Stellantis faces a potential major leadership shakeup as CEO Carlos Tavares's future is uncertain amid falling sales and internal pressures. The company may also relocate its North American headquarters. Fisker struggles with operational issues affecting its Ocean SUVs, sparking an SEC investigation. Meanwhile, automakers like GM and BMW show strong growth in electric vehicle sales despite overall declines. Stellantis plans to introduce the electric Ram 1500 in Europe, competing with Ford's Lightning. Toyota updates its hybrid system for off-road capability, and Renault expands its Twizy electric quadricycle market and Dacia brand with new models.
Topics:stellantis leadershipfisker operational issueselectric vehicle salesram ev europetoyota hybrid systemrenault twizy expansiondacia new modelsgm china ev salesseat belt remindersautomotive headquarters relocation
- Big Management Shakeup at Stellantis Expected - Stellantis Could Relocate U.S. Headquarters - Fisker's to Lose Cloud Connection - Automakers Make Progress with Seat Belt Reminders - GM NEVs Outsell ICEs in China for 1st Time - BMW's Q3 Sales Drop - Mercedes Hit by Poor Sales in EU and China - Ram EV Going to Europe - Toyota Off-Road Proofs Its Hybrid System - Renault Expands Twizy Market - Dacia Gets Bigger, Moves Upscale
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Gaily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We could know more about the
status of Stilanta's CEO, Carlos Tavares's future by the end of the week. Sales, profits, and the company's stock price
have dropped sharply this year. Tavares has also come under
fire from dealers, the UAW and the Italian government, and Stalantis's chairman publicly announced that it's actively looking for a replacement CEO, sixteen months before his contract expires. We said
this would put enormous pressure on Tavares to get things turned around and wondered if he will even make it to twenty twenty six. But one way or another, it
looks like changes are coming. Bloomberg reports that Tavares will
meet with the board this week, where he's expected to propose a big management shakeup, possibly including finance teams, regional heads, and brand executives. But the board is also expected to
discuss Tavares's future with the company, so it's possible that swings in any direction, but we should have a clearer picture soon. Earlier this year, General Motors announced plans to
relocate its headquarters to a new building in downtown Detroit, and Stillantis could also be on the move from its North American headquarters in suburban Detroit. Crane's Business Detroit reports
that Stalantis is in talks with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer about keeping its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Whitmer says
she has spoken frequently with CEO Carlos Tavares and that it's a top priority for her administration. Stillantis said it
appreciates the partnership with the governor, but it had no further comment at this time. Like GM, Stalantis is looking
for a new location because the number of employees working at its headquarters has dwindled significantly since the pandemic, so there's a lot of empty office space. More bad news
for Fisker. Despite already announcing its bankruptcy, the company keeps
running into issues, which mostly seems self inflicted. Not long ago,
it looked like Fisker had caught a break when rental company American Lease bought over three thousand Ocean SUVs, which cleared out most of its remaining inventory. American Lease paid
tens of millions of dollars for those vehicles, but said that it was just informed that it can't port or transfer each vehicle's information from Fisker servers. In other words,
once it goes fully under and all the lights are turned off, Ocean SUVs will no longer be connected to the cloud and won't get OTA updates, and remote access and diagnostics will not be available, so American Lease doesn't want them anymore. It says it doesn't know though, if
Fisker knew about this before, but since it already paid for those vehicles, we have a feeling that's what prompted the new SEC investigation into Fisker. I've got to imagine
existing Ocean owners are probably feeling or will feel the same way as American least does. Automakers have made significant
progress improving seat belt reminders, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS. It began rating the feature
in twenty twenty two, and in that first year, only seventeen percent of new vehicles tested earned a good rating, while sixty five percent were rated marginal or poor. But
just two years later those numbers have flipped. The IIHS
says sixty two percent of new vehicles that it has rated so far earned good ratings, while just twenty four percent were marginal or poor. To earn a good rating,
vehicles must have an audible reminder that lasts at least ninety sevenekends for unbuckled front seat passengers and thirty seconds for back seat passengers, along with a visual warning. Currently,
federal regulations only require an audible warning for four to eight seconds and a visual warning for sixty seconds. The
IIHS says if its standards were adopted, it would increase seat belt usage by thirty percent and save sixteen hundred lives a year.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal, hey light enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: For the first time ever, General Motors sold more electrified vehicles in China the gas powered ones. GM sold two
hundred and twenty four thousand BEVs and plugins, accounting for fifty three percent of its deliveries in China in the third quarter. That's also a sixty two percent gain compared
to a year ago. But while its electric vehicle sales
were strong, GM's overall sales in Q three dropped nineteen percent to four hundred and twenty six thousand units, and more than three quarters of those sales were from its joint venture with seic and Wooling. Cadillac, Buick and Chevy
accounted for less than one hundred thousand units, and it was a similar story for BMW in the third quarter.
