Tim Kuniskis returns to lead Ram amid leadership shake-ups at Stellantis, while Porsche cuts a third of its China dealerships due to steep sales declines. Tesla shifts focus to the Chinese market, launching a new affordable model and robotaxi service next year. Ford boasts a record Nurburgring lap with the Mustang GTD. European battery production struggles, prompting partnerships with Chinese firms. Toyota expands its Forerunner lineup with hybrid powertrains and multiple trims, emphasizing off-road and luxury variants. Shipping costs for vehicles are dropping, signaling changes in global logistics.
Topics:stellantis leadership changesram brand managementporsche china dealership cutstesla china market strategytesla robotaxi launchford mustang gtd nurburgring lapeuropean ev battery challengestoyota forerunner updateglobal vehicle shipping costselectric vehicle market competition
- Kuniskis Back Running Ram - Porsche Axes A Third of China Dealers - Tesla Diverts Exports to Sell More in China - Xiaomi YU7 SUV Targets Tesla MY - Ford Mustang GTD Laps Nurburgring Under 7 Min - Tesla to Launch All-New Model Next Year - EU Losing EV Battery Race to Chinese - Stella To Partner with CATL For Batteries in Spain - Shipping Cars Gets Cheaper - Toyota Expands 4Runner Line-Up
"...an manufacturer. So take that Tesla, Corvette and Camaro. But like they say in those commercials, wait the..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. I'm filling in for Sean today,
who's out on a media launch with one of the car companies. How's that old adage go, When one door
slams shut, another one pops open. Well, that just happened
at Stilantis. Carlos Taveres stepped out as CEO last week,
and yesterday Tim Kaniskus stepped back in, not as CEO of the company, but his CEO of RAM. Earlier this year,
Canuscus abruptly left the company along with a string of other execs who apparently did not get along with mister Taveres.
But with the company melting down in front of its eyes, the bord of directors decided it needed a proven winner back running what is probably the most profitable brand in the company. Dealers loved Canuscus and what he did for
the Ram and Dodge brands and are thrilled to see him back. And of course everybody in the industry is
now wondering will some of those other execs who got pushed out now make their way back to the company. Okay,
let's jump over to China, where Porsche is taking drastic action to prop up its operations as sales are falling at an alarming rate. Last year, sales fell fifteen percent.
This year they're down by nearly thirty percent. So Porscha
is getting rid of one third of its dealerships in China, which will leave it with only one hundred stores there.
Dealers have been desperate to try to move the metal, discounting some cars as much as thirty five percent, and the last thing Porscha needs is a bunch of unprofitable dealers competing against each other to see who can cut prices the fastest. In Germany, yesterday, Porsha announced it's going
to make YouTube available as a standard feature in almost most of its models. That will help attract younger buyers
to the brand, but it's not going to help it in China since YouTube and all other Western social media on the Internet is blocked by the Great Firewall of China.
And while we're in China for the moment, Tesla seems to be worried that it's losing its standing in the world's largest car market as Chinese competitors eat into its market share, and so it's diverting cars that were to be exported to be sold in China instead. Last month,
Tesla's exports from China fell eighty one percent from the prior month and are down sixty eight percent from a year ago. Tesla is China's ops usually concentrate on exports
in the first half of a quarter and on the domestic market in the second half. But clearly Tesla is
concentrating on the China market earlier than it normally does.
And just to show you some of the competition that Tesla faced in China, Shaomi is going to launch its first SUV next year and it's clearly targeted at Tesla's model Y. Keep in mind that ninety percent of Tesla
sales in China are with the model hy, so this is a serious threat. Shaumi will launch the Yu seven
today and n suv with base prices under thirty thousand dollars.
And you'll remember it was a version of Shaumi's su seven called Ultra that smashed the Tesla Model s Plaid's lap time at the nurber Gring just a couple of months ago. Speaking of the Nurburgring, the Mustang GTD just
lapped the track in less than seven minutes, which is something of a gold standard for performance cars. Specifically, it
turned in a lap of six minutes, fifty seven seconds and six hundred and eighty five thousands of a second.
Ford was quick to brag that was the fastest time ever from an American manufacturer. So take that Tesla, Corvette
and Camaro. But like they say in those commercials, wait
there's more. Ford CEO Jim Farley said, we are not satisfied.
We know there's much more time to find. With Mustang GTD,
we'll be back.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal. Hey light enough, but
with world class composite material Taging Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: Tesla is head of investor relations. Travis Axelrod revealed some
interesting details about its low cost model and Robotaxi at a meeting yesterday with Deutsche Bank. The company confirmed it
will launch its robotaxi service in California and Texas next year.
It will be a company owned fleet that will at least initially be backed by human tell operators for safety and redundancy purposes. Tesla will also develop its own app
for the ride healing service. Axelrod also told Deutsche Bank
that it will launch another model in the first half of next year that starts below thirty thousand dollars, but that includes subsidies. Deutsche Bank referred to the EV as
the Model Q, but that's not its official name. The
company is also planning a long wheelbase, three row version of the Model Y, but that's only for China. Tuesla
expects that new models will increase its volumes by twenty to thirty percent over the next year. The European Union
is desperate to be a player in the EV battery business and not have to depend on China, but so far its efforts are failing. As we've been reporting, the
North Volt battery plant is going bankrupt. Bloomberg reports that
eleven out of the sixteen European owned battery plants have been delayed canceled. Meanwhile, ten out of thirteen planned battery
plants from Asian companies, mainly from China, are on track to open. European battery companies are struggling to ramp up
production and they cannot match prices with the Chinese. So
now European automakers are starting to partner with Chinese battery companies Stalantis and CATL announced a joint venture to build lithium iron phosphate batteries at a Stalantis facility in Spain.
The four point one billion euro plant that's about four point three billion dollars. We'll start producing batteries at the
end of twenty twenty six and could reach up to fifty gigawatt hours of capacity. The automaker says. The batteries
will be used to power passenger vehicles in the B and C segments of its lineup. You know it's getting
a lot cheaper to ship cars around the world. According
to Clarks and Research Services, rates for ships that can carry six five hundred vehicles dropped below one hundred thousand dollars per day for the first time since September of twenty twenty two, and prices are expected to continue to slide over the next few years because the fleet of car carrying ships will grow twelve percent next year, while demand for those ships is only expected to grow one percent.
Toyota released the specs this morning on its update of the fore Runner. This is the sixth generation of the
suv and it's expanding the line with a hardcore off road version called the Trail Hunter, and an upscale version called Platinum. You know, at a time when most of
the industry is trying to eliminate as many build variations as possible to simplify their manufacturing operations, Toyota is going in the opposite direction. The Forerunner is now available in
nine different models, and to cash in on Toyota's dominance with hybrids, the fore Runner gets a two point four liter termrmohybrid as its standard engine. It cranks out two
hundred and seventy eight horse power and three hundred and seventeen pound feet of torque and gets an EPA rating of twenty six miles per gallon on the highway. But
if that's not enough power for you, there's a more powerful version of that engine, which delivers three hundred and twenty six horse power and four hundred and sixty five pound feet of torque and also delivers six thousand pounds of towing capacity. Prices start a bit over forty two
thousand dollars for the base models and top out over sixty eight thousand dollars for fully loaded versions. Anyway, that
brings us to the end of today's report. Thanks for
making Outline Daily a part of your day, and check in again tomorrow when we'll have more breaking news of what's going on in the global automotive industry.
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