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Runtime: 9:23
0:00 California ZEV Mandate Showdown
1:32 China Sales Up 14.8% In April
2:23 German Dealers Skeptical of Chinese Brands
3:22 Nissan Doubles Job Cuts
4:13 Audi To Sell Italdesign
4:57 Filosa First In-Line for Stellantis CEO
5:47 ZF Launches Rare-Earth Free EV Motor
6:44 Autoline Poll Results on Yugo
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
CALIFORNIA ZEV MANDATE SHOWDOWN
We’re fast approaching a show-down over California’s stricter zero-emission vehicle sales mandate that goes into effect this year. It requires that 35% of new vehicle sales must be zero-emission. Five other states, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon, also follow the mandate starting this year. And next year, Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Washington DC, will join when the mandate increases to 43% of sales. The mandate increases 8% a year until 2035 when it becomes 100%. But it’s going to be virtually impossible for those states to hit this year’s goal. EVs only account for about 20% of California’s new car sales and it’s about half of that in the five other states that start enforcing the rule this year. Get this. Automakers face fines of $20,000 for every non-compliant vehicle they sell for not meeting the mandate. Or they can buy ZEV credits from other automakers to meet the mandate. But car dealers are lobbying hard to get those states to drop the mandate. They say it will force them to limit the kinds of vehicles they can sell.
CHINA SALES UP 14.8% IN APRIL
Thanks to a cash-for-clunkers program, new car sales are going strong in China. Automakers sold 1.7 million passenger vehicles, up 14.8% compared to last year. That suggests that sales for the year will come in around 21 million vehicles, which is about average for the market over the last decade. NEVs, or new energy vehicles, were up almost 34% in April, capturing just over 50% of total market share. But exports were down 2.2%. The Chinese government is offering a trade-in program, where car buyers can get a subsidy for trading in an old car. So far this year, over 2.7 million clunkers have been scrapped thanks to the program.
GERMAN DEALERS SKEPTICAL OF CHINESE BRANDS
One reason why Chinese exports were down may be due to this next development. Automotive News reports that German car dealers are increasingly skeptical of Chinese brands. For one thing, sales are weak. Chinese brands account for only 1.5% of the German market and are barely growing. BYD planned to sell 50,000 cars in Germany this year. So far it’s only sold 7,245. Analysts say that’s because Europeans, and especially Germans place a lot of value on brand equity. Most car buyers are reluctant to take a risk on an unknown brand. Also, European automakers are coming out with more competitive BEVs and PHEVs. So, German car dealers are not taking on Chinese franchises.
NISSAN DOUBLES JOB CUTS
Just to show you how tough things are going for Nissan, it’s going to more than double the number of job cuts that it originally planned. Last fall, it said it was axing 9,000 jobs globally and slashing production by 20% to cut costs. But now reports from Japan say Nissan is going to cut 20,000 jobs globally. Nissan reports its yearly earnings tomorrow and it has already warned investors that the numbers won’t look good.
AUDI TO SELL ITALDESIGN
Audi could sell renowned Italian auto design firm Italdesign because it needs more cash. Lamborghini, which is a subsidiary of Audi, purchased 90% of Italdesign in 2010 and the VW Group acquired the remaining shares in 2015. Italdesign has around 1,000 workers in Italy, Germany, Spain, China and the U.S. And if you want to learn more about the design firm’s new offices in Detroit, check out my interview with Italdesign’s Fabrizio Mina and David Kalinowski about why they came to Detroit and why its biggest opportunity for growth is in engineering.
FILOSA FIRST IN LINE FOR STELLA CEO
Stellantis is getting close to choosing a new CEO. And it looks like they’re going in-house. Bloomberg reports that the automaker’s head of North America, Antonio Filosa, is the top candidate to get the job. Stellantis has been without a CEO since December when Carlos Tavares was invited to leave. And the automaker said it would pick a new CEO in the first half of the year. Filosa started his career at Fiat in 1999 and has been part of Stellantis’ executive team since the company formed in 2021. He sure has an uphill fight. Stella’s sales and profits have tumbles and the automaker lost $65 billion of market capitalization in the last year.
