AD #3957 - EU Automakers Start Raising ICE Prices; Mercedes Nears Critical Production Level; BYD Building Humanoid Robot Team

Speaker 1: This is out Ofligne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The European auto industry is

wrapping up a very tough twenty twenty four, but twenty twenty five could be even worse. European automakers are begging

the EU to ease up on fines for missing CO two targets next year. They're facing billions of euros and

fines at a time when they're struggling with a sluggish market, with investments in evs that are not paying off, and with Chinese competition that's capturing a growing chunk of the market.

To meet those CO two standards, European automakers have to have evs account for twenty percent of their sales by January first, but EV sales are down five percent this year and only account for thirteen point two percent of all the vehicles sold in Europe. The ACEA, which represents

Europe's automakers, says the industry fi is up to fifteen billion euros and fines, with nearly half of that going to Volkswagen. So BW, Stalantis and Renault have raised the

prices of their ice vehicles by several hundreds of euros to deliberately close the price gap with evs and to push more customers into electrics. They're also going to buy

a mission credits called pooling from Teslavalvo and SAIC to avoid the fines.

Speaker 2: But whether they're buying the credits or.

Speaker 1: Paying fines, it's still going to cost them billions, which is coming at the worst possible time, and besides the massive fines it faces, Vokeswagen is in a last ditch effort to hammer out an agreement with its unions in Germany to try and avoid a strike. If they can't

come to a conclusion by this Friday, the unions promised to start a series of strikes against the company next month.

We think that will happen because the union says that any plant closings are unacceptable, and the company says it can't survive without closing at least three of those plants. Meanwhile,

the top labor rep at Mercedes Benz warns that if production drops below two million vehicles a year, it will be fatal for the company in the long run. Right now,

Mercedes is barely on track to sell two million vehicles this year. The company has prioritized profits over market share,

but now labor representatives on the board of supervisors want Mercedes to do what it needs to boost sales and market share. A German Canadian resident of China was just

sentenced to two years in prison by the US Department of Justice for stealing trade secrets from Tesla.

Speaker 2: He pleaded guilty in June.

Speaker 1: To conspiring with his business partner to sell Tesla's battery secrets to undercover FBI agents. The partner was also charged,

but he remains at large. Weimo is expanding to more

US cities and now it's going global. The autonomous right

hailing company will test a small fleet of self driving Jaguar eepaces in Tokyo early next year, which will initially map key areas of the city.

Speaker 2: The company partnered.

Speaker 1: With Nihan Katsu, Tokyo's largest taxi company, which will oversee the management and maintenance of the vehicles. Weimo says this

will help its system learn how to adapt to traffic that drives on the left and how to operate in one of the most densely packed cities in the world.

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Speaker 1: We've already noted the massive growth tear that BYD is on, and it's getting into another area that's expected to explode, robots.

Carnoo's China reports that BYD is actively trying to build a team that will develop the technology needed for humanoid robots.

BYD has already invested in Chinese company Ubi Tech walker s robot and tested it in a manufacturing setting, so it probably saw some benefits from those trials.

Speaker 2: But it's not just BYD.

Speaker 1: Ubtech has also worked with Audi, BMW, Dong Funk, faw Gilian Neo Tesla is famously developing its Optimist robot. Hyundai

now owns Boston Dynamics which is working on a robot called Atlas that Toyota is also testing, and even the supplier Magna is planning to try them. In manufacturing, Toyota

is trying to light a fire under its EV sales.

It's offering even more deals on the BZ four X in the US. Last week we reported that some regions

were slashing lease prices from seventy five hundred to ten thousand dollars, as well as offering zero percent APR, and now Toyota is cutting the starting price at twenty twenty five models. An xal E version starts at roughly thirty

eight thousand, five hundred dollars including destination charges, which is six thousand dollars cheaper than before, while higher trim models get about five four hundred dollars off their starting price.

The twenty twenty five BZ four X should start arriving at dealers right around the time Trump officially takes office and likely gets rid of the federal EV tax credit.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, every four and automaker abandoned the market, and then the Chinese rushed in and now they dominate in Russia. So Russia wants to develop its own vehicle

platform within the next three years, and most of the funding for the nine hundred million dollar project has already been approved by the Russian Parliament. It will be a

modular architecture that supports different body types and sizes, as well as different powertrains, including hybrids in all electrics. Some

estimate it will create more than three hundred thousand jobs, but others say production would need to be in the four hundred to five hundred thousand unit range, so we think it's hard to see a path where the Chinese don't continue to take over the Russian market. Nissan and

one of its joint venture partners are introducing a new pickup in China. The truck is called the Z nine,

and while it's said to be built on an all new off road platform, we think it's a modified version of the Nissan Navara or Frontier pickup.

Speaker 2: They're roughly the same size, and the Z.

Speaker 1: Nine uses the same diesel as the Nevara, as well as a two liter turbocharged gas engine. There's also talks

about hybrids in the future. Nissan has tried selling pickups

in China with its joint venture partners, but those models retain their Nissan styling and tech, So with its overall sales falling in the country, it looks like Nissan is at least turning to more local styling. Mercedes has been

approved in Germany to raise the speed limit for its Level three hands free driving system. It previously only worked

up to sixty five kilometers an hour or about forty miles an hour, but now it will operate up to ninety five kilometers an hour or fifty.

Speaker 2: Nine miles an hour.

Speaker 1: However, customers will have to wait until the spring of next year for the upgrade to be sent out. A

similar update is expected to be made in the US.

The Level three tech is available on some models in California and Nevada, but there's no timeline for.

Speaker 2: That rollout yet.

Speaker 1: And that brings us to the end of today's show.

Thanks for tuning in.

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