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Runtime: 11:04
0:00 U.S. Delays Vehicle Import Tariffs
1:04 Could Audi & Porsche Build U.S. Plant?
1:55 Foxconn Exec a Dark Horse for New Nissan CEO
3:01 BYD Winning EV Awards in Japan
5:00 VW Reveals 1st EV with Rivian Tech
6:40 Volvo Disappointed with CO2 Easing
7:28 Tesla’s Sales Fall in Australia Too
7:59 F1 Seeing Massive Growth
9:01 Honda & Chevy Take Different Approaches to Off-Road Racing
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
U.S. DELAYS VEHICLE IMPORT TARIFFS
Looks like we’re going to be reporting on President Trump’s tariffs for some time to come. Yesterday the Administration said it would grant a one month delay on its 25% tariffs applied to vehicles imported from Mexico and Canada. The delay will only apply to vehicles that comply with the USMCA free trade agreement, but that’s almost all of them. Automakers were quick to praise the President. The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents GM, Ford and Stellantis, thanked him. Stellantis put out a separate statement saying it would increase production in the U.S. And so will Volvo. Earlier this week Reuters also reported that Honda would move production of the Civic hybrid from Mexico to its Greensburg plant in Indiana. But in a statement Honda said it made no such announcement, and pointed out that it’s been building the Civic hybrid in Indiana since 2008.
COULD AUDI & PORSCHE BUILD U.S. PLANT?
Here’s our Autoline Insight. Automakers can run more overtime and maybe even add a third shift at some plants to increase production relatively quickly. But it’s unlikely that they’ll be building new assembly plants in the U.S. anytime soon, despite the President’s claims. A couple of exceptions could be Audi and Porsche which have no U.S. production. If the President follows through on his threat to match Europe’s 10% tariff, we think they’ll probably just eat the cost. But a 25% tariff could have Audi and Porsche looking for a U.S. assembly plant. Maybe they should consider giving Foxconn a call about its plant in Lordstown, Ohio? Porsche could even build disassembled versions of its vehicles there. But whichever way it goes, it will likely take years for most of these changes to take place.
FOXCONN EXEC A DARK HORSE FOR NEW NISSAN CEO
Speaking of Foxconn, it’s interested in a partnership with Nissan. And now Automotive News reports that former Nissan executive and Foxconn’s current chief electric vehicle strategy officer, Jun Seki, is a dark horse candidate to become Nissan’s CEO. The automaker’s current CEO Makoto Uchida is expected to step down because of slumping sales and profits. Seki was one of three executives who helped run Nissan after former CEO Carlos Ghosn’s arrest in 2018. And he also worked at Nissan’s alliance partner, Renault. But Seki is a long shot because he’s viewed as “disloyal” after he abruptly left Nissan in 2020 shortly after being promoted to vice chief operating officer. Nissan’s chief financial officer, Jeremie Papin and Nissan’s chief performance officer, Guillaume Cartier are viewed as the favorites to replace Uchida.
BYD WIN EV AWARDS IN JAPAN
Let’s stick with Japan for a moment, because Japanese automotive journalists just voted on something that has got to worry Japanese automakers. BYD only started selling vehicles in Japan two years ago but it’s already winning over the car critics. Last year, the BYD Dolphin won the Japan Annual EV Awards, and this year the BYD Seal took home the honor. The Seal finished ahead of the Honda N-VAN e and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The jury said the model has an “extremely beautiful design” and that it “sets an industry benchmark with its high-quality driving experience.” The Seal also won the title of the “Top Ten Best Models” of the 2024-2025 Japan Car of the Year which is awarded by the Japan Car of the Year Selection Committee.
VW REVEALS 1ST EV WITH RIVIAN TECH
Volkswagen says it’s coming out with 9 new models by the end of 2027 and one of those will be the production version of the ID.EVERY1 Concept that just debuted. It’s kind of like the all-electric successor to the up!, which went out of production in 2023. However, the ID.EVERY1 is actually a little bigger than the up!, while smaller than the current Polo and the ID.2all concept, which we think will become the next-gen Polo. The ID.2all is one of those other 9 new models and it comes out next year with a starting price around 25,000 euros. The smaller ID.EVERY1 will be VW’s entry into its EV lineup when it launches in 2027 with a starting price around 20,000 euro, but both models are based on the new front-wheel drive version of the automaker’s MEB platform. Although, VW says the ID.EVERY1 “will be the first model in the entire Group to use a fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture.” Reports claim this is the new software system that VW is developing with Rivian. Volkswagen is paying $5.8 billion over the next several years for that tech and 2027 seems like a reasonable amount of time to implement it into its vehicles. The entry-level EV concept also features a newly developed electric motor that makes 70 kW or about 94 horsepower and is estimated to have at least 250 kilometers of range. Volkswagen says the model is “from Europe for Europe” and we saw one report that said it will be built in Germany.
