AD #3481 – Porsche Details New Electric Architecture; Corvette E-Ray on The Way; Hackers Find New Ways into Cars

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

TESLA SAYS AUTOPILOT SIGNIFICANTLY SAFER
We’ve got a lot of news about Tesla today and most of it is good. While Autopilot is under attack from some people who say it’s not safe, Tesla posted some stats yesterday that contradict that sentiment. Back in 2018, Tesla started releasing quarterly updates about the progress of its Autopilot technology. The data compared the number of miles per accident with Autopilot on and Autopilot off. Last year it stopped sharing those reports, but just started them back up again. And they show the company is making big progress. In Q3 of 2022, Tesla recorded one crash for every 6.26 million miles driven with Autopilot on. When it was off, that dropped to one crash for every 1.71 million miles. And the national average for other cars is much worse: one crash for every 652,000 miles. But a couple of things to note. We don’t know if Tesla included any FSD data, and besides, Autopilot is mostly used on the highway where less accidents occur compared to surface streets.

GIGA AUSTIN GROWING BIGGER
Everything is bigger in Texas, especially Tesla’s Gigafactory. But now it’s going to get even bigger. Tesla built that plant for $5.5 billion but now it plans to invest another $776 million to add five new facilities at the site. Construction could start as early as this month.

MODEL 3 KNOCKS CAMRY OFF SALES PEDESTAL 
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Model 3 just knocked off the Toyota Camry as the best-selling mid-size vehicle in the country in 2022. The Camry held the top spot for the past 28 years. But last year, Tesla sold nearly 11,000 Model 3s compared to a little over 9,500 Camrys. And it’s even more impressive because the Model 3 costs more than twice as much as a Camry, $64,000 vs. $30,000.

MUSK SETS RECORD FOR LOSING MOST MONEY
All that news is good for Tesla, but this next item is bad for Elon Musk. He just broke a Guinness World Record for the “largest loss of personal fortune in history.” Forbes estimates Musk lost $182 billion since November 2021, while Bloomberg puts the figure closer to $200 billion. Either way, that smashes the previous record held by Softbank founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son, who lost more than $58 billion back in the year 2000. Musk’s net worth peaked at $320 billion in 2021 but now it’s down to $138 billion, mostly due to the slump in Tesla’s stock, which dropped 65% last year. Even still, Musk is still the second richest person in the world. 

PORSCHE’S NEW ELECTRIC ARCHITECTURE
Porsche is revealing a lot of key details about its new EV platform, called Premium Platform Electric or PPE, that it’s developing with Audi, which will be used on future electric vehicles, like the Macan. It features an 800-volt electrical architecture and comes in either rear- or all-wheel drive. Porsche says initial power output will go up to 450 kW or a little over 600 horsepower and max torque will top out at more than 740 lb-ft. As for the electric Macan, it will have a battery pack around 100 kWh. It doesn’t provide a range estimate, but says it will have a higher charging capacity than the Taycan’s 270 kW and will be able to charge from 5% to 80% in less than 25 minutes. The electrical system also has some cool tech if the charge station is using 400-volts. It’s essentially able to split the battery in two and charge the two halves in parallel without the need for an additional booster. Since the electric and ICE versions of the Macan are so different, the suspension system had to be changed. The EV has a new double wishbone front axle and a multi-link rear axle that mounts to the body via its own subframe. This allowed the Macan to offer all-wheel steering for the first time ever. The all-electric Macan was supposed to launch this year, but was delayed until 2024 due to reported software issues. 

CREATING A VIRTUAL POWER PLANT
Here’s a new term I had to learn this morning. Virtual Power Plant or VPP. This is where groups of houses and/or businesses, sometimes hundreds or thousands of them, offer up access to their EVs, smart thermostats, appliances, solar panels, storage batteries and other assets to support the grid. So, for example, during peak times an energy provider could stop an EV from charging or maybe tap into its battery or possibly even turn down a thermostat. Benefits for those who opt in include reduced energy costs and emissions as well as a more stable electricity grid. And with new incentives under the IRA for Virtual Power Plants there’s a lot of growth potential for the sector. So, a number of companies, including Ford, GM, Google and several solar providers, have come together to form the Virtual Power Plant Partnership. They hope to help shape policy, develop industry-wide standards and to help spread the word about Virtual Power Plants. They say by 2030, VPPs can reduce peak power demand in the US by 60 gigawatts and lower annual power costs by $17 billion.

CORVETTE E-RAY ON THE WAY 
The Corvette is going electric! Well, just partially for now. Chevrolet teased a video of the upcoming hybrid ‘Vette, called the E-Ray. It shows a number of little details on the car, but the most intriguing part previews an EV-only mode, called Stealth. The E-Ray will make its debut next Wednesday the 17th. And Corvette aficionados may remember that’s the same day the original ‘Vette concept debuted at Motorama in 1953. We wonder if the E-Ray will also make its debut in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel?

GENTEX’S DIMMABLE SUN VISORS
Have you ever been in that driving situation where the sun is blinding you but the sun visor is blocking your view ahead? Well, that’s why the supplier Gentex developed dimmable sun visors. The visors are transparent–you can see right through them. But they use electrochromic technology so that when sunlight or headlights hit them, they darken automatically so you’re not blinded. And you can still flip the visor over to the side glass if you need to. Gentex unveiled this tech last week at CES and while it says automakers are very interested, it will not be in production for another three years. Want to know more? Check out the link in today’s transcript or description box.

NHTSA TO TIGHTEN MPG STANDARDS
ICE cars and trucks will get more expensive in the US later this decade. NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is looking at tightening up fuel efficiency standards in 2027 to reduce greenhouse gasses. That will make ICE powertrains more expensive. And California wants NHTSA to adopt standards that are close to what it has, which will ban the sale of new pure-ICE vehicles after 2035. We’ll know soon enough what’s going to happen. NHTSA will publish its new regulations in April.   

HACKERS FIND NEW WAYS INTO CARS
Hackers are finding new ways to break into cars and are launching more attacks. That’s the findings from Upstream, a cyber security company. Hackers are using APIs and apps to get into cars, like using Sirius XM as an entry point. In fact, attacks using APIs were up 380% globally last year. And as more cars get connected, hackers are launching phishing attacks, like getting owners to approve a software patch that will supposedly fix a security breach. And they’re broadening their horizons. Hackers are now targeting fleets of vehicles and the infrastructure they rely on, like EV charging stations. One of the most common hacks is to roll back the odometers on used cars, so they will look like they’re under warranty again. Upstream says that happens thousands of times a month. If you’d like to read all the gory details, we’ll provide a link to that study.

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