Auto File: General Electric Autonomous Motors
25/05/2022 16:08
May 25 - Joe White
Global Autos Correspondent
joe.white@thomsonreuters.com
Greetings from the Motor City!
Building cars and trucks is hard. Every detail counts. I was
planning on a joy ride last night in my 1961 Dodge Town Wagon -
until I saw the drip, drip, drip from a fuel line connection
that seemed just fine when I installed it. I had to order a
recall. Invisible mistakes like that come in bunches of 200,000
or more in the car business. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hyundai-recall-239000-us-vehicles-over-exploding-part-2022-05-24Who
wants in?
Today, GM's President puts together the pieces of the
automaker's autonomous and electric vehicle strategy,
Stellantis' CEO warns of a battery supply crisis and a look at
why the SEC gives Elon Musk a long leash.
Here we go -
* Inside GM's strategy to overtake Tesla
General Motors is looking at how to adapt the autonomous driving
technology developed for robotaxis at its Cruise unit to pilot
delivery vehicles offered by its Brightdrop brand, and someday
personal vehicles, GM President Mark Reuss told Auto File in an
interview.
"There's ultimately a great opportunity for that to happen,"
Reuss said, asked about whether Cruise and Brightdrop could
collaborate on self-driving delivery vehicles. Bloomberg
reported on the potential collaboration between the two GM
operations May 13 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-13/gm-s-cruise-and-brightdrop-explore-self-driving-electric-vans.
GM has not until now talked about the plans to develop
autonomous vans for BrightDrop using Cruise technology.
Autonomous goods delivery got a big boost during the pandemic, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-delivery-robots-fo-idUSKBN22U1F8
and Walmart and other companies wrestling with shortages of
truck drivers https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/startup-gatik-says-it-will-put-self-driving-trucks-road-kansas-2022-05-19
are pumping money into robo-delivery ventures. Cruise has been
testing goods delivery https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-self-driving-deliv-idUSKBN22B2LZwith
its current fleet of electric Chevy Bolts.
In the near term, Reuss said GM is "getting ready to really turn
on the spigot" of production of human-driven BrightDrop vans for
high volume customers. BrightDrop has said Walmart and FedEx are
early customers. https://www.gobrightdrop.com/newsroom/brightdrop-adds-walmart-and-grows-collaboration-with-fedex
Adapting Cruise autonomous driving capability to BrightDrop is
one element of GM's effort to put together its sprawling array
of electric and autonomous vehicle initiatives and present them
to investors and customers as a whole greater than the sum of
Tesla's parts. That Reuss and GM Chief Executive Mary Barra
believe that GM should be worth more than 1/13th of Tesla's
current market cap is a given.
Here are other points Reuss made about GM's EV and AV strategies
during a half-hour talk:
. GM aims to decide by June or July where to put its fourth
North American battery plant. "We haven't finished allocating
the products that use the cells" that would come from the new
plant, Reuss said. Siting the fourth battery plant in Mexico is
a possibility, he said. The key will be finding a location that
can efficiently serve more than one assembly plant and product
line, he said. "We want that footprint to flex."
* The decision on where GM's third electric pickup truck
plant
will be depends in part on where the fourth battery plant is
located. "It's a four-dimensional chess deal," Reuss said.
* GM has more work ahead to build its battery material
recycling
capability toward a goal of re-using 95% of materials. "We have
done a good job of securing nickel for the foreseeable future,"
he said.
* GM is looking at expanded use of lower-cost, lithium-iron,
or
LFP batteries, outside of China. "There are applications…that
are compelling" in some segments, Reuss said. But "you're still
not dealing with the same energy density" as lithium-ion battery
chemistry. GM could use LFP in its Ultium battery platform,
which allows GM to put cells of different chemistries in the
same pack, he said.
* GM sees opportunity beyond an electric Corvette https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-launch-electrified-version-corvette-sports-car-by-next-year-2022-04-25
for novel ways to expand its EV lineup, and offer vehicles in
segments where Tesla does not. GM's Ultium battery cells can be
tipped on their sides "to get a lower roof variant," Reuss said.
"We will take advantage of that modularity and flexibility to do
lots of different things that you've never seen before."
* The SEC's "soft" deal with Elon Musk
Elon Musk's public disdain for regulators, especially those at
the Securities and Exchange Commission, is just one way in which
the world’s richest person is different from any other CEO.
It turns out, he has had specific reasons not to show much fear
for the SEC https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/faceoff-with-elon-musk-sec-blinked-2022-05-24,
according to a Reuters story based on documents and sources.
In 2018, the SEC and Musk agreed to a settlement https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/musk-asks-us-judge-end-2018-sec-consent-decree-2022-03-08that
required the Tesla CEO to have company lawyers vet his tweets
about the company. But in 2019, a federal judge called that
agreement "soft" and urged the agency to reach an understanding
with Musk about tweets in 2019 that SEC staff believed violated
the earlier deal.
The SEC said in a court filing that Musk has not sought
clearance for tweets about Tesla at all since the original deal.
But so far, the agency merely urged Musk to comply.
The SEC has new investigations of Musk underway, and is under
new management since Gary Gensler took over as chair in 2021.
In another, separate Tesla legal matter, a California judge
ruled a suit accusing Tesla of tolerating widespread sexual
harassment should go to court, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tesla-loses-bid-move-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-arbitration-2022-05-24
and not be resolved through arbitration.
