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Runtime: 12:28
0:00 Union Contracts Add $9 Billion To GM’s Costs
1:19 GM Likely to Bring Back U.S. Hybrids
2:11 Used EV Prices Plummet
3:18 Car Dealers Ask to Ease EV Mandate
3:50 Biden Admin Could Ease EV Source Rules
4:52 Hyundai’s Impressively Clever Hub Wheel Motor
6:46 BYD Sells 200K Seagull EVs In Seven Months
7:24 NIO & Geely Partner on Battery Swapping
7:55 Sea Change in U.S. Mid-Size Pickup Segment
8:59 Toyota Reintroduces 1984 Land Cruiser
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UNION CONTRACTS ADD $9 BILLION TO GM’S COSTS
New labor contracts at General Motors are going to add more than $9 billion in costs over the next 5 years. GM says the UAW and Unifor deals will add $575 to the cost of making a vehicle. But it says it’s going to completely off-set those costs with next year’s budget. A key way to do that will be by slowing down investments in electric and autonomous cars and cutting capital spending. In a guidance statement, CEO Mary Barra said GM would develop cars more efficiently and cut fixed and variable costs. She also said GM would deliver slightly lower profits this year of $9.1 to $9.7 billion, but that free cash flow would actually grow by $2-3 billion and land in the $10.5 to $11.5 billion range. Barra announced that GM will buy back $10 billion worth of stock and boost the dividend by 33%. And there’s no doubt that stock sure needs help. It’s down 27% this year and down 23% over the last 5 years.
GM LIKELY TO BRING BACK U.S. HYBRIDS
General Motors is also facing up to market reality and will likely add hybrid models back into its U.S. line-up. GM’s strategy was to set hybrids aside and plunge head-first into EVs to achieve mass manufacturing scale. But GM has struggled to launch its EVs, the EV segment in the US is growing slower than expected, and now suddenly hybrids are red-hot in the marketplace. GM says a final decision on bringing back hybrids has not been made. But a source at GM told Autoline that the company is developing hybrids to sell in South America, and that it could use those powertrains in the U.S. in case they’re needed. So it should be easy enough for GM to start selling hybrids in the US again.
USED EV PRICES PLUMMET
Not only are sales of new EVs starting to slow in the U.S., used ones are too. According to a new report from ISeeCars, used EV prices in October are down 33.7% compared to a year ago, while the average used car is down only 5.1%. And used EV prices are now about the same as all used cars. Last October, used EV prices were about $53,000, now its tumbled to just under $35,000, while the average used car is nearly $31,000. And even though used EV prices are falling, it’s taking longer to sell them. Last year, a used EV would be on the market for 37.5 days on average, now that’s jumped to 52.4 days in October. And it’s the same story for new EVs, which take nearly three times as long to sell as they did a year ago. But hybrids are picking up the slack and make-up seven of the ten fastest-selling new vehicles.
CAR DEALERS ASK TO EASE EV MANDATE
And because of the slowdown in the EV market in the U.S., a group of dealers is urging President Biden to pull back on EV mandates. The Administration has proposed that two out of every three cars sold in 2032 must be electric. But a group of 3,700 dealers calling themselves the EV Voice of the Customer, sent a letter to the President saying the Administration should ease up on the mandate because EV demand is slowing and consumers shouldn’t be forced to buy them.
BIDEN ADMIN COULD EASE EV SOURCE RULES
But the Administration is considering one area to give EVs a break. It’s discussing giving automakers a temporary reprieve from battery sourcing rules that would disqualify EVs from the full $7,500 tax credit if they use battery parts or minerals from foreign countries the U.S. doesn’t have free trade agreements with, like China. The rules go into effect in 2024 and 2025 but the auto industry says it hasn’t built up the supply chain in North America to meet the mandate. The Treasury Department is expected to issue a guidance this week that will reveal details about how much content from non-free trade partners is allowed.
