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Runtime: 10:35
0:00 China Wants to Shake U.S. & EU Auto-Grade Chip Dependence
1:13 Tesla FSD Delayed in China
2:06 Tesla Model Y Juniper Starts Production in China
2:57 Tesla Model Y Best Selling Vehicle in EU in September
3:36 Teslas Don’t Make Good Cop Cars
4:49 Q3 Earnings Start This Week
5:26 EU Subsidizes ICE By €45B/Year
6:27 Rivian & Bosch Sue Each Other
7:23 Forvia Lands Contracts with BYD, Xiaomi
7:55 Hyundai Mobis, Zeiss Partner on Full Windshield HUD
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CHINA WANTS TO SHAKE U.S. & EU AUTO-GRADE CHIP DEPENDENCE
China’s auto industry is deeply worried that it’s too dependent on the United States and Europe for automotive semiconductor chips. It imports 90% of them. On top of that, 96% of the software needed to design the chips is done by American companies, while 95% of the core intellectual property in chip design is held by companies in America and Europe. So China has a big push to on-shore chip design and manufacturing. Many Chinese automakers, including BYD, Nio, XPeng, Li Auto, SAIC, Geely and Great Wall are working to make their own chips, while other Chinese automakers are partnering right up with chip companies. And the Chinese government just came out with standards for chip reliability and security, along with a list of companies that can do chip certification. Automotive grade chips are made to stronger specs than the chips used in consumer electronics, because they have to withstand severe weather and vibration as well as last as long as the life of a car.
TESLA FSD DELAYED IN CHINA
Speaking of China, is Tesla being punished in China for the U.S.’s restrictions on Chinese EVs and tech? Tesla expected to launch Supervised FSD in China early next year, which could provide a big boost in earnings. But China Daily reports approval for the system has been slow as regulators want to make sure Tesla is strictly following all laws and regulations. It quoted a source as saying “The progress of the rollout won’t likely match the timeline the company had envisioned.” There’s no word on how long that delay will be, but it does seem like tension is starting to build. Without saying who, China’s Ministry of State Security recently said that a foreign company gathering data for smart driving research was illegally mapping parts of China.
TESLA MODEL Y JUNIPER STARTS PRODUCTION IN CHINA
But Tesla’s manufacturing is still going strong in China. It recently produced its 3 millionth vehicle in the country and now China media reports that the refreshed Model Y, often called Juniper, will start rolling off the line in Shanghai tomorrow. It’s expected to come with a front end similar to the refreshed Model 3 and a new 95 kWh battery pack. But the reports say Tesla will only make 12 of them a day and the actual on-sale date won’t be until sometime next year. We think the company is being super careful to launch the new Y with superb build quality. Tesla’s growth has slowed considerably and many attribute that to an outdated product lineup. So, this refresh is very important.
TESLA MODEL Y BEST SELLING VEHICLE IN EU IN SEPTEMBER
And Model Y sales are slowing in Europe. They were down a little over 3.5% last month to roughly 28,700 units. But even so, that made it the best-seller in Europe for September, and nearly 8,000 vehicles ahead of second place. For the year, Tesla has sold over 155,000 Model Ys in Europe, which puts it in 5th place and about 50,000 units behind the #1 vehicle, the Dacia Sandero. Last year the Y was the top-selling model in Europe, but it’s going to have to pick things up if it wants that title back.
TESLAS DON’T MAKE GOOD COP CARS
Several police departments in California bought Teslas to comply with zero-emission mandates but they say they don’t make good cop cars. Officers say they’re too small, the seats can’t accommodate their tactical belts and bulletproof vests, and they’re expensive to upfit. One city bought two Model 3s and modified them for $150,000 but is only using them for administrative purposes because just one person fits in the rear seat. That means backup is needed for more than one suspect. The departments did appreciate the Teslas’ acceleration, steering and top speed, but the other issues make them “nearly unusable” as squad cars. I did see that the Cybertruck is starting to make its way into police departments, which would likely take care of the size issue, but weren’t not sure what it costs to upfit.
Q3 EARNINGS START THIS WEEK
This is going to be a big week for earnings. Automakers and suppliers are getting ready to report their third quarter results and it looks like Wall Street could be expecting some good numbers from the big OEMs. Over the last week investors bid up GM stock by 2.6%, Ford went up 3.6%, and even Stellantis, which has had a horrible year went up 1.6%, but Tesla is essentially flat, up only 0.2%. So were investors smart to start buying before they saw the numbers? We’ll have most of the answers by the end of the week.
