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8 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Explainer-How is Tesla expected to remotely control its robotaxis, and what are its limitations?
By Chris Kirkham, Norihiko Shirouzu, Rachael Levy and Abhirup Roy (Reuters) -Tesla is expected to tiptoe into its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as soon as Sunday with about 10 of its Model Y SUVs that will operate within strict limits. CEO Elon Musk has said the company is being "super paranoid" about safety and that humans will remotely monitor the fleet. Remote access and control - known in the industry as "teleoperation" - is used in varying degrees by the handful of robotaxi startups operating around the globe. The technology has clear advantages and important limitations. Here are some details of how it works: WHAT IS TELEOPERATION? Teleoperation is the control of machines by humans in a different location, usually over a wireless network. It is used to train robots to operate autonomously, monitor their autonomous activity, and take over when required. HOW DO ROBOTAXI OPERATORS USE TELEOPERATION? The global robotaxi industry is still in test mode, as companies deploy the vehicles in limited geographic areas and continually adjust the artificial intelligence software that controls them. Teleoperation is often used to intervene when a vehicle is unsure of what to do. Alphabet's Waymo, for example, has a team of human "fleet response" agents who respond to questions from the Waymo Driver - its bot. "Much like phone-a-friend, when the Waymo vehicle encounters a particular situation on the road, the autonomous driver can reach out to a human fleet response agent for additional information," Waymo said in a blog post last year. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik told Reuters, "the cars aren't being actively monitored," adding that the software is "the ultimate decision-maker." A Waymo video shows a car asking a remote operator whether a street with emergency response vehicles is open to traffic. When the human says yes, the vehicle proceeds. In contrast, other companies, such as Baidu's Apollo Go in China, have used fully remote backup drivers who can step in to virtually drive the vehicles. Baidu declined to comment. WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS? Driving vehicles remotely on public roads has a major potential problem: it relies on cellular data connections that can drop or operate with a lag, disconnecting the vehicle from the remote driver in dangerous situations. Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert, said that approach could work for a small test deployment of 10 vehicles, such as Tesla's initial effort in Austin, but he called teleoperation "inherently unreliable technology." "Eventually you will lose connection at exactly the worst time," he said. "If they've done their homework, this won't ever happen for 10 cars. With a million cars, it's going to happen every day." Former Waymo CEO Krafcik agreed, adding that the time delay in cell signal makes remote driving "very risky." On the other hand, relying on the vehicle to reach out for help and allowing the vehicle to be the decision-maker are risky as well, Koopman said, as it does not guarantee the vehicle will make the right decision. Waymo declined to comment on the limitations of its approach. Koopman also noted there are limits to how many vehicles one person can safely monitor. A group of Democratic Texas lawmakers asked Tesla on Wednesday to delay its robotaxi launch until September, when a new autonomous-driving law is scheduled to take effect. The Austin-area lawmakers said in a letter that delaying the launch "is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla's operations." WHAT IS TESLA'S APPROACH? Musk for years has promised, without delivering, that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) advanced driver assistance software would graduate to completely self-driving and control robotaxis. This year, he said Tesla would roll out a paid service in Austin underpinned by an "unsupervised" version of the software. "Teslas will be in the wild, with no one in them, in June, in Austin," Musk told analysts and investors in January. In May, he told CNBC that the robotaxi would only operate in parts of Austin that are safe for it, would avoid difficult intersections, and would use humans to monitor the vehicles. What those teleoperators will do is not clear. For years inside Tesla, company executives have expected to use teleoperators who could take over in case of trouble, said one person familiar with the matter. For instance, if a robotaxi were stuck in a crowded pedestrian area and confused about what to do next, a human teleoperator could take over and guide it, the source said. Tesla advertised for teleoperation positions, saying the company needs the ability to "access and control" autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots remotely. Such employees can "remotely perform complex and intricate tasks," it said in the advertisements. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," Musk said in a post on X last week while providing a tentative launch date of June 22.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why China's auto, tech giants threaten Tesla's self-driving future
