Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | AUG 12 2024 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

Why did Automotive Ventures invest in Chaiz? Automotive Ventures

What We're Reading

🚗 Automotive

Some of the world's biggest suppliers said automakers' rapidly shifting electrification plans will weigh down future earnings as they make fewer parts for electric vehicles than they were banking on. Automakers are altering their EV plans because of lower-than-expected sales, particularly in North America. Adjustments include delays in EV product rollouts, cuts in production targets and a shift in focus to smaller, more affordable electric models or hybrids. | Automotive News ($)

There’s no doubt automakers are in a tough spot, due to technological upheaval and new trade barriers. But spare a thought for suppliers: Their profitability is even weaker and they’re cutting tens of thousands of jobs. Suppliers have invested heavily to overhaul product ranges geared towards combustion engines for the electric era amid constant pressure from automakers to lower prices. Car companies are determined to make battery-powered models as cheap as gasoline equivalents; squeezing suppliers is one way to achieve that. EV delays and cancellations are triggering tense negotiations as suppliers try to recoup from automakers some of the money they’ve invested. | Bloomberg ($)Automotive suppliers are slashing R&D and engineering budgets in response to intense cost pressures, but doing so could come at their own peril — and that of the industry. Some of the world’s largest, most tech-savvy parts producers have hit the brakes on spending in part because of electric vehicle launch delays and a dim outlook for returns on investment. The cuts are being made to protect balance sheets amid less-than-anticipated demand for EVs in North America, but they could jeopardize some of the progress made over the past three years. U.S. automakers are leaning on suppliers more than ever in their quest to make affordable EVs and secure a long-term future. | Automotive News ($)Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to spend a further £3 billion ($3.8 billion) in its strategic overhaul as the British maker of luxury SUVs reacts to the slower global shift to electric vehicles. The manufacturer of Range Rover and Land Rover vehicles said it’s increasing planned investment to £18 billion over five years to support its strategy of having fully electric options for all its models by the end of the decade. The higher spend is partly due to slower EV demand. This means JLR will have to keep developing internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrid versions for longer in some markets. | Bloomberg ($)In late 2018, Utah lowered its drunk-driving limit from a B.A.C. (blood-alcohol content) of .08 to .05. A year after the law was implemented, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA found that fatal car crashes in the state had dropped by nearly 20%. Utah is currently the only state in the country with a .05 drunk-driving limit; everywhere else, the limit remains .08. But internationally, Utah is far from alone. Australia, France, Thailand and about 50 other countries have a B.A.C. limit of .05, and in more than 30 other countries, the limit is even lower. | The New York Times ($)

More than half (51%) of Teslas traded in at dealerships so far in 2024 were traded in for a gas-powered (ICE) vehicle, according to Edmunds data. | Edmunds

Nissan claims it is co-developing an automotive paint that can lower the temperature inside a car’s cabin by up to 41˚ F(5˚ C). Dubbed "Cool Paint," the coating has been developed in partnership with radiative cooling specialist Radi-Cool and incorporates metamaterial, which are synthetic composite materials with structures that exhibit properties not usually found in nature. One of the major advantages is that lowering interior cabin temperatures in hot weather will reduce energy consumption used by the vehicle’s air-conditioning system and extend potential range in both battery-electric and internal-combustion-engine vehicles. | Wards Auto

⚡️ Electric Vehicles (EVs)

More than a quarter of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations misreport their status, leading drivers with inaccurate information as they try to figure out where they can charge their vehicles on the road. Stations either appeared as out of service and were functional, appeared online but were offline or appeared to be in use when they were available 26% of the time in a study by ChargerHelp!, a company that handles operations and maintenance for EV chargers. | Automotive News ($)For the first time ever, electric Ford F-150 drivers are getting paid to run their homes from their pickup truck batteries during peak hours to help meet grid demand. The pathbreaking program is happening in Baltimore. A lot of utilities are talking about this. California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), for instance, is looking to enroll up to 1,000 customers in a similar residential pilot program, which it describes as 0% subscribed at this time. Other utilities have started programs internally, for employees or their families. | Canary Media

The slowdown in electric vehicle sales in California is unmistakable — which is a problem for EVs and for the biggest seller of them in the US, Tesla. Elon Musk’s EV company accounts for about half of California’s sales, which, in turn, represent 30% of US sales. And Tesla’s sales have stalled out in its former home state, dropping 13% in the first half of 2024, year over year. Since California still accounts for 1 in 8 Teslas sold worldwide, this played a significant role in dashing the company’s growth prospects. | Bloomberg ($)Owners of Chinese new energy vehicles (NEVs) are about twice as likely to file insurance claims, according to data provided by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Why? One reason is that NEVs can accelerate significantly quicker than traditional cars. Another reason is that NEVs, particularly their batteries, are expensive to repair. Some NEVs can only be repaired by their manufacturers instead of general auto repair shops, pushing up costs. Finally, China has experienced widespread adoption of NEVs in the ride-hailing industry -- which means they are being driven far further per year, piling on extra risk and wear. | NIKKEI Asia

