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Runtime: 11:28
0:00 Ford & VW Could Raise Prices
0:57 Senator Says OEMs Should Make Deal with Trump
1:59 China Cracks Down on Self-Driving Tech
2:53 China Mandates EV Batteries Can’t Catch Fire
4:25 Geely to Sell Lotus to Lotus
5:12 Subaru Unveils All-New Electric SUV
6:21 Subaru Solterra Gets Major Refresh
7:09 Subaru Outback Gets Bigger & Fresh Styling
7:43 Hyundai Reveals New Palisade for North America
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FORD, VW TO RAISE PRICES JUNE 2
This tariff story has all the makings of a television soap opera. Everyday there’s a new twist to the plot. This morning the financial markets were all on the upswing because President Trump said the U.S. was making “great progress” in hammering out a trade deal with Japan. Meanwhile, Ford and Volkswagen warned their U.S. dealers that if the tariffs go through as planned, they’re going to start raising prices on June 2nd. Car sales were strong in March, and reports coming in from the field say that April will be another good month. And once car shoppers get the word that prices will be going up in June, we expect sales to soar in May. But then there could be hell to pay. Pulling all those sales forward now means the second half of the year could see a big dropoff.
SENATOR ADVISES OEMS: MAKE A DEAL WITH TRUMP!
Surprisingly, Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, who is a former car dealer, and has strong ties to the Trump Administration, says the tariffs will lead to a Golden Age for the auto industry. He predicts that sales will hit 20 million vehicles a year in the next few years, which would smash all sales records. He told Automotive News at the New York Auto Show that auto tariffs will probably be set at 10%, and he advised automakers to cut a deal with President Trump. He said they should tell the President, “‘Here’s how much more investment we’ll do. Here’s what job growth we’ll do. Give us a runway to make that happen. I think there’s an administration that’s very open to making these kinds of deals.” All we can say is that right now Senator Moreno is largely in a league of his own. Every other automotive executive and expert we’ve talked to think the tariffs will be a disaster for the industry.
CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON SELF-DRIVING TECH
China is cracking down on how automakers are allowed to test and market self-driving features. The government banned beta testing of the technology and public testing must now go through “official approval channels.” Automakers are no longer allowed to use terms like “automatic driving,” “autonomous driving,” “intelligent driving,” or “advanced intelligent driving” in their marketing. The government is also banning certain capabilities of the technology, including features that require no driver supervision, like valet parking, one-touch summoning and remote-control functions. On top of that, driver monitoring functions cannot be disabled and must detect when a driver removes their hands from the wheel. And OTA updates for safety reasons must now follow recall procedures to receive approval.
CHINA MANDATES EV BATTERIES CAN’T CATCH FIRE
But that’s not the only new safety requirements that companies must follow in China. The government is enacting the world’s first standards that mandate EV batteries can’t catch fire or explode even when thermal runaway occurs. Plus, any smoke generated must not harm vehicle occupants. The rules also include new tests for batteries, which go into effect next summer. The new requirements for both self-driving features and EV batteries come shortly after a high-profile crash that killed three women who were travelling in a Xiaomi vehicle operating in its assisted driving mode and were unable to escape the car after it caught fire.
GEELY TO SELL LOTUS
Poor Lotus. It’s the company that big automakers want to buy but then never keep. Ford once owned Lotus. So did General Motors. But they ended up selling it. Then Geely bought part of it, but now Geely is ready to sell, too. It exercised its put option to sell its 51% stake in Lotus UK back to Lotus Technology, which puts the Lotus brand back under one umbrella. Geely acquired a majority stake in Lotus in 2017 and since then Lotus Tech has been operating as a separate unit. Now Lotus Tech must purchase that majority stake and the end result is that Lotus will reorganize its R&D, engineering and manufacturing under one brand.
SUBARU UNVEILS NEW ELECTRIC SUV
Subaru revealed its second fully-electric vehicle at the New York auto show, an all-new SUV it calls the Trailseeker. It’s also built on Toyota’s e-TNGA architecture, but the Trailseeker is more than 6-inches longer than the Solterra and nearly an inch taller. Most of that was added to the rear, which increases the cargo volume and I think it makes the vehicle look a little like a station wagon as well. While Subaru is still using Toyota’s platform, it says its engineers developed the suspension and all-wheel drive systems for the Trailseeker and that it will be made in a Subaru plant in Japan, unlike the Solterra, which is made by Toyota. The Trailseeker will feature a nearly 75 kWh battery pack that returns more than 260 miles of range and dual electric motors that produce roughly 375 horsepower and launch the SUV from 0-60 MPH in 4.4 seconds. Subaru says the Trailseeker comes standard with a NACS charging port and will go on sale in the U.S. in 2026.