HYUNDAI’S IMPRESSIVELY CLEVER HUB WHEEL MOTOR
Remember when in-wheel hub motors seemed like the next big thing? Or at least they did to me when I first saw them about 10 years ago. Hub motors take all the drive and braking components of an EV and package them into the space behind the wheels. The main benefit is a lot more room. But no one has really been able to bring the tech to the market. So far we think Lordstown was the closest with the Endurance pickup. However, the Hyundai Group might have a solution that it calls Uni Wheel or what I like to call Hub Motor Light. Instead of packaging all the drive and braking components behind the wheel, the Uni Wheel only features the gear reduction system for the electric motors, which are much smaller than typical EV motors and placed much closer to the wheels. It says it went through a lot of design iterations before coming up with a setup that allows the wheel to move in all directions while still providing continuous power. While the Uni Wheel takes up more space than real hub motors, it takes care of problems like not having to worry about exposing the wiring for the motors. And it’s still smaller than a traditional EV drive system, which will clear up interior room and/or the possibility for more batteries. No word on when we might see this tech, but Hyundai shows how it could be used for a wide variety of vehicles, including sporty ones with torque vectoring. It says it has tested the system up to 120 km/h or over 74 MPH and up to 1,200 Nm or over 880 lb-ft of torque. But it’s still developing the system and working on the right gear ratios for mass production. Although, it did say it has filed 8 patents related to Uni Wheel in South Korea, the U.S. and Europe.
BYD SELLS 200K SEAGULL EVs IN SEVEN MONTHS
Well, that was fast. It only took BYD seven months to sell 200,000 units of its small electric car, the Seagull. The model sells for about $10,500 to $12,500, but even at that low price, we believe BYD is still making a profit with that much volume. The real test for BYD will be trying to maintain the Seagull’s growth. Wuling was able to keep its little electric, the MINI EV, going by coming out with a number of different versions, but even its popularity has begun to taper off.
NIO & GEELY PARTNER ON BATTERY SWAPPING
Battery swapping sure seems to be gaining momentum in China. Last week, Nio signed a deal with Changan to partner on battery swapping. And now it’s signing another deal, this time with Geely. Like its deal with Changan, Nio and Geely will jointly develop battery swapping models, build and share swapping stations and work to establish battery swap standards. What do you think, could battery swapping be the solution to range anxiety and charging time?
SEA CHANGE IN U.S. MID-SIZE PICKUP SEGMENT
Yesterday we covered the official unveiling of the Toyota Tacoma and that got us focused on what’s going on in the mid-size pickup segment in the US market. There’s been a sea change that kind of caught us off guard and we think you’ll be surprised by the sales numbers. The Tacoma continues to dominate the segment, with sales that are three times more than the second-place Chevrolet Colorado. And look who’s in third place, none other than the Nissan Frontier, followed closely by the Jeep Gladiator. And amazingly, the Honda Ridgeline is handily outselling the Ford Ranger, which in turn is not that far in front of the Hyundai Santa Cruz. The GMC Canyon rounds out the segment in last place. But these sales rankings could change soon. All new redesigns of the Colorado and Canyon just hit the market, and Ford is about to unleash an all-new Ranger. Even so, Nissan and Honda are doing a whole lot better than we ever expected to see.
| U.S. Mid-Size Pickup Sales, Jan-Sep, 2023 | |
|---|---|
| Toyota Tacoma | 179,681 |
| Chevrolet Colorado | 58,685 |
| Nissan Frontier | 45,895 |
| Jeep Gladiator | 41,528 |
| Honda Ridgeline | 39,568 |
| Ford Ranger | 31,503 |
| Hyundai Santa Cruz | 29,083 |
| GMC Canyon | 19,351 |
| Source: Automotive News | |
TOYOTA REINTRODUCES 1984 LAND CRUISER
Toyota is re-introducing the Land Cruiser 70, which first came out in 1984, and it just went on sale in Japan. At its core, not a whole lot has changed since then. It still features an old-school ladder frame with leaf springs in the back, coils up front and solid front and rear axles. But with a few modern amenities thrown in. The lighting is a definite upgrade, so is the interior. And it comes with a 2.8L diesel that makes 150 kW or about 200 horsepower. The engine is mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission. Pricing for the Land Cruiser 70 starts at roughly $32,500.
Tomorrow Tesla officially delivers the Cybertruck to retail customers and that will shine the spotlight on electric pickups. But like we’re seeing elsewhere in the EV market, that electric pickup segment might turn out to be a lot smaller than expected. And that’s what we’ll get into on Autoline After Hours tomorrow with Warren Brown of RFQ Insights and Sam Abuelsamid from Guidehouse Insights. And we might have a little surprise in store, so be sure to tune in tomorrow to learn who’s got the right strategy for the electric pickup war.
But that’s a wrap for today’s show. See ya.
