It was a really hard decision today whether to lead The Morning Dump with the news that Elon Musk’s compensation package was tossed or with the admission from General Motors that the company was going to basically go back to plug-in hybrids after being kinda the leader in plug-in hybrids. Let’s do hybrids first.
The Musk news is pretty juicy, though. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was granted the biggest payment for any human being in history when the Tesla Board of Directors handed him options worth, oh, about $55 billion. A shareholder sued saying the Board of Directors gave Musk what he wanted without pushing back at all, thus diluting everyone not named Elon Musk. Guess who agrees? The Deleware Chancery Court!
While we’re already talking about GM, more details have emerged about the battery fire at GM’s Factory Zero and the details are, uh, not great.
And, finally, BYD gets a German dealer, which is a big deal.
GM Is Back To Plug-In Hybrids, A Thing It Did Really Well And Then Abandoned For Some Reason
I continue to stand by my 2024 Is The Year Of The Hybrid proclamation from last year, which has only been made stronger by recent sales data about hybrid sales growth. You know who agrees with me? GM CEO Mary Barra, at least begrudgingly. Currently, GM is the least-hybrid-oriented of the Big Three, with both Ford and Stellantis offering numerous hybrids and PHEVs.
The reason for this is simple: GM decided to go all-in on the Chevy Bolt and electrification a few years ago and hybrids, at the time, seemed like an unnecessary half-measure.
The infuriating and typical GM aspect to this, however, is that GM was actually the leader in plug-in hybrid technology years ago and completely gave up its advantage because that’s what GM does. Whether it was turbocharging, electric vehicles, or digital dashes, GM engineers love to create the best technology in the world and then have executives abandon it for short-sighted reasons.
Before I get too deep into that tirade, here’s the call transcript with Barra and some other GM folks, but I’ll pull out the important bits. Here’s Barra:
Our forward plans include bringing our plug-in hybrid technology to select vehicles in North America. Let me be clear, GM remains committed to eliminating tailpipe emissions from our light-duty vehicles by 2035. But in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build its charging infrastructure. We are timing the launches to help us comply with the more stringent fuel economy and tailpipe emission standards that are being proposed.
And we plan to deliver the program in a capital- and cost-efficient way because the technology is already in production in other markets. We’ll have more to share about this down the road.
All of this obviously makes sense. Jeep and Chrysler are selling a lot of PHEVs, thanks in part to federal tax credits, and those PHEVs definitely help with meeting increasingly stringent corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) issues.
These aren’t coming soon, as Barra points out in a question about timing and segments:
This year, we’re very focused in — you know, I think as we are able to get the delivery to our dealers, they’re going to see the strength of the EV portfolio. So, I’ll have more to share on the hybrid capacity. We’ll adjust the capacity because, again, we have the technology. You know, we — we know the targeted segments that we’re going to apply it to.
So, we’ll — we’ll have the ability to flex and do what we need to from a hybrid perspective. But I think for — for calendar year ’24, EV is our focus, and we think we’ve got tremendous growth opportunity as we free up getting the availability of the products to — to customers.
So, those hybrids probably aren’t coming in 2024. Maybe, maybe, GM will preview some hybrids later this year, but that’s just a guess.
What could those segments be? GM has two real hits on their hands with the Trax and the Buick Envista, which I’m currently driving. The Enivsta so far is great, but has the same problem that all of these small-motor crossovers have (Bronco Sport, Corolla Cross) which is low-end torque from buzzy little motors. At least the Envista has a six-speed automatic as opposed to a CVT. The way the Corolla Cross gets around this is with a hybrid that provides an electric boost at low speeds.
The other place where PHEVs could make sense is with trucks, which is where RAM is going with its Ram Ramcharger. The other curious bit here is “we have the technology.”
Is she talking about the Voltec technology that General Motors spent a ton of money and time developing for the Chevy Volt that the company just abandoned? It’s been about five years since GM stopped selling the Volt so the tech isn’t that old.
