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Runtime: 8:34
0:00 Tesla Unveils “Affordable” Model 3 & Y
1:39 Stellantis Shakes Up Management
2:24 U.S. Energy Department May Revoke GM & Stellantis Grants
3:37 Chinese Automakers Forecast to Build 860K Cars in EU by 2028
4:50 European Automakers Say EU Steel Proposal Goes Too Far
5:36 Toyota Secures Cathode Supply for Solid State Batteries
6:05 Toyota Developing Drone for Off-Road Use
6:32 Jeep Dropping Wagoneer From Line-Up
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TESLA UNVEILS “AFFORDABLE” MODEL 3 & Y
Those Tesla teasers from Monday turned out to be new versions of the Model 3 & Y with less content, which lowers their starting price. Under the skin, the models feature a smaller 69 kWh battery pack, which lowers range, acceleration and charging speed. Looks wise, only grey, white and black paint are available, the front and rear lightbars have been removed, there’s new wheels, the center console is smaller, ambient lighting was taken away, as was the rear screen. There’s also fewer speakers and Tesla even dropped native AM/FM radio, along with lane centering as a default feature. However, they do have all the software and hardware needed for Supervised FSD, which can be purchased in the U.S. for $8,000. We have seen a lot of criticism for how Tesla has priced these new versions of the Model 3 & Y, which it calls Standard. Before the federal tax credit for EVs went away at the beginning of this month, a base Tesla Model Y was about $37,500. But now that same model, now called Premium, starts at about $45,000. The new Standard version of the Y cuts $5,000 from that price, while the Model 3 Standard starts at $37,000. It seems that some people were expecting an ‘affordable’ version of the Model Y and these aren’t affordable enough for them.
STELLANTIS SHAKES UP MANAGEMENT
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa must be getting close to finally having ‘his team’ in place. Since taking over the role in June, he’s made a number of leadership appointments, including a big, new shakeup in Europe. In my opinion, Jean-Philippe Imparato was demoted because he had been in charge of all of Europe, but now he’s running Sales and Services as well as maintaining a role as CEO of Maserati. His former job goes to Emanuele Cappellano, who had been in charge of South America. The company also announced its leaders for South America, Africa and the Middle East, China and the Asia Pacific region as well as a new head of global manufacturing.
U.S. ENERGY DEPARTMENT MAY REVOKE GM & STELLANTIS GRANTS
The U.S. Department of Energy is considering revoking just over $1 billion in funding to General Motors and Stellantis. Reuters reports it includes grants for GM to convert its Lansing Grand River plant to build EVs and Stellantis to convert its Belvidere plant in Illinois to make mid-size electric trucks as well as to retool its Kokomo, Indiana plant to build EV components. The DOE, GM and Stellantis haven’t commented on the report yet. But last week the Energy Department announced plans to cancel $7.5 billion in financing for energy projects, which it said wouldn’t provide sufficient returns to taxpayers.
CHINESE AUTOMAKERS FORECAST TO BUILD 860K CARS IN EU BY 2028
Chinese automakers are building or taking over existing plants in Europe in order to avoid tariffs. A new report from Jeffries says that Chinese automakers will account for 6% of European auto production by 2028. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s equivalent to about 860,000 vehicles. However, that’s still not enough to offset the overall loss of production in the region. Car production peaked in 2017 at 21 million vehicles but since then it’s dropped by 4 million units. Even so, Jeffries says the overall industry is “relatively healthy” at 84% capacity over the last five years. The Renault and VW Groups have the highest utilization rate in Europe, while Stellantis, Nissan and Ford are the bottom three. And it’s particularly bad for Stellantis and Ford. Jeffries estimates that Stellantis has up to 1.45 million units of excess capacity, or 30% of the industry total. While it says that Ford’s low utilization rate raises doubts about its ability to “retain a presence in the region.”