ZF LAUNCHES RARE-EARTH FREE EV MOTOR
With supply of rare earths potentially threatened by export restrictions from China, automakers are keenly interested in EV motors that don’t use rare earths. So ZF is launching a magnet-free motor in a fairly compact package. It creates a magnetic field in the electric motor with an inductive exciter within the rotor shaft. Creating the magnetic field within the rotor is different from most synchronous motors, and it reduces losses of energy transmission by 15%. And by not using rare earths, the carbon footprint needed to manufacture it falls by 50%. It doesn’t use brushes or slip rings, and it’s 90 millimeters or about 3.5 inches shorter than a conventional synchronous motor. ZF is making it available for 400 and 800-volt EVs.
AUTOLINE POLL RESULTS ON YUGO
We’ve got the results of our latest poll where we asked what you think about the idea of bringing the Yugo back, but this time as a €15,000 electric car. 8% of you who voted loved the idea and said you’d rock the hell out of that Yugo. 29% said the specs on the car, like its range of only 170 miles would make it unappealing to most consumers. 42% of you said this was just a marketing stunt like with so many other EV startups. And 21% said none of the above, and let your comments.
Irvin Wright had an interesting point. He says, “If the Yugo investors were serious about producing a small, no-frills BEV wouldn’t they choose another name?”
Mingsu, doesn’t hold much hope for it. “It will probably sell in Serbia or nearby countries, not other places,” he said.
And (That) Dave Marsh, said that it “Seems like a design school exercise with publicity that some journalist got too excited about.”
So based on your read of the situation, the new Yugo sounds like it’s dead on arrival. Thanks for your feedback. And a special thanks to all our Patreon and YouTube members who took part in the poll. Remember, if you’d like to become a member it’s really easy and it only costs a few bucks a month to help Autoline in our mission to provide you with the best information and insights you can find about the global automotive industry,
And that brings us to the end of today’s report. Thanks for watching.
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The show was probably taped too early (looks like before markets opened at 9:30 AM) and missed the news of the day, and they are several.
Today looks like it will be a dismal day for the resident Trump Haters and Tariffphobes and another $200-300k payday for you know whom by 5:30 PM (yes, markets close at 4, but Fidelity posts its mut fund update at 5:30 ET)
Markets rocketed 1,100 points (Dow) because the US and China reached a steep tariff reduction agreement, where the US reduces its tariffs on Chinese junk to 30% and the Chinese theirs on US products to TEN PERCENT. 10%! NASDAQ is up much more, 3.8% last time I checked!
In addition, Trump and his outstanding health team issued an exec order that addresses what many knew, the OUTRAGE of the same drugs, most invented in the US by Big Pharma, costing ten times in the US than overseas, even in wealthy other nations. Why didn’t the previous incompetent and senile blowhards at the WH think of this?
Finally, the CA “MANDATE” is an UNBELIEVABLE OUTRAGE, and if anybody thoughtlessly, knee-jerk reacts in its support, think what would happen if YOUR State of FL had it, and forced you to buy a BEV that you repeatedly told us you cannot use because you live in some apartment or condo and cannot charge at home.
In addition!
The rest of the text after “In Addition” in my post above disappeared somehow. I was talking about today’s Exec Order about the huge discrepancy of drug prices in the US and abroad. Previous incompetents and senile Presidents did nothing about it. The outrage of poor US patients subsidising German, French and UK patients is over. The differences are for some popular medicines, 10 times their prices overseas, or more.
As I said, today is a dismal day for Trump Haters.
Is it only me or does the new Pope Leo look like Lee Iacocca back in the old Chrysler days !
