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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

It is good to be back, even if just for a week. Really, what’s going to happen in the summer when everyone is thinking about cookouts and beaches? A Russian Revolution? Wait… what?

We’ll leave Russia to the experts who inform the Reuters World News podcast. There’s plenty happening in the World of Cars. Let’s dive right in. Today – 

• • Knives out at Nissan

  • A reality check for second life batteries

  • How China is winning the EV race

Outgoing Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta

Missing the drama of “Game of Thrones” and “Succession?”

Nissan’s got you covered. The automaker’s board has hired outside investigators to determine whether CEO Makoto Uchida put his deputy, Ashwani Gupta, under surveillance. Gupta, once seen as a successor to Uchida, was abruptly bounced from the company’s board last month and will leave the company later this month.

Details of the accusations by Nissan senior adviser Hari Nada, reported by Reuters colleagues Daniel Leussink, Nori Shirouzu and Maki Shiraki, read like a treatment for HBO’s next drama of intrigue and treachery in high places.

The Uchida-Gupta conflict surfaced just days after former Nissan CEO and international fugitive Carlos Ghosn launched a $1 billion lawsuit against the automaker and vowed to fight “to the end” to prove he was the victim of slander and false evidence created by Nissan officials. (Nissan declined to comment on Ghosn’s suit.)

Nada played a central role in the investigation that led to Ghosn’s fall from power.

Nissan’s successive power struggles have a connecting thread: Internal clashes over the troubled alliance with France’s Renault. Whenever Nissan’s outside directors sort out the Uchida-Gupta situation, they will still face the challenges of catching up from behind in the race to compete with Tesla and surging Chinese automakers.

Can EV batteries get a second life?

The concept of a “circular economy” in which resources such as electric vehicle batteries get a second life as energy storage systems rather than being discarded or recycled has gotten a lot of attention in the auto industry, and from some investors.

But reusing partially spent EV batteries turns out to be easier in theory than in fact, Reuters colleagues Nick Carey, Paul Lienert and Victoria Waldersee report.

EV batteries turn out to last longer than expected, and the value of battery materials makes recycling more economically attractive than using batteries for backup power.

Will your next Aston Martin have some Lucid under the hood?

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is getting behind a new consolidation move in the EV industry.

British premium brand Aston Martin said it has struck a deal with luxury EV startup Lucid to use Lucid’s EV technology for future Aston models. Lucid will get a 3.7% stake in Aston plus cash. To oversimplify: Aston gets EV tech it badly needs. Lucid gets some additional scale and revenue that it could use to extend its runway after bruising losses.

Investors liked the deal: Lucid and Aston shares both rose Monday.

A potential winner in this cost-sharing deal, seated on both sides of the table, is the Saudi public investment fund, which owns stakes in both struggling companies and recently agreed to plow $3 billion more into Lucid.

Automakers who want to thrive as electric vehicles take a greater share of global vehicle sales must look at how the best of China’s EV manufacturers are winning.

That’s one takeaway from a comprehensive overview of the state of play in the global auto industry released Monday by AlixPartners, a consultancy with a wide-ranging automotive practice.

Chinese EV brands could control as much as 58% of the world’s largest auto market by 2030, AlixPartners’ Stephen Dyer said during a call Monday. Add in Chinese internal combustion brands, and 65% of the Chinese market will be owned by domestic brands.

China’s EV brands are winning because they put a priority on speeding new models and new high-tech features into the market, worrying less about traditional car industry values such as ride and handling, power and perfect quality, Dyer and Mark Wakefield, co-leader of AlixPartners auto practice, said.

Relying on profits from Internal Combustion Engine, or ICE, vehicles is a short-term strategy, Wakefield said.

“We have an ICE melting situation,” he said. As sales of combustion vehicles decline – more rapidly in China and Europe, but inevitably in North America, too – automakers should look to China’s automakers for lessons on how to survive.

The alternative is to wait for Chinese automakers to eat their lunch in their home markets. China is on track to be the leading vehicle export nation this year, AlixPartners said in its report.

Automakers who want to thrive as electric vehicles take a greater share of global vehicle sales must look at how the best of China’s EV manufacturers are winning.

That’s one takeaway from a comprehensive overview of the state of play in the global auto industry released Monday by AlixPartners, a consultancy with a wide-ranging automotive practice.

Chinese EV brands could control as much as 58% of the world’s largest auto market by 2030, AlixPartners’ Stephen Dyer said during a call Monday. Add in Chinese internal combustion brands, and 65% of the Chinese market will be owned by domestic brands.

China’s EV brands are winning because they put a priority on speeding new models and new high-tech features into the market, worrying less about traditional car industry values such as ride and handling, power and perfect quality, Dyer and Mark Wakefield, co-leader of AlixPartners auto practice, said.

Relying on profits from Internal Combustion Engine, or ICE, vehicles is a short-term strategy, Wakefield said.

“We have an ICE melting situation,” he said. As sales of combustion vehicles decline – more rapidly in China and Europe, but inevitably in North America, too – automakers should look to China’s automakers for lessons on how to survive.

The alternative is to wait for Chinese automakers to eat their lunch in their home markets. China is on track to be the leading vehicle export nation this year, AlixPartners said in its report.

The father of the lithium battery, University of Texas Prof. John Goodenough, has died at the age of 100, UT confirmed Monday.

GM has dropped the promised $39,000 version of its electric Silverado pickup truck. The initial electric Silverado models, due to start production in a few weeks, will start at $77,905, excluding shipping charges. They also will not have on-board charging ports compatible with Tesla Superchargers. Those arrive in 2025.

Australian miner Element 25 will supply battery materials to General Motors. Shares in Element 25 soared by 20%.

Ford will get $9.2 billion in subsidized loans from the Biden Administration to underwrite construction of three U.S. battery plants. But with the government’s helping hand comes a healthy helping of backlash. The United Auto Workers union blasted the Biden administration for subsidizing non-union plants, and the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page said Ford will now have to dance to Washington’s tune.

Ford and Honda are wrestling with big recalls. Ford is recalling Explorer SUVs with driveshafts that could disconnect. Honda has 1.3 million vehicles with rear camera displays that could go dark.

Alpine Racing is going Hollywood. A group that includes actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney is taking a 24% stake in the Formula One team.

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