AD #3931 – Volvo EX30 Finally Coming to the U.S.; Big Layoffs & Production Cuts at Nissan; EU Likely to Stick to Harder Emission Targets

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

NISSAN TO SLASH GLOBAL PRODUCTION
Nissan is having a tough time and the future is looking less bright. It’s forecasting that its operating profits will drop 70% for the current fiscal year. It’s going to slash its global production capacity by 20%. It’s going to get rid of 9,000 employees. And it’s selling off 10% of the shares it has in Mitsubishi to raise some cash. Nissan’s problems are also a drag on Renault. The French automaker still controls over 35% of Nissan’s shares, and had to shave €111 million off its bottom line in the third quarter because of Nissan’s poor financial performance.

MAZDA PROFITS DROP 67%
The news isn’t very encouraging at Mazda, either. Its car sales were up a little over 2% for the first half of its fiscal year. But that’s only because of strong sales in North America. Everywhere else in the world they’re down, with big drops in China and Japan. Mazda’s revenue rose a little over 3%, but its operating income fell 20% and its net income fell more than 67%. All this goes to show that the auto industry is going through some hard times right now.

DAIMLER TRUCK DOWN IN THE THIRD QUARTER
The only real bright spot of Volkswagen’s latest financial results was its heavy-duty truck maker, Traton. But it was a different story at Daimler Truck. In the third quarter sales were down 11%, which dragged revenue down by 5% and EBIT by 12%. And for the year, its free cash flow has dropped by 46%. But despite the declines, Daimler Truck didn’t change its outlook for the rest of the year and says it will be putting its full attention on free cash flow in the fourth quarter.

LYFT GETS NEW PARTNERS FOR AUTONOMOUS EFFORTS
Rideshare company Lyft announced several partnerships to support its autonomous business. It’s teaming up with Mobileye, which makes self-driving and ADAS technology, to make Lyft’s rideshare platform available to all vehicles equipped with Mobileye’s autonomous technology. But it didn’t say when it will be available. In addition to Mobileye, Lyft is partnering with self-driving startup May Mobility, which will add its self-driving Toyota Sienna minivans to Lyft’s fleet in Atlanta in 2025. And lastly, Lyft is partnering with Nexar, a company that makes dashcams, to use video footage and data for R&D and to help improve its autonomous technology.

VOLVO EX30 FINALLY COMING TO THE U.S.
The Volvo EX30 is finally coming to the U.S. Because the EV is made in China right now, Volvo decided to keep it out of the market when the U.S. raised import tariffs 100% on Chinese-made EVs in September. It had been waiting for EX30 production to start in Belgium before bringing it to the U.S. but that’s not expected to start happening until next year sometime, so Volvo isn’t waiting any longer. It says it will start delivering EX30s in the U.S. before the end of the year, but it will not start with more affordable models. First launching are twin-motor AWD versions, which start at a little over $46,000 with destination charges.

SANDY MUNRO ON AUTOLINE AFTER HOURS
Hey don’t forget to check out Autoline After Hours later today. We have none other than Sandy Munro coming on the show, and we sure have a lot to talk to him about. Like, what will be the Trump Administration’s impact on electric cars? What role does he think his pal Elon Musk will play in the Administration? And just a whole bunch more. So join John and Gary when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time.

  

EU LIKELY TO STICK TO HARDER EMISSION TARGETS
Automakers in Europe have been saying that it will be difficult for them to meet tougher CO2 emissions that kick in next year and as a result will face billions of euros in fines. But the climate commissioner, the person that actually oversees the EU’s policies on climate change, said those fears may be overstated and wants to figure out how the industry can stick to the targets. So, if the commissioner is reappointed by the European Parliament for five more years, which is supposed to happen later this month, there probably won’t be much of a change. However, with the EU sticking to its emission targets, the commissioner said it was fair for the auto industry to ask for more investment in an EV charging infrastructure.

EU AUTOMAKERS POOLING EMISSIONS TO AVOID FINES
That has the potential to be a nice boost to the EV industry, but EV sales still aren’t high enough to allow automakers to meet next year’s CO2 targets, so they’ll likely face fines. The last time emission rules got harder in 2020-2021 automakers had to pay out more than 500 million euros in fines. VW alone paid more than 100 million euros. It likely would have been a lot more, but companies were allowed to pool their emissions with other more fuel efficient automakers. Stellantis, for example, teamed up with Tesla. And that’s what we’re already starting to see again this time around. Suzuki says it will pool its emissions with Volvo, Mazda and Honda will pool with Toyota and Renault and VW also say they’re open to it. That’s going to be good news for the companies that are taking in the less fuel efficient automakers. Between 2019 and 2021 Stellantis paid about $2.4 billion to buy European and U.S. carbon credits from Tesla. Stellantis did end that partnership in 2021, claiming it sold enough electrified models to meet emission targets.

HYUNDAI OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FUTURE OF FUEL CELLS
There’s still a lot of skepticism around fuel cells but Hyundai believes it can sell between 50,000 and 200,000 units of its next-gen fuel cell system a year, including both passenger and commercial vehicles. However, it says it can’t do it by itself and demand will be influenced by the price of hydrogen, government support and availability of refueling stations. Hyundai began selling fuel cell vehicles in 2013 with the Tucson ix35 and since then it has only sold about 42,500 fuel cells. And the Nexo, which went on sale in 2018, accounts for most of that with nearly 40,000 sales.

MERCEDES CLA GETS GEELY IC ENGINE
Here’s a bit of a surprise. The all-new Mercedes-Benz CLA, which goes on sale next year, will be fitted with a 2-liter, turbocharged engine made by Geely in China. It’s rated at 250 horsepower and 265 foot-pounds of torque. Those engines will be shipped to Hungary to get installed in the CLAs. And actually, this is an engine that is made by Horse, the joint venture between Renault and Geely. And no doubt this all came about because Geely owns 10% of Mercedes-Benz.

XPENG OFFERS CHIP UPDATES
XPeng is offering customers an upgrade to their existing models, with a very intriguing promotion. It’s not an over-the-air update, it would physically install new chips for improved Level II driving and better in-vehicle infotainment, or IVI. For the Level II upgrade, XPeng wants to offer dual NVIDIA Orin X chips, instead of just one. The IVI upgrade swaps out a Qualcomm 820A chip for a new Snapdragon 8295 chip that’s also made by Qualcomm. But XPeng wants to crowd fund this update, meaning if enough people sign up it will go ahead with it. Otherwise, it won’t. The Level II upgrade will cost $2,800 and it says at least 1,000 people have to sign up for it. While the IVI upgrade is $700 and at least 4,000 people have to sign up. We think it’s a clever way to test the market. You get your customers to pony up the money before you pull the trigger.

TOYOTA GETTING VERSION OF NEW SUZUKI e VITARA
Suzuki revealed the e Vitara, its first mass-produced pure electric vehicle. This is the electric made-in-India SUV that Toyota will get from Suzuki, which was just announced the other day. The model features a lithium-iron phosphate or LFP battery pack that comes in two sizes, 49 or 61-kWh. The 49-kWh battery is only available in front-wheel drive models, which produce 106-kW or 144 horsepower. The 61-kWh battery has a range of 250 miles or 403 kilometers and is available in FWD models that make 128 or 174 horsepower or AWD models that produce 135-kW or 184 horsepower. As we said, the e Vitara will be built in India and it goes on sale in Europe, India and Japan next summer.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. I hope to see you later during After Hours.