GM ships full-size tablets with worse fuel consumption

The shortage of parts means GM is sending full-size pellets with a missing fuel-saving module, and that means worse fuel-saving. Anything to get vans out the door! All this and more The morning shift for March 16, 2021.

1st equipment: Chip shortage does not mean a fuel economy module

The global shortage of semiconductors has been wreaking havoc on the entire automotive industry huge production cuts i factories are closing even here in the United States. Without stopping: production of full size vans from GM. Nothing is located between America and its vans. Neither a global pandemic, nor a shortage of births. Even if that means sending trucks out the door with worse fuel savings, for example Reuters reports:

General Motors said Monday that due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips the US automaker is building certain lightweight full-size trucks by 2021 without a fuel management module, which is detrimental to the fuel-saving performance of vehicles.

The lack of the active fuel management / dynamic fuel management module means that the affected models, equipped with the 5.3-liter EcoTec3 V8 engine with six- and eight-speed automatic transmission, will have lower fuel savings by one mile. per gallon, spokeswoman Michelle Malcho said.

Malcho stressed that all trucks are still being built, which GM has repeatedly stressed would try to protect, as the pads are among GM’s most cost-effective models. She refused to say the volume of vehicles affected.

GM will likely have to use credits from past years that were more efficient to still meet its federal CAFE requirements for fuel consumption throughout the fleet. GM told Reuters that it is not worried about meeting CAFE by 2021, but if it were someone who bought a new van, I would be angry to lose this module.

2nd Gear: What about Byton? Let’s visit

Just last night the Jalopnik canal exploded: remember Byton? What about that?

Well, the little start-up that the BMW guy used to have until he left claiming that the Chinese government had taken over the company, another strange (or more adjacent) step in production is approaching. Byton is partnering with iPhone maker Foxconn, and Foxconn may be setting up a car factory here in the United States. Bloomberg reports:

Foxconn Technology Group will decide between Wisconsin and Mexico the location of its first electric car plant this year, making a big bet on the nascent business at a time when the tech giants, including the best customers Apple Inc. they seek to expand into vehicles.

The Taiwanese manufacturer already has operations in the central state of the United States and in the Latin American country and could use its existing structures, President Young Liu of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Foxconn’s flagship unit, said on Tuesday. The availability and affordability of skilled labor and engineering talent will be one of the deciding factors, he said.

[…]

In January, Foxconn signed a manufacturing agreement with Chinese electric vehicle start-up Byton Ltd. with the goal of starting mass production of the Byton M-Byte in the first quarter of 2022. A week later, Foxconn and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. he said they would join forces to provide production and consulting services to global automotive companies.

Last month, Foxconn signed another agreement with the American start-up EV Fisker Inc. in a car that will be built by Apple’s partner and targeted at several markets, including North America, Europe, China and India. Production of the vehicle, which will be sold under the Fisker brand, will begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.

None of this is a clear announcement that nothing, exactly, is about to happen. Still, I’m intrigued.

3rd gear: VW follows Tesla in Quota Boast

VW’s playbook for entering the world of electric cars is still “copying absolutely everything Tesla does,” even VW this week has its own Battery Day copier. Now VW continues this trend, reflecting Tesla’s ability to brag. It’s not enough build electric cars, you see. You need to dedicate all your time to promising even bigger EV plans.

“VW observes EV’s global leadership in 2025 on the push platform,” Bloomberg reports, with VW stating that it will be the largest manufacturer of electric cars in a short time:

The Volkswagen Group plans to expand its cost-cutting efforts by standardizing key technologies, as the German manufacturer seeks to accelerate a seismic shift toward electric cars to combat Tesla and keep traditional rivals like Daimler at bay.

VW is aiming for one million electric vehicle sales this year and aims to become the world leader in the electric vehicle market by 2025 at the latest, the company said. By 2030, the share of fully electric vehicles in Europe is expected to rise to 60 per cent of group deliveries.

To put it in perspective, here are the two companies right now:

If you are engaged in the electric car business, you have to shout “That’s just the beginning!” forever and ever.

4th gear: Toyota explains why switching to electric vehicles is not as easy as you think

Toyota isn’t great in the case of the “electric car,” and it is strongly invested in hydrogen. (Japan as a nation also has a lot of hydrogen.) Does that make you very skewed in this conversation? Absolutely! But you will not hear this direct truth from a company like VW, which is very invested in you thinking that electric vehicles will only magically fix all our transportation i climate problems at the same time.

In any case, Toyota wants you to keep in mind that making electric vehicles isn’t particularly easy, since Reuters reports:

A senior Toyota executive on Wednesday will express to U.S. senators skepticism about rival carmakers ’aspirations to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles, saying those goals must overcome many obstacles.

Robert Wimmer, director of Energy and Environment Research at Toyota Motor North America, will testify at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

“If we want to make dramatic progress in electrification, we will have to overcome huge challenges, including infrastructure supply, battery availability, consumer acceptance and accessibility,” he will say according to an advanced copy of his observations.

All right, Toyota wants less you to think that doing EV is difficult. It’s more that Toyota wants the government to think about it and cut it.

5th Gear: New York taxi protests continue until the 8th

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance takes to the streets today, as it did last week, protesting the debt forgiveness:

The city’s response, so far, to its yellow taxi drivers drowned in debts that the city only helped create is … give tens of millions to a hedge fund in Connecticut.

Reverse: Hey, we should put people on top of these