Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 10:10
0:00 EV Chargers Will Outnumber Gas Stations Soon
0:53 Battery Recycling Growing Fast
1:27 Magna Loses Jaguar, Looks to Chinese
2:13 Tesla Could Drop 4680 Battery Cells
3:08 Hybrids Drive EU Sales Growth
3:44 Volvo Posts Record Profit
4:27 VW Launches New EV Sub-Brand in China
5:57 Startup Claims Most Efficient EV Motor
7:20 BYD Making ADAS Standard on More Affordable Models
Visit our sponsor to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone, Intrepid Control Systems, MEDC and Teijin Automotive.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
EV CHARGERS WILL OUTNUMBER GAS STATIONS SOON
Despite all the complaints about there not being enough public fast chargers, the EV charging network in the U.S. continues to expand. Bloomberg reports that 704 new public EV fast chargers were installed in the second quarter, up 9% over the first quarter. The U.S. now has 9,000 public fast chargers and at the current pace, they’ll outnumber gas stations in 8 years. But that could probably happen even sooner because the installation rate has been accelerating. EV charging operators will spend $6.1 billion on the charging infrastructure this year, double what it did last year. And by the end of the decade, that’s expected to double again.
BATTERY RECYCLING GROWING FAST
Another area that’s expected to grow significantly is battery recycling. According to the Argonne National Lab, battery recycling capacity in the U.S. was about 35,000 tons in 2023. And in the next two to four years, another 76,000 tons of capacity will come online, bringing the total to 111,000 tons per year. We don’t know how many EV batteries that represents because of different weights, but it’s estimated to be a six-digit number of battery packs.
MAGNA LOSES JAGUAR, LOOKS TO CHINESE
As we reported last week, Jaguar is dropping the XE, XF, F-Type, I-Pace and E-Pace from its lineup because it can’t make money on them. Only the F-Pace will remain as it plans to go all-electric next year. Remember, the I-Pace and E-Pace are made by Magna Steyr, and it will stop making them in December. This is another blow for Magna, which just lost the Fisker Ocean. So now Automotive News reports that Magna is in talks with Chinese automakers to build vehicles for them. But beyond that Magna currently produces the Mercedes G-Class, BMW Z4 and the Toyota Supra at its factory in Austria.
TESLA COULD DROP 4680 BATTERY CELLS
Tesla could give up on its 4680 battery cells, according to a report in The Information. It cites three sources who say earlier in the year Elon Musk wanted the team working on the cells to scale up dry coating of the cathode, which would allow it to eliminate a step from the battery making process and cut costs. And then more recently, it says Musk also wants a solution to a problem where the batteries can collapse on themselves while in use. But if there’s not a fix by the end of the year, Tesla could give up on trying to scale production of the cells.
HYBRIDS DRIVE EU SALES GROWTH
We’ve got good news out of Europe today. New car sales in June were up 3.6%, though the results varied a lot by country. Automakers sold 1.3 million cars, trucks and vans in the EU, the Scandinavian countries and the UK. And all the growth came from hybrids, which were up 24%. Gasoline and diesel cars lost sales, while sales of PHEVs plummeted 13.6%. EV sales were flat and saw their market share drop to 14.4%, down from 15.1%.
| EU Sales By Powertrain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | 442,443 | -3.3% |
| Hybrid | 396,294 | +24.2% |
| BEV | 208,872 | +0.1% |
| Diesel | 145,858 | -2.2% |
| PHEV | 86,094 | -13.6% |
| Other | 31,428 | +1.0% |
| Total | 1,310,989 | +3.6% |
VOLVO POSTS RECORD PROFIT
Volvo reported its second quarter earnings and the numbers look good. Sales of new cars by the Swedish automaker were up 15% and that drove strong earnings. Even though revenue was down 1%, Volvo posted a record operating profit and its net profit was up a whopping 60%. Volvo’s goal is to have BEVs account for 50% of its sales by the end of next year. It’s about half way there. BEVs accounted for 26% of sales in the second quarter, and they hit 20% gross margins largely thanks to higher sales volume and falling raw material prices for batteries.
| Volvo Cars Q2, 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 205,400 | +15% |
| Revenue | $9.6 Billion | -1% |
| Operating Profit | $758 Million | +12.7% |
| Net Profit | $540 Million | +60% |
VW LAUNCHES NEW EV SUB-BRAND IN CHINA
Volkswagen is launching a new EV sub-brand in China, called ID.UNYX and its first model is a fastback SUV. The company says it was created at its new innovation and development center in eastern China, but really this is only a slightly modified version of the Cupra Tavascan, which is based on VW’s MEB platform. The only real differences we see between the two are some mild styling changes to the lower front and rear fascias, new lighting signatures and VW badges. That’s it. Even the interiors are the same. It does get its new in-house developed electric motor, which sends about 280 horsepower to the rear wheels or nearly 340 horsepower to all four wheels when combined with an additional motor on the front axle. Both are fed by a 77 kWh battery pack that returns up 621 kilometers or 385 miles of range on the Chinese test cycle. CarNewsChina reports the model will start just below $30,000. And VW says the ID.UNYX brand will also get an SUV and a couple of sedans, while the rest of the VW brand in China will get 12 new ID EVs, 6 new PHEVs and 12 new ICEs by the end of the decade.
