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Runtime: 13:11
0:00 Kia To Build Pickup in U.S.
1:18 Ford Maverick Gets Major Overhaul
2:44 Uber & BYD Cut 100,000 EV Deal
3:11 Toyota Gets Its Hand Slapped…Again
4:00 Recaro Files for Bankruptcy
5:19 Ford BlueCruise Now Available Across EU
6:05 Audi’s All New A6 EV
8:43 Cadillac Upgrades CT5-V Blackwing
9:35 Stellantis Enticing More U.S. Employees to Leave
10:24 Two Stellantis Execs Land at Goodyear
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
KIA TO BUILD PICKUP IN U.S.
Kia will start making a pickup truck at the Hyundai Group’s brand new assembly plant in Savannah, Georgia in December of 2028, according to Autoforecast Solutions. We wonder if there will be an electric version, since Kia already announced it’s developing a battery powered pickup. And with a Job One date that’s over three years away, Kia would have plenty of time to fully develop it, as well as allow the EV market to grow. Autoforecast also reports that production of the Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup will move from Alabama to Savannah in May of 2029. Putting both trucks in one facility would greatly simplify manufacturing and logistics. The plant in Savannah, which Hyundai calls its Metaplant, was originally going to build only EVs. But with a possible Trump Administration promising to cut support for EVs, Hyundai announced the plant will also build hybrids. And so it’s entirely possible these will be hybrid trucks. Either way, it’s pretty significant that Kia is getting into the pickup segment in the American market.
FORD MAVERICK GETS MAJOR OVERHAUL
Speaking of small pickups, the Ford Maverick just got a big overhaul. Despite being the smallest pickup you can buy from a major automaker in the U.S., Ford claims almost half of all Maverick owners still tow with their trucks. That’s one of the reasons it made a number of towing improvements to the refreshed 2025 version. Ford says the biggest request from customers was to make AWD available on hybrid models, which doubles its towing capacity to 4,000 lbs, the same as non-hybrid models with AWD. It also updated the Maverick with Trailer Hitch and Backup Assist, which takes advantage of a new 360-degree camera that displays on a bigger and standard 13.2-inch center screen. You’ve probably already noticed the front-end styling change as well, which includes more body color in the fascia and headlights that kind of swoop down off the sides of the grille. Each grade will also get its own unique grille design and the Lariat and Tremor trim lines get Ford’s new flatter and chrome-less logo. I believe the new Maverick is the first Ford vehicle outside of the new F-150 to wear the badge. Pricing for an XLT Hybrid will start at just under $28,000, including destination charges and sales will kick off late in the year.
UBER & BYD CUT 100,000 EV DEAL
Uber is doing a deal with BYD to make 100,000 low cost electric cars available to its drivers in Europe and South America. The deal does not include the U.S. market, undoubtedly because the high import tariffs and Chinese EVs are a touchy political topic across the political spectrum. But Uber’s goal is to have 100% of its rides in EVs in North America and Europe by 2030.
TOYOTA GETS ITS HAND SLAPPED…AGAIN
Toyota is going from bad to worse. Japan’s Ministry of Transport says it found eight new violations in which Toyota did not properly certify its vehicles. The company is stopping shipments of some models and doesn’t know when they’ll resume. Other models that were certified outside of Japan are still in production. Toyota blames on-site and managerial oversights for the violations. The company was charged with other violations in early June, which forced it to suspend production of three models. And it will only restart building them in September if they’re found to be in compliance. Last year, Hino and Daihatsu, which are Toyota subsidiaries, were also involved in certification scandals.
RECARO FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
In a shocking move to most of us, seat maker Recaro filed for bankruptcy in Germany. The company blames its financial troubles on price increases for materials and the loss of a major contract. The bankruptcy process only involves the company’s automotive business and not seats for airplanes and gaming consoles. It supplies seats to a number of different automakers but usually only as optional equipment. The only company using its seats in series production is Ineos Automotive, a British company that makes expensive off-road vehicles. Recaro was founded back in 1906 and in 1965 it developed its first car seat. Recaro Automotive is currently owned by American investment firm Raven Acquisition, which bought the seat maker from Adient in 2020. But with the bankruptcy, Recaro’s automotive future is now up in the air.
