Tesla: Supercharger Superpower

BYD Europe, AFEELA, BMW Mexico, Detroit 3's China Hell, Global Supply Chains, Einstein, Electreon

Feb 08, 2023

The Big 5 This Week

1. Tesla’s Superpower. Tesla added more superchargers in 2022 than No. 2 Electrify America has in total. From 7 years of experience driving almost every EV make and model on the road, I can testify that Tesla’s network makes everyone else look like an amateur. Picture entering an Apple Store versus wandering over the Radio Shack for a Nokia flip. Link

2. China As EV Beast. China accounted for 2 of every 3 EVs built globally in 2022. When is the last time a single country so utterly dominated a powertrain? Ever? EV exports from China could surpass 1 million vehicles in 2023. Link

3. BYD’s European Choices. BYD may elect to build its own factory in Europe instead of acquiring an existing plant from Ford, says executive vice president Stella Li. Or BYD might just do both, as it rides a monumental wave of demand for its products. Link (Bloomberg paywall)

4. BMW into Mexico. Ever heard of San Luis Potosi? That’s a city 250 miles northwest of Mexico City where BMW will build EVs and batteries, starting in 2027. Link

5. The Great Global Supply Chain Reset. Our ZoZoGo advisory work with global suppliers and investors to re-design supply chains away from China accelerates each week. The great global reset is happening fast. Link

Take A Closer Look…

Detroit 3 – Five Years of Hell in the PRC

GM and its partners sold 2.3 million vehicles in China last year, down almost half from a peak of 4 million in 2017. Profits from China accounted for just 5% of GM’s global profits last year.

Ford and its Chinese partners delivered 404,000 cars and trucks in China in 2022. That’s a collapse from 1.3 million sales in 2017. Profits? Forget about it.

Jeep ended its China JV in 2022, citing excessive Chinese government intervention.

And…OGs Are Sitting Ducks: Software is “an existential issue” for legacy carmakers says Richard Windsor, Founder, Radio Free Mobile. Apple and Google dominate the digital cockpit experience – and time is running out for legacy carmakers. Find out why in this week’s Driving with Dunne podcast.

Future EVs, Batteries, Charging

EVs

China Dives Into A Price War. NIO, Xpeng, Aion and others are responding to Tesla’s aggressive price cuts with an array of counter-measures. Aside from Tesla and BYD, every major Chinese EV maker saw sales skid in January. Link

Canoo, Rough Waters. Reality for EVs startups in 2023: Find a way to survive. Canoo’s reported “billion dollars in pipeline sales” (with Walmart among others) was enough to attract another $52 million from investors this week. What are they hoping for? Link

Sony + Honda = AFEELA. How do you feel about AFEELA? Like a lot of things in Japan, the new brand seems very carefully considered but a bit forced. Maybe just call it a Sony? (Honda made its name in gasoline engines). Link

The all-electric AFEELA will debut in America in 2026.

Batteries

The Price of Lithium in 2023. No one can agree on where the price of lithium will land in 2023. In one corner, Wall Street says there is nowhere to go but down, citing weaker EV demand in China’s domestic market. But lithium veterans expect prices to hold at a lofty plateau. Link

Charging

Electreon - The Wireless Way. Israel’s Electreon is deploying in-road wireless charging in Germany. Impressive technology, but how much to build out the charging strips for more than several hundred meters? It would make sense to start with fixed route buses and trucks. Link

New Ideas / Milestones

Our Next Energy (ONE). Emerging as the frontrunner among battery startups in the USA, Our Next Energy secured $300 million in new funding last week. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Coatue, BMW iVentures, Assembly Ventures and Franklin Templeton. (Disclosure: ZoZoGo is an LP/Advisor with Assembly Ventures). Link

Tesla Superchargers – Not Just In America. At the end of 2022, Tesla had built 1,800 Supercharger stations in Asia, 1,770 in North America and more than 1,000 in Europe. In Europe, Tesla’s in decreasing the price of its charging. Link

Tesla’s Supercharger network blankets Europe.

Dealer Gouging. With impunity. Those two words came to mind when visiting dealerships over the weekend. Dealers are marking up prices above MSRP for every conceivable reason. Check out the fees at one Kia dealership in New Jersey. Lender gets $999 – just for showing up. And theft protection is non-negotiable. How about that for some irony?