SUBARU SOLTERRA REFRESHED
And speaking of the Solterra, it’s also getting a number of upgrades, including fresh new styling. Like the Trailseeker, the Solterra will now come standard with a NACS port as well as a Subaru-developed all-wheel drive system, which is more powerful in its base trim, but also adds a new XT model that makes nearly 340 horsepower and does 0-60 MPH in under 5 seconds. That same roughly 75 kWh battery pack makes its way to the Solterra as well and bumps its range up over 285 miles or 25% more. But we won’t know about pricing until we get closer to its launch later this year, which will also be around the time that the all-new Outback hits the market.
SUBARU OUTBACK GETS BIGGER & FRESH STYLING
Rounding out Subaru’s trio of New York reveals, the new Outback comes with fresh styling and is 2-inches taller than before, which increases the amount of interior room. Power comes from either a 180 horsepower 2.5L engine or a turbocharged 2.4L unit that makes 260 horsepower. Both are mated to an 8-speed CVT and all-wheel drive. Tech highlights include new digital displays and supervised hands-free driving on select highways.
HYUNDAI REVEALS NEW PALISADE FOR NORTH AMERICA
Hyundai also pulled the wraps off the new Palisade for its customers in North America. It’s bigger than the outgoing model and it looks like designers really tried to accentuate that size to give the new Palisade as much presence as possible. The interior is a pretty big departure from the previous model as well. Power comes from either a newly developed 3.5L V6 that makes about 285 horsepower and is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission that can send power to two or all four wheels or there’s a new hybrid setup for the first time that combines a turbocharged 2.5L 4-cylinder engine with two electric motors that are integrated into a 6-speed automatic transmission. The hybrid is estimated to produce about 330 horsepower while providing over 30 MPG. It goes on sale this fall, while the V6 version launches in the summer, including a first ever off-road focused version, called the XRT Pro.
AAH PREVIEWS SHANGHAI AUTO SHOW
Next week Audi is going to unveil the production version of its latest electric sedan at the Shanghai auto show. But you don’t have to wait until then to learn what the highlights of the show will be. That’s the topic on today’s Autoline After Hours. We have Tu Le from Sino Auto Insights coming on the show, who’s an expert on the Chinese auto industry. Sam Abuelsamid, who’s the VP of Market Research at Telemetry Insights will also be on the show. And of course, there will be plenty of opinions on what’s going on in the news. So join John and Gary when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time.
But that’s a wrap for this show and I hope to see you later today.
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Subaru should offer a lowering kit and body cladding delete/roof rail delete options for the Outback.
Personally, I’d like to see Lotus offer a line of sports bikes. I think sports bikes and sports cars are a natural fit. I’ve been waiting for years for Ducati to make this connection as well. KTM was halfway there with a car like motorcycle, but never made the final step. BRP and Polaris are other companies that were also close. Honda DID make this step, but kept the bike and sports car bits separate for some unknown reason.
I don’t like the new Outback styling moving away from ‘wagonesque’ to more SUV, especially the front end. However the interior and NVH is an improvement.
I think the trend of decoupling the HVAC controls from the infotainment is good, and even better the return of physical buttons, including for basic entertainment functions, i.e. volume. Also, it would be great if automakers offered a basic infotainment at discount that simply acted as a conduit for a smartphone, e.g, Apple or Android etc.
Lastly, where was the new Outback hybrid?
The new Outback looks like its ready for the reboot of the Vacation movie. Forget outback, that crazy nose means all the attention will be outfront!
Lotuses use Toyota engines, the 1.8 4 and the 3.5 6. The second can be a serious plant, but they have not taken it to its limits HP wise. Their use of Toyotas removes the stigma of BS British “engineering’ and especially electricals of the 60s and 70s, but they are overpriced, considering their engine source, so they don’t sell but a fraction of what similar Porsche models sell.
