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Runtime: 9:12
0:00 Destination Charges Now Average $1,550
1:27 ICE Sales Up Three Straight Months in China
2:21 GM Lays Off 200 Engineers
2:45 Nissan Considers Exporting SUVs To Japan From U.S.
3:48 Suppliers Warn Chip Shortage Will Impact U.S. Production Soon
4:34 Tesla Reclaims EU EV Sales Crown
5:16 Poll Results: Will Stellantis Be Broken Up?
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
DESTINATION CHARGES NOW AVERAGE $1,550
All the new tariffs in the U.S. are costing automakers billions more in costs, but we believe they’re worried about getting attacked by President Trump if they were to say car prices are going up because of the tariffs. While actual sticker prices haven’t changed that much this year, the average vehicle costs just under $50,000 right now, we’ve seen purchase incentives get slashed, which can amount to thousands of dollars. Now, that hasn’t been true for EVs over the last several months as the federal tax credit has gone away, but we know EV incentives from major automakers, like GM and Ford, will go away at the end of the year. Automakers have also increased destination charges in the face of new tariffs. While the costs to ship vehicles across the U.S. has been steadily increasing since 2021, according to Edmunds, destination charges saw their biggest year-over-year increase in the last decade. They’re up 8.5% for the 2025 model year, hitting an average of nearly $1,550. The actual increase over the last four years might not seem that great, up an average of $329, but some brands, like Porsche, and some segments, like pickup trucks, are about double that number.
ICE SALES UP THREE STRAIGHT MONTHS IN CHINA
China might like to boast about being an EV powerhouse, but sales of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles are also on the rise. In fact, they were up for a third straight month in September and for the year they’re up 0.8%, about the same increase that NEV sales have seen in China. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, retail sales of ICE vehicles hit nearly 1.2 million units last month and from January through September almost 10 million have been sold. New Energy Vehicles or NEVs, which includes BEVs, PHEVs and EREVs, have never topped 50% market share in China for a full year. They look like they could be on pace for that this year, but with ICE sales on the rise, it will likely be another close race.
GM LAYS OFF 200 ENGINEERS
Despite posting better than expected financial numbers in the third quarter, which sent its share soaring, General Motors just laid off more than 200 salaried workers. Most of the cuts were at its Warren Tech Center near Detroit and were due to “business decisions.” In a statement to Bloomberg, GM said it’s restructuring its design engineering team, which resulted in a number of the layoffs.
NISSAN CONSIDERS EXPORTING SUVs TO JAPAN FROM U.S.
In an effort to turn around poor sales and financial results, Nissan is looking for a boost wherever it can. And that could include exporting U.S.-made SUVs to Japan. The company is thinking about sending over the Murano and/or Pathfinder, saying it thinks they are well-suited for Japan’s road conditions. But the move would also keep more models rolling down the assembly line and help boost sales. And there could be another benefit as well. President Trump arrived in Japan today and will be in Asia most of this week with the hope of agreeing to new trade deals. The idea of exporting U.S. built models to sell in Japan, which Toyota is also considering, could help those trade negotiations along.
SUPPLIERS WARN CHIP SHORTAGE WILL IMPACT U.S. PRODUCTION SOON
That Nexperia chip shortage could soon cripple production in the U.S. MEMA, the group that represents suppliers, says that auto production will face “significant impacts” in the next two to four weeks. But it’s not just U.S. suppliers that are being impacted. Bosch says it’s preparing to furlough workers at one of its plants in Germany if the shortage isn’t resolved soon. This all stems from Dutch chip maker Nexperia getting bought out by Chinese company Wingtech. The Trump Administration warned that the Chinese were planning to move operations to China, so the Dutch government took the chip maker over. China retaliated by limiting exports of Nexperia components out of China, and that’s what triggered the chip shortage.
TESLA RECLAIMS EU EV SALES CROWN
The Volkswagen brand was number one in BEV sales in July and August in Europe but Tesla reclaimed the top spot in September. The company sold more than 38,000 EVs, easily outselling second-place Volkswagen by 15,000 units. But while Tesla was the best-selling EV brand, its sales were actually down 12% compared to last year. Skoda, Renault and BMW rounded out the top 5 in EV sales. Overall, more than 250,000 EVs were sold in Europe last month, up 22% from a year ago and they accounted for nearly 21% of the total market.
| EU BEV Sales, Sep 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 38,028 | −12% |
| Volkswagen | 23,018 | +18% |
| Skoda | 16,737 | +60% |
| Renault | 13,565 | +91% |
| BMW | 13,510 | −5.5% |
| Source: DataForce | ||
POLL RESULTS: WILL STELLANTIS BE BROKEN UP?
In our latest poll, we asked our YouTube and Patreon members if they agreed with former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares’ prediction that the automaker’s European operations could be sold to Chinese automakers, while Chrysler goes back to U.S. ownership. And the overwhelming majority, 84%, said you agree that Stellantis will be broken up because there are just too many brands to feed. Only 10% said no you don’t believe it will happen because the company needs all that manufacturing scale. And the remaining 6% said neither.
Here’s what they had to say. Keith Mensing commented “If they break it up, I think the U.S. company could struggle to maintain enough market share and total production. Tavares hurt this company to its core. Jeep and Chrysler aren’t what they once were.”
One Nick Thomas had this comment “Sounds like sour grapes from Stellantis’ chief architect, now casting doubt from the sidelines. Curious.”
