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Runtime: 11:24
0:00 Other OEMs Want Rivian’s Tech Stack
0:58 China Fights Back on EU Tariffs
1:41 Nikola Looking for A Savior
2:29 Kia Posts Record Profits In 2024
3:48 SAIC’s Profit Dropped 90% In 2024
6:00 Dodge Is Badass to The Bone
6:36 Suddenly, A Flurry of Recalls in China
7:47 BMW’s EVs Destroy Mercedes & Audi
9:05 Subaru Tracks Owners for Years
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
OTHER OEMs WANT RIVIAN’S TECH STACK
Volkswagen’s and Rivian’s joint venture is attracting interest from other automakers. Rivian’s Chief Software Officer, who is also co-CEO of the JV, said it’s in talks with other OEMs about supplying them with the software and electrical architecture they develop. But he didn’t say what companies they’re in talks with. VW and Rivian formed the joint venture last year to develop an electronic architecture for both companies that will use Rivian’s software technology. VW invested $5.8 billion into the JV. But with so much interest from other automakers in the technology, we wonder if somebody will swoop in to buy Rivian, which currently has a market cap close to $13 billion.
CHINA FIGHTS BACK ON EU TARIFFS
Several Chinese car companies are fighting back against the EU’s tariffs on their cars. BYD, Geely and SAIC filed complaints with the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce also filed a complaint, so this effort clearly has the backing of the Chinese national government. But don’t expect this to result in any quick actions. It will take 18 months for any of this to be settled, and whatever the results are, there are likely to be appeals. And it’s important to note that while BYD and Geely are independent automakers, SAIC is state owned.
NIKOLA LOOKING FOR A SAVIOR
Pretty much all the SPAC companies that were all the rage a few years ago have gone out of business or are in deep financial trouble. And now we can add Nikola Motors to the list. The EV and fuel cell semi-truck startup has lost 95% of its value over the last year. And last October, the company said it only had enough funds to operate through the first quarter of this year. So, it’s no surprise to learn that Nikola is exploring a number of possibilities to raise cash including selling part or all of the company. It’s also considering partnerships with others or raising new funds. Management has not made a decision yet but it looks like Nikola could be on its last legs.
KIA POSTS RECORD PROFITS IN 2024
Kia posted its highest ever revenue, operating profit, and operating profit margin in 2024 thanks to favorable exchange rates and selling the most vehicles in the history of the company. It sold a little under 3.1 million vehicles in 2024, an increase of 0.1%. That helped push its revenue to nearly $75 billion, which was up 7.7%. Operating profit climbed to $8.8 billion, a 9.1% increase and net profit went to $6.8 billion, a jump of 11.5%. Kia is hoping for another good year in 2025 as well. It’s aiming to sell 3.22 million vehicles, which would be a 4.1% increase over last year and a good portion of that bump in sales will come from EVs. Last year it sold 201,000 pure electrics, up over 10% and this year it will continue the global rollout of the EV4 and EV5. On top of that Kia is adding more hybrids to its lineup as well as the Tasman pickup, the PV5 PBV and the Syros SUV for India.
SAIC RECORDS 90% PROFIT DROP IN 2024
And in other financial news, Chinese automaker SAIC, which has joint-ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen, is struggling. Its sales dropped 20% last year and according to preliminary financial results and its net income may have dropped as much as 90% in 2024. The automaker says its profit will range between $207 million and $262 million but analysts were expecting a net profit of about $1.3 billion for 2024. Even worse for SAIC, it said it would have lost nearly $830 million if it weren’t for it selling a 51% stake in MG’s India operations. And in December, GM announced it would take charges and asset write downs of more than $5 billion for investments in the joint venture, which is also contributing to SAIC’s financial woes. SAIC will release its official 2024 financial results in April.
DODGE IS BADASS TO THE BONE
“Only Badasses Need Apply” is the headline for a new job listing at Stellantis. Dodge is looking for new brand ambassadors, or what it’s calling badassadors, to travel to auto shows, vehicle launches, enthusiast events, drag races and more to help promote the brand. These badassadors will have their travel expenses paid for, appear in brand promotions, get free merch and have access to Dodge vehicles. The program kicked off this week at the Barrett-Jackson auction and anyone can apply now.
SUDDENLY, A FLURRY OF RECALLS IN CHINA
Looks like China is cracking down on vehicle safety. It’s not often you see reports about recalls in the country, but we saw four stories of automakers announcing recalls, which seems somewhat out-of-the-blue and there could be more. The biggest involves Tesla, which is recalling more than 1.2 million vehicles in China for a couple of issues, one involves problems with rearview cameras and the other is related to steering. Tesla had similar recalls for both issues in North America and they’ll also be fixed with an over-the-air update. Xiaomi will fix nearly 31,000 models with an OTA as well. Some of its SU7 sedans are having problems with their smart parking systems. Fang Cheng Bao, a brand under BYD, was also hit with a recall that affects just under 8,000 models that could have loose bolts that could cause a fire. And the final recall we saw was for Baojun’s new small SUV, called the Yep. A little over 1,100 examples need to have the software for their braking system fixed, but it doesn’t seem like it can be done with an OTA like some of the others.
