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Runtime: 10:09
0:00 China Warns Tesla Over Musk’s Politics
0:58 ICE Outsells NEV In China
1:49 U.S. Car Dealers Average More Sales In 2024
2:51 Ford Invests $4.7 Billion Into German Operations
4:33 Canada Investigates Tesla Over EV Rebates
5:59 Traton Forecasts Weak Truck Sales
6:38 Used Porsche Taycan Prices Falling Fast
7:11 Cadillac Officially Joins Formula 1
7:44 Ford Launches Scholarships for Mechanics
8:24 Autoline Poll Results
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
CHINA WARNS TESLA OVER MUSK’S POLITICS
Tesla could soon feel the wrath of the Chinese government and it all has to do with Elon Musk’s politics. The China Passenger Car Association warned that Musk’s association with the Trump White House could hurt Tesla’s sales, which fell 49% in China last month, though the China Passenger Car Association attributed that to Tesla retooling its Shanghai plant for the refreshed Model Y. Tesla is counting on the Chinese government to approve Full Self Driving. Currently FSD is available, but it’s not as capable as the version sold in the U.S. Tesla needs access to Chinese road data to train the system. But if the Chinese government decides to punish Tesla in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs it could really hurt the automaker.
ICE OUTSELLS NEV IN CHINA
New car sales in China saw a slight gain of 1.3% for the first two months of the year, largely thanks to a cash for clunkers program, where owners get a subsidy for trading their old car in for a New Energy Vehicle. Analysts like to measure sales for January and February combined because the Chinese New Year can fall in either month, and car sales plummet while the country is on vacation. So by combining sales for both months, you get a clearer picture of what’s going on in the marketplace. Thanks to the cash for clunkers subsidy program, NEV sales were up nearly 80% and yet, ICE powered vehicles outsold them for the third month in a row, accounting for 51.2% of the market. And that makes us wonder if the NEV segment has started to hit a plateau?
U.S. CAR DEALERS AVERAGE MORE SALES IN 2024
There are 18,311 new car dealerships in the U.S. right now, which is up 171 from a year ago. Brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Mazda and Porsche added stores. Together they own 29,829 franchises, which was actually down slightly. But Automotive News reports that the average dealership sold 511 vehicles for the year, 28 more than last year. Topping the list was Toyota with its average dealership selling over 1,600 vehicles. Lexus, BMW, Honda and Subaru have the next highest sales per dealership. They all sell over 1,000 vehicles a year. To get higher sales per dealer, some brands are reducing the number of dealers they have, like Buick, Ford, Lincoln and Jaguar. However, it’s expensive to do. GM spent nearly $1 billion last year buying out some of its Buick dealers.
FORD INVESTS $4.7 BILLION INTO GERMAN OPERATIONS
Ford is struggling in Europe, announcing thousands of job cuts to help reduce costs. But now the automaker is making a big commitment to turn around its German operations with plans to inject $4.7 billion into the business. John Lawler, the vice chair of Ford said in a statement that the company needs to “continue to simplify our governance, reduce cost and drive efficiencies.” Lawler also called on EU leaders to create a clear agenda to promote EVs and bring emissions more in-line with customer demand.
CANADA INVESTIGATES TESLA OVER EV REBATES
Tesla is being investigated by Canada’s transport authority over a suspicious number of requests for EV rebates. The government program offered Canadian buyers a $5,000 incentive for purchasing an EV, which was supposed to run out in the middle of this month, but officials announced that the money was going away at the end of January because more people were taking advantage of the program than they thought would. Now Tesla is coming under fire because four of its company-owned stores in Canada requested rebates for over 8,650 vehicles in the final three days that the incentive was offered. That means they would’ve sold about 1 Tesla every minute, 24 hours a day for three days straight. It’s possible that the company was just submitting the requests all at once, even for vehicles that had already been sold, but those requests amounted to over $43 million or more than half of the total remaining funds for the EV incentive program. And that means requests filed by other dealers might not get reimbursed. The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association says nearly 3,000 requests from its dealers haven’t been paid back yet, which could leave them on the hook for about $10 million. So, obviously they’re not happy and hope officials will step in to help.
TRATON FORECASTS WEAK TRUCK SALES
Volkswagen is already dealing with slumping passenger car sales and now its truck unit Traton warns that sales could be weak this year. It is forecasting sales to be down as much as 5% or up as much as 5% compared to a year ago. And Traton’s cautious outlook sent its shares down. Daimler and Volvo Truck’s shares also fell on the news. But in one bright spot for the truck maker, Traton says it doesn’t expect a significant impact from President Trump’s tariffs in the short-term, even though 65% of the trucks it sells in the U.S. are made in Mexico.