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Clearly, the Maverick took a big bite out of Ranger sales. The UAW strike also has took EV a big bite out of Ranger 3Q/4Q inventory/availability.
Tacoma can because Tundra cannot compete with Big 3 pickups.
Guess which makes the most in profits?
That’s a seriously strange list of “mid-size” pickups, that includes the Santa Cruz, but omits the Maverick. I guess the Maverick is “small,” rather than “mid-size,” even though it is larger than the Santa Cruz.
My sister had an old Land Cruiser, I think 1984. The engine was a near-clone of a Chevy “blue flame” six.
Why is Ford Maverik not on list? It is roughly comparable to Hyundai Santa Cruz in size and fetures and per Ford Authority had US sales of 66,430 Jan-Sept 2023.
Part, maybe most of the blame for the confusion, non-conformity and chaos in the auto industry ‘is’ because of the ‘administration’. By that I mean, the metric, keeps changing. With the lead time for the auto industry to react, and the administration waffling on requirements continually, it is difficult to maintain a strategy to produce vehicles at a consistent rate and fully compliant. A little consistency would go a long way.
Battery swapping… I like the idea but what happens when I have my first battery swap (brand new battery) and I get a 2 year old battery as a replacement. I live in Canada so my battery might deteriorate more due to cold weather and I have it replaced in Southern California for a better battery.
Plus will we ever see a ‘standard double AA battery’ used by all manufacturers… I doubt it.
Range anxiety might change into quality assurance anxiety.
Hybrids are a great compromise especially the BHEV. Something that can cover the short trips on electric yet not give you range anxiety. Should help reduce our dependance on oil and reduce emissions and hopefully they will be able to run on electric at full speed within range and not so much on and off of the gas engine.
My prediction here on the battery swapping. The first rental car company to adopt this will thrive. People on trips for business or pleasure when they rent a car a company like Enterprise could offer EVs with battery swapping locations they would be ready to go right back out quickly and if a customer does need a charge they can be back on the road in a few minutes. Enterprise would own all the batteries and swapping stations and I only see this working well for something like that or fleet vehicles.
I just dont see the private sector willing to hand over their 20K battery for who knows what at a swapping station just for a quick charge. Unless the batteries become a lease or service type contract. Otherwise I see battery swapping just being ideal for fleets.
I don’t see battery swapping ever becoming a “big thing,” when manufacturers can’t even standardize on fewer than about 30 different 12v lead acid regular car batteries. Maybe they can mandate battery standardization in China, though. To the extent that swapping does happen, I’d think you would be paying to rent a charged battery, or some such thing. If you own the battery, you’d want to wait until you got a good one, and then keep it if you plan to charge it at home.
Hybrids designed for efficiency, like Camry hybrid, Accord hybrid, Highlander hybrid, Prius, and the soon to be orphaned Escape hybrid are great. You just put gas in them and drive, and get exceptional mpg for the size of the vehicle. Some hybrids emphasize performance, getting a little better 0-60 times, but not much better mpg.
With the Volt and i3 REx gone, the remaining PHEVs will run the gas engine at times, even with a full battery, unless you drive with a light foot. Still, plugging them in is very useful, as you get part, or most of the energy for the first few miles from the battery.
Sales have slowed, not for demand, but for pricing. Vehicles have gone up price, they aren’t making affordable vehicles. Detroit needs to be reminded that the large majority of the baby boomer generation has or are getting ready to retire.
I don’t see range anxiety being solved by battery swapping. If I am on a trip, I will still have to figure out how long I can drive on my current charge and where a battery swapping station is located within that range and along my route. Then I have to hope they have a charged battery available for my vehicle when I arrive. They have limited storage capacity so its very possible that there may not be a charged battery available for me. Then what?
However, I think they could be an option for people that live in buildings or areas where charging is inconvenient or non-existent. Seems like the best way to manage the fear of receiving an inferior or older battery is to lease or sell the vehicle and then charge by the battery swap. The battery would not be considered a part of the vehicle’s resale value so owners or lessees would not have to worry about the condition of the battery at trade-in time. This might be a solution for Kit’s condo charging conundrum. The only problem I see is lack of standardization means that each auto company would have to put up their own swapping network, or commonize battery size, design and placement.