Stellantis CEO warns of a battery shortage
Stellantis and South Korean battery partner Samsung SDI said
they will invest $2.5 billion https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-samsung-sdi-build-25-bln-indiana-jv-battery-plant-2022-05-24
or more to build an EV battery factory near existing Stellantis
combustion powertrain plants in Kokomo, IN. Stellantis has now
identified locations for all five of the battery factories
promised in its March 2022 "Dare Forward" long term EV plan https://www.stellantis.com/en/investors/events/strategic-plan
and is focused on execution, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares told
reporters.
Tavares also had some dire forecasts. The auto industry could
find itself short of EV battery capacity in 2024-2025, as
manufacturers try to scale up electric vehicle output before the
crop of new battery plants planned for Europe and North America
can get tooled up to run at full speed, he said.
"There is a bottleneck in the equipment to manufacture the
cells," Tavares said. "Most of that is coming from China." Later
in the decade, Tavares said he expects a shortage of battery raw
materials.
* Batteries and U.S. unions
The rush by automakers and battery manufacturers to expand EV
battery production outside China and South Korea is fueling one
of the biggest investment waves the auto industry has seen in
decades.
In the United States, many of the new battery and electric
vehicle assembly plants - like most of the "transplant" assembly
operations Asian and European automakers built during the 1980s,
1990s and 2000s - are locating in states where unions are weak.
Stellantis' choice of Indiana fits that pattern.
Officials of the pro-union Biden administration - starting with
Biden in South Korea, and on Wednesday his Labor Secretary,
Marty Walsh - are turning up the pressure on automakers to
welcome union representation of these new operations. But that
depends on workers voting to join a union, and so far, the
United Auto Workers' efforts to organize big auto factories in
the Southern United States have failed.
* Stellantis and Ford pay up
Stellantis has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conduct and
pay $300 million https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/exclusive-stellantis-unit-fca-reaches-plea-deal-us-emissions-probe-sources-2022-05-25
to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation of cheating
on diesel emissions tests involving Ram pickups and Jeep
vehicles, Reuters reports. The investigation involved 2014-2016
vehicles made by then-Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. FCA merged with
Peugeot to create Stellantis in 2021.
The settlement is one more knock-on effect of Volkswagen's
Dieselgate https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-uk-volkswagen-emissions-idUSKCN1C4271
emissions cheating scandal. That led regulators around the
world to dig more deeply into the technology automakers use to
pass government pollution tests, and along with Tesla's rise,
propelled the industry toward electric vehicles.
Separately, Ford agreed to pay $19.2 million to resolve https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-pay-192-million-over-hybrid-pickup-claims-2022-05-24investigations
by 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia that it
exaggerated the fuel economy performance of pickups and hybrids.
Ford was not required to admit wrongdoing as part of the deal.
* Renault seeks partners in combustion
Renault has received proposals from potential partners https://uk.style.yahoo.com/renault-receives-partnership-proposals-combustion-095634742.htmlinterested
in sharing ownership of its combustion engine operations once
they are separated from a future Electric Renault, sources told
Reuters.
Offloading a stake in a future Carbon Renault, if a deal
materializes, could free up capital for a future Electric
Renault to invest in closing its EV technology gap. Note the key
words: "If" and "could."
The charging gap
A study by insurer Allianz finds that investment in charging
infrastructure https://www.allianz-trade.com/en_global/news-insights/economic-insights/electric-vehicle-outlook-us-europe.htmlin
Europe and the United States is lagging far behind the
projected growth in sales of electric vehicles.
The Biden Adminstration's infrastructure bill promises $7.5
billion to expand EV charging in the United States. That won't
be enough and legislative and regulatory battles lie ahead over
regulations that govern private sector investments in U.S. EV
charging.
This week, big truck stop operators, convenience stores and
other retailers announced they have formed a lobbying group
called Charge Ahead Partnership https://www.chargeaheadpartnership.com/membership.
Their agenda: Convincing state utility regulators to change
rules they say give a big edge to electric utilities in setting
up charging stations. https://www.chargeaheadpartnership.com/where-we-stand
* The Chip Show isn’t over
Toyota said it will cut global production by 100,000 vehicles https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-cut-global-production-by-100000-june-2022-05-24
in June because of parts shortages.
Toyota's action and others like it led forecasters at J.D. Power
and LMC to drop their outlook for global vehicle output for 2022
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/global-light-vehicle-sales-fall-further-china-lockdown-data-2022-05-25
by 1.7 million vehicles to 80 million cars and trucks.
* AV truck venture powers up
Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-automated-electric-truck-startup-solo-avt-picks-battery-supplier-abs-2022-05-25
a startup developing an electric, autonomous Class 8 truck, has
a deal to source battery packs from Michigan's Advanced Battery
Solutions. Solo CEO Graham Doorley, formerly of Waymo, will test
the waters for Series A funding this summer.
* Moskvich is back! Who's excited?
Moscow's Mayor has a big plan to transform auto assembly
operations left behind by Renault into a revival of the
Soviet-era Moskvich car brand https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/russians-divided-over-plans-reboot-classic-soviet-era-car-2022-05-25.
Muscovites are….somewhat interested? There are fans - and some
even wear Moskvich T-shirts. But others do not remember Soviet
Automotive Iron so fondly.
* Auto File is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
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