AD #3983 - Auto Stocks Tank on Trump Tariffs; Chinese New Year Slows EV Sales; 1954 Mercedes F1 Car Fetches $54 Million

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. And we start out this week

with the global auto industry and turmoil, and it's all got to do with President Trump's tariffs. Stock prices of

virtually every single automaker and supplier were down after Trump announced on Saturday he's slapping terraffs on Canadian and Mexican cars and components, and the effect was global. European, Japanese, Korean, American, Canadian,

and Mexican automakers and suppliers all saw their stock prices fall by three to seven percent. The administration reportedly won't

start enforcing the tariffs until tomorrow, and that's when we expect to see the troubles really start. Some expect that

backups at the border could be horrendous, no doubt. Automakers

and suppliers have stockpiled parts in anticipation for this, but they probably only have another to fill about a week's worth of orders. And remember, if you have one critical

missing part, the line stops and then the whole plant shuts down, and then that ripples through the entire supply chain.

And the question is, how will the tariff be applied.

Is it a twenty five percent hit to anything imported from Canada or Mexico? Or will the tariff only apply

to the value that was added in Canada or Mexico.

If they are applied to any imported product, we think car prices could go up by an average of ten thousand dollars. If it's only to the value added, then

the increase could be more like three thousand dollars. But

most suppliers will not be able to absorb a twenty five percent increase on Canadian and Mexican materials and components, and unless they're customers the automakers agree to absorb those costs, we could see the suppliers shut down production. One thing's

for sure, no matter which way it goes, The industry is reeling from the president's actions. Last week, we reported

that the ACEA, the European automaker's lobbying group, was practically on its knees begging the European Union for relief from its CO two regulations, which it says is going to cost automakers fifteen billion euros in fines and compliance costs this year. Well, apparently the ACEA thinks the EU wasn't

listening closely enough, so it reiterated the warning again today and it doesn't want Brussels to spend any more time debating the issue. It demands action now, not months from now.

And speaking of Europe, it looks like European EV buyers are revolting against Elon Musk sticking his nose into the continence politics. Testleass sales plummeted sixty three percent last month

in France, while the rest of the EV market was only down one half of one percent. Last year, Tesla's

sales fell forty one percent in Germany compared to a twenty seven percent decline for the whole EV market, and they were down twenty five percent across the EU. Musk

has attacked the British and German governments on social media and is calling for right wing populist groups to take over.

While Tesla still has the highest EV sales in Europe, this doesn't bode well for the company. Stillant has made

a number of management changes that it says simplifies its organization.

Antonio Filosa will continue on as the head of the automaker's America's region and had his role expanded to include global chief of Quality, but he will no longer lead JEEP.

That title will go to Bob Broderdorf, who had been the head of JEEP North America. Former VW executive A

Laying Favey is now the head of POUGEOT. A new

marketing office has been created, which will be led by Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois. STILLANTIS is integrating AT Software

Activities into a new product development and technology organization that will be led by Chief Technology Officer Ned Currick. But

STILLANTIS chairman John Elkan says the autumaker is still in the process of appointing a new CEO to replace Carlos Tavares, who left the company at the end of last year.

A decision is expected to be made by the end of the first half of this year.

Speaker 2: Making the life full of memories, one road trip at a time, that's what really matters.

Speaker 3: Rigdone weather Peak Tires.

Speaker 2: With a seventy thousand mile women at warranty.

Speaker 1: Portia made an odd move over the weekend. In fact,

John says he can't remember this ever happening in his career.

On Saturday, it openly announced that it's trying to get rid of its board members in charge of finance and IT and sales and marketing. Porscha says the supervisory board

authorized its chairman to enter into discussions with the executives in hopes of coming to an amicable early termination of their roles, and that's it. Porsha didn't provide any other

details for why it wants to get rid of them.

While global sales were down last year, capped off by a nearly thirty percent drop in China, usually executives, even ones that aren't performing well, see a glowing review when they leave, and typically we don't hear about it until after the move has already been made. So that's why

the situation with Porsche seems so odd to us. While

Weei introduced its latest head up display that will provide drivers with more information, it has all your typical readouts as well as improve vision at night, and when combined with augmented reality, the HUT offers features like dynamic navigation.

But the real evolution is incorporating safety, where the HUD tracks other cars and pedestrians and can provide safety warnings to the driver. Improving safety is great, but do you

think Huawei has hit the point of too much information in the hud where it can actually become distracting to the driver. Let us know in the comments. The Chinese

New Year holiday slowed EV sales in January compared to the month before. Byd was number one with more than

two hundred and ninety six thousand sales of pehabs and evs.

That was down forty two percent compared to December, but it was up forty seven percent from the year before.

Jil was the only EV maker to post a monthly gain in January, with one hundred and twenty one thousand vehicles sold, up four percent from December and eighty three percent from a year ago. Jipong sold thirty thousand, three

hundred and fifty evs in January, just four hundred and twenty three more than Leatto, which made it the number one EVE startup. The charging port on all Taslas is

located on the back left side of the vehicle, which forces most owners to back into charging spots. Lucid CEO

and former Tesla chief engineer Peter Rollinson claims that when he was developing the original models, he wanted to place the charger on the front fender on the driver's side of the vehicle, but he claims that Elon Musk forced engineers to place the charger on the rear of the vehicle because it suited the layout of his garage. And

while Rolinson still prefers the charger on the front of the vehicle, Lucid is going to place the charging port on the upcoming gravity suv in the rear so it will be easier for owners to charge at Tesla's supercharger stations.

NASCAR's all electric prototype has a fresh new look. In

July of last year, revealed its first EV demonstrator vehicle, which has a seventy eight kilowat hour battery pack and three electric motors that can produce over one thousand kilowatts or about thirteen hundred and forty horse power while still using the steering suspension brakes in wheels from the current Cup Series car. Now it looks like NASCAR is getting

its race teams involved, and that vehicle has been converted to look like a Mustang mache. The original car was

developed with ABB Group, which is involved in the all electric racing series Formula E, and when it first debuted, I said, I think we're still a long way off from watching an ev NASCAR race, But does Ford's involvement make the project more legitimate? Let us know what you think.

And speaking of race cars, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum just sold a historic nineteen fifty four Mercedes Grand Prix car that went for almost fifty four million dollars. That's

the most any Grand Prix cars ever sold for The car was driven to victory by both Juan Manuel Fonngio and Sterling Moss in different races in the nineteen fifty five season. It's a W one ninety six R Streamliner.

The museum has owned it for fifty nine years and is selling it