AD #4242 – Stellantis Posts Massive €22 Billion Loss; Musk’s Robotaxi Promises Vs. Reality; BYD Launches $5 Daily Lease

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

STELLANTIS POSTS MASSIVE €22 BILLION LOSS
Ever since Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa announced a $26 billion write-off of its EV investments just weeks ago, we knew the company’s financial results for 2025 would be abysmal. And they were. The company sold 5.5 million vehicles last year, up 1%, but its revenue dropped 2%, coming in at €153 billion. It posted an adjusted operating loss of €842 million. Adjusted means not counting the massive write-off. A year ago Stellantis posted an operating profit of €3.6 billion. And it was a bloodbath on the bottom line. It posted a net loss of €22 billion. Even worse, it had negative free cash flow of €4.5 billion. As a result, the board eliminated dividends for the year and the company’s UAW workers will not get any profit sharing checks. That will be a bitter pill for workers to swallow because as recently as 2023 they were getting almost $14,000 in profit sharing. But there is one bright spot in all these numbers. Stellantis showed significant progress in the second half of the year, which was after Filosa took over and started unwinding what his predecessor had done.

TOYOTA ENDING HISTORIC JAPANESE SUPPLY SYSTEM?
Could Toyota be on the verge of unwinding its keiretsu system? According to a report from Reuters, it could be headed in that direction. A keiretsu is a supply chain system, where an automaker and its suppliers own stock in each other. For example, Toyota owns 20% of Denso, the giant Japanese supplier, while Denso owns about 3% of Toyota. That cross-ownership allows Toyota and its suppliers to coordinate prices and production to a degree that’s not possible in the US or Europe. And it’s been a huge advantage for Toyota and the other Japanese automakers, at least up until now. A keiretsu can also be bureaucratic and slow, and if suppliers outside the keiretsu develop critical new technology, an automaker can be left behind. It shields a company like Toyota from shareholder pressure as well. Reuters reports that Toyota is looking at buying back $19 billion of its shares, which are mainly held by financial institutions.

  

ELON MUSK: ROBOTAXI PROMISES VS REALITY
In 2019 Elon Musk predicted that by the end of 2020, Tesla would have 1 million autonomous cars operating in a robotaxi fleet. Obviously, that never happened, and every year since then Musk said it would happen the following year. Now he’s saying that robotaxis are only months away from launching in California and will be “widespread” by the end of this year. But Reuters found out that Tesla has still not even applied for robotaxi permits in California. While Elon Musk has complained that California has overly burdensome reporting requirements, Waymo has logged 13 million test miles, received multiple approvals from the state and has been operating robotaxis there with paying customers since 2023.

3 CHINESE OEMS MOVE INTO GLOBAL TOP 10
In 2024, BYD was the only Chinese automaker to crack the top 10 in global car sales. But now SAIC and Geely have joined the list. BYD ranked 6th in global sales last year, selling 4.6 million vehicles, up 7% from the year before. SAIC was right behind with 4.5 million sales, a gain of 12%. But keep in mind that includes all the vehicles that SAIC makes for its joint venture partners like GM and Volkswagen. BYD and SAIC passed Ford which sold 4.4 million vehicles. And Geely was ninth overall with 4.1 million sales, up 26%, which was the largest gain among the top 10 brands. Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors and Stellantis were the top 5 brands respectively. And Honda rounded out the top 10.

GM DITCHES EVS FOR MOBILE REPAIR
General Motors is looking to significantly expand its mobile service business, but not with Brightdrop electric vans. It began a pilot program in 2022 and then expanded nationally over the next two years. GM initially offered its BrightDrop electric vans with maintenance and repair capabilities but they were expensive, costing dealers as much as $150,000. But now that the BrightDrop vans have been discontinued, GM is adding upfitted versions of the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Cadillac XT5 to its mobile fleet. And the upfront costs of those vehicles are expected to be at least half of the electric vans. However, GM will continue to sell BrightDrop vans for the mobile service to dealers, at least until it runs out of inventory. And speaking of mobile vehicle repair, we’ll be posting an interview this weekend all about Ford’s mobile service business. So, be sure to keep an eye out for that. But if you’re a YouTube or Patreon member, it’s available for you to watch right now.

FORD USES AI TO SPEED UP CAR REPAIRS
And speaking of Ford and fixing vehicles. The automaker recently launched an initiative for its franchised dealers to help them achieve same-day repairs. Called Uptime Assist, the service, which is free for dealers, involves call centers of about 25 employees monitoring each repair order a dealership opens. If it takes more than two days for the repair, Ford is alerted and will reach out to the dealer to see if it needs technical support or help securing parts. Since it launched a year ago, the service has helped improve repair times by 10-15% or about half a day. And Ford is turning to AI to help expand the service and speed up the process.

      

WULING REDESIGNS BEST SELLING MINI EV
The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV grabbed the attention of the world when it launched in 2020 with a price tag of just over $4,000. Sales shot up quickly and nearly 2 million have been sold since then. But recently sales have tapered off in China, so Wuling is bringing some fresh styling to the vehicle and a little more simplicity. There’s at least 3 or 4 versions of the 2-door model that are all slightly different from each other, while a 4-door version has a style all its own. However, that’s going to change. Both the 2- and 4-door models will now have the same design and even the look of the front and rear lighting is very similar. A 30 kW or 42 horsepower electric motor and a roughly 16 kWh LFP battery pack are expected to carry over from the current model. Those give the Mini EV a top speed of just over 60 MPH and about 125 miles of range. Pricing has gone up since that initial launch with models starting between $6,500 and $7,500.

HONDA CHINA SLASHES ACCORD PRICES BY $15,000
But it’s still going to be hard for Wuling to get back to its previous sales success. China’s passenger car sales fell nearly 20% in January compared to last year, hitting about 1.4 million units. That was also 800,000 vehicles less than December, and January wasn’t even impacted by the Chinese New Year. So, the numbers will probably look even worse for this month. The Chinese government has tried to crack down on the country’s price war, but with sales falling, automakers are still making cuts. Honda is now offering a limited-time discount on the plug-in hybrid version of the Accord worth over $14,500, which brings the vehicle’s starting price to about $20,000.

BYD LAUNCHES $5 DAILY LEASE
Longer term loans are also becoming much more popular in China. Geely, Li Auto, NIO, Tesla, Xiaomi, XPeng and now BYD are all offering 7-year loans as a way to reduce car payments to attract more customers. However, those long loans typically require large down payments. So, BYD has another promotion running on certain models as well for 0% interest for 3 years and, the part we find most interesting, daily payments, which can be under $5 a day. We think it will be fascinating to see how customers respond.

Be sure to tune in to Autoline After Hours later today. We’ll be talking about Stellantis having to mop up all that red ink, the latest quality ratings for automakers from JD Power, and where President Trump got his data for the gasoline prices he mentioned in the State of the Union address. We’ll have Nora Eckart from Reuters and Liam Rappleye from the Detroit Free Press joining John and Gary when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time.

But that’s a wrap for this show. Thanks for tuning in.