VinFast VF3 Launch, Lucid’s Upcoming EVs, and NIO's Success

[00:00:20] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving and much much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host and I almost forgot the intro to the

[00:00:33] Show it wasn't sure what show it was doing. I've been doing so many podcasts lately. Speaking of doing so many podcasts lately Alison Sheridan is on the latest episode of Beyond the Post. Beyond the Post is the podcast that I do with my buddy

[00:00:47] Rob where we talk about all things digital creation Podcasts social media influencers. We're gonna have some authors on soon So if you've ever thought about starting something in this realm in this space

[00:01:01] Go ahead and check out Beyond the Post and I'll put a link to the Beyond the Post YouTube and Podcasts in the show notes that way if you'd like to check out Alison's interview you absolutely can

[00:01:13] You can also go to podfeed.com to see all of the cool things that Alison is up to All right, let's jump into our news Neo delivered over 20,000 cars in July That is the third straight month in a row that Neo has delivered over

[00:01:32] 20,000 vehicles so congratulations to the Neo team. That's a big accomplishment for them If you're in the market for a used EV consider looking at 2017-2018 and 2019 Chevy Bolts because according to inside EVs you can find

[00:01:53] Some of them for under $10,000 on the used EV market and I'm gonna be honest with you I have never met a bolt owner that was unhappy with their car. So If you're looking for a second car for your family one for your kids or just a

[00:02:08] Affordable car for yourself consider a used Chevy Bolt Then fast has started shipping their Vf3 so if you don't know what the Vf3 is it's a mini SUV It's a four-seater has 125 miles of range seven year warranty or 160,000 kilometers whichever comes first The starting price

[00:02:31] Will be less than 13,000 US dollars now That's not gonna be here in the United States when it comes to the US It's estimated that will cost less than or around 20,000 dollars, but still very impressive price

[00:02:46] Now as far as deliveries they're gonna start in Vietnam and the Philippines for 2024 and then in 2025 They'll move on to Europe the rest of Southeast Asia and the United States So I'm looking forward to seeing a Vf3 here. I think that that's a pretty cool car

[00:03:07] Lucid motors has started producing their Pre-production version of their new SUV the gravity. This is a three row SUV 440 plus miles it's gonna start somewhere around $80,000 and we should see actual production of these vehicles and deliveries sometime in late 2024

[00:03:27] Now the gravity is pretty impressive the Lucid air is very impressive But it's also very expensive the Lucid air starts which is their sedan starts at $69,900 with the Lucid air pure and it tops out at $249,000 for the air sapphire Very expensive vehicle even at $70,000. That's an expensive vehicle

[00:03:51] To this point Lucid only sold 6001 Lucid air sedans in 2023 and that you know includes the air pure starting at $70,000 all the way up to The air sapphire at $250,000 so the gravity will definitely help Lucid sales Not probably not in 2024 too much but in 2025 because the SUV

[00:04:17] Market especially here in North America is strong Even though it does start around $80,000 But what Lucid really needs is they need that mid-sized mid-priced EV and they are actually planning one and I'm gonna go over some things that we know about the unannounced

[00:04:37] Mid-sized EV first of all name. We don't know the name But Lucid has trademarked the Lucid earth that kind of goes with the air and the gravity So maybe that will be the name

[00:04:50] Next up we have the cost Peter Rawlinson has said that this is gonna cost around $48,000 who knows if they're gonna be able to honor that price And if they can you know if they can hit that $48,000 target will they be able to

[00:05:07] Make the entry-level trim available at launch or is this something where they're going to Launch the more expensive version of the car and at some point in time they get to the entry level trim Which is what they did with the Lucid air pure

[00:05:22] Now as far as range goes we don't have any Specific range numbers that Lucid has given us but what we do know is The Lucid air is a very efficient vehicle the Lucid air pure gets about five miles per kilowatt hour