GM does sell a plug-in hybrid in China, specifically, the company sells the Starlight compact sedan through its Wuling partnership, but it doesn’t appear that this is a Voltec-based vehicle and instead uses a more traditional parallel PHEV setup. There’s also the Equinox PHEV in China as a commenter pointed out.
Judge: Musk Was Paid 250x The Normal Compensation And That’s Not Cool
It’s been a long time since Elon Musk went to trial over the biggest paycheck in human history and, finally, we’ve got the results. According to the Delaware Chancery Court and Chancellor (judge) Kathaleen McCormick, that compensation wasn’t fair and the process of him getting said compensation was also flawed.
Say what you will about Musk, and I’ve said plenty, but sometimes he’s intentionally hilarious when he’s not saying terrible things or elevating terrible people. I highly recommend reading Judge McCormick’s decision because it’s funny as hell in a very Musk-y, semi-trolling sort of way.
Here’s how it opens:
Was the richest person in the world overpaid? The stockholder plaintiff in this derivative lawsuit says so. He claims that Tesla, Inc.’s directors breached their fiduciary duties by awarding Elon Musk a performance-based equity-compensation plan.
It gets better:
This decision dares to “boldly go where no man has gone before,”2 or at least where no Delaware court has tread. The collection of features characterizing Musk’s relationship with Tesla and its directors gave him enormous influence over Tesla. In addition to his 21.9% equity stake, Musk was the paradigmatic “Superstar CEO,”3 who held some of the
most influential corporate positions (CEO, Chair, and founder), enjoyed thick ties with the directors tasked with negotiating on behalf of Tesla, and dominated the process that led to board approval of his compensation plan. At least as to this transaction, Musk controlled Tesla.
There’s a bunch more here, including saying Musk “launched a self-driving process” with regard to his compensation and that the board effectively rolled over.
The basic crux of Judge McCormick’s argument is that with a public company like this the rule of law is that it has to be fair and very little about the process wasn’t and Tesla/Musk didn’t do a good job of explaining why it was. Specifically, the judge points out that Musk himself admitted he wasn’t planning on leaving the company, so giving him all that money to colonize Mars might be interesting but it wasn’t necessary to keep Musk involved with Tesla.
What happens next? Musk could appeal, or the Board of Directors could come up with another slightly-less weird compensation plan, or Musk could quit in a huff. Who knows?
So far all we know is that Musk is being petulant about it on Twitter:
Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2024
According to Bloomberg, this currently makes Musk only the third richest man in the world, instead of the richest. Maybe that’s why he’s being a big ol’ crybaby about it.
Firefighters Have Responded To GM’s EV Plant At Least Eight Times In The Second Half Of 2023
Credit to Automotive News and its sister publication Crain’s Detroit Business for keeping up with the fires at GM’s Factory Zero plant in Detroit that’s responsible for building the GMC Hummer EV and future Silverado EV pickup, including one in December that shut down the plant.
The latest update has some concerning details:
The December incident marked the eighth or so time the fire department had made a run to the plant since the summer, said Dennis Hunter, chief of fire prevention for the Detroit Fire Department. The EV batteries’ volatile chemistry makes them more prone to catching fire — a major concern for the industry and first responders, especially as EV production volumes increase and battery plants proliferate across Michigan and the rest of the country.
“EV batteries, that’s a new hazard that we’re dealing with as a country right now,” Hunter told Crain’s, a sibling publication of Automotive News. “We’re currently working hand in hand with Factory Zero for a better response plan. We are working with them to improve how they handle these EV batteries going into thermal runoff or catching fire.”
And.
There are plenty of factories that make batteries that don’t have these problems, though both Ford and Stellantis have had issues with EV prototypes or production lines experiencing fires.
BYD Gets A Full Dealership In Germany
BYD is currently the world’s biggest EV carmaker due mostly to its performance in its home market of China, but its designs are clearly greater than that and BYD has been slowly selling cars in Europe.
