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Runtime: 8:34
0:00 Tariffs Will Cost Japanese Automakers Billions
0:51 JLR Won’t Build Its Own Models in China Anymore
1:50 Ram Delays All-Electric Truck Again
3:53 Rivian Reduces EV Motor Complexity
4:47 Toyota Reveals All-New EV
5:39 BYD Dethrones Toyota in Singapore
6:26 Xiaomi Sales Continue to Slide
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TARIFFS WILL COST JAPANESE AUTOMAKERS BILLIONS
Japanese automakers are going to be hit especially hard by President Trump’s tariffs. According to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence, the tariffs will cost Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda $19 billion this year. Toyota will take the brunt of that with an expected hit of $10.7 billion. So far, Toyota hasn’t adjusted its production plans in response to the tariffs but the other Japanese automakers have or are considering shifting some models around. However, they’re still holding out hope that a deal can be reached with the U.S. And Nissan’s new CEO Ivan Espinosa is urging the Japanese government to move more quickly with negotiations.
JLR WON’T BUILD ITS OWN MODELS IN CHINA ANYMORE
Jaguar Land Rover is no longer going to build its own models in China and will only import them. The automaker’s chief financial officer told investors that it will end production of the Jaguar XE, XF and E-Pace in China in September while production of the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery will stop at the end of next year. That will be around the time JLR is launching a new brand in China in 2026 called Freelander with its joint venture partner Chery. It will sell both EV and extended range models that are based on a Chery platform but feature styling from JLR. The Freelander models will be built in China and sold in a dedicated network of Chery-run dealerships. JLR needed to shake up its operations in China. It used to be its biggest market but dropped to number 5 in the first quarter. So it’s launching the Freelander brand with the hope to appeal more to Chinese consumers.
RAM DELAYS ALL-ELECTRIC TRUCK AGAIN
Ram is delaying its all-electric truck again. The Ram 1500 REV was supposed to launch last year, but after watching how sales of other fully-electric half-ton pickups performed, Stellantis eventually decided to pull ahead production of the extended range electric version of the truck. That pushed the 1500 REV back to 2026. But according to a dealer memo seen by Crain’s Business Detroit, production has now been pushed back even further to 2027 and the truck will launch as a 2028 model year vehicle. The company confirmed the move, “in light of slowing consumer demand for half-ton BEV pickups.” So, I wonder what happens if demand doesn’t pick up? Could that mean it never launches the 1500 REV? And on top of this, Stellantis is also pushing back production of the extended range electric version of the truck from later this year to the first quarter of next year. It says it needs more time to validate the quality of the truck.
RIVIAN REDUCES EV MOTOR COMPLEXITY
Rivian is currently building prototypes of its all-new R2 model on a pilot production line at its plant in Illinois, something that all automakers do so they can find any manufacturing issues. Powering the model is Rivian’s new drive unit that it calls Maximus. CEO RJ Scaringe says it was able to put all the processing and power electronics for the inverter onto one circuit board, which is mounted close to the motor, reducing the length of the bus bars. The inverter housing also acts as a cap for the cooling system, routing coolant without the need for additional parts. In total Scaringe says the new inverter has 41% fewer parts than its previous version and by mounting the drive unit directly to the vehicle, it reduced even more parts and fasteners. Rivian is expecting to launch the R2 in the first quarter of next year.
TOYOTA REVEALS ALL-NEW bZ WOODLAND EV
Toyota has been going a bit EV crazy this week and now it’s introducing another new electric car, the bZ Woodland. This is just like the Subaru Trailseeker that debuted at the New York auto show last month, but with a Toyota EV face on it. The model rides on the automaker’s e-TNGA platform and comes standard with an all-wheel drive system that makes 375 horsepower. Its nearly 75 kWh battery pack provides up to 260 miles or about 420 kilometers of range and it comes standard with a NACS charging port. Other highlights include a 3,500 pound or a roughly 2,000 kilogram towing capacity and a 14-inch center display screen. Toyota says it expects models to start hitting U.S. showrooms early next year.
