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Runtime: 10:00
0:00 Uber Partners with Lucid & Nuro On Robotaxis
1:49 China Removes Tax on Used High-End Luxury Cars
3:09 Faraday Future Reveals New Electric Minivan
5:35 U.S. Ramps Up Tariffs on Chinese Graphite
6:30 Porsche Plans More Jobs Cuts
7:18 JLR Slashes 500 Jobs
7:43 NHTSA Cuts 25% Of Workforce
8:04 Subaru Reveals New Uncharted EV
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
UBER PARTNERS WITH LUCID & NURO ON ROBOTAXIS
Uber seems super bullish on robotaxis and is willing to back that up financially. It announced that it’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro to launch a robotaxi fleet next year. And thanks to regulatory filings we know that $300 million is going to Lucid. The EV maker says some of that money will go towards developing the self-driving tech with Nuro. Right now, they’re testing versions of the Gravity SUV fitted with Nuro’s Level 4 capable autonomous system at the AV company’s test track in Las Vegas. The plan is to launch 20,000 or more of these Gravity robotaxis over the next six years, which will be owned and operated by Uber and its third-party partners. Lucid’s stock price shot up over 50% yesterday after the investment from Uber and the EV maker also announced a 1-for-10 reverse stock split, meaning that every ten existing shares held by shareholders will now be combined into one new share. It’s meant to boost share price, which currently sits a little over $3, but Lucid claims it’s not about the fear of being delisted, rather to attract larger investors. Now let’s go back to Uber and robotaxis for a moment because if you watch this show you know that Uber has been going a bit robotaxi crazy. In the U.S., it has deals with Waymo, Volkswagen and now Lucid and for international markets it recently partnered with China’s Baidu. It looks like investors really like the path that Uber is taking with the company now worth more than most automakers.
CHINA REMOVES TAX ON USED HIGH-END LUXURY VEHICLES
Sales of used high-end luxury vehicles are probably going to go through the roof in China. The country hits ultra-luxury goods, including cars, with an extra tax, called a consumption tax and China just lowered the starting price at which vehicles are slapped with that tax. It’s now applied if the transaction price goes over $125,000, which is a drop of about $56,000 compared to before. For the first time, New Energy Vehicles will be taxed as well, but pure BEVs and fuel cells will only be taxed after the sale. Any ICE-based vehicle will be taxed at production or import and after the sale, which now also includes optional features, customization and after-sales services. But I say sales of used high-end luxury vehicles will probably shoot up because the tax will no longer be applied to them, regardless of the price or when the vehicle was registered. We’ve already seen automakers and dealers in China abuse selling and exporting vehicles that are labeled as used but have no or very few miles on them. It would seem this new tax policy for used high-end luxury vehicles could promote the same behavior.
FARADAY FUTURE REVEALS NEW ELECTRIC MINIVAN
Faraday Future is trying to make a comeback… with a minivan. The company revealed its new model, called the FX Super One at an event in LA yesterday. The grille of this thing is basically a big TV screen that could have virtually any look and also uses sensors and AI to express emotion and communicate with other road users. The Super One will feature Lidar as well and shows off a luxury interior and is planned to launch with AWD and two powertrains; pure battery electric and a PHEV at a later date. The company says it has gotten over 10,000 $100 pre-orders and raised over $105 million in financing to fund its growth strategy, which includes making the new model at its facility in California. However, no word on when that might be. And we’ve heard a lot of promises from Faraday in the past. It has sold less than 20 examples of its $300,000 FF91, which was first shown off in 2017. And $105 million is nowhere near enough money to tool up and build a new model at scale. One advantage that Faraday could have is that the Super One is just a rebadged version of van made by one of the brands owned by Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor.
U.S. RAMPS UP TARIFFS ON CHINESE GRAPHITE
The Trump Administration is planning to significantly ramp up tariffs on graphite from China, a key material for EV batteries. The Commerce Department issued a preliminary 93.5% tariff on imported Chinese graphite because it says companies were violating anti-dumping laws and that the material was unfairly subsidized. Plus, this will stack on top of existing tariffs, so the effective rate on graphite will be 160%. Battery makers aren’t happy and say costs are going to rise since they’re heavily reliant on graphite from China, which dominates global production. Last year, the U.S. imported 180,000 metric tons of graphite and about two-thirds of it came from China. The Commerce Department will make its final decision on the increase by the end of the year.
PORSCHE PLANS MORE JOBS CUTS
Porsche is planning another round of job cuts to help reduce costs. Earlier this year, the automaker announced it would be cutting 3,900 jobs by 2029 but apparently, that wasn’t enough. Bloomberg reports that CEO Oliver Blume sent a memo to employees telling them it plans to start negotiations on additional job cuts in the second half of the year. Blume said its current business model “no longer works in its current form.” Porsche’s profits are taking a hit because of slumping sales in China and the new U.S. tariffs on car imports are also increasing costs. The automaker is aiming to boost its operating margin to 15-17% in the medium term, up from 8.6% in the first quarter of this year.
