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Runtime: 9:40
0:00 UAW Reinstates Two Officials Targeted by Fain
1:19 BMW Spins Alpina Into Standalone Brand
1:39 AFEELA Enters Pre-Production in Ohio
2:25 Honda Extends Production Shutdown in China
3:58 U.S. 2025 Car Sales Up Despite Volatile Market
4:50 BYD Passes Tesla in EV Sales
6:06 Mobileye Partners with Major U.S. Automaker
6:58 Bosch & Kodiak Team Up on Self-Driving Trucks
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Hey everyone, welcome back. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and any New Year’s celebrations. But with 2026 officially kicked off, the auto industry is waking back up again and so are we.
UAW REINSTATES TWO OFFICIALS TARGETED BY FAIN
The UAW went through a few changes just before the new year. The federal monitor that was put in place to oversee the union for its past corruption, issued a new report that said current president Shawn Fain as well as the Chief of Staff and the communications chief came up with a plan to strip duties from two top officials, who were accused of things like misuse of authority and obstructing of union business. The investigation even claims Fain selectively deleted more than 120 text messages. As a result, the two top officials, Margaret Mock and Rich Boyer, will both regain their previous responsibilities. Plus, the Chief of Staff resigned, the communications chief was demoted and now the UAW’s compliance department will report directly to the full Executive Board instead of only to Fain.
BMW SPINS ALPINA INTO STANDALONE BRAND
ALPINA, the company known for making high-performance BMWs, is now officially part of BMW. The German automaker bought the ALPINA trademark and is making it an exclusive standalone brand within the BMW Group. But, for now, it doesn’t sound like much will change for BMW ALPINA vehicles.
AFEELA ENTERS PRE-PRODUCTION IN OHIO
AFEELA, the first vehicle from the joint venture between Honda and Sony, is scheduled to go on sale in the middle of this year and the initial pre-production models have just rolled off the assembly line in Ohio. AFEELA is an all-electric sedan that’s packed full of tech, including hands-free driving capability and will have a starting price of about $90,000. But we think this will be an interesting situation to watch because Honda and Sony want to sell these vehicles directly to consumers and existing Honda dealers are already starting to push back. Scout, which also wants to sell direct and is scheduled to launch in 2027, will no doubt keep a close eye on how that plays out.
HONDA EXTENDS PRODUCTION SHUTDOWN IN CHINA
Honda is extending a production shutdown in China because it’s still dealing with a shortage of chips. The automaker halted production at three plants in the country at the end of December and was planning to resume production at the beginning of this month. But now Honda is extending the shutdown until January 19 because it’s still dealing with a lack of chips. Honda will also idle production in Japan for the next two days due to the same issue. The company is still dealing with the chip shortage from a few months back when China blocked chip maker Nexperia from exporting chips out of the country. At the time, Honda halted production at some plants in North America and lowered its production forecast for the year by 300,000 units.
U.S. 2025 CAR SALES UP DESPITE VOLATILE MARKET
New-car sales in the U.S. rose about 2% in 2025. We think that’s an OK result for an industry that was battered by supply-chain problems, tariff uncertainty, and the elimination of the $7,500 EV tax credit. Roughly 16 million vehicles were sold, driven mainly by gas trucks, SUVs, and hybrids. With incentives gone and regulations loosened, EV demand cooled sharply. Electric vehicles are expected to account for just 6.6% of December sales, down from 11.2% a year earlier. Looking ahead, analysts are split. Some expect sales to dip in 2026 as economic uncertainty weighs on consumers, while lower interest rates and returning lease vehicles could help stabilize the market.
BYD PASSES TESLA IN EV SALES
Going to global sales, there’s a few interesting things to look at. The Hyundai Group sold nearly 7.3 million vehicles in 2025, which was up 0.6% from the year before. This year the Group hopes to sell 7.5 million vehicles, an increase of a little over 3%. Tesla actually took a tumble for a second straight year, delivering a little more than 1.6 million EVs, which was down 9%. BYD actually overtook Tesla in pure EV sales. It sold more than 2.25 million electric vehicles in 2025 an increase of nearly 28%. In all, BYD sold over 4.55 million vehicles, an increase of over 7%. Other Chinese automakers are shooting up the sales chart. Geely sold just over 3 million vehicles last year, a jump of almost 40%. And Xiaomi topped 400,000 units with hopes of selling well over 500,000 next year. However, all the larger companies like Hyundai, BYD and Geely say 2026 will be difficult for them.
MOBILEYE PARTNERS WITH MAJOR U.S. AUTOMAKER
Autonomous vehicle company Mobileye says it has secured a major U.S. automaker as a customer for its next-gen chip that will power its advanced driver assistance technology. Mobileye didn’t reveal the company, only saying it’s a top 10 automaker. The technology will be standard in millions of vehicles for both mass-market and premium models. Mobileye’s tech enables hands-free, eyes-on driving and is designed to consolidate multiple driving and safety functions onto a single chip and electronic control unit, which lowers costs for automakers. The system uses one forward-looking high-resolution camera, four corner parking cameras, and multiple radars. In addition to its new customer, Mobileye is also partnered with the Volkswagen Group.
