Firefly Takes Flight

[00:00:21] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more.

[00:00:27] My name is Bodhi and I am your host and on today's episode we have a full episode of news.

[00:00:33] Normally during the holidays we don't get very much news, but it's coming in fast and furious.

[00:00:40] We're getting a lot of news, so let's dive in.

[00:00:44] We talked last episode about Volkswagen negotiating with their labor union in Germany.

[00:00:50] And one of the things that we talked about is Volkswagen was willing to make a concession of not closing down three factories in Germany.

[00:00:58] And it looks like they're not going to close those factories down.

[00:01:02] Unfortunately, it also looks like Volkswagen's still going to lay off 35,000 workers by 2030.

[00:01:09] So on one hand, it's good that they're going to keep the factories open.

[00:01:13] On the other hand, 35,000 people is a lot. That's a lot of people.

[00:01:18] Fortunately, it sounds like the layoffs are going to be tapered.

[00:01:21] So it's not going to be like 35,000 at once. It's going to be 35,000 over time.

[00:01:27] So this gives Volkswagen some time to improve their business and sell more cars.

[00:01:33] And hopefully they won't have to lay off as many people or anybody for that matter.

[00:01:37] And then on the union side, it looks like the workers are going to forego some of their bonuses and fewer trainees will get permanent jobs.

[00:01:47] So I'm sure that the contract is way more complicated than just the two things that I told you about.

[00:01:54] But that's the stuff we talked about last episode.

[00:01:56] So there's your update.

[00:01:59] NIO launched their super affordable EV brand called the Firefly.

[00:02:04] The first Firefly model, honestly, it looks a lot like the Honda e, which I think only came out in Europe.

[00:02:11] Maybe it was in Europe and Asia, but definitely not here in the United States.

[00:02:14] It's a little bit bigger than the Honda e because this is a NIO brand.

[00:02:19] It will support battery swap stations.

[00:02:23] It doesn't sound like they're going to be compatible with current battery swap stations because NIO said they want to pepper Firefly specific battery swap stations across Europe and I'm sure China as well.

[00:02:36] The other thing that's a little bit different is it will not be sold direct to consumer.

[00:02:42] It's going to be sold through dealers.

[00:02:44] So that's a little different.

[00:02:46] It's set to hit Chinese streets in April at a price tag of $20,000 and will expand to Europe in the second half of 2025.

[00:02:55] We don't have a price yet for the European market, but we can all assume that it'll be more than $20,000.

[00:03:01] And if I had to guess, we would have a battery subscription option, if not a mandatory requirement.

[00:03:08] No other specs on the vehicle at this time.

[00:03:12] And let's see here.

[00:03:14] A Vinfast whistleblower is alleging that the vehicles have a structural flaw that may cause the wheels to come off, which is not good.

[00:03:24] The issue is that the suspension components are inadequate and prone to failure.

[00:03:29] So Haase Dinley worked for the firm Tata Technologies and Tata Technologies consulted on the chassis engineering for the Vinfast VF6, VF7, VF8 and VF9.

[00:03:43] Dinley claims that Vinfast has been cutting corners and parts are wearing out five times faster.

[00:03:49] So some of the parts were wearing out at 15,000 miles when they should have lasted for at least 95,000 miles.

[00:03:57] And this is Dinley's quote.

[00:03:59] We saw, for example, the front strut to knuckle connection was loosening, which could be extremely dangerous, Dinley told the BBC.

[00:04:08] It could cause a loosening of the entire structure, and that could cause wheels to come off.

[00:04:14] Under stress, such as hitting a pothole at speed, the front wheels could become misaligned, causing the car to veer to the left or to the right without prompting, and the driver could lose control, Dinley said.

[00:04:27] Now, there was an accident, I think it was involving, it was a VF8 or VF9 in California, and some event caused the vehicle to veer off the road and hit a tree, catch on fire, and unfortunately the entire family passed away.

[00:04:43] Now, at this point, I don't think findings or maybe even the investigation has been completed for this accident.

[00:04:50] So I would caution you to blame that incident on what Dinley is talking about.

[00:04:56] Initially, when Dinley came forward, he was anonymous, but he, by this time, obviously has been identified.