USED PORSCHE TAYCAN PRICES FALLING FAST
Ever since Porsche came out with an update for the Taycan, which included performance and range improvements, prices for used models have been falling fast. And in some cases, they’re half of the original MSRP. Second-hand examples can be found online for less than $40,000. While that’s for rear-drive versions, dual motor examples with the bigger battery pack are selling for under $60,000. So it could be a good deal for someone looking for a more affordable sports car.
CADILLAC OFFICIALLY JOINS FORMULA 1
Cadillac is officially joining Formula 1. The automaker secured approval from commercial rights holders and the FIA, which governs the sport. Cadillac will become F1’s 11th team and start racing next year. The two sides reached a preliminary deal late last year but now Cadillac has completed all the necessary sporting, technical and commercial assessments. F1 is using a new engine starting in 2026, but Cadillac will use Ferrari engines until it’s able to build its own.
FORD LAUNCHES SCHOLARSHIPS FOR MECHANICS
There’s a shortage of people that work on cars, so Ford is trying to do something about it. The company and its dealers are offering scholarships to students who are trying to get a degree or certificate in automotive mechanics. The total investment comes to $4 million for 800 students, which is double what they did for the same program last year. Students can use the money for things like tuition, tools, living expenses and transportation and there’s no obligation for them to attend a Ford training center or work at one of its dealers. The company hopes the program helps show students that you can make good money in the field and work on cool, interesting products.
AUTOLINE POLL RESULTS
Let’s finish up the show with the results of last Friday’s poll. We asked you why you think Tesla’s sales have dropped around the world. 66% of you said it was because of Elon Musk’s politics and his association with the Trump Administration, but 33% said it was because people were either waiting for the new Model Y or that sales are always lower until the end of each quarter. Over 2,100 of you voted in the poll, and you posted over 200 comments. That included thedownwardmachine, who blamed Musk by posting “When only half the country wants your kind of car, but you join the other half to destroy them.” But that was countered by John-209, who said, “We got two new Teslas in the last three months just to support Elon, the cars are awesome too.” We’ll have a better idea of what’s going on at Tesla when we get the Q1 sales numbers, but we may have to wait until the end of Q2 to really know what’s going on.
And with that we wrap up today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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The issue with the lack of mechanics is far deeper than what Ford can fix on its own. Trades in general are not pushed by schools anymore. They closed all the auto repair classes that the high school used to have in my area. Gone forever. Now schools push college as the 1 and only way. This has led to a 40% college drop out rate, 25% of the college graduates using their degree in their career, and 100% of the people paying some form of loan for a degree 75% didn’t need.
It has also resulted in plumbers/electricians making $150K per year because it is a learned skill that is rarely taught these days making a shortage. Shortages are expensive. Mechanics would go down this road, but Ford interferes. Note that Ford is not increasing pay for their technicians. Ford is still wanting mechanics to buy their own tools to work on poorly designed/assembled ford vehicles. Ford is still in the practice of suddenly reducing the number of repair hours required prior to a massive recall to limit Fords expenditure and thus paying mechanics less money.
If you are looking at going into the trades would you rather go the plumbing/electrician route or traverse the mine field that is the auto mechanics for 60% less pay? Most just go for the gold and get on the plumber/electrician path. Ford may be making it attractive on the front end now, but the back end is not attractive and Ford, nor any OEM, is going to try and fix that. The back end is what is preventing people from even considering auto mechanic as a trade because there is very little upside. The OEMs would have to pay more for warranty work so they will never ever fix the back end pay/benefits and sit there confused as the number of auto mechanics dwindle.
Look into auto body technicians and the numbers look way more depressing. That is because as bad as Ford is with pay/benefits, the insurance companies limit what a shop can charge for auto body work and that pay is abysmal. Get prepared for lots and lots of cars to be totaled in minor fender benders because auto body shops can’t find any talent to work for peanuts while still being expected to pay for school and tools. Those who would be in that field are migrating to restoration shops that are consumer paid and pay at a much higher rate than insurance work.
I suspect John-209 is one of very few people who have bought Teslas because Elon needs the money.
Apparently the Formula 1 inner circle does not like Michael Andretti, because they refused to allow a team under his name, but are ok with Cadillac. Yesterday, I wore my T-shirt from the 2000 F1 race at Indianapolis, and see that there were 11 teams then. Also, there was a Verstappen in the field, who qualified 13th and finished 18th. That name didn’t mean anything to me then.
