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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

The Word of the Day this Friday morning is “software.”

Runner up contenders included “batteries,” “Tesla” and “China.” But we’re going with “software” because challenges created by coding and data are popping up everywhere in the World of Cars.

Before we dive into that, a quick note: The Auto File will take a break on Monday as I travel to Germany for the Reuters Events Automotive Europe conference, starting on Tuesday in Munich. I’ll be back on Wednesday with highlights from the conference and more.

And now, what’s happening today –

• • Tesla, VW and Volvo struggle with software 

  • Germany and France land giga-factories

  • Toyota’s big data leak

     

Not your father’s Oldsmobile.

This has been a rough week for the auto industry’s software coders and executives responsible for their work. Consider:

Volvo said it will delay the launch of its EX90 electric SUV because of delays in completing and testing software.

Volvo’s hold-ups forced Swedish EV brand Polestar to alert investors on Thursday that its Polestar 3 electric SUV will be delayed, because it rides on the same architecture as the Volvo. (Both brands belong to Chinese automaker Geely’s stable.)

Polestar said it would cut staff by 10% and chopped its 2023 production forecast. The company’s shares started Friday down 12% from their level before the delay was announced.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s CFO said the company’s next-generation vehicle software architecture – designed to match the capabilities of Tesla and Chinese EV rivals – won’t be ready until 2027 or 2028 – not 2026 as once hoped.

And what about Tesla, the leader in advanced, software-defined vehicles?

On Friday, Chinese regulators said Tesla will recall more than 1 million vehicles to revise the software that controls the brakes and accelerator.

Regulators said Tesla’s software made it too easy for drivers to slam down the accelerator and lose control of the vehicle. Tesla can make the fix with an over-the-air update. It is not clear whether Tesla will be required to make a similar fix in other markets.

Attention coders: You’ll be working on Saturday.

A big day for Northvolt co-founder Paolo Cerruti

Score two for Europe in the arm-wrestling with the United States to land electric vehicle jobs.

European battery maker Northvolt said it will invest several billions to build a plant in Germany big enough to supply batteries for 1 million EVs.

French President Emmanuel Macron celebrated the decision by battery maker Prologium to choose France for its first EV battery factory outside its home base in Taiwan.

Macron and his German counterparts have fretted for months that U.S. manufacturing subsidies were diverting investment away from Europe. France has lobbied to ease European Union rules limiting state subsidies to win EV investments. Germany will offer 500 million euros in subsidies to Northvolt.

One less item on his plate?

Elon Musk found someone to take over as Twitter’s CEO, and Tesla shareholders are jumping for joy.

NBC Universal said Friday that senior executive Linda Yaccarino is leaving. The WSJ and others reported Yaccarino is in talks to take over at Twitter.  Musk’s announcement (via Twitter, of course) comes just days ahead of Tesla’s shareholders meeting next Tuesday – and could defuse questions about whether the billionaire multi-tasker is spreading himself too thin.

Toyota disclosed that personal data belonging to 2 million customers in Japan could have been left exposed to prying eyes by a programming mistake.  For nearly 10 years, privacy settings on a Toyota cloud system were left on “public,” the company said.

Vietnamese EV startup Vinfast said it will list shares in the United States at a projected equity value of $23 billion via a deal with a special purpose acquisition company.

The move comes as many of the EV startups that went public during the 2020-2021 SPAC boom are foundering. U.S. investors and regulators have gone cold on SPACs.

In Vinfast’s case, 99% of existing Vinfast shareholders will hold shares in the new entity, according to a joint statement from Vinfast and its SPAC buyer, Black Spade Acquisition Co.

Vinfast last month got $2.5 billion in new capital, including $1 billion from founder Pham Nhat Vuong.

Greenpeace warned that GM, Volkswagen and other global automakers in China risk being stuck with useless combustion vehicle factories if they do not accelerate their electric vehicle programs.

VW and GM said they are doing exactly that.

Greenpeace’s warning is more a diagnosis than a prediction. The environmental group estimated that a third of internal combustion vehicle capacity at 10 global automakers in China could become redundant if sales of electrified vehicles rise to 40% of the Chinese market by 2030. China’s automakers already have nearly twice as much production capacity as they need to meet current demand.

German automakers have done very well indeed for the past three decades exporting vehicles to China, with few vehicles coming back the other way. Now, the Germany-China vehicle trade is becoming a two-way highway.

Chinese-made electric vehicles accounted for 28% of EVs shipped to Germany during the first quarter, up from just under 8% a year ago, according to German government data. Tesla accounts for part of that shift, but Chinese automakers are pushing into Europe as well, in part to deal with the excess capacity problem noted in the previous item.

The jump in shipments of Chinese EVs could stoke the broader angst in Germany about dependency on China.

Electric truck and van maker Rivian steered around the wreckage among rival EV startups this week. Its long-term prospects depend on whether CEO R.J. Scaringe wins a bet that Rivian can sustain premium pricing while Tesla goes for market share over profit-per-vehicle.

Good news: Rivian’s products do not compete directly with Tesla’s current lineup. Investors will be watching how Rivian holds up when Tesla finally launches the Cybertruck, and legacy automakers accelerate production of electric delivery vans.

Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta will be leaving the automaker’s board, casting doubt about his future with the automaker.

Gupta has been a prime mover in Nissan’s latest restructuring and turnaround efforts – which this week appeared to be bearing fruit. Nissan reported a rise in operating profit as supply chain snafus eased and cost-cutting began to bite. Honda also had an upbeat outlook.

Tesla kicked prices up a notch in the United States, continuing its pattern of tweaking prices on an almost daily basis. A chart of Tesla’s daily pricing actions could an indicator of demand for the company’s vehicles – or a random scatter plot of Elon Musk’s instincts about what constitutes a market clearing price.

Renault is looking for additional investors to fund its Alpine and Ampere units.

Panasonic delayed production of 4680 battery cells for Tesla until April to September next year – up to a year later than once planned. Tesla has also had trouble ramping up production of the larger format 4680 cells.

Goodyear shares jumped after activist investment fund Elliott Management disclosed a 10% stake, pushed for a new slate of directors and called on management to cut costs.

GM will combine North American sales operations that target commercial fleet customers under a new brand umbrella, GM Envolve.

Autonomous trucking company TuSimple could be delisted by NASDAQ as soon as Monday for failing to file its quarterly financial reports. TuSimple said earlier this year it needed more time because it had to hire new accountants. The company has been wrestling with management turmoil.

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