Category: Design

Marco Schubert, who has led Porsche’s European sales since 2021, will succeed Hildegard Wortmann at Audi, according to media reports.

Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily 5.

Back in July, we ran a report about GM’s BrightDrop electric delivery van business folding into the GM Envolve fleet and commercial unit. The idea was greater efficiency. Our story also said that after pausing production last fall, GM had resumed building BrightDrop’s Zevo 400 and Zevo 600 vans at its CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.

Today, there comes news that BrightDrop vans will become part of Chevrolet, as the automaker hopes to capitalize on Chevy’s larger dealership network and land new fleet customers.

The Zevo 400 and 600, numbered by their approximate cargo space, will be rebranded as the Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 and 600 starting with the 2025 model year, and both will continue to be built at the CAMI assembly plant.

GM is looking to bolster the software side of its business, too, and has added another former Apple Inc. leader to its software services group, hiring Tim Twerdahl as vice president of product management.

Twerdahl joins GM as it builds out its software unit’s leadership team with former Apple executives, while cutting other personnel to remove some staffing layers.

At Apple, Twerdahl oversaw products such as AirPods and Apple TV as vice president of the tech giant’s home and audio products business.

There are plenty of other news stories today at Automotive News, including Carvana building its first mega-dealership, Polestar recording a large quarterly loss and Chinese consumer tech giant Huawei Technologies, long suspected of wanting to become a carmaker, making it clear it has no intention of doing so.

That’s it for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.

General Motors and Samsung SDI finalized their partnership that will invest $3.5 billion in an EV battery plant in Indiana.

Smart says the #5 will appeal to owners of the brand’s small city cars, many of whom have a midsize SUV as a second car.

The auto industry has a multitude of issues plaguing it, from overregulation and a push to an all-EV marketplace to overpriced model offerings with higher-interest loans that have placed many buyers out of the market.

Consumers will switch to EVs after the range and charging speed matches that of gasoline vehicle refueling.

TO THE EDITOR:

Regarding autonews.com’s “Stellantis laying off up to 2,450 workers at Mich. truck plant” (Aug. 9), “Nissan offers buyouts to salaried workers as U.S. business slides” (Aug. 6) and “Seating supplier to cut jobs in Detroit after truck discontinuation” (Aug. 2), along with a video discussion about Chrysler’s future with Stellantis (Aug. 5) : Are we looking at the beginnings of a bloodbath?

ROBERT GAULT, President, Gault Chevrolet
Endicott, N.Y.

But variations of a lithium iron phosphate chemistry could make up a third of the market by 2030, surging from less than 10 percent today, according to Boston Consulting Group.

The industry will figure EVs out, but it will take time.

Average plant capacity utilization — or a plant’s actual production rate compared with its potential rate — is 70 percent in North America so far this year, according to GlobalData. That’s 10 points shy of the level most carmakers strive for. Capacity utilization will fall again starting next year and plunge to an average 65 percent in 2030 and 63 percent in 2035.