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Runtime: 11:01
0:00 Trump v. Musk: Tesla Stock’s Biggest 1-Day Loss
0:55 Ford Lightning Outsells Cybertruck
1:36 OEMs Raise Prices Without Raising Prices
3:01 BYD Stock Takes Hit on Price War Worries
3:54 Toyota’s Newest EV Chock Full of BYD Tech
4:58 Toyota Boosts Sales in China
5:39 BYD’s Top 10 Export Markets
6:27 Chinese Get 9.4% Of UK Market
7:27 Mercedes-Benz Trucks Sets Backing-Up Record
8:08 China Ship Fire Started on EV Deck
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TRUMP V MUSK: TESLA STOCK’S BIGGEST 1-DAY LOSS
Whoa doggie! The fight between President Trump and Elon Musk got out of control yesterday. Trump threatened to cut all government contracts with Musk’s companies, including SpaceX. Musk called for Trump to be impeached. Tesla shareholders didn’t like any of this and ran for the exits, causing the biggest one-day loss the stock has ever seen, wiping out $150 billion of market cap. Meanwhile, Tesla shorts pocketed $4 billion in profits. As of this morning it looks like others in the Administration are trying to get Trump and Musk to make up, but it’s hard to see how those two get along again with some of the things that have been said.
FORD LIGHTNING OUTSELLS CYBERTRUCK
And Tesla has other problems on its hands. Its Cybertruck has turned out to be a sales dud. Electrek reports that Tesla is now offering 0% financing until the end of the month, which it estimates is costing the company $10,000 per truck. Somewhat related to that, Ford sent a notice to the media pointing out that the F-150 Lightning is outselling the Cybertruck, and every other electric pickup for that matter. Ford is even outselling all the GM trucks combined. However, at the rate electric pickups are selling right now, none of these trucks will top 30,000 units this year.
OEMs RAISE PRICES WITHOUT RAISING PRICES
New car prices are rising in response to Trump’s tariffs but instead of increasing the MSRP, automakers are finding other ways to jack up prices. They’ve resorted to reducing incentives and rebates as well as increasing delivery charges, which are up anywhere between $40-$400 according to Edmunds. And zero-percent financing deals in April fell to their lowest levels since 2019 according to Cox Automotive. As a result, new car prices increased 2.5% in April to an average of $48,700, which is almost a record. One of the reasons automakers are finding other ways to increase prices is to avoid backlash from President Trump, who recently attacked Walmart after it said it would have to raise prices because of the tariffs. And while automakers are avoiding blaming tariffs for the hikes, analysts say they’ll have to increase MSRPs once they run out of pre-tariff inventory, which will likely start to happen at the end of this month.
BYD STOCK TAKES HIT ON PRICE WAR WORRIES
BYD’s recent price cuts helped it increase its May sales by over 15% to about 382,000 vehicles, the most units its sold in a single month so far this year. But those cuts have triggered concerns of an intensifying price war and criticism from competitors as well as government officials and industry advocates. And it’s also led to investors that are worried about BYD’s ability to hit its sales targets and to turn a decent profit on those vehicles. Bloomberg reports that in the last two weeks alone its stock has lost more than $20 billion in market value. However, as we pointed out, BYD may not want to ease off on its price cuts because it’s currently running about a million units behind its goal of selling 5.5 million vehicles this year.
TOYOTA’S NEWEST EV CHOCK FULL OF BYD TECH
Toyota is expanding its EV partnership with BYD in China. It’s about to launch a new model, called the bZ5, that’s based on its own e-TNGA platform, but it uses powertrain and battery tech from BYD. There’s two range options of 550 kilometers or about 340 miles and 630 kilometers or roughly 390 miles, but those are based on the easier Chinese test cycle. Power comes from a single 200 kW or nearly 270 horsepower electric motor that drives the front wheels. Toyota took this same motor and battery approach with its bZ3 EV that it launched in China a few years ago and it also uses BYD plug-in hybrid tech in China. The Japanese automaker is starting to turn to Chinese companies for its autonomous driving tech in the country too. It partnered with Momenta for the bZ5’s driver assistance system, which consists of 33 sensors that support up to Level 2 capabilities.
TOYOTA BOOSTS SALES IN CHINA
And it looks like this strategy might be starting to pay off. Toyota and Lexus sold nearly 143,000 vehicles in China in April, an increase of 21% compared to last year. It was also the third month in a row that its sales increased in China, bringing its total for the first four months of the year to just over 530,000 units. Toyota said it benefited from vehicle scrappage programs and trade-in subsidies, but it’s the only major Japanese automaker that has posted an increase in China this year. Nissan was down 11% in April, while Honda fell 41%
BYD’S TOP 10 EXPORT MARKETS
China’s auto industry, especially BYD, has seen an export boom, but who’s buying all those cars? Gasgoo put together BYD’s top ten export markets, and most people might be surprised to see that Mexico tops the list, followed closely by Belgium, with Brazil trailing a bit behind. Turkey, Thailand and the UK are kind of clumped together, and the same goes for Indonesia, Spain and Australia. The Philippines rounds out the top 10. These numbers include BEVs, PHEVs and EREVs for the first quarter of the year and since BYD’s the biggest car company in China, it’s probably a good indication of where most of the Chinese exports are ending up.
