Tesla is preparing to launch the Cybertruck in China, navigating regulatory hurdles and aiming at affluent buyers despite pickup trucks being classified as commercial vehicles there. General Motors has ceased funding Cruise, folding it into its engineering division to focus on Super Cruise technology, marking a setback for autonomous vehicle startups. Major management shifts occurred at Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Hyundai, with Tim Kuniskis returning to Stellantis amid competitive challenges. In Japan, auto unions seek wage increases, while China’s car sales surged thanks to a government subsidy program facing potential expiration. Lamborghini also unveiled a limited-edition snowboard collaboration.
Topics:tesla cybertruck china launchgm ends cruise fundingautonomous vehicle industry shiftsautomaker management changestim kuniskis returnjapanese auto union wage demandschina car sales subsidyev export tariffslamborghini snowboard collaboration
- Tesla Cybertruck Heading to China? - GM Pulls the Plug on Cruise - Nissan Shakes Up Management - Mercedes Appoints Supplier Exec to Board - BMW CFO To Become Chairman of Supervisory Board - Hyundai Names Randy Parker New North American CEO - Kuniskis Ready To “Get Back in The Fight” - Japan Auto Unions Seek Higher Wages - Chinese OEMs Want to Extend Cash-For-Clunkers Program - Lamborghini Partners to Create A Snowboard
".... He'll be in charge of everything for Hyundai in Genesis in the US, Canada and Mexico, including sales, ma..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. John will be back tomorrow. I'm
filling in today.
Speaker 2: While big news here.
Speaker 1: Tesla's getting ready to sell the cyber truck in China.
Car News China reports that the truck just got an official energy consumption label from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. That's one of the first steps in getting
it homologated so it can go on sale there. But
Tesla is also working on modifications to meet Chinese regulations, especially for pedestrian protection. Pickups in China are not considered
passenger vehicles. They're classified as commercial vehicles, which has limited
their appeal, but the cyber truck could change that, at least amongst wealthy buyers who want a vehicle that really stands out, and that could be a windfall for Tesla.
Its stock was up nearly three percent in early morning trading. Now,
none of this means the cyber truck will actually go on sale there, but Tesla would not go through all these legal hoops unless it was serious about selling them in China. In a big blow to the autonomous vehicle sector,
General Motors pulled the plug on Cruise yesterday. It will
no longer fund the eighty startup and will fold the company into its existing engineering operations to concentrate on its hands free supercruise technology. GM had poured nine billion dollars
into Cruise and predicted that it would generate fifty billion dollars a year in revenue by the end of the decade, But as it faced having to invest billions more before a Cruise turned to profit, GM pulled the plug. Automakers
and suppliers are being extremely cautious with capital spending right now, as the industry is in the midst of a historic disruption in technology, trade, sale, and pricing. Honda, which was
an investor in Cruise and was going to launch robotaxi services in Japan using CRU's origin vehicles, is selling its piece of the company back to GM. This is a
dramatic turning point in av development. The car companies have
lost and the tech companies have won. Volkswagen and Ford
threw in the towel on avs about three years ago, and.
Speaker 2: The biggest survivors.
Speaker 1: In this space are Weimo and Zeus, which are part of Alphabet and Amazon respectively. Wow, something was going on Yesterday,
it was a game of musical chairs as four automakers announced major management changes. Nissan, which is watching its sales,
revenue and profits plummet, moved its CFO, Steven mad Over to its China operations and promoted the head of its North American operations, Jeremy Papan into the CFO position, and Christian Moon, who was running Infinity, was promoted to take Papen's place.
Speaker 2: And those are just the first steps.
Speaker 1: Nissan promises to announce more management changes in April. Mercedes
Benz also shoveled its board of management. Three board members
are leaving as their terms expire, and for new people will be added. That includes the CFO of Continental Olaf Schick,
who will join next October. That's a highly unusual move
for a car company to put a supplier exec on its board, but Shick worked for Mercedes earlier in his career, and presumably he'll step down from CONTI before returning to Mercedes.
BMW announced its CFO Nicholas Peter will become the chairman of the supervisory board next year, and Hyundai named Randy Parker as the CEO of its North American operations. He'll
be in charge of everything for Hyundai in Genesis in the US, Canada and Mexico, including sales, marketing, and manufacturing.
Up to now, Jose Munoz was in charge of all that, but he was just promoted to CEO of the Global Hyundai Motor Group, so Parker was named to run North America.
Yesterday we reported that Tim Kiniskus would return to Stilantis, but guess what, he was already there by the time the news broke. At a media event for the new
Ram heavy duty trucks yesterday, Caniscus made an unannounced appearance and declared he was ready to get back in the fight.
Speaker 2: Those are his words, he said.
Speaker 1: The first two weeks after he abruptly left the company had made were great, but then he quickly got bored.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 1: Some people told him to get a hobby, but he really wanted to get back into the industry, and he kept in touch with people at the company to keep track of what was going on. And he told the
small media gathering he came back because and I quote here, we're.
Speaker 2: Getting our ass kicked.
Speaker 1: He didn't say anything about Carlos Tavers and the Stella Coms people made sure he was not available for questions.
But it's pretty clear that with Tavera's gone, Kaniskus was ready to return.
Speaker 3: Knowing that a little rain won't slow down your day.
Speaker 1: That's what really matters.
Speaker 4: Bridgetone to runs a why attract hires confident control in wet conditions.
Speaker 1: Okay, over to Japan now, where Japanese auto unions want raises for their people, and they've got specific targets of what they want to get, and they especially want to boost wages for workers at smaller companies like suppliers. The
Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers, which has twelve unions in its group and seven hundred and eighty four thousand workers in total, wants pay raises of about eighty dollars a month or more during contract negotiations with Automaker's next spring.
That's about a five percent an increase in base pay for companies that have less than three hundred employees. Japanese
lawmakers are on board with this because those wage increases, especially at smaller companies, would help boost the economy. One
reason why car sales set a record in China last month is that the government has a cash for clunkers program.
China is giving out as much as two thousand, seven hundred dollars in subsidies for car buyers trading in an old vehicle, but that program ends at the end of the month. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers is begging
the government to keep it going because, thanks in part to the subsidy, China sold a record three point three million vehicles in November, a nearly twelve percent increase, and new energy vehicles accounted for forty seven percent, or one point five million.
Speaker 2: Of those sales. A key reason why automakers.
Speaker 1: Want the subsidy extended is the precipitous drop in ev exports, which felt twenty nine percent last month, mostly because of Europe's new tariffs on Chinese made eves, but other countries like Brazil and Mexico are also talking about raising tariffs on Chinese cars, and that could be a real problem for Chinese automakers. The export market is something of a
safety valve that's absorbing some of the excess manufacturing capacity in the country, and as exports fall, they need to sell more cars in China because if they can't do that, it's going to financially cripple the weak ones. For once
and for all you know. Sometimes automakers like to try
and extend the appeal of their brand by getting into areas that have nothing to do with cars, and now Lamborghini is playing that game. It partnered with snowboard maker
Cabita Snowboards and the Union Binding Company, which makes bindings for snowboards, to create a snowboard and bindings of its design.
The lightweight board features design lines inspired by Lamborghini's vehicle and it will be produced with one hundred percent clean energy at Capitis factory in Austria. And of course it's
going to have the Lambo name on it and the logo, and that means it's going to have a Lamborghini price.
The board costs one five hundred dollars, the bindings cost an extra five hundred dollars and only two hundred of them are going to be made. See you better get
in line right now.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: That brings us to the end of today's report. Thank
you for watching Autoline Daily.
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