[00:05:40] This is according to Lucid motors and according to inside EVs the 2024 model s long range all-wheel drive gets around 3.6 miles per kilowatt hour and Both of these are entry-level vehicles for both companies the model s long range and the

[00:06:01] Air pure but the air pure is a rear-wheel drive vehicle. So it will get a little bit better It does have a little bit better efficiency Then the all-wheel drive version of the Tesla Model S would but I think the point remains the same that

[00:06:17] Lucid does a really good job with efficiency And they have a lot of great technology in the Lucid air and I'm sure the gravity as well

[00:06:26] So whatever they decide to call their mid-sized EV it's gonna be very efficient and have some really cool technology in it as well Now when can we expect to see this vehicle? I wouldn't be surprised if we got an announcement or

[00:06:43] You know a teaser at the end of 2024 maybe around the LA auto show when that comes out in late November So I wouldn't be surprised to see an update from Lucid during that time

[00:06:55] We'll definitely see something in 2025 because production is scheduled for late 2026 according to Lucid with deliveries beginning in Early 2027 so they're gonna definitely want people want to have time for people to pre-order this vehicle so that they can judge

[00:07:12] What the demand will be for it and I think the demand is gonna be pretty high I don't know if it will sell like the Model Y does because Lucid while a very good brand

[00:07:24] And you know, I'm not worried about Lucid going away. They're financed by the Saudi government They're fine or the Saudi wealth fund They're fine there They have all the money that they need until the Saudis decided this side They're not gonna fund it anymore

[00:07:40] But if I asked, you know, 10 of my friends, I'd probably have four of them that knew who Lucid Motors was Maybe if I jogged their memory, maybe that would go up to five or six

[00:07:51] But honestly, that's not a it's not a brand that I think a lot of folks who aren't into EVs Know a lot about and honestly, that's something that Peter Rawlinson has said at earnings or during earnings calls that

[00:08:06] They need to get their name out there. They need a better brand recognition. So and if they want to sell a mass market car They're definitely gonna have to get their name out there somehow whether that's through word of mouth like Tesla does or whether

[00:08:20] That's through actual advertising All right, that's enough on Lucid. Let's move on to Ford Ford Blue Cruise has been approved for 15 new European countries That makes a total of 17 countries if you include the US and Canada and you should by the way

[00:08:38] So Blue Cruise is available in Austria Belgium the Czech Republic Denmark France Great Britain Germany Greece Hungary Italy the Netherlands Poland Portugal Spain Sweden and then of course US and Canada so that's that's Good news for for Ford and folks who own Fords in Europe

[00:09:00] Last story here in our EV news. There's a new JD power owner satisfaction leader in the EV space So this is a survey that JD power does it's actually called the automotive performance execution and layout

[00:09:17] appeal for short and this study measures people's emotional attachment and their level of excitement to the vehicle so the Genesis Gv60 Kia EV 6 the Kia EV 9 and the BMW Ix oh, but there's one more and the Porsche Taycan

[00:09:39] Received the highest rankings in their respective segments like Tesla actually fell Quite a bit. They did at one point in time Lead these rankings and they have fallen quite a bit in this year's survey And I was reading the inside EVs article by Lillian Denin Strun

[00:09:59] Hopefully I said that name right. I'm positive I didn't but and I apologize to him But Tesla's product line and I agree with the author on this Tesla's product line is Largely unchanged, you know, Tesla's always improving their vehicles

[00:10:16] But they don't have a yearly cadence for new models, you know traditional automakers Will come out with a new model every fall here in the US anyway Tesla just improves their vehicles and they

[00:10:30] You know work that into the production and one day you have hardware for in the middle of May or the end of June Which is what happened for model Y owners in 2023 except for me. I was one week I took my delivery of my Tesla one week before

[00:10:48] Before hardware for vehicles started rolling out. So that's that was that was good feeling Anyway, anyway, my point on this is initially when Tesla started doing Their updates mid-cycle, you know, just when it was ready when a new motor is ready

