GM and Hyundai are exploring a broad collaboration covering vehicle development, manufacturing, and clean energy technologies, aiming to leverage scale and reduce costs. Stellantis faces criticism from dealers and safety agencies over leadership decisions and vehicle safety, notably the Jeep Avenger's poor Euro NCAP rating. Denso plans a fully automated, worker-free plant in Japan, highlighting advances in manufacturing automation. Autonomous startup Neuro shifts focus to licensing its tech to automakers. Nissan and Fiat cut production amid inventory and demand challenges, while Volkswagen refreshes its Taos crossover. Chinese automaker BYD launches a level four autonomous sedan with subscription-based self-driving tech.
Topics:gm hyundai collaborationstellantis dealer conflictjeep avenger safetydenso automated factoryneuro autonomous tech pivotnissan production cutsfiat ev production pausevolkswagen taos refreshbyd level four sedanelectric vehicle market challenges
- GM and Hyundai Going to Collaborate - Stellantis' Dealers Attack CEO - Stellantis Lacks Safety Ambition - Denso Building Unmanned Assembly Plant - Nuro Drops AV Pods to License Tech - Nissan Trying to Get Inventory Under Control - Fiat Cuts 500e Production - VW Gives New Taos More Power - 1st Level 4 Passenger AV
"...ts that Nissan is cutting production of the Rogan Frontier. It says it wants to trim about forty thousand un..."
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Speaker 1: This is Underligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts up the global automotive industry, and we start off today with big news of a couple of giants coming together. GM
and Hyundai signed a memorandum of understanding to investigate ways they can collaborate on product development, manufacturing, and clean energy tech.
That includes codevelopment of passenger and commercial vehicles, internal combustion engines, and electric and hydrogen technologies. They also hope to leverage
each other's scale and could combine sourcing of materials for batteries and steel to drive down costs. GM and Hyundai
say they started looking for opportunities to collaborate as soon as they signed on the dotted line, so that means we don't know the true depth of their partnership yet.
Will it be more involved than GMS deal with Honda, for example, But the two sold roughly ten and a half million vehicles combined last year, so there's massive opportunities and it will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
Stillantas CEO Carlos Tavares hasn't been making very many friends in the autowindustry lately. He's been the source of attacks
by the UAW and its president. Multiple suppliers are suing
the company and have refused to ship parts, and now Stilantis's own dealers are attacking him. In an open letter
to Tavarres, the president of the National Dealer Council, which represents its dealer network in the US, said his quote short term decision making has led to shrinking market share and a degrading of the company's brands. It also urged
Stalantis to spend more money to clear inventory off of dealer lots. The company responded with its own statement, saying
that it takes quote absolute exception to the letter, doesn't believe in public personal attacks, and thinks such dialogue should only take place in its monthly dealer meetings. It also
said it already started addressing some of the National Dealer Council's complaints, but the Council said it's been sounding the alarm bells for two years end quote now that disaster has arrived. Stillantis is also facing criticism over the safety
of its vehicles. The euro En cap which crafts, tests
and rates the safety of vehicles in Europe, just gave the all electric Jeep Avenger a three star rating. It
says the model provided poor chess protection to a ten year old in the side impact crash test, and it criticized the company for not making a system that can detect a child's standard. The safety agency also says the
Avenger performed poorly in crash avoidance tests with pedestrians, motorcyclists and other cyclists. The euro en CAP was pretty harsh
at summary, is saying the test results demonstrate that Stilantis has a quote lack of ambition when it comes to safety, and while it acknowledges the company has had to cut costs recently to remain competitive, the euro ENCAP said, quote, safety should not be where a car manufacturer makes its savings.
The auto industry is pushing to make the manufacturing process more automated. We've seen several companies testing humanoid robots on
the assembly line, and now the supplier Denso, which is part of the Toyota Group, is going to open a plant in Japan without any workers. Denso says the plant,
which will make electronic control units, will be capable of twenty four hour unmanned operation. And it's not just manufacturing.
The unloading of materials and components transfers within The plant and packing of products for shipments will all be automated.
The factory will be monitored remotely by workers who will step in to make any repairs or take care of issues if necessary. Den So will start construction of the
four hundred and eighty million dollar facility this year, with production kicking off in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: So when we did our research for the talent that we need for this program, Michigan was really the top of the list. In order to be successful in this space,
you really have to have the right people, the right mindsets, the right environments.
Speaker 1: Autonomous startup neuro is switching up its business model. The
company was known for its small driverless delivery pods. You
may have seen some of the tests done by Uber Eads, FedEx, Walmart, and Kroger, But now it's pivoting to license its av tech to automakers and other mobility providers. The company says
it system can provide up to level four driving and believes the time is right for v personally owned vehicles to have autonomous capabilities. While no companies have signed up yet,
neuro says it's talked with automakers and other OEMs for the past twelve months. Nissan is trying to get its
North American operations under control. Inventory sword, so it boosted
incentives to increase sales, but that just cut into its revenue.
It did take Nissan's day's supply of vehicles from over one hundred and five days at the beginning of the year down to eighty three days, now only slightly higher than the national average of eighty one day supply, but inventory of a couple of key models are still higher than it would like them to be, so Automotive News reports that Nissan is cutting production of the Rogan Frontier.
It says it wants to trim about forty thousand units between this month and next, but dealers say production cunts won't solve their problems. Seventy percent of Nissan dealers earn
less profits this year and forty percent lost money. Nissan
has also seen its market share fall two percent in the last five years in the US, and the Rogan Frontier account for about forty percent of its sales right now.
And Nissan isn't the only company that's cutting production due to slumping demand. Fiat is pausing production of the Electric
five hundred for four weeks at its mere Fiori plant in Italy because of poor sales. Fiat blames the slowdown
in Evy demand in Europe for the production stoppage. Volkswagen
is showing off a refreshed version of its small crossover, the Tous. Front End styling updates include a new bumper design,
a new grill with an available light bart and standard LED headlights. The interior features a new dashboard design and
an eight inch infotainment screen that sits on top of the center of the dash The Taos is one and a half liter turbocharged four cylinder engine was updated, which boosts its power from one hundred fifty eight to one and seventy four horse power, and all wheel drive models are now equipped with an eight speed automatic transmission like front wheel drive versions, instead of a seven speed dual clutch trans The Taus goes on sale later this year in the US, and pricing will be revealed closer to
its launch. Chinese automaker Gui, which is a joint venture
between by Dew and gly is launching a new sedan called the seven that features by Due's Apollo autonomous driving system.
It's a bit of a landmark because it will be the first level four av going into volume production that regular people can buy. There's not a lot of details,
but it's a perception based system, which I think means it doesn't have any lightar Prices for the seven start just under thirty thousand dollars and go up to about forty two grand, but the self driving tech will be part of a monthly subscription or a one time payment, and the cost of that wasn't revealed yet. And just
a quick reminder before I sign off, there won't be a new Auto Line after hours today. Both John and
Gary are out of town, but they'll be back next week and that brings us to the end of today's show.
Thanks for tuning in.
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