The discussion covers NHTSA's proposal for enhanced front and rear seat belt warnings aimed at reducing injuries and fatalities. Hyundai's retreat from the Chinese market and struggles of foreign automakers there are highlighted, alongside Ford's contingency plans amid potential UAW strikes. Chinese automaker Leado's ambitions to challenge German luxury brands face pricing pressures, while Baidu's robotaxi service sees rapid growth. Updates include BYD's entry into Japan, BMW's new infotainment games, VinFast's US electric crossover launch, and Volkswagen starting production of its ID.7 electric sedan for global markets.
Topics:seat belt warning regulationshyundai china market exitford uaw strike preparationschinese luxury ev competitionbaidu robotaxi growthbyd japan showroombmw infotainment gamesvinfast us ev launchvolkswagen id7 production
- NHTSA Wants Front and Rear Seat Belt Warnings - Hyundai Group Slumping in China - Experts Torn Over Ford's Plan B for Service Parts - Li Auto Joins China's Price War - China Embraces Baidu's Robotaxis - China's BYD Opens 1st Japanese Showroom - BMW Lets You Play 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' - VinFast Releases U.S. Specs for VF9 - VW Kicks Off ID.7 Production
"... three, but it will eventually be followed by the Seal sedan and Dolphin small suv. Our other follow up ..."
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing to mandate seat belt warnings for both front and rear seat passengers. For front seats, it's proposing audio and
visual warnings that remain active until the passengers buckle their belts, and for rear seats, NITZA wants a visual warning that lasts at least sixty seconds once a vehicle is started, and if a seat belt is unbuckled while the vehicle is operating, it wants a thirty second audio visual change of status warning. The
proposal would apply to most vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to ten thousand pounds, and NITZA says it will prevent three hundred injuries and one hundred deaths a year by getting more people to buckle up. But most people hate seat
belt warnings. It's going to be interesting to see how this is received by
the public. A decade ago, Hunde was charging hard in the Chinese market,
but not anymore. Reuters reports that it's putting one of its large assembly
plants in chong King up for sale. The plant was built in twenty seventeen
and can make up to three hundred thousand cars a year, but Hyundai's selling it for only five hundred and five million dollars, which is a bargain.
Hyundai had five plants in China, It already sold one of them and plans to operate only two, largely for export, so it sounds like there's still another plant that will go up for sale. The Chinese government actively encouraged its
citizens to avoid South Korean products in twenty sixteen when South Korea agreed to deploy a US base missile defense system. Hundai and Kia sales took a hit from
that and never seemed to recover. They were also slow to introduce elect for
cars in China at a time when Chinese consumers are eagerly embracing evs. In
fact, most foreign brands are struggling in China right now, with one exception Tesla, which is still growing. Last week, the Detroit Free Press broke
the story that Ford is training some white collar employees to take over some blue collar jobs in case the UAW goes on strike next month. They would not
make cars or trucks, but would run a parts depot to make sure that dealers continue to get service parts, especially parts for emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. One labor expert says this is a bad
move and that Ford should have negotiated this with the UAW to allow the parts to continue flowing out, but another labor expert says it's a smart move for Ford to have a planan b. We are now twenty three days away from
the current Labor Contract Act expiring, and the atmosphere is only getting more contentious at Schiffler we Pioneer Motion Electrifying Mobility, Manufacturing Smart, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the World Moves.
Chinese automaker Leado recently said it's aiming to become the number one premium brand in China next year and wants to outsell all the German luxury brands, but it's already running into roadblocks. Leado is the latest automaker to fall victim to the
country's rapidly expanding car market and is being forced into China's price war. Car
News China reports that it's offering dealer discounts between two thousand and three thousand, four hundred dollars due to vehicle orders slowing down. BMW, Mercedes and Outis.
Monthly sales in China this year have ranged between thirty one thousand, five hundred to seventy thousand units respectively. The last two months, Leotto has been
running out a little more than thirty thousand vehicles, so it's right on their heels, but news of order slowing down is no good. However, Chinese
consumers seemed to flock to any new product with good specs, and Leoto is coming out with its first BEV later this year, followed by four more models next year, including three evs. The avs from GM's autonomous Division crews seemed
to have been in the news for all the wrong reasons since restrictions were lifted in Sand Francisco a little over a week ago, but it's not bad news for all avs. Gascou reports that by dues Apolo Go Robotaxi service provided seven
hundred and fourteen thousand rides in the second quarter of this year, which is a gain of one hundred and forty nine percent. That kind of growth should
be expected because it only launched a year ago, but as of June of this year, Apolo Go had given three point three million rides to the public, so consumers seem to be embracing the technology more than the US. We've
got a couple of quick follow ups from previous reports. As we've been saying
Japanese automakers need to worry about Chinese OEM swooping into their home market and stealing sales, especially evs, and now we're seeing reports that BYD is going to open its first showroom in Tokyo, Japan, later this week. At first,
it will only offer one model, an all electric crossover called the Atto three, but it will eventually be followed by the Seal sedan and Dolphin small suv. Our other follow up involves BMW and the ability to play video games
on its infotainment screen, and it just announced that starting next year, I five owners will be able to play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Trivia
questions pop up on the center display and users answer them from an app on their phone. Other games available for the new five series include sports simulation,
strategy puzzles, and even jump and run games. Vietnamese startup vin Fast announced
range in pricing in the US for its VF nine three row electric crossover.
The Eco trim version has an EPA rated three hundred and thirty miles of range and starts at eighty three thousand dollars, while the Plus trim has two hundred and ninety one miles of range and starts at ninety one grand. Both models
feature a dual motor power train with three hundred kilowatts or four hundred and two horsepower and four hundred and fifty seven pound feet of torque, as well as a one hundred and twenty three kilowatt hour battery pack. Vin Fast plans to
start North American deliveries of the VF nine in the fourth quarter of this year, but as we reported yesterday, vin Fast has lost over fifty billion dollars in market cap since being listed on the NASDAC last week, so it really needs its models like the new VF nine to catch on with customers. Volkswagen
kicked off production of its ID seven electric sedan at its Emden plant in Germany, which is also one of the places it makes the ID four. The
ID seven will start being delivered to customers in the fall. It will initially
be equipped with a seventy seven kilowatt hour battery pack that six hundred and fifteen kilometers or three hundred and eighty two miles of range based on the European WLTP test cycle. The seven will go on sale in North America next year and
it will also be sold in China. But that brings us to the end
of today show, and we want to thank you for Tuning in Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey Intrepid Control Systems. Over
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