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Runtime: 11:11
0:07 VW of America Changes Name to Voltswagen of America
0:50 Volvo Gives Employees Paid Parental Leave
1:28 Autoline Stock Index Falls Slightly
1:52 Dealers Jack Price with Corvette Inventory Low
3:02 Key Details for Kia’s EV6
4:16 Wild Lexus Concept Hints at Future EV Design
5:11 SK Innovation Threatens to Leave the U.S.
6:00 U.S. Auto Groups Urge New EV Plan
7:28 BMW Secures 2nd Lithium Supplier for EV Ramp Up
8:44 How ZF Made Its Level 2 ADAS System Affordable
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
VW OF AMERICA NOW VOLTSWAGEN OF AMERICA
It sounds like an April Fool’s Day joke but it isn’t. Volkswagen of America is changing its name to Voltswagen of America. That’s Volts with a T. It’s all got to do with the transition to electric vehicles. All EV models will have a “Voltswagen” badge on the exterior while gas powered models will carry the traditional VW logo. Starting today, the new branding rolls out to its advertising, website and social media channels. And soon, all of its dealers in the U.S. will have the new Voltswagen signage. But what do you think? Is Voltswagen a cheap marketing ploy or a very clever idea? Let us know in the comments.
VOLVO GIVES EMPLOYEES PAID PARENTAL LEAVE
You’ve got to hand it to Volvo. It sure knows how to treat its employees well. It’s offering 24 weeks of paid parental leave to anyone who’s worked for the company at least a year. It applies to either parent, and they can take their leave at any time within three years of becoming a parent, and they get 80% of their base pay. The policy includes adoptive parents, foster care and surrogate parents, as well as non-birth parents in same-sex couples. Volvo already tested the policy in Europe and found that nearly half the applicants were fathers.
AUTOLINE STOCK INDEX DOWN SLIGHTLY
The global Autoline Stock Index fell 1% yesterday, though it varied by region. Automotive stocks were up 3% in Europe thanks to a 5% surge from Volkswagen. But they were flat in Japan, down 1% in China and down 2% in the U.S. Investors are still worried about the chip shortage and the impact it could have on earnings.
| Close | Change | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 610 | 16.86 | +2.8% |
| Japan | 392 | 0.17 | —— |
| China | 311 | -47.87 | -1.2% |
| U.S. | 3,244 | -57.48 | -2.1% |
| Global | 4,862 | -59.15 | -1.2% |
DEALERS JACK PRICE WITH CORVETTE INVENTORY LOW
Want to buy a C8 Corvette? Well good luck with that. Inventory is so tight that Chevrolet instructed its dealers to stop taking orders. It doesn’t want customers getting angry, sitting around forever and not getting their cars. There are only about 1,000 Corvettes in inventory around the U.S., which is nothing. And so guess what dealers are doing? They’re tacking on an extra $10,000 to $30,000 to the cars they do have in inventory. And that’s making customers a lot more angry than having to wait for a car.
KEY KIA EV6 DETAILS
Here are some of the details we’ve been waiting on for Kia’s all-new EV6, which goes on sale in the second half of this year. Two battery sizes are available; 58 kWh and 77.4 kWh. The larger pack, when paired with two-wheel drive, returns up to 510 kilometers or about 315 miles of range based on the WLTP cycle. All-wheel drive is also available, and is standard on the more performance oriented GT model that does 0-100 km/h in 3.5 seconds. Kia says it’s possible to charge from 10% to 80% in just 18 minutes thanks to the EVs 800-volt and 400-volt charging capabilities. Cold weather was a focus as well and its latest-generation heat pump allows the EV6 to retain 80% of the range it would have at optimal temperatures even when it dips down to -7-degrees Celsius or roughly 19-degrees Fahrenheit. There’s more information about the EV6 in the press release and we’ll provide the link if you’d like to check that out. But we’re pretty much waiting on prices at this point.
WILD LEXUS CONCEPT HINTS AT FUTURE EV DESIGN
Now we shift gears over to Lexus, which just debuted this wild concept, called the LF-Z Electrified. While it’s clearly a concept, Lexus says design elements will carry over into future electrified models, including battery electrics and hybrids, the first of which is coming in 2025. We find it interesting that designers closed off the grille, but still maintained the spindle grille look. It’s even more accentuated with large blacked-out elements on either side that are meant to look like huge air vents. This also helps make the vehicle look wider, a feature that was picked up on the rear as well. It’s difficult to see how parts of the interior will transfer over to future models but it did say it went for an interior with a sense of openness. Guess we’ll learn more as we get closer to 2025.
SK THREATENS TO LEAVE THE U.S.
SK Innovation is threatening to pull its battery business out of the U.S. if President Biden doesn’t overturn a ruling the U.S. International Trade Commission made against it. Last month, the ITC sided with LG Chem, which accused SK of stealing trade secrets. The ITC banned SK from importing some lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. for 10 years with some exceptions. LG and SK can still reach their own settlement but the two sides aren’t close to a deal. SK says its looking at moving its battery business to Europe or China and may halt production of its $2.6 billion battery plant in Georgia if Biden doesn’t overturn the ruling. SK currently supplies batteries to Ford and Volkswagen in the U.S.
U.S. AUTO GROUPS CALL FOR EV PLAN
But SK isn’t the only one putting pressure on Biden. The UAW, the Alliance for Automobile Innovation and the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, sent a letter to the President urging him to support a comprehensive plan on electric vehicles and increase credits and incentives to spur EV sales. The letter also called for federal help for automakers and suppliers to build EV components and create a U.S. based supply for materials and minerals needed to make batteries.
If you like car design we’ve got a great Autoline After Hours coming up on Thursday afternoon. Our guests will be Karl Ludvigsen and Jim Hall and we’ll be looking at where car design has been and where it’s going. That’s Thursday at 3 pm eastern time on Autoline After Hours.
BMW SECURES MORE LITHIUM FOR EV RAMP UP
BMW has big EV goals. By 2023 it says it will have about 12 fully electric models on the road and that sales of EVs will increase more than 50% per year between now and 2025. If that seems like a lot, it is, especially considering BMW doesn’t have much in the way of an EV lineup right now. One way it’s accelerating its EV effort is by building ICE and electric vehicles off the same platform. This will allow BMW to ramp up faster and save money by not having lots of different platforms. But it’s going to cause some pain in the long run. Production is slower because at some point the versions have to divert on the line to get a part or component the other one doesn’t have. And an EV off an ICE platform is not as good as one based on a dedicated platform. But with the increase in EV production BMW has had to secure a second source for lithium for future battery cells. So, it’s investing 285 million euro in a company called Livent, which will supply lithium to BMW’s battery manufacturers starting in 2022.
HOW ZF MADE AFFORDABLE LEVEL 2 ADAS SYSTEM
ZF has a new Level 2 ADAS system called CoAssist that offers adaptive cruise control with automated lane changes, traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition and automated garage parking. Obviously, this kind of technology is already available. But what caught our attention is that it’s available on the Dongfeng Aeolus Yixuan, a compact sedan in China that sells for under $15,000. So how did ZF get the cost down for such a low cost car? Christophe Marnat, the executive vice president of electronics and ADAS at ZF, tells us how.
(Clip from interview with Christophe Marnat can only be viewed in the video version of today’s show.)
So there’s the secret to low cost designs. Use off the shelf components and give the OEM a turnkey solution. In other words, sell them a complete package and don’t let them pick and choose what they want, because that drives up THE cost. While Christophe Marnat would not tell us the exact cost, he says it’s well under $1,000.
But that wraps up today’ show, 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.
