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Runtime: 11:03
0:00 U.S.-Canada Trade War Threatens Auto Industry
1:03 Volkswagen Management Pushes Job Cuts
2:14 VW In Talks to Build Military Equipment
2:59 BYD Q2 Profits Surge on Exports
3:51 BYD Planning Minicar for Europe
5:16 Stellantis Dealers Wary of Carvana
6:13 Ford Telematics Cuts Fleet Downtime Significantly
7:23 Ram ProMaster City Van Starts Under $40,000
8:20 Ford’s Lisa Drake Retires
9:02 Geely Reveals Off-Roading Architecture
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
U.S.-CANADA TRADE WAR THREATENS AUTO INDUSTRY
That trade war between the U.S. and Canada is going to end up damaging the auto industries on both sides of the border. A study from the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor shows some surprising statistics:
• 45% of all U.S. light vehicle exports go to Canada
• The same goes for 79% of all heavy-duty trucks
• And 39% of all the automotive components the U.S. exports go north of the border.
Even though 90% of Canadian light vehicle exports go to the U.S., 53% of the components in them, by value, were made in the USA. This is why American automakers are dead set against the tariffs the U.S. is slapping on Canadian vehicles, components and metals. It’s driving up costs and hurting their business. Oh yeah, one more stat. The U.S. imports more steel from Canada than any other country in the world.
VOLKSWAGEN MANAGEMENT PUSHES JOB CUTS
There’s a war brewing between the Volkswagen Group, its board of supervisors and the shareholders of the company. As we’ve been documenting all along, VW is in deep trouble. Management is looking at closing 4 plants in Germany and getting rid of over 100,000 German employees. But the board of supervisors, half of which includes labor leaders and local politicians, are dead set against the plan. The board is supposed to vote on management’s proposal one week from today, and if it rejects it, Reuters reports that management could call for a shareholder meeting to vote on the issue. They would need 75% of shareholders to override the board and vote in favor of management’s plan. The Porsche and Piech families own 53.3% of all shares, Qatar owns 17%, and other shareholders own 9.7%. That comes to 80% of all shares. The German state of Lower Saxony owns the other 20%. So it looks like management could get the OK to make drastic cuts. But that will trigger a bitter taste for years to come.
VW IN TALKS TO BUILD MILITARY EQUIPMENT
And in other Volkswagen news, the automaker, along with the Lower State of Saxony, is nearing a deal with Israeli defense company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, to build military equipment at one of VW’s plants in Germany. But the deal faces opposition from the Qatar Investment Authority, which owns 10% of VW, because of Qatar’s relationship with Israel. However, the companies are working on a deal where VW wouldn’t directly cooperate with Rafael, which would address Qatar’s concerns. We’re seeing more and more automakers enter the defense industry. In addition to VW, GM, Ford, Mercedes and Renault have all announced plans to develop and build military equipment.
BYD Q2 PROFITS SURGE ON EXPORTS
After struggling for more than a year, BYD boosted its profit for the first time in five quarters. The automaker’s second-quarter net profit increased 30% to $1.2 billion compared to a year ago. However, its revenue did slip 3%. BYD was able to overcome a slumping Chinese car market thanks to a surge in exports and demand for its higher priced models. And investors expect a strong second-half for BYD even though its likely to miss its annual sales target. BYD is targeting up to 5.5 million sales this year but in the first half it only sold 1.8 million vehicles. Even still, estimates compiled by Bloomberg call for profits and revenue to hit record highs in the fourth quarter because of improved production and growing exports.
BYD PLANNING MINICAR FOR EUROPE
And speaking of BYD, it’s planning to launch a minicar in Europe within the next few years. The model is expected to use the X-Pack battery system BYD developed for its Racco kei-car that just started selling in Japan. The electric minicar segment in Europe is growing fast. Through July, sales are up 75% to more than 102,000 units.
STELLANTIS DEALERS WARY OF CARVANA
As we reported recently, Carvana bought 7 dealerships from Stellantis and really turned them around. One in Arizona is now the highest-volume dealer in its U.S. network. Customers love that Carvana doesn’t have sales people, offers no-haggle pricing and allows online orders that can be delivered anywhere in the country. But while Carvana is great at moving the metal, existing Stellantis dealers say they’re concerned Carvana isn’t doing enough to retain customers. And it’s all got to do with service. Because Carvana will deliver vehicles across the U.S., customers will take them to local dealerships for service. And while that can be positive, the Stellantis dealers say their service departments are dealing with unfamiliar customers and if they don’t have a good experience, it could hurt not only the perception of the dealer but also Stellantis. And they’re worried that will lead to lost sales in the future.
