AD #4127 – Most of Tesla’s Value Tied to Optimus Robot; Foxconn Still Plans U.S. EV Assembly; Cyber Attack Hits JLR Hard

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

TESLA REVEALS MASTER PLAN PART IV
Tesla’s car sales and earnings have stopped growing, which threatens the stock’s trillion dollar valuation which trades at more than 170 times earnings. But Elon Musk says, don’t worry, 80% of the company’s valuation will now come from its Optimus robots. It’s all part of Musk’s Master Plan Part IV, which he partly unveiled on X. He calls this part of the plan Sustainable Abundance, which is a world in which Tesla makes EVs, Supercharger networks, solar energy panels and storage, robots, robotaxis, electric semis, and artificial intelligence. With all its products, Musk says Tesla is bringing AI into the physical world.

MODEL Y SALES JUMP IN TURKEY
It’s an impressive vision of the future, and it comes on the coattails of some better news for Tesla. Sales of the Model Y rocketed up 86% as Tesla became the second best selling car brand in Turkey last month, only behind Renault, and moving past Volkswagen, Toyota and Hyundai. Turkey has very generous EV subsidies, where EVs have hit 20% market share.

VALMET GOING AWAY FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
There are very few independent, mass production, automotive assembly plants in the world. There was the Karmann plant in Germany which made cars for Volkswagen, BMW, Chrysler and Mercedes before it went bankrupt in 2010. Bertone even made Volvos in Italy for a time. There’s the Steyr plant in Austria that’s owned by Magna which has built vehicles for Mercedes, Toyota, BMW and Jaguar. And then there’s the Valmet plant in Finland that made cars for Mercedes, SAAB, Porsche and Fisker. But Valmet will no longer make passenger cars, because it’s pivoting to make military equipment instead. As European countries ramp up their military spending in the face of threats from Russia, Valmet sees more opportunity in doing defense work than in making cars.

 

FOXCONN STILL PLANS U.S. EV ASSEMBLY
Even though Foxconn sold its plant in Lordstown, Ohio a month ago, it still plans to make EVs in the U.S. Bringing the Model C to the U.S. this year remains part of its strategy and the company said a version of that crossover is currently undergoing U.S. certification. At first the Model C will be made in Taiwan and then shipped to the U.S. But Foxconn says it “will continue to seek a suitable site for US production.” Although, we think it’s unlikely that it goes back to Lordstown.

NISSAN SCALES BACK U.S. EV PLANS
Nissan is scaling back its EV plans in the U.S. The automaker was aiming to sell 200,000 EVs a year in 2028 but it has told suppliers to “temporarily pause work” on EV programs while it reevaluates the market. Automotive News reports that Nissan needs to reengineer its electric crossovers to be more cost competitive because sales volumes are expected to be lower. And two electric SUVs that are supposed to debut in 2028 and 2029 are now under review. Nissan planned to invest $500 million at its plant in Mississippi to transform it into an EV manufacturing hub but now Nissan plans to build 5 new body-on-frame vehicles at the plant starting in 2028.

BMW PUTS ROLL CAGE ON A SCOOTER
BMW’s motorcycle division created a pretty wild concept that basically looks like a scooter with a roll cage on it. But that roll cage in combination with a high-backed seat and seat belt means that riders don’t have to wear protective clothing or a helmet, which is a requirement in the EU and UK. The Vision CE concept can also completely balance itself while stationary. Although, that piece of tech is older. I first remember Honda showing it off at CES in 2017. Right now BMW just calls this a forward-looking concept and it will make its debut this month at the Munich auto show.

MCLAREN F1 VALUED AT $4 BILLION
Things are going great for the McLaren Formula 1 team. It’s going to win the constructor’s title for the second straight year and its drivers are #1 and #2 in the standings. And now McLaren is being valued at more than $4 billion in a stake sale. The owners of McLaren Group Limited are buying out the 30% stake held by MSP Sports Capital, which bought into McLaren in 2020 for $750 million. Aston Martin F1 is also in talks for a stake sale and is valued at about $3.2 billion.

CYBER ATTACK SEVERELY DISRUPTS JLR
Jaguar Land Rover revealed it was hit with a cyber-attack. The company says its global retail and production operations have been “severely disrupted” and that it’s working to restart its operations in a “controlled manner.” JLR says there isn’t any evidence that customer data has been stolen but it didn’t provide any other details.

    

AUTOLINE POLL RESULTS
Last week we asked our YouTube and Patreon members who they think is taking the right approach to robotaxi deployment? Waymo or Tesla? And who will be the winner? 62% voted in favor of Waymo, while 33% liked Tesla’s approach, but 5% didn’t like either. Most people that voted for Waymo said Tesla seemed less safe.

Tim Jackson wrote, “I’m a believer in Waymo and Waymo’s approach to autonomous drive technology, utilizing lidar, radar and cameras… Personally, I think going with cameras only, as is Tesla’s approach is short-sighted and even dangerous.”

Scott Stephenson kind of echoed those words, “Here’s a simple question. Wouldn’t you rather have a self driving car that can see more than you? Wouldn’t you like a car that can see in the dark? A car that can see through fog? That’s Waymo folks. Not Tesla.”

But those that like Tesla mostly think its approach is better suited for autonomy. Irvin Wright says, “Tesla’s approach is to teach a computer to actually think like a human and make on-the-spot decisions like a human driver. Once it surpasses human capabilities, which it eventually will, it will scale as fast as Tesla can provide the Robotaxis.”

And Barry Rector follows up with, “I voted for Tesla (hate Tesla) but I think computer driven vehicles will make a better candidate for self driving.”

I will say, based on the comments, it looks like a number of people still confuse the FSD system that you can get in any Tesla with the company’s Robotaxi efforts, but there are big differences and I wish Tesla did a better job of making that distinction.

But thanks for all your comments. It’s always interesting reading the varying opinions.

Do you have a car that’s fun to drive? Have you ever really wanted to see what it can do but didn’t have the place or the confidence to really put the pedal to the metal? Then be sure to tune into Autoline After Hours this Thursday. Because that’s what the show is going to be all about.

And that’s a wrap for this show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.