FORD BLUECRUISE NOW AVAILABLE ACROSS EU
Ford is expanding BlueCruise in Europe following approval by the European Commission. The hands-free driving technology is now offered in 15 countries in the EU. It already had it in Great Britain, Spain and Germany, but added Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. BlueCruise can now operate on 82,744 miles or more than 133,000 kilometers of highway in the region. Ford charges $2,100 for three years upfront in the U.S. or $75 a month, so this could be a nice cash bump for the company.
AUDI’S ALL NEW A6 EV
Audi revealed an all-new EV, the A6 e-tron. The styling stays very true to the concept version that debuted way back in 2021. Part of the reason it’s taken this long for Audi to launch the production car is because of issues at VW’s software division Cariad that caused delays to its new PPE platform, which is used by both Porsche and Audi. The first vehicles were supposed to come out in 2022, but the new Macan didn’t get revealed until the beginning of this year, then came the Q6 e-tron, now there’s A6 e-tron and soon Porsche will debut the new Cayenne as well. The A6 e-tron will be offered as both a sedan and wagon and will be available in rear- and all-wheel drive. However, the U.S. is only getting the sedan for now. All versions feature an 800-volt battery pack with nearly 95 kWh of usable space. That provides up to 756 kilometers or about 470 miles of range in the rear-drive sedan and 720 kilometers or about 450 miles of range in the rear-drive wagon, based on the WLTP cycle. A 270 kW or 362 horsepower motor drives rear-drive models. There’s a non-performance AWD model that will be offered in the U.S. before Europe. It makes 315 kW or 422 horsepower. But Audi says more rear-wheel and all-wheel drive models are coming. There’s also an S6 version that produces 370 kW or almost 500 horsepower and does 0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds, but it also sacrifices a little more than 10% of its range compared to the rear-drive model. The interior of the A6 e-tron is pretty much identical to the new Q6 e-tron and they come with most of the same technology and driver assistance features as well. Audi is first launching mid- to high-range versions of the A6 e-tron. There’s no pricing for the U.S. yet, but the first rear-drive sedans will start at 75,600 euros in Europe. It’s 1,650 euros more for a rear-drive wagon, while AWD models start at 99,500 euros for the sedan and just over 101,000 euros for the wagon. Orders open in Europe in September.
CADILLAC UPGRADES CT5-V BLACKWING
Every enthusiast I know that’s driven a Cadillac Blackwing raves about their capabilities and now it’s kicking it up a notch. Cadillac is launching a new Precision Package for the CT5-V Blackwing that includes increased spring rates, a larger front stabilizer bar, it tweaked the suspension bushings, recalibrated the dampers, steering, chassis controls, limited slip diff and added carbon ceramic brakes. And remember this builds on the car, which already came with a number of performance parts and a 6.2L supercharged V8 that cranks out nearly 670 horsepower. No word on pricing, but the regular CT5-V Blackwing starts at over $93,000 and it easily tops out at over $100-grand with options.
STELLANTIS ENTICING MORE U.S. EMPLOYEES TO LEAVE
Stellantis employs about 11,000 white collar workers in the U.S. and it’s offering voluntary buyout packages to 6,400 of them. Automotive News reports that it just initiated another round of packages that now includes vice presidents. If not enough employees accept the buyouts, Stellantis warns it will be forced to lay people off. CEO Carlos Tavares is working on drastically cutting costs at Stellantis, and seems to be particularly focused on what we used to know as the Chrysler Group. Autoline has heard from employees there who say morale is low and that it’s not a happy place to work. Bloomberg reports that Stellantis will get rid of 1,200 engineers in Europe, the U.S. and China by the end of the year.