EU SUBSIDIZES ICE BY €45B/YEAR
Company cars are a big deal in Europe, where it’s a big perk for executives. Company cars account for a staggering 60% of all the passenger vehicles sold there. In Europe, driving back and forth to work is considered a business use, and so company cars are taxed at a much lower rate. But an environmental consultancy called Environmental Resources Management says Europe is actually subsidizing ICE vehicles to the tune of €45 billion a year, compared to the €15 billion of subsidies that are offered to people who buy EVs. ERM says the tax subsidies for company cars run anywhere from €6,800 to €21,600 per vehicle, which it calls illogical and unacceptable. The UK is the only country that offers company car subsidies for electrics.
RIVIAN & BOSCH SUE EACH OTHER
Rivian and Bosch are suing each other. The world’s largest automotive supplier accuses the EV startup of not paying it $204 million in reimbursements after Rivian canceled its electric motor contract in 2023. Rivian accuses Bosch of “reckless failures” in its contract and blames the supplier for production issues that led to 30,000 fewer vehicles being built than planned in 2022. Rivian now produces e-motors in-house. Bosch sued Rivian for breach of contract back in July. And Rivian counter-sued the same day for the same thing. A judge has set the next phase in the lawsuit process for February and both companies declined to comment on the litigation, but it’s never a good thing when automakers and suppliers end up suing each other.
FORVIA LANDS CONTRACTS WITH BYD, XIAOMI
And in other supplier news, French supplier Forvia landed big deals with Chinese automakers BYD and Xiaomi. Forvia will supply BYD’s second European factory in Turkey. But Forvia didn’t say what components it will provide to BYD or Xiaomi. Its current portfolio includes seats, interior parts, lighting and electronics. China accounts for a quarter of Forvia’s total revenue. And its stock shot up 10% after it announced the deals.
HYUNDAI MOBIS, ZEISS PARTNER ON FULL WINDSHIELD HUD
Supplier Hyundai Mobis and German optical company Zeiss are partnering to make head-up displays that stretch across an entire windshield. Zeiss was needed to provide a thin film, only slightly thicker than a human hair, that’s embedded in the glass and allows content to be seen on the windshield. While Hyundai Mobis will develop and make pretty much everything else. They say the Holographic Windshield Display will have almost all of the same functions as a normal screen and mass production can start as early as 2027.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.
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Wim van Acker says
@Autoline TV team on China’s dependence on automotive chips: “It imports 90% of them. On top of that, 96% of the software needed to design the chips is done by American companies, while 95% of the core intellectual property in chip design is held by companies in America and Europe.”
That is very interesting and surprisingly good information, team. Thanks for sharing.
MERKUR DRIVER says
I wonder, in my conspiracy theory mindset today, if China is delaying the roll out of FSD to favor their domestic manufacturers that offer a variant of FSD on their vehicles in China. Give a competitive edge to the domestics over a foreign company by manufacturing a flimsy excuse for not allowing it to compete. As if China hasn’t been mapped countless times over the decades of mapping companies providing turn by turn navigation.
It cannot be for national security as I can guarantee the USA has all the info it needs on sites of interest in china. If China thinks that somehow Tesla vehicles will make any difference in a war setting, they are either naïve or incredibly stupid. Tesla is not how the US government procures information on sites of interest within a country. I think they are neither naïve or stupid so it only makes sense that they are just trying to give an edge to their domestic car industry.
GM Veteran says
Or, it could be that the Chinese gov’t actually wants the Tesla FSD system to perform as advertised. Something that our government regulators and enforcement agencies have not done to date. Its understandable that the Chinese do not want Teslas crashing into their first responder’s emergency vehicles at high speeds. Perhaps they just have a higher expectation for truth in advertising.
Kit Gerhart says
China is not naive or stupid. They’re just playing games, like the US does with banning Huawei, and threatening to ban TikTok.
Also, as GM Veteran said, maybe they don’t want the not-quite-full-self-driving cars crashing into emergency vehicles, etc.
GM Veteran says
I am not one bit surprised that Tesla Model 3 or Model Y do not make good police vehicles. It’s quite surprising that the police departments that purchased them were so short sighted. They know what their needs are. They should have easily been able to determine that the Teslas would come up short in several areas. Not a knock against the Teslas, its the fault of the police department or the community leaders that were so eager to be “green” that they forgot to make sure the vehicles would actually be able to do the job. The upfit expense is also far more than it would be for more mainstream police models because equipment had not been adapted for use with EVs yet. This is nothing more than a poor local equipment sourcing decision.