So, another union local overseen by Shawn Fain rejected the contract negotiated for it by the UAW bargaining team. This time it’s the casino workers at the MGM casino in Detroit. The workers at the other two Detroit casinos voted to accept the contract. Not sure how that ends up playing out, but I believe that is three union locals now that have rejected their contracts after Mr. Fain’s team negotiated them. The Blue Cross Blue Shield workers could become the fourth as they vote in the next several days and there are rumblings of grumbling about the proposed contract.
Perhaps he needs to tone down those initial expectations a tad bit.
Well with manufacturers saying that EVs aren’t selling and lots are filling up with new and used ones . This is what you should expect from the current administration. Watch them double down and try to implement a new law that will sunset ICE vehicles of a certain age, They will not back off this boondoggle . They will force everyone into their one size fits all box whether you like it or not. Instead of relaxing the rules they will push even deeper to achieve their ambitions.
a guy posted on a thread i was on about how his Tesla adds $80 to his electric bill . He says he lives in Fla. That his total bill for his house and car are $400 a month. He got upset when I told him that in 2020 I was paying only $50 a month for my entire house. My latest bill is only $108 averaging 22.5 kWh per day .I have oil heat and hot water so I’m not getting raped for heat . In the original post ,the author was filming at a Electrify America charging station that showed it was capable of 350 kWh and that it uses more power than many homes do . How do they think the grids will cope with this amount of draw if they achieve forcing the majority of not all to EVs and what does anyone think will happen to electric rates when there is no competition from Oil or gas ?
If EV charging companies have proven they can’t reliably run chargers, (which is the biggest cause of range anxiety), what are the odds that they can run battery swap stations any better?
XA351GT, I don’t know where that person lives in Florida, but where I am, power is about $.13/kWh. Whoever has a $400 bill, $320 without the car has a big house, is cooling it too cold, heating it too warm, or or something. Also, a pool pump alone might amount to $40 in power, and if the pool is heated, that would amount to a lot.
350 kW would be enough to run a bunch of houses. My condo would use only maybe 20 kW if I had the resistance heating, water heater, dryer, and a couple burners on the range all going at once.
Maverick sales through end of Q3 was just over 66k, placing it in second place. It would be interesting to see how many they could sell if they made enough to meet demand. I’m curious as of why it did not make this list.
If there are a lot more EVs, it’s not the grid that will be the problem. It will be the lack of chargers for those needing to depend on other than home charging. If there were 100 million EVs added tomorrow, the total power usage would increase only ~10%. If most of them would charged at low usage times, the grid/generating capacity would handle it now.
XA351GT – I drive a plug car and estimate I use 300kWh monthly to charge it. For my electric bill that’s $48/mo to drive approx 1,100 miles, meaning $0.022/mile. So for the average US car (25.7miles/gal) with average US gas cost ($3.25/gal), it costs the average US driver $0.126 per mile, six times what I spend.
Roger T., yeah, the list is very strange. If the Maverick is “small” rather than “mid-size,” why is the Santa Cruz there”? It is smaller than the Maverick, both external dimensions and bed size.
I know someone who got a base Maverick hybrid with steel wheels. Kind of cool, to me. I think she was on some kind of waiting list for a few months to get it.
Roger T, Isn’t $48/1100 miles $0.0436/mile? That’s still very good, though. Even a Prius getting 50 mpg would cost $0.06/mile at the current $3/gallon gas price where I am.
Kit, A friend of mine who works at Ford bought a Maverick when they first came out. Drove it for almost two years and put 24k miles on it. I saw him last week asked where the truck was, he said a dealer offered him more than he paid for it to sell it back. So he did and bought a 3/4 ton. So not sure how they can afford to do that but I assume they are marking them way up.
The EV mandate is necessary to help us all survive. The technology needs to catch up with the need to really get EV selling. Solid state batteries, quicker charging, more charging infrastructure are all necessary to aid market growth. We find ourselves in a quandary, a need that is a must based on global warming with a fix based on an immature technology that needs another decade to mature to a point where the vehicles can be a real replacement for ICE powered vehicles.
Lambo, if the Ford guy got the Maverick for MSRP or below, I’m not surprised. The MSRP on them is good, or at least it was early on. What did he want with the F250? Did he buy a 32 foot Airstream or something?