TWO STELLANTIS EXECS LAND AT GOODYEAR
But at least two Stellantis execs from the Chrysler Group have landed new jobs at Goodyear. Mamatha Chamarthi will be a senior vice president and chief digital officer, and Will Roland will become a senior vice president and CMO. The CEO of Goodyear, Mark Stewart, left Stellantis late last year to join the tire company, and he’s obviously taking advantage of Stellantis’ headcount reduction to bring in the talent he wants.
CADILLAC ESCALADE CHIEF ENGINEER ON AAH
The 2025 Cadillac Escalade went through a major refresh and to get into all the details we’re going to have the chief engineer, Martin Hayes, on Autoline After Hours tomorrow. And we invite you to pull up a chair and listen in when the show goes live on the Autoline website and our YouTube channel.
But that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for tuning in.
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Best of luck to Stellantis. Cutting costs is not going to make their products more exciting, more reliable, nor less cheaply made. They have a product problem at Stellantis and these cost cuts are not going to change that. In fact, these cuts will likely further the demise of Stellantis as nobody will be left to introduce new products that will sell.
Tavares is full speed ahead to their demise.
This story should read, after he ruined Renault/Nissan, he is at it again over at Stellantis. It is not lost on me that Renault/Nissan started turning around AFTER Tavares left.
I’m sorry but a few too many VW design engineers must have been involved in the Audi A6. The sedan isn’t very exciting and in fact reminds me of a 2013-22 Ford Fusion minus the grille.
First the brands themselves are threatened, now executives on the North American side of the old FCA! Yet, regarding the brands, at the end of the day, I thought Stellantis was giving their brands time to prove themselves?! That was said only a couple years ago and the brands have yet to display what they had given them money to develop in that time. It just seems that, to protect his job, the CEO has walked back the promise and time frame he had given them to show progress! A shame! It is not lost that Tavares has made record compensation, but he’s asking the company executives to take buyouts and suppliers for 30% cost cuts! As MERKUR said, will not necessarily make the company better and may purge talent they desperately need! Especially, with the focus being on the money making side of the company.
Dead On- Merkur Anyone that’s been in the auto-industry for a while has seen this before. This is bad leadership. Cut vehicle line-up then wonder why sales are down. Don’t replace any retired products with anything and just start cutting heads. So, then you don’t have anything in the works, you don’t have the resources to work on releasing anything new. You’ve kept the stockholders off his back temporarily by keeping costs down at the long-term cost to the company. Tavaras will be gone in two years or less. He will blame EV transition and poor forecasts, but the fall starts here, and this is his doing. Unless he makes a miraculous recovery, his days are numbered.
Now that all three of the German legacy OEMs have fielded an EV sedan, in a few months we’ll see have close they have come to the Model S and Air BEVs. Well looks are subjective, especially with the exterior, the of the A6 e-tron might arguably be the best looking of the i5, EQE, Air and the S. While the side view below the windows of the A6 and i5 appear chunkier the their ICE for bears and the S and Air, they are still very attractive vehicles, none they less.
@Merkur, Lambo, wmb: fully agree with all of you.
However, all of the arguments are true if the objective is to develop the Jeep/Chrysler/Dodge/RAM business to prosperity. If the objective is to spin it off within 1 or 2 years from now new products are not needed and the sales price will be maximized by slashing cost including cost for product development, engineering and marketing (brand building).
So I venture to guess that the Stellantis objective is to sell the company/brands/assets rather than sell profitable vehicles.
What do you think?
Wim,
That is the only thing that makes any sense to me. A shame if that is the plan.
Ford must be dreaming to think that almost half of Maverick owners tow with them. Real data says that no more than ~20% tow, even with big pickups. Still, the base FWD Maverick is the best thing going in pickup trucks. Now, if they’d make a regular cab version with a longer bed, they wouldn’t need to have 4X8 sheets of stuff hanging out 2-3 feet past the open tailgate as shown in the linked article.