Re the 20 million units prediction, I was expecting it would happen ten years ago. Sales topped 17 mill even longer ago, and since then, the US population (as well as that of drivers) has grown by several tens of billions. Since I don’t buy the “cars are unaffordable today” mantra (it is not justified if you translate them in real dollars and especially if you consider the excellent sedans one can buy instead of big heavy Breadvans and pickups. So IMO there is a big “pent up demand” for cars regardless of the tariff agreements Moreno cites. One reason we may not get to 20 mill soon is that the US already has a huge number of vehicles (far more than one per family, probably more than one per license holder) and therefore it is much more saturated than any other auto market, esp the Chinese one.
tens of millions, not billions, of course, above. Damn Bidinflation…
Another day and another take on the tariff effects. As nice as it is to see someone finally in support and optimistic about the auto industry I have my doubts we’ll reach 20 million. That would require a huge increase in demand and the only way I see that happening is a huge price drop or pent up demand. It’s no secret I’m in favor of some short term pain for long term gain and support the administration’s attempt to balance out trade deficit. The problem is the auto industry works on pretty low margins. One of the reasons it was advantageous to outsource parts to China in the first place. The auto industry isn’t like clothing or shoes where Nike sends the labor over to China pays them $10 to produce a pair of shoes they sell here in the states for $120. Even a 50% tariff means the shoes cost Nike $15 to bring in and can still sell for $120 and make a huge profit. Even more if they raise prices and claim the tariffs require it to protect the already huge mark up. But auto parts don’t have that kind of margin. So while I support more balance I feel the auto industry is going to really struggle unless we get some equality and we can open up some markets overseas for the US to sell products. Sounds like China is finally ready to come to the table so guess we’ll wait and see what happens. Just silly that some people claim Trump is unpredictable and acting crazy when they must never have experienced a period of negotiations when you go back and forth until an agreement is made that both parties can feel good about. One thing for sure the media sure likes to fear monger the public when the negotiations are still ongoing.
@Lambo on tariff negotiations. Hopefully good agreements will be closed after the negotiations. Canada and Mexico have zero to low-single-digit import tariff agreements with Japan, South Korea and other ASEAN countries under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. That is called now CPTPP and includes all countries around China, Australia, Canada and Mexico. We could have had those low tariffs, too, if we had not left the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement on January 23, 2017. It was a horrible deal according to the President at the time. Let’s see how close we will end up to the low tariffs Canada and Mexico have with those countries after eight years of economic damage caused by the January 2017 blunder.
Once we have returned to low tariffs with the countries around China we have actual leverage against China. In 2017 we gave up our leverage and then started the first trade war against China. That did obviously not work out well.
@ Kit – wow I hope that vehicle looks better in person, it gives me a thought of ‘omg what were they thinking’
In addition to the lift kit, body cladding, and ungodly huge roof rails, I don’t much like the front end of the new Outback. They must be going after a different group of buyers than with the old one. The first few versions were only mildly bastardized Legacy wagons, with a mild lift and body cladding. The new one is much “truckier” in appearance and execution.
During GM’s ownership of Lotus, they sold Chrysler some parts, namely, 4 valve heads for the Turbo 3 engine used in Spirit R/T and a version of the Daytona. I had one, and it ran like stink, but had two head gasket failures in about 70K miles. Also, I think the heads were known for cracking. I doubt if there are many of those engines still running.
Negotiations with Trump are a joke. Remember USMCA, the thing he “negotiated” last time he was in power? He’s not paying much attention to it now.
Hey Sean does the new Outback have a hybrid powertrain. I’d like to see a 260 HP hybrid powertrain in there.
I want some of what that senator is smoking? “Delusional”
As a long time Subaru customer, I am looking forward to trading in my 22 Outback for the new 26 Outback.
Like Kit, I have never liked the plastic warts they put on vehicles, but fortunately I don’t have to look at the outside while driving and I don’t care what others think.
I like the bigger greenhouse, something I miss from my Forester.
I will miss the built in roof crossbars that I like and use.
On the other hand, the 360° camera will be much loved. Seems the camera quality is better too.
I like the change from the vertical screen to the horizontal, but would have liked it better integrated in the dash.
Having Apple Maps behind the speedometer/tach will be very convenient as I compensate for bad memory with navigation.
I will miss the wagon vibe but none of these changes will keep me from moving on.
I just hope they come from Japan for Canada and we can ignore this tariff stuff.