| BYD Exports Q1, 2025 | |
|---|---|
| Mexico | 34,376 |
| Belgium | 33,688 |
| Brazil | 20,564 |
| Turkey | 13,960 |
| Thailand | 11,167 |
| UK | 10,327 |
| Indonesia | 8,924 |
| Spain | 8,426 |
| Australia | 8,357 |
| Philippines | 4,801 |
| Source: Gasgoo | |
CHINESE GET 9.4% OF UK MARKET
And while the UK is in the middle of the pack for BYD’s exports, it’s making significant progress in the country. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, BYD’s sales skyrocketed 409% last month. And Chinese brands overall had a great month, with their market share hitting 9.4%, up from 7.7% in April. But not all Chinese brands fared well. MG, which is owned by SAIC and the largest Chinese brand with 4.4% market share, saw its sales dip 8.3%. The UK is an attractive market for Chinese automakers because it hasn’t imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EVs like the European Union has. Also, there aren’t any local mass market EV makers in the UK that the Chinese brands have to compete with which has aided their growth.
MERCEDES-BENZ TRUCKS SETS BACKING-UP RECORD
In late April we told you a story about how Mercedes-Benz Trucks wanted to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for driving a semi-tractor and trailer in reverse. Well, it officially achieved that goal, driving its newest all-electric truck backwards for almost 125 kilometers or roughly 77 miles. That passed its initial goal of 100 kilometers and easily soared past the previous record, which was 89 kilometers or 55 miles, set by a diesel truck in the U.S. in 2020. The new record was set on a race track, so it wasn’t all straight-line driving.
CHINA SHIP FIRE STARTED ON EV DECK
And just a quick follow up on that cargo ship catching fire earlier this week and having to be abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Some of you took issue with us speculating that the EVs on board were likely the cause of the fire. While we still don’t have a definitive answer, Car News China reports that crew members witnessed smoke coming from the deck storing the EVs. Of the more than 3,000 vehicles on board, around 800 were electrics.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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No one is going to end government contracts with SpaceX, at least for now. Nearly all launches of military, gps, etc. satellites are SpaceX, and all of the US-based transport of people to and from the ISS is SpaceX. Well, the Boeing/Lockheed Martin Starliner got people to the space station, but not back to earth.
Most of the SpaceX launches are thousands of pieces of space debris in the form of StarLink satellites, but most military and commercial launches are also SpaceX, at least the ones from Florida.
Something the government could do would be to charge Elon more rent for the use of facilities at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.
Interesting M-B didn’t use their autonomous driving technology for the reverse distance record. They could have set two records! Watching the driver snake down the track is something a self-driving truck would not have done.
The dust up between Musk and Trump probably has more to do with their big egos: Riches personal in the world vs. arguably the most powerful person in the (and current leader of the free) world! Once they get tired of throwing away millions, if not billions of dollars, (Elon his own and Trump tax payer money), they’ll settle down and see once again that they make more money working to together then fighting each other, somebody will say their sorry (Elon), then it’s back to making money off the backs of others!
Whether the BEV’s on board that cargo ship was where the fire started or not, if they did get ignited from themselves or another source, that probably doomed the ship in any case.
Perhaps Toyota found a way to fix their perpetually dated infotainment system with BYD. The novelty I see is the fact they’re showing humility to recognize this. Good for them.
I have watched Autoline Daily since it’s first show. I like hearing something cencerning our market. I am tired of the BYD show. I have never seen a BYD vehicle. How bout some Big 3 news. That is where this show started.
As stated at the beginning of the show, it is about the global auto industry, not just the US market.
I haven’t seen a BYD car, but have seen BYD buses, built in CA.
Wise observers judge people by what they do, not what they say. This applies especially for Trump, who shoots his mouth apparently without any control, and now Musk.
“Politics makes strange Bedfellows” is so true. Not just in the Musk-Trump Bromance, but also in the Senile Joe Biden- Cackling Kamala one. Remember in the Dem debates in the 2020 election, when Kamala accused Idiot Joe Biden of being RACIST? Why? Just because she claimed he was opposed to Busing in the 70s? Kamala was the least popular candidate, got less than 1% of the votes then, and was the FIRST to cry ‘uncle’ and leave the race. Yet, how did Idiot Joe Biden retaliate? He (or, more accurately, the Biden Family, probably “Doctor Evil” Jill Biden and Crackhead Criminal Hunter Biden) made Joe pick her as a running mate. NOT for her nonexistent merits, but, as he publicly and shamelessly admitted, “he would choose a woman and one ‘of color’ at that” for his VP.
John/Sean, with many Chinese auto companies have problems at home and their being talks of a consolidation, with many legacy not having as much success these days as they have in the past, how likely do you two think they are to ‘buy their way’ back in by either purchasing or partnering with one of these struggling Chinese auto companies?
