The episode covers major automotive industry disruptions due to new US policies under President Trump, including proposed 25% tariffs on vehicles and parts from Canada and Mexico, threatening automakers like GM, Ford, VW, and BMW. It also discusses the uncertain future of the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, Hyundai's plans for electric rickshaws in India, and the launch of an electric KRETA crossover. Additionally, Nissan's job cuts and halted merger talks with Honda are highlighted, along with the passing of influential auto planner Hal Sperlich.
Topics:us tariffs on imported vehiclesford f-150 lightning productionhyundai electric rickshawsnissan job cutshonda-nissan merger talkselectric vehicle subsidiesbattery manufacturing expansioneuropean vehicle sales trendshal sperlich legacyford ranger off-road china
- Trump Threatens New Tariffs on Cars - German OEMs Have Huge Mexico Exposure - Trump Freezes EV Charging Spending - EU Auto Industry Shows Little Signs of Recovery - Honda: No Merger with Nissan Until It Turns Around - Ford F-150 Lightning Likely Getting Axed - New Off-Road Ranger Debuts in China - CATL to Build Plant with EU OEM - Hyundai's New-Age Electric Rickshaw - Hyundai Launching 1st Made-In-India EV - Hal Sperlich Dies at 95
"...n he was at Ford. He also was behind the original Ford Fiesta in nineteen seventy six, but Spurlick was fired b..."
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Speaker 1: This is online daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Donald Trump was sworn in as
the forty seventh president of the US yesterday, and he's coming in blazon with policies that will be highly disruptive for the automotive industry. First, Trump is promising to put
twenty five percent tariffs on vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico by February first, and the tariffs will also apply to imported components. If that's a bargaining ploy, then Canada
and Mexico.
Speaker 2: Only have ten days to work out a solution.
Speaker 1: Stillantes imports forty percent of the vehicles it sells in the US from Mexico. GM imports about thirty percent and
Ford about twenty five percent, and Wolf Research says the terraffs will raise the prices of all vehicles by about.
Speaker 2: Three thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Volkswagen and BMW are also deeply worried. VW's assembly plant
in Puebla, Mexico, makes about three hundred and fifty thousand vehicles a year, most of which are exported to the US.
Analysts say those vehicles, the Jetta, Teguan and Taos would not be priced competitive with a twenty five percent tariff.
Audi makes about one hundred and seventy five thousand Q fives in Mexico, and about seventy six percent of those are exported to the US. BMW's plant in San Luis
Potic makes about one hundred and seventy five thousand two and three series and M two's a year, and about sixty percent of those are exported to the US.
Speaker 2: BMW also wants to make its.
Speaker 1: New class evs there, or at least it did until Trump threatened the tariffs. Mercedes was making the GLB Compact
SUV in Mexico as part of a joint venture with Nissan, but that operation was announced to close last year. Trump
got rid of President Biden's Executive Order as well, which would have required fifty percent of all light vehicles sold in the US by twenty thirty to be electrics. On
top of that, Trump frows all the unspent money that's being allocated to build public charging stations. He wants to
repeal the waiver that the EPA grants to the California Air Resources Board, which has set its own zero emission vehicle mandates that eleven other states have adopted, and he says he's considering eliminating the seventy five hundred dollars subsidy for people who buy evs, But so far Trump hasn't said anything about the subsidies to build EV battery factories, something the auto industry has been lobbying hard to protect.
And it's no wonder that German OEMs are so worried about Trump's tariffs affecting their business in North America. They're
also getting clobbered in China, and the European market is barely growing. The ACEA reports that new vehicle sales in
the greater European market came in at only twelve point nine million units, up less than one percent last year.
Sales of evs dropped one point three percent to one point nine million vehicles, and gas, diesel and p have sales were all down, although hybrids were up a strong nineteen percent, which pushed Toyota to the biggest gain of all the large manufacturers. Honda told Nissan there won't be
any merger between the two companies until Nissan gets its business turned around, so Nissan will acts nine thousand jobs, mostly in production, and cut production by twenty percent. One
of the models that's getting dropped is Nissan's ad Compact Van.
