In case you haven't heard, there's an election happening later this year in the U.S. Shocker, I know. But this particular presidential race has automakers a bit on edge given the current political climate surrounding electric vehicles—and some companies are investing huge piles of cash into lobbying to help persuade politicians to be on their side after November.
Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things EV and automotive tech. Today, we're chatting about Hyundai's half-million dollar investment into EV lobbying, Rivian CEO's advice to the auto industry, and Tesla delaying its humanoid robots. Let's jump in.
30%: Hyundai Is Preparing For Political Disruption At Its New Metaplant By Upping Lobbying Efforts
Hyundai's $7.6 billion investment into its Georgia "Metaplant" will come to fruition later this year as the first U.S.-built Ioniq 5s roll off the line. But there's trouble in paradise, at least as far as Hyundai is concerned, as the bid for the U.S. presidency heats up with the incumbent dropping out of the race at the last minute.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is also the Republican presidential nominee, has pledged to do away with EV subsidies and a non-existent EV "mandate" on "day one," should he be re-elected president for a second, non-consecutive term. Trump's pick for vice president, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, is also notoriously anti-EV—even proposing a bill that would repurpose the $7,500 tax credit from EVs to U.S.-built combustion-powered cars.
This perfect storm has put automakers like Hyundai on high alert. After all, the South Korean automaker did just spend $12.6 billion on U.S. EV manufacturing (including its $7.6 billion Metaplant factory) on the promise of sales boosted by qualifying for the Federal EV tax credit.
From Business Korea:
According to a senior official from Hyundai Motor Group on July 22nd, the company is ramping up its domestic and local lobbying activities in preparation for the U.S. presidential election in November. Hyundai has been preparing in earnest since the end of last year to avoid repeating the significant losses it suffered two years ago when it failed to adequately prepare for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Hyundai has put up $520,000 for U.S. lobbying efforts during the first three months of 2024, according to data from Open Secrets. This might seem like a drop in the bucket compared to its manufacturing spending, but the half-million dollar bill is up nearly 150% year-over-year. Furthermore, Hyundai has extended its reach from 19 lobbying groups to 30.
You can't blame Hyundai for trying here. The automaker has spent billions of dollars investing in U.S. manufacturing to compete with protectionist tariffs that would otherwise make it difficult to compete with domestic automakers. Rather than seek a workaround like funneling non-compliant vehicles through Mexico to adhere to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, it instead built a huge factory in Georgia to build cars for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands.
Whether or not its lobbying spend will prove to be useful or just a pile of cash lit on fire won't be seen until after November.
60%: Rivian CEO Tells The World To Stop Copying The Tesla Model Y
The Model Y has proven to be an incredible success for Tesla. An all-electric crossover with minimal direct competition has been the perfect recipe for a company that just so happened to get the jump on legacy automakers, especially in the U.S. where Americans have a seemingly insatiable appetite for crossovers.
This has led to other brands preparing what they predict to be "the next Model Y"—but Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe feels that's the wrong approach to take. Instead, Scaringe sat down on the Decoder Podcast to share what he believes consumers are looking for in an electric crossover, and reiterate how the Model Y shouldn't be the end-all inspiration for engineers and designers.
Here's what Scaringe had to say:
If you want to spend less than $50,000 for an EV, I’d say there’s a very, very small number of great products. Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are highly compelling, great products, but they don’t have a lot of competition.
The products that are trying to compete with them more often than not, without being specific, have unfortunately replicated the package, the shape, the overall proportion of the vehicle, such that they’re not a Tesla-branded vehicle, but the side view centerline of the vehicle is almost identical to a Model Y. The seating package is within millimeters of a Model Y, the performance is slightly worse than a Model Y.
To Scaringe's point, Tesla pretty much knocked the packaging of the Model Y out of the park. There's a reason that it was the world's best-selling car in 2023. But innovation begets imitation, and that's where Rivian drew the line...sort of. Rivian's upcoming R2 SUV is fairly close to the Model Y's dimensions—within a few inches, actually. The R2 slightly shorter and narrower, though it does feature a longer wheelbase and 3.5" of additional ground clearance.