By Norihiko Shirouzu AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -Chinese electric-vehicle makers led by BYD beat Tesla in the competition to produce affordable electric vehicles. Now, many of those same fierce competitors are pulling into the passing lane in the global race to produce self-driving cars. BYD shook up China's smart-EV industry earlier this year by offering its 'God's Eye' driver-assistance package for free, undercutting the technology Tesla sells for nearly $9,000 in China. 'With God's Eye, Tesla's strategy starts to fall apart,' said Shenzhen-based BYD investor Taylor Ogan, an American who has owned several Teslas and driven BYD cars with God's Eye, which he called more capable than Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' (FSD). It's not just BYD. Other Chinese auto and tech companies are offering affordable EVs with FSD-like technology for a relative pittance. China's Leapmotor and Xpeng, for instance, offer systems capable of highway and urban driving in $20,000 vehicles. A slew of Chinese firms are chasing the same technology, an industry push backed by China's government. BYD's assisted-driving hardware costs are far lower than Tesla's, according to analyses performed for Reuters by companies that dismantle and analyze vehicles for automakers. The comparisons, which have not been previously reported, show that BYD's costs to procure components and build a system with radar and lidar are about the same as Tesla's FSD, which doesn't have such sensors. That undercuts Tesla's unusual technological approach, which aims to save costs by nixing such sensors and relying solely on cameras and artificial intelligence. The rising competition from Chinese smart-EV players is among the chief problems confronting Tesla CEO Elon Musk after his rocky tenure as a Trump administration advisor as he refocuses on his business empire - as Tesla vehicle sales are tanking globally. The stakes are made higher by a moment-of-truth challenge this month in Tesla's home base of Austin, Texas, where it plans to launch a robotaxi trial with 10 or 20 vehicles after a decade of Musk's unfulfilled promises to deliver self-driving Teslas. Tesla did not respond when reached for comment about its Chinese competitors. Previously, Musk has described Chinese car companies as the most competitive in the world. Chinese competition was one factor driving Tesla's strategic pivot away from mass-market EVs last year, when Reuters reported it had killed plans to build an all-new EV expected to cost $25,000. Musk has since staked Tesla's future instead on self-driving robotaxis, the hopes for which now underpin the vast majority of the automaker's stock-market value of roughly $1 trillion. Now Tesla faces the same stiff competition on vehicle autonomy from many of the same Chinese automakers who undercut its affordable-EV plans. Adding to the challenge are tech firms including Chinese smartphone giant Huawei, which supplies autonomous-driving technology to major Chinese automakers. Short of full autonomy, today's driver-assistance systems offer a critical competitive edge in China, the world's largest car market, where Tesla sales are falling amid a protracted price war among scores of homegrown EV brands. Tesla is further handicapped by China's regulations preventing it from using data collected by Tesla cars in China to train the artificial intelligence underpinning FSD. Tesla has been negotiating with Chinese officials, so far without success, to get permission to transfer such data back to the United States for analysis. Tesla's competitors in China do benefit from subsidies and other forms of policy support from Beijing for advanced assisted driving technology. Their advantages also stem from another consequential factor: cut-throat smart-EV competition that has characterized their industry over the past decade. The resulting EV boom created economies of scale and the industry's tendency to forgo some profit margins to expand new technologies' market penetration quickly, leading to lower manufacturing costs. STREETS OF SHENZHEN BYD investor Ogan, of Shenzhen-based Snow Bull Capital, has a front-row seat to China's autonomous-tech battleground. He recently drove several BYD models equipped with God's Eye, he said, and didn't have to take over driving in any of them while traveling the congested streets of Shenzhen, a bustling southern China megalopolis of 18 million people. Another notable smart-EV player in China is Huawei, experts say. Huawei lends its technology and branding to a half dozen automakers including heavyweights Chery, SAIC and Changan, and has lower-profile partnerships with more than a dozen other carmakers, Huawei representatives said. Reuters journalists rode in an Aito M9 — a luxury electric SUV from Seres with Huawei driver-assistance technology — as it navigated Shenzhen roadways in April. With a driver's hands off the wheel, the vehicle exited a highway seamlessly into a congested urban zone, where the M9 proceeded cautiously and slowed to a crawl as a construction worker appeared like he might walk into the roadway. At