Tesla's Q1 earnings reveal strong vehicle sales growth but notable profit declines due to aggressive price cuts, signaling intensifying EV competition. CATL unveiled a groundbreaking 500 Wh/kg condensed matter battery, promising major advances in energy density for electric vehicles and aviation. Ford plans an off-road Mustang Raptor with a powerful V8, expanding the Mustang's legacy beyond pavement. Other highlights include Hyundai's lunar rover prototype, Lincoln Nautilus price hikes due to tariffs, and Honda's new Civic Type R setting front-wheel-drive lap records. The Shanghai Auto Show remains a major event, with discussions on new EV business strategies and industry insights.
Topics:tesla earningsev competitioncatl battery technologymustang raptorhyundai lunar roverlincoln nautilus pricinghonda civic type rshanghai auto showford f150 lightning norwayev market trends
- Tesla Earnings Healthy, But Down Sharply - Tesla Facing Tougher Competition - What's That on Cybertruck? - CATL's New 500 Wh/Kg Battery - New Lincoln Nautilus Costs a Lot More - Hyundai Plunges Ahead with Lunar Rover - What? A Mustang Raptor? - Ford Shipping F-150 Lightnings to Norway - Honda Civic Type R Smashes FWD Lap Record
"...l drive cars at the nurburg Ring with the all new Civic Type Are. It's set a lap time of just under seven..."
Select text to request an explanation
This was aut Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the blow blot motive industry. Tesla reported its first quarter earnings, and they really showed the
impact of all those price cuts. It sold over four hundred and twenty two
thousand vehicles, which was up a healthy thirty six percent, but that was down significantly from the fifty percent increases that we've come to expect. Revenue hit
twenty three point three billion dollars, up twenty four percent from a year ago, but its operating profit of two point six billion dollars was down twenty six percent, and its net profit of two and a half billion was down twenty four percent. Its operating margin fell to eleven point four percent, which is
healthy, but it's no longer the best in the industry. Free cash flow
dropped eighty six percent, and Tesla says it ended the quarter with a fifteen day supply of vehicles, which is low, but that's a four hundred percent increase from a year ago. Elon must says they're going to concentrate more on
growing sales than on growing profits. And the stock drop two percent on the
news. And here's our autoline insight. These numbers show that the EV segment
is getting to be a lot more competitive, and while Tesla is ready to play hardball, it doesn't have a choice. It has to cut prices to
maintain its strong growth rate. That's not going to please investors, but it's
probably a good long term strategy, at least until it can add more products to its lineup and until it can develop its new assembly process that can slash costs significantly. And one last item before we leave Tesla, the company always
likes to tease us with some pictures and its quarterly reports, and take a look at this shot of the pilot line for the cybertruck. It clearly shows
giga castings used on the front and rear of the truck. In fact,
the rear casting looks absolutely huge. But also notice this big cylinder that a
line worker is carrying. What the heck is it? We think it's probably
part of an air suspension system for the cybertruck, but we don't know for sure, and we'd sure like to hear what your opinions are on what it might be. The world's largest battery maker keeps making it harder for the competition
to catch up. At the Shanghai Auto Show, CTL introduced a new battery,
what it calls a condensed matter battery that is perfect for applications that need higher energy demand, like an all electric passenger airplane. It's a semi solid
state battery with a condensed electrolyte as well as new anode and separator materials.
CTL says it offers an energy density of up to five hundred watt hours per kilogram, which is nearly double the energy density of its current sell to pac quill and batteries, which are only just making their way into vehicles right now.
But ATL says it will make these condensed matter batteries for cars before it makes them for planes, and mass production will start before the end of the year. We want to know what drives your testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics,
remote testing. Intrepid Control Systems is here to help you work from anywhere.
