Automotive News - October 23, 2023 - 23

OCTOBER 23, 2023 * 23
Stellantis rebuilds engine lineup as EVs roll out
Richard Truett
rtruett@crain.com
DETROIT - Micky Bly, senior vice
president and head of global propulsion
systems at Stellantis, told a crowd
at an electrification conference here
last week that the company was continuing
to invest in - and clean up -
the internal combustion engine as it
rolls out electric vehicles.
Stellantis' goal is to have EVs account for
half of U.S. sales and 100 percent of sales in
Europe by 2030. But the automaker is seeing
increased demand for gasoline enKIA
Brand
says aim isn't luxury,
but being 'more modern'
continued from Page 4
greener, plant-based, leather-free ride.
The electric crossover makes extensive use of
recycled polyethylene terephthalate and bioplastics,
even incorporating discarded fishing nets to
create some of its fabrics and carpets.
" We've said we're not going to use leather anymore, "
Kia design director Karim Habib said.
" The replacement, in my view, is fabric. We're not
trying to achieve an opulent, plush luxury. We're
trying to be more modern. "
Kia intends to make eco-conscious material
choices core to its brand identity, and the EVs unveiled
this month here outside Seoul preview the
automaker's next steps.
The EV3 and EV4 use natural fibers in place of
carbon-based synthetic ones to enable lighter,
slimmer seating, while some materials in the
seats and consoles are derived from flax fiber.
Lightweight, durable hemp is used to make the
REPAIRS
'Anecdotal stories'
about EVs blow up
continued from Page 4
Teslas are among the most expensive
brands to insure, according to a September
analysis by MarketWatch
Guides. Full coverage for a 2022 Tesla
model averaged $251 per month, 74
percent above the U.S. average. The
analysis was based on data from
Quadrant Information Services for a
35-year-old driver with a clean driving
record.
For EVs as a group, including Teslas,
the average repair cost was $5,155, or
$950 more than gasoline cars, Mitchell
said. That has fallen since the third
quarter of 2022, when the average repair
cost was $6,270, according to
Mitchell.
Likely reasons include an increase in
sales of mainstream EVs and deep
price cuts by Tesla, Mandell said. Vehicles
with lower replacement costs are
more likely to be declared a total loss
rather than undergoing expensive repairs,
bringing down the average reAUTONATION
U.K.
an attractive
option, analyst says
continued from Page 4
In late September, Pendragon said it
received an unsolicited proposal from
AutoNation to acquire the company.
Reuters valued the offer at $544 million.
The
U.K. would have marked a new
The EV3 uses flax fiber and durable hemp, material choices Kia wants to make key to its identity.
console table, which offers a flat working surface
that slides forward and back for access in the
front seats and the rear.
The inside of the console table was grown, rather
than manufactured, Kia notes. That's because
it is made of mycelium mushroom root, which
combines strength with a soft-touch finish.
Mycelium appears in the cushion covers of the
pair cost in the data.
The gap in repair costs between EVs
and combustion vehicles is often exaggerated
by social media posts that focus
on rare battery fires and extreme
cases rather than industry averages,
analysts said.
The example of a Rivian R1T pickup
with a $42,000 repair bill over the summer
is a good illustration of an edge
case gone viral. A rear-end collision
that didn't look severe on the outside
caused serious damage on the inside.
" I think that a $42,000 repair is a
good click on the Internet, " said Mandell.
" I think these anecdotal stories
kind of get blown out of proportion a
little bit, and you start to see so much
focus on one-off stories as opposed to
the overall trend. "
New vs. old
Another part of the reason for higher
repair costs on EVs is that they are
newer and pricier than gasoline vehicles
on the road.
The average combustion vehicle is a
2016 model, whereas the average EV is
a 2022, Mandell said. Most EVs are luxury
vehicles, in part because Tesla
dominates both the luxury and EV segmarket
for AutoNation.
AutoNation's unsolicited proposal
followed two joint proposals from
Penske Automotive Group Inc. along
with Sweden's Hedin Mobility Group.
Penske and Hedin this month said
they do not intend to make an offer to
buy Pendragon.
AutoNation and Penske abandoning
their Pendragon pursuits follows Lithia's
decision this month to increase its
offer to acquire the dealership and
fleet businesses of Pendragon for $482
EV4's rear seat as well.
Kia's designers also incorporated 3D knit technology,
which is used for athletic shirts and running
shoes, in the seat materials to achieve a distinct
wavy texture while reducing the need for
stitching and joins. That, in turn, achieves zero
waste material.
The earth-toned " sandy terracotta " interior of
ments in the U.S.
Comparing similar vehicle types and
model years closes the repair-cost gap
between EVs and gasoline vehicles.
Repairing a Tesla Model 3 sedan is
more expensive than fixing a gasoline
engine BMW 3 Series or Mercedes-Benz
C-Class of the same model
year, but only by a small percentage on
average, Mandell said.
More electronics
That said, pricey EVs from automotive
startups are generating outsized
repair bills. Mandell said the average
cost of repairing a Rivian is around
$8,000, and Polestar and Lucid cars are
even higher.
But the trend for all vehicles, EVs and
combustion, is toward higher costs
and higher insurance premiums.
" In the past with a fender bender,
you could have repaired it with a hammer
and banged it out, " said Tony Cotto,
director of auto and underwriting
policy at the National Association of
Mutual Insurance Cos., a trade association.
" Now, all of the sudden, when
you factor in cameras and connected
technology, where pieces are connected
to one another, that's going from
million, up from an initial offer of $350
million.
As part of Lithia's deal, Pendragon's
dealership management system, Pinewood,
is to be transformed into a
standalone company, Pinewood Technologies.
Lithia would gain about a
one-sixth ownership stake in that entity.
Lithia and Pinewood plan to form a
joint venture to bring a DMS to North
America.
Steve Young, managing director of
