Volkswagen Chases The Dragon

Having lost China's number one sales position to BYD in 2023, Volkswagen pulled no punches at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show. fortune.com

They kicked things off with a lengthy (more than an hour long, hard to watch) press event. youtube.com

Volkswagen showed off 44 cars, including world premieres of the Audi Q6 L e-tron, the Lamborghini Urus SE, the new Porsche Taycan 4, and the Volkswagen ID Code Concept. bloomberg.com, insideevs.com, volkswagen-group.com

The ID Code is expected to have Level 4 autonomous capabilities. caranddriver.com

Over the next few years, Volkswagen plans to expand production and R&D in China, including developing an electric platform specifically for the Chinese market — all in a bid to regain sales in the region. carscoops.com

VW’s plans might be too little too late as the Beijing Auto Show was dominated by innovation from domestic Chinese brands. "At the Beijing auto show, there's no doubt there is no interest in gasoline vehicles anymore. Everyone is looking for the latest technologies in intelligence and electrification." reuters.com

Dongfeng Motors plans to build a funky off-road vehicle that looks like the bastard child of a Hummer and an ATV or side-by-side. newatlas.com, carscoops.com

Car and Driver points out that “at the Beijing auto show, it's impossible not to notice how many truly affordable EVs—and ever-improving batteries that offer more and more range—are on the scene here.” caranddriver.com

Many fun concept cars were shown at the Beijing Auto Show. caranddriver.com

I’m not sure how, but GM made Buick sexy in China. caranddriver.com

BYD gives their pickup a name, the Shark. cnevpost.com

Li Auto cut their prices by 5% as their next move in the ongoing Chinese vehicle price war. reuters.com

Chery signs a joint venture to build electric vans to serve EU and North American commercial van markets. europe.autonews.com

BMW drops big investment into Chinese operations. autonews.com

Nio and Lotus will co-develop batteries, swapping and charging infrastructure. electrek.co

We forgot that Volvo is a Chinese-owned company. reuters.com

SpaceX launches and recovers a shit-ton of rockets. arstechnica.com, spaceexplored.com

Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving linked to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths. theverge.com

Elon writes some angry Tweets (posts) claiming censorship in Australia over a court decision to pull violent content from Twitter (X). reuters.com

Elon told investors that lower-cost Teslas are on their product roadmap but declined to confirm whether that will be the infamous Model 2 or simply cheaper versions of existing models. theverge.com, techcrunch.com

Elon loses the spot on the top billionaire list, then gains it back. fortune.com

xAi has raised $6 billion in funding. techcrunch.com

Sanctuary AI’s new robot learns faster and costs less. techcrunch.com, youtube.com

Magna will build last-mile delivery robots for Serve Robotics Inc. therobotreport.com

DARPA is building a bigger, meaner tank drone. interestingengineering.com

Anduril gets a step closer to building unmanned fighter jets for the Pentagon. techcrunch.com

Finnish company plans to build an underground energy storage matrix that could heat a city for an entire year. newatlas.com

Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have engineered a high-capacity hybrid sodium-ion battery that charges in seconds. interestingengineering.com, sciencedirect.com

The world’s largest offshore floating wind farm will be built off the coast of Scotland. Once operational, it will feature up to 35 floating turbines, generating 560 megawatts of energy. independent.co.uk

Jaguar Land Rover has a plan to recycle EV batteries for home energy storage. europe.autonews.com

Fancy new German trucks can tell us where we should drill for the best geothermal energy output. thecooldown.com

Anker has made the jump from charging your phone and Bluetooth speaker to powering your home. theverge.com

The UK’s last coal fire electricity plant prepares to be shut down later this year. theguardian.com

Kia has a pickup truck (but it may not be coming to North America). caranddriver.com

Honda Canada EV investment confirmed. Feds put in $5B of taxpayers’ dollars. canada.autonews.com

Hyundai spins off Genesis in the US. autonews.com

Stellantis hopes that investment in cheaper batteries will boost sales of Fiat 500e. europe.autonews.com

Stellantis plans to lay off an unspecified number of workers. apnews.com

GM had a fantastic Q1. autoblog.com, theglobeandmail.com

GM shuts down factories in Columbia and Ecuador. reuters.com

Ford loses A LOT of money on every EV it sells. cnn.com

Henrik Fisker’s house is worth more than his EV company. autonews.com

Rivian offers new discounts on R1 models. electrek.co

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than one in five cars sold this year will be electric. electrek.co

It really sucks when someone else owns the trademark on your family name. Just ask Kat Delorean. wired.com

If you like the sound of loud cars, you might be a psychopath. cbc.ca

South Korea has a bus driver shortage. To address that need, they have turned to self-driving buses. bbc.com

If you own an e-bike, you’re likely to drive your car less. globalcyclingnetwork.com

Benedict Evans has a new post about the challenge of finding broad use cases for AI. ben-evans.com

(Some entirely unnecessary links to music for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.)

New music this week from Kings Of Leon, St. Vincent, Mötley Crüe, Madison Beer and Powerman 5000.

Since Coachella, I’ve been hung up on this song, ‘Video Games’, Lana Del Rey.

This week’s musical moment of zen is Rick Astley covering Foo Fighters Everlong.