[00:11:03] They're gonna put it in and they're not gonna make a big There's not gonna be a lot of fanfare about it That was great Unfortunately because these are small incremental changes over time the vehicle doesn't really change like we got a model 3 refresh, which is great

[00:11:19] We haven't really seen a model s or model X refresh the last couple years We haven't seen a model Y refresh late, but we know it's coming with juniper I do think that you know This is a little problem for Tesla because for so long

[00:11:36] They were so dominant in the EV space especially here in the US and now They're not there are so many good choices to choose from all of these vehicles the GV 60

[00:11:48] I looked at that car. It was more expensive than what I wanted to pay one before I bought my model Y I looked at the EV 6 the EV 9 wasn't out, but I would definitely look at the EV 9 today

[00:11:59] I looked at the Ionic 5 which is a Hyundai product, but these other vehicles are Hyundai as well I really would never consider the BMW X or the Porsche take-in because those are so far outside of what I can afford but

[00:12:14] You know these are good compelling vehicles and Tesla's gonna have to work harder to continue producing Vehicles that people want to buy Now Tesla has a lot of advantages But they're not the only player in the market and all of these other companies are producing

[00:12:32] Solid vehicles and Tesla needs to watch out for that All right, that is it for our EV news Did you know you can support this show and get an ad-free experience for as little as $1 a month like $1 month is pretty cheap

[00:13:09] It might be the cheapest patreon on patreon My goal with the patreon was never to make money It was just to use that money to help pay for the show and it does

[00:13:20] So if you would like to sign up for patreon help support the show financially not my not me Financially but the shore the show financially go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt comm and again zero ads So if you don't like the ads

[00:13:39] Check out patreon.com forward slash kilowatt All right, let's move on to our Tesla news I know many of you who listen to this show because I get lots of emails on this Don't necessarily like Elon for a variety of reasons and

[00:13:58] I don't talk about the political stuff that Elon talks about For a variety of reasons but also because that's not really what we talk about on this show But I do think this is worth putting here for no other reason

[00:14:14] Then that you know about it. Okay, and and don't worry. This is not a big political Post about something that Elon talked about. This is actually a post about Tesla investor Galileo Russell who is pretty popular in the Tesla community

[00:14:32] He is an investor. I don't know if he still has a podcast or a YouTube show, but he used to He posted on X that he was Disappointed in Elon's outspoken political views and not so much disappointed in the fact that Elon holds these views

[00:14:48] It's just how he communicates those views and Galileo had said that and I'm kind of paraphrasing here and I'll read one of the quotes from his thread but It's not only hurting the company

[00:15:02] But it's also turned a car that he loved into a political statement that I don't know what Galileo's Political leanings are I can guess because I've listened to him before and I follow him on social media But I want to read to you real quick his

[00:15:20] One of the things in his thread that I thought was particularly Engaging He said there is no doubt Material damage has been done to the Tesla brand every time I step into my car It used to be about fun positivity and sustainability now and

[00:15:39] At least in every major US city. My car has become a political statement that is divisive That sucks. It's like a cloud that follows my car everywhere. I go. I'm worried this trend Is and will continue to seriously hurt Tesla's sales and brand now

[00:15:59] I live in a major American city and I don't think anybody cares that I drive a Tesla or Knows my politics, but I do get what he's saying here And and this next part is the real reason why I put this in the show

[00:16:14] Elon responded to Galileo's thread and all it said was I hear you Now could he have said more? Yes. Could he have said more with and had a bigger impact? I don't think he could have

[00:16:28] now what Elon does in the future in regards to all the things that Galileo brought up, I Have no idea what's gonna happen But it's nice to know that he's listening to this feedback All right, let's move on

[00:16:47] In this is a little bit happier news in July Tesla started testing their first dry cathode 4680 battery cells for the Cybertruck So this is really cool. Dry cathode is one of the things that Tesla had Way back in battery day up on the on the slide

[00:17:04] We're gonna have dry cathode and it hasn't happened to this point, but it sounds like it's gonna happen soon the benefits to the dry cathode process is there is less

[00:17:14] Production processes that need to have that need to take place like you don't need the drying or the solvents and all that stuff Which means you can manufacture in a smaller space Which is great?