[00:05:03] He was fired, and he says blacklisted from the industry, although it does sound like he's currently working at another automaker.

[00:05:11] So I don't know how true that is or isn't true.

[00:05:15] And that completes our EV news.

[00:05:17] Honestly, I thought I had more EV news than that.

[00:05:20] We have four pages of show notes.

[00:05:22] I don't know why that went so fast.

[00:05:24] All right, everybody, that is our EV segment.

[00:05:28] If you want to support the show, you can go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt.com.

[00:05:33] And that's if you want to use Patreon.

[00:05:36] If you want to use ACAST+, then you just follow the link in the show notes, and you can support the show that way as well.

[00:05:43] So what do you get when you support the show?

[00:05:44] Well, you get the good feeling of knowing that you're supporting independent podcasts like myself.

[00:05:50] And the other is you get an ad-free feed for a dollar.

[00:05:54] Completely ad-free feed.

[00:05:56] So I would definitely check it out if you get a chance.

[00:06:01] Okie doke, let's move into our Tesla news, which is an update on a story that we talked about last episode about cyber trucks, used cyber trucks, piling up on dealer lots.

[00:06:14] And how it's taking much longer to sell them, you know, in December than it did, let's say, in May of 2024.

[00:06:22] So Joseph wrote in and he had a take on this.

[00:06:25] And I think this is a good take, but here's what he had to say.

[00:06:28] I'm listening to your Deck the Halls episode, and I found that most of the reports about cyber truck demand doesn't take into account that a large portion of the trucks on the lot, and he's talking about dealer lots, the used trucks on dealer lots, are foundation series.

[00:06:44] With a more affordable model out, it's harder to sell the foundation series trucks.

[00:06:49] So I was like, you know what?

[00:06:51] This sounds really plausible.

[00:06:52] So I decided to look around my area for a used cyber truck foundation at a car lot.

[00:06:59] And here's what I found.

[00:07:00] I found one vehicle at Ken Gaff Hyundai.

[00:07:04] I don't even know if Gaff Hyundai in Surprise, Arizona.

[00:07:10] And before I get too far into this, I cannot express how much I hate dealer websites.

[00:07:17] They are a nightmare.

[00:07:19] They are, we are talking about the seventh circle of hell, which there's only nine, and nine's the worst.

[00:07:26] So it's pretty bad.

[00:07:27] I don't want to get overdramatic and call it the ninth circle of hell, but we're definitely firmly in the seventh circle of hell with dealer websites.

[00:07:35] The pictures of this truck, they made it look awful.

[00:07:38] There's fingerprint smudges on the interior.

[00:07:40] The stainless steel wasn't polished.

[00:07:42] The mats weren't clean.

[00:07:46] They did not make this truck look pretty.

[00:07:49] It looks like it's got huge panel gaps.

[00:07:51] And maybe it does.

[00:07:52] But they did nothing to spruce this truck up.

[00:07:55] Honestly, this truck cost $89,990 on the dealer lot.

[00:08:01] The way that it looks right now, I would not pay $90,000 for that truck, even if I had the money.

[00:08:08] So then we go to Tesla's website.

[00:08:10] And I was like, well, what is the base model cost?

[00:08:13] Because the base model and the foundation are pretty much the same truck, right?

[00:08:17] The foundation, you got a bunch of cool stuff for your house and home charging and bi-directional charging.

[00:08:22] But the base model, you don't get any of that stuff.

[00:08:25] So what does a base model truck cost?

[00:08:30] I went to Tesla's website.

[00:08:32] The all-wheel drive truck, 325 miles, which is the same as the foundation, cost $79,900.

[00:08:40] So $10,000 cheaper for a new truck that Tesla's going to give it to you.

[00:08:45] And they're going to make it look nice when you drive it out of the showroom.

[00:08:49] So I think Joseph's on to something here.

[00:08:51] I want to thank Joseph for writing in with his take.

[00:08:54] If you have thoughts on this story or anything else that we're talking about on the show,

[00:08:58] you can email me.

[00:08:59] It's Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:09:05] All right, let's give you a Tesla Semi update.

[00:09:08] First, the Tesla Semi factory.