Kit Gerhart says
There are no longer any good police cars available, since the Charger was discontinued, and the Crown Vic earlier. Actually, for most police use, a Camry hybrid would be ideal. It would use about 1/3 the gas of what they are now using, would run only a small percentage of the time when parked with lights on, would hold two perps in the back seat, and would be plenty fast enough for driving around town, the use most police cars get. Actually, the Camry is as quick as a Crown Vic which dominated the police market fairly recently.
Bob Wilson says
Decided to take TSLA profits and roll them into home solar. About the same capital cost but home solar will pay a monthly dividend by avoiding most of my electric cost.
Sean Wagner says
It pays off to occasionally visit CNevpost.com (China EVs). I really like the layout and looks of the new Zeekr Mix, a kind of modern minivan with four sliding doors and rotating front seats.
wmb says
Regarding the Tesla police vehicles, I read a different article about a few California counties that purchased and converted couple Model 3s, Ys and a Model S. As was said in this AD report, the high cost of the retro fit, small and other issues, made them not the right fit for duty as patrol cars, though they extremely fast and had a few other high points. In the article though, one of the counties had high praise for the Lightning! With Ford already have a patrol version of the F-150, the conversion cost were not much different. Because it had a large interior, there was plenty of room for both officer(s) and the accused. The one thing that such out to me, but was not really mentioned in the article, was that Police departments and many cab companies, they save costs with repairs by using common replacement parts or discounted replaced parts, bought in bulk. While legacy OEMs provide discount for these parts, as Hertz learned, Tesla does not! So, even if using Tesla models for police service were a better fit, the cost of repairs might be prohibitive for municipalities in the long run.
wmb says
…also Ford has a patrol rated Mach-E, with Chevy also preparing a Blazer EV for police duty. There is also rumors of a Charger EV for police use, but it is a four door version. So perhaps that is the reason there is not much talk of it, since Stellantis has yet to introduce and begin sell of the two door?
wmb says
Full Windshield HUD that Hyundai and Zeiss are working on is pretty nice, it looks a lot better, to my eye, then the full with table-like screens that some OEMs are going to put on their vehicles dashboards. From the video/image in the report, it looks like the cabins using them would remain airy for the most part and not gibe the impression that you have to look up and over a tablet of screens, from one side of the windshield to the other.
Ukendoit says
I saw the patrol rated Mach-E on display at an event with the police just north of Atlanta, Georgia. It looked great, and I asked the officers if they liked it, and they did. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to get into specifics with them, such as how long they have had it and what were the pros and cons.
I was curious about that full width HUD; is it controlled by a central knob, or is that somehow touch sensitive? I didn’t see a control knob, but I would think you should be able to interact with it.
Looking at the photo, there are a lot of steering wheel controls, so maybe some of those control it.
Kit Gerhart says
Where I am in Florida, essentially all of the police “cars” are Ford Explorers, except for some Chargers that are still in service. Where I was in Indiana until two days ago, they are using even worse gas hogs, Durangos and Tahoes.
Lambo2015 says
As for police vehicles i would have to think it matters when it comes to purpose. As I know some states used Mustangs and Camaros for state highway patrol cars. Those could not have been easy to get in and out of with a utility belt and vest. As for using anything like that for a basic inner city patrol car I can see why the SUVs are winning out. However, since it’s our tax dollars they use to buy and retrofit these vehicles it sounds like the Model 3 is not a responsible choice.
MERKUR DRIVER says
I always thought the use of a Model 3 for a police car was the stupidest Idea I had heard to date. Not because it is electric, but because it is the size of a Toyota Corolla. How many Toyota Corolla police cars have there ever been? None. The reason for that is because you need to carry back seat passengers behind the driver with a full cage. There is not now, nor has there ever been, enough room in the back seat of a corolla for people and the big steel cage that is used to protect the driver. Thus why the model 3 was a stupid idea. Should have been a model S at a minimum. I can see why they did not choose the S because it is outrageously expensive. Would have been a $220K car which would have been outrageously expensive when you compare it to a normal police car cost. So they chose the less outrageously priced model 3 that doesn’t work. Guess they will make them all D.A.R.E. cars now.
Lambo2015 says
Interesting article automotive related.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/since-the-60s-ford-has-stored-cars-underground-in-a-kansas-city-cave/ar-AA1sEJOg?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=414ec80765e9456c82f2326501bb750f&ei=54