EV course corrections

Issue #250, May 5, 2024

A long journey like the electrification of mobility cannot be without course corrections. Following a bad quarter with fall in its electric vehicle (EV) revenue and profit, Tesla seems to have made some corrections, like halting its gigacasting initiative for the vehicle body. Its move to layoff its supercharger team makes the charging station sector a gray area in future. GM took a bet on its Ultifi car dashboard platform, replacing Apple's CarPlay. Ashok Leyland in India is forming an inhouse software team for software-defined commercial vehicles. Proposed rules for a tax credit for green hydrogen favor projects that rely on new renewable (or nuclear) power, which raises the cost substantially. Ford uses an AI-based platform to train its dealer network. Below are some show stoppers and detours taken by vehicle makers to manage them.

Tesla halts gigacasting

Tesla has been a leader in gigacasting, a technique that uses huge presses with thousands of tons of clamping pressure to die-cast large sections of the car’s underbody. On a typical vehicle, the underbody can consist of hundreds of parts. As Tesla developed a new small-vehicle platform, it aimed to punch out the underbody in a single piece. The long-term goal was to simplify manufacturing and slash costs. But Tesla has since halted the effort, opting to stick with its more proven method of casting vehicle underbodies in three pieces. - CNBC

GM's in house dashboard platform

General Motors had revealed the prior spring that it was ditching support?for?Apple’s infotainment hub in its new EVs so it could bolster GM’s in-house Ultifi platform. GM Chief Executive Officer?Mary Barra’s risky bet is to replace Apple's CarPlay with an alternative it had built itself. GM is gambling that its own software group can create a better dashboard experience, supplant CarPlay, and eventually reap massive digital sales. - Bloomberg

Software-defined commercial vehicles

Softwarisation is one of the major trends that redefines technology roadmaps of vehicle OEMs. Ashok Leyland’s technical centre in Chennai, India has built a team of around 30 software engineers in preparation for major softwarisation or the software-defined vehicle trend. These engineers are not working on software for infotainment systems like in cars, but on critical stuff like advanced software for the after-treatment system to control emission levels, for driver monitoring system, and for little less critical instrument cluster, for example. - ET Auto

Hurdles for green hydrogen

After years of hype, fundraising, and billions of dollars of federal support?to get a green hydrogen market off the ground, there’s growing pessimism over how fast the fuel can ramp up. Frustrated by proposed guidelines for a crucial government incentive that they deem too strict, companies including ExxonMobil and Plug Power are threatening to scrub or delay big hydrogen projects. Clean hydrogen — particularly the “green” variety made from water and renewable power — is central to the Biden administration’s strategy to slash carbon pollution. But proposed rules for a tax credit favor projects that rely on new renewable (or nuclear) power, which raises the cost substantially. - Forbes

Tesla's supercharger team

Tesla had opened its charging network to other EV brands, starting with Ford. Its move this week to lay off much of the team responsible for creating the EV charging network in the US threw the industry into a state of shock and confusion. The layoffs halted construction work at a dozen supercharger sites in Texas. In New York, property owners in negotiations with Tesla were left hanging as discussions about adding chargers to their sites were ongoing. - WSJ

Ford and AI for training

Automakers have long touted the idea that better dealer experiences lead to happier customers. Ford is launching a new training platform for its dealers. It uses artificial intelligence for coaching evaluations and emulates Netflix and YouTube interfaces. Ford says the goals of the new “Ford University” program are to improve customer service, better engage employees and provide dealers and the company with more data to assist business. - CNBC