On tariffs: I wouldn’t say ‘soap opera’; I’m going with strategy. Your guess is as good as mine (okay, maybe mine isn’t as good) but let’s see how this plays out. If I’m remembering a lot of 2025 EV predictions fell by the wayside. Seems you never hear of follow-up when predictions don’t pan out (and a lot of “see, I told you”) when they do.
I guess Geely’s reworking of Lotus has not gone as planned! I just wonder if Geely’s selling of Lotus to Lotus, is just putting control of the company back in the hands of the original company, which they own too? Like say VW moving control of Lamborghini from Audi to Porsche? If it turns out that Geely did cut ties with Lotus completely, personally, I don’t think Geely gave it the time needed for the changes it made and the direction they were moving the company into enough to marinate. I understand that the EV market have soften in comparison to OEM expecting, but the first two vehicles from all that investment are only just really com8ng to market it seems. I understand that the vehicles are not perfect, but aren’t blemishes usually addressed during the mid cycle refresh, like with the Porsch Taycan? Just a thought!
Spent some time behind the wheel of a friends Lotus 7,then later a Europa. Never had any desire to own one,but some interesting cars over the years
Lambo,
I have seen so many predictions on the effects of Tariffs. None of them are wrong and none of them are right. They are all in fact just that person or companies opinion. You can make it as optimistic or pessimistic as you like. It all comes down to the base assumption on what they will do to final prices. The pessimist would say apply some percentage equally across every single vehicle make and model and then project what it might do. The optimist would say that there is absolutely zero effect and maybe even a savings and then you apply your prediction from there. Then there are those in-between the extremes which may be more appropriate. The problem for the in-between crowd is that the 2 extremes are very far apart so you can dip heavily into optimistic or pessimistic territory. The reality won’t be known for quite some time as things become more firm. Negotiations with 70 countries is going to take more than a minute and some may be fruitful and some may not be. Early negotiations have all been fruitful but there is still a long way to go and I do not expect all of them to be the perfect negotiation.
The hype around these predictions is so stupid. If you are in the pessimistic crowd you will reject the optimistic crowd and vice versa. Making personal attacks from either side is just childish and unnecessary.
With all that said, I think this senator is very optimistic. 20M exceeds the record holder (2016) of 17M sales. Certainly the USA has more people now than in 2016, but 3M additional sales above the record? I don’t see that at all.
@MERKUR DRIVER on sales volume. And then there is the unknown effect of deportations on the population size. Without deportations the population would grow from 330 million in 2025 to 343 million in 2028, applying the 2023 growth rate of 1% for 2025 through 2028. If 10 million are deported that growth would be limited to 3 million, to 333 million. That should have a negative effect on new or used car sales which I cannot quantify. Another question is what the net number of deportations will be. This week the White House mentioned that maybe 4-5 million will be allowed back in quickly to support the construction, the agricultural and the hospitality sectors. So then it turns into an amnesty program for half of the targeted number of illegals. Then the interest rates are hard to predict, too. And so on. Long story short: accurate predictions are hard to make.
With cars lasting longer, and some people, like me, downsizing their number of cars, there will be plenty of cars without there ever being 20M sold in a year, or at least any time soon.
When I was in the navy in Scotland in 1970-1971, two guys at my station had Lotuses, an Elon and a Europa. The Europa kind of reminded me of a Porsche 914.
Since the tariffs are illegal, I don’t expect they will last too long, just long enough for the California lawsuit to be settled in California’s favor (and all of ours). Thank you, California, for pointing out that Comrade Chaos has no legal power to institute any tariffs and that Congress is the only body that can. We now return you to your normally scheduled scream fest ……
So what new technology is China going to invent and mandate, that will defy current know physics, that will not allow EV batteries to catch fire or explode? You can try to reduce the risk of it happening, but there’s no way to totally prevent it from happening!
Ziggy . Google is your friend. Try it before posting nonsense.
Although the US Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to levy taxes, including tariffs, Congress has passed laws allowing the President to impose tariffs for national security reasons unilaterally.[53] In his second term, Trump added tariffs to steel, aluminum, and auto imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act (TEA), which allows the President to modify imports if the Secretary of Commerce conducts an investigation, holds public hearings, and determines that the imports threaten national security.
Lambo, your mind is your friend, try exploring it before posting garbage, there is no national security reasons for Trumps current tariffs and in case you have been living under a rock the Secretary of Commerce didn’t conduct any investigation, hold any public hearings, or determine that imports threaten national security. Thanks for making my point for me, you are such a gem.