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Southern Charm

Southern Charm

October 14, 2021

Ford Motor Company

Electric vehicle and battery makers are planning to spend around $24 billion in new factories in the southern United States. Some of the factories include (check out the article for the full list):

Lucid just opened a $300 million plan in Casa Grande, AZ and plans on another $1 billion in expansion.
Nikola is planning a $600 million facility in Coolidge, AZ
Tesla is almost finished with its $1.1 billion facility in Austin, TX and is also moving its HQ to TX.
Canoo has plans to building a $500 million facility in Pryor, OK
Toyota and Mazda opened a $2.3 billion facility near Huntsville, AL.
GM and LG are partnering on a $4.3 billion facility in Spring Hill, TN
Ford recently announced a $5.6 billion complex in Stanton, TN

Have a great Thursday and don’t forget to refer this newsletter to a friend through the link below. I don’t know about you, but it’s cold and a hoodie would be a nice way to stay warm. If you have any difficulties with the link below, send us a note at [email protected].

Test Your Knowledge

What was the top selling plugin vehicle in the world for August 2021?

Tesla Model Y
Wulling HongGuang Mini EV
Tesla Model 3
Nissan Leaf

EV Headlines

XPeng

Six years after Xpeng launched, the company has announced they’ve produced 100,000 cars. For comparison, it took Tesla 12 years to produce 100,000 vehicles. Xpeng’s Chinese competitor, Nio, said in April they also reached the 100,000 production milestone after its founding in 2014. BYD said in May it produced 1 million passenger cars in the new battery-only and hybrid-powered cars category. Tesla may be out front, but China has several manufacturers working on closing the gap. In other EV News What EVs will America see from Mercedes? America will see the EQS in 2022 as well as the EQS SUV. The Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV is planned to arrive in 2023 along with the smaller sibling to the EQS in the form of the EQE. But wait, that’s not all. There is also going to be an AMG EQS in 2022, a mid-sized EQE SUV in 2023, and a compact EQB SUV in 2023. America may also see an electric G-Wagon in the form of the EQG in 2023. Bottom line, there are going to be quite a few electric options through Mercedes. Data from a YouGov poll for Forbes Wheels of more than 33,000 licensed U.S. drivers showed that 23% of respondents would consider purchasing an electric vehicle as a new or used car. Gasoline-engine vehicles are under consideration by 44.9%. Interest in hybrid vehicles was shown by 27.1% of respondents. Evergrande announced its 2022 rollout plans for electric cars earlier this week. They’ve also set a goal of 1 million cars by 2025. Evergrande has been in the news recently due to some of its challenges around liabilities. Norway is taking the lead on EV sales with more than 9 in 10 cars sold for the month of September being either electric or hybrid. So far in 2021, less than 5% of all cars sold have been gas powered. Raleigh’s police department has introduced a Chevy Bolt to its fleet of 30 marked vehicles. The Bolt is among the first acquired by the state Department of Public Safety under the governor’s Executive Order 80 on climate change.

Autonomous Corner

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ZF and Oxobotica have signed an agreement to develop a Level 4 self-driving system that will be integrated into various vehicles including Mobility-as-a Service (Maas) shuttles. Their main goal with this partnership is to provide on-demand passenger and goods transportation vehicles in urban environments. According to ZF, the AV shuttle market will grow rapidly over the next 10 years.

In other AV News

Lucid provided details of its semi-autonomous driving system, DreamDrive, with a regular and Pro version. Both versions have 14 regular cameras, four surround cameras, five radar sensors and ultrasonic sensors. Depending on the vehicle, some of the features will include Highway Assist, Traffic Jam Assist, cross-traffic protections, and Auto Park. The Pro version will also have a conditional hands-free driving element.
Cummins is launching a set of software features to integrate its powertrains with Automated Driving System (ADS) technologies. With new software, Cummins will extend these core capabilities within the ADS space as well. Cummins is currently testing more than 100 vehicles with the new software.
Aurora announced it will make its autonomous trucks and taxis available to customers via subscriptions. The program will be called Aurora Horizon and be made available to trucking carriers and private fleets.
The Travelers Institute in Canada has released outlines on how the auto insurance structure can be leveraged for autonomous vehicles. Among the recommendations, Travelers Institute recommends:

-Ensuring any proposed legal and regulatory framework governing AVs includes provisions specifically related to auto insurance

-Requiring vehicle owners to purchase and maintain insurance for AVs

-Developing a model law relating to AV insurance

-Ensuring representation

-Supporting efforts to educate the public about AV related issues

You can find the full document here.

EV & AV Podcasts, Videos & More

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Referral Program

Answer

Wuling Motors

Global Plugin vehicle registrations were up 114% in August 2021 compared to August 2020, making up about 7.7% share of the overall auto market and 516,000 vehicle registered. Fully electric vehicles represented 71% of the plugin registrations in August, slightly above the year to date tally (67%). In total, there were about 365,000 registrations of fully electric vehicles, or about 5.4% share of the overall auto market. August was the plugin market’s third best month ever and September is expected to be another great month for registrations. Check out the top 5 Plugin Vehicles sold in August:

1.Wuling HongGuang Mini EV: 41,188

2.Tesla Model Y: 28,144

3.Tesla Model 3: 22,889

4.BYD Qin Plus PHEV: 13,043

5.Volkswagen ID.4: 11,313

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