one point the vehicle turned right and slowly drifted left to avoid two men unloading boxes from a parked truck. The vehicle then parallel parked itself at Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters. Huawei was among several Chinese companies, including automakers Zeekr, Changan and Xpeng, that touted progress towards fully-autonomous cars at April's Shanghai auto show, even as Beijing announced a new marketing crackdown on terms such as 'smart' and 'intelligent' driving in the wake of a deadly crash in a Xiaomi vehicle involving driver-assistance technology. Huawei said it's ready to undergo a new validation regime being developed by Chinese regulators to certify so-called Level 3 driving systems, meaning they are capable enough to allow drivers to look away unless notified by the system to take over. Zeekr, a luxury brand of China auto giant Geely, also plans to soon sell cars with Level 3 systems. Tesla has yet to release such an "unsupervised" version of FSD because its technology needs more training to operate without a driver's hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Tesla plans to launch self-driving robotaxis in Austin this month. Little is known about its plans. The company has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20 fare-collecting driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of the city, which Tesla has not publicly identified. 'GOD'S EYE' ON THE CHEAP Chinese EV makers are moving quickly to develop driver-assistance systems in a market where car-buyers are demanding them at a faster pace than in other regions, analysts say. Their ability to do so at lower costs poses the biggest threat to Tesla's new autonomy-based business model. BYD buyers can get an FSD-comparable version of God's Eye as a standard feature in cars priced at about $30,000. The cheapest FSD-equipped Tesla in China is a Model 3 selling for about $41,500. According to an analysis by A2MAC1, a Paris-based tear-down firm that benchmarks components, the mid-level God's Eye version most comparable to Tesla's FSD runs on an Nvidia computing chip with data collected through 12 cameras, five radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and one lidar sensor, at a cost of $2,105. That compares to $2,360 for Tesla's FSD, which uses cameras without sensors and two AI chips, the firm estimates. Cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors are 40% cheaper in China than comparable devices in Europe and the United States, A2MAC1 estimates. Lidar sensors cost about 20% less, the firm says. Sensor costs have fallen because China's EV boom created economies of scale, said A2MAC1 engineer Elena Zhelondz. The fierce competition also pushed carmakers and suppliers to accept lower profits on driver-assistance equipment, she said. BYD's 22% gross margin will likely fall as it gives away God's Eye but it will benefit from a vehicle-sales boost, said Chris McNally, head of global automotive and mobility research for advisory firm Evercore. MORE CARS, MORE MILES, BETTER AI Falling behind the Chinese brands on driver-assistance technology would compound Tesla's challenges in China, where it's already losing market share to rivals including BYD, which sells an entry-level EV for less than $10,000. The growing scale of BYD and others could also provide a technological advantage: Racking up more miles on China roads helps train the AI technology needed to perfect automated-driving systems. BYD has a 'clear and ongoing market-share driving advantage' over Tesla in gathering such on-road data to refine God's Eye, Evercore's McNally said, adding that advantage might only increase as offering God's Eye for free helps sell more BYD vehicles. BYD's scale also helps lower costs by providing uncommon leverage over suppliers. In November, a BYD executive in charge of passenger-vehicle operations wrote to suppliers telling them that the automaker sold 4.2 million vehicles last year (more than double the number of Teslas sold) because of 'technical innovation, economies of scale, and a low-cost supply chain.' The executive noted the new year would likely bring more growth, but also fiercer competition. Without specifically mentioning God's Eye, he ended the letter by asking the suppliers for an across-the-board 10% price cut on all parts and systems starting on January 1, calling the new year a final 'knockout round.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why China's auto, tech giants threaten Tesla's self-driving future