Now BYD’s exclusive distributor in Germany, Stern Auto, is helping push the company forward by building a BYD-only showroom in Berlin to expose German consumers to the brand.
Per Reuters:
“One of the biggest topics for BYD is that it is not that familiar to German customers,” Oliver Hein, head of BYD for Sternauto, told Reuters. But recognition is growing “exponentially” as the brand invests heavily in marketing, he added.
The compact BYD Dolphin costs €35,990 ($39,000) and goes about 267 miles on the WLTP cycle. By comparison, a Volkswagen ID.3 costs €39,995 ($42,800) and has a slightly smaller range.
What I’m Listening To While I Write TMD
The full title of Fiona Apple’s sophomore album is a poem:
When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring
There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won’t matter, cuz you’ll know that you’re right
I’m a big fan. I am not unique in this opinion, but Apple is the rare artist where I think each new album is better than the one that preceded it. Also, dig the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video above.
The Big Question
Mary Barra picks up the phone and calls you. She says “[enter your name here] you’re my only hope. We’re going to have to fix this hybrid issue and I want you to pick the three vehicles that are going to be hybrids or plug-in hybrids. What should we do?”
Photo: HBO/GM
1) GM Precept. Build it, extreme aero slipperiness included(don’t compromise it for styling. Not… one… bit…). Use modern engine tech, make it a gasoline ICE instead if you must to make it pass emissions, but this will be a series hybrid like the Volt. You could have a sub-$20,000 5-seat sedan that as a plug-in hybrid has a 40+ mile all-electric highway range on all of like 6 kWh. Use power-dense A123 LFP batteries and have the electric motor from the Bolt do all the acceleration driving the rear wheels, and the gasoline ICE kept small and efficient. The ICE shouldn’t need more than 30 or so horsepower to have a 110-ish mph top speed. You could have an economical-to-operate car that can fit a family, do 0-60 mph in under 6 seconds, get 50 mpg city/80 mpg highway, and be an entry-level car for those on a budget while appealing to enthusiasts who don’t have Corvette money to burn.
2) Bring back a basic-ass S10 as a plug-in hybrid. No frills. This is a lightweight, small work truck to compete with the Ford Maverick, but outdo it in very way that matters. Target a sub-$25,000 price tag, use the same setup as above. Body on frame construction, and a body with aero slipperiness that will put any modern truck to shame. Go full-retard on the aero, in the context of a functional work truck with good ground clearance, and forget looks/styling anywhere it will increase drag. Cd value will end up in the upper 0.2 range, because it’s a truck and will never have the slipperiness of a streamliner, but could have the slipperiness of a modern bloated ICE sedan with ease if proper attention was paid. Keep the bed fully usable and accessible, no compromises on that. The base model will have seating for only 3, all up front, and it will be a tight fit like the 80s S10. Make an extended cap optional. It will look something like an Aussie Ute, but less stylized(no need for big wheels or much of a grille or any plastic cladding bullshit, efficiency is the goal, keeping cost low is the goal). It must be able to be used an abused in an oil field without failure. Use an E-Ray motor/inverter up front and a Bolt motor/inverter in back to give it AWD, standard, and a 0-60 mph time of under 4 seconds. The gasoline ICE can be hidden away in the front in a box that makes it very accessible and servicable when opened. You’d end up with a work truck that got 40+ mpg city, 50+ mpg highway, and on a 6 kWh A123 battery of high power density, and perhaps a 20-mile all-electric range.
3) Camaro rebirth. Using the same hypothetical battery and motors above, this will be a lightweight, affordable streamliner of a pony car. Sub-$35k for the base model, with AWD standard, like the above truck, but with a Corvette V8 powering the rear and the E-Ray motor/inverter powering the front. CdA at least as good as an EV1, but with a T-top. Focus on both mass reduction and CdA reduction, to have a sub-3,500 lb car with 160 all-electric horsepower and the V8 kicking in the rest. Will get 50 mpg highway, 30+ mpg city when not in EV-mode, with perhaps 20 miles all-electric range. Same 6 kWh power-dense battery to run it as the two above. Looks will be similar to the 90s catfish F-Body, except functionally streamlined and aping the GM Impact in shape with a minimization of all styling bullshit.
