AD #3014 – Stellantis CEO Voices Support for Chrysler; ITC Rules Against SK Innovation; Ultimate Off-Road Machine?

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

DETROIT DIESEL TO MAKE EV SYSTEM FOR DAIMLER TRUCKS
Detroit Diesel, which is famous for making diesels for commercial trucks, is turning its attention to electric powertrain components. It will make the parts at its plant in Detroit. That plant will serve as the North American hub for ePowertrain components for Daimler Trucks, which owns Detroit Diesel. The ePowertrain is scheduled to go into production this year and will be equipped in the Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 trucks. Daimler Trucks also owns Freightliner. The ePowertrain will provide the eM2 with 230 miles of range and 250 miles for the eCascadia. By the way, Daimler calls this division Detroit. But we still call it Detroit Diesel, because if we just called it Detroit no one would know what we’re talking about.

CARLOS TAVARES VOICES SUPPORT FOR CHRYSLER BRAND
Looks like there is a future for the Chrysler brand after all. Yesterday, Carlos Tavares and John Elkann, respectively the CEO and Chairman of Stellantis, toured several assembly plants in the Detroit area. In talking with the media, Tavares gave full-throated support for reviving the Chrysler brand and said they will soon name a CEO to lead it. But first Stellantis needs to figure out what the brand stands for. The other American brands are pretty straight forward. Ram makes pickups, Dodge makes performance vehicles and Jeep makes off-road SUVs. We think Tavares will likely rebuild the Chrysler brand with cars from Peugeot. But how would you rebuild the Chrysler brand? Make it all electric, or what?

ITC RULES AGAINST SK INNOVATION
Bad news for battery maker SK Innovation. The U.S. ITC ruled in favor of LG Chem, who accused SK of stealing trade secrets. It banned SK from importing some lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. for 10 years with some exceptions. The ITC will allow SK to bring in components to its battery factories in Georgia to make packs for the electric Ford F-150 and Volkswagen ID.4. But the ruling only allows SK to supply Ford for four years and VW for two. We’re not sure why there’s a difference in how many years SK can supply each automaker. Maybe it has something to do with the original contract or even expected volume of each vehicle? But you can be sure VW and Ford are scrambling to find replacements.

IS TESLA’S SALES MODEL THAT DIFFERENT FROM A DEALER?
Remember all that talk about how Tesla would turn the retail business on its head by selling directly to consumers instead of using franchised dealers? Now, every other EV startup wants to do the same thing. But Wall Street analyst and retail expert Maryann Keller doesn’t believe it’s going to work. She doesn’t see how the Tesla model differs that much from having a dealer network. Take a look.

“He has people. He has lots of employees. He has lots of physical locations. He has to service his cars. So as there are more of them on the road, you’re going to have to have more physical locations to service those cars. He owns all of those employees and he owns all of these locations. How is that different from what a dealer would do?”

Keller says Tesla was supposed to save a ton of money by avoiding the dealer markup. But she wants to know where the savings are, because she doesn’t see it in the company’s financial earnings. Maryann Keller is our guest on Autoline This Week, and you can watch that entire show on our website or YouTube channel.

RIVIAN PLANS EUROPEAN FACTORY
EV startup Rivian plans to build a factory in Europe. Bloomberg reports it hired a real estate firm to scout locations. A site hasn’t been selected yet but several countries, including the UK, Germany and Hungary are being considered. The plant will likely produce vans for Amazon at first and then build Rivian vehicles for consumers. Rivian wants to open the facility next year.

AUTO GROUP SAYS EU NEEDS 1 MILLION CHARGING STATIONS
The European Association of Automobile Manufacturers says the EU needs more EV charging stations. A lot more, like a million. It says one million are needed by 2024 and 3 million by 2029, to give consumers the confidence to make the switch to electrics. As of 2020, there were about a quarter of a million public charging points in Europe. The group says the targets will also help automakers and grid operators plan ahead. It’s also calling for 1,000 hydrogen stations by 2029. If you’re wondering, as of last July, there were only 26,000 public charging stations in the U.S. And as of 2019, there were over half a million stations in China.

ARE THESE THE ULTIMATE OFF-ROAD MACHINES?
We almost never click on pop-up ads, but we saw one today that just looked too cool to pass up. It was for this wicked, go-anywhere off-road machine called the Fat Truck made by the Zeal Motor company. We know this is not breaking news, the Fat Truck was launched in 2019, but we had never seen it and thought you might get a kick out of it, too. The Fat Truck is powered by a 67 horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine and features massive tires that help this thing tackle practically any terrain. It can even go through deep water. While it would seem this would only attract a select number of buyers, there’s another vehicle that’s very similar to the Fat Truck. And it comes from a Russian company, named SHERP. We had already heard of SHERP because Kanye West owns a few of them and even gave one to one of his rapper buddies. Both the Fat Truck and SHERP start out at about $120,000.

TOYOTA ANNOUNCES NEW BEVs FOR THE U.S.
The EV community is pretty critical of Toyota, accusing the company of dragging its feet when it comes to selling battery electric cars. So the world’s largest automaker just announced it has two BEVs coming to the U.S. this year, though it didn’t offer any details. And it reiterated its wholehearted support of plug-in hybrids. In fact, Toyota says PHEVs have about the same carbon footprint as BEVs when you count everything including the green-house-gasses created during manufacturing. It says PHEVs are cheaper to buy and have a significantly lower cost of ownership for the first 5 years, if you don’t include incentives. And even if you do include incentives, it says a PHEV has a lower cost of ownership compared to a long range BEV.

RAM ADDS HFE ECODIESEL TO TRUCK LINEUP
Ram already has a gas-powered HFE or High Fuel Efficiency version of the 1500 pickup and now it’s adding an HFE EcoDiesel version too. The setup is paired to Ram’s Tradesman model and features 2-wheel drive, a crew cab, 5-foot 7-inch bed and 20-inch wheels. Ram doesn’t say what the differences are between the standard EcoDiesel and the HFE version, but it’s rated at 23 MPG in the city, 33 on the highway and 26 combined, which is 1 MPG better all the way around. The truck will be available in the second quarter of this year and has a starting price of just under $44,000, including destination charges, which is about $7,800 more than the gas-powered HFE Ram.

FORD LAUNCHES ONLINE USED CAR PLATFORM
The Ford Motor Company makes millions of new vehicles every year, but it wants to help its dealers to sell more used cars. So it launched a digital platform called Ford Blue Advantage so dealers can list their used cars online. And customers can watch a video walkaround of any car, arrange for a test drive, or buy it and have it delivered to their home. Each vehicle is certified, with two ratings: Gold Certified vehicles are six years old or newer with less than 80,000 miles. Blue Certified vehicles are 10 years old or newer and have less than 120,000 miles. And both types of certification come with warranties and free roadside assistance. Ford says there are 3 million used Fords sold in the American market every year, but Ford dealers only handle 1 million of them, and the company wants its dealers to get a lot more of that business.

Speaking of Ford, we’re going to take a deep dive into the all-new Raptor on Autoline After Hours this afternoon with the program manager, Tony Greco. If you’ve got a question you’re dying to ask him about it, send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv, or tweet it to @Autoline. Mark Williams, a free lance journalist and consultant on all things about trucks will also be on the show, so join John and Gary for some of the best insights into what’s going on in the automotive industry.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for watching.