By Norihiko Shirouzu AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -Chinese electric-vehicle makers led by BYD beat Tesla in the competition to produce affordable electric vehicles. Now, many of those same fierce competitors are pulling into the passing lane in the global race to produce self-driving cars. BYD shook up China's smart-EV industry earlier this year by offering its 'God's Eye' driver-assistance package for free, undercutting the technology Tesla sells for nearly $9,000 in China. 'With God's Eye, Tesla's strategy starts to fall apart,' said Shenzhen-based BYD investor Taylor Ogan, an American who has owned several Teslas and driven BYD cars with God's Eye, which he called more capable than Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' (FSD). It's not just BYD. Other Chinese auto and tech companies are offering affordable EVs with FSD-like technology for a relative pittance. China's Leapmotor and Xpeng, for instance, offer systems capable of highway and urban driving in $20,000 vehicles. A slew of Chinese firms are chasing the same technology, an industry push backed by China's government. BYD's assisted-driving hardware costs are far lower than Tesla's, according to analyses performed for Reuters by companies that dismantle and analyze vehicles for automakers. The comparisons, which have not been previously reported, show that BYD's costs to procure components and build a system with radar and lidar are about the same as Tesla's FSD, which doesn't have such sensors. That undercuts Tesla's unusual technological approach, which aims to save costs by nixing such sensors and relying solely on cameras and artificial intelligence. The rising competition from Chinese smart-EV players is among the chief problems confronting Tesla CEO Elon Musk after his rocky tenure as a Trump administration advisor as he refocuses on his business empire - as Tesla vehicle sales are tanking globally. The stakes are made higher by a moment-of-truth challenge this month in Tesla's home base of Austin, Texas, where it plans to launch a robotaxi trial with 10 or 20 vehicles after a decade of Musk's unfulfilled promises to deliver self-driving Teslas. Tesla did not respond when reached for comment about its Chinese competitors. Previously, Musk has described Chinese car companies as the most competitive in the world. Chinese competition was one factor driving Tesla's strategic pivot away from mass-market EVs last year, when Reuters reported it had killed plans to build an all-new EV expected to cost $25,000. Musk has since staked Tesla's future instead on self-driving robotaxis, the hopes for which now underpin the vast majority of the automaker's stock-market value of roughly $1 trillion. Now Tesla faces the same stiff competition on vehicle autonomy from many of the same Chinese automakers who undercut its affordable-EV plans. Adding to the challenge are tech firms including Chinese smartphone giant Huawei, which supplies autonomous-driving technology to major Chinese automakers. Short of full autonomy, today's driver-assistance systems offer a critical competitive edge in China, the world's largest car market, where Tesla sales are falling amid a protracted price war among scores of homegrown EV brands. Tesla is further handicapped by China's regulations preventing it from using data collected by Tesla cars in China to train the artificial intelligence underpinning FSD. Tesla has been negotiating with Chinese officials, so far without success, to get permission to transfer such data back to the United States for analysis. Tesla's competitors in China do benefit from subsidies and other forms of policy support from Beijing for advanced assisted driving technology. Their advantages also stem from another consequential factor: cut-throat smart-EV competition that has characterized their industry over the past decade. The resulting EV boom created economies of scale and the industry's tendency to forgo some profit margins to expand new technologies' market penetration quickly, leading to lower manufacturing costs. STREETS OF SHENZHEN BYD investor Ogan, of Shenzhen-based Snow Bull Capital, has a front-row seat to China's autonomous-tech battleground. He recently drove several BYD models equipped with God's Eye, he said, and didn't have to take over driving in any of them while traveling the congested streets of Shenzhen, a bustling southern China megalopolis of 18 million people. Another notable smart-EV player in China is Huawei, experts say. Huawei lends its technology and branding to a half dozen automakers including heavyweights Chery, SAIC and Changan, and has lower-profile partnerships with more than a dozen other carmakers, Huawei representatives said. Reuters journalists rode in an Aito M9 — a luxury electric SUV from Seres with Huawei driver-assistance technology — as it navigated Shenzhen roadways in April. With a driver's hands off the wheel, the vehicle exited a highway seamlessly into a congested urban zone, where the M9 proceeded cautiously and slowed to a crawl as a construction worker appeared like he might walk into the roadway. At one point the vehicle turned right and slowly drifted left to avoid two men unloading boxes from a parked truck. The vehicle then parallel parked itself at Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters. Huawei was among several Chinese companies, including automakers Zeekr, Changan and Xpeng, that touted progress towards fully-autonomous cars at April's Shanghai auto show, even as Beijing announced a new marketing crackdown on terms such as 'smart' and 'intelligent' driving in the wake of a deadly crash in a Xiaomi vehicle involving driver-assistance technology. Huawei said it's ready to undergo a new validation regime being developed by Chinese regulators to certify so-called Level 3 driving systems, meaning they are capable enough to allow drivers to look away unless notified by the system to take over. Zeekr, a luxury brand of China auto giant Geely, also plans to soon sell cars with Level 3 systems. Tesla has yet to release such an "unsupervised" version of FSD because its technology needs more training to operate without a driver's hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Tesla plans to launch self-driving robotaxis in Austin this month. Little is known about its plans. The company has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20 fare-collecting driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of the city, which Tesla has not publicly identified. 