I don’t know the best way to fix it, but about half of the people in my condo complex would be ideal candidates for EVs, if there was home charging. They are older retirees who never take highway trips, and don’t mind smaller cars. The most popular car in my building is probably Kia Soul. There are three of them for 35 units in the building. With home charging, they might have been Chevy Bolts, or whatever Kia has that is similar. A 120v outlet in front of a parking place would work for many of these people. It would work for 80% of my driving.
IMHO, while most of my experience with them has been positive, a lot of the customers slow acceptance with EVs seems to have been the result of their treatment by the dealers, that are complaining to the administration! From dealer markups of hot EVs (low inventory of product may not be their fault, so I’m not holding that against them), to not having knowledge of and discouraging potential buyers away from such a purchase, as well as reports that dealers are refusing to purchase used EVs from auction, which lowers their value and distorts their value for lease, now they’re asking to easy mandates, due to slow EV sells! They fight the direct sale of EVs online, and then, in one way or another, discourage or work against selling them IN their dealerships! They’re contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy, implying that EVs aren’t selling as they would have hoped on the one hand, while on the other working against their sell by not being knowledgeable of their product, contributing to distributing bad information about EVs, marking up their price to pad their pockets, or outrightly directing customers to other products that they’d rather sell! While I know Teslas aren’t perfect and Legacy auto makers still have a ways to go in building a completely equal product, but Teslas don’t seem to be having some of the same issues selling their products that dealers are having selling EVs from Legacy and OEM’s!
XA351GT, Kit — I’m getting about 28 miles to the gallon in my Maverick, and it costs me about $30-35 dollars to full up once a week (my sister has a four door, short bed F-150 and pays more then $100 a week to get it to 3/4 full, ouch!). XA351GT, if your friend is paying an additional $80 dollars a month on their electric bill, that comes back to about $20 dollars a week. That doesn’t seem too bad, but if it was more then they were expecting, then I can understand.
I wouldn’t be surprised if , as Sean mentioned, the reason that the numbers on the Ranger, Colorado and Canyon were low, was due to the arrival of newer products being imminent. That being said, I don’t think the will ever be able to catch up to the tacoma! My question is, though the new “Taco” was introduced, when does it go on sell?
Wmb, what powertrain does your Maverick have?
It’s interesting to see how some seemingly simple decisions have been crucial for Tesla’s success: spurning dealers and selling online, building up a countries-wide charging network, and making EVs attractive in their own right. All while rapidly scaling, and building the first ever (widely derided) Gigafactory in line with that strategy. Then working through the problems by following through with perseverence and investment.
Perseverence and investment – the world’s top 20 automotive suppliers in 2022, according to Automotive News:
1 Bosch Group (privately held)
2 Denso Corp.
3 ZF Friedrichshafen
4 Magna International Inc. [Canada]
5 CATL
6 Hyundai Mobis
7 Aisin Corp.
8 Forvia
9 Continental
10 Lear Corp. [USA[
11 BASF
12 Valeo
13 Aptiv [USA]
14 Tenneco Inc. [USA]
15 Sumitomo Electric Industries
16 Samsung SDI
17 Yanfeng International
18 BorgWarner Inc.
19 Panasonic Automotive Systems Co.
20 Hitachi Astemo
My bet is that by 2030, Rivians will be a rare-ish but common sight here in Europe, while gm cuts to the bone at the next downturn.
wmb, Well he isn’t a friend just another commenter on a post and $20 a week isn’t bad at all the thing that comes into question is that it costs as much as a small home does for a month and that if these chargers are running at full chat they would be drawing 8400 kWh per DAY vs say for example my home which used 650 kWh per MONTH. so if you take that 8400 kWh times the 29 days that were in my billing cycle that becomes 243,600 kWh a month, Which equals 375 homes using the same amount of power as my house. That is 1 charger . Multiply that by how many chargers will be needed for a full EV switch over.
I don’t remember or have forgotten, do battery swap EV’s also have the option of standard, at home charging, or are they swap only? I can see them as problematic when deciding when to swap, as running them down to a certain point may or may not be convenient to swap. If you swap late, there’s anxiety of running out, if you swap early, you’re leaving ‘fuel’ unused.
And at some charging stations, when there are multiple vehicles charging the rated charging capacity, charging speed can compromised, i.e. a 350-kW station (if your car is capable, will only charge at 175) at a dual charge-point if both are being charged. (that doesn’t happen at the gas station) It’s all going to get better, but still an obstacle.
