AD #3976 – Hyundai Supplying GM w/ Commercial EVs; VinFast Losing Billions; Cadillac Adds 1st V-Series EV

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

GM & HYUNDAI EDGE CLOSER TOGETHER
We’re getting more details of how GM and Hyundai are going to work together. Hyundai says the first step involves supplying GM with electric commercial vehicles. GM will simply rebadge the Hyundai vehicles and sell them in North America. Now the question is, which vehicles will Hyundai sell to GM? Currently, Hyundai’s commercial lineup of electric vehicles includes fuel cell powered Class 6 and 7 trucks and a city bus, as well as a battery version of the city bus. Hyundai is also working with Iveco in Europe, which will use Hyundai’s eLCV, or electric light commercial vehicle platform, for a vehicle called the eMoovy. Also, Kia has designed a modular family of electric commercial vehicles called PBV that are supposed to go on sale this year. Those vehicles would seem to compete directly with GM’s Brightdrop vans, but we don’t know if they’re part of the deal. We think that GM and Hyundai could end up co-operating on fuel cells since it looks like GM’s joint effort with Honda could evaporate as Honda pivots to merge with Nissan.

CADILLAC ADDS V-SERIES TO LYRIQ
Cadillac is coming out with its first V-Series EV, a version of the Lyriq. And the specs look pretty good. 615 horsepower, 650 pound feet of torque, or 880 Newton-meters. Standard all wheel drive. 0 to 60 miles an hour in 3.3 seconds using what Caddy calls Velocity Max mode. It comes standard with a 102 kWh battery pack and 285 miles of range. And it’s priced at just under eighty grand. Additional standard equipment includes Brembo brakes on the front, continuous damping control, Super Cruise, an augmented reality HUD, and a 23 speaker sound system. To set it apart from other Lyriqs its gets unique fascias, badging and wheels as well as a specific EV sound signature. The Lyriq V will be sold globally and goes on sale in a matter of months.

HONDA GOES WITH CHEAPER TRIM LEVELS
The cost of a new car is just too high for many buyers. So, Honda is going to start making more of its lower trim models. It says those vehicles will be a small portion of the overall sales pie, but it will help with the affordability of a new car. Dealers are also calling on Honda to add more hybrids to its lineup, especially some of its larger models. They feel it’s a way to bring affordability to electrified vehicles. While hybrids typically cost more than ICE-only vehicles, they’re cheaper than pure electrics.

TESLA RAMPS UP PRICES IN CANADA
Canadians that are considering a Tesla better act fast. Without giving a reason, the EV maker said it’s raising prices on all its models, except the Cybertruck, at the start of February in Canada. And it’s raising them a lot. The Model S, X and Y will see prices go up by $4,000 Canadian, while the Model 3 sees the biggest bump of $9,000 Canadian. And that’s on top of a $1,000 price increase that Model Y saw in Canada earlier this month. The timing is especially impactful because Canada ended its federal EV incentive program, which offered $5,000 Canadian off the purchase of an EV, ahead of schedule last week due to a surge in EV demand. Although, there are still several provinces that offer their own EV purchase incentives. To us, this sounds crazy, so why do you think Tesla is raising prices at the same time that Canada is slashing EV subsidies?

BYD OUTSELLS TOYOTA IN SINGAPORE
Toyota has to be becoming more and more concerned with BYD. As we reported earlier this month, BYD outsold Toyota with EVs in Japan last year for the first time ever. And now BYD has taken the sales crown from Toyota in Singapore. Last year, BYD sold nearly 6,200 vehicles in Singapore compared to 5,700 for Toyota, which makes BYD the number 1 brand in the country. And while those numbers are small, we think BYD’s surging growth has got to be concerning to Toyota.

VINFAST LOSING BILLIONS
Investors are worried that Vietnamese EV maker VinFast’s financial troubles are going to start to harm parent company Vingroup. The company has invested $13.5 billion into VinFast as of October and in November it pledged another $3.5 billion. But through the first nine months of last year VinFast lost $2 billion and since the EV maker went public in August 2023 Vingroup’s market share has been cut in half to around $6 billion. As a result, the value in Vingroup’s foreign investment has dropped by nearly 60%. But despite the concern from investors, Vingroup says it’s going to continue to support VinFast.

VW FACES €1.5 B FINES FOR CO2
Volkswagen says Europe’s emission standards will cost it 1.5 billion this year. The automaker’s head of investor relations said the costs include penalties for missing stricter CO2 targets as well as having to sell fewer profitable ICE models in favor of EVs. And that could be made all the more difficult since the VW brand isn’t launching any new EVs this year. The ACEA, which represents the European auto industry, has previously estimated that the EU’s emission rules this year will cost automakers €15 billion.

FORMULA E LAUNCHING MID-RACE CHARGING
It’s about 2 years behind schedule, but Formula E is finally introducing mid-race ultra-fast charging. Teams will be supplied with chargers that are capable of charging at 600 kW, which is nearly double the fastest public EV chargers. They’ll be able to add about 10% charge or just under 4 kWh in 30 seconds. And it’s that last part that’s going to make things interesting. Every team has to do one of these mid-race charges, which are called Pit Boost, but team cars can’t charge at the same time. Pit Boost lasts 34 seconds, so significantly longer than a car just changing tires, and only two crew members can work on the car during that time. So, there will be a lot of new pit strategies and Formula E thinks it will be more entertaining to watch.

JACK HOLLIS RETIRES FROM TOYOTA
Jack Hollis, the Chief Operating Officer of Toyota North America, has decided to retire. He’s only 58 years old, which is somewhat young for retirement, and in a written statement Hollis said he’s ready to take on other challenges. Automotive News reports that Toyota dealers were shocked by the announcement, since Hollis was one of their favorite executives. He’ll be replaced by Mark Templin, who’s 64 years old, and who has extensive experience at Toyota, Lexus and Scion.

A NEW WAY TO MAKE EV BATTERIES
You’re not going to want to miss Autoline After Hours today, especially if you’re involved in making EV batteries or have anything to do with manufacturing. We have MJ Hashem, the head of R&D from a company called Vivet, coming on the show. He’s come up with a concept called RLP or repeated layering process that does away with the linear assembly process that’s been around over a century. It’s modular, it’s low cost and it can be easily scaled. Even more interesting, it uses a slower cycle time than today’s battery assembly processes, but is still more efficient. There’s a lot to unpack on how it all works, so join John and Gary as well as Brett Smith, when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time.

And that brings us to the end of this show. I hope to see you later today.