'GOD'S EYE' ON THE CHEAP Chinese EV makers are moving quickly to develop driver-assistance systems in a market where car-buyers are demanding them at a faster pace than in other regions, analysts say. Their ability to do so at lower costs poses the biggest threat to Tesla's new autonomy-based business model. BYD buyers can get an FSD-comparable version of God's Eye as a standard feature in cars priced at about $30,000. The cheapest FSD-equipped Tesla in China is a Model 3 selling for about $41,500. According to an analysis by A2MAC1, a Paris-based tear-down firm that benchmarks components, the mid-level God's Eye version most comparable to Tesla's FSD runs on an Nvidia computing chip with data collected through 12 cameras, five radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and one lidar sensor, at a cost of $2,105. That compares to $2,360 for Tesla's FSD, which uses cameras without sensors and two AI chips, the firm estimates. Cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors are 40% cheaper in China than comparable devices in Europe and the United States, A2MAC1 estimates. Lidar sensors cost about 20% less, the firm says. Sensor costs have fallen because China's EV boom created economies of scale, said A2MAC1 engineer Elena Zhelondz. The fierce competition also pushed carmakers and suppliers to accept lower profits on driver-assistance equipment, she said. BYD's 22% gross margin will likely fall as it gives away God's Eye but it will benefit from a vehicle-sales boost, said Chris McNally, head of global automotive and mobility research for advisory firm Evercore. MORE CARS, MORE MILES, BETTER AI Falling behind the Chinese brands on driver-assistance technology would compound Tesla's challenges in China, where it's already losing market share to rivals including BYD, which sells an entry-level EV for less than $10,000. The growing scale of BYD and others could also provide a technological advantage: Racking up more miles on China roads helps train the AI technology needed to perfect automated-driving systems. BYD has a 'clear and ongoing market-share driving advantage' over Tesla in gathering such on-road data to refine God's Eye, Evercore's McNally said, adding that advantage might only increase as offering God's Eye for free helps sell more BYD vehicles. BYD's scale also helps lower costs by providing uncommon leverage over suppliers. In November, a BYD executive in charge of passenger-vehicle operations wrote to suppliers telling them that the automaker sold 4.2 million vehicles last year (more than double the number of Teslas sold) because of 'technical innovation, economies of scale, and a low-cost supply chain.' The executive noted the new year would likely bring more growth, but also fiercer competition. Without specifically mentioning God's Eye, he ended the letter by asking the suppliers for an across-the-board 10% price cut on all parts and systems starting on January 1, calling the new year a final 'knockout round.' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Dude, where's my car? Toyota buyers face long waits amid hybrid boom
By Aditi Shah and Norihiko Shirouzu NEW DELHI/AUSTIN (Reuters) - Soaring demand for Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrids has left suppliers struggling to keep pace, leading to shortages of parts and months-long waits for car buyers, according to four people familiar with the situation. Stocks of hybrids are low at Toyota dealers across major markets, including the U.S., Japan, China and Europe, two of the people told Reuters. The surge in demand presents a challenge for Toyota, the dominant player in hybrids. But it also vindicates the Japanese automaker's bet on the technology against predictions by some rivals that battery-only electric vehicles would wipe out hybrid demand. Global sales of hybrids, including plug-in models, have almost tripled to 16.1 million from 5.7 million over the past five years, according to data provided by LMC Automotive. Toyota's European customers are waiting on average 60 to 70 days for new hybrids, about double the duration in 2020, one of the people said. Vehicles with the heaviest demand and shortest supply in Europe include the Yaris Cross hybrid and RAV4 plug-in hybrid, according to Toyota. In Japan, buyers are waiting two to five months for many models, a Toyota website shows. At one U.S. West Coast dealership, Prius hybrids were sold out in mid-February and just a handful of Camry hybrids were available, another person said. And in India, an important growth market for Toyota, delivery times have improved since last year but are still two to nine months depending on the