🛴Autowist Report 94

• 💼BRIEFING

  • Scout’s winning EV

  • Do we need <7nm chips in automotive?

  • Porsche Q3 Close Call Summary

  • SAE International releases new EV charging standar …

• ⚡ROUNDUP

• 🔬PATENTS

  • BYD: Method for balancing batteries of a vehicle, …

• 🤖TECH DEEP DIVE

  • What is Dual Lock Step?

• 🐦AUTO BUZZ

• 📈MARKET SNAPSHOT

• 📆CALENDAR

💼BRIEFING

Top insights and analysis that is moving the needle in the automotive industry

Scout’s winning EV

1. The uncanny resemblance to a Rivian is not a mistake. They are going after the same market and that is really clear with their product offering. The specs are more or less comparable.

2. The priorities that SCOUT chose overall are winning in my opinion.

   1. They directly went on to support the NACS charging standard

   2. They chose the 800V HV architecture.

   3. Scout has fully committed to the zonal architecture similar to what Tesla has been doing for years and what Rivian has recently switched to.

   4. They chose not to work on top of VW’s MEB platform, but instead build a new one on their own. This will reap them benefits for years to come as they are building the knowledge of what the EV platform needs to be for their product-customer fit.

3. The 100$ refundable waitlist deposit is taking a tactic from Tesla’s playbook. It helps in both gauging interest and to accumulate leverage on the demand side.

4. The decision to go direct to customer. The waitlist also helps here, as it gives leverage to SCOUT if and when negotiations start with the dealer association.

Do we need <7nm chips in automotive?

• The main benefits of going to 5nm or 3nm process is a better performance and a lower power draw. But the real question is, was these aspects actually a problem in the automotive context.

• The electrical system and the physical footprint is a whole different magnitude compared to smartphones. And there are many more innovative solutions to these problems, than to switch to a higher density chip. The cost of these chips, the monopolistic nature that TSMC has over the fabrication of these chips, and the overall complexity of shifting to a new technology all are good reasons to not go that direction.

• The play on the supply side is of course, chip vendors are looking to consolidate their product lines. So it is way more beneficial for the chip vendor to have smaller product lines. The after effect of this is that automotive companies are getting pitched the same solution. A solution for a problem that does not really exist in the automotive side.

Porsche Q3 Close Call Summary

The biggest difference is in the deliveries towards China, dropping from 25% to 19%(60.6k to 42.9k in absolute terms). Although it is mentioned as “value over volume” strategy, it is hard for me to accept that lower volume was a planned outcome of their strategy. Some reasons as to why this is:

1. Effect of tariffs on imported vehicles.

2. Chinese alternatives have a similar product offering at a much lower cost and lower delivery lead time.

SAE International releases new EV charging standards (Link)

⚡ROUNDUP

Key headlines shaping the auto industry this week

• As Arm rivals cook up custom silicon, Mediatek sticks to tried-and-true Cortex recipe (Link)

• TSMC told US of chip in Huawei product after TechInsights finding, source says (Link)

• Rivian vs. Scout: Range, performance, tech, dimensions, and more (Link)

• Volkswagen's high-tech EV Factory faces sudden collapse as demand weakens (Link)

• Ford, LG set to move EV battery production from Poland to Michigan (Link)

• McLaren W1 — unveiling the secrets of this innovative hypercar (Link)

• Forget Tesla — this Dodge EV has a game-changing battery (Link)

• SiEngine’s StarLight 7nm autonomous driving chip successfully lit up (Link)

• The Solid-State EV Battery Journey Has Only Just Begun (Link)

• Porsche Changes EV Plan, Will Give Electric Models ICE Powertrains Too (Link)

• All the news about Scout Motors, a classic SUV brand gone electric (Link)

• Electric Cars & Trucks Save Fleet Operators 9% On Operating Costs (Link)

• Ashok Leyland subsidiary bags order for 500 Electric Buses from MTC, Chennai (Link)

• NIO is launching a ‘much more competitive’ Onvo electric SUV soon (Link)

• Lucid Opens New Store in Germany, Reaches 8 Showrooms in Europe (Link)

• Waymo raises $5.6B from Alphabet, a16z, Silver Lake, and more (Link)

• LG now taking orders for Level 3 DC fast charger (Link)

• CATL develops battery for promising extended range EV market (Link)

• In a first, US approves massive new lithium mine in Nevada (Link)

• eVTOL taxi startup Lilium is out of money and filing for insolvency (Link)

• Zeekr Mix minivan started deliveries in China a day after the launch (Link)

• How head-up display screens can make cars safer (Link)

• Mercedes-AMG CEO thinks customers would embrace an electric AMG (Link)

• GAC Group Reveals Global Design Approach Ahead of European Expansion (Link)

• ABBs’ paint atomization technology selected by Mazda to accelerate sustainability (Link)

• North Korean Spy Worked At Fisker For Nearly A Year (Link)

🔬PATENTS

Fresh Innovations from global automotive OEMs

BYD: Method for balancing batteries of a vehicle, and device, and vehicle (Link)

This patent, granted to BYD Company Limited, details a driving control method and device for electric vehicles with multiple carriages (like rail vehicles and buses). The method focuses on managing battery levels across these carriages to ensure balanced energy usage, preventing issues where some batteries may deplete faster than others due to uneven distribution.

The system works by:

1. Monitoring Battery Levels: It constantly gathers battery level data from each carriage.

2. Allocating Load and Traction: Using this data, the control system adjusts the load or traction each carriage exerts, depending on each battery's state.

3. Balancing Torque Output: By fine-tuning the torque (force output) of each carriage's motor, the method aims to equalize battery consumption, thus prolonging operation without the risk of one carriage's battery depleting too early.

This balancing approach is achieved through a control unit that communicates in real-time with each carriage's battery management system and motor controller, thereby ensuring the vehicle operates efficiently and reliably over extended periods.

🤖TECH DEEP DIVE

An inside look into new automotive technology

What is Dual Lock Step?

Dual-core lockstep (DCLS) is a high-reliability redundancy technique used in safety-critical computing systems such as aerospace, automotive, and industrial control systems. In a DCLS configuration:

1. Parallel Execution: Two identical processor cores (CPUs) execute the same instructions simultaneously, allowing real-time monitoring of each core’s output.

2. Result Comparison: At every execution step, the outputs of both cores are compared. If there is a discrepancy, it signals a potential error or fault in one of the cores.

3. Fault Handling: When an error is detected, the system activates a fault-handling mechanism, which may include retrying the operation, switching to a backup core, or entering a safe operational state, depending on the application requirements.

4. Temporal Separation: For enhanced resilience, DCLS sometimes introduces a slight delay (temporal separation) between the two cores. This delay helps prevent a single fault, such as one caused by external interference (e.g., cosmic rays), from impacting both cores simultaneously.

DCLS is especially valuable in applications that require continuous reliability, as it provides an effective means of detecting and managing faults in real time to maintain safe system operation.

🐦AUTO BUZZ

Top posts, tweets, and videos from the automotive industry

📈MARKET SNAPSHOT

This week’s key movers in the automotive stock market

📆CALENDAR

Upcoming auto industry events and and earnings calls