Finally, pure EV options of all of the above will be made available on the same platforms, as a cost-reduction strategy for the new platforms, using a larger battery pack of about 40 kWh. The sedan would get 300 miles range, the truck 200 miles range, and the pony car 300 miles range. All would be AWD, and the EV sedan and EV truck will have higher top speeds because they’re no longer relying on an inefficient gasoline engine, while the pony car might have to reduce its top speed over the V8 hybrid because continuous motor ratings being what they are, but the pure EV Camaro would also lose weight over the V8 and could come in below 3,000 lbs, and even with the horsepower reduction, will accelerate similarly.
I would do unspeakable things for the Toecutter Camaro to come to fruition.
The Big Question
1) All 1/2-ton truck models (pickups and SUVs) across all shared brands
2) All mid-size crossovers (Traverse, etc.) across all shared brands
3) Compact crossovers (Equinox, etc.) across all shared brands
Not to make the plug-in hybrid the only powertrain choice, but instead a powertrain choice as an option for the customer.
Something tells me there was shareholder pressure to drop PHEVs and go all-in on EVs since they’re the new hotness. So this is going to cost GM more in the long run.
If so add this to the long list of reasons why you don’t listen to shareholders.
1- The entire GMTT1XX full size platform
2- The equinox
3- A Chevelle concept car that looks the beans and actually gets put into production
I’m going to cheat and count badges engineered siblings as one vehicle.
1. Yukon/escalade
2. Colorado
3. Malibu
That gets rid of the most emissions.
Hilarious! GM is already introducing Blazer, Equinox and Traverse hybrids in China – with a bowtie. Mary is WAY ahead of you.
Just Voltec all the half ton trucks and full size suvs and call it a day. That way you can focus development on a single drivetrain and use it across all of your most popular and most gas-guzzling products.
Then squeeze it to Colorado/ Canyon size and stuff it in there. I just wand a PHEV I can fit in my driveway
I don’t consider it a stretch to assume by the time GM stops farting around and a selection of its PHEVs begin arriving at GM dealerships, consumers would have already moved on to something else.
Their last ride in a Cadillac, most likely.
Mary, here’s what you want to do. Hybridize the Blazer/Enclave platform, The Trax/Envista platform and for the love of your market share make one of them into a direct competitor to the Ford Maverick as a PHEV.
1979 Hybrid Lincoln Mark V
Hybrid Chevy C-10
Hybrid Chevy LUV
“ I want you to pick the three vehicles that are going to be hybrids or plug-in hybrids. What should we do?””
That’s pretty easy to choose… Chevy Silverado, Chevy Yukon, Chevy Suburban, Chevy Colorado and Chevy Express… and the GMC versions of these. And I would mate the hybrid system with an Atkinson version of the L3B 2.7L 4cyl engine used in all their low-end trucks these days.
It’s the large RWD vehicles that need the fuel saving tech. So make one decent longitudinal hybrid powertrain for these vehicles.
And that powertrain can also replace the 2.8L and 3L diesels used in some of these vehicles.
I want you to pick the three vehicles that are going to be hybrids or plug-in hybrids. What should we do?
A truth-to-power career ending conversation if ever there was one. Oh well, I’m too old for this shit anyway. Here goes:
Silverado/Suburban: Do exactly what I’ve been screaming from the rooftops for a few years now. Make it a super high TE, tri-fueled (gasoline/propane/NG) PHEV mobile generator with V2H capability, enough to power a massive home and taps on the cooling system so the waste heat can be used as well. That would be amazing as a camper tow vehicle.
Volt: Same as above for a smaller home or tent camping use
Pontiac Aztec: Because fuck it, if I’m going to be fired anyway might as well go out laughing.
