Tensions between Stellantis and the UAW escalate with Stellantis COO Mark Stewart publicly criticizing union demands, signaling unprecedented labor-management conflict. Tesla cuts prices in China amid falling sales, while used car prices in the U.S. continue to decline. Lotus aims for ambitious growth, considering a U.S. assembly plant to boost sales drastically. BYD launches a new premium electric SUV brand targeting luxury competitors like Jeep and Land Rover. The episode also covers safety concerns over frontovers and updates on Jeep Gladiator’s diesel discontinuation. Global automaker sales rankings reveal Toyota leading, with Hyundai Group rising to third place.
Topics:stellantis uaw conflicttesla china price cutsused car market trendslotus expansion plansbyd new electric suvfrontover safety issuesjeep gladiator diesel endglobal automaker sales rankings
- Stellantis Fires Back at UAW - Tesla Cuts Prices Again in China - Used Car Prices Fall in U.S. - GM Extends Chevy Bolt Production - Lotus Dreams Big with U.S. Assembly Plant - BYD Targets Jeep, Bronco, Land Rover - U.S. Could Mandate Front Cameras - Good-Bye Diesel Jeep Gladiator - The World’s Biggest Automakers by Sales
"...end with a limited edition version, the Gladiator Rubicon far Out, will be available to order through the e..."
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This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Historically, corporate executives always kept their mouths shut whenever the UAW vilified
them in the media during contract negotiations. They always felt that would just ramp
up the rhetoric. But with new UAW president Sean Fayne attacking them in new
and personal ways, they're starting to fire back. In an email sent to
employees, Mark Stewart, the COO for Stillantis of North America, called the union's demands a quote losing proposition that would just end up eliminating UAW jobs.
He also said he was disappointed with feigned theatrics and personal insults feigned dramatically through Stilantis's proposal in the trash on a live stream video that the union posted a week ago. We haven't seen this kind of public bitterness between labor and management
in the Autowa industry ever before, and we've got the feeling it's about to get worse. Tesla is cutting prices in China again. It cut the price
of the long range and performance versions of the Model Y by nearly two thousand dollars. They now start at about forty one and forty eight thousand dollars,
respectively. On top of that, Tesla announced that it will offer insurance subsidies
of eleven hundred dollars for entry level rear drive versions of the Model three.
But Tesla needed to do something. According to the China Passenger Car Association,
sales of its Made in China vehicles fell thirty one percent in July compared to June, and while Tesla sales are always lower at the beginning of each quarter, sales in the overall Chinese market have fallen for the last two months.
Meanwhile, in the US, use car prices fell in July. According to
Mannheim's Use Vehicle Value Index, use vehicle wholesale prices drop twelve percent last month compared to a year ago. It's the eleventh straight month that prices have dropped.
The seasonally adjusted average price in July was just over nineteen thousand dollars compared to nearly twenty two thousand dollars last year. Mannheim expects prices to continue to
fall for the rest of the year, but it says the rate has slowed, and we think that's because new car sales are strong thanks to rising inventory and it looks like more people are deciding to buy a new car instead of a used one. Production of the Chevy Bolt is being extended by a month.
It was supposed to stop rolling down the line in November, but GM Authority reports that production will now last into December. That plant Orient Assembly in
Michigan is being converted to make the Silverado EV next year, as well as the GMC Sierra EV. GM recently announced that the Bolt will get another generation
and it will be powered by its altium batteries and motors. 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. Lotus has ambitious expansion plans that we think are just crazy.
The British sports car maker only sold five hundred and seventy six cars last year, but it wants to grow that to one hundred and fifty thousand a year by twenty twenty eight, and to help reach that goal, the company CEO says it's considering opening a plant in the US and will make a decision before the end of the year. Lotus currently builds cars in England and China.
The company is owned by Chinese automaker Geli, which bought Lotus in twenty seventeen and has invested nearly four billion dollars into it. Lotus's sales have always
been minuscule, so Geelie must think that the luxury segment will grow, or that it can steal sales from Portia. A lot of sales, but either
way, we think Geelie's crazy if it thinks Lotus can sell one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles a year. Chinese automakers are coming out with new models at
blistering speed, and right now consumers prefer whatever is the latest and greatest.
I don't see this changing, but that's a topic for another day. Byd
Already, the biggest automaker in China is launching yet another NIV brand. It's
a premium brand called fang Chang Bao that will slot below its other new ultra luxury NV brand called yang Wang. Car News China reports its first vehicle,
the Leopard five, will be priced between fifty five thousand and eighty three thousand dollars and will share technology with the more expensive Yang Wang a NEVS that includes its large extended range hybrid platform, which is purely electric driven, but uses a combustion engine to charge the battery. The system is said to be over
five hundred kilowatts or six hundred and seventy horsepower and will do zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in four seconds. The Leopard five also is expected to
feature by D's in house developed suspension system, but it's not known exactly which version, which ranges from a more basic damping system to a hydraulic setup that can drive on three wheels and hop with a total length of around five meters or over sixteen feet. This is meant to take on other big luxury SUVs.
We say look out jeep, Ford, Bronco and land Rover. Others
should also pay attention when the biggest automaker in China starts expanding into more market segments. And don't forget that It's CEO last week called on all Chinese brands
to come together to quote demolish the old legends. They call them frontovers.
It's the kind of accident when there's a little kid in front of a stop vehicle that the driver can't see because the hood creates a blind spot, and so the driver pulls away not knowing there's someone in front of the vehicle.
In the US, it's a growing problem. From two thousand and eight until
twenty twenty, the number of children killed a year in frontovers doubled to five hundred and twenty six according to the US Department of Transportation. One culprit is
the high hood height of pickups and SUVs. Our report A Ward says the
answer maybe with front mounted cameras that have AI or four D short range radar.
And right now, Senator Richard Blumenthal is introducing legislation mandating technology to prevent frontovers. The diesel version of the Jeep Gladiator is going bye bye. It
was first offered in the truck for the twenty twenty one model year, but production will end with a limited edition version, the Gladiator Rubicon far Out, will be available to order through the end of September and is limited to a thousand examples. It comes with a bunch of upgraded equipment as standard and is
priced a little below seventy two thousand dollars including destination charges. This leaves the
Gladiator with one engine option, Stellantis's three point six Leader PENISTARV six. How
do the world's automakers stack up against each other and sale well. We now
have the numbers for the first half of the year, and Toyota was the biggest car company in the world with four point six million vehicles sold, with the Volkswagen Group in second with four point four million. Impressively, the Hyundai
Group, which includes Hondai, Kia and Genesis, is now the third largest automaker at three point six million, followed by Stellantis at three point two million.
General Motors is in fifth place with two point nine million, and then FOURD at two point one. Nissan and Honda are extremely close at one point
eight million. BMW tops Mercedes one point two million to one million even and
because everyone wants to know, Tesla came in at just under eight hundred and ninety thousand vehicles. Some reports still combined Renola and Nissan and Mitsubishi sales together,
but we feel that's a mistake. That's an alliance in name only.
There was no P and L for the alliance, no annual report, so we have to look at each of them separately. After all, General Motors
and Honda are doing a lot of work together. GM is even going to
make cars for Honda, but we don't combine their sales together. John has
a lot more info on this topic, and you can find a link to that video in today's transcript or description box that brings us to the end of today show. Thanks for joining us. Autoline Daily is brought to you by
Bridgetone Solutions for your journey, Intrepid Control Systems over the year Engineering Boost your Game, Scheffler We Pioneer Motion and by Tajin Automotive Technologies. The Formula for
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