AD #3959 – Foxconn Wants Renault’s Shares in Nissan; Ram Pulling EREV Production Ahead of BEV; Aramco Explores Making EV Batteries

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

VW & UNIONS FACE LOOMING DEADLINE
Big day tomorrow for Volkswagen and its unions in Germany. That’s the deadline the union set for coming to an agreement with the company to avert strikes. The two sides have held marathon bargaining sessions all week and labor representatives say they’ve made some progress. The company seems willing to keep all German plants open until 2030, as long as workers give up their bonuses. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement, the unions promise to unleash crippling strikes right after the holidays.

EU CAR SALES FALL AGAIN IN NOVEMBER
Meanwhile, the European car market continues its downward slide. The ACEA reports that new car sales fell 2% in November. Sales of EVs fell 9.4% in the EU, but thanks to a 58% increase in EV sales in the UK, overall EV sales in the greater European market were up by almost 1%. Even so, Tesla saw a dramatic drop, down almost 41%. Plug-in hybrids, as well as gasoline and diesel cars also saw a big drop in sales, but strong hybrids posted a strong 18% gain. And that seems to be the story all around the world, hybrids are hot, hot, hot. The greater European market is on track to sell just under 13 million vehicles this year, which is a scary low number. And you’ve got to wonder what kind of impact that might have on VW’s labor negotiations.

FOXCONN WANTS TO BUY RENAULT’S SHARES IN NISSAN
It’s sure looking like Foxconn wants to buy a stake in Nissan, but we think executives at the automaker and leaders in Japan don’t want a Taiwanese contract manufacturer to have any control over one of the crown jewels of the Japanese auto industry. So, that’s why somebody started the talks that Nissan should really merge with Honda. However, Foxconn may be able to get its stake in Nissan anyway. Reports are a senior executive is meeting with officials from Renault to talk about buying, at least, part of Renault’s shares in Nissan. Renault has a 15% stake in Nissan that Foxconn could potentially go after. And we would point out that another roughly 18% of Nissan’s shares are tied up in a French trust that’s partly controlled by the Renault Group.

TUSIMPLE BAILS ON AVs
Another company is throwing in the towel on developing autonomous vehicles. General Motors recently announced that it will no longer support its self-driving business, Cruise. And now autonomous trucking startup, TuSimple says it is pivoting to develop gaming technology and is renaming the company CreateAI. TuSimple was founded in 2015 and attracted investments from Volkswagen, Nvidia and UPS. But the company ran into regulatory issues and earlier this year it delisted from the NASDAQ. The company says it will instead use its image-to-video AI technology to create the video game content.

TESLA WANTS ROBOTAXIS IN AUSTIN NEXT YEAR
But not everyone is giving up on self-driving cars. Bloomberg reports that Tesla is in talks with the city of Austin, Texas to launch its robotaxi fleet as early as next year. The company has been in talks with Austin since at least May but it still hasn’t decided if the city will be the first in Texas where it launches the service.

 

ARAMCO EXPLORES MAKING EV BATTERIES
We were pleasantly surprised when ExxonMobil announced it’s interested in producing lithium for EV batteries. In fact, the giant oil company started drilling for lithium last year in Arkansas right where the U.S. Geological Survey found the world’s largest known deposit of lithium. And now Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, says it wants to get in on the lithium game, too. It’s exploring how to extract lithium from brine that is left over from drilling for oil. And its goal is to make 1 million batteries a year. Saudi Arabia is also exploring how to synthesize nickel and graphite from oil. And as we’ve said before, it sure is surprising to see Big Oil all of a sudden get interested in EV batteries.

NEW HONDA EV STYLING LOOKS BOLD
Honda teased prototypes of its newest EVs, called 0 Series, that will debut at CES next month. These are an evolution of the Saloon and Space-Hub concepts that were revealed at this year’s CES. It looks like the design of the Saloon is staying pretty close to the concept, but Honda has moved on to a more SUV-like shape for its other model. That makes sense to us because these EVs are meant to be a preview of production models that launch in 2026. And an SUV will have bigger appeal than a van-like model like the Space-Hub would.

KIA GETS ALL-NEW SMALL SUV
Kia is launching an all-new small SUV, called the Syros, that will be sold in India, but we’re not sure if it’s going to other markets yet. However, it looks like the Syros is Kia’s version of the Hyundai Inster and Casper, which are also sold in Europe and South Korea. The Syros launches with a choice of either a 1.0L turbo gas engine or a 1.5L diesel, which can be paired to a manual or automatic transmission. But Kia has also talked about launching an EV in India next year and the Casper is sold as an electric, so we think the Syros will likely be that model. And we think that large digital display, which features connected services and OTA updates, will help the model attract a younger buyer as well.

GAS USE DROPPING IN CHINA
New energy vehicles, which includes PHEVs, BEVs and EREVs, now account for about half of new passenger car sales in China, so it’s no surprise to learn that gasoline use is dropping in the country. Sinopec, the biggest oil refiner in China, says that gasoline demand peaked last year and that consumption will drop 1% this year and fall further in 2025. And demand for diesel dropped 5% this year. But while oil consumption for vehicles is declining, Sinopec expects demand to continue to rise for plastics and jet fuel.

RAM PULLING EREV PRODUCTION AHEAD OF BEV
However, extended range electrics or EREVs don’t only have growth potential in China. Ram says it’s pulling production of the EREV Ramcharger ahead of the fully-electric version due to overwhelming consumer interest and slowing industry demand for half-ton BEV trucks. So, the Ramcharger will launch in the first half of next year, instead of the 1500 REV, which will now launch in 2026. We think this is a smart move because Ram likely opens itself up to a larger part of the market.

FORD SHAKES UP EV & VEHICLE QUALITY MANAGEMENT
There’s an interesting change at Ford. Reuters reports it’s going to roll its EVs operations into its mainstream product ops. Jim Baumbick, who runs all product development, will now get EVs added to his portfolio. But advanced EV development will remain in the hands of Doug Field. And Baumbick, who was also in charge of Ford’s Quality efforts, will relinquish that role to a yet-to-be-named executive. Quality problems are an on-going problem at Ford. It has the highest number of recalls and the highest warranty costs in the industry.

GENTEX EXPANDING AUTOMOTIVE OPERATIONS
Auto supplier Gentex is acquiring automotive and consumer electronics company Voxx. Gentex already owns a 32% stake in Voxx and now it is paying $196 million to acquire the whole company. The deal is still subject to approval by Voxx shareholders and it could close as soon as the first quarter of 2025. Gentex supplies mirrors for automakers and it also makes products for aerospace and medical markets.

Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours later today. We’ll have Gary Shapiro on the show. He runs the Consumer Technology Association, which runs the CES show that’s coming up in Las Vegas next month. And we’re also going to have Tu Le from SinoAuto Insights join us. This will be the last show of the year, and we have a lot to get into: autonomous cars, plug-in cars, the challenge from China, the impact of Trump, the unpredictability of Elon Musk, and a lot more. So if you want some really good insight into what’s going on in the auto industry, we invite you to join us. But that’s it for this show. I hope to see you later.