BMW’S EVs DESTROY M-B & AUDI
BMW has a massive lead selling electric cars compared to Mercedes and Audi. Last year BMW sold an impressive 368,000 EVs globally, up 12% from the year before. Mercedes sold about half of that, 185,000, and that was down 23%, while Audi sold 164,000, down 8%. Not only did BMW sell more than Mercedes and Audi put together, it’s about to launch its Neue Klasse family of EVs which BMW expects to boost its EV sales even more. Analysts say BMW’s strategy of using vehicle platforms that can accommodate different powertrains gave customers more choice of what they wanted. So the price gap between a BEV and an ICE car at BMW is a lot less than it is at Mercedes or Audi. Another reason BMW is confident that sales will go up, is that 3-year leases on Tesla’s that were written in 2022 will expire this year. And as thousands of EV owners come back into the market they’re going to find a lot more selection than when Tesla was practically the only game in town.
SUBARU TRACKS OWNERS FOR YEARS
There’s an interesting story in Wired about two hackers who broke into Subaru’s Starlink connectivity platform. One of the hackers had bought a new Subaru for his mom and said they were able to easily hack into it, controlling some of the car’s features like locking and unlocking the doors and honking the horn. So, they notified Subaru which quickly patched the area where the hackers broke in. Hopefully, they got some sort of payment or bug bounty for their actions. But the real story is that the hackers also found Subaru tracked everywhere the mom drove for an entire year and kept that data on file. Subaru says it needs that data so it can notify first responders where to find the car in case of an accident. But that doesn’t explain why Subaru keeps detailed, historical travel data for years. We think a logical explanation is that it sells that data to third parties, and data monetization can be quite lucrative. And our guess is that if Subaru is doing this, so are other car companies. As we reported this earlier this week, General Motors was banned from selling customer data for the next five years.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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I’m not surprised that BMW’s EVs are far outselling the other Germans. Last summer, while getting my last free oil change for my Mini, I went next door to the BMW place and saw an I4. Except for the nose, it looked good. The interior was reasonably attractive. Also, it’s my favorite body style, a hatchback. They sell an RWD version for ~$53K, far less than its closest competition from MB or Audi. If I had home charging at my place in Florida, it would be high on my shopping list as a “most of the time” car.
I remember all the stories about how making a flexible chassis that could accommodate both ICE and EV would create a design “scar” and make everything more expensive. I am glad BMW did not listen to these “experts”. BMW competitors made dedicated platforms which did not have the scar but yet ended up significantly more expensive. Now those very experts want to say how making the chassis flexible to both powertrain parts is the right way. It is why I always take expert opinions with a grain of salt….including Sandy Munro who was pushing the dedicated platform strategy because of the design “scar”.
MERKUR —
I think, in ALD speak, “scar tissue” may still be a thing and a dedicated platform is better then one that share double duty. That said, there is deference when that architecture is designed from the start to deliver both, then one that is retrofited to do it after the fact. Even still, one that is designed for ICE production first and BEV second, may not be as good as one design from the start to favor BEVs and then ICE. Like in the cases of the next BMW New Class models, the vehicles that will ride on Mercedes new CLA platform and those that will use the architecture Audi has for the A6 e-tron hard and software. They are design to be EV first and ICE second. So there may be more scare tissue compromises for the ICE, then the BEV side of development. While it appears the approach of co-development of the two drive systems has worked out for BMW, the verdict is still out on how successful that approach will be for Stellantis.
Watched a Godzilla movie last night from the early 70’s. The army jeep had a Mitsubishi logo on the grill,instead of the Jeep lettering. Wonder if mits built these under license back then?
I suspect space for bigger batteries might be compromised with shared ICE/EV platforms, and maybe other things would be compromised. I don’t know how shared i4 and 4 series sportback really are. We’ll see how the two versions of Charger turn out.
Merv, I didn’t realize it, but yes, Mitsu did build Jeeps, from 1953 to 1998.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep#:~:text=Jeeps%20have%20been%20built%20under,the%20original%20Willys%2DKaiser%20design.
I wonder if the “Badassadors” at Dodge are actually going to get paid money. Covering travel expenses, getting trinkets, and driving someone else’s car, is cute. But none of that will pay the mortgage/rent, or pay for healthcare – which is just about to jump in price in the US.
Looking into the “Badassadors” application, it looks like it is not a paid position, but it is aimed more towards existing “social influencers”. They are looking for a symbiotic relationship/sponsorship, where they give you perks and special access to “grow your brand” and increase your audience in exchange for touting how badass Dodge and their vehicles are. They want fresh social media ideas to get younger people interested in the brand, and are willing to share access and promote the influencer in exchange. The first step is for the brand to have more than 2 or 3 vehicles available so it doesn’t look like they are going away in a few years!
That was the problem I had with the 2022 season when they called the same program “Chief Donut Maker”. Preston Patterson was chosen but I have never seen anything from Preston either from his time with Dodge or even after his time with Dodge. I have zero clue who he is. I had to google who was even chosen in 2022. It always seemed to me like a program high on promise, but short on delivery. If you have the ability to take a year off of work though, it could be a fun gig. In Prestons case, he received $150K and a Challenger Hellcat as compensation. I guess Donut Maker is more important than a Badassador?