EUROPEAN AUTOMAKERS SAY EU STEEL PROPOSAL GOES TOO FAR
Automakers in Europe are pushing back against a new EU plan designed to protect the region’s steel industry. The EU is proposing to cut tariff-free steel quotas by nearly 50% as well as double the out-of-quota-tariffs by 50%. The new plan would also require importers to identify where the steel was melted and poured. But the European Automobile Manufacturers Association or ACEA, says automakers are concerned about the rising impact of stricter steel imports. While the ACEA says they source 90% of their direct steel purchases in the EU, automakers still need to import a certain amount of steel and the new rule would add higher input and administrative costs.
TOYOTA SECURES CATHODE SUPPLY FOR SOLID STATE BATTERIES
Yesterday we reported about how a Chinese academy had come up with a possible breakthrough for solid state batteries. Well, now Toyota is one step closer to having EVs with these types of batteries. It announced a joint development agreement with Sumitomo Metal Mining Company for the type of cathode material that solid state batteries need. The agreement will help Toyota produce the batteries on a mass scale and it hopes to have them in its vehicles by 2027 or 2028.
TOYOTA DEVELOPING DRONE FOR OFF-ROAD USE
And in other Toyota news, the automaker said in a filing with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that it’s developing a drone for off-road vehicle use. The drone would allow the driver to identify potential hazards around the vehicle and plan a safer route. The drone could also be used to fly above the treeline to help the driver figure out what’s around them. But Toyota hasn’t committed to launching a system like this.
JEEP DROPPING WAGONEER FROM LINE-UP
Jeep is dropping the Wagoneer after this model year. According to a dealer that Automotive News spoke with, the brand will only use the Grand Wagoneer name for its big SUV. Jeep has already teased the refreshed version of that vehicle for the 2026 model year, which now has a ‘Jeep’ badge on it for the first time. The vehicles previously had ‘Wagoneer’ on the hood as Jeep tried to separate the models from the rest of its lineup, but the dealer says having two names just confused some customers. So, that probably played into the name change. Jeep was nice enough to invite us in to check out that new Grand Wagoneer yesterday, which is why I wasn’t hosting the show, and we’ll be able to report on that next week.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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Does dropping the Wagoneer mean that the base price of these things will go up $20-25K? That’s the current price difference between the regular and grand Wagoneer.
Wouldn’t the OEMs with the most excess capacity also be the most likely to benefit from doing production deals with Chinese companies? ie Ford and Changan?
Kit,
I always thought trying to establish the Wagoneer as a standalone brand (coincidentally only available at Jeep dealerships), was a foolish marketing move. You have to spend a lot of money for an extended period of time to establish a new brand. Housing it at Jeep dealerships and making it look like a Jeep and using a historic Jeep name doomed this effort to failure from Day 1. I would not be surprised to see Jeep come out with a lower trim level Grand Wagoneer at a lower price point. That way they can maintain a higher level of volume and no one has to drive around sporting a lesser model name on their vehicle.
It seemed that Elon had been hinting for a long time that Tesla would come out with a model line below the 3 and Y that would be more of a compact class car/crossover that would carry a base price in the high mid-$20’s. Decontented versions of the 3 and Y seem like a half-hearted gesture. So, did they make this move just to be able to announce new models with lower prices? Did they just need more time to develop the compact models? I postulate that those models would be launching now if they had not pursued the CyberTruck pipe dream (aka Tesla’s Aztek). That likely sucked up the development funds they could have used for new compact models and so these decontented midsize models are all we will see.
It seems like Stellantis has experimented enough with fragmenting vehicle lines. Their sales just don’t seem to justify all the brands. Consumer confusion? I don’t agree. A Wagoneer looks like a Jeep and is sold in Jeep stores. How confusing is that? It doesn’t sell because of the dominance of Chevrolet and GM in the full size SUV market.
Only the Chinese are as keen on bringing out unnecessary brand divisions. They too eventually will suffer the fragmentation proliferation conundrum.