STARTUP CLAIMS MOST EFFICIENT EV MOTOR
BMW is working with a startup called DeepDrive to launch a new kind of electric motor. In a conventional motor, the stator moves either an internal or an external rotor. But DeepDrive came up with a way for the stator to move both rotors at the same time or what it calls a dual rotor concept. It claims the motors are the most efficient on the market and offer cost savings. And that they can be used for either an in-wheel setup or as a more centralized power unit. BMW has been helping to test the in-wheel motors and it says the next step is to test various versions in real-world driving in actual BMW vehicles. DeepDrive shows three versions on its website that vary in size from 19-20 inches, in weight from 32-37 kilograms, and output from 150-250 kW and 1500-2400 Nm. That’s about 70-80 pounds, 200-335 horsepower and 860-1,400 lb-ft of torque. But BMW’s not the only one. DeepDrive says it’s working with 8 of the top 10 automotive manufacturers in the world and hopes to start series testing in the next year or so.
BYD MAKING ADAS STANDARD ON MORE AFFORDABLE MODELS
BYD has got the pedal to the metal. Car News China reports that in the next three years it’s going to make its proprietary ADAS technology standard equipment on cars in the $20,000 range. That includes automatic and valet parking, blind spot detection, automatic emergency braking, adaptive headlamps, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic braking, and door opening warning of oncoming traffic. BYD says it gets new tech into the market by avoiding working on concepts and focusing on productionizing it instead. And then it works on iterations for rapid upgrades.
That brings us to the end of this show. But don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours at 3PM EST today to see how a company called PureForge can make brake rotors last the life of a vehicle. Hope to see you there.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
chargers, implying individual ones or maybe dual port ones. wll out number gas stations?
there are a minimum of 4 pumps (8 individual nozzles) at each gas station.
LOCATION is another HUGE issue.
gas stations are on nearly every street corner. there are over 200,000 gas stations in the US x 8-12 nozzels ar each station.
until chargers are at those same locatons… they will not be practical.
There’s a difference between “gas stations” and “charging stations”, twofold, first there are usually multiple gas pumps per ‘station’ and the time that those vehicles are there can be anywhere from, let’s say, 5 times as long to maybe even 20 times longer; we’re still talking apples to oranges.
By the look of Jaguar’s upcoming portfolio, it appears to me that this may be adios or sayonara to this most iconic brand. (and that would be too bad)
“EV Chargers Will Outnumber Gas Stations Soon” Thats nice an all, but again misleading as one little word is very important in that sentence. (Station) It will still be far from EV chargers out numbering gas pumps. Which Gas pumps that can provide 400 miles of range in 2-3 min vs 300 miles in 30-60 min.
I hate to say it again, but home charging is the key, and most people won’t buy an EV even if we have public chargers on every corner. They don’t want to sit around for 20 min to charge. Having a home or work charger is key to success. Also why Hybrids sales are about to explode.
Ahh! I had to go look: The motor doesn’t really have two rotors – it just has rotor flux elements located against the interior diameter and the outside diameter of the stator element – sandwiching the radial stator with rotor elements on both sides of it.
The linked Bloomberg article says “At the current pace, public fast-charging sites will outnumber gas stations in the US in about eight years.” Wouldn’t a fast charging “site” have multiple chargers, as a gas station has multiple pumps? I’d think so, but the article doesn’t clearly state that. Still, at current cost of public charging, EVs still make little sense without home charging, unless you have free charging at work, or something like that.
I guess Tata plans to make a couple Jaguar EVs in a year or two, but it sure seems like they are just shutting down the brand, sad indeed. What they need it a new XJ-6. Land Rover has an engine that should be appropriate, now used in Defender and maybe other models.
The DeepDrive motor looks interesting. I have small motors with both internal and external rotors, but not both. If it’s more efficient, that’s a good thing, if it would be reliable. I assume it would be permanent magnet.
Elon Musk to announce at RNC tonight $42 million a month until election to protect integrity of ballot retrieval.
With all the hoopla around EVs it will be very difficult for Jaguar to economically resurrect itself. Consider the historical engineering, racing pedigree, and wonderful driving characteristics that have already been lost.
It’s hard to maintain institutional memory at the best of times but the upheaval in the auto industry in the last 10 years has driven it out. Most companies really have no link to their past, despite their protestations.
Maybe Jaguar has good sales in EU, but I think this move could kill the brand in the US. These manufacturers have got to see the EV trends and be working on some hybrids. Going full electric next year is placing the nail in the coffin. Jaguar is not Tesla and cannot compete with an only electric line-up.
