Tesla could start Semi deliveries as soon as December, former Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen retires, India considers tax cuts for British cars. All this and more in today’s issue of The Morning Dump.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
The Tesla Semi Might Finally Be Happening
Excited to announce start of production of Tesla Semi Truck with deliveries to @Pepsi on Dec 1st! pic.twitter.com/gq0l73iGRW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2022
Here’s something you don’t hear often: News of new product from Tesla. Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday that the Tesla Semi is in production, with first deliveries to PepsiCo expected to start on Dec. 1.
If the Tesla Semi does indeed make it to PepsiCo in December, it would be Tesla’s first all-new vehicle since the Model 3 in 2017. [Editor’s Note: It’s worth noting that the Model Y was substantially different than the 3 on which it’s based, especially when it initially launched (the two have converged over time; also Tesla has made lots of changes to its existing vehicles since 2017) -DT]. Coincidentally, 2017 is the same year the Semi was first unveiled and that Pepsico placed its order. That’s a five-year wait, and it’s partly due to multiple delays.
Will Tesla deliver, or will Musk transform into a corn cob? Furthermore, if Tesla delivers, will the Semi be any good? Given Tesla’s track record of delays and quality control issues, it really feels like anything can happen. Not in an optimistic sense, but more in an “Oh shit, what now?” sense. [Editor’s Note: Tesla also has a track record of building great cars, so I’m optimistic about the final product, whenever it does decide to arrive. -DT]. Either way, Tesla has 55 days to get Pepsico its trucks. Tick tick.
Johan de Nysschen Retires
While automotive executives retiring often isn’t big news, this executive is a little bit different. Automotive News reports that Johan de Nysschen, former Cadillac boss and the man responsible for every Infiniti being named Q-something, has retired. From the news site:
“It’s time for me to step aside and let others who are more than capable to lead the way,” de Nysschen said in an interview with Wards Auto published Thursday. “I’ve done everything I have set out to do here, but you are never truly ‘done.’ There’s always the next thing in any job.”
After throwing much of Infiniti’s brand equity in the bin by nixing model names that help build the brand [Editor’s Note: I never really thought of names like G37 and FX50 as amazing in the first place, but yes, moving the nomenclature to the letter “Q” was perplexing. -DT] and moving Cadillac’s headquarters to New York for some reason before being fired [Ed note: You should read Bob Lutz’s story on why he thinks de Nysschen failed at Cadillac. -DT], de Nysschen moved to Volkswagen of America, where he became chief operating officer. With Wolfsburg calling the shots on an alphanumeric system of its own, de Nysschen oversaw quests like improving operations at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn. assembly plant.
On the one hand, I curse GM for not letting de Nysschen follow through with plans to put the Cadillac XT6 on the rear-wheel-drive Omega platform that underpinned the CT6. On the other, Infiniti’s current naming scheme is just so idiotic that it’s hard to feel bad about the Cadillac sacking. In any case, I hope de Nysschen enjoys retirement and stays away from alphanumerics.
India Considers Tax Breaks For British Cars
India doesn’t just have one of the largest automotive markets in the world, it also has one of the most protectionist. Imported cars are subject to tariffs of between 60 and 100 percent, although Reuters reports that may change soon for cars made in the UK.
Lobby group the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has written to the government backing phased cuts to 30% over five years, following a grace period of five years with none, three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
However, the plan to cut tax rates to 30% over 10 years “is not enough”, said a government source, while conceding that not reducing tax rates this time was “not an option”.
So why give a tax break to Britain? Well, Britain doesn’t make much in the way of new cars anymore. Even the Land Rover Defender is made in Slovakia. However, interest in luxury cars is high and reducing tariffs on vehicles like the Aston Martin DBS Volante is unlikely to threaten local manufacturing. The same couldn’t be said for lowering tariffs on EU-built cars since the European Union builds a much wider variety of stuff.
Toyota Prices The Turbocharged Highlander
If you forgot that the Toyota Highlander was ditching the V6 for 2023, don’t worry: Most of us forgot, too. Instead, the Highlander will come standard with a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with less power, more torque, and identical fuel economy. That might not sound like a huge upgrade but the 2GR-FKS 3.5-liter V6 is a relatively peaky engine, so the new four-banger should make a difference in the real world.
Anyway, the big development is that Toyota has announced how much the updated Highlander will cost. Prices range from $36,420 plus an unspecified freight charge for the base L front-wheel-drive model, rising to $51,225 for the Platinum all-wheel-drive model. Compared to the competition, that price spread is right where it should be.