BOSCH & KODIAK TEAM UP ON SELF-DRIVING TRUCKS
And in other self-driving vehicle news, the giant supplier Bosch is partnering with autonomous truck startup Kodiak AI to supply it with hardware and sensors. Bosch and Kodiak will also develop a production-grade autonomous platform that integrates hardware, firmware and software, which can be used either on factory production lines or to retrofit Kodiak’s trucks.
And just a quick reminder that CES kicks off this week. John is already in Vegas, ready to go. So, look for our coverage to start coming out soon. But with that we wrap up this show. Thanks for tuning in.
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EV sales were going to flatten anyway. Low gas prices will have little effect as refueling costs was never a great economic argument in favor of an EV anyway. The subsidies falsely inflated sales as rich people took advantage of the tax break. If the interest is there sales will continue to climb. If not just realize the country isn’t ready to go full electric. They have their place which is limited and should be used where they make sense. But forcing people to buy a product that doesn’t work for their needs just sets the market up for a huge crash. Glad we are over that nonsense.
Bosch Kodiak and all other AV suppliers should join a shared network where they can all gain from the overall experience from all suppliers and manufacturers. We are alot further away from full autonomy than they want us to think. To get there faster they should all join together. Get there then figure out how to improve it to be competitive. But they need to get there first and everyone doing their own thing is just a waste of resources.
I think, and I’m sure I am wrong, but, the issue with Sony and Honda’s AFEELA and their budding heads with the dealers over direct sells, is Sony and Honda’s efforts are a joint venture. Meaning that Honda, who sells vehicles through dealerships, partly owners the company and may have to sell AFEELA vehicles through sealerships. If Sony had hired Honda only as an assembler to build the AFEELA vehicles for Sony, like the tier one supplier that was building the I-Pace forJaguar, Sony may have a case for direct sells. With Scout being a full owned company of the VW Group and having sold vehicles through dealerships before, though, it would definitely be an uphill fight for direct sales.
…Sean and John, it’s good to have you two and the ALD team back from vacation!
I always thought BMW’s having few brands made sense, but now they are going to add a brand. Have some Stellantis management people gone to BMW?
Of the people I know with EVs, about half bought them, at least partly, because of the very low fuel cost with home charging. The others bought them, just because they like them. Only one of the EV drivers I personally know routinely uses it for long road trips. He got in on the tail end of “free supercharging for life” with a Tesla Model S.
Anybody see the announcement by Donutlabs of a solid state battery in production? It’s a Finnish company, partnering with Verge Motorcycles and WATT EV and COVA. The battery has astounding performance claims: works from -30 C -22 F to 100 C, lasts minimum 100,000 cycles as tested with insignificant capacity loss, fast charging, and double the energy density of current batteries.
https://www.electronicspecifier.com/products/power/donut-lab-introduces-solid-state-battery-to-power-production-vehicles-at-ces/
Donutlab.com, see battery. This is marvelous news if verified, for EVs, electric flight, storage, portables, etc.
Kit – make that at least two with free transferable supercharging for life. 👍🏻 🙂. I have made multiple trips from Kansas to Washington state.
Tim, my friend with the S lives in the Seattle area, and makes an annual trip to Indiana.
Yea kit I have no doubt free charging for life makes buying an EV a lot more attractive as would free gas for life would make even a 10mpg truck attractive. So again offers included in the sale, that no longer exist can promote sales of a product that would otherwise be missed.
Reality is the EV hasn’t made sense from an economical aspect yet. Hasn’t made sense from a convenience perspective and environmental impact is debatable. Yea it helps us become less reliant on oil if you believe the hype. But just like diamonds the value was in making everyone think it was a rare gem. If EVs were so great 26% of owners wouldn’t go back to gas after EV ownership. That number is dropping but it’s a tell that the technology isn’t quite where it needs to be for mass adoption.
Tim, that was a really interesting article. The infamous Holy Grail of the Solid State battery that is perpetually two years away may finally be here, if the information is accurate. I’m sure AD will cover this sometime this week, if it’s true. 0 -100% charge in 5 minutes (not just 80% like the usual claim), no expensive rare earth materials, no flammable materials, no thermal run-away, cheaper and longer life. I’ve been eyeing EVs since the 90s, and getting close to considering one for the maintenance convenience, driving dynamics, and “filling up” at home, but this could cause me (and countless others) to finally pull the trigger on an EV purchase. Especially if the established brands start coming out with these, or their own versions of solid states that have been on the horizon.
Lambo, information I find, based on actual registration data, is that in the US, about 15%, not 26% of EV buyers go back to gas or hybrid. Not surprisingly, the switchback rates are highest among apartment dwellers and those who park on the street. The switchback rates are much lower among those with home charging, and households with a second gas or hybrid vehicle. (according to ChatGPT) but it makes complete sense.
As far as the free charging for life with my friend’s 2020 Model S, it didn’t come cheap, as it was an ~$80K car. Except for highway trips, they do a lot of their charging at home, because it is convenient, and the fuel cost is still much lower than their other vehicle, a minivan. Washington has relatively low cost electricity, because a lot of it comes from hydro.
It will be interesting to see if the Donut solid state battery is for real. I guess we should soon know more, as they say they are already putting them in Verge motorcycles. It’s too bad those cost $30K minimum, or I’d consider one for my Indiana place where I could charge at home.
Re: Donut lab
I sent an enquiry to a Finnish friend in business field. Will post if I get any info.
Kit that 26% was just Cali. Yea not nationwide