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Runtime: 11:16
0:08 EV Startup Stock Prices Jump After Biden Announcement
1:10 VW Partners to Build Yacht Based on MEB Platform
2:05 Elon Musk Looking at Big Payday
2:41 JLR Appoints Designer to Board of Management
4:24 Kia Drops K900 & Cadenza from U.S. Lineup
4:53 GMC Hummer EV Joins Extreme E Racing Series
5:31 MINI Updates Cooper Hardtop & Convertible
8:16 EU Creates Second Battery Cell Alliance
8:49 Sneak Peek into Lucid’s Assembly Plant
9:36 GM Production Not Hurt by Chip Shortage
10:16 Ominous Sign for Opel?
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EV STARTUP STOCK PRICES JUMP AFTER BIDEN ANNOUNCEMENT
On Monday, President Biden said he wanted to convert the entire federal fleet of vehicles to electrics. On Tuesday, the stock prices of EV startups based in the U.S. went through the roof. Workhorse shot up 30%–an incredible one day gain, Nikola was up 23%, Lordstown was up 14% and Fisker moved up almost 5%. The federal government runs a fleet of about 254,000 vehicles, not including the post office or military. It buys about 30,000 new vehicles a year, and sells that many used ones. Here’s our Autoline Insight. The Biden Administration is likely to buy electric vehicles made with union labor. And of all these startups, Lordstown is the only one committed to using union workers. General Motors and Ford sell more vehicles to the federal government than anyone else, and they’re likely to be the biggest winners in all of this.
| Autoline Stock Index – January 26, 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous Price | Current Price | $ Change | % Change | |
| Workhorse | $24.71 | $32.18 | $7.47 | 30.2% |
| Nikola | $20.74 | $25.64 | $4.90 | 23.6% |
| Lordstown | $23.21 | $26.45 | $3.24 | 14.0% |
| Hyliion | $17.23 | $19.43 | $2.20 | 12.8% |
| Fisker | $14.62 | $15.33 | $0.71 | 4.9% |
| Canoo | $16.80 | $16.21 | -$0.59 | -3.5% |
VW PARTNERS TO BUILD YACHT BASED ON MEB PLATFORM
Wow, we didn’t realize Volkswagen’s MEB electric platform is this flexible. The automaker is partnering with Silent Yachts, a company that builds solar-powered electric yachts, to create a yacht based on VW’s MEB platform. Cupra, which is Spanish automaker SEAT’s high-performance brand and also part of the VW Group, is responsible for the design. The yachts will be about 50 feet long, are equipped with six batteries and have 500 kW of power. And this isn’t just an experiment, the companies plan to bring the MEB-based yachts to market next year and build up to 50 annually. And while it may seem like a strange partnership, if VW can find other applications for its MEB platform, it gets more scale which lowers its costs.
ELON MUSK LOOKING AT BIG PAYDAY
Earlier this month, Elon Musk passed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person on Earth. And it looks like he’s about to add even more dough to his bank account. Tesla will report its quarterly earnings later today and analysts expect the EV maker to report an adjusted EBITDA of $2.3 billion. That’s enough to trigger the fifth of 12 payouts or tranches of options given to Musk that allows him to buy discounted Tesla shares. And that means Elon is in-line for a staggering $7 billion payout.
JLR APPOINTS DESIGNER TO BOARD OF MANAGEMENT
Well here’s something that’s extremely rare. Jaguar Land Rover is appointing its Chief Creative Officer and designer, Gerry McGovern to its Board of Management. Designers always complain about not holding top level positions at automakers and indeed it’s very rare. The only person we could think of is Peter Schreyer, who is president and Chief Design Officer of the Hyundai Group. Design is becoming more important and is now one of the few things that distinguish automakers from one another, so maybe we’ll start seeing more designers in top level positions.
KIA DROPS K900 & CADENZA FROM U.S. LINEUP
The sedan market continues to shrink. Kia confirmed it’s dropping the K900 and Cadenza from its American lineup. Just look at the sales and you’ll see why it’s making the move. Only 1,265 Cadenzas were sold last year. The K900 did even worse with sales barely cresting the 300 mark. Like the Ford Fusion, these models might be worth watching for big discounts at the dealer.