Reg, Yes, Trump caved, for now, but keeps the chaos going by saying “90 days.” He probably did a little insider trading help for his friends, by telling them when the announcement of his “deal” would be made. You seem to have some obsession with calling stuff “Chinese junk.” While it wasn’t always the case, most stuff from China now, whether electronics, toys, clothes, or anything else, is of quality comparable to stuff from anywhere else in the world.
I certainly agree with you that the CA EV mandate is not attainable any time soon, and needs to go away, or the time line moved back many years.
We shall see what actually happens with drug prices. I have on exceptionally expensive one for ulcerative colitis. Fortunately for me, it is mostly paid for by Medicare Part D, but my statements say what is paid for it. I’ll see if it goes down.
The ZF motor is interesting, with the copper rotor rather than permanent magnet, but without the usual commutator most such motors have. The article says multiple times that the motor is efficient, but later in the article says “enables better efficiency at certain operating points such as long highway trips at high speed.” That sounds like it is efficient only under certain conditions, like light load at higher speed, rather than accelerating. When and if it goes into production, we’ll learn the efficiency of the vehicles using it.
Roger, I hadn’t thought about it, but Pope Leo does look a little like Iacocca, more in this first picture than in younger Leo pictures.
https://images.app.goo.gl/C2S39Mo2vYPf8Fjd8
I would think that the ZF motor will operate better at higher speeds when induced magnetism is maximized. Not a neck snapper, but also no rare earth magnets. Interesting to know if there is any advantage for it over other new motors that use just regular magnets.
Regulus, we appreciate getting your comments, but this forum isn’t about posting nasty remarks. Please keep your comments civil.
A couple of timely observations:
Previous incompetent and senile blowhards would include Trump in his first term. Why didn’t he do this then? Perhaps because it won’t fly as an Executive Order and will take a majority Congressional vote. Which explains why Pharma stocks recovered so quickly this morning.
The rocketing stock market still has not reached the highs seen near the end of the Biden administration. Trump is simply following his familiar pattern of creating a problem and then offering a solution for it and claiming a big win for the country because of his brilliance. Its known as his Arsonist/Firefighter tactic.
The New Yugo looks very much like an EV version of the 80’s era VW Golf, which is not a bad thing. With a low price, high build quality and a better name it could be a winner.
I don’t know if all permanent magnet motors used for EVs are neodymium, actually NdFeB, but I think most are. Interestingly, GM invented that magnet type, or at least was a pioneer in making the material, and started Magnequench in the 1980s in Anderson, Indiana to make the material. I toured the plant with a group of co-workers. Magnequench was later sold to a Chinese company. The Anderson factory kept going for a while, but was closed in, I think, the late 1990s or early 2000s. All of what was Magnequench is now in China.
Most neodymium and other “rare earth” minerals is mined in China, but there are some sources other places around the world.
The new Yugo reminds me of the Ford Fiesta of the ’80s, but Golf Mk 1 had a similar shape.
Well, what do you know. Markets closed 20 min ago and I checked to see. Instead of going a little lower than the lofty heights I mentioned in my first post, they actually finished even higher!
Dow, up 1,160+ or 2.81%
S&P 500 up 184, or 3.26%
NASDAQ, up 4.35%
Told you so! Today was a dismal day for Trump Haters.
Drug stocks were down, but then back up, after it became apparent that Trump can’t control prices by executive order.
I really would like some coverage of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV and VW ID Buzz (as far as sales numbers so far). Just over 1,900 Chargers sold/leased in the first quarter of 2025 and about the same number of ID Buzz I believe constitutes a sales disaster for both. I hear the Charger is becoming special order only in MY 2026 to keep them form piling up on the lots. Please confirm. Closely following the EV transition…
The Charger that could appeal to me as a “fun car” would be an RWD version with the turbo six, but they aren’t going to make those.