Kit — I have the non hybrid AWD version and that mileage has come down since the summer and the start of the fall/winter season. I autostart it to warm it up in the morning, but before that, I would occasionally hit between 29-30 MPGs.
Kit- My friend got rid of the maverick and got a 3/4 ton because they also bought a 5th wheel camper. There are only about a few models that can be towed with a 1/2 ton. The smallest of 5th wheels like the Scamp.
Chuck- You make another good point with the battery swapping scenario. Is it a set cost to swap a battery? Do you get any credit for swapping a battery that still has 1/2 charge? If the distance to the next swap/charge station is too far to go with the charge on hand and you need to swap in order to make it you could be paying for a full fill while you already have a half full battery. The whole swapping thing just seems silly to me. It only makes sense when they are common. So, a set fleet of vehicles that are all the same, so you stock a common battery or maybe even two. But you would need to keep complexity down and vehicles that return to the same hub on a daily basis makes sense. In order to make it viable on a large scale you need common battery designs and some actual standards. Maybe a smaller modular design thats expandable so like the old RC cars that took Double AA batteries. Maybe your car takes 4 or 6 or motorcycle takes one. But a common design would offer lots of advantages. However would also make them more prone to theft as they become modular and easier to remove.
wmd, that is pretty good mpg. You must have a fairly light right foot, and not do a lot of really short trips. I’m averaging only a little better than that with my Mini in Florida. Those 1-3 mile trips from cold start kill mpg, and I do quite a few of them, going out to eat, etc.
According to this article, 60% of NIO drivers prefer battery swapping to charging the battery in the car. That means charging the regular way can be done, and 40% of NIO drivers do that.
This article describes issues that would arise if all cars were EVs. They mention local distribution as the potential problem, like overloaded transformers in residential areas if a lot of people use L2 home charging, more than generating capacity.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-ev-transition-explained-2658463709
A Forbes article has the headline “Electricity Grids Can Handle Electric Vehicles Easily,” but the article is behind a pay wall, so I didn’t see it’s agreement.
Oops. Forgot the link about NIO swapping vs charging.
https://insideevs.com/news/664267/nio-drivers-prefer-ev-battery-swapping-to-recharging/
Not sure who does these studies or provides these reports but I’m still very skeptical that home charging is an option without some major changes to the network. I’ve flipped a few homes and they were always single family starter homes that when finished fall into the 80-150K range. 3 out of 5 homes I’ve bought still had screw in fuse panels. They also were only 60 amp panels. They are typically small homes built in the 50s to 60s. But there are a lot still out there that were built before that. But even during the renovation because the homes were so small and rarely had garage I would upgrade to a 150 amp panel. Building code for new homes is a minimum 200 amp panel now. So not only do a bunch of homes not have the capability to charge a EV I find it really hard to believe that the main lines feeding these homes has also been upgraded to supply power if they all decided to switch up to a 200-250 Amp panel and draw the current needed for a home and level 2 charger. The demand isnt there yet so they can say it will handle it but when you have 60 EVs on a block I’ll believe it when I see it,
Lambo, did you read the IEEE article I linked? In addition to the problems you mention with some older houses, the transformers powering groups of houses wouldn’t have adequate capacity if level 2 chargers are used in several homes on one transformer.
As far as the 60 amp panel, it depends on what running from it. If the heat, water heater, range and dryer are gas, it would power a level 2 charger no problem. If any of those high load appliance are electric, it could be a problem. There might be the problem the IEEE article describes, though, if the house and others are fed from a transformer sized for older houses with gas heat, etc., which would rarely see even a 3 kW load.
My old house in Indiana has 100 amp service and gas heat, all appliances electric, and it could handle a level 2 charger. If I lived there full time, I’d probably have an EV and an L2 charger. The house is on its own transformer which is at least 70 years old. The transformer might be overloaded if the charger, water heater, and dryer are running at the same time. When the house was built, there would have been two “high load” items, an electric water heater and range, but no dryer.
Nice Cyber Truck reveal (see web link.) The free advertising that follows will be awesome even if the news readers throw out backhanded comments.
The battery pack needs to sized, engineered, and built for the mission. The hubris of declaring one pack the standard … a former Marine, one size fits all by the lowest bidder doesn’t work.
I am surprised there were no comments about the hub motors. I believe the NEVS group Emily has hub motors. Come to think of it I have not see that news on Autoline. Lets see SAAB make a come back.