Expect the updated Highlander to arrive in showrooms this month, soon to be bought by very nice people near me who act like they’ve never merged onto a controlled access highway in their lives. Maybe that’s a bit mean, but if you’ve ever driven in Toronto, you’d find it to still be reasonably accurate.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Friday, everyone. It’s the end of the week, which means that automotive fun time is almost upon us. While I’m planning a little road trip, I’m curious to hear what car things you have planned for the weekend. Maybe you’ll break out the spanners, or the wash mitt, or the Waze app. Whatever the case, enjoying cars is good.
Lead photo credit: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.
As for Tesla and other BEV semis, it will be interesting to see how these actually get used. The range is shit, and there is zero infrastructure, so no long-hauls. I guess if you have some short set routes between hubs? Maybe some new use cases arise with these? I am personally backing Hyliion in this space. Their truck can do everything a diesel can do, but better, and there are places on major routes to fill it up already.
Most trucking isn’t long-distance OTR. The Tesla should have plenty of range for around town and even regional back and forth. Beyond that will probably need some major infrastructure anyways.
As long as the turbo 4 can put up the same towing numbers, then fine, I guess. I personally like the V6 in our 2017 Highlander. It is pretty responsive, tows our pontoon like a champ, and gets mpg in the upper 20’s (have averaged 30 on a few jaunts) on the highway when unloaded. It is also a simpler motor. It is Toyota, though, so I’m sure whatever they put in there will hold up OK.
It should be a bit better for towing than the V6. Especially at high altitude.
When did Tracy become a Tesla stan?
36k is a lot for a base tall Camry
I’m buying a damn electric fuel pump for my CJ5 this weekend. I have cleaned the carb, adjusted the float, and replaced the fuel filter and I am still getting fuel starvation and stalling at 50 mph. It was perfectly fine to cruise all day at 50 until last weekend.
“[Editor’s Note: Tesla also has a track record of building great cars, so I’m optimistic about the final product, whenever it does decide to arrive. -DT].”
DAMMIT!!! Musk must have captured the real flesh-and-blood David on his way back from ‘stralia and has replaced him one of those new Teslabots! Can someone go check and see if David is typing untethered?
We’ve had visitors and family for weeks, this weekend is the first break we’ve had so I’m simply going to look at our cars in the driveway and be happy they’re not going anywhere!
Telling me you work 2 hours on a site called ‘YouWork9’ is not a great start.. but with all that spare time what are you doing automotively this weekend?
Also, FOAD, Anne
I’m surprised Rivian hasn’t beaten Tesla to an electric semi yet. Rivian does have Amazon delivery vans on the road already, and they’re the first to make an EV that’s viable for commerical use. Plus, they actually behave like a real car company run by an adult.
Infiniti should’ve used the JDM Nissan names. Infiniti Skyline and Patrol would be cool names.
Cadillac’s naming shit sucks, too. You could get a CTS and a CT5 in the same model year! Bring back the names, and bring back the ducks, too.
It’s funny that Toyota is dropping the GR engine when they have all these ‘GR’ models out now LOL 😛
Lotus still uses the engine in their
OuijaEvijaToo bad Toyota never made a GR Camry with a turbo V6 all-trac AWD. Too bad no GR Tacoma or Tundra. Too bad no GR Sienna for when the kids are late to school. And don’t forget about Lexus! An ES-F would be awesome and so would an RX-F.
Now that the Escalade V is out, why not a GR Land Cruiser and LX-F?
The reason Rivian is doing it, I’d presume, is because the tech is not there. You cannot find a single spec on how much the truck weighs. I have a feeling that it is so heavy that the most you can legally haul with it is a barbie jeep. Notice how there marketing only mentions how much it weighs fully loaded. Trump passed a bill for EV’s to have an additional ton of weight, but with the energy density of diesel vs lipo batteries is too great.
It really depends on the distances. The battery will definitely be heavy, on the order of 7,000-15,000lbs most likely. The diesel engine, transmission, and fuel way drastically more than an electric motor though, so maybe 3,000-10,000. Add in the 2,000lb extra allowance and it’ll haul 1,000-9,000lbs less than a diesel. And only be suitable for local and regional runs. If it’s going to be a well-defined short run like docks to warehouses it could even be specced with a smaller battery to match or beat diesel payload. So, definitely confined to a niche but a reasonably large one. Especially if the running costs actually do end up lower.
I suspect it’s a bunch of half-reasons.