VOLVO DISAPPOINTED WITH CO2 EASING
Not all automakers in Europe are on board with the EU’s CO2 rules possibly being relaxed. Volvo CEO Jim Rowan says he’s “extremely disappointed” about the leeway the EU would be giving automakers. He says the industry was given years of time to prepare for the standards and that if a small company like Volvo can make the investment to meet the targets, then “certainly bigger companies could have done that too.” But Rowan could also be upset about Volvo losing out on earning money from pooling CO2 emissions with other automakers. UBS Group estimated that Volvo could have earned as much €300 million but if the CO2 rules are relaxed, non-compliant automakers may rethink their pooling plans.
TESLA’S SALES FALL IN AUSTRALIA TOO
Tesla sales have seen big drops in Germany, France, China and other major markets. Now comes word from Australia that they were down 72% last month, with the Model 3 down over 81%. But even so, the 3 was still the best selling sedan, ahead of the Toyota Camry. And while it was a bad month for EVs overall in Australia, with sales down nearly 44%, Tesla’s massive drop-off is in line with what we’re seeing in other markets.
F1 SEEING MASSIVE GROWTH
Here’s some interesting stats showing Formula 1’s rapid growth. The series had been showing steady increase since 2016 when it brought in $570 million, until COVID hit hard in 2020, but things really ramped up after that and in 2023 F1 raked in over $3.2 billion. It also claims its total fanbase is over 700 million people and that 1.5 billion people watched its races, while 6.5 million attended them. These numbers come from Honda, who supplies engines to the series and is also celebrating the 60th anniversary of its very first F1 win. It took the checkered flag at the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965. And now with F1 growing so much Honda is thinking of launching its own memorabilia business, which could sell spare engines and parts, like a V10 used for Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLaren.
HONDA & CHEVY TAKE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO OFF-ROAD RACING
Speaking of racing, both Honda and Chevy are entering vehicles in the Mint 400, an off-road race that kicks off this weekend. But their vehicles couldn’t be much different. Honda is competing in both the Stock Production Truck and Unlimited Truck 2WD classes with the new Passport Trailsport. Although, the unlimited version is heavily modified and only takes “inspiration” from the production model. Chevy on the other hand is entering an 1,100 horsepower version of the Silverado EV into the race. The main upgrades include prototype Multimatic Adaptive Spool Valve shocks and 37-inch off-road tires. While we might not see this truck in showrooms, Chevy is applying the Trail Boss name to the Silverado EV with a more off-road focused version of the truck that comes out this summer.
With the Trump Administration’s policies literally changing from day to day, how do you put a strategy together if you’re an automaker to deal with that? Mark Wakefield, AlixPartners & David Welch, Bloomberg will give us their insights on today’s Autoline After Hours. We’ll also dive into top stories on Tesla, Rivian and Stellantis. So, be sure to join John and Gary at 3PM EST today.
But that’s a wrap for this show. I hope to see you later today.
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German media gave some specs for the tiny VW Ev concept and they are dismal: 135 kph top speed (much less than 100 mph), and, worse, a range of only 150 miles or so (and that is in the very optimistic EU cycle). Of course, this tiny thing (it is not just smaller than the Golf, it’s smaller than the POLO which is one size smaller than the Golf) will wisely not be sold in the US market, so we don’t care.
There are rumors that Netflix may broadcast F1 in the US after 2025. If that happens, F1 could lose me, and I’ve been following F1 for more than 20 years. I don’t want to pay for something that I’d use only for the races.
Gas in my area went up about $.25 over the last couple days. Could that be a result of the tariffs?
Regulus,
It is a cheap EV. It is meant for people who mainly travel within city environments which is exactly why it can be cheap. City driving means that the speed doesn’t really need to be much above 45MPH, even though this one is capable. That lower speed limit means you don’t need a gigantic motor to push the car to 120+MPH and thus the motor can be small, cheap, and light. It doesn’t need to accelerate like a supercar because there is usually heavy traffic in cities. So that makes the motor small and possibly even air cooled. Because the speeds and acceleration are limited, you are drawing less power to operate the car which means that you can have smaller and lighter batteries which keeps the cost low. There is no secret on how to make a cheap EV. Just make it a small car with limited speed/acceleration capability and voilla, a cheap EV. There are places in the USA that could use such tech like in NYC, LA, or other such large cities where people typically stay within a 5 mile radius for most of their life. Outside of those areas it would have limited success though.
Kit,
I have Netflix and the way to deal with them is to turn them on during F1 season, then turn them off for the rest of the year. Their pricing is so ridiculous these days and their content is just not that great. I do that for some other popular content on Netflix and it costs me $8 per year to watch that content. This is starting to be the norm for streaming services as all of them got ridiculously expensive. So everyone these days is now turning them off and on when they know of content that they may want to watch.
