⚡ iPhone on wheels vs. Android tablet in your car - and what's Tesla doing?

Happy Monday. This is Electric Avenue - the weekly newsletter that brings you more drama than a Mexican Telenovela💃:

Hoy en 'avenida electrica', El ranchero gringo Elon Musk defiende su finca contra Apple y Google. Mientras tanto, el gobierno está debatiendo otra prohibición de venta de vehículos de gasolina para 2045. Mire hoy mientras Tesla publica su Plan Maestro Parte 3. ¿Ocupará el ranchero Marte?". ¡Hoy, en Telemundo Eléctrico!

Here's what we have for you today:

• 1 Pic 🖼️

• 3 Thoughts 💭

• 3 Links 🔗

• Meme of the week 🤡

Let's get into it!

One Pic 🖼️

Since Apple Carplay first launched in 2014 it has taken hold in models from almost every carmaker. Most recently Lucid Motors and its Lucid Air joined the roughly 600 car models that support Carplay. But some notable holdouts to the screen-mirroring feature still exist in the EV space with both Tesla and Rivian.

Meanwhile Apple is marching forward with its mission to take over the in-car digital user experience. The company presented its vision for Next-Gen Carplay last year, which for the first time would allow it to take over the instrument cluster display in addition to the center display:

The picture above shows an example implementation of Next-Gen CarPlay with a screen arrangement that looks fairly close to a Ford Mustang Mach-E. And indeed, Ford is among the carmakers that have committed to supporting the next CarPlay iteration. The company expects CarPlay support to be a selling point over competing electric vehicles - such as the ones by Tesla and Rivian.

But not everyone is on board with Apple's plans: General Motors (GM), the largest US carmaker by sales volume, just publicly announced the controversial decision to sunset support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone projection features in its upcoming electric vehicles.

This is a strategic move which goes hand-in-hand with a partnership that will see Google bring its Google Maps and Google Assistant services to GM's vehicles. These services will run directly on the vehicle infotainment computer branded as Google Built-in (formerly Android Automotive/Google Automotive Services).

Was Apple pushing it too far for GM's Execs? Could other carmakers follow the strategic decisions of Tesla, Rivian, and GM to prioritize their own Infotainment software over customer requests for Carplay support?

Three Thoughts 💭

Deeper vehicle integration means loss of control ❌: Apple and Google are both pushing for deeper integration between their software and vehicle hardware systems such as battery, HVAC, ADAS, and the instrument cluster. This will result in a more seamless and standardized digital experience for car users, regardless of the brand of the vehicle. This will not only make vehicle operation more intuitive for individual owners, but it also offers significant benefits for customers of rental cars and free-floating car-sharing services. Not offering CarPlay or Android Auto in the face of this is a strategic move by automakers such as Tesla, Rivian and GM to maintain control over their business, customer data, and the digital user experience.

Google is willing to co-own with OEMs to accelerate adoption 🚙: GM's announcement to support Google Built-In underscored how Google is pitching the advantages of its offering to OEMs: Google is willing to co-own customer data and give OEMs more control over customer touchpoints with Google Built-In. This means that OEMs can determine which apps are supported on their vehicles and integrate their digital services (e.g. GM's Supercruise ADAS) with Google services such as Maps. One of the strengths of Google Built-In is that it is available no matter which phone OS a driver uses. And with Google Maps being the most popular navigation service in large parts of the world, Google has a strong selling point. Mercedes recently struck a deal to bring Google Maps to its vehicles in which Google showed even more flexibility by not forcing Mercedes to use Google Maps' built-in UI & map renderer.

Projection of smartphone enables future readiness 📽️ - With Next-Gen Carplay Apple is positioning the iPhone and CarPlay as the primary control device & system for the vehicle. One significant advantage of using the phone to compute and run CarPlay is that smartphones are typically upgraded more frequently than cars. This means that with every hardware update of the iPhone, the CarPlay experience will be improved and additional computing power will become available to run future applications and features seamlessly. However, it's important to note that this functionality will be limited to owners of Apple devices. Unless Apple is willing to actually develop embedded software for vehicles and ditch the dependency on the iPhone, users of other smartphone operating systems will remain locked out of an Apple-branded in-car experience.

3 Links 🔗

• Hyundai is coming for your house 🏠: Together with startup Electrum, Hyundai is launching it's Hyundai Home Marketplace. The website offers an interactive way for home owners to get estimates on cost savings and incentives for adding a home charging station, solar or stationary battery storage to their homes. Once customers indicate interest in purchasing one or multiple components, they will be connected with trusted installers.

• Europe's Best Wallbox 🔌: Consulting company P3 conducted an analysis of 10 home charging wallboxes and crowned two winners - EVBox Livo (overall and end-user test winner) and go-e Charger Gemini flex (installer and price-performance test winner). The report's objective was to provide a transparent and customer-centric comparison of wallboxes from a user and installer perspective. Notably, all tested chargers show lacking or complicated compatibility for smart charging (e.g. CO2, photovoltaik, price and grid optimised charging). NIO drivers in Europe may not be phased by this as their vehicles just got a significant Smart Charging feature update.

• New EPA rules 🌳: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (=EPA) proposed ambitious new emission limits that would apply to vehicles sold between 2027-2032:

  • Main goal: Reducing tailpipe emissions by 56% until 2032

  • For 2030, the EPA expects that its rules would require carmakers to achieve 60% of their new car sales to be electric

  • In 2022 the US was only at 5% of new car sales being electric (Link)

  • The rules for commercial vehicles vary: 50% of buses and 25% of long-haul trucks sold in 2032 are expected to be all-electric.

EV Memes of the Week 🤡

Disclaimer for our US-readers 🇺🇸: Asterix and Obelix is a french cartoon book series about adventures of the indomitable Gaulish duo as they resist Roman occupation, outwit their enemies, and defend their village using wit, humor, and their incredible abilities.

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel:

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin´ awesome on ⚡ Goodbye gas station 👋 - The Evolution of Retailer charging 🛒 and wrote:

"well done, eye opening regarding new business opportunities!"

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in the companies discussed.