As long as there continues to be good dispersal of charging locations, the charging infrastructure can continue to grow along with EV sales and there will be plenty of charging available. For those that think we need as many charging stations as we have gas stations, you need to remember that there are over 300 million ICE vehicles currently on the road in the US. There are less than 10 million EVs today. If the industry somehow managed to sell nothing but EVs for the next ten years at current sales volumes, that would only add 160 million vehicles, or still only half as many as the current ICE fleet. And, that sales scenario is wildly optimistic and not even really possible.
So, don’t get caught up in the “lack of charging” paranoia. With current plans, there will be plenty of chargers available. And, as many have pointed out, public charging should only be supplemental and not your main method of charging your EV. It’s too expensive to make sense as your only option.
On that note, wouldn’t it be nice if you could fill up your car with gas at home, and at one to two dollars less per gallon than the gas stations charge? That is one of the unique advantages of EVs.
GM-Vet you probably could fill up at home with CNG with the proper compressor. But yes, you have a valid point that we will have more public chargers than are actually needed for some time. Which comes back to the real need for home charging. The government should consider an incentive program for employers to install chargers and give discounts or breaks to homeowners that install a charger. I personally think that a program that gets charging installed at home would make EVs a lot more attractive to buyers. At least as the technology changes if they have a charger that will likely work long into the future. Probably has a better shelf life than the batteries which will likely change sooner than the chargers
The problem with home charging is that it’s not available to tens of millions of us who don’t live in a house in the suburbs.
Our previous Ontario government was working on changing the building codes to require all homes, whether condo, rental or detached to have the pre-wiring for EV. I think this was a brilliant idea.
Our current government canned the idea as being too progressive and instead gave Stellantis, Honda, and VW billions of dollars in support to build battery plants in Ontario. The building code changes would have cost the taxpayer nothing and would have helped all those who wished to go EV.
It looks like 20-some percent of JLR sales are in North America, and China is the biggest single market.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/brands/2023-full-year-global-jaguar-land-rover-worldwide-sale-by-model/
@Jaguar: another brand the Chinese OEMs will purchase?
Wim, would Tata want to sell? Maybe they’d sell Jaguar, and keep Land Rover.
It would be sad if Jaguar found itself lost in the pages of history, but one thing that it has always had going for it, was their incredible styling! Maybe it’s just me, okay it is me, but, IMHO, Jaguar’s latest line up was the best that it has had and the last XJ and F-Type were the cherries on top! That said, in an EV world, where styling and driving dynamics are king, they are hallmarks that Jaguars should still be able to make a name for themselves, which are two of the things that Jaguar in the past has done extremely well. While I don’t agree with their intended move up market, if they can successfully sell vehicles between $70K to $130K+, with their styling and driving characteristics, they may possibly survive. It looks like they are wanting to sell three to four different models, an XJ replacement, a sedan of some type above that, an SUV and maybe a sports car. In that space, there are only full-size sedans, Maybach’s and entry level versions of the Flying Spur and not a full line of luxury vehicles. Selling five to seven thousand models, or where Bentley and Rolls Royce use to be, for 2 to 3 times of what the XE and X F use to sell for, may be enough to keep the doors open. While looks can be subjective, the exterior of the Lucid Air shows that there is room for a stylish BEV, with better then average range. If they were to keep their more traditional interior design, and not go crazy on the tablet like touch screen everywhere approach, that would be a good move. Then at those prices, Jaguar would not have to eat much of the cost of the batteries, either. Selling in such small numbers would allow them to keep an exclusive clientele to go with the boutique status they want to create for themselves! Anything is better then the place they find themselves in today.
I like the looks of the F-Type, and as they prepare to shut down Jaguar, they have a powertrain available that I like, a V8 with RWD. The transmission is the ZF 8-speed auto, used by everyone from Dodge to Rolls-Royce. The cheapest version for the final year is ~$80K MSRP. It’s probably too late to order one.
With the plan to go to EV, I suspect Jaguar is dead. If they really REALLY hit it on styling with a new XJ, they might sell some, but at 7 series prices, not Bentley prices.
Here in the midst of Europe, Jaguars have become near-invisible, sad to say. The I-Pace never caught on, and something quintessential to the marque has been missing from its vehicles for many years. Cats are lithe – when was that last properly incorporated into the designs?
Saw a metallic blue Lancia Delta Integrale in pristine condition (with child seats) today. It’s so small, and now comes across as not so different from other compact hatchbacks of the time. But the sticker ‘World Rally Champion 1987 ’88 ’89 ’90 (missing ’91 and ’92) is something else. Which omits previous wins with other types to boot.
Joby flew its electric VTOL with an experimental fuel cell for power >300 miles in California, in a liquid hydrogen + small regular battery setup (you need the extra oomph for takeoffs and landings, as fuel cells are only good for a constant supply).
Sean W., I wasn’t familiar with the Lancia Delta Integrale, so I looked it up. It is about the same length as my Mini, but must be a lot more efficiently packaged, since it had child seats in it. I don’t think they’d work in my car.