It was able to boost EV sales while its overall sales feul. BMW including Mini sold more than one hundred
and three thousand BEVs globally in Q three, which is a ten percent increase, while its overall sales totaled about five hundred and forty one thousand units, down thirteen percent compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, BMW's German rival Mercedes
also had a tough time in the third quarter. The
automakers sold five hundred and ninety four thousand, six hundred cars in vans, which is down three percent from a year ago, and its BEV sales dropped thirty one percent to about one hundred and thirty six thousand units. Mercedes
was especially hurt by slow sales in Europe and China.
The Ford F one to fifty Lightning is going to get some more competition in Europe. Stalantis announced that it
will start selling the all electric RAM fifteen hundred RIV in Europe late next year. The Lightning is sold in
Norway and Switzerland, but it's not known what markets the electric RAM will be sold in or what its price will be. The only other electric pickup on sale in
Europe right now is the Maxis E Teha nine from China's SAIC, but it's a mid size truck, not a full size one. Ram already sells the fifteen hundred in Europe,
offering it with the turbo gasoline engine or with the hybrid, and Stalantis claims it's the best selling full size pickup in Europe, account for three quarters of full sized truck sales.
Toyota is coming out with an updated version of its hybrid system for big trucks and SUVs, first debuting in the refreshed Lexus LX. It's similar to the setup that
came out on the new Tundra in that an electric motor with a clutch is mounted between the engine and trans but it also added a starter and alternator on the engine, so if the hybrid system ever fails, they act like a backup and the vehicle can keep operating.
Lexis says this would be especially useful if that ever happened while off roading. In Since the LX is known
for its off road capability, engineers incase both the battery and the AC inverter in waterproof housing so the vehicle can still drive through rivers and streams. Lexis says the
new lex will start rolling out late this year. Renault
is trying to expand the market for the Twizzy. The
small two seed electric actually classified as a quadricycle in Europe, will now be offered under Renault's mobility brand Mobilize. The
standard version that you already know will be called the Duo, while another version with a small storage system on the back will be sold as the Bento. The models will
be sold to both retail and business customers through Renaul's dealer network, and they can be ordered as early as next week. Speaking of Renault, Dashia, its brand known for
small affordable cars, is adding bigger, more upscale vehicles to its lineup. The first is a C segment SUV called
the Big Ster. While it didn't say exactly what powers
the model, there will be hybrid setups and it will have a version with four x four capability. The interior
is highlighted by a ten point one in center top screen and a digital instrument cluster. No word when the
big Ster will launch just yet, but it will be followed by two other vehicles. And before we go, don't
forget to tune into Autoline after hours later today we'll be talking about things like GM killing off the Altium brand name and making our predictions for the Tesla Robotaxi event tonight, so don't miss the action at three pm Eastern Time. But that is it for today's show. I
hope to see you later.
Speaker 3: Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your Journey, Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air Engineering, Boost your Game, tajin Automotive Technologies, the Formula for Better Mobility, and by z f HI. I'm Don Hatfield from Intreping
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