedish company Northvolt says it secured $1.6 billion in financing to expand its factories in Europe. Northvolt has contracts with Volkswagen and BMW and says it hopes to make 25% of all the batteries used in Europe for the auto sector.

RENAULT POSTS STUNNING LOSSES
Renault posted a stunningly big loss for the first half of the year. It lost over $8.5 billion. And Nissan played a big role in that loss. Renault owns over 43% of Nissan and always gets a big dividend payment from the Japanese automaker. Because of the pandemic, Nissan is losing money, so Renault isn’t getting much of anything from Nissan. With Mitsubishi just announcing it’s pulling out of the European market, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sure looks like it’s on shaky ground.

VW GROUP ALSO POSTS BIG LOSSES
The Volkswagen Group also posted big losses for the second quarter, but not nearly as bad as Renault. VW says its production for the last three months was down 40%, and it’s revenue dropped 37%. It posted a loss of 1.5 billion euros, compared to a profit of 4.1 billion a year ago

GM GIVES US OUR BEST LOOK YET AT THE NEW HUMMER EVs
GM is once again teasing the upcoming Hummer electric truck. The short video, featuring NBA superstar LeBron James, revealed it will debut later this fall, with reservations beginning at the same time and production will begin in fall 2021. It also teased product features named Adrenaline and Crab Mode but didn’t share any details. We imagine Adrenaline is going to be something like Ludicrous mode in Tesla’s. And Crab mode probably has something to do with hard core off-roading. It also teased these silhouettes of the vehicle, one a pickup and the other a SUV. That’s all we have for now but we’ll learn more, closer to its reveal.

SONY TAKE VISION-S PROTOTYPE TO TOKYO FOR TESTING
At CES this year, Sony gave us a bit of a shock when it unveiled an electric and autonomous vehicle called the Vision-S. And now the company says the vehicle has arrived in Tokyo to test its audio and sensing technologies. The vehicle features over 30 sensors which allows for Level 2 autonomous driving and it has 33 speakers. The prototype is also currently under development for public road testing this year.

BARN FIND REVEALED
Another Barn Find up, another Barn Find down. Viewer Sam Fiorani provides some good insight into this one. He says, “The truck looks like a 1941 Chevrolet. The lack of trim along the hood differentiates it from the very similar 1942 model. It is also similar to the ’41 GMC, which would have a “General Motors Truck” badge where the side hood louvers are on the Chevrolet.” And if only this truck could talk, I bet it would have some stories to tell.

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