Speaker 2: It's made and shown in Japan and only.
Speaker 1: Accounts for seven thousand out of the one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles the factory builds every year, and with issues like this started to get cleared up, Honda and Nissan are expected to announce a framework for negotiations later this month.
Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hiy light enough, but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: There may not be a next gen fully electric F one fifty. According to Auto four Cast Solutions, the current
F one to fifty Lightning will go out of production at the end of June in twenty twenty seven, and it doesn't show a new model picking up again after that.
There will be a next gen F one fifty coming about a year later in twenty twenty eight, so it is possible there's an electric version of that truck, but the Lightning has been a bit of a flop for Ford.
When the truck was originally announced with a roughly forty thousand dollars price tag, Ford snatched up hundreds of thousands of orders, but the starting price is much higher.
Speaker 2: Which has had an impact.
Speaker 1: Ford cut production and shifts at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, and for all of last year it's sold about thirty three five hundred Lightnings. On top of that, Ford's CEO,
Jim Farley previously said that large evs are not profitable because of the cost of their bigger batteries.
Speaker 2: However, it's not just Ford.
Speaker 1: No automaker has been able to sell full size electric pickups in decent volumes yet. But speaking of Ford pickup trucks,
the automaker is launching a new off road version of the Ranger in China.
Speaker 2: The model is called the.
Speaker 1: FX for sand Fox Special Edition and it features a number of upgrades like Fox dual valve shocks, a rear watts link suspension set up, locking diffs, beadlock wheels, and it even has an engine snorkel. Power comes from either
a gas or diesel two point three liter engine. The
gas version is paired to a ten speed transmission, while the diesel gets an eight speed unit. Pricing comes in
just under forty thousand dollars, which is nearly double what a base Ranger costs in China, while pickup sales in China are nowhere near where they are in the US due to some restrictions. The Ranger has been on sale
in the country since twenty eighteen. Chinese battery makers COTL
is expanding in Europe. It announced a new joint venture
to open a new battery plant in Europe with a local automaker, but the company didn't reveal which automaker or where the plant will be located. Ctl already has two
battery plants in operation in Europe, one in Germany and another in Hungary, and last month it formed a partnership with Stilantis to open a battery factory in Spain which will produce fifty gigawatt hours of LFP batteries a year.
Hyundai is exploring the possibility of new electric three wheel and four wheeled vehicles for India, or what I would describe as new age tuk talks or rickshaws.
Speaker 2: It says it.
Speaker 1: Will look into their potential and based on those findings, it will determine if the project will move ahead. Hundai
would do all the design, engineering and supply the tech, while another company called TVs Motor, which is based in India and makes scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws, would take care of the manufacturing and marketing of the vehicles. The four
wheeler is also being looked at for global markets, but Hondai is also going after the small crossover segment in India with electrics.
Speaker 2: It's launching its first.
Speaker 1: Made in India EV and all electric version of the KREDA, of which the IC version is already Hondi's best selling model in the country.
Speaker 2: The EV features either a forty two or.
Speaker 1: Fifty one point four kilowat hour battery which provides up to four hundred and seventy three kilometers or nearly three hundred miles of range. Power comes from a single electric
motor that produces roughly one hundred and thirty five horse power or nearly one hundred and seventy horses in the version with the bigger battery pack. The Kredit Electric will
start at just over twenty thousand dollars in India, and Hyundi believes it will expand the appeal of the small crossover even more. Hal Spurlick, one of the greatest product
planners in the history of the auto industry, has passed away at the age of ninety five. He played a
key role in coming up with the idea to do the nineteen sixty four Mustang when he was at Ford.
He also was behind the original Ford Fiesta in nineteen seventy six, but Spurlick was fired by Henry Ford the second and then went over to Chrysler, where he created the K cars that saved the company and created the minivans which made the company very profitable. Spurlck went on
to become President of Chrysler, was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame, and left a lasting mark on the US auto industry. And we here at Auto Line salute
all the contributions that he made. But that brings us
to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline
a part.
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