Good morning! It’s Thursday, December 21, 2023, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. Listed here are the vital tales you want to know.

1st Gear: Tesla 4680 Battery Holds Up The Cybertruck

Tesla lately delivered the primary handful of Cybertrucks, however it’s nonetheless a methods away from full-scale mass manufacturing. CEO Elon Musk mentioned it might most likely hit an annual manufacturing charge of 250,000 autos in some unspecified time in the future in 2025 (so you’ll be able to safely wager 2050.) Nonetheless, one of many essential causes Tesla has had hassle scaling manufacturing is its 4680 battery packs used within the Cybertruck with its new dry-coasting expertise.

Proper now, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas is just churning out 4680 battery cells at a charge that’ll energy about 24,000 Cybertrucks per yr. That’s solely a couple of tenth of the place they need to be, if Musk’s 250,000 items per yr estimate is to be believed. From Reuters:

Having the ability to ramp up battery output massively by dry-coating electrodes – relatively than utilizing the slower, extra expensive wet-coating – was a key issue behind Tesla’s forecasts in 2020 that it might greater than halve battery prices, lower funding considerably, and create smaller, greener factories.

The 9 individuals, who spoke to Reuters on situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, mentioned Tesla had but to crack dry-coating on the industrial scale wanted to make 4680 batteries quick sufficient to hit its manufacturing targets.

The individuals mentioned dry-coating the anode within the 4680 cells was not problematic however Tesla was scuffling with the identical approach for the cathode – the most costly element in a battery.

Dry-coating anodes and cathodes is confirmed within the laboratory, in addition to for smaller power storage gadgets reminiscent of tremendous capacitors, and even some small batteries, in accordance with Yuan Gao, a battery expertise marketing consultant.

“However nobody has achieved it to this point for giant EV batteries at a mass scale and at a excessive sufficient velocity. Tesla is the primary one to attempt to commercialize this,” mentioned Gao, who has labored within the trade for 3 a long time.

“The problem is that not solely does Tesla should scale it up and velocity up the method, it additionally should develop its personal tools and instruments. It’s formidable to say the least,” he mentioned.

Reuters reviews that three separate sources instructed the outlet the 4680 batteries within the Cybertruck embrace an estimated 1,360 particular person cells.

Which means Tesla would want to make 340 million cells a yr, or nearly one million a day, to provide 250,000 of the electrical pickups, that are getting into a sizzling market with rivals reminiscent of Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Rivian’s R1T and an electrical Hummer from Basic Motors.

In the intervening time, Tesla’s Austin manufacturing facility takes about 16 weeks to make 10 million 4680 cells, in accordance with Reuters calculations based mostly on figures from Tesla, verified by the three sources.

That interprets to 32.5 million cells a yr, or sufficient for just below 24,000 pickups – and that’s just for the Cybertruck.

Tesla additionally desires to make use of 4680 batteries to energy different autos, most notably the $25,000 small automobile the corporate is scrambling to launch by the mid-2020s.

Tesla has some restricted manufacturing capability for 4680 cells in Fremont, California however its plant there may be primarily for pilot manufacturing. Panasonic, considered one of Tesla’s long-standing battery suppliers, is planning to construct not less than two crops in the USA however has solely simply damaged floor on the primary.

Two of the 9 individuals conversant in the matter consider Tesla’s progress with scaling up 4680 manufacturing will doubtless acquire steam, particularly as soon as it achieves stability with the manufacturing know-how on one manufacturing line.

[…]

Tesla’s battery tsar Drew Baglino mentioned in October that the corporate was now producing 4680 cells on two manufacturing traces in Austin and plans to put in a complete of eight traces there in two phases, with the final 4 as a consequence of be operating in late 2024.

Nonetheless, one of many two individuals mentioned replicating established know-how from one manufacturing line to the subsequent isn’t any cakewalk.

The supply mentioned solely about 5% of cells made on worthwhile manufacturing traces are ditched however scrap charges might shoot as much as 30%-50% and hover there for a number of months as every new line will get going.

Sources instructed Reuters that Tesla was struggling to combine the cathode supplies which embrace lithium, manganese and nickel, with a binder and stick them to a metallic foil to supply a cathode with out utilizing any moisture. It apparently labored in small quantities, however the entire thing fell aside when Tesla tried to scale it up as a result of warmth melted the binder.

“If you happen to soften the glue, fairly quickly the whole lot will develop into one large chunk of gooey mess,” one of many sources instructed Reuters.

These are phrases to reside by.

2nd Gear: Frontal Crash Prevention Methods Wrestle

Frontal crash prevention techniques, like forward-collision warning and automated emergency braking, are proving to not be very elective at stopping crashes with giant vehicles and bikes. If you concentrate on it, these two sorts of autos are just about on the intense ends of how large autos on the street are.

The Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security checked out greater than 160,000 crashes and located that entrance crash prevention techniques diminished rear-end collisions with medium- or heavy-duty vehicles by 38 %. Bikes faired barely higher at 41 %. Nonetheless, each are considerably decrease than the 53 % discount in rear-end crashes that concerned different passenger autos. From Automotive Information:

Researchers used police-reported crash knowledge for 2016-20 model-year passenger autos with and with out automated emergency braking and forward-collision warning techniques. The crash knowledge was from 2017-21 and lined 18 states.

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, reminiscent of supply vehicles and tractor-trailers, had been outlined as having gross automobile weight rankings of greater than 10,000 kilos and customarily excluded pickups and different gentle vehicles, in accordance with the research.

