Category: Automotive

Elon Musk says Tesla would consider buying idled GM plants, takes swing at the SEC on ’60 Minutes’

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Elon Musk

Tesla would consider buying the factories that General Motors intends to idle, CEO Elon Musk said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' “60 Minutes.”

“It's possible that we would be interested. If they were going to sell a plant or not use it that we would take it over,” he said.

In a wide-ranging interview with Lesley Stahl, Musk made no apologies for his erratic behavior over the summer and reiterated his lack of respect for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued him in September for allegedly defrauding investors after tweeting that he wanted to take the company public at $420 a share and had “funding secured.” He didn't and pulled back on those plans a few weeks later.

“Nobody's perfect,” he said.

Musk acknowledged that he was “somewhat impulsive,” adding that he “didn't really want to try to adhere to some CEO template.” He stoked controversy all summer with his erratic behavior, taunting the SEC, calling a diver in the Thai cave rescue a “pedo” and capping the summer by appearing to smoke pot on the Joe Rogan podcast.

“I'm just being me. I mean, I was certainly under insane stress and crazy, crazy hours. But the system would have failed if I was truly erratic,” Musk said.

The SEC forced Musk to step down as chairman of the board for three years. The company named Robyn Denholm, who was already on the board, as chairwoman.

“I want to be clear: I do not respect the SEC,” Musk said. “I do not respect them.” But he said he was adhering to the agreement because he respects the U.S. justice system.

He scoffed at the idea that Denholm was put in place to keep him in line. “Yeah. It, it's not realistic in the sense that I am the largest shareholder in the company. And I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want,” Musk said.

He said he does not want to return to the role of chairman. “I actually just prefer to have no titles at all.”

Tesla has struggled to ramp up production of its much hyped Model 3 midsize sedan. The company resorted to building a second assembly line inside a tent-like structure next to its main assembly plant in Fremont, California. The decision, like many Tesla has made, was ridiculed by some in the industry.

The last-minute push increased production by 50 percent, Musk told CBS.

“Those betting against the company were right by all conventional standards that we would fail,” he said, “but they just did not count on this unconventional situation of creating a second assembly in the parking lot in a tent.”

Musk said the long-awaited $35,000 version of the Model 3 will “probably” be available in five to six months. That is the price of the vehicle Tesla originally promised would be an electric sedan for the masses when it was first unveiled in March 2016. Since then, however, Tesla has only made higher-priced versions of the car.

Musk admitted he is notorious for missing deadlines.

“Well, I mean punctuality's not my strong suit. I think, uh well, why would people think that if I've been late on all the other models, that'd I'd be suddenly on time with this one,” he said.

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GM's decision to idle plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and Ontario and eliminate 14,000 jobs has caused anger and worry among lawmakers, labor leaders and people in the regions that depend on the factories for work. Some say GM's decision is a necessary step to ensure the company's future as it grapples with changing consumer tastes, new technologies and new potential competitors, including Tesla.

The possible plant closures present an opportunity to Tesla. It wouldn't be the first time Tesla bought a GM plant. The Tesla Factory in Fremont, California is a former GM plant that closed in 2010 but reopened later that year under Musk.

Under the terms of the SEC settlement, Musk had to pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman for at least three years. Tesla also put in place a system for monitoring Musk's statements to the public about the company, whether on Twitter, blog posts or any other medium.

Musk told CBS the only tweets that need to be approved are ones that can move the stock price. He said he uses Twitter to express himself. “Some people use their hair,” he said, “I used Twitter.”

Expect heads to roll at Nissan over Ghosn scandal

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Carlos Ghosn, Renault-Nissan CEO.

It is shaping up to be a bad year for Nissan.

The arrest of auto industry titan Carlos Ghosn in Tokyo last month was believed by some to be a palace coup designed to remove him from power at Japanese automaker Nissan, just one of the companies Ghosn had a hand in running.

Now it's looking like a big problem for Nissan as well.

Ghosn was indicted Monday on allegations of underreporting income and misusing company funds, but investors weren't necessarily expecting Japanese prosecutors to slap Nissan with an indictment as well.