[00:17:27] And you don't have to buy all this equipment. There's also less cost for a variety different reasons It's better for the environment. I'd mentioned there's no solvents in there It reduces time to production better energy density

[00:17:41] So lots of positive things now when this will actually go into production vehicles I have no idea but That's out there and I just wanted everybody to know about it All right, our final story here Tesla has started rolling out supervised full self-driving 12.5

[00:18:01] To more people it's a wider release They had already started rolling this out to a limited number of Tesla owners But over the next few weeks everybody who has full self-driving should get it and Elon

[00:18:16] Has recently said and we talked about this that unsupervised full self-driving by the end of the year will be possible Probably not Elon's been saying that every year since hard word 2 came out And it has never been true and actually there's a little bit of a concern that

[00:18:34] Tesla is pushing up against constraints for hardware three equipped vehicles And so there may be a world where unsupervised full self-driving even if it's level three Maybe level four will never get to hardware three vehicles and honestly, I'm being honest as as

[00:18:53] Somebody who owns a hardwood three vehicle If you if you look at when hardware three was released, which was April of 2019 We are pretty long in the process for a computer Like I don't typically keep my computers for five years and we are five plus years on

[00:19:15] This current iteration of hardware now. Does that mean hardware three is useless? Absolutely not Does that mean we won't get something approaching? Unsupervised full self-driving. Yeah, maybe but it's gonna be really hard for Tesla to Code around the limitations of hardware three to get those features in there

[00:19:39] You know and Elon is saying that with heart full self-driving 12.5 That you're gonna be able to go for more than a year between interventions I would really like Tesla to make data on full self-driving 12.5 available to the propeller propeller hat wearing nerds

[00:20:00] To verify this is actually the case because Elon has Exaggerated capabilities of nearly every full self-driving update that's come out Especially every major update up and to the point of falsifying videos So I don't believe anything that he says

[00:20:17] Not that I think you know and I still don't think Elon's a bad person But I don't believe anything that he says there are people in my life who I love and I'm related to and I don't trust anything

[00:20:28] That comes out of their mouth, but I still love them and I still like hanging out with them Elon's in that same boat. I don't love him. I don't know him, but he's in that same boat of oh, this is interesting I don't believe you

[00:20:42] You know and there are people on social media who've gotten early access to The full self-driving version 12.5 and they love it and they have nothing but good things to say about it But some of those people are Tesla investors

[00:20:55] So they have an incentive to not say bad things about it to their thousands of followers and then again all of them would like to continue receiving early releases So any criticism that they have might be I'm not saying that is it might be

[00:21:12] muted because they want to continue receiving Early access to full self-driving and we know that Elon can be a little persnickety when it comes about People when it comes to people

[00:21:26] Saying things about his products he gets his if he doesn't think it's fair criticism whether it is or it isn't You know, he goes nuclear sometimes So I don't want to I don't want to be think that I'm calling anybody's credibility into question But based on those things

[00:21:44] I Take what they say with the grain assault So I guess what I'm saying here is full self-driving 12.5 is coming out if you get it Can you please tell me what you think of it?

[00:21:57] I'm really curious and I'm hoping that Elon sticks to what he said when he's When he mentioned that with every major release it might be a good idea to do another one month trial for people I would love that

[00:22:13] That would that would be great. I'd love to test it out All right, everybody that is it for our show this week or not this week but for yeah this week today's Friday. I

[00:22:25] Hope you all had a good week. Hope you all have a great weekend on Tuesday show It'll be news and then on Friday show next week. We will have Ford's Q2 2024 earnings call Again, thank you all for listening and I will see you on Tuesday