AD #4311 – Uber Places Big Robotaxi Bets; Legacy Auto Getting AI Boost; Nissan Likely to Make Chery Cars in the UK

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

SLEEPY AUTO INDUSTRY GETS AI BOOST
Well, we sure didn’t see this coming. Ford and BorgWarner are getting a nice bump in their stock prices, thanks to AI. Or, we should say because of the data centers that make AI possible. Ford is up almost 18% this year thanks to pivoting its EV battery manufacturing to supplying battery storage for data centers. And Borg Warner is up an astonishing 70% for making turbine backup generators for data centers. When BorgWarner’s CEO Joe Fadool was on Autoline After Hours, he said they were able to tap into their IP on turbochargers to start making turbine engines. Morgan Stanley says other suppliers, including Aptiv, Lear, Magna and Visteon could also get into the data storage business. So who knows? Maybe the sleepy old auto industry could see a stock surge thanks to AI.

UAW ATTACK ON AXLE SUPPLIER SEEMS MISLEADING
The UAW is going after the former American Axle because workers at one plant in Michigan cut their wages in half a decade ago to help get the company through bankruptcy and those workers are still earning a lot less than they did a decade ago. But American Axle, now called Dauch, is not doing well financially. The UAW says the company earned $8.4 billion in profits over that decade, but we’re not sure where the union is getting its numbers. We went through 10 years of the company’s annual reports and found that over that time frame, Dauch posted only $1.3 billion in operating profits and had net losses of $520 million. The company also lost money in the first quarter of this year. So, while the UAW has good reason to seek higher wages, trying to portray Dauch as some kind of giant profit machine seems very misleading.

           

WERIDE & UBER ANNOUNCE 1ST EU SERVICE
Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide are expanding into Europe for the first time. The two companies announced they’ll launch their robotaxi service in Madrid and are aiming to begin commercial operations within a year. The service will initially have safety operators on board, but will eventually deploy hundreds of driverless cars once certain milestones are met. Uber and WeRide also have operations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and they plan to expand to 15 cities globally by the end of the decade.

UBER PLACES BIG BETS ON ROBOTAXIS
But WeRide is just one of many robotaxi bets Uber has placed. Reuters reports that the ride-hailing company has invested nearly $500 million in self-driving startup Nuro. The two companies partnered with Lucid to rollout 35,000 robotaxis and they plan to begin tests this year, then ramp up the service next year. Uber also invested over $1.2 billion in Rivian for R2 robotaxis and it has dozens of partnerships globally with other automakers and autonomous vehicle companies for robotaxi services, including Waymo, Wayve, Nissan, Baidu and more.

CHERY COULD FILL NISSAN’S UK PLANT
Nissan could contract manufacture vehicles for Chinese automaker Chery in the UK. The two companies signed a non-binding understanding that says Nissan will consider making Chery brand passenger vehicles on one of two production lines at its Sunderland plant starting in 2027. Nissan would still fully own the facility and employ all the people at the plant. The Japanese automaker also sold Chery a plant in South Africa and it’s hard to see how this new deal won’t go through either. Last year volume at Sunderland was down 3% to a little under 275,000 units, even though it has the capacity to make about 600,000 vehicles a year. And that means Chery could get access to the manufacturing volume it needs to satisfy demand in Europe as well as avoid EV import tariffs. Last year the Chinese automaker sold more than 120,000 vehicles across the region, but expects that number to grow. Chery also has a joint venture in Spain, at what happens to be a former Nissan plant, to make models from its own brands as well as rebadged vehicles for EV Motor’s EBRO brand. And we’re starting to see more automakers in Europe share their unused plant capacity with Chinese companies. Stellantis has deals with Leapmotor and Dongfeng and Ford is said to be in talks with Geely.

NISSAN LAUNCHING CHINA-MADE VEHICLES OUTSIDE OF CHINA
Sticking with Nissan for a moment, it’s gearing up to launch a couple made-in China vehicles for international markets. On display at the Philippine’s auto show are the new Navara Pro plug-in hybrid pickup truck and Primera EV sedan, which will be sold in select global markets, like the Middle East. The Primera is sold in China as the N7 and is focused on a more premium buyer, while the Navara Pro will be sold to both retail and commercial customers. Both models are made in China and shipments could start before the end of the year.

FORD HAS ROUGH MAY
As we reported yesterday, the automakers that report sales on a monthly basis in the U.S had a good May. But not Ford. The automaker sold just under 191,000 vehicles last month, which was down more than 13% from a year ago. There really weren’t any bright spots for the automaker, which posted losses in all segments. GlobalData reports that overall sales in the U.S. hit 1.48 million vehicles in May, up 0.6%. And that was mostly because of fleet sales which were up 2.5% compared to retail sales which were only up 0.2%. But even though May sales were only up slightly, it was the first monthly increase in sales this year.

SOCIAL MEDIA WILL DECIDE THE NAME OF BYD’S NEW CAR
Here’s a pretty clever marketing move. BYD is asking social media users on Weibo to choose the name for its new flagship car. BYD narrowed the selection down to 6 names, and it wants Weibo users to make the final selection. The names all have the word Han in them and range from Great Han to Han Ultra. So far, only a couple of thousand people have voted, but it’s generated a lot of publicity for the car, which is a 4-door electric with 1,000 kilometers of range.

BYD GETTING INTO HUMANOIDS
Speaking of BYD, it’s jumping into the humanoid robot business and is even considering selling them at its car dealerships. That’s another clever marketing move, because it sure could generate a lot more showroom traffic.

But that’s a wrap for this show. Don’t forget to tune into Autoline After Hours at 3PM EST today and I hope to see you there.