Nissan faces pressure from an activist hedge fund demanding reforms amid declining sales, while VinFast's billionaire owner injects billions to sustain the EV startup despite rapid cash burn. The incoming Trump administration plans to freeze automotive emission standards and challenge California's zero-emission mandates, sparking potential legal battles. Cadillac unveils its new electric SUV Vistic with advanced features and global production plans. Buick upgrades its Century Van in China with luxury rear-seat options. Porsche launches regular bug bounty programs to enhance vehicle cybersecurity. Additionally, Stellantis secures graphite supply for EV batteries, Japanese makers develop hydrogen race cars, and Fiat introduces biofuel-capable hybrids in Brazil.
- Activist Hedge Fund Buys Into Nissan - VinFast Gets Cash Life-Line - Trump Appoints Zeldin to EPA - Cadillac VISTIQ EV Details - Buick Adds Upgrades to Luxurious CENTURY Van - Porsche Holding Regular Bug Bounty Programs - Stellantis Secures Graphite in North America - Japanese Hydrogen JV Goes Racing - Fiat Offers 12-Volt Mild Hybrid
"...xury vehicles, Buick is upgrading. Speaker 3: Its Century Van in China. Speaker 1: The area for the driver ..."
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Speaker 1: This is aut Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Shareholders in Nissan will love this,
but the top execs must be deeply worried. An activist
shareholder company that's part of a bigger hedge fund which invests in distressed companies just about two and a half percent of Nissan shares that sent the stock up more than twelve percent. But the hedge fund, called Afisimo, is
known for demanding structural reforms in companies that it thinks will make them more efficient. Nissan is clearly in trouble
with sales, revenue and profits continuing to fall, and the hedge fund will probably start demanding immediate changes, including to the executive ranks. Well, here's a familiar story. An EV's
startup is burning through cash it needs to raise billions of dollars to keep going. In this case, the evy
startup is VinFast, and it's fortunate that its billionaire owner is ready to pull the need of cash right.
Speaker 3: Out of his own pocket.
Speaker 1: Mister fam nat Voog, who owns vin Fast parent company, is putting another two billion dollars of his own money into the car company, and the parent company called vin Group JSC, is going to loan it nearly one point four billion, but vin Fast is spending money almost as fast as it's coming in. Mister Voog put a billion
dollars into the company in April, but by the end of June it only had ninety eight million dollars on the balance sheet. Vin Fast says it should reach a
break even point for its operations at the end of twenty twenty six, but at its current spend rate, it will need more cash infusions before then. The incoming Trump
administration plans to hit the ground running when it takes over in January, and Trump has already named who the new head of the EPA is going to be. It's
New York Congressman Lee Zelden. One of Zelden's promises is
to revitalize the auto industry, and one of his first steps will likely be to freeze automotive emission standards at their twenty twenty seven levels.
Speaker 3: That would ease the.
Speaker 1: Pressure off automakers, who, under the current mandate, need to have seventy one percent of their sales b BVS and pe house by twenty thirty two. Zelden will also probably
try to get rid of the waiver the EPA grants to the California Air Resources Board, which allows it to set its own zero emission vehicle mandates. As we reported yesterday,
Toyota says that standard is impossible to meet, but environmentalists will not take those kind of moves sitting down. They'll
likely launch lawsuits that could tie the EPA's hands for years to come.
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Speaker 1: Cadillacs share details about its new electric suv, the Vistic, which slots between the Lyric and Escalatic and is scheduled to launch next year. The first models to come out
will feature a one hundred and two kiloo hour battery pack that provides an estimated three hundred miles or four hundred and eighty two kilometers of range, along with a standard dual motor all wheel drive setup that produces six hundred and fifteen horse power and six hundred and fifty pound feet of torque. Other highlights include optional four wheel steering,
air suspension, and twenty three inch wheels, as well as a standard thirty three inch interior display screen and bi directional charging capability. Cadillac says the VISTIIC will be a
global ev with production starting early next year at GM's spring Hill plant in Tennessee and then likely going on sale later in the year as a twenty twenty six model.
It's set pricing a little under eighty thousand dollars including destination charges, but before any EV incentives. And speaking of
GM luxury vehicles, Buick is upgrading.
Speaker 3: Its Century Van in China.
Speaker 1: The area for the driver and front seat passenger is pretty nice, but the back seat is where you want to be, and that's where most of the upgrades were made.
There's the option for four, six and seven seat variants, with the four and six seat versions offering new Captains chairs that feature a new twelve layer structure, eighteen ways of adjustment, five zone heating with graphene heating technology, all electric legress, built in speakers, eighteen point massage function, and the ability to move back over twelve and a half inches or three hundred and twenty millimeters in the four seat version. On top of that, there's an available thirty
two inch TV that completely separates the front from the back, and even a lighting display in the roofliner that looks like a starry night. Starting prices for the Century ranged
from about sixty five thousand up to ninety seven thousand dollars.
Cybersecurity is a big concern in the auto industry, so to help protect its vehicles, Porsche is launching what it calls a bug Bounty program to find potential vulnerabilities. This
is an extension of a pilot program the automaker started last year where it hired more than two hundred hackers to find any issues in its products or its digital services, and Porsche saw enough success in that program that it's now going to hold these events on a regular basis.
Stilantis secured a US supply of graph fight for ev batteries in North America. The automakers signed a six year
deal with mining company Novo Nicks to supply it with eighty six thousand to one hundred and fifteen thousand tons of graph heights starting in twenty twenty six. Graph height
is used for the anode and EVY batteries, and the deal is enough to supply about one and a half million evs. Novo Nicks is headquartered in Australia, but its
operations are in the US and Canada. The miner is
gearing up to open a graph height facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which will have the capacity to produce twenty thousand tons a year. Novo Nicks also has a.
Speaker 3: Graphyte supply deal with Panasonic.
Speaker 1: Racing is a great way to test and develop technology, and a group of Japanese auto and motorcycle makers are working on a hydrogen powered race car to compete.
Speaker 3: With at next year's to Car rally.
Speaker 1: The joint venture called high C involves Toyota, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki and Denso. They already participated in this year's to
Car Rally with a supercharged liquid cooled inline four cylinder hydrogen powered engine, and they finished fourth in their category.
But for next year's event in January, they'll be racing an updated version of this year's car, with the goal of improving the vehicle's output in the high rev range, fuel consumption in the mid range, and to increase the capacity of the hydrogen tank. Fiat is taking an interesting
approach to cutting carbon emissions in Brazil. It's coming out
with hybrid versions of a couple of models it already sells, the Pulse and the Fastback that can also run on biofuel.
Speaker 3: The one liter engine is paired.
Speaker 1: With a seven speed CVT and a twelve volt motor that replaces the alternator and starter, which produces a combined one hundred and thirty horse power. When running on ethanol,
it reduces fuel consumption by about eleven percent. That brings
us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making
Audoline a part of your day.
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