“These reductions are spectacular for all automobile sorts, however the security advantages may very well be even bigger if entrance crash prevention techniques had been pretty much as good at mitigating and stopping crashes with large vehicles and bikes as they’re with automobiles,” Jessica Cicchino, IIHS’ vice chairman of analysis, mentioned in a press release Thursday.

If improved, these techniques might stop an extra 5,500 crashes a yr with medium- or heavy-duty vehicles and one other 500 crashes with bikes, the institute mentioned.

“Bikes and enormous vehicles current distinctive dangers,” Cicchino mentioned. “Together with being laborious for different drivers to see, bikes don’t have a metal body surrounding and defending the rider the best way automobiles do. On the different finish of the spectrum, giant vehicles are so large that when a passenger automobile hits one, it’s extra more likely to be deadly to the individuals contained in the passenger automobile. The peak of huge vehicles may lead to harmful underride crashes.”

To additional tackle the expertise’s effectiveness, IIHS is conducting new vehicle-to-vehicle entrance crash prevention evaluations at larger speeds. The institute is growing the velocity to 35 to 45 mph after discovering that the sooner check — performed at each 12 and 25 mph — represented solely a small proportion of the rear-end crashes the techniques are designed to mitigate.

The IIHS research and check comes as all 20 taking part automakers met a voluntary dedication to equip not less than 95 % of their light-duty automobiles and vehicles with automated emergency braking techniques. We like to see it.

The final handful of automakers — Basic Motors, JLR, Maserati, Porsche and Kia — lately met the deadline set within the settlement.

Different automakers, together with Ford, Stellantis, Tesla and Toyota, fulfilled the dedication in earlier years.

NHTSA in Could launched a proposal to mandate automated emergency braking, together with pedestrian detection, on all new light-duty autos. The company additionally set minimal efficiency requirements, calling for techniques that may stop or mitigate frontal crashes at larger speeds and work successfully at midnight.

If the proposal is adopted, almost all U.S. passenger automobiles and vehicles can be required to have crash-avoidance expertise that meets plenty of efficiency requirements three years after the rule is finalized. The regulation’s full set of necessities would take impact the next yr.

Whereas I suppose any enchancment to crash security is an enchancment, I really feel like we’ve received some room to do higher if this tech is type of leaving bikes and larger autos within the lurch.

third Gear: Don’t Run A Forklift Into A Battery Pack

Basic Motors says it believes an accident with a forklift is what began that fireplace at its Manufacturing facility Zero plant earlier this week. From the Detroit Free Press:

“Our preliminary investigation signifies a forklift by chance punctured a container with battery supplies inflicting the fireplace,” mentioned GM spokeswoman Tara Kuhnen. “The investigation continues.”

Each the automaker and the Detroit Hearth Division mentioned earlier they’re persevering with to analyze the reason for the fireplace that occurred in a transport dock space and concerned lithium ion batteries.

GM resumed manufacturing of electrical autos at Manufacturing facility Zero on Wednesday morning after a fireplace crammed a lot of the plant with heavy smoke the night prior, prompting an evacuation of the constructing and a piece halt.

Kuhnen mentioned that “most departments are operational once more on the plant, together with automobile meeting. All others can be notified by their management when to return. Security stays our overriding precedence.”

Kuhnen mentioned staff who work the primary shift resumed their jobs at the usual time of 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Within the late afternoon of December 19, the Detroit Hearth Division was referred to as for a three-alarm fireplace on the manufacturing facility. It introduced out 18 fireplace vehicles and 60 firefighters. The FD was reportedly in a position to extinguish the fireplace and evacuate the constructing with no accidents. Not too shabby, fellas.

That is the second fireplace on the plant in current months. In line with paperwork the Free Press obtained underneath the state Freedom of Info Act, the Detroit Hearth Division mentioned in an Oct. 25 report there was “an autonomous electrical automobile fireplace” contained in the manufacturing facility that water sprinklers helped extinguish. The report said the air flow system was not working appropriately and didn’t enable smoke to exit the constructing in a well timed method. The automobile fireplace consisted of a “battery fireplace, toxins and smoke was within the air.”

Kuhnen mentioned: “Our investigation into the incident on October 25^th signifies all security techniques operated appropriately. We discovered that the trigger was a non-battery associated element that has since been corrected.”

I consider when you have a 3rd manufacturing facility fireplace in the identical fiscal yr, it’s truly free. Fingers crossed GM doesn’t have to search out out.

4th Gear: Toyota Remembers 1.1 Million Autos

Toyota is recalling about 1.1 million Toyota and Lexus autos around the globe due to malfunctioning sensors that would stop the airbags from deploying in a crash. That is lower than ideally suited. From Automotive Information:

The affected Toyota fashions are the 2020-21 Avalon and Avalon Hybrid; 2020-22 Camry and Camry Hybrid; 2020-21 Corolla; 2020-21 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid; 2020-21 RAV4 and RAV4 Hybrid and 2021 Sienna Hybrid.

Lexus fashions affected by the recall are the 2021 ES 250; 2020-22 ES 300h; and 2020-21 ES 350, RX 350 and RX 450h.

“The topic autos have Occupant Classification System … sensors within the entrance passenger seat that would have been improperly manufactured, inflicting a brief circuit,” Toyota mentioned in a information launch. “This is able to not enable the airbag system to correctly classify the occupant’s weight, and the airbag could not deploy as designed in sure crashes, growing the chance of damage.”

[…]

To repair the defect, sellers will examine the sensors and exchange them as needed.

Car house owners can be notified in February.

A spokesperson for Toyota declined to touch upon whether or not there had been any accidents, accidents or deaths associated to the problem, in accordance with AutoNews.

Reverse: I Need An Alfa Romeo Spider