GMC HUMMER EV JOINS EXTREME E RACING SERIES
GMC wants to get the word out about the new Hummer EV, so it’s teaming up with Chip Ganassi Racing for the brand-new, all-electric off-road racing series Extreme E. The 550-horsepower vehicle features a grille, graphic and bodywork inspired by the Hummer EV and is going to be driven by Kyle LeDuc and Sara Price. While it will have the Hummer look, all the vehicles for the Extreme E series are the same underneath. They’re made by Spark Racing, the same company that makes cars for Formula E and the batteries are made by Williams Advanced Engineering.
MINI UPDATES COOPER HARDTOP & CONVERTIBLE
MINI is refreshing the Cooper Hardtop and Convertible. But this is all about styling as there’s no changes to the powertrain or chassis. The biggest difference is the front fascia. You’ll notice the grille is larger with a body-color panel now running through it and the fog lights have been deleted. So, MINI added a secondary light, controlled by its own switch, mounted inside the headlamp assembly that functions like a fog light. Moving to the back of the car, the rear fascia has been reworked as well and all models now come standard with the automaker’s Union Jack taillamps. We’re also seeing the Hardtop and Convertible pick up on a couple of recent trends. The first is offering the roof in a contrasting color and the other is using something other than chrome as an accent. In MINI’s case, the car will have the option to black-out the accents, which its done before, but it’s much more extensive. The grille surround, headlamp and taillamp bezels, badges and logos, door handles, fuel filler door and even the exhaust can come in black. The all-electric version of the car, the Cooper SE, will get the same design changes and the yellow accents have been toned down to bring the EV more in-line with the rest of the lineup. Although, if yellow is your thing, there’s a new yellow paint color, called Zesty Yellow. But overall, MINI says the new styling has a more performance look and is meant to be more aggressive, which especially comes through on the John Cooper Works model. There’s a few changes on the interior as well. An 8.8-inch touchscreen with a new display design and digital cluster are now standard and the shape of the steering, which can also be heated, and the shape of the air vents are new. With the extra content, pricing for ICE versions goes up by $500. A 2-door Hardtop starts at over $23,500, including destination charges, while a top-of-the-line 4-door Convertible starts at about $46,500. The all-electric Cooper SE is still the same price, $30,750. Production kicks off on March 1st, so deliveries in the U.S. should start sometime around the end of April.
We’ve got some good manufacturing information.
EU CREATES SECOND BATTERY CELL ALLIANCE
China has essentially cornered the market on the supply chain for manufacturing batteries for EVs. And that isn’t sitting well with the European Union. So, the European Commission is giving the go-ahead for a second battery cell alliance, which will have 42 members, including Tesla. By beefing up the supply chain the EU expects to create up to 10,000 new jobs. And we wouldn’t be surprised to see President Biden come up with a similar initiative.
SNEAK PEEK INTO LUCID’S ASSEMBLY PLANT
We got a bit of a peek inside Lucid’s assembly plant out in the desert south of Phoenix, Arizona. Lucid sent us a video clip showing off its state of the art paint shop. As you’d expect, it’s highly automated with plenty of robots and uses common practices such as rocking the entire body coming out of elpo dip to eliminate any bubbles and excess primer. Lucid has ambitious goals to grow. While the plant is currently 1 million square feet, it plans to increase that to 5 million. We’ve got to believe that includes a supplier park, because shipping costs for inbound components are going to be costly. There’s a reason why most assembly plants are east of the Mississippi. That’s where the suppliers are.
GM PRODUCTION NOT HURT BY CHIP SHORTAGE
Speaking of assembly plants, Autoforecast Solutions reports that 5 of GM’s U.S. assembly plants are running on overtime. Most other plants in the U.S. have slowed production due to a shortage of computer chips. Obviously, GM has got a better handle on this chip shortage than anyone else. And if you include Navistar’s Springfield assembly plant, then there are 6 plants making GM vehicles that are running on overtime. Did you know that Navistar assembles the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full size vans at its plant in Springfield, Ohio? It also makes medium-duty Silverado’s.
OMINOUS SIGN FOR OPEL?
While looking for news stories, we end up frequenting the same sites every day. And we’re finding it interesting that Opel’s brand logo is no longer at the top of the media pages for Peugeot, Citroen or Vauxhall, even though it was there yesterday. It’s possible we’re reading way too much into this and it’s just something the web designers need to address. But with the merger of PSA and FCA into Stellantis, some brands might not be sticking around, and we’re wondering if they’re trying to tell us something with this Opel omission? It’s something we’ll keep an eye on, but let us know what you think.
And that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for watching.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.