Dave Perkins says “Storied Marques like Maserati and Alfa could and should stand on their own in a much smaller, focused company. I rather doubt that they gain much in the way of design and engineering as a part of a much larger operation.”
And lastly Bill Grabowski said “It will take a bankruptcy type event but RAM/Jeep will be carved off to a US approved buyer and the other pieces will be parceled to Chinese backed OEMs. Volvo is already there. It will happen in the next 5 years.”
Thanks for all of your feedback. 84% is a shocking number to hear at first, but when you think about it, supporting that many brands in the long-term will be really difficult.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show, have a great day and thanks for watching.
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Not that long ago [in my mind] but in the previous century the most American made motorcycle was the Honda Goldwing which [as advertised] was 100% made in America mostly Ohio, however if you talked to Harley owners[riders] in a poll they would get visibly upset and just yell at me [at the time Harley forks were made in Taiwan] Hence with all the rhetoric going on I still remain doubtful on what people say.
There is what is real versus how you feel about your automotive products. And you???
I had one of those Ohio Gold Wings, a 1982. I toured the plant around that time, and they were assembling Gold Wings and one of the cruisers. I’m pretty sure the engine/transmission were from Japan at that time.
@Dave: I agree with you, there is a lot of emotion when the public assesses vehicles. My own example: when I drive my Jeep Wrangler people compliment me for being a true patriot. Reality: the window sticker shows that the EcoDiesel engine (a VM Motori engine) is made in Italy and the automatic transmission which is paired with the diesel engine is ZF made in Germany, unlike the transmissions paired with the gasoline engines which are made in the U.S. So, as much as people applaud my vehicle choice the highest valued systems are imported.
Not related to the program: driver assist systems.
My son just sold his Mach E GT after 50,000 miles of “drag racing” and purchased a Hummer EV. I drove him to the airport yesterday and he showed me how to use the driver assist system: on the freeway it makes decisions of when to pass and changes lane automatically. It even went from the third lane to the right lane in time and took the exit by itself. I was amazed how good it was. The system of the Mach E I never trusted completely, and it also frequently prompted to touch the steering wheel. I had to take over after we had taken the exit. According to my son a TESLA can also drive you to the final destination, but he was not sure. Anyway, the GM Super Cruise system is great.
I don’t see how Stellantis is much different from the VW Group, in number of brands. VW made a lot of money on their products and spun a lot on R&D, which i don’t believe Stellantis(or it seems that they do not) spends nearly as much VW. Yet, much like VW, they have new, common platforms like VW, but it just seems that Stellantis’ execution has fallen well short of VWs! While VW is experiencing hard times right now as a result of current market conditions, difficult times in China and investments required as a result of dieselgate, I would not think anyone would think that VW would be broken up, so why would Stellantis be? Im don’t saying it won’t, just not because the previous CEO suggested it would! If the company was broken up, the former FCA side seems the only portion with any really potential, based on what we have seen before there current down turn. The American side supported the whole of Stellantis and while Alpha and Maserati legacy and are historic, storied brands, they have yet to truly support themselves in recent history. IMHO, they would be better off staying together and like products in the VW Group, certain brands would only serve specific markets, with only international brands being Alpha, Maserati, Ram/Dodge (South and Central America). Chrysler would return to being a full service, truly luxury brand, but with premium prices and would provide the building blocks for Alpha and Maserati, to provide economies of scale. Dodge/Ram would return to being a full time mass market automaker, but would more all-so rans, providing the platform/architectures the rest of the company automotive portfolio.
Tesla as a single brand was #1 but VW as a company sold way more EVs in Europe. They own Skoda and a bunch of other brands, all with EVs. Similar to Ford being #1 in truck sales because you split out Chevrolet from GM
I can see Nissan sucking up to Mr. Mercurial by exporting large SUVs to Japan. He’ll get a WIN and they don’t have to do much because no one will buy a bloated SUV in a country with K cars and driving on the other side of the road.
I see GM management is up to their winning ways of laying off employees they think they don’t need, in this case the design engineers, instead of re-assigning them to positions that they need to fill, throwing away all the experience they have with the company, not to mention their loyalty to GM brands. They did the same to me back in 2006 after 12 years of experience in five different departments. Is it any wonder why I will never, ever buy another GM product and will discourage all my friends and family to do the same. No wonder most GM products are rated lower than their competitors for reliability and durability, when you get rid of the experienced people you get rid of the resource that knows how to build cars correctly. Sad.
GM products are generally worse in reliability than those from Toyota and Honda, but better than Ford and former Chrysler in CR’s survey results. Even the least reliable of today’s cars are good enough that I’d buy them, if I otherwise liked the car. I’d even chance a VW, if they still sold anything I like in the US.
I’m impressed with how reliable all of today’s cars are, compared to the much less complex ’50s and ’60s cars of when I first started driving.
Cars are better quality than 50years ago and less maintenance. But quite often repairs can be very expensive or difficult to diagnose since there are many more systems and circuits that can fail, especially intermittent wiring and connector problems.I have been a Dodge,Chrysler, Jeep tech since 1982.
Speaking of expensive, replacing a headlight on today’s cars can cost about a thousand dollars, while sealed beams of the late ’70s-mid ’80s and before were almost free. Also, until the end, sealed beams were glass, so they wouldn’t become opaque after a few years in the sun.