Restricted range,low cargo fraction,high cost,expensive charger network and not many buyers.
Elon can solve some of these by throwing money at the project.If it flops he still has more wins than fails so that makes it ok i guess..?
hy
Weekend Plans: See, in about two weeks the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge is happening. And I’m gonna be there doing all sorts of nonsense, including building a competitor’s car in the parking lot of the hotel. Next weekend is gonna be Bike-toberfest in Daytona which I’m attending with my brother, brother-in-law, and so on, so I’m not gonna be able to plan and work on my car before then.
So my goal this weekend is to wrap up all the normal maintenance my car needs and start planning what I need to take in order to get there and help with the parking lot build without overloading the Miata.
“Ed note: You should read Bob Lutz’s story on why he thinks de Nysschen failed at Cadillac. -DT]”
Haven’t read it yet, but my guess is that it’s because every strategic move he made at Cadillac was wrong. He took a bunch of good cars that he inherited, renamed them stupidly, overpriced them to the point where they didn’t sell, failed to develop anything new or exciting in his tenure, and after 5 years or so left the cupboard looking pretty bare for the next guy.
Just look at what came out at the end of his tenure: the XT4 and XT5, two warmed over crossovers that were pretty clearly rushed to market because de Nysschen somehow missed out on the crossover craze that was already well underway by the time he took the position. These would have been developed pretty much entirely under his purview, and they were extremely underwhelming. Just like the job he did everywhere he’s been.
Went back and read the Bob Lutz article and he’s…surprisingly nice? Especially given the number of abject failures of strategy he glosses over. I suppose it’s possible one or two of de Nysschen’s plans might not have been terrible if given enough time, but considering how many things he got clearly wrong I don’t see any reason for GM to have shown that much patience. I also think calling his time at Infiniti “successful” is being a bit generous.
Nothing overly car-planned this weekend. I gave my wife’s Cruze probably the last hand-wash of the year (and applied some System X Renew…supposedly extends the life of the System X ceramic coat that was applied to the car last December) back on Wednesday…but it was 75 then and is 50 today and isn’t much warmer the next two days, so…yep, no intention to be doing much outside.
Weekend plan: It’s been well over a decade since I bought a used racing seat for my ’67 SAAB 96 out of the back of some guy’s truck in a supermarket parking lot and that seat is now firmly beyond the limits of scruffy and well into the realm of “yeah, fine, I suppose it really is time for a new seat.”
I haven’t seen that guy or his truck ever since our previous transaction, so I guess I’ll break down and buy a brand-new seat tomorrow from the local racing shop. With any luck I can keep the same attachment points and hardware, as that’s all still holding up okay.
All 3 of my current running vehicles needs an oil change, so I’m going to try to get that done this weekend. Hopefully the parts stores cooperate and have what I need, because that’s killed my plans in the past.
” [Editor’s Note: It’s worth noting that the Model Y was substantially different than the 3 on which it’s based, especially when it initially launched (the two have converged over time; also Tesla has made lots of changes to its existing vehicles since 2017) -DT].”
It should also be noted that the Tesla Model S and X got major upgrades for 2021. So to call those two models “old” isn’t exactly accurate.
It’s like how people say the current Challenger/Charger are “old”… but when you look at all the refinements and updates they got over the years, the current ones are substantially different from the originals.
As for the Semi… I’m not surprised that the Semi has been delayed this long. It’s a completely new segment for Tesla and it also demanded a new facility for assembly as well as larger battery cells to make it cost-effective.
And those are two really big prerequisites.
The Texas plant is finally built and the 4680 cells are finally starting to ramp up. And that’s why the Semi is now close to happening. Without the cells and without a place to assemble it, the Semi wasn’t gonna happen.
I had no doubt that the Semi was gonna happen… it was just a question of when. And as a fan of Tesla, I’ll say that Elon Musk is terrible at guestimating new product timelines. But in most other ways, he’s great.
Over the past decade, he’s achieved way more meaningful progress than any other auto industry CEO.
“On the one hand, I curse GM for not letting de Nysschen follow through with plans to put the Cadillac XT6 on the rear-wheel-drive Omega platform that underpinned the CT6. On the other, Infiniti’s current naming scheme is just so idiotic that it’s hard to feel bad about the Cadillac sacking. ”
The CT6 was a very nice car and based on my experience with sitting in one at a past auto show, it looked and felt like a cut above anything else Cadillac had. But in hindsight, I think spending all that money on the Blackwing V8 was a big waste of time and money… as was the Omega platform. That money should have spent on either developing a high performance hybrid powertrain OR a new high performance BEV platform.