model, another person said. Reuters interviewed 10 industry figures, including people at Toyota and its suppliers, who described bottlenecks affecting the hybrid supply chain. Details of the parts and suppliers involved, and some measures Toyota is considering to ease the strain in one market, have not been previously reported. Toyota said in a statement that demand for hybrids had increased "significantly in the past year in all regions" and it was doing its best to boost production in response. The automaker said it had improved vehicle delivery lead-times over the past year. "Currently, the production capacity for hybrid parts and components from our suppliers and our in-house parts manufacturing is line with our annual production plans and our vehicle assembly capacity," it said. SUPPLY SNARLS The delivery times are causing headaches for some customers. Saugata Dasgupta, an Asia Development Bank executive in New Delhi, told Reuters he ordered a hybrid Toyota Innova Hycross SUV in January 2023. But he learned from the dealer in August 2024 that he faced a further wait of 25 to 30 weeks. This month, another email arrived: He would need to wait another 15 to 25 weeks. By that point, Dasgupta said, he had already given up waiting and bought a gasoline-powered model from local automaker Mahindra & Mahindra. The delays stem from tight supply of components used in hybrid powertrains, which are largely made in Japan and shipped abroad to where cars are assembled, said two of the people, who like others were granted anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the information. A shortage of magnets used in parts supplied to Aisin Corp has emerged as one pain point, one of the people said. As a result, Aisin, one of the Toyota group's largest component makers, wasn't able to get rotors and stators from its suppliers, delaying delivery of hybrid motors to Toyota, this person said. While the magnets were sourced from Japan and China, the resulting supply issue for Aisin was global, the person said. Similarly, the Toyota group's top components maker, Denso, has been affected by bottlenecks at second- and third-tier suppliers that caused delays with deliveries of its inverters, another person said. Inverters convert the battery's current and are used to control the motor. Faced with component shortages, Toyota may look to other suppliers besides Denso in India, and is considering making inverters in the country, two of the people told Reuters. Toyota didn't address Reuters questions about specific suppliers. Aisin and Denso declined to comment. Reuters reported last year that Toyota is moving to convert most or all of its lineup to hybrid-only vehicles, which could put more pressure on suppliers. ADDING CAPACITY Varinder Wadhwa, a vice president at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the automaker's India unit, said in a statement that removal of supply-chain bottlenecks had already resulted in "significant rationalization" of wait times. The company recently added capacity to produce an additional 32,000 vehicles annually and was investing to add another 100,000 vehicles, Wadhwa said. Elsewhere, Toyota has invested $14 billion for a battery plant in North Carolina to meet hybrid demand, and has said it is due to start shipping batteries for North American electrified vehicles in April. Nearly half of the vehicles Toyota assembled in the U.S. last year were hybrids. Hybrids are a rare bright spot for Toyota in China, where it faces fierce competition from the likes of BYD. While Toyota's overall sales in China in 2024 fell 7% from a year earlier, sales of its electrified vehicles - mostly hybrids - grew 27%. Competitors such as Hyundai and its Kia affiliate are also struggling to ramp up production of hybrids, mainly due to a lack of capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. One Hyundai dealer in Seoul said this month that the wait time was a year for the hybrid version of the Palisade SUV. The wait for Kia's Carnival hybrid was 10 months and for the Sorento hybrid, seven months, company documents showed. Hyundai didn't respond to questions about the situation. In August, Hyundai said it would double its hybrid lineup to 14 models by 2030 to counter slowing EV take-up. Honda, another player in hybrids, said it was seeing strong demand, especially in North America and Japan, but declined to give specifics on delivery times. For some customers, fuel savings make hybrids worth the wait. Rakesh Kumar, a businessman in India's Uttar Pradesh state, finally got his Toyota Hyryder SUV in March, almost five months after he ordered it. "We have one hybrid car in the family already," he said, "and I know its mileage is way better than any other car." Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-GM, Hyundai in talks to share pickups and electric vans in North America, sources say