Rustin Cohle speaks the truth.
Trax Hybrid: You want to see a completely bonkers number of cars and dominate an entire segment? Take your 22k Trax and turn it into a 25k Trax Hybrid. Bring it to market ASAP and market it as a cure for inflation. I know no company, especially GM wants to sell low margin stuff, but they could absolutely nail the timing of this if they wanted to. Think of how appealing a 25k car that gets 40mpg could be! Yeah I know that’s the Maverick, but Ford doesn’t appear to actually want to build all that many of them because they suck.
Do it GM.
Envista Hybrid: See above.
Equinox Hybrid: See above but add 4k.
Best bang for the buck is to PHEV the cross platformers, Trax/Equinox/Blazer/Encore/Envista/Envision, then butch up the Blazer like Kia’s doing with their Santa Fe, and add a PHEV Blazer truck to compete with the Santa Cruz/Maverick to try and recoup some of the money they lost out on not making it a Wrangler competitor like the Bronco.
GM going all in on EVs could have worked had they actually tried to sell and support EVs. Dealers knew nothing, no advertising, and GM did absolutely nothing to build out the charging network. The Bolt could have been good enough to make PHEV tech outdated (for cars anyway), had GM actually tried. The PHEV tech from the Volt would have made an incredible CUV/SUV/truck lineup with no competition anywhere in sight say, 6-10 years ago.. around the time the 2nd gen version of the Volt was built. They would have been printing money each time gas went over $4/gal.
I’d skip the plug in hybrids as the only vehicles that make sense to make into PHEVs are from the ground up BEVs and GM’s current BEV offerings are not well suited to having range extenders being put in them.
I’d make hybrids of the Express Van, The Colorado, and the Suburban. I’d work with Toyota to scale up their planetary e-CVT tech to work on HD RWD applications like all of the above. Which would improve the gas mileage by quite a lot and increase the durability of these vehicles while giving them a new lease on life.
As far as my logic for those 3 models:
1.) Express Van: It’s getting old in the tooth and I don’t know how long GM can keep making it with its current MPG figures.
2.) Colorado: Trucks smaller than full size should be getting at least 30+ MPG highway nowadays.
3.) Suburban: The Government buys a crap ton of them, as does the public. If you can make them both more durable and more fuel efficient (which planetary e-CVTs do) you’ll make a lot more happy customers.
The Express Van counts as a heavy duty vehicle and is thus exempt from current CAFE standards that cover light trucks and passenger cars. However, new standards for heavy duty vehicles are proposed to start in 2030.
I was gonna say…much as it pains me to admit it, I think there’s no full-size hybrid vans for a reason. Their weight would require more power to start from a stop, requiring heavier batteries, requiring more weight, ad infinitum. They’d barely be able to run in full-electric mode aside from downhill and maybe maintaining speed on level ground.
That’s why I suggested a Toyota style hybrid, said hybrids except for the PHEVs have almost no electric range, and are almost never used in full electric mode.
And yet electric delivery vans and semis exist…
Right, but at least they don’t have to deal with the physical volume of both systems. If the whole purpose of a full-size van is to maximize interior space, then any space devoted to the drivetrain or batteries is undesirable. So having to give up the hood for an engine and more space for batteries may be untenable.
You don’t need as large a battery for a PHEV. You also don’t need as big a gas tank as you do for a pure ICE. You don’t need a V8 or even a V6. You don’t need turbos. If the engine is a REX you don’t even need to have it under the hood.
I’m sure a good engineering team can figure out the packaging.
What exactly makes the Express Van long in the tooth? Is the only thing making it outdated MPG numbers? The reason I ask is because I know of a couple of fleets nearby that seemingly can’t stop buying the things. Once the Econoline went away they simply went all in on GMC/Chevy vans.
