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Runtime: 8:49
0:00 Trump Calls USMCA “Irrelevant”
1:07 Tesla FSD To Switch Subscription Only Model
2:10 China Sets New Rules for L3 & Solid-State Batteries
2:56 Lucid to Start Building EVs In Saudi Arabia This Year
3:48 Chinese Car Sales & Exports Projected to Slow This Year
4:28 Xiaomi Aiming For 600,000 Sales In 2026
4:53 BMW Begins M Model Testing on New EV Platform
5:56 Honda Pops Its Top
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TRUMP CALLS USMCA “IRRELEVANT”
President Trump was in Detroit yesterday to tout his agenda and as usual he had some interesting things to say. His first stop was a tour of the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant with Ford Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley. There Trump was asked about this year’s mandatory review of the USMCA agreement and he suggested that the U.S. could leave it entirely. The President called the agreement “irrelevant” and also said Americans don’t need Canadian products. But automakers, especially the Detroit 3 disagree. Jim Farley said while the agreement needs revisions, it’s “critical” and that he sees the U.S., Canada and Mexico “as an integrated manufacturing system.” Later, Trump spoke at the Detroit Economic Club where he touted his administration’s tariffs and cuts to environmental regulations. Trump also reiterated his support for letting Chinese automakers open assembly plants in the U.S.
TESLA FSD TO SWITCH SUBSCRIPTION ONLY MODEL
Elon Musk says Tesla will stop selling FSD as an entire package after February 14th and will only offer it as a monthly subscription. It’s offered FSD as a subscription since 2021 for $99 a month, but owners can also buy it outright, once for as much as $15,000, but currently sitting at $8,000. However, even at $8,000 it would take nearly 7 years of ownership before seeing any cost benefit compared to the monthly subscription. While Elon didn’t give a reason for the move, over the last several years reports have popped up here and there about low customer take rate for FSD. So, this could be an effort to address that. Plus, there’s more competition coming into the market. Mercedes is launching a system with similar capability in the U.S. this year and Rivian will have a setup, called Autonomy+, that will cost a one-time fee of $2,500 or will sell for $50 a month.
CHINA SETS NEW RULES FOR L3 & SOLID-STATE BATTERIES
Speaking of self-driving cars, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has introduced a new plan that should help accelerate the development of autonomous technology and solid-state batteries. It says it wants to see more cooperation in the energy and infrastructure fields as well as a greater effort to build up supply chains for materials, software and other tools. Right now, Chinese automakers are dealing with a price war and an overcapacity of vehicles as sales growth slows in the country. So, the Ministry is also backing plans to boost sales, like offering more vehicle trade-in programs and ramping up the adoption of electrified heavy trucks.
LUCID TO START BUILDING EVs IN SAUDI ARABIA THIS YEAR
Lucid builds most of its vehicles at its plant in Arizona, but the EV startup says it’s on track to start manufacturing in Saudi Arabia. The company already assembles vehicles in the country but it plans to move to full-scale production later this year. While CEO Marc Winterhoff didn’t reveal initial targets, Lucid expects the plant to reach full-scale capacity of 150,000 vehicles in 2029. The reason it went with Saudi Arabia is because the country’s sovereign wealth fund is Lucid’s top investor.
CHINESE CAR SALES & EXPORTS PROJECTED TO SLOW THIS YEAR
Chinese car sales and exports are expected to slow down this year. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, estimates that car sales will grow 1% this year, compared to 9.4% last year. EVs are also expected to take a hit but will outpace the overall market. Last year, EV and plug-in sales increased nearly 30% but this year, growth is projected to be cut in half to about 15%. At the same time exports are also expected to cool. Last year, exports out of China were up more than 20% but this year the increase is estimated to increase 4%.
XIAOMI AIMING FOR 600,000 SALES IN 2026
And while the overall Chinese market is expected to cool, Xiaomi is set to soar this year. The company says it’s targeting sales of up to 600,000 units in 2026, which would be a 40% increase over last year. In 2025, Xiaomi delivered nearly 430,000 cars and that was a whopping 126% increase from 2024.
BMW BEGINS M MODEL TESTING ON NEW EV PLATFORM
BMW is testing its first M model based on the Neue Klasse architecture and is providing a few details about the performance electric sedan. It features an 800-volt electrical system and a battery pack with over 100 kWh of usable energy. BMW says it’s using a performance-optimized cylindrical cell as well as a thermal management system that’s been developed for higher power outputs. The battery housing itself is actually part of the vehicle’s structure and is connected to the front and rear axles. Those axles each have two electric motors, so each wheel has its own power source. Plus, the front axle can be completely disconnected from the system, so it gets the advantages of both rear- and all-wheel drive as well as torque vectoring capabilities. BMW says these are also the most powerful drive units its ever used and we should see this M EV either as a 2027 model year or sometime in 2027.