[00:09:11] The last major piece of structural steel has been put into place, which is great.

[00:09:17] The factory's not finished, but that's a good start.

[00:09:21] And then the Tesla Semi has a new customer.

[00:09:25] And I'm going to just spell this out because I know I'm going to say it wrong.

[00:09:29] S-A-I-A LTL Freight.

[00:09:32] They will add two Tesla Semi's to their fleet.

[00:09:35] So that's good for them and good for Tesla.

[00:09:39] It sounds like this is a partnership in testing.

[00:09:43] I'm not sure what kind of money changes hands when these companies are testing this.

[00:09:48] I don't know if they're buying it outright or Tesla's giving them a deal or Tesla's just giving it to them to test.

[00:09:53] But the company did say that the drivers are very impressed with what the Tesla Semi can do, especially when they have a full load and they're driving upgrade.

[00:10:05] And the truck maintains acceleration and can even, you know, increase speed.

[00:10:11] So that's good for truck drivers, for sure, especially at grade.

[00:10:15] And I'm sure that they appreciate the regenerative braking when they're coming back down that hill going downgrade.

[00:10:22] It makes it easier on them by slowing the truck down.

[00:10:27] Now, they have systems in the truck now that do that as well.

[00:10:31] They have, you know, telmas and exhaust brakes, which I don't think are allowed anymore.

[00:10:35] But they have different systems to help slow the truck down when they're going downgrade.

[00:10:40] But I'm sure the actual regenerative braking is a better experience.

[00:10:48] The Tesla Shanghai Mega Factory is set to finish construction at the end of 2024.

[00:10:54] This is amazing because Tesla broke down ground on this factory in May of 2024.

[00:11:00] So if they're actually able to finish by the end of this month, which is in a couple of days,

[00:11:04] they will have built that entire factory in seven months.

[00:11:08] That doesn't mean that they've outfitted it.

[00:11:10] You know, they still got to put everything inside.

[00:11:12] But they built from groundbreaking to finished construction in seven months.

[00:11:17] That's really impressive.

[00:11:19] Sounds like this facility will be used to produce megapacks.

[00:11:23] They can produce about 10,000 megapacks annually.

[00:11:26] And that is about 40 gigawatt hours of energy produced every year.

[00:11:33] And now we move on to the CyberCab.

[00:11:36] Elon said that the CyberCab will not come with a steering wheel and accelerator or brake pedals.

[00:11:42] Now, whether or not that's the case, I tend to feel really confident that the initial versions of the CyberCab

[00:11:51] will come with a steering wheel and pedals.

[00:11:56] If only for testing, right?

[00:11:58] If only to check a box for regulators.

[00:12:01] But I really don't think that Tesla's first go out of the gate with this vehicle and full self-driving will be steering wheel and pedal-less.

[00:12:16] Like, I think they're going to have to put something in there until they can prove themselves.

[00:12:20] But anyway, Auto Evolution is reporting that despite the CyberCab not having controls in them, like a standard car,

[00:12:31] there are a couple of ways for operators to control this vehicle.

[00:12:38] The first method is that it can be controlled remotely.

[00:12:40] And we've already actually heard this, that this is the case.

[00:12:44] I think Tesla's actually confirmed it.

[00:12:45] But the second thing is, is they're saying that you can plug a video game controller into a spot in the car and you can control the car that way.

[00:12:54] Now, during the CyberCab presentation, a lot of people are speculating, speculating is a good word,

[00:13:02] that they used a controller to get the CyberCab up onto the stage,

[00:13:07] but they didn't use it during the rest of the presentation when it was driving around the movie studio.

[00:13:12] Now, Tesla has confirmed none of this, so we don't know if that's the case or not.

[00:13:18] But I would not be surprised.

[00:13:20] Elon Musk is a huge video game nerd, so I would not be surprised if there was some secret place to plug a video game controller into

[00:13:29] or a video game-like controller into and control the car that way.

[00:13:36] And then we have a real quick update for those of you out there who have a Tesla,

[00:13:42] but didn't pay, you know, whatever it was between $4,000 and $15,000 for full self-driving.