That could spell trouble for Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan's CEO and a onetime protege of Ghosn's, said Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois.

Ghosn files complaint over extension of his detention
6:52 AM ET Tue, 11 Dec 2018 | 00:41

“Nissan takes this situation extremely seriously,” the company said in a statement. “Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan's public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret.” The company said it will strengthen its compliance efforts and improve the accuracy of its financial disclosures.

Saikawa was the one who stood to benefit the most from Ghosn's downfall. Ghosn, who was chairman of Nissan, had planned to replace Saikawa at a November board meeting, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some industry watchers say Saikawa's career at the automaker is in danger.

“I suspect Saikawa knows his days are numbered as well. Because the indictment of Mr. Ghosn today is also an indictment of Nissan,” Houchois said. In the wake of this new indictment, “it is likely heads will roll at Nissan as well.”

Nissan's shares traded in the U.S. fell 3.1 percent Monday and were down 2.7 percent in intraday trading Tuesday.

The indictment comes on the heels of scandals involving the falsification of vehicle inspection data. The automaker had to recall more than 1 million vehicles in 2017 over faulty vehicle checks, and reports filed in 2018 revealed even more misconduct.

Morningstar analyst Richard Hilgert told CNBC he thinks investor confidence in Nissan's management has been compromised by both the Ghosn scandal and the inspection fiasco.

Ghosn was in many ways the glue holding together an alliance between French automaker Renault and Japanese manufacturers Nissan and Mitsubishi. Renault saved Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in 1999, and took a 40 percent stake in the company. Nissan, in turn, took a nonvoting 15 percent stake in Renault. But since then Nissan has become a far bigger financial contributor to the alliance, generating a lopsided share of the group's earnings. Tensions over the now two-decades-old arrangement have simmered as the relationship has grown more uneven.

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The scandal has created its fair share share of problems for Renault as well, Houchois said.

“The press has been quick to blame this on Nissan, but the reality is the governance issues are just as severe at Renault, we think,” he said.

For one thing, Ghosn was chairman and CEO of both companies for years, and he seems to have held too much power at the company.

The companies will likely have to redefine their alliance if they expect it to survive, Houchois said. He said he expects that to happen some time in the next three months or so. The problem is that there could be considerable turnover in the ranks at both companies in the meantime.

“You will have to come up with a number of new individuals who will run Nissan and run Renault,” he said.

Nissan CEO plans one-on-one meeting with Renault boss in Amsterdam: sources

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Ola, Uber’s India rival, invests $100M in scooter rental startup Vogo

We’re familiar with Uber cozying up to scooter startups — it has bought one and invested in another — but over in India, the U.S. firm’s key rival is hatching a major alliance of its own it invested $100 million in scooter rental startup Vogo. Ola first invested back in August when Vogo raised an undisclosed Series… Continue reading Ola, Uber’s India rival, invests $100M in scooter rental startup Vogo

Audi pulls the curtain back on its self-driving car program

Of all the luxury car brands, Audi has been the most aggressive in terms of putting semi-autonomous technology into its production cars. (See the A8 sedan, a version of which can’t be sold in the US thanks to its partially automated features.) Now the German automaker is offering a sneak peek of its effort to… Continue reading Audi pulls the curtain back on its self-driving car program

Hyundai plans to take hydrogen fuel-cell systems beyond vehicles

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Hyundai Mobis fuel cell announcement
Hyundai sees a lot of potential in hydrogen fuel-cell technology. And it may find success with it by looking well past cars and SUVs—to other uses that could, as the company puts it, “transcend the transportation sector.”

With this week’s opening of a second plant making fuel-cell systems, in Chungju, South Korea, Hyundai's Mobis unit will increase its annual production of fuel-cell systems from its current 3,000 annual units to 40,000 units by 2022.

DON’T MISS: 2019 Hyundai Nexo: first drive of 380-mile fuel-cell crossover utility

The plan, called FCEV Vision 2030, highlights the parent company’s “commitment to accelerate the development of a hydrogen society.”