HONDA POPS ITS TOP
Honda’s big news for 2026 is that it’s coming out with a pop-up camper trailer. They call it the Base Station. Honda says it can be towed by a mid-size CUV and the photos show it being towed by an electric Honda 0. It can sleep up to 4, it’s garageable, it will offer modular options like a cook stove and air conditioning, and it has a pop-up roof. Honda says it will be priced competitively with other pop-up trailers, which we think means that it could be priced anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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Trump’s comments, while he may not realize it, preview the idea that US manufacturers will no longer be able to export cars or trucks to Mexico, Canada or anywhere else in the world. That will not hurt those countries, but it will ‘force’ them to rely on vehicles from Japan, Europe or China that better suit conditions in those countries. Denying them Tesla Cyber trucks and truck sized Cadillacs will teach those countries to ignore what he tells them to do! Not!
Why anyone would ask for or listen to business advice from someone that bankrupt casinos is beyond me, he isn’t even smart enough to know how tariffs work let alone the US economy. Fall in line lemmings.
Financially this lemming is doing much better than at the end of 2024, so I’m smart enough to avoid your business advice.
Gary, how so? Inflation up, especially for food. A trade war that is already costing jobs and raising prices on many products, like cars, and it will get worse.
Sure you are Gary, sure you are. Don’t let that MAGAT Kool-Aid cloud your perception too much, unless you don’t know how tariffs work either, I think it is already affecting you since for some reason you believe I offered business advice.
Kit- yes the 1/4 mile runs with the Corvette ZR1 were done on stock Michelin’s and the available carbon fiber wheels. It was a prepped track but stock tires so impressive indeed.
The Pricing on the TESLA FSD is insane. Who would spend 15K on that? If you did spend 15K on that, it is not transferrable to a new owner of the car. So it literally brings zero value to the trade in or private sale of your car. To not lose that 15K investment, you have to transfer it to a new Tesla vehicle. I am sure Tesla was thinking FSD could be their sneaky way of making sure people replace their Tesla with another Tesla and guarantee loyalty. Turns out that people simply decided to not throw 15K into the Tesla Furnace. It also appears that people are not embracing the monthly pricing en-mass either. We are all subscription service fatigued and that is yet another subscription.
I truly hope that consumers ban together and just refuse the subscription service options on vehicles so that it dies a quick and painful death. Because the only way to kill that horrible idea is to not buy into it. When manufacturers like Tesla realize that consumers would rather go without than pay a monthly fee they will have no choice but to kill the program. So I don’t care if it’s 15k or $50 bucks. We can’t normalize this nonsense. Don’t pay a monthly fee for stuff you already bought.
I don’t, and won’t buy any car subscriptions. I subscribed to SiriusXM for a while, but no more, and I sure as hell wouldn’t pay $99/ month for “full self driving,” which isn’t even close to actually being full self driving. If I don’t want to drive, I’ll sell my cars and use Uber.
What a nonsense take. The President’s comments in no way indicate that the US wouldn’t export cars to Canada and Mexico. He’s saying that the US does not need them in order to manufacture American cars. It’s an obvious negotiating tactic regarding the pending review of USMCA. And you can be sure that Canada and Mexico heard it loud and clear. They’re going to have to bend further in the US’s favor or he’ll just pull the plug on it and they can enjoy the full force of tariffs on those products.
It’s all about leverage and the US has it. Canada’s economy is spiraling with almost daily news of job losses and business closures under the weight of the welfare state. Carney and Ford’s antagonist stance to the US has only backfired, crushing their economy further. Some of the provinces want to secede because of it and disagreements over oil and pipelines.
Mexico is perennially in crisis because they are a narco state. They cry about sovereignty while having pushed their citizens to illegally cross our border for decades and rely on remittances to keep their country afloat. Those days are ending and they know it. Time to get serious about being a legitimate nation. Leverage.
You guys with the TDS are a joke. You’re either willfully obtuse or just unable to understand the big picture.
@Daily Driver.
Okay, now I understand. You are Trumpy supporter, no matter how much damage he does to the US economy or reputation.
But I do find it funny how silent you are on how Trumpy and family are enriching themselves in MASSIVE ways. Funny that….. Billions in blatant scams, and crypto BS, and it all funnels into his pockets. He’s a mafia boss. It could not be any more clear.
Thanks for playing. You’ll get no responses to any other lies you spin.
TDS is real. It just doesn’t mean what you think it means.