The ‘Cadillac exclusive’ powertrain developed under him should not have been anther V8. It should have been a high performance electric motor…. and the associated bits like batteries. And the goal should have been to match or beat the Tesla Model S in range and performance, but with Cadillac Luxury.
And his product naming schemes… ughh.
It totally makes sense for India to reduce the tariffs on UK cars since Tata owns Jaguar Land Rover, likely the biggest brands imported there.
I expect Tata lobbying is a big part of that. Just like how the Big Three always tried to get their rebadged foreign made products from Japan or South Korea classified as “domestic” for government procurement purposes
Good thing for Brexit or they probably can’t pull something like this.
The Elon Semi’s Late Again
El Flusherino: About 300 miles of driving planned in the XJ6, followed by a wash and wax. The radio quit working, so that will get diagnosed as well time permitting.
While the ownership of JLR by an Indian conglomerate may have some bearing on the Anglo/Indian trade proposal like to think that the Bishops Itchington chamber of commerce played a considerable part in the negotiations.
https://wellsmotorcars.com
These are, erm, rather nice. And I am sure that importing one to the US would be a simple task.
The British do love their tiny, sports car company in a shed businesses, don’t they? Seem to pop up over there the way microbreweries that only produce IPAs do here
My guess is Tesla will semi-produce it and semi-deliver it.
Good riddance Johan, the most overrated auto exec of this decade. Don’t forget he also moved Infiniti’s HQ to Hong Kong in an attempt to give it a more “international” flavor. He’s an empty suit and one trick pony. Please stay retired.
Mergio might like a word. Every time I drive by the sad Fiat/Alfa dealership, I’m reminded of his forcing dealers to invest huge money into those dogs
FWIW I work down the road from the Tesla factory and have seen a Tesla semi actually driving on the street. So I can confirm at least one exists.
1). Wow ole Lucky Sperm McSnakeoil is actually delivering on something. That’s rare. I wish he’d finally deliver on his promise of moving to Mars. We believe in you dude, and you’re a very special boy.
2). Ugh…the Q models make me sad. The Q60 is legitimately one of the most beautiful cars on the road, but like everything Infiniti has given us in the last decade it was half baked and DOA…with lackluster powertrains, an interior from the late 2000s, and laughably optimistic pricing.
The Q60 falls into this category too. It really sucks. They could have gone the luxury muscle car route and made something unique, or they could have made something sporty to compete with ze Germans. Instead we got a weird middle ground that doesn’t do anything particularly well. If I were them my move would’ve been shoving the corporate V8 in these…they’d at least have been unique.
But to play devil’s advocate-they do make amazing used buys because they depreciate like lead balloons and are much more reliable than their German counterparts. You can find decent enough Q50 and Q60 red sports in the high 30s and they have a sizable aftermarket. At that price they’re a good buy…but I guess I just wish Infiniti was still viable. There was a period when they were offering some really unique and compelling cars…but it was a long time ago.
3. Is it just me or does it seem weird to consider tax breaks for the country that colonized you and treated your people horrifically?
4). Blah. The 4 cylinder will deliver better fuel economy which is what the NPCs ultimately want. In this class I’m going Telluride, Palisade, or a Subaru Wilderness of some sort. Maybe even a Passport cause VTEC BROOOOOO! Really anything to differentiate us…the wife wants to upgrade to this class from her CRV in the next few years and what she wants is a Palisade. I’m not going to argue with it.
Le Flush: the wife and dog and I are going glamping at a place about two hours away. My sister got us a giftcard for it a while ago that we finally cashed in. Should be fun and very peaceful, plus there are some choice country roads out there so I’ll enjoy opening the Kona N up.
+1
I came here for #3 then forgot to actually say something about it in my own comment!
I mean number four seems to be an uneducated guess. They publish the numbers for a reason. but whatever. I just hate the extra parts to fail and the reduced longevity due to increased power from lesser displacement.
There’s effectively no difference between the published fuel economy numbers between the 3.5 and 2.4 Highlanders, although yes, real world may vary. Apparently it’s quite a bit lower emissions though, and as Thomas said, it should suit how most Highlander owners drive though.
Weekend plans? Winterizing cleanings (deep clean, wax, etc). Not much else planned.
Isn’t the India thing as simple as Tata owning JLR, which still has a large manufacturing presence in the UK, and presumably wants to be able to sell more of them in the home market?
I highly doubt it has much to do with Aston Martins.