Intrepid Control Systems driven by your data. That new Lincoln Nautilus that we
showed you on Tuesday is going to cost a whole lot more than the one it replaces. It's art set just under fifty two thousand dollars including destination charges
in the US, which is about fifty six hundred dollars more than before, and the top black label trim line with all the options tops out at around eighty two four hundred. The big price increase isn't too surprising since it now
comes standard with all wheel drive and more features, but it's also because it will be hit with a twenty seven and a half percent import tariff and the US since the car will be built in China and then imported to the US.
For comparison, vehicles from other countries only face a two and a half percent import tariff. Deliveries of the new Nautilus begin early next year. We
were amused when the Hunday Group announced last year that it was developing a lunar rover. We thought it would just be a cool design exercise, but now
Hunday is actually building a prototype. The autonomous vehicle is design to explore the
Moon and will be equipped with advanced technologies to help it handle a variety of payloads. Hyundai says it expects to complete the initial test next year, and
it's aiming to have a fully functional model by twenty twenty seven. The Ford
Mustang has conquered just about everything you can on pavement, and now Car and Driver reports the Pony car is going to go off the beaten path as well.
It says Ford is developing an off road version of the Mustang and will call it the Mustang Raptor, similar to what Portia has done with the nine to eleven and Lamborghini with the Hurricane. The Mustang Raptor would be powered by
Ford's five leader Coyote V eight tune to five hundred horsepower and paired with the ten speed automatic transmission and an electronically controlled center differential. Other goodies are said
to include a two inch lift kit, Fox live valve, dampers, underbody skid plates, and all terrain tires. The off road Mustang is expected to
arrive in twenty twenty six with a price around ninety thousand dollars, and that it would be followed by a seven hundred horsepower Raptor R version. At Schiffler,
we pioneer Motion Electrifying Mobility, manufacturing smarter, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean. Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the World moves?
Will Europeans really buy big full size American pickup trucks? We're about to find
out. Ford is going to start shipping f one fifty Lightnings to Norway.
It will be offered exclusively in the Super Crew cab body style with blue metallic paint and will only be sold in limited numbers. Ford didn't reveal pricing,
but deliveries start next year. Ford already sells the Mustang mock Ian Norway.
And this is all kind of a jab at General Motors. Remember that Super
Bowl ad that GM ran two years ago called no Way Norway with comedian Will Ferrell. GM implied that it was going to return to the European market,
but now Ford has two evs on sale in Norway, while GM is nowhere to be seen. When front wheel drive became popular in the late nineteen seventies
and early eighties, some engineering experts said you would never be able to have a front wheel drive car with more than one hundred and fifty horsepower. They
said that anything more than that would overwhelm the car with uncontrollable torque steer.
Well that was then. Now Honda just smashed the lap record for front wheel
drive cars at the nurburg Ring with the all new Civic Type Are. It's
set a lap time of just under seven minutes in forty five seconds, and the only change to the car was a set of Michelin Pilot Sport cup to connect tires, which any owner can order from a Honda dealership. Honda stole
the record from the Renaulmagan RS Trophy R, which actually stole the record from the previous generation Civic Type are. The new Civic also holds the FWD lap
record at Suzuka in Japan. Auto shows aren't what they used to be.
Most automakers have pulled out of them, and the most famous shows in Frankfurt and Geneva don't even exist anymore. But there is one auto show that is
as big and as bold as they ever used to be, and that's the Shanghai Auto Show. It's been going on this week and that's going to be
one of the topics on Autoline After Hours this afternoon to leave from Sino Auto Insights will be back by popular demand to talk about the most important cars that were revealed at the show, and Jeff Stout from Young Fung will also be coming on. He's one of the most insightful and fun guests that we've ever
had on the show. And John wants to talk about the new Evy business
unit that Toyota is scrambling to get going, and we invite all of you to tune in when John and Gary get it all going at three pm Eastern Time later today. But that brings us to the end of today's show.
Thanks for joining us. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for
your journey, Intrepid Control Systems over the year engineering boost your game, and by Scheffler we pioneer Motion
Request an explanation for:
5 cars
5 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark.
Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