The VW ID.EVERY1 concept is strictly a city car. 135 kph, ~80 mph is plenty fast enough. ~150 miles is plenty of range, for those with home charging. It would work quite well as a commuter car for a lot of people in North America, but understandably, they won’t sell it in the US. If it’s built in Germany, they wouldn’t be able to sell it cheap enough. The Mini SE would be its competitor. I doubt if there is room for two short range computer cars like that in North America, and there is barely room for one.
That said, a car like that would work for about 80% of my driving, both in Florida and Indiana, if I had home charging.
It’s almost impossible to get an EV under $20,000 unless it has a small battery. That’s why the Every1 has a limited range. It’s a city car not meant for long trips.
MERKUR, can you turn Netflix on and off by the day, without paying for a full month?
Tariffs on crude coming into the US are complicated by the following factors. 1. The US MUST have imports. Additional US based supplies are not the right type of oil or do not have the pipelines needed to get crude to existing refineries. 2. Canada and Mexico are the two biggest supplies, but neither has enough capacity to cover for losing the other one. 3. Overseas supplies would need about 30 days to reach the US and the extra demand would drive up prices. 4. Chicago area and Michigan are supplied almost exclusively with Canadian crude. 5. Crude that passes through Michigan to get to Ontario, supplies Ontario and is also sold in markets in the US as far away as Philadelphia. 6. Crude from Houston is shipped to Quebec and New Brunswick for refining, but much of those refined products are re-imported to supply New England. 7. Building new refineries or new pipelines takes YEARS, not days or months, so any disruption screws up the markets significantly in the US and Canada. The disruption is not going to be in price as much as complete lack of supply. FYI More than 50% of the ‘Canadian’ reserves and refineries are US owned anyway.
The Volvo CEO’s comments are a head scratcher! One can see that ‘Volvo’ as a small company HAS put a lot of work into meeting the EUs emissions targets. Yet, Volvo is part of a big auto conglomerate that has the resources to do the heavy lifting, for ALL the EV brands that come under the Geely umbrella. The CEO talks like small, little bittie Volvo did all the work, but they are using several universal platforms that those in the Geely portfolio are also using, greatly reducing the cost of development. Volvo may have taking the lead in that development, but they are far from having developed, engineered, designed and paid for that EV tech on their own!
The fact that BYD has won accolades in Japan, while impressive and may increase sells in the country, still needs to be put in context. The car, truck, SUV and other vehicle of the year awards that have been given out by various outlets here in the US, has hardly, if ever, caused a sea change of which vehicles are at the top of the sells charts for the past 20 plus years. I have never been to Japan and while more EVs are being sold around the world, they still represent a small percentage of the market. While a Chinese EV winning the highest praise of car journalists and critics in Japan is eye opening, especially singling it/them out over competing locally made ICE vehicles, they will probably remain a small item in that market.
Couldn’t Audi and Porsche build vehicles in the assembly plant they’re building for Scout?! While it is being assembled to build EVs, isn’t the plant that Foxconn has and is not using current, setup to build EVs too? With the interest in EVs not as robust as OEMs had hoped and was expecting, since they are still building the Scout plant, couldn’t they alter the plant to accommodate vehicles from these other brands?
wmb, yeah, I was thinking the same about the Scout plant making Audis and Porsches, if Scout fails as some predict.
Merkur: Poor people cannot afford a car for long trips and another for city. Actually, in most European cities, where this tiny vehicle will be sold, one does not need car at all, as they have excellent mass transit (not like in your average US city), AND very affordable (I bet it is subsidized). I remember when I was in Berlin, I only rented a car twice in 5 months for long trips on the autobahn, and in the city, I would pay a mere 99 DM a month ($67 of the time) to use ALL urban mass transit, the metro/subways (2 systems), the numerous buses, and even trams, if I remember well. But it is not our worry, wisely, as I said, they will not sell this thing here.
Regulus, please allow me to try to define the Every1 market positioning. It is the urban vehicle for those times and places that aren’t served by mass/public transportation. For longer trips, the Every1 owner can use the money saved (by not purchasing a more expensive vehicle) on short-term rental vehicles as “bigger” trips may need (more range and/or more space)..
@wmb, thumbs up for enumerating the constraints relating to crude. While the US now exports more fossil fuels (by value) than it imports (to whose benefit?), that doesn’t mean those outside supplies aren’t vital.
Yesterday’s AAH was very interesting – especially the high-level view of C-suite challenges, and description of Chinese vehicle development.
Drew: Since you adressed me, I have to repeat the facts to you again: 1. The tiny EV concept will NOT be imported in the US, where many cities have very poor mass transit. 2. Ironically, the places where it WILL be sold in Europe, the cities have outstanding mass transit. Finally, the average driver, andn especially those poorer than him, CANNOT afford ONE car for alleged “Urban” needs and one for all the other driving they have to do. I hope this clears up everything.