Probably regulations. I quite like the Express vans, but their most redeeming quality is their reliability and durability. If GM has to put in a fragile 8+ speed automatic transmission for a few MPG gain the Express will suffer greatly in the durability and reliability categories. If GM instead went with a planetary e-CVT the reliability and durability of the Express would go up instead of going down, all while netting a large MPG benefit.
The issue with the Express van would be Gross vehicle weight rating(GVWR).
If it is over 10,001 lbs then it would be subject to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (fmcsa) and DOT regulations.
Adding weight would require reducing payload capacity or increasing the GVWR over 10,001 lbs which would open an expensive can of worms that many companies actively avoid by using the Express, Promaster and Transit vans.
If you can get the same performance out of a lighter drivetrain (you can) there’s nothing really to worry about.
It’s a matter of effort and R&D.
Also they could make a planetary CVT, Nissan did it a while back with no issues. My guess is that it was more expensive than the cheapo belt drive units and so they stopped making them.
The trucks, obviously. Whether they want to do it ‘traditional’ style (X5 PHEV, PowerBoost, etc), or parallel like the new Ram PHEV, either is fine. Preferably a PHEV with 20-40kWh battery and the 2.7T. Offer this in all the 1500 trucks and SUVs – even the Escalade.
The other obvious choice – Equinox/Terrain/XT4. Use the 1.3T from the Trailblazer with a strong electric assist. Should probably offer Hybrid & PHEV options.
Third choice is more of a free-for-all. My choice? Trax/Trailblazer/Envista. Use the 1.3T hybrid from the Equinox, perhaps detuned a bit. And, since it’s a hybrid, you can slap a small electric motor under the rear of it for AWD, a la Prius. Solves the two largest issues for those – MPG and (for Trax & Buick) lack of AWD. I don’t care if they have to plop a 1.5kWh battery in the cargo hold, I think buyers would happily take the trade-off and pay a nice premium for AWD & better fuel economy, especially on the Buick.
A case could be made for hybridizing a larger engine to share between the Equinox & Traverse, but, with the new 2.5T, I think the Traverse is okay. Should they offer it? Yes. But, I think the large people hauler market is a lot less sensitive to fuel cost than the compact & sub-compact markets.
For your second 2 choices, using a larger N/A Atkinson cycle engine would be more effective, as they are cheaper and more fuel efficient. GM could use its existing Gen 3 Ecotec 2.5L with minimal modifications (change the intake cam phase, perhaps add port injection) for the second choice, and they could use a 2.0L for the 3rd choice. The only downside is if there’s a lack of space in the engine bay.
I was trying to go with what’s already on the shelf, but, you’re exactly right. Crazy that GM doesn’t have any more NA 4-cylinders, at least not in this market
Conversation with Mary
Mary – SMBTJ, I need your help our hybrid strategy is a mess.
SMBTJ – Say no more.
Focus on Fleets –
Throw a PHEV drivetrain in your Express Vans. Aim for 35 miles of full electric range and the option to do a generator like the hybrid F150’s.
Focus on broke people
Like @toecutter said – a bare bones S10 circa 1990 with a PHEV.
That’s the bread and butter. Nearly 0 R&D required to get these out the door 2025.
Now to get outside of the box.
Start R&D on a Sterling Engine generator with an electric drive motor, once that’s figured out throw it in everything and take your big trucks off steroids.
Additionally, lean in hard to carplay and android auto- as a cost savings measure remove the screens from your radio and just leave a little slot to set our devices that can then control the radio. Bonus points if you build an app to use steering wheel controls to skip pause rewind
Easy:
Silverado (and you probably get the Suburban for free since they’re on the same platform)TraverseEquinoxThose are your three hottest segments and also some of the least fuel-efficient, which means they stand to benefit the most from hybridization. You should also resurrect the Volt, obviously, and build a compact crossover based on it, but if your priorities are not the three segments above what are you even doing here?
Edit: And for those saying Toyota should take a victory lap, keep in mind that Toyota was arguing against BEVs because it thought hydrogen was the future. At best they get half-credit, and that only because regardless of what they said they kept building more and more PHEVs.