AD #3396 – Listen to The Raucous V8 Of the New Mustang; Renault Spinning Off ICE Ops To Geely; ChargePoint in The Red

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

RENAULT SPINNING OFF ICE OPS TO GEELY
First Volvo did it, and now Renault will. We’re talking about them spinning off their ICE operations as a separate company. Renault calls its ICE business “Horse” and its BEV business “Amphere.” Reuters reports that Geely and an unnamed oil company want to invest in Horse, which will include all of Renault’s piston engine and transmission plants in Europe and South America. Remember, Volvo already spun off its ICE business into a new company called Aurobay. And Geely is the biggest investor in Aurobay. So we would not be surprised to see Geely merge the Volvo and Renault ICE business together, and create a global piston engine company with a ton of manufacturing scale.  

BUFFET BYD SALE SENDS CHINA AUTO STOCKS DOWN
It seems like you can’t read a report about Chinese automaker BYD without it mentioning that billionaire Warren Buffett is one of its largest shareholders. Well, Buffett just sold off over a million shares, and that sent BYD’s stock price a-tumblin’ even though a couple of days ago BYD reported that it tripled its profits. One Chinese analyst said that BYD’s drop could be a warning sign that a big correction is on the way. Almost all Chinese automakers’ stock prices were down on the news. Even so, Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway still owns around 220 million BYD shares and is probably just taking the opportunity to cash out some profits.  

TOYOTA INVESTING MORE IN EV BATTERIES
Toyota has been highly skeptical of consumer demand for EVs and whether the charging infrastructure is ready. It’s been promoting hybrids as a better alternative. But it also recognizes that the EV market is growing faster than it expected and so its significantly boosting its investment in global battery production. It’s going to spend an additional $5.6 billion to increase production at several plants in the U.S. and Japan. $2.5 billion will go towards its battery factory in North Carolina, which is on top of the initial $1.3 billion it already announced. No doubt the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act played a big part in that decision. Unless EV batteries are made in the US starting in 2024, automakers don’t qualify for battery subsidies. Toyota says it will have a combined capacity to produce up to 40-GWh in the U.S. and Japan once all the plants are up and running. To put that in perspective, that’s about the same as Tesla’s gigafactory in Nevada.

LISTEN TO THE RAUCOUS V8 OF THE NEW MUSTANG
The all-new Ford Mustang will make its global debut in about two weeks. In an effort to get us more geared up for the event Ford is giving us a quick preview of its V8 exhaust note. Enjoy…

FORD PRO TRACKS YOUR TOOLS
In other Ford news, it’s helping businesses look after some of their most important assets, their tools and equipment. Forgetting to bring the right tool or machine for the job is estimated to cost businesses about $450 a year for each vehicle in their fleet. So, Ford came up with a way to fit tracking devices to equipment, which connects to a central server and then can be accessed by a computer, via the vehicle’s in-cabin screen or on a phone or tablet. A map shows where everything is at. So, a company can tell if a tool is at a work site or in a vehicle or maybe even use the tech to locate stolen equipment. Ford says it plans to do more testing in different markets and that the service will be available to customers in the near future.

MINI USES ROOFS AS A STYLING STATEMENT
MINI is coming out with special edition versions of the 3-door, 5-door and Clubman that offer a little more expressive styling. Called the Multitone Edition, their most expressive styling feature is a gradient roof that fades from white to black and is highlighted with an abstract, white rainbow, an element which is picked up on other parts of the exterior and interior. The roof is actually painted using a special wet-on-wet process that allows each to go on directly one after the other. No word yet on price or availability. 

PEEK AT SKODA’S NEW DESIGN LANGUAGE
Skoda, which is part of the VW Group, says it’s going to come out with three all-new, all-electric models as early as 2026. The Vision 7S concept is not only a preview of what one of those vehicles will look like, it also previews Skoda’s all-new design language. Built on VW’s MEB architecture, the Vision 7S has seating for 7 and an 89-kWh battery pack that is said to provide over 600 kilometers or 372 miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. The interior is highlighted by a multi-layered dash, which houses a digital display screen that can be rotated between portrait and landscape layout and control knobs and buttons just in front of the armrest on the center console. 

TESLA CUTS DELIVERY TIMES, AGAIN
Earlier this month we reported on how Tesla cut the time it takes to get delivery of a new car. And now it cut that time again. Tesla says it now only takes 1 to 4 weeks for customers in China to receive a rear-drive Model Y. Previously it was 4 to 8 weeks. Tesla upgraded its plant in Shanghai which allowed it to significantly boost production. But customers who ordered a Model 3 or other versions of the Model Y will still have to wait between 12 to 20 weeks to get their cars.

  

THE IN-HOUSE FIGHT TO REVIVE CADILLAC
There was a time when Cadillac represented the epitome of luxury. But in the 1970s it started to chase sales volume instead of exclusivity, and that kicked off a long, downhill slide. In the late ‘90’s John Smith, then the head of Cadillac wanted to turn that around by bringing out the Escalade SUV and kicking off a new design direction called Art & Science. You’d think General Motors would have rallied behind the effort, but instead he had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way. John Smith is going to be our guest on Autoline After Hours tomorrow, and we invite you to join us for what promises to be a fascinating insight of what it takes to fight a corporate bureaucracy.

CHARGEPOINT IS IN THE RED
ChargePoint, which operates charging networks in North America and Europe, is growing like crazy. But it’s not making any money. It just released its earnings for the first half of the year and brought in nearly $190 million in revenue, up an impressive 97% from a year ago. But expenses went up even more and it lost nearly $182 million, almost $180 million more than last year. These are still early days for the EV charging startup. And once it fully builds out its nationwide network of chargers it won’t have to spend so heavily. But these numbers show it still has a long way to go before it will turn a profit.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for joining us.