BYD DETHRONES TOYOTA IN SINGAPORE
It only took three years for BYD to dethrone Toyota as the top automaker in Singapore. In the first four months of the year, BYD sold just over 3,000 cars, accounting for 20% of sales. Meanwhile, Toyota sold less than 2,100 vehicles. And while those numbers are small, BYD has been stealing sales from Toyota all across the Southeast Asian market, which the Japanese automaker used to dominate. And last year nearly 3.3 million vehicles were sold in the region, so we think this has to be very worrying for Toyota. And BYD isn’t stopping there, earlier this month the automaker said it’s aiming to sell half its vehicles outside of China by 2030.
XIAOMI SALES CONTINUE TO SLIDE
But things aren’t as rosy for Chinese EV startup Xiaomi. As we’ve reported, the company is facing backlash over a crash involving one of its vehicles operating in semi-autonomous mode that killed three people. Customers also complained about the company making it hard to unlock a performance model’s full potential and now they’re unhappy about a $5,800 optional performance hood that really doesn’t add any aerodynamic benefit at all. And because of those controversies, Xiaomi saw orders plunge 55% in April compared to March. And data from the first two weeks in May show its orders are continuing to slide. The Xiaomi SU7 was a hit when it launched in March last year and by December the sedan was outselling the Model 3 in China on a monthly basis. But now that success appears to be in jeopardy.
Don’t forget to check out Autoline After Hours today. We’ve got Alan Taub from the University of Michigan coming on the show to talk about how tapping into the medical field should help improve EV batteries. It sounds like an interesting topic and you can join us live this afternoon at 3PM eastern time.
But that’s a wrap for today’s show and I hope to see you later today.
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Sean, I will only make this observation, which sure applies to today’s show as well as many of your prior shows.
The “global” Auto industry does not mean just the US and China (with bits of Japan and S Korea thrown in for good measure).
It also includes “Old Europe” as I believe GW Bush used to call it.
Why then do we constantly talk about Chinese brands who do not sell a single vehicle in the US, and not about all these Legendary European brands, who sell millions of cars here, one of which actually invented the auto?
Maybe you should take a poll. Do your viewers want even more lengthy segments on the news of NIO, Xiaomi and BYD, or instead of BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls, Ferrari and Lambo? Oh, and Aston Martin and Lotus?
PS to the regulars: Don’t worry about the markets, they are still up slightly (0.3%) compared to the multiple huge days this week. Brace for the profit taking (in my case, I will do absolutely nothing in anticipation or in response to one. Worked well for me for 40 years now)
Regulus – Thanks for your feedback, we’ll definitely take what you’re saying into consideration.
Probably a great idea for Ram to delay the BEV variant of their truck. My opinion is that the consumer preference for the full size truck segment is ICE with some wiggle room for PHEV. The smaller the truck though the more closer to BEV you will become. A Maverick for instance would be fine as a BEV where as a F150…Not so much.
Regulus, Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is much more to the world than just the US. Americans like you think that anything that doesn’t happen in a country you are interested in, doesn’t matter at all. But China is where all the interesting things are happening in the auto industry these days and the Chinese don’t care whether you are interested or not. Maybe it is you that doesn’t matter! If you are not interested in what is new in the ENTIRE auto world, then you aren’t interested in autos at all. If Autoline restricted itself to what the US and European companies are doing only, there would not be much to say and Autoline would not be relevant anymore either. Covering auto news no matter where it comes from, is what makes Autoline as good as it is. I wouldn’t want them to cut coverage and become mediocre, just to make you happy.
Regarding RAM’s comment about the delayed Ramcharger, “It says it needs more time to validate the quality of the truck”, this is PR-spin. They are delaying the launch while they see how the tariff game plays out as quite a few of the components of the hybrid powertrain come from their European divisions (which is where all of their EV, PHEV, EREV, etc. innovation is centered). The outcome of the tariff game will make a big difference in the viability of this model.
