Carlos Tavares of Stellantis demands suppliers cut costs by 30% to compete with Chinese EV makers, even halting a battery plant project to focus on cheaper cells. Senator Joe Manchin criticizes US Treasury for allowing China-sourced EV materials, urging automakers to sue, though automakers seem unlikely to act. Chinese EV makers Li Auto and Nio face contrasting sales forecasts amid growing battery swapping networks. Volvo starts production of its electric EX90 SUV in South Carolina, while Ford reports a 65% increase in EV and hybrid sales. BMW unveils a revamped 1 Series, and Volkswagen delays its ID.7 launch but expands its lineup. The episode also touches on Tesla's chip priorities and a new industry report ranking top automakers.
Topics:stellantis supplier cost cutsjoe manchin treasury disputechinese ev sales forecastsbattery swapping networksvolvo ex90 productionford ev and hybrid salesbmw new 1 seriesvolkswagen id7 delaytesla chip supplyautomaker industry rankings
- Tavares Tells Suppliers to Cut Prices…Or Else - Manchin Urges Automakers to Sue Treasury Department - Li Auto Slashes Sales Forecast…Again - Nio Gets Approval For 3rd China Factory - Volvo Kicks Off Production of Electric EX90 In U.S. - Musk Asks Nvidia To Send Chips to X and xAI Instead of Tesla - Ford’s EV and Hybrid Sales Up 65% In May - BAIC and Zeekr Get Approval to Test L3 Systems in China - BMW Unveils New 1-Series - VW Expands ID.7 Lineup in Europe - Autoline’s 2024 Industry Report Card
"...on the WLTP cycle. There's a Wagon version of the GTX as well, but that extra weight slows it down by a..."
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This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Stillanti's CEO, Carlos Tavares is giving his supply base and ultimatum either
cut your prices or we're going to make your parts in house. Tavares says
suppliers aren't moving fast enough to cut costs on electric cars and believe Stilantis can move faster. He's been warning that Chinese evy makers have a thirty percent cost
advantage, and that's how much he wants suppliers to cut costs by. He
also stopped construction of a battery plant with Mercedes Benz in Europe so it can change over to making cheaper battery cells. Making things in house can be very
profitable, but it's also very capital intensive. Last year, Stalantas spent nine
point seven billion dollars on capex, and if he wants to increase vertical integration, Tavaras better be ready to spend a lot more than that. Well,
here's an interesting twist on what's happening with evs in the US. Senator Joe
Manchin, who played a major role in getting government subsidies for electric vehicles, is encouraging automakers to sue the US government over those rules. He said the
US Treasury watered down the legislation by allowing more battery materials and parts to be sourced from China than the law required. He said the legislation was written to
reduce America's dependence on China, but the Treasury's action means that the US will continue to rely on China for years. Manchin says this will hurt domestic automakers,
but we doubt very much automakers will sue the US Treasury, after all, they're the ones buying those Chinese materials. Chinese automaker Liatto really overshot expectations
for its first all electric vehicle, the Megavan. Last year, it sold
about three hundred and seven six thousand vehicles, all of them extended range evs, but it expected to sell eight thousand Megavans a month, so le Atto increased its sales target this year to eight hundred thousand units. However, the
launch of the Mega ended up being pushed back to March of this year, and le Otto only sold thirty two hundred that month and a little over eleven hundred in April. So now the company is slashing its sales forecast for a
second time. First it went from eight hundred thousand down to a range of
five hundred and sixty to six hundred and forty thousand units, but now it's been cut to four hundred and eighty thousand vehicles. You might think that's because
EV demand is slowing in China like most major markets, but that's not really the case. ANYV sales were up and expected thirty percent or more last month,
and several EV makers had massive jumps and sales. One of those companies
was Neo, who saw it sales go up over two hundred and thirty three percent to more than twenty thousand, five hundred vehicles. But could it suffer
the same over expectations as Liatto? Last year, Neo sold about four hundred
and fifty thousand vehicles, but it just launched a new, more affordable brand called Envo, and also got approval for a new plant that would bring its production capacity to a million units. However, Neo only confirmed it would build
one hundred thousand units a year on one shift out of a total expected plant capacity of six hundred thousand units, and the company claimed it won't have any over capacity Neo is also benefiting from expanding its battery swapping partnerships. It has
deals with GAC, Flew, Chan, Khan, Jeli, Jac Cherry, and Lotus, and it now has well over two thousand swapping stations in China.