By 2030, Hyundai Motor Group aims to make 700,000 fuel-cell systems annually, of which 500,000 would be units for personal-use and commercial fuel-cell electric vehicles. That leaves 200,000 units for drones, vessels, and forklifts and other uses outside transportation such as power generation and energy storage systems.

That’s still a very small portion of what the company currently produces; in 2018 it expected 7.7 million worldwide vehicle sales across Hyundai and Kia.

CHECK OUT: 2019 Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle pricing: Puzzling economics

To accomplish this plan, Hyundai established a dedicated division for fuel-cell business this month. Under the program, the Hyundai Motor Group and its suppliers plan to invest $6.8 billion to expand R&D operations and facilities, with an estimated 51,000 new jobs created.

Hyundai justifies the very steep growth curve by citing a McKinsey & Company study, pointing to an estimated global demand for up to 6.5 million fuel cell systems by 2030.

Hyundai Nexo

The 2019 Hyundai Nexo, which showcases the potential of a new generation of fuel-cell tech from the brand, with an estimated 380-mile range, will be available by sale or lease starting in January—albeit only in California, where a nascent commercial fueling infrastructure exists. That model is going to be the first test vehicle for a Level 4 automated-driving project with the autonomous-vehicle tech company Aurora.

READ MORE: Toyota enters $82 million partnership to roll out hydrogen trucks in Los Angeles port

Honda and GM continue to work on a next-generation fuel-cell system that will be produced in Michigan, and Toyota has confirmed that it’s looking to put the technology into more affordable, mass-market vehicles as well as commercial trucks and buses.

There’s another reason why Hyundai should be so bullish on fuel cells. The South Korean government is subsidizing a $2.3 billion plan to support various stages of the hydrogen fuel-cell development chain, including automakers, as well as 310 new hydrogen fueling stations.

Given the biggest limitation for fuel-cell technology in the U.S. today—a lack of hydrogen fueling infrastructure—aiming the growth of the technology toward commercial uses and very well-defined use cases could be a good plan to play on its strengths.

Porsche already has a prototype that will charge faster than its 350-kw Taycan

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FastCharge 450-kilowatt charging station prototype
The Porsche Taycan, when it arrives toward the end of 2019, will likely have the quickest, highest-power DC fast charging of any production vehicle.

But Porsche apparently is already setting its sights higher. Yesterday, as part of a research consortium that includes BMW, it presented a prototype for using CCS-standard charging hardware at up to 450 kw at 800 volts, which can also operate at 400 volts for cars that don't have 800-volt systems. Porsche says that the new hardware promises charging rates three to nine times faster than what’s currently available.

DON’T MISS: Porsche Taycan specs trickle out ahead of debut next year

Although charging-station operators would have to make big plans for siting such stations, the hardware doesn’t need to make as much of a leap. Most makers of fast-charging hardware have already targeted charging up to 460 kw, or as high as 500 kw, depending on the maker, at a maximum of 920 to 1,000 volts. The system uses the liquid-cooled cables intended for 150 kw and beyond, and the same connector used by other CCS hardware.

FastCharge 450-kilowatt charging station prototype

In the research prototype, a Cayenne SUV, Porsche points to the “innovative cooling system” that provides “even, gentle temperature control in the battery cells” as one of the keys to the vehicle’s high charging capacity. It does not clarify whether it’s the same system as what’s to be used in the Taycan (and subsequent Audi e-tron GT).

CHECK OUT: Audi e-tron GT electric sports car is its take on Porsche Taycan

The vehicle, with a 90-kwh battery pack, was put to the test at over 400 kw, which Porsche says allowed it to regain the first 62 miles of range in less than three minutes. Given that one piece of information, and the way that higher-power DC charging often works with current cell technology, it’s likely that the system tapers its power down significantly after that.

A BMW i3 prototype with a 57-kwh battery pack, however, did charge with the system from 10 percent up to 80 percent state of charge—about 165 miles of added range, based on EPA ratings, in just 15 minutes.

The prototype is on a real stretch of German autobahn, and the project is funded by the German government, as part of an $8.9 million Fast Charge research project that started in July 2016. The related consortium includes the BMW Group, Allego, Phoenix Contact, and Siemens, as well as Porsche.

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