Agree 100% with kevin a. Its a global industry with global players. News in China, Australia, Africa and Europe affect the major auto companies as much as events taking place in Canada, the US and Mexico. It all matters.
In addition to what others have said, Ram is delaying their BEV pickup because they see that there isn’t much market for them. I’m hoping they actually build the EREV version, because I’m curious about what mpg it will get running purely on gas.
Thanks a lot, Sean!
When the F-150 hybrid was introduced, it got a lot of hype, and seemed to make sense, better mpg and the useful power inverter. I haven’t heard much about it recently, and looking at CR’s chart, I think I know why. It gets barely better mpg than a regular F-150, and it has absolutely horrible reliability in CR’s survey.
Kit – regarding the F-150 Lightning , an automotive YouTuber named Tyler Hoovie (channel Hoovie’s garage) got an early copy and tried to tow
a relatively light weight vintage Ford Model T with it. And ithe Lightning failed miserably, losing over half its range under light load on a 40 mile trip to his mechanic. This exposure that it could never be a serious work truck went viral and absolutely crushed their sales. It never recovered.
Yep, an EV pickup would be for local use only if towing. Also, they wouldn’t be very good for longer road trips, even empty, because of the long charge time of the big battery.
IMHO, when one says that an EV pickups is not a good ‘work truck’, there should be a designation between the type of work spoken of. As has been documented EV pickups may not be good for towing, but the are a host of other jobs and types of work take an EV pickups may be, arguably, better then an ICE pickup. There are millions of pickup buyers of pickup truck buyers that only, mostly, use the vehicle for the school and grocery run and, in that situation, an EV would work fine for the use case. Yet, the thought that it can’t be used for ‘work’ i.e. ‘towing’, they would never consider one, even if they had an affordable price tage. Do get me wrong, everyone has the right to buy what they want, its just that EVs will not be as easy to live with as some say, but will not be nearly as difficult as some others claim!
With overnight home or depot charging, EV pickups can work well as work trucks, even towing, if distances are short. They would certainly serve well for a lot of pickup owners’ non-work use, like commuting, grocery shopping, soccer mom duty, etc. The bottom line is that people who buy pickup trucks, even those with plenty of money, just don’t want an EV. I know some of them and they’d buy a Sierra Denali costing as much as a decently equipped EV truck instead.
As I said many times but somehow it does not register, most people, even if they can afford one nice vehicle per person, do not want to buy two, and many would not have the place to store it, most garages for families being two-car garages and even a childless couple has already two cars.
SO, where EVs fail (pickups or cars or crossovers, same story) is that you cannot have an EV just to commute and small trips, and another for seriously long trips, summer home visits, family vacations etc etc.
Because very few people are like Bob “New Math” Wilson, of “Great Leap Forward” recommendation (!!!), who can tolerate waiting for at least half an hour to get 200 miserable miles of charging in a long trip five times a day. They do not want to eat the crappiest of the crappy foods at fast food or gas station markets to kill time, when they stop they want to visit a sight or see a scenic view or do something worthwhile, and not be slaves to their EV.
Even incentives like the generous $7,500 paid by the poor to the much richer (who buy BEVS, they have avg income of $170k+) worked for a while, then the market fizzled.
But what almost nobody but myself cares about here, is that BEVs, with the possible exception of Teslas and Chinese EVs NOT sold here, cannot still be maid SUSTAINABLY, ie AT A PROFIT. Most of you just think of YOU being able to afford one. Ford is bleeding 5 billion a YEAR (UP from 4 last year and 3 in 2022) from its puny BEV sector, and as y ou see it is NOT impoving but getting worse, which is really bad.
So, forget EVs. A plug-in hybrid is more than green enough for today’s environment and costs, and even a non-plug in hybrid, if efficient, has to do in many cases.