Volvo announced that it has kicked off production of its fully electric EX ninety suv in South Carolina. The model features a one hundred and eleven kilowatt hour
battery pack that provides six hundred kilometers or three hundred and seventy two miles of range based on the WLTP test cycle, and its two electric motors provide three hundred and eighty kilowatts or five hundred and seventeen horsepower. Volvo didn't say how
many electric Ex nineties it will build in South Carolina, but the plant already makes the S sixty sedan, and as we said yesterday, Polestar will make the Polestar three there as well. That plant has the capacity to build one
hundred and fifty thousand cars a year. Michigan is leading the charge in mobility
and innovation, and I can't think of a better state to be in.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk said he was uncomfortable further developing AI and robotics at test unless he has twenty five percent control over the company, And there's all kinds of headlines today saying he might be willing to follow through on that threat. That's because CNBC reports must hold chip maker and Vidia to prioritize shipments
of processors to his other companies X and XAI instead of Tesla. The automaker
is using the processors to develop a supercomputer to help train its autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. But Elon Musk responded to the report on AX and defended the
decision, saying that Tesla wasn't ready to use the chips yet and they would have just sat around in a warehouse. He also said that he expects Tesla
to spend three to four billion dollars on Nvidia chips this year. Tesla shareholders
will vote next week on whether or not to reinstate Musk's fifty six billion dollar pay package, which was voided by a Delaware judge Earlier this year. Ford
posted its sales for May and the US, and it had a pretty good month. It sold just over one hundred and ninety thousand vehicles, up more
than eleven percent from a year ago, and the growth came from evs and hybrids, both of which were up sixty five percent. Ford sold nearly nine
thousand evs and well over seventeen thousand hybrids. Level three autonomous systems are making
progress in China. BAIC joined a new Intelligent Connected Vehicle consortium that's focused on
expanding the technology, and it already has approval to test L three systems on expressways, and Zeker just got the same approval. It will test Level three
on highways and expressways in Shanghai. However, we're not sure how capable these
systems are. For example, Mercedes has the only approof for sale L three
system that we're aware of, which also operates on the highway, but only up to forty miles per hour or about sixty four kilometers an hour. BMW
revealed the new one series. It's the same model underneath, but it's been
heavily reworked and is a little longer and taller. Under the hood is a
range of gas and diesel engines, with the top four cylinder gas engine pumping out three hundred horse power. Combined with all wheel drive, it'll do zero
to one hundred kilometers an hour in four point nine seconds. Since this is
BMW's entry level car, the interior looks a little cheaper than your usual BMW, but it's still got a clean, modern appearance with some color accents that add a little youthful flare in my opinion. The new one series will start
launching in Europe this October, followed by other markets like Japan, while Volkswagon is delaying the launch of the ID seven Electric today and in North America, and definitely it's expanding the model's lineup in Europe. The GTX sees a power
boost to two hundred and fifty kilowatts up from two two hundred and ten for the standard model, which gives it a zero to one hundred kilometer an hour time of five point four seconds. It has a range of five hundred and
ninety five kilometers or three hundred and seventy miles based on the WLTP cycle.
There's a Wagon version of the GTX as well, but that extra weight slows it down by a tenth of a second from zero to one hundred and it gets ten less kilometers of range. The ID seven is also getting a longer
range model called the Pross with a seven hundred and nine kilometer or four hundred and forty mile range. The wagon version gets six hundred and ninety kilometers or
four hundred and twenty eight miles of range. All of the new models are
equipped with an eighty six kilowad hour battery instead of the standard seventy seven kilowad hour pack. Pre Orders for the model start tomorrow. In Europe, the
GTX starts just over sixty three thousand euros or nearly sixty nine thousand dollars, while the PROSS starts at about fifty nine thousand euros or about sixty four grand.
What do you think is the best car company in the world. You
probably have a personal opinion, but let's look at the facts and our twenty twenty four industry report card ranks the top automakers in the world strictly by the numbers. You can find our video about it on the Auto Line website at
www dot autolne dot tv, or you can find it on our YouTube channel.
The report card looks at seven different categories that include revenue, operating profit, operating margin, profit per unit, vehicle sales R and D, spending, and quality. Then we rank the car companies by who did best in
each category, and then we combine all that to pick the best run automaker in the world. I think most of you will be surprised by who came
out on top. And sorry, no hints, You're gonna have to look
for yourself. That's the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in.
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