RJ seems to acknowledge that the Model Y is a broad-reaching product that ticks many of the boxes customers want in an automobile. Maybe not all of the boxes, but most, and that's enough to push a consumer towards one product that isn't facing a lot of affordable competition.
He continues:
I think you have a market that’s fairly saturated with Teslas, and I think the customers that are waiting on the sidelines saying, “I bought a Toyota RAV4, I bought a Highlander, and I want that kind of SUV-like profile, but I want an EV, and there’s nothing out there for me,” they’re probably still waiting.
We see that evidenced through the really positive reaction to the R2. The R2 very intentionally, much like we did with R1, is not trying at all to be a Tesla Model Y. It’s going to compete from a price point of view, with very similar pricing. It’s a very similar size. It’s slightly shorter than a Model Y, but it’s not trying to replicate a Model Y.
I think that’s not to say Model Y isn’t a great car. I think it’s an awesome car. I’ve owned one before. It’s just to say that I think the world needs more variety.
Our view is that there is [...] massive latent demand that’s sitting on the sidelines waiting for the vehicle that has the form factor, the packaging, the branding, the look, that will cause them to switch from a combustion-powered vehicle.
Naturally, Scaringe believes that the upcoming R2 is the answer to this. And so do the many commenters on social media who have reserved an R2 to replace their existing Tesla.
Rivian recently acknowledged that it has "well over 100,000" preorders for the R2—that includes me (who drives a Model 3 Performance), and our very own Mack Hogan. As competition in the EV space is increasing, Tesla could be facing an exodus of consumers who are tired of driving what is the epitome of an NPC mobile. Variety, to Scaringe's point, will enable consumers to pick and choose which boxes they want to tick while car shopping—something crucial for the booming EV space.
90%: Tesla Delays Optimus Humanoid Robot Production
It seems like just yesterday that Tesla dressed someone up in a robot suit and sent them to dance on stage. Since then, they've made quite a few strides in building actual robotic versions of the humanoid robot and even planned to manufacture Optimus for internal use later this year. But that timeline has quietly been updated by CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla has now pushed back the launch of its robots by almost a year according to new information shared by Musk on his social media platform, X. The CEO now claims that Tesla plans to produce Optimus for internal use in 2025, and plans for high production for external customers in as early as 2026.
This timeline is a rapid shift from Tesla's original timetable of producing Optimus for internal use later this year.
Musk originally said that Tesla would aim to have Optimus ready to be produced for internal use later this year at its investor meeting in mid-June. Keep in mind that Tesla prefaced this by claiming that it already has two Optimus bots deployed on one of its factory floors.
This is the first major delay for the automaker since shareholders voted to ratify a court-rejected $56 billion pay package for the CEO just last month. Musk claimed that Optimus would be the key to making Tesla worth $25 trillion, or about half of the entire S&P 500, in the future. Much like Musk's many other overly ambitious timelines, Optimus won't make the original cut as planned.
But, hey, if you want one now, you can at least buy your own Optimus suit to dance in.
100%: What Box Hasn't The EV Space Ticked For You?
The modern take on EVs is still pretty new. We've tried it before—battery and powertrain tech wasn't quite there. Neither was the charging infrastructure, but that's changing pretty rapidly.
We're in the Swiss Army Knife phase of EVs where many offerings feel like a do-it-all appliance on wheels. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe's recent interview (above) shows that the industry is looking to change that and give consumers more options to choose from so that consumers are compromising on powertrain or features.
That being said, have you found yourself compromising when choosing an EV or instead defaulting back to a combustion vehicle? Maybe towing range isn't quite there yet, or pricing is still out of reach. Perhaps styling is still not what you expect.
Let me know in the comments what you're still waiting for in your perfect EV.