FORD TELEMATICS CUTS FLEET DOWNTIME SIGNIFICANTLY
Ford is showing off how its telematics services can provide big improvements for fleet operators. L&Q is a London non-profit that repairs and maintains properties for over 100,000 residents, which requires a fleet of 600 Ford vehicles. But previously the company was losing 58 working days a month on average with vehicles waiting around to be fixed. So, it started using Ford Uptime Services, which monitors connected data, tracking vehicle health and flagging potential issues. L&Q says it reduced vehicle downtime 60%, going from that 58 days a month, down to 23 on average. And while Ford’s telematics services can cost anywhere from $5 to $20 a month per vehicle, depending on what plan is chosen, L&Q is saving an estimated 17,000 pounds a month by having its vehicles in operating condition. So far this year, Ford’s commercial services, called Ford Pro, are down in both sales and profit, but the company said it was still feeling the effects from the fire at aluminum producer Novelis.
RAM PROMASTER CITY VAN STARTS UNDER $40,000
Speaking of the commercial segment, Ram revealed pricing for the new ProMaster City. It will start just under $40,000, including destination charges, which is about $10,000 less than the bigger ProMaster and Ford Transit vans. And the new ProMaster City, which is based on the same van platform that is used by Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Opel in Europe, will have the mid-size segment to itself in the U.S. Mercedes dropped the Metris after 2023 and Ford was going to bring back the Transit Connect, but that’s reportedly being replaced by that new $25,000 hybrid crossover. The ProMaster City will be made in Turkey with production starting late this year, but it will be imported as a passenger car to avoid the 25% Chicken Tax and then converted to a commercial van at a facility at the port of Baltimore.
FORD’S LISA DRAKE RETIRES
Ford is making a management change that kind of caught us by surprise. Lisa Drake is retiring at 53 years of age. She had been running Ford’s battery business, called Ford Energy, that recently pivoted from making EV batteries to batteries for energy storage, especially for data centers. Drake will be replaced by Dave Carroll, who comes from Engie, a French company that supplies electricity and gas with the goal of shifting the world to a carbon-neutral economy. A few years ago, Lisa Drake was being talked up inside Ford as a potential CEO candidate, and we think it’s likely she’s going to retire and call it a day.
GEELY REVEALS OFF-ROADING ARCHITECTURE
Geely is pushing hard into the world of off-roading. It revealed a new architecture that features a host of AI-powered technologies to control the powertrain, chassis and vehicle safety. Off-road goodies include an active hydraulic suspension system, electrical and mechanical locking differentials and a dual cooling system to prevent overheating. The architecture will be paired with Geely’s new EM-T hybrid powertrain, which combines a 2.0L turbo engine with 3 electric motors, producing over 1,100 horsepower. It sounds like an impressive setup and it’s another example of Chinese automakers expanding into segments that are dominated by foreign brands.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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Looking forward to voting out the tariff-taxing, representatives currently in office.
Looking forward voting in representatives who will address our 60-billion-dollar trade deficit with Canada.
The Stellantis dealers complaining that Carvana Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram customers may hurt their and Stellantis’ reputation is a lot of belly aching. They are upset that those customers did not buy from them. Perhaps they should take it as a sign that its time to revamp their sales operations so potential customers don’t feel a need to shop a Carvana-owned dealership. Certainly, this is not the first time unfamiliar customers have come to their service dept. This happens all the time as people shop other dealerships for a better deal but seek service at their closest dealership for convenience. And, there are also customers that have recently relocated to a new area and need service on their existing vehicles. I used to hear this type of whining from my dealers when customers would show up for service with a competitor’s nameplate on the back of their car. They let the lost sale dampen their attitude and obscure the fact that they now have a new service customer that will help pay the overhead on their dealership. And, they have an opportunity to establish a great relationship with that customer so that they are far more likely to earn their future vehicle purchase business.
Gary, you seem to make up sh** like a certain other person we know about. The 2025 trade deficit was less than half of $60B.
One advantage non-Carvana Stellantis dealers have, is that you can order cars through them. Carvana doesn’t do customer orders, just sells from what they have in stock.
Odd thing… Always heard that US auto dealerships make most of their money on service and only a small part on the actual sales process.
Now, with Carvana having a low overhead sales model, enabling them to be sufficiently profitable as a new Stellantis dealership group, other dealers are complaining about being the recipient of that ‘profitable’ service business from Carvana-sold vehicles since Carvana doesn’t operate in that space.
Sounds like a pack of whining.
Maybe some of those complaining Stellantis dealers could add a parallel new sales model that has low-to-no contact time to make more money off of sales …. Some proportion of the Stellantis buyers clearly like that approach with Carvana ……
Dealers make a lot of money selling used cars they take in trade.
According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, our U.S. goods deficit with Canada was 61.2 Billion in 2024 and 48.3 Billion in 2025. I wonder how the Socialist Democrats of America will handle this, they seem to be on a winning elections.