JLR SLASHES 500 JOBS
But Porsche is not alone, Jaguar Land Rover announced it’s cutting 500 managerial jobs also due to slumping sales in China and the cost of U.S. tariffs. It will reduce jobs through voluntary layoffs. According to its latest annual report, JLR’s employee costs grew by around $1 billion from 2023 to 2024.
NHTSA CUTS 25% OF WORKFORCE
And speaking of job cuts, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reducing its workforce by 25%. The cuts are part of the Trump Administration’s voluntary layoff program. And NHTSA could face more job reductions if Congress follows through on proposed budget cuts that are being considered.
SUBARU REVEALS NEW UNCHARTED EV
Here’s a surprise. Subaru is going to have a front-wheel drive model. But it might not be what you think. Subaru launched an all-new fully-electric model called the Uncharted, which is based on the new electric Toyota C-HR. It features a 74.7-kWh lithium-ion battery. All-wheel-drive versions have an estimated 290 miles of range and 338-horsepower and have a 0-60 MPH time of under 5 seconds. Front-drive models are expected to have more than 300 miles of range and 221-horses. The Uncharted comes standard with a NACS charging port and it can charge its battery from 10-80% in 30 minutes. Inside, the model features a 14-inch infotainment screen and it’s available with a suite of driver assistance technologies. The Uncharted goes on sale in the U.S. in early 2026.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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I applaud all job cuts on the show today, both Industry and especially Government (NHTSA by 25%!)
China and India have horrendous income inequalities between their top earners and the hundreds of millions (in India, over a billion) of such dirt-poor unfortunates, to them the US “poor” look like millionaires, both their income and their assets. The clueless and lying left, however, hides that under the rug, and instead complains about… US income inequalities, which is utterly dishonest and laughable.
USA oil refineries can make substantial amounts of relatively pure carbon from the bottom end of refining. This would be an excellent feedstock for USA batteries … if there are any in the future.
I hope Faraday Future has a grill option for the US market. That screen will take a long time to get a review at NHTSA, and a decision positive or negative could take years. And that is with the staffing they used to have. With 25% fewer staff, they may have an all-new model on sale before they get an answer from NHTSA.
Lots of job cut announcements from automakers due to the tariffs. Haven’t heard one report yet of hiring lots of new people to help build the higher number of vehicles that a company will sell here because of the tariffs. With more people losing their jobs every day, in the public and private sectors, it’s hard to see a forecast of higher auto sales coming in the next several years.
@GM Veteran: I was thinking similar; that front end of the Faraday Future would be so distractive to other drivers, and should be a no-go.
Yes, Regulus, some other countries have greater wealth and income inequality than the US, but that doesn’t mean the US shouldn’t do better, when millions of people are working two or more crappy jobs without benefits to barely survive.
I still don’t see Faraday having much of a future, unless a Chinese company buys them, and throws a lot of money their way.
A comment about just one of the ads in the show (all others are OK with me)
I usually watch the video daily, skipping any segments that really do not interest me (usually 1-3 out of 8 or so).
There is no real alternative because the transcript not only misses all the visual material, but in addition, recently you can only see a few lines at a time on the screen, the rest covered by ads, so you got to scroll every few lines, and don’t see the big pic.
Besides segments not interesting to me, I tend to skip the ads, which is made convenient by the markers of the segments on the red line at the bottom of the video.
All but one of the ads are ok if you watch them, but there is ONE that really stands out, to which I am almost allergic, so when I see it starting, I got to immediately jump to the next section.
In case you did not guess which ad it is, it is the (by far) lengthiest. It is also unwatchable. It starts with a really unpleasant noise, like chopsticks hitting your eardrums, and as if the ad is addressed to idiots, there is a subtitle “upbeat music” (SIC). It is not music. It is not even muzak. If I were in charge of that ad, not only would i make it ten times shorter, I’d kill that annoying noise too.
Then there is a female voice veeery slowly starting to talk, so slowly that you wonder if the speaker is a special needs person.
By that time I have skipped the rest of the very long ad.
Have you guessed what it is? Has the company who paid for the ad seen it, and is it really satisfied with it? It’s so bad, it sounds like it was done by a bunch of DEI hires, or people with serious mental disabilities.
By now I think it should be clear to all which ad this is.
Then there
I am trying to figure out what is uncharted about the Subaru uncharted? Seems to be standard BEV specs to me. In fact seems to not be that amazing at all when you compare it to other BEVs. Originally I thought that maybe Subaru was planning to make their uncharted an overlanding focused vehicle which would make sense. Then they started going on about FWD which is never going to be used for overlanding. It is likely not going to be a sales chart topper.
I think the “uncharted” territory is that Subaru is doing FWD. They probably meant for Uncharted to sound exotic or beneficial, but it is just a limitation.
The Uncharted designation reminds me of Jeep; they have a trim level called Limited that was supposed to be a higher trim, adding more content, it is the 6th highest trim level with about 3 above that. Then they came out with Unlimited. Is it better or worse to be unlimited instead of limited? Unlimited was somewhere above the base, but more limited than Limited?!? I think Unlimited was a designation for the 4 door Wrangler, but as a trim on a brand with Limited trims, it is very confusing. I wonder if you could get a Wrangler Unlimited Limited edition?