Intel Report: The Weekly Mobility News That Matters

BY AUTOMOTIVE VENTURES | OCT 7 2024 | VIEW ONLINE ➡️

What We're Reading:

🚗 Automotive

Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, reported this week that talk of a merger between Stellantis and Renault Group has become more persistent, with economies of scale seen as a possible solution to managing the intense competition faced by traditional automakers. Reports of a potential merger are "pure speculation," Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said on Oct. 3 on a visit to one of the group’s factories in eastern France. | Automotive News ($)

A Gwinnett County Superior Court judge ordered CDK Global to provide Asbury Automotive Group with data from four Georgia Asbury dealerships for use in the group's planned Tekion Corp pilot at the stores. Asbury sued CDK, its dealership management system provider, on June 3 and sought the injunction compelling the data release so it could pilot Tekion's rival DMS in September. CDK countersued and opposed the injunction. | Automotive News ($)

It has finally happened. While the pointy end of the performance-car spectrum has been knocking on the door of a sub-two-second zero-to-60-mph time for roughly a decade, the new 1092-hp Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is the first to blast through with a 1.9-second run. | Car and Driver

CCC Intelligent Solutions published their Q3 2024 "Crash Course" Report, and it's full of useful insurance and repair data. | CCC

⚡️ Electric Vehicles (EVs)

In the US, Toyota’s electrified vehicles — hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell and battery-electric models — are on the verge of outnumbering its autos powered entirely by internal combustion engines. Two years ago, electrified vehicles were less than 20% of the company’s September sales. Last month, the share soared to 48%. Elon Musk was dead wrong when he declared two years ago that it was time to move on from hybrids, calling them a phase. Millions of car buyers are deciding otherwise, leading Toyota to transition some of its best-selling vehicles to hybrid-only. | Bloomberg ($)Americans in hurricane territory have long kept diesel-powered generators as a way of life, but electric cars are a leap forward. An EV, at its most fundamental level, is just a big battery on wheels that can be used to power anything, not only the car itself. Some EVs pack enough juice to power a whole home for several days, or a few appliances for even longer. In the aftermath of Helene, as millions of Americans were left without power, many EV owners did just that. | The Atlantic ($)

One of the biggest pieces of Biden's plan to transition America to renewable energy is a push to supercharge the adoption of electric vehicles. The administration's goals for EVs are ambitious and well funded. $7.5 billion from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was allocated to help states build out the crucial framework for charging stations needed to encourage EV purchases and allay “range anxiety” — the worry that an EV will run out of juice before reaching its destination or a charging station. But three years since the infrastructure bill was signed into law, the promised EV-charger rollout is happening at a glacial pace. | Sherwood

🇨🇳 China

The European Union will move ahead with tariffs of up to 45% on electric vehicles made in China, defying pleas from some European auto executives who fear retaliation from Beijing and an escalating trade war. EU member states voted Friday to impose the new import duties that will apply for the next five years in a move aimed at protecting European carmakers amid rising competition from Chinese-made vehicles. Several EU member states voted against the tariff plan, including Germany. Under EU rules, the commission is allowed to move ahead with the tariffs unless a qualified majority of 15 countries representing 65% of the EU’s population vote against the plan. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The European Union voted on Friday to impose higher tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, risking tensions with an important trading partner in an effort to protect an industry crucial to Europe’s economy. The decision affects billions of dollars of trade between two of the world’s biggest economic powers. The move also reveals how the European Union is struggling to reconcile the conflicting interests of its members, some of whom see China as an essential partner while others view it as a dangerous competitor. The tariffs are much lower than the 100% duties imposed by the United States and Canada, but analysts said they reflected Europe’s willingness to build bridges with Washington by taking a tougher stance on Beijing, but without shutting out China entirely. | The New York Times ($)

In South America, sales of vehicles imported from China have been skyrocketing. Across the region, vehicles imported from China are poised to account for 24% of the total market in 2024. In Brazil, vehicles imported from China have been growing strongly and Chinese imports are anticipated to more than double year-on-year (YoY) in 2024. Many Chinese brands are trying to expand outside their domestic market and establish themselves as legitimate manufacturers alongside the traditional local players, with many South American markets proving to be desirable locations. | JustAutoWaymo has struck a deal with Hyundai to bring the IONIQ 5 EV to its robotaxi network, adding another autonomous vehicle option as it scales up its business. The autonomous vehicle company announced Friday that it expects to start on-road testing a Waymo-equipped IONIQ 5 by late 2025, with the AV becoming available to riders “in the years to follow.” Chris Bonelli, a spokesperson for Waymo, declined to share the financials of the deal. | TechCrunch