[00:13:49] There's a new version of FSD out, and Elon said with every major update,

[00:13:55] they're going to do free trials to everyone who basically is too cheap to pay for it at this point.

[00:14:02] So right now, Tesla's rolling out 30 days of free FSD.

[00:14:07] Now, here's something that's really cool that they're doing.

[00:14:10] I don't know if they did this in the past, and maybe I just missed it.

[00:14:13] But if you have an active subscription, so if you're paying that $100 a month,

[00:14:18] Tesla will credit you 30 days of FSD, so you don't have to pay the $100 that month,

[00:14:24] which I think is pretty decent.

[00:14:26] And they don't really have to do that, but they're choosing to.

[00:14:30] So that's nice.

[00:14:34] Okie doke.

[00:14:34] We're going to end this episode on a rumor.

[00:14:37] Rumor has it that Tesla signed a battery cell agreement with Chinese battery cell manufacturer

[00:14:43] Eve Energy.

[00:14:45] Chinese media outlets are reporting that the deal has been signed,

[00:14:49] and to add some credibility to this rumor,

[00:14:53] Eve Energy has officially announced that they've signed a deal with an American auto manufacturer

[00:15:00] to supply them with battery cells for EVs.

[00:15:03] Based on what I've read, it does sound like they would be supplying lithium iron phosphate batteries

[00:15:09] to Tesla or the American automotive manufacturer.

[00:15:14] So, you know, just kind of keep that in the back of your head over the next couple weeks,

[00:15:19] because we might hear an announcement before too long.

[00:15:23] All right, everybody, that is it for our show today.

[00:15:28] Man, that was a lot faster than it normally is.

[00:15:31] I don't know why.

[00:15:31] I literally have four pages of notes, and I didn't skip over anything because I checked.

[00:15:36] And we hit everything.

[00:15:38] So, yeah, crazy.

[00:15:41] Little update for CES.

[00:15:44] I leave on January 6th, I think.

[00:15:49] Let me pull up my calendar here.

[00:15:51] So for CES, I am leaving on January 6th.

[00:15:54] I will be there the 6th, 7th, and 8th.

[00:15:57] And I leave in the afternoon on the 8th.

[00:16:01] So I have, thanks to Allison Sheridan, have been invited to Pepcom and Showstoppers, which

[00:16:08] is, those are media events.

[00:16:09] And I am officially signed up as media now.

[00:16:12] So that's really exciting.

[00:16:15] I honestly, I don't know if it's imposter syndrome or what.

[00:16:20] I just never thought that I would actually qualify for being media.

[00:16:23] And it was actually super easy to get qualified.

[00:16:27] So I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.

[00:16:30] But yeah, so that's, I'm excited about that.

[00:16:33] I'm looking forward to going to Showstoppers and Pepcom and seeing what things are out there

[00:16:39] and really just creating a ton of content for you guys.

[00:16:46] If you're curious what I'm taking with me, I recorded an episode this week with Rob Dunwood

[00:16:53] on our Beyond the Post podcast.

[00:16:56] And we talk about all the stuff that we're taking with us to CES.

[00:17:02] Yes, and I know that there are some folks who listen to this podcast who will be at CES

[00:17:07] for business reasons.

[00:17:09] If you want to meet up and say hello, I don't know if I'll have enough time to have coffee

[00:17:14] or a meal or anything, but if you want to meet somewhere and say hello and shake hands

[00:17:17] or bump elbows or whatever, send me an email, bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:17:24] And again, thanks to Allison for one, encouraging me to do it.

[00:17:28] And two, sending the request emails on my behalf and getting me into both Pepcom and Showstoppers.

[00:17:39] It was really nice of her to do.

[00:17:40] So thank you very much, Allison.

[00:17:41] Everybody should go and support Allison.

[00:17:44] EverythingGood starts with podfeet.com.

[00:17:46] Go there, read her blog, subscribe to her podcast.

[00:17:49] And yeah, I am very grateful for Allison's help in that regard.

[00:17:56] All right, everybody, that is it for me.

[00:17:59] I hope you all have a, let's see, I'll talk to you before New Year's Eve.

[00:18:05] So I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you on Tuesday.

[00:18:09] Bye.

[00:18:09] Bye.