Laying off a bunch of salary workers would seem the last thing Stellantis North America needs. They desperately need product, and it takes those people to design it. When is the new Charger supposed to arrive? Are they getting rid of people who are still designing it? Isn’t the Ram pickup about due for its next generation? Pacifica is probably the oldest van since its last redo. Don’t they need people to take care of these things?
According to this, apparently 75% of people tow with their truck at least once per year. This study makes the argument that they do not need a full size truck to do the towing, but that is debatable.
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/truck-owners-need-full-size-pickup/
The study would make sense as the RV trailer stats are similar. Most people use their RV trailer once or twice per any given year. The full time RV trailer people are very rare. So the truck buyers are likely buying for that once or twice per year that they need the truck to tow their trailer. You cannot, even still to this day, rent a truck and tow with it. There are rules against that at the rental companies and if you have an incident towing, you are 100% financially responsible.
According to a 2022 article from The Drive, 75% of truck owners tow something once a year or less, or never at all. In most cases, once a year or less probably means never.
From a study of F-150 drivers:
HOW OFTEN DO PICKUP TRUCK OWNERS USE THEIR VEHICLES FOR VARIOUS TASKS?
Frequently Occasionally Rarely/Never
Shopping/Errands 87% 6% 7%
Pleasure Driving 70% 20% 9%
Commuting 52% 4% 44%
Personal Hauling 28% 41% 32%
Towing 7% 29% 63%
I think the European auto industry is a very different animal to the North American one. Stellantis is probably realizing that they just can’t operate their NA operations the same way as they do in Europe. Initially all was great because of the profit, but as it came time to replace vehicles, they realized they don’t have the upper management structure to do it successfully. There isn’t enough synergy between NA and Europe to make it a success. I predict NA Chrysler et al will be cut loose once again. Hope they land in a more compatible home.
I personally know a few people that have campers that they keep on a camping site all summer. They use the truck to tow it home or storage in the fall and back to the campground in the spring. Some also have boats that do almost the same thing. Put it the water in the spring and need to pull it out in the fall. Many that have snowmobiles may only use them a few times depending on the weather.
The motorbiscuit article mis-quoted the actual study, which indicated that 75% of pickup owners tow once a year or less, in most cases, less probably meaning never. As far as people taking campers to a park and then retrieving them, that’s twice a year. The same would apply to taking a boat to a marina for the summer and retrieving it. They, and the snowmobile people would be in the 25% who tow more than once a year.
Maybe GM should buy Chrysler Group. It would fill some gaps in their lineup, with Pacifica and Wrangler, and they could use the best of what both the GM and Ram pickups have, maybe offering a choice of V8 or turbo six in both the GM and Ram trucks. As Albemarle said, the European and US/Canada markets are very different, and it seems that European companies have a not-so-great record with running N.A. operations.
I’ve been a Jeep fan for years. Have a Cherokee now, but they dropped it. Also, their pricing has gone insane.
And nobody asked for a $110K plus Grand Wagoneer. And maybe Ford learned to make money make what the people want and can afford – like the Maverick.
Grand Wagoneer sold fewer than 10,000 in 2023. The non-Grand wagogoneer did better, but less than 1/5 Yukon+Tahoe sales, and less than half Expedition sales. Escalade is going to have the max bling SUV market locked up, and it made no sense for Jeep to try with the Grand Wag.
Al, how does the current Compass compare with the most recent Cherokee? Is it still a big notch below, or is it somewhat of a replacement?
Stellantis has already let a lot of top NA executives and VPs, along with their intellectual knowledge, experience and expertise, retire and leave the company. Now it just seems like they are just pushing them out the door! The FCA side of Stellantis may have been better off, selling a fullsize Dodge or Ram as a SUV and a Chrysler as a competitor to the Navigation and Escalade.
I don’t know if they should have called Grand Wagoneer something different, like Chrysler Imperial, but whether making it at all was a mistake boils down to this. Is ~40K a year volume of Grand plus non-Grand Wagoneer enough to make money, or was the whole project a losing proposition? They are a very distant 3rd place in monster SUV sales, but maybe it’s a money maker.
