Auto File: Software is Hard

CreateAl Holdings

12/05/2023 15:45

Joe White 
    Global Autos Correspondent 
 
Greetings from the Motor City!  
 
The Word of the Day this Friday morning is "software."  
 
Runner up contenders included "batteries," "Tesla" and "China."
But we’re going with "software" because challenges created by
coding and data are popping up everywhere in the World of
Cars.  
 
Before we dive into that, a quick note: The Auto File will take
a break on Monday as I travel to Germany for the Reuters Events
Automotive Europe conference, starting on Tuesday in Munich.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with highlights from the conference
and more.  
 
And now, what’s happening today –  
    *         Tesla, VW and Volvo struggle with software 
    *         Germany and France land giga-factories 
    * Toyota’s big data leak 

 
    * Automakers take hard knocks from software 
This has been a rough week for the auto industry’s software
coders and executives responsible for their work. Consider: 
 
Volvo said it will delay the launch of its EX90 electric SUV
because of delays in completing and testing software.  
 
Volvo’s hold-ups forced Swedish EV brand Polestar to alert
investors on Thursday that its Polestar 3 electric SUV will be
delayed, because it rides on the same architecture as the Volvo.
(Both brands belong to Chinese automaker Geely’s stable.)  
 
Polestar said it would cut staff by 10% and chopped its 2023
production forecast. The company’s shares started Friday down
12% from their level before the delay was announced. 
 
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s CFO said the company’s next-generation
vehicle software architecture – designed to match the
capabilities of Tesla and Chinese EV rivals - won’t be ready
until 2027 or 2028 – not 2026 as once hoped. 
 
And what about Tesla, the leader in advanced, software-defined
vehicles?  
 
On Friday, Chinese regulators said Tesla will recall more than 1
million vehicles to revise the software that controls the brakes
and accelerator.  
 
Regulators said Tesla’s software made it too easy for drivers to
slam down the accelerator and lose control of the vehicle. Tesla
can make the fix with an over-the-air update. It is not clear
whether Tesla will be required to make a similar fix in other
markets. 
 
Attention coders: You’ll be working on Saturday. 
 
    * Essential Reading 
    *         The Executive Keeping Tesla Rolling Isn’t Elon
Musk 
    *         The last of the V8 Maseratis 
    *         More clean power to recharge America’s EVs? 

 
    * Europe scores two big EV battery wins 
Score two for Europe in the arm-wrestling with the United States
to land electric vehicle jobs. 
 
    European battery maker Northvolt said it will invest several
billions to build a plant in Germany big enough to supply
batteries for 1 million EVs. 
 
French President Emanuel Macron turned up to celebrate the
decision by battery maker Prologium to choose France for its
first EV battery factory outside its home base in Taiwan. 
 
Macron and his German counterparts have fretted for months that
U.S. manufacturing subsidies were diverting investment away from
Europe. France has lobbied to ease European Union rules limiting
state subsidies to win EV investments.  
 
    * Toyota’s big data leak 
Toyota disclosed that personal data belonging to 2 million
customers in Japan could have been left exposed to prying eyes
by a programming mistake. For nearly 10 years, privacy settings
on a Toyota cloud system were left on “public,” the company
said. 
 
    * Vinfast SPACs like its 2021 
Vietnamese EV startup Vinfast said it will list shares in the
United States at a projected equity value of $23 billion via a
deal with a special purpose acquisition company.  
 
The move comes as many of the EV startups that went public
during the 2020-2021 SPAC boom are foundering. U.S. investors
and regulators have gone cold on SPACs.  
 
In Vinfast’s case, 99% of existing Vinfast shareholders will
hold shares in the new entity, according to a joint statement
from Vinfast and its SPAC buyer, Black Spade Acquisition Co. 
 
Vinfast last month got $2.5 billion in new capital, including $1
billion from founder Pham Nhat Vuong. 
 
    * Greenpeace sounds alarm on ICE capacity 
    Greenpeace warned that GM, Volkswagen and other global
automakers in China risk being stuck with useless internal
combustion engine (ICE) car factories if they do not accelerate
their electric vehicle programs.  
 
VW and GM said they are doing exactly that.  
 
Greenpeace’s warning is more a diagnosis than a prediction. The
environmental group estimated that a third of internal
combustion vehicle capacity at 10 global automakers in China
could become redundant if sales of electrified vehicles rise to
40% of the Chinese market by 2030. China’s automakers already
have nearly twice as much production capacity as they need to
meet current demand.  
 
    * Chinese-made EVs surge into Germany 
German automakers have done very well indeed for the past three
decades exporting vehicles to China, with few vehicles coming
back the other way. Now, the Germany-China vehicle trade is
becoming a two-way highway. 
 
    Chinese-made electric vehicles accounted for 28% of EVs
shipped to Germany during the first quarter, up from just under
8% a year ago, according to German government data. Tesla
accounts for part of that shift, but Chinese automakers are
pushing into Europe as well, in part to deal with the excess
capacity problem noted in the previous item. 
 
The jump in shipments of Chinese EVs could stoke the broader
angst in Germany about dependency on China.  
 
    * Rivian takes the high road  
Electric truck and van maker Rivian steered around the wreckage
among rival EV startups this week. Its long-term prospects
depend on whether CEO R.J. Scaringe wins a bet that Rivian can
sustain premium pricing while Tesla goes for market share over
profit-per-vehicle. 
 
Good news: Rivian’s products do not compete directly with
Tesla’s current lineup. Investors will be watching how Rivian
holds up when Tesla finally launches the Cybertruck, and legacy
automakers accelerate production of electric delivery vans.  
 
    * Management shakeup at Nissan? 
Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta will be leaving the
automaker’s board, casting doubt on his future with the
automaker.  
 
Gupta has been a prime mover in Nissan’s latest restructuring
and turnaround efforts – which this week appeared to be bearing
fruit. Nissan reported a rise in operating profit as supply
chain snafus eased and cost-cutting began to bite. Honda also
had an upbeat outlook. 
 
    * Fast Laps 
    Elon Musk said he has someone to take over as Twitter’s CEO.
The WSJ reports the candidate is NBC Universal executive Linda
Yaccarino. Musk said he was searching for “anyone foolish enough
to take the job.” Musk’s announcement via Twitter comes just
days ahead of Tesla’s shareholders meeting – timely because
naming a Twitter CEO could defuse questions about whether the
billionaire multi-tasker is spreading himself too thin. 
 
Tesla kicked prices up a notch in the United States, continuing
its pattern of tweaking prices on an almost daily basis. A chart
of Tesla’s daily pricing actions could be an indicator of demand
for the company’s vehicles – or a random scatter plot of Elon
Musk’s instincts about what constitutes a market clearing
price. 
 
    Renault is looking for additional investors to fund its
Alpine and Ampere units. 
 
    Panasonic delayed production of 4680 battery cells for Tesla
until April to September next year – up to a year later than
once planned. Tesla has also had trouble ramping up production
of the larger format 4680 cells.  
 
    Goodyear shares jumped after activist investment fund
Elliott Management disclosed a 10% stake, pushed for a new slate
of directors and called on management to cut costs. 
 
    GM will combine North American sales operations that target
commercial fleet customers under a new brand umbrella, GM
Envolve.  
 
    Autonomous trucking company TuSimple 
    could be delisted by NASDAQ as soon as Monday for failing to
file its quarterly financial reports. TuSimple said earlier this
year it needed more time because it had to hire new accountants.
The company has been wrestling with management turmoil. 

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 (Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)