With Stellantis dropping the Wagoneer because of confusion, what does that mean for the Grand Wagoneer S? IMHO (and who cares about what I think and my opinion), the Jeep is a brand and not a luxury one like Cadillac, Lincoln and Land Rover, especially Range Rover. And having a mass market vehicle like the Wagoneer and then a “luxury” like the Grand Wagoneer never really made since to me. I thought the FCA side of Stellantis would have been better served by follow GM, with Dodge/Ram fullsize SUV, a premium Jeep version and a Chrysler version. While I don’t think they would have ever sold as mean of those vehicles as Ford or GM, I believe they coukd have, potentially, sold at least twice as much of their Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models that they currently sell.
If development costs are what is keeping Tesla from developing a entry level, just a few billion dollars of Musk’s networks alone could finance development of such a vehicle! He could pay for it in cash and would never miss it!
Deserved or not, GM has mostly dominated the monster SUV market for years, or decades, and will probably continue to do so for as long as people are buying those vehicles. Wagoneer got a better “road test score” from CR than Tahoe, and was faster and got a little better mpg. The Jeep did somewhat worse reliability survey results, but both were bad.
As far as the decontented Teslas, will they even be any cheaper to own, when residuals are considered? The Tesla web site doesn’t show lease prices for the decontented Y, so they must still be thinking about what residuals will be.
The reason the Wagoneer and especially the Grand Wagoneer aren’t selling very well is because they are ugly, and people don’t want to buy big, expensive vehicles that are ugly. Whoever styled them should be fired and a new design brought out as soon as possible. OK, let’s hear from all the people that think the vehicles are attractive.
The new Tesla is only in the 3 most popular car colors in the world I guess to be more environmentally friendly you can always get a green wrap
The Grand Wagoneer is almost Escalade/Navigator price, a hard sell, even though it reportedly has a nice interior.
Imo the wagoner has an uphill battle from the start. GM has dominated the large SUV market for years and highlighted by every movie and show where celebrities show up in the large black SUVs be it Chevy or Cadillac. Public perception is hard to alter and a well known well accepted brand is hard to topple. Just as Tesla became the go to EV brand. The standard in which all other EVs are compared to. Do they deserve to be the benchmark? Prob not but once on top beating them is always a struggle and competition typically has to come in with unbelievable new tech or super great pricing. Grand wagoneer did neither and will fail without having something to draw consumers besides just another choice.
Maybe they should offer the “hemi” V8 as an option in Wagoneer, for those who want the V8 sound, worse mpg, and slower acceleration than the turbo six. I suspect that would help sales, as it probably will for Ram pickup, with the V8 being re-introduced.
Tesla deserves to be the benchmark for public charging, but not much else, except for having among the more efficient EV powertrains.
I have a RAM truck, and people still consider it a Dodge. I don’t think Wagoneer as a brand would ever shake the Jeep brand name, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Stella should be thinking about consolidating instead of trying to create even more brands. As someone else mentioned, add a Chrysler and Dodge/RAM version of the Wagoneer for economy of scale, and to give the other brands something to sell. The Chrysler could be the Aspen and the other a Ramcharger. As far as the name confusing people, if they could understand that Cherokee and Grand Cherokee are two different sized Jeeps, I don’t think W & Grand W confused anyone.
I have driven the Wagoneer, and it is a great vehicle. You can debate the outside looks (I like it), but the inside is undeniable high class luxury. The ride was smooth, and it had great power. I drove the Durango with the same powertrain, but it was more loud and primal. The Wagoneer was just as fast, but very refined; it would be easy to get a speeding ticket, because you may not realize how fast you are going.
As far as the cheaper Tesla plans, Elon cancelled the plans for the cheap vehicle once he heard that his friend was going to cancel the subsidies. Instead of a brand new, smaller, cheaper car, his compromise was doing these not-quite-as-cheap decontented existing vehicles.
I still call Ram trucks Dodge. I don’t know if adding the Ram “brand” helped sales, but it probably didn’t hurt. Still, why not Dodge Ram, as with Chevy Silverado? Isn’t that what it was for a few years?