To me, a big mistake was dropping Charger, Challenger, and 300 when they were still selling, including what must have been high profit “special edition” Challengers going for $80K.
Regardless of how one wants to think about who does and does not tow with their vehicle, it is obviously quite important. Maverick tried to compete with a Honda Civic as a fuel efficient commuter with additional practicality, It is ending with becoming more of a traditional truck that needs to do truck things. Ford is willing to put millions of dollars on the line for towing capacity. Ford is so cash strapped, they would not have spent a dime on towing capacity if it was not important to increasing sales of an already extremely popular model that has zero trouble selling.
Will making the Maverick hybrid more complex, by adding available 4wd, enable them to increase production numbers? That seems counterintuitive. They haven’t been able to keep up with demand already. I suppose adding the 4wd will allow them to make more money on some of the mix, and still be able to sell the more basic Mav hybrids at good prices.
As far as tow ratings, how much do they really mean? I towed a popup camper thousands of miles with my ’89 van with a tow rating of zero, and it worked fine.
Lambo, good observation regarding the new Audi’s similarity to the bygone Fusion. Don’t think that’s the way to sales success today, in the segment targeted.
In 1989 the general rule was to assume the tow rating was 85% of the curb weight of the vehicle unless the manufacturer otherwise stated. These days that general rule is no longer followed as there were lawsuits against installers and manufacturers of hitches. So now if your vehicle does not come with a trailer hitch, an installer will put one in commensurate with your factory tow rating. If the factory states your tow capacity is zero, they will not install it. Unless you find an installer that does not realize how much liability they have assumed by installing a hitch on something not rated for it.
85% curb of a 1989 Dodge Caravan though would be about where a typical pop-up camper would have been in 1989. In 1991 the Caravan did get a tow rating of 2000 pounds which is likely what the 1989 model would have been if the manufacturer had rated it.
Pop-ups are still sold in decent numbers today due to their small cost. However, the trailer most people are buying these days are min 7,000 pounds. Even pop-ups these days are starting to add in full bathrooms with shower/toilet and expanding the foot print for more living space making them heavy. A 1989 Caravan would likely struggle towing one of these new larger foot print pop-ups.
Kit — I agree with you about the GW and W, but I think, IMHO, with the W being sold as a premium vehicle, the base price is a good $5K t0 $10K above the base Tahoe. That might not be an issue competing against the Yukon and it ‘s derivatives, but to a Chrysler Motors fan, who wants/needs something bigger then the Durango. Yet, the Wagoneer with it’s standard Jeep ordinance and price premium, may put it beyond their reach. A Dodge or Ram, though, that’s price competitive to the Tahoe, Expedition, Sequoia and Armada, may not make it a sells leader among that group, but might have given them more sells then the GW/W platform has now. At ~40K, the GW/W emulates the sell figures of the Yukon of 2023, so there is a space for it. When you look at a fully loaded version, though, again IMHO, it’s hard to see either version of the Wagoneers competing with the Escalade, Navigator, LX600, QX80, GLS or the X7! I’m not saying that these Jeep twins are not as good as or can’t hold their own against those luxury models, but I would not be surprised if they are not cross shopped with them. Then, at their price points, I wonder if they are being considered with those other mass market full size SUVs as well?!
MURKUR, I think tow rating of my Caravan was zero, because of the powertrain. They probably had tow ratings of >0 with other powertrains.
It now seems easy to buy a hitch for vehicles with US tow ratings of zero, like Mini 2-door and Prius, but it might be hard to find a regular business to install them. Of course, any number of vehicles with tow ratings of zero in the US have tow ratings of >0 most places. A Mini like mine has a rating of 750kg in the UK.
Base price of a Wagoneer, ~$63K, is ~$8K more than Tahoe and Expedition. I don’t know how standard equipment compares, but I’d be surprised if it accounts for that difference. Sequoia is also “premium” priced at ~$61K.