Growdy's Newsletter 2024-03-03

Ford is living in two worlds at the moment. I guess we don’t call our current state of energy and mobility a “transition” for nothing.

On one side, Ford found a way to keep internal combustion cars around longer by making them notably more efficient. carbuzz.com

On the other hand, they are the first OEM to gain access to Tesla’s supercharger network for the Mach-E and F-150 Lightening. teslarati.com,

They are seeing success in selling electric vans as well as software. autonews.com

But also expect to scale back F-150 Lightning production. theverge.com

The Mustang GTD pushes the envelope of what a street-legal gas-guzzling race car can do. ford.com

Meanwhile, the Ford Performance team continues to race their massively juiced-up, record-breaking, 1,400-HP electric SuperVan around the world. motor1.com

May you live in interesting times.

After ten years, spending $10 billion, hiring entire swaths of people, changing directions multiple times, Apple is shutting down the ‘Project Titan’ car program. autonews.com

The New York Times did a great recap of the ups and downs of the project. Apple couldn’t decide if it was building a car to compete with Tesla or targeting Waymo (Google). nytimes.com

This means existing OEMs can breathe a sigh of relief. They won’t have to compete with one of the largest tech companies, which has billions of dollars in cash on hand and one of the best retail experiences in the world.

But this doesn’t mean that the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei, Nio, LG and Samsung aren’t going to pursue it themselves. Many other phone manufacturers still plan on becoming car companies. (see last week’s newsletter)

As any fan of the original Apple Newton might say as they read this email on their new M2 iPad, Apple has a habit of circling back to projects decades later. They may have shelved Project Titan for now, but that doesn’t mean the Apple Car story is over.

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, Rome isn’t happy with Stellantis. reuters.com

Italy doesn’t like being a one OEM show kind of country and is actively seeking other automotive dalliances.

Fortune reported that the Italian government wants BYD to manufacture in Italy. fortune.com

Tesla is also in talks to open a factory there. electrek.co

And also Xpeng. europe.autonews.com

In addition to BYD’s new cheap hybrid announcement last week, they also introduced a $230K sports car, the Yangwang U9, to compete with the likes of Ferrari. fortune.com

BYD Executive Vice President and CEO of BYD Americas Stella Li explains why they aren’t currently interested in entering the US market. “It's too complicated. It's an interesting market. But it's very complicated if you're talking about EV. And I think the US market is a little bit slow down on electrification and a lot of confusion. Also very complicated. So we think no. Let's hold. We don't have plan to come to US.” finance.yahoo.com, fortune.com

BYD brings the Denza brand to Europe with a surprisingly cool-looking minivan. motor1.com

Nio battery swap stations can also provide grid frequency regulation. cnevpost.com

Geely-owned Zeekr released a refresh of their flagship 001 model with more range, faster charging and lower price. electrek.co

Business Insider did a piece on “China’s EV Takeover” containing some brilliant quotes. "It's a global game. It has been a global game. Motherfuckers just haven't been paying attention." businessinsider.com

NYT opinion piece with the dramatic title “China’s Electric Vehicles Are Going to Hit Detroit Like a Wrecking Ball.” This quote sums it up: “The Chinese automakers, especially BYD, represent something new in the world. They signal that China’s decades-long accretion of economic complexity is almost complete: Whereas the country once made toys and clothes and then made electronics and batteries, now it makes cars and airplanes.” nytimes.com

The White House announced plans to explore the potential national-security risks related to Chinese "connected" cars that may expose "new avenues for espionage and sabotage." reuters.com

Musk buys a new PC, has issues with it and asks Satya Nadella directly for tech support on “X.” gizmodo.com

Elon sues OpenAI for not remaining… open. reuters.com

The US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wants Elon to give “Starshield” (the military version of Starlink) internet access to military staff in Taiwan. cnbc.com

Elon says that “Xmail” a potential competitor to Gmail and Outlook, is coming “soon.” twitter.com

Cybertruck will also be available for sale in Canada “soon.” teslarati.com

Tesla added 500 free-to-use charges in the Giga Factory Berlin parking lot. teslarati.com

Meanwhile, in Iceland, Tesla partners with the N1 gas station chain to expand the supercharging network. electrek.co

Audio and video calls are now available in “X.” twitter.com

Elon posts on “X” claiming new Tesla roadster will do 0-60mph in less than one second. motor1.com

Tesla raises prices in the US and drops them in China (at the same time). reuters.com, reuters.com

Tesla crushed it in the latest S&P Global Mobility loyalty survey; it won for ‘Overall Loyalty to Make,’ ‘Highest Conquest Percentage,’ ‘Alternative Powertrain Loyalty to Make,’ and ‘Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make.’ electrek.co

Australia research team tests out wireless road-based charging for trucks. “Melbourne’s Swinburne University will embed dynamic wireless charging technology into a 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) stretch of road.” bloomberg.com

Seven of the ten largest automakers by revenue globally have announced 800-volt platforms that speed up charging for electric vehicles. Kia and Hyundai are the frontrunners on 800-volt platforms. bloomberg.com

Britain is dropping underwater power cables to connect to massive solar and wind farms in the Sahara desert. finance.yahoo.com

The South Fork Wind Project, set to power 70,000 homes in Long Island and New York, was completed last week, making it the US’s first complete utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters. electrek.co

When did Buicks get sexy? Or am I just definitively in my Carlsberg years? electrek.co

Stellantis expects to “deepen” its relationship with Waymo with a specific focus on self-driving vans. techcrunch.com

GM starts selling Cadillac Lyriq EVs in France via a Tesla-esque consumer direct online-only buying model. reuters.com

Honda finally has an electric vehicle. “Everybody claims that we’re slow, but I think we’re timely.” theglobeandmail.com

Renault wants to partner with VW to build smaller electric SUVs. europe.autonews.com

Fisker looks for someone (anyone) to bail them out before they die. And maybe it’s Nissan? theverge.com, techcrunch.com, reuters.com

Already bankrupt, Lordstown Motors was charged by the SEC in the US for misleading investors. Lordstown has agreed to pay $25.5 million. techcrunch.com

UK (Land Rover Defender clone) automaker INEOS unveiled its third model and first EV at a British pub. electrek.co, autonews.com

Waymo gets the green light for Californian operation expansion. autonews.com

Automotive manufacturers have known that keyless entry could easily be exploited since the publication of reports in 2011. theguardian.com

Israeli electric air taxi company AIR (Flying Sports-car) secures a deal for fancy new engines from Japan’s Nidec Motor Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of electric motors. autoevolution.com

eVTOL and air taxi services will look more like the automotive industry than the commercial aviation industry — and be available to consumers within the next decade. cnbc.com

University of Pittsburgh research says that the return to office policy did not improve financial metrics but did succeed in decreasing employee satisfaction. No shit. arstechnica.com

What do Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and I have in common? We both use Perplexity AI “almost every day.” tomshardware.com

Three words: Electric Jet Ski. newatlas.com

This has nothing to do with anything. But some friends asked me to include something music-related in the newsletter. So here goes.

This is my jam this week, HAEZER - Dumb. Strange video, heavy beats. youtube.com

This kid can shred! Plays a solid Mötley Crüe, Shout At The Devil cover in his pyjamas. tiktok.com

New ‘St. Vincent’ video dropped this week. Enjoy. youtube.com

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