🤖 Robotics & Autonomy

Robotaxis might not need drivers. But they still need passengers—lots of them. That might seem to be stating the obvious. And yet, when Elon Musk announced in early April that Tesla was planning to unveil its own robotaxi, the first instinct of investors was to bail on a company that already had a platform of 150 million people using it at least once a month for rides and food delivery. Uber lost nearly one-quarter of its market value over the following four months. The stock has since clawed back much of that ground, owing in part to a smattering of deals Uber has signed with such robotaxi providers as Waymo and Cruise. Those deals help make the case that Uber’s massive platform of riders has value in a world in which expensive, driverless taxis need a steady base of passengers to make their economics work. | The Wall Street Journal ($)Not too long ago, automated and active safety features — lane departure warning, lane keep assistance, speed limit warning, etc. — were major pain points for most new car owners: under-delivering on their promises, annoying drivers with constant alerts, or both. But according to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety / Highway Loss Data Institute (IIHS), that attitude is changing; IIHS says the vast majority of owners who own vehicles equipped with these technologies now regularly utilize them. Or, at the very least, find them less annoying enough that they don't turn them off. | Road&TrackBack in 2016, CEO Elon Musk promised that all Tesla vehicles would soon become fully self-driving and capable of operating as robotaxis, generating income for their owners through future software updates. Initially, Musk claimed this would happen within a few years, but since 2019, he has said it would be ready “by the end of the year”—five years in a row. Tesla’s approach to autonomous driving is quite different from competitors like Waymo and Cruise. Instead of relying on a mix of sensors like radar and lidar, Tesla bets solely on a vision-based system powered by cameras and neural networks. Tesla’s self-driving hardware cost a fraction of what Waymo’s system cost and it doesn’t rely on mapping, but it also has yet to work as promised. | Electrek

Andreessen Horowitz argues that in this new AI product cycle, labor is becoming software. For the world of fintech, that means thousands of white-collar jobs at financial institutions are in line to be augmented by AI copilots and agents. | A16zTextron Systems and Kodiak Robotics have integrated the Kodiak Driver, Kodiak’s self-driving system, into Textron’s Systems’ RIPSAW M3 vehicle. The RIPSAW M3 vehicle, equipped with the Kodiak Driver, is a rugged uncrewed robotic ground vehicle designed to keep service members out of harm’s way. | Government Fleet

✈️ Aviation

In the future, will commercial airlines fly their planes in formation, like flocks of geese? Airbus and its partners – including Air France, Delta Air Lines, French bee and Virgin Atlantic Airways are collaborating to develop what they call fuel-saving ‘wake energy retrieval’ (WER). WER sees a pair of aircraft flying in a formation – around 1.2nm (2.2km) apart – allowing the trailing jet to harness the lift generated by the preceding aircraft’s vortices. A flight trial carried out in November 2021 using a pair of Airbus-owned A350s on a route between Toulouse and Montreal in Canada to validate the concept, demonstrated possible real-world fuel savings of 5-10%. | FlightGlobal

🚂 Rail

Berkshire Hathaway's BNSF Railway has hired an expert on "Precision Railroading," a strategy its rivals have embraced to streamline operations. The strategy aims to cut costs in part by running trains on tighter schedules, removing excess equipment, and trying to get more cargo on a return trip rather than having a train return empty. Railroad employees say the strategy threatens jobs, safety and their quality of life, while regulators have said it hurts service. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

🚘 Car of the Week

Our Automotive Ventures "Cars of the Week": a 1951 Ferrari 340 America Berlinetta (Coachwork by Carrozzeria). | Bonhams CarsHave a great week,Steve Greenfield

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Notable & New

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On this week's "Future of Automotive" segment on CBT News: we discuss a new report by Morningstar that examines whether Autonomous vehicles could render personal auto insurance obsolete in the future. | CBT News ($)

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