U.K. retail automotive research firm
gines and is adding capacity, Bly said.
" When we came together as two families,
PSA and FCA, we had a lot of engines.
We are rapidly streamlining our
three-cylinder, four-cylinder and
six-cylinder and even our eight-cylinder
engines. We are aggressively streamlining
our diesel portfolio. We already exited
the 3.0-liter diesel. We will have a
low-displacement diesel and a big diesel
that's coming in the future. "
Stellantis, Bly said, is also on track to
launch 75 EVs globally by the end of the
decade. " We have to balance this approach.
ICE is here to stay for a period of
time. We are growing capacity, adding
capacity, for South America, the Middle
East and Europe and Asia Pacific. "
As for the U.S., Bly said Stellantis' strategy
will see new engines and improved
versions of current gasoline powertrains.
" One of the things that was very clear
[in the merger of PSA Group and Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles] was that we had
some engines that were not performing
well on our C02 road map, " he said.
" We could fix some of those things with
[mild and plug-in hybrids]. The Hemi
doesn't have all the attributes we needed.
We could go and redo the Hemi,
but we realized we needed to downsize
the engine and bring up the power. "
That happened in 2022 with the introduction
of the 3.0-liter Hurricane
twin-turbo inline six-cylinder, which
makes more power than the bigger, 6.4-liter
Hemi V-8. A high-output version of the
Hurricane makes 520 hp, 35 hp more than
the Hemi V-8. " We have more power. We
just haven't released it yet, " said Bly.
The Hurricane will spawn one new
engine, a 2.0-liter four-cylinder. Bly
said there is also a three-cylinder on
the way. It will be based on an existing
European engine.
Bly said that Stellantis plans to keep
and improve the Pentastar V-6, even
though the Hurricane engine is small
enough to replace it.
" The Pentastar is a very good, lower-cost,
rock-solid, high-quality stalwart
of our collection, and we have no
plans to replace it. In fact, shortly, you
will hear of an improvement coming,
and it will be a bit of an electrification
story. " a
the EV4 is derived from organic pigments found
in madder root and walnut shell.
Kia hopes to one day recycle ocean trash into
such items as key fobs and carpets. The automaker
has partnered with The Ocean Cleanup of the
Netherlands to gather plastic from various ocean
garbage patches, where currents collect tons of
refuse.
Last summer, Kia received 55 tons of plastic
from the Pacific Ocean's great garbage patch. The
company is assessing how it can be recycled and
used in vehicles. Its goal is to repurpose the material
in components starting in 2026, helping
offset the 440 pounds of plastic currently used in
the average Kia vehicle.
There are challenges. The plastic recovered and
recycled from ocean trash is considerably more
expensive than even traditional recycled plastic.
And the quality varies wildly.
Furthermore, the environmental impact will be
small, almost imperceptible, at least at first. Kia's
pilot program is working with those 55 tons of sea
trash from the Pacific. But by The Ocean Cleanup's
own reckoning, about 1.1 million tons of
new plastic trash goes into the world's oceans every
year. n
banging out a dent to a multi-thousand-dollar
repair. "
Cotto said the insurance industry
supports driver-assistance technology,
backup cameras and other tech
features that make vehicles safer. But
" all of those things cost money " to buy
and to repair.
Mandell said new vehicles are being
transformed with more parts and new
materials, requiring higher-skilled
technicians and more labor hours.
" When you look at the average number
of parts being replaced, it's increasing
every year. You look at the frequency
of calibration work - that's
increasing by the day. You look at the
number of parts that are other than
mild steel, that increases continually, "
he said. " All of these trends are leading
us toward more expensive collision repair. "
Battery
work
One added labor cost for EVs over
combustion vehicles is the time required
to isolate the battery pack.
Sometimes that means de-energizing
it to prevent injuries to technicians.
And sometimes that means removing
the pack to protect it, since some
ICDP, said he wasn't surprised to see
AutoNation not make a formal offer for
Pendragon.
" It is pretty clear that the [Pendragon]
board were not going to take their
backing away from the Lithia bid for
the asset sale, " Young wrote in an email
to Automotive News.
Despite AutoNation dropping out of
the Pendragon race, Young sees the
U.K. as a likely market for the company,
citing favorable exchange rates and
lower valuations for U.K. dealership
painting operations cannot be completed
with the pack installed, depending
on the manufacturer, Mandell
said.
But battery repairs or replacements
following a collision are uncommon.
" We don't see estimates come in
with a high frequency that have replacement
of the high-voltage battery
or indicate damage, " Mandell said.
" Does it happen? Absolutely. "
Damage to the pack can occur in a
severe accident or in specific sets of
circumstances. But generally, Mandell
said, automakers " do a good job of
protecting the battery. "
Over time, Mandell said, EV manufacturers
will likely improve repairability
through design changes to
make the vehicles less expensive to fix
since repair time and cost can negatively
affect brand satisfaction.
" As new vehicles come into the marketplace
and are getting repaired in real
life, you start to run into real challenges, "
Mandell said.
" As those challenges are addressed
and brought to the manufacturer's attention,
you'll start to see changes in
engineering based on that real-world
feedback. " n
groups as opposed to those in the U.S.
" I think they'll buy in the U.K. at
some point in the next year or so (as
opposed to other international markets
or sticking to the U.S.), " Young
wrote.
AutoNation, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
ranks No. 2 on Automotive News' list of
the top 150 dealership groups based in
the U.S., with retail sales of 229,971
new vehicles in 2022. Lithia is No. 1 on
that list, and Penske, of Bloomfield
Hills, Mich., is No. 3. a

Automotive News - October 23, 2023

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