AD #3580 - High Car Prices Could Open Door for Chinese; Expect More EV Launch Delays; Most Powerful Range Rover Sport

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

New car prices have gone through the roof. The average new car costs

almost fifty thousand dollars, and that's pushing millions of Americans out of the new car market. And it's also opening the door for inexpensive Chinese cars, especially

electric ones. People say Americans will not buy Chinese cars, but that's what

they said about Japanese cars and South Korean cars and European luxury cars. But

now foreign automakers have half of the American market. With lower prices, the

Chinese could take over entry level cars, just like the Japanese did forty years ago. And there's the crazy part. If and when Chinese companies come to

the American market with cheap evs, the ones who will get hurt the most will be the Japanese and rein car companies. Automakers and suppliers are spending billions

to expand and build new manufacturing facilities. The US in particular saw a wave

of investments not long after the IRA was passed, and a lot of the growth revolves around the transition to evs. But despite all this, expansion orders

for new machinery were barely up, according to data from the US Commerce Department, and we think we know why. When a car company retools a plant,

it usually yanks out the old equipment and replaces it with new but not now. When it comes to IC powertrains, gm Ford and Stilantis are trying

to reuse as much old equipment as they can and refurbish it. That still

involves a lot of work. The old equipment has to be shipped to companies

that do the refurbishing, who have to then inspect it, clean it, repair it, and bring it back to new and then ship it back.

Using the old equipment does save money, but replacing it with all new machinery would be so much easier, So why do they do it? Using the

old stuff means automakers don't have to write it off, which is an expense that reduces their net income. Toyota points out that this year is the first

time that white eighteen year olds are no longer a majority in the US, and it's a key reason why Toyota is marketing heavily to black, Hispanic and Asian Americans. It thinks it has a real advantage there Toyota claims it gets

the highest percentage of those buyers, and it believes that demographic change is on its side, because the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States right now are Asians, followed by Hispanics, and so Toyota is zeroing in on those groups with its marketing and advertising. It knows that the demographics of this country

are going to keep changing, and so it's laying the groundwork now in the hope that it will pay off for years to come. We want to know

what drives you're 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. Land Rover is adding the most powerful range Rover Sport ever to

its lineup. The model is now powered by a new four point four Leader

twin turbo V eight gas engine that cranks out six hundred and twenty six horsepower and five hundred and fifty three pound feet of torque. That's fifty one more

horses and thirty eight more pound feet of torque than the previous gen Range Rover Sport SVRS Supercharge five Leader V eight. The new range Rover as V moves

from zero to sixty in just three point six seconds and has a top speed of one hundred and eighty miles an hour. It also features some weight savings.

The available twenty three inch carbon fiber wheels cut nearly eighty pounds compared to the standard twenty three inch alloy wheels, and optional carbon ceramic breaks remove another seventy five pounds. To further help the driving dynamics, The new range Rover

a SV comes with a semi active suspension system that features hydraulic dampers, adjustable air springs, and pitch control. But the new model is initially going to

be hard to come by. The first year production will be available to select

clients and by invitation only. Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll recently said it would

come out with eight new models over the next two years, and here's the first one. This is the new dB twelve, which is a major evolution

of the dB eleven. The twelve is distinguished by new lights, a bigger

grill, redesigned splitter, and wider front and rear tracks. Under the hood

is a four leader twin turbo V eight that's supplied by Mercedes AMG but is tuned in house by Aston. It makes six hundred and seventy one horsepower and

five hundred and ninety pound feet of torque, and that's an impressive jump over the V eight dB eleven, which made five hundred and twenty eight horsepower.

Guess that's why Aston called the eleven a grand tourer but calls the twelve a super tourer. The engine is made it to an eight speed auto and a

first for Aston. The twelve features an electronic differential which helps lay down that

six hundred and seventy one horses for a zero to sixty time a three and a half seconds. Then to reel it all in is a set of standard

cast iron breaks, but carbon ceramics are also available. The center console of

the dB twelve extends all the way up, blending into the dashboard, which creates a separate cockpit area for the driver and passenger. It houses all the

vehicle controls, as well as the ten and a quarter inch infotainment screen, which is the first in house developed infotainment system by Aston Martin. Previously it

just stuck with the system from Mercedes, and by mounting that new screen down low, it gives the driver a better view out of the windshield. No

word on pricing yet, but deliveries start in the third quarter of this year.

As we said earlier in the show, OEMs are spending billions on new manufacturing, mostly for EVS, and while automakers have been perfecting the art of building internal combustion engine cars for well over a hundred years, making EVS is still new to them, and we've seen that reflected in vehicle delays in low production and output. The hope is that will turn around quickly, but according

to Michael Robinett of SMP Global Mobility, there's still going to be a learning curve. Yeah, you know it's I would say quality is absolutely going to

be critical. I talked about earlier some of these lumpy launches. Uh,

we're being we're building brand new vehicles U and sometimes brand new or at least completely outfitted plants or brand new refurbished plants, new build processes. Sometimes a

lot of new suppliers that are coming in. Uh, we've had the skill

the folks that are building the vehicles differently, A lot of new, new, new, new, new, and new means to us that there could be basically be some pretty slow launches and quality is going to absolutely be so critical. Um. I remember the days in you know, John Gary,

even Keith. You guys remember the days when Bob Eaton went on the stage

and dropped the bag of parts on the on the on the stage and basically said, these are the carry over in the last gaining Cherokee and everybody's applotting and a lot of us are going, wow, you basically are building a brand new vehicle. I hope you know what you're doing. And of course

you know those launches can get lumpy, and we believe that the launches are going to be a bit delayed and the launch curves are going to be I have a much lower slope, not all of them, but I think that definitely there's going to be some good examples out there. You know, Michael

I stutter under Jim Harbor and he always said, an all new product and an all new plant with an all new workforce is a recipe for disaster.

We have a lot of disasters coming. So after hearing that, does that

turn you off of EVS at all? But the reality is, I think

this will have the biggest impact on the average car buyer. They're not as

forgiving of slow launches and quality problems which could hurt adoption. And if you'd

like to catch more that show, we'll be sure to provide a link in the transcript and description box. But that brings us to the end of today's

show. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you have a great weekend.

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