AD #3848 - Rivian Can’t Get IRA Money Thanks To UAW; Jaguar Drops Everything But F-Pace; Italy Could Confiscate Brands From Stellantis

This is aut Aligned Daily, the shows dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. In what we think is a stunning development, the Italian government is

threatening to take a couple of car brand names from Stalantis and give them to Chinese car companies if they build cars in Italy. The brands the government wants

to take are Auto Bianci and Inocenti, which have not been in use since the nineteen nineties, but they're still remembered fondly and that could help Chinese automakers to get instant name recognition. An Italian law that came into effect last December

allows the government to take over brands that have not been used for five years.

The government pressured Stilantis to increase production in Italy to a million units a year, which the company said it would do but not without outside help, and last year it fell well short of that million, making seven hundred and fifty ffty two thousand cars in Italy. So it sure looks like the government

is making this threat to put more pressure on Stlantis. Tesla is delaying its

Robotaxi event by two months. Several months ago. Elon Mussa Tesla would unveil

the model on August eighth, but Bloomberg reports that the event has been delayed until October so Tesla can build more prototypes. According to people familiar with the

decision, the design team working on the project was told to change certain elements of the vehicle. Optimism over the event helped fuel an eleven day surge of

Tesla stock, which added two hundred and fifty seven billion dollars to its market cap. But Tesla stock fell eight point four percent yesterday due mostly to the

delay, which is the largest drop it's seen since January. It looks like

VW's Carriad unit still can't get its future software system figured out. According to

Germany's Manager magazine, the Volkswagen Board made the decision last week to delay a couple of vehicles that are supposed to be built on its new SSP platform.

It says there's several reasons for the delay, but it still includes software issues.

The EV version of the Golf has been pushed back by fifteen months and won't launch until twenty twenty nine, and a large SUV called the T Sport was pushed back by three years to twenty thirty one. SSP was supposed to

replace all of its other platforms, but it looks like VW might have to stick with what it's got for a while longer. And it also likely helps

explain why it's investing up to five billion dollars in Rivian to get access to its software tech. But Rivian also needed to make that deal. It not

only helps ensure that the startup has the cash to launch its R two models as well as resumed construction of its plant in Georgia, but the automaker is having a hard time secure funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act because of its relationship with the UAW. Bloomberg reports that US Department of Energy officials told Rivian

it would need to take a friendlier position with the union if it expects to receive federal funds. As you can probably guess, Rivian's workforce is currently not

unionized, but Bloomberg says it's not exactly clear what the DOE means by friendlier.

It could include some public statement or action that would indicate Rivian is open to a union. There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but

with world class composite material taging Automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter safer and more eco friendly. We're really enjoying the diversity. At this year's Goodwood Festival, which

kicked off yesterday in England. Several Chinese companies include BYD's ultra luxury brand Yangwan,

are there. Gascou Report's attendees were treated to a dance show from the

U nine thanks to its Desust technology, which is an active suspension system that allows it to do wild stuff like even jumped slightly off the ground. And

while many of the vehicles that compete in the Festival of Speed our supercars like the U nine, Ford took the opportunity to reveal the Raptor T one plus, a totally tricked out to car racer that's powered by a modified five liter Coyote V eight. It's not going to be sitting around for long either.

Its first official race is in less than a month at a Baja event in Hungary. But our personal favorite comes from Audi. It built the recreation of

a car from the nineteen thirties whose development never got much pasted a piece of paper. The Auto Union Type fifty two was to be marketed as the Schnell's

sports Wagon and was me to be like a street legal version of the famous Auto Union Silver Arrow Grand Prix cars, but it would still be able to be used for endurance races like lam or the Million Millia. The new version

is over five meters or more than seventeen and a half feet long, weighs fourteen hundred and fifty kilograms or about thirty two hundred pounds, and like the original was supposed to have, it features a supercharged sixteen cylinder engine, but this one has six leaders of displacement and produces about five hundred and twenty horsepower.

It's a bit of a shame it took over ninety years to build it, but I'm happy that someone took the time to do it. Jaguar is

blowing up its lineup. Automotive News reports it's cutting five models, the X

and XF sedans, the F Type, and the Epace and Ipace. Only

the F Pace crossover will remain. Jaguar is transitioning to an all electric brand

and plans to introduce three evs in the next three years, the first of which is supposed to be introduced next year. Jaguar CEO Adrian Mardell told investors

that it's cutting the models because none of them made money. Which will help

boost its margins. But Jaguar isn't the only automaker chopping vehicles from its lineup.

Nissan is dropping most of its sedans in the US. Production of the

Maxima ended last year. Production of the Versa is scheduled to end in April

of twenty twenty five, and there's no plan for a next gen version.

Production of the Ultima will end in twenty twenty six, and Nissan is undecided if it will make a new one, and that means the Centro will be the only sedan in Nissan's US lineup until it introduces an electric sedan early next decade. However, it's not surprising Nissan is hanging on to the CenTra.

It was the second best selling vehicle in its lineup in the first half of the year, with nearly ninety thousand sold. Toyota's GR eighty six has a

lot of street cred amongst enthusiasts, and Gazoo Racing just sweetened the package.

It used feedback from professional race drivers to make the car better planted, have better steering response, and better linearity. Specifically, it changed the shock absorber

damping characteristics, gave the electric power steering crisper response, modified throttle response for manual transmissions allowed higher res during downshifts with automatic transmissions, and engine torque was changed for better blipping. But now for the bad news, these upgrades are

only available in Japan for now. Gazoo is also coming out with a limited

edition eighty six with green and bronze accents that looks sensational. Just two hundred

will be built and there's a lottery in Japan to see you will get some on Autuline after hours yesterday, Rick Wainshow from a company called Cloud Theory pointed out that the EPA rule change a couple of months ago on how much market share electric vehicles have to reach now really benefits automakers who have a lineup of paebs and hybrids and hurts those who do not. With the change in the

regulatory picture that occurred in March that now instead of a sixty seven percent EVY target of production in twenty thirty two, that was relaxed to thirty five percent, and phebs were a bigger proportion of where the industry needed to go.

Now, all of a sudden, the competitive dynamics shifted greatly, so all the traditional OEMs that have very well developed hybrid lineups. Toyota for the most

part, Toyota's very well developed there, but Hyundai, Ford, Honda, Stilantis they were in a better position because they had a secondary path to meet these regulatory requirements. Now, all of a sudden, Tesla and Rivian,

which are you know that they have one path to follow. They're you know,

in Tesla's case, they're the eight hunder punk Corolla of evs. But

they still only had one one card to play because they can't go down the hybrid path Wayinshill had a lot of good intel to share with us, and you can catch that entire show on our website or YouTube channel. That brings

us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of

your day and I hope that you have a great weekend. Autoline Daily is

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AD #3848 - Rivian Can’t Get IRA Money Thanks To UAW; Jaguar Drops Everything But F-Pace; Italy Could Confiscate Brands From Stellantis

Volkswagen Golf

F-150 Raptor

Jaguar Ipace

Nissan Maxima

Toyota Corolla

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