Regulus – you have it exactly backwards, the very best thing that can happen is for those ZEV mandates to go 100% into effect. Only when these climate zealot states passing these absurdly unattainable deadlines have to eat the doom of their own cooking will they learn. Can you imagine the financial calamity that will befall those economies when their dealer networks collapse along with all the ancillary support businesses because they can’t sell any popular models? Nevada, Idaho, and all the Neighboring states will be rolling in tax revenue from auto sales. It will be economic destruction of biblical proportions. So let’s hope that the feds let it happen and any lawsuits to stop it fail. Let them look upon their works and despair at what it has wrought.
Germany went through half a year of this hard climate emissions nirvana lesson and found that sweet virtue-signal nectar tasted more like a turd. VW plant closures, unions unable to stop massive layoffs ( but they got them dues first, believe that), forced to buy billions in imaginary climate credits from, gulp, Tesla and China. Porsche, Audi, BMW and Mercedes all crying, begging for relief as well. They blinked and eased the rules. Reality is a cruel mistress.
Wait till the big three have to peel off a few billion to Musk because of CA ZEV credits. They’ll lose their frigging minds out there. It will be glorious watching it all burn and a well learned lesson for those who don’t seem to understand how the world works yet somehow are in charge.
So bring it, can’t wait!!!
Daily, if CA and the other states stick with the mandate, it won’t help dealers in Nevada, because you won’t be able to register new cars bought in other states in CA. CA will become a little like Cuba, as people keep their old cars going, so there will be a mix of EVs and aging ICErs.
ID Buzz sold ~30,000 globally in 2024, so the US is not a huge part of the market. Still, that’s not many sales.
Fair point, Kit, but Nevada may gain a bunch of former Californians as new residents when it gets super crazy.
Daily, yep, retirees and telecommuters.
I should not keep you waiting y’all. Just woke up, had my coffee and now I looked at the precise numbers from Fidelity (less than half of my total investments)
$192,258.90 (US)
Double it to estimate the day’s gains. And since many of you are math challenged (not to mention Geography and Econ challenged, when Kit believes that Romania is on the… Mediterranean and in the Eurozone), I will do it for you. Actualy, $400,000.00 would be closer.
This reminds me of late Oct 2016, when a colleague I knew since high school and UG and Grd School (knew his parents too) dropped by my office to offer his unsolicited advice, to vote for Hillary and not for Trump, with the ‘rationale’ that…. if Trump was elected, the stock markets would plummet.
Unless you live under a rock and/or are brain dead, or both, you would know that just in Trump’s first term, the markets had about 150 records. Google it if you want the precise no.
“We ARE amused”, as the late Queen Victoria would say.
Word to the wise, those of you continuing to predict gloom and doom, worry about your life and your investments. I am at a stage of life that I am far more interested in keeping my HEALTH than about my Wealth. I recommend that YOU (and many of you are much older than me) do the same. Especially since, as it is obvious to the brain dead, I live 100 TIMES below my means.
John – Thanks for at least trying to rein a certain poster in. Agree totally that comments should be auto related, & polite. OK to disagree – Just do it politely.
I wish ZF lots of luck with the motor technology. I know they are not the only ones looking to developing this tech. The price of rare earths is far too high so there is incentive by every motor manufacturer to get this solved. ZF just seems to be the first to release any details. I really hope that they are successful for many reasons.
Reg, I never said Romania was on the Mediterranean or was in the Eurozone, though it is working on joining the EU. I’m not the only one who is tired of your insults, bragging, etc. Did you not see John’s post?.
I have to agree with daily driver. Let these states keep these ridiculous zero emissions mandates and kill their own economy. What I don’t understand is the people that put these mandates in place are in an office to serve the people. Do they truly believe this is what the people they represent want? Or are they just hell bent on pushing some global warming agenda?
20k fines for not meeting. I hope the automakers don’t tack that cost onto all the vehicles they sell nationwide. Let those states eat those costs. Let them experience first hand the results of their own stupidity. And where do you suppose those 20k fines per vehicle go? Used to install charging stations out something that may help fix the problem or go to a general fund that just disappears. Id bet the latter.