The Indiana high school I went to still has auto shop programs. I don’t know how deeply they go into today’s tech stuff, much of which is probably brand-specific, but I suspect the program would be helpful for getting jobs in auto repair/maintenance.
@Autoline Team on Traton: ” 65% of the trucks it sells in the U.S. are made in Mexico”. Which trucks does Traton sell in the U.S.? I was not aware of any.
Wim, Traton owns International. I’m assuming that is the brand sold as Navistar.
On John’s March 8 show, it was suggested that there are no new vehicle categories likely to add volume. One category that no one in North America competes in is ‘light cars’. Japan and France both sell light, basic, reduced performance vehicles at low cost. There is definitely a market for these in NA, as seen by the number of 4x4s driving on rural roads. OEMs can continue to ignore this market, but that only means that they will face competition from new entrants, like Polaris, BRP and Yamaha
@kevin: I see, I had completely forgotten about that. Thanks.
Amazing that 65% of the International trucks are made in Mexico.
Wim Van Acker
Traton bought Navistar/international in 2021. This is also why VW can now launch the scout brand as it was part of their navistar/international purchase. Looks like the navistar/international portion of Traton sells a little over 200k vehicles per year. A very significant portion of the 335K traton sells globally under the guise of MAN, Scania, VW Truck & bus.
Very interesting show today, Sean. Without reading any of the several comments until now, I just want to refer to your show segments:
1. ICE outsells EVs in China, and I stress, this despite the tremendous incentives to buy EVs and penalties if you buy ICEs in any of the six biggest cities there. This does not augur well for EVs anywhere.
2. Ford invests in Germany and the need, self admitted, to cut costs. Well, this is obviously the case for their BEV sector, where Ford obligingly publishes its financials separately for its BEV group from its still profitable ICE operations, and, as I undrlined before, not only does it lose billions of US $ every year despite the meager number of EVs it sells, its losses are getting worse, not better. (last two years, from $4 billion they were up to $5 billion). ANd note that at least the so-called Mustang Mach E is made in MEXICO.
3.Used Taycan prices. I was made aware of this a few weeks ago and checked them out. It is true, esp for the so-called Turbo, you can buy recent vintage copies with low miles for $50k worthless 2025 dollars, which is 1/4th of its price new, EVEN if you compare apples and oranges as I just did (I did not convert the 2022 price new in 2025 dollars). However, I found the interiors poor, worse than those of ICE 911s, and sure unacceptable for a $200k vehicle, which should have a Bentley, let alone an S class, interior.
4. Caddy joins Formula 1 with Ferrari engines. I wonder how Corvette Engineers and Execs ‘feel’ about this ridiculous decision. Discuss among yourselves.
5. The results of your poll. If any of you believe these percentages are indicative to those of a statistically proper nation-wide survey, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to lease you. (I assume you don;t want to buy). Furthermore,
6. I was very amused by Sean’s reading of the two opposing responses.
a. Response one lamented Musk for forsaking the far left greenies who bought his Teslas (serious people also bought them, BTW) and ‘betraying them’ by joining the “other half’ (another nonsense stat, as if half of the US are BEV fanatics).
b. Response 2 was probably by a conservative of some kind, who claimed they just bought two Teslas to support Musk. I doubt there are many who have done that, so this is filed under “anecdotal evidence”.
My two cents on a and b above, it takes some seconds to see who is the greater of the two fools, I will let you judge who it is.
Keep up the good work, Sean. One of your best shows.
MERKUR: thanks for the intel!
A brand new Ford dealership soon to open where I live. The last one we had was around 1970.
Regulus, Formula 1 power units are very specialized, and have little relationship to any engines used in road cars. Audi/VW are going to give it a try next year, and I’ll be surprised if they are competitive. There is no way GM could come up with an F1 power unit in time for the 2026 season, given the short notice of their team being accepted. I hope GM/Cadillac have their own engine by 2027, but if they don’t, there is nothing wrong with using Ferrari another year. Even Renault, now Alpine is going to start using purchased power units from Mercedes, after having powered F1 cars for decades. It’s not worth the tens of millions of Euros to keep developing their own, with new rules upcoming.
As a Chrysler technician since 1982, I can say that you are 100% accurate MERKUR DRIVER in your opinion on factory warranty times. Techs are getting fed up getting paid 3 hours to do a 6 hour job. They are leaving dealerships to go into independent auto repair shops or fleet shops or retiring if they are close enough in age to do so.