By Hyunjoo Jin, Norihiko Shirouzu and Heekyong Yang SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor and General Motors are close to finalizing a deal for Hyundai to share two electric commercial van models with the U.S. auto giant, according to a source familiar with the talks and Hyundai documents reviewed by Reuters. In return, GM might provide Hyundai with pickup trucks to sell under its own brand in North America, the source said. Such arrangements could kick off a broader partnership as the companies, two of the world's largest automakers, hold wide-ranging discussions, the source said. The documents reviewed by Reuters show Hyundai is considering deals with GM that include joint purchasing or development involving computing chips, next-generation batteries and battery materials. Like many global automakers, GM and Hyundai are facing rising competition from Chinese EV makers and the threat of a global trade war, prompting them to look to share products to slash spending. Hyundai would produce vans to be sold under both its own and GM brands, initially importing them from South Korea, according to the documents and the person familiar with the talks. But Hyundai is considering manufacturing the vans in North America by 2028. The person said Hyundai is exploring building a new plant, adding production to an existing facility or contracting out the manufacturing. The talks on pickups focus on GM sharing its midsized trucks, branded as the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon in the United States, one of the sources said. Hyundai also wants to sell a version of GM's popular full-sized pickups, the source said, but GM hasn't put that option on the table. Any pickup-sharing deal likely will take longer to finalize than the commercial van arrangement, the person said. The automakers are also discussing the possibility of Hyundai providing GM with compact SUVs it could add to its product line-up in Brazil, the source said. Hyundai said in January that it is in talks to supply electric commercial vehicles to GM as part of a preliminary agreement to explore how the automakers could cooperate on vehicles, supply chains and clean-energy technologies to cut costs and speed development. Details of the partnership talks, including a potential pickup sharing deal, are reported here for the first time. General Motors declined to comment on specifics of the negotiations but said in a statement: "Both companies continue to explore potential areas of collaboration." Hyundai said in a statement that nothing has been finalized in ongoing talks but that the automakers are exploring deals "across key strategic areas." COMPETITIVE THREATS, GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS Chinese EV producers have upended the auto industry with high-tech, low-cost models and GM is among many legacy automakers losing sales in China, the world's largest auto market, and aiming to boost revenues elsewhere. Hyundai's business in China is minimal but it faces the threat of Chinese exports globally. Both automakers also face geopolitical tensions heightened by tariffs being levied or threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, which could curtail their ability to use imported components and push them to set up more U.S. manufacturing. Tariff threats are also adding uncertainty to the GM-Hyundai partnership talks, according to two sources familiar with the matter. A commercial van deal could help GM better compete with the Ford Transit and Ram ProMaster without the major investment of developing its own model, said Sam Fiorani, vice president at research firm Auto Forecast Solutions. GM needs new commercial vans, he said, because it is expected to phase out production of its decades-old Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans soon. Hyundai is considering sharing its compact electric commercial vans based on its ST1 electric commercial vehicle. It would also give GM a larger electric commercial van that Hyundai is developing to challenge the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, according to the documents and one of the sources. The two automakers might share sales and service networks for the vans, the Hyundai documents show. The smaller van would be initially assembled at Hyundai's factory in the South Korean city of Ulsan and potentially supplied to GM starting in mid-2027, the documents say. The model will be followed in 2028 by the larger van, similar in size to Hyundai's Solati. The new North American commercial van factory under consideration would target production of 60,000 by 2030 and more than 100,000 in 2032. SMALL SUVS, PICKUP TRUCKS Hyundai is increasing U.S. sales while its China sales decline and emerged - along with GM - as a challenger to Tesla in the EV market. But unlike GM, Hyundai has little presence in the lucrative U.S. commercial vehicle and truck market. Hyundai can use the GM partnership to gain a foothold in those segments, where rivals like Toyota and Nissan struggle to compete with the Detroit Three automakers, said Fiorani, of Auto Forecast Solutions. As Hyundai aims to convince GM to share its hot-selling pickups, it is considering giving GM a small sport utility vehicle called the Creta to refresh its model lineup in Brazil, one of the sources said. A third source said GM hopes to partially make up for its struggling business in China through Hyundai partnerships. GM, the person said, could use Hyundai's small and mid-sized vehicle platforms to potentially expand in South American markets. Sign in to access your portfolio