An incredible amount of automaker investment in EV-related capacity. | Thanks to Tyler Harp at the Center for Automotive Research.Mercedes-Benz is backing off its electric vehicle push as U.S. consumers cool to its zero-emission offerings. The automaker is bringing 25 new and updated models to showrooms this year, including entry and midsegment vehicles such as the redesigned E-Class and new plug-in hybrid GLC crossover. | Automotive News ($)A brutal downturn in the lithium price has made it harder for western groups to compete with Chinese companies because of their cheaper costs, forcing North Carolina’s Albemarle Corporation, the world's largest lithium producer, to cut expansion plans. The price of lithium has plunged more than 80% to less than $12,000 per tonne since the start of 2023 because of a global slowdown in electric car sales and a wave of new supply of the mineral. | Financial Times

A peek into Toyota’s EV strategy, courtesy of Dante Boutell — speaking at the Center for Automotive Research MBS conference. EV market share from Dan Nicholson at General Motors -- at the Center for Automotive Research MBS event.Is EV range anxiety real? Slide courtesy of Bob Lee from LG Energy Solution — presenting at the Center for Automotive Research MBS conference.

SIXT has cut the number of electric cars as customers prefer to rent vehicles with a combustion engine, in-line with reductions by competitor Hertz. Both Hertz and Sixt in recent months said they’ll offload Tesla cars after they turned out to be expensive to maintain and the carmaker’s aggressive price cuts undermined their resale value — a key risk in a rental company’s portfolio. Sixt has reduced the number of used EVs it needs to resell, deemed “risk BEVs” to a “low four-digit” number at the end of the second quarter, the company said during an earnings presentation. The rest of the vehicles are bought back by carmakers, helping to insulate the company from a slump in residual values. On Wednesday, the company declined to detail the current number of EVs in its fleet after last year’s level of 5.8%. | Bloomberg ($)

🇨🇳 China

For most of this century, foreign brands totally dominated China’s car market. Every year, they sold millions of cars and earned billions in profits. Now, suddenly, that golden era is over. Sales and profits in the People’s Republic are vanishing. And boards in Detroit, Wolfsburg and Tokyo are stunned by the speed and intensity of the changes. | Michael Dunne

Glenn Mercer reminds us that the bulk of Chinese vehicle exports are still internal combustion vehicles (ICE) and not EVs. | Glenn MercerHalf of all vehicles sold in China in July were either new pure electric vehicles (EV) or plug-in hybrids, a milestone that underscores how far the world's biggest auto market has leapt ahead of Western counterparts in EV adoption. | Automotive News ($)

🤖

Robotics & Autonomy

Uber said in its second-quarter results statement that the number of trips performed by autonomous vehicles rose 6x from a year earlier — up from what the company didn’t say. | Uber

🌡️ Climate

Comparative carbon footprints of EVs vs. ICE vehicles. Courtesy of Bob Lee from LG Energy Solution — presenting at the Center for Automotive Research MBS conference.

America cannot meet its goals to decarbonize the transportation sector by switching to electric vehicles without reducing how much Americans drive, according to a new U.S. Department of Transportation report sent up to Congress — but it's unclear if any level of government is prepared to take the steps necessary to do both. Earlier this month, US DOT published a congressionally mandated progress report on the department's own efforts to reduce our national transportation sector emissions, which has been the country's leading driver of climate change since transport surpassed the electricity sector in 2017. The short answer is: it's not going great. Assuming that no further climate legislation is passed, one study cited in the report found that transport emissions are on track to grow a staggering 23% by 2050, rather than falling to net zero, which experts say is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. | STREETSBLOG USA

A fascinating interactive graphic illustrates how each state's electricity generation has changed over time. | The New York Times ($)Framing highway widening as a cure for climate change has allowed state DOTs to justify spending billions of dollars in their ongoing war on gridlock. Businesses and residents alike complain about traffic, and widening the road is an easy way to placate them because it feels like progress. But decades of research — along with common sense — show that congestion will inevitably return. New roadway lanes invite more cars, which generate more emissions, trapping us in a cycle of ever-increasing driving that only makes it harder to slow the increase in global temperatures. | Vox

✈️ Aviation

The aviation industry, responsible for about 2% of global CO2 emissions, has committed to reaching net zero by 2050, but eliminating the carbon emissions from jet fuel may not be enough to stop the climate impacts of air travel and transport. The full warming impact of aviation includes both CO2 as well as non-CO2 effects, with contrail-induced warming likely being the most significant driver of the non-CO2 effects of aviation. Condensation trails — or contrails — created by aircraft flying through cold and humid air can significantly warm the climate. Most contrails dissolve within a few minutes, but in certain conditions, they can persist in the atmosphere, spread out, and become artificial cirrus clouds that trap outgoing heat. This represents an additional climate impact alongside aviation’s direct emissions. | RMI

🚘 Car of the Week

Ebony or Ivory? This week we have a matching pair of Automotive Ventures "Cars of the Week": A black 1988 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV: Sotheby's MotorsportA white 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV: Broad Arrow AuctionsHave a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Steve's new book, The Future of Mobility, will be out soon! (LINK)

Notable & New

🎤

Steve had a chance to catch up with Greg Uland from The Reynolds and Reynolds Company on The Connected Podcast to discuss the automotive industry. | Reynolds & Reynolds

📢

Thanks to Mark Hollmer and Automotive News for the coverage of Automotive Ventures' investment in Chaiz. | Automotive News ($)

🎤

On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News: we explore how plans to widen highways to help with congestion and vehicle emissions counter-intuitively achieve the opposite: compelling more people to drive, thus increasing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. | CBT News ($)

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