Who took issue with ALD eluding that the EVs started the boat fire? Because yea this was happing all the time with just gas cars. As already stated even if the EV itself didn’t start the fire they have a characteristic that once ignited make them a real struggle to put out.
Big shocker the Lightning outselling the CT. Yet funny anyone bragging about 10k in sales. Again the EV no one ever asked for.
Sorry John/Sean…
Do you have any mechanism that would filter out purely political posts? All of us are interested in the auto industry but in some cases (Regulavinous) there is absolutely no automotive content.
An EV would work for most of the pickup owners I know, but that doesn’t make then WANT an EV, even those who could easily afford one. The manufacturers apparently didn’t figure that out very well.
It is just ridiculous to claim, with a straight face, that ANY EV, even the 400+ EPA Long Range Model S, ‘can work’ with ANY buyer who can only have ONE car per person.
RIDICULOUS. So let’s drop this and get real. I have explained why many times, but it goes in the one ear and out the other for some (one in particular) commenters, and in fact one who is among the tens of millions who can’t have an EV just because they can’t charge at home, since they live in high rises apartments or condos.
Regulus, Do you not have a clue about how EVs work? An EV with 250 miles of range will work as an only car for tens of millions of people who have home charging. A lot of people never take “road trips” more than 100 miles from home. Yes, I am one for whom it would not work, because I don’t have home charging at my condo, but a lot more people do have access to home charging. From a lot of what you say, an EV might work as an only car for you, at least in one of your places.
You got some nerve, you fanatic Kit, to call me… clueless about EVs.
You keep bringing coals to Newcastle, as I was the FIRST HERE to emphasize that EVs could work great for a FAMILY of commuters, each person would have an EV (in the many cases my colleagues split the distance with their spouse who works in Detroit, and live midway between Det and Ann Arbor. BUT they will need to have a THIRD CAR, A REAL CAR and not a CLOWN CAR, who can go on LONG TRIPS.
I use caps because I have taught you the above many, many times, but it goes in one ear and out the other, as in the worst of the worst of my students, when I would explain everything to bits, they would not pay attention, and then they would BOMB the exam!
How many times do I have to tell you that EVEN if you have home charging and even if you cough up the $2K for a level 2, it is UTTERLY USELESS when you take long trips, genius! Not even one in 100 is as ‘eccentric’ (to put it charitably, I meant EV Fanatic) as Bob Wilson, who is willing to take his Model 3 to long trips all the time, with no regard to the value of his time (which is obviously negligible) and inconvenience. the other 99 in 100 would NEVER do that.
I repeat, unless you are one of the ‘rich’ you so frequently vilify, you CANNOT have one commuting car and one long trip car PER PERSON. END of the damned discussion. God I can’t suffer fools gladly.
Did you finally get it, Kit, or do you need a Tutor? I can think of some needy grad students who would do it for minimum wage too.
Back to the very pleasant (but warm) weekend here. On my way back from m y swim today I saw two non-Tesla EVs, one was an MG (I have seen videos reviewing them, they have the MG logo but are Chinese and affordable small crossover-ish EVs that look more than a bloated hatch or a mini-minivan. The other had two chevrons on the grille but I don’t think it was a Citroen, it’s probably some other Chinese import I never heard of.
And Friday evening we had a mini-reunion, five high school classmates, one of whom I had not seen for.. 55 years, met in that guy’s place, and as I was parking on the street, there was a bloated Tesla, probably a Y (I think the X has a different butt).
Again, what the hell do these owners do for long trips here, where even Bob Wilson could not manage it? Obviously they are affluent people with multiple cars per person. (obvious to all but Kit)…
Dear Clueless One Regulus, a lot of people NEVER TAKE LONG TRIPS. My sister doesn’t. Probably 2/3 of the people in my condo don’t. Many of the people I know in Indiana never take long trips. With you, this seems to go in one ear and out the other. With home charging, an EV would work quite well as an only car for the many people who never take long trips, but you don’t seem to get it. An EV would work well even for those who occasionally take long trips. You can rent a car every year or two for that.
You 2 wanna take this outside…
JoeS, sorry about the all caps, but there was a point I needed to emphasize in my post.
Kit is an intelligent, frequent commenter on here, and his knowledge and patience are commendable. The other clown is a thick headed, highly emotional wannabe that periodically gets kicked off the Autoline comment board for his intolerance of other commenters. He is quiet for a while then comes back under a different name and behaves for a while until his rage slowly grows and he lashes out again. It sounds like he is ready for another time-out.
Its a shame he takes other people’s appreciation for modern technology as a personal affront, and cannot understand that someone might have different opinions or priorities.
Has it been announced what company’s EVs were involved in the ship fire? It seems the media or someone is trying hard to keep that under wraps because the articles I’ve seen say it’s “unclear what makes and models” were involved . I’m guessing if not were Tesla that would info would be trumpeted immediately. But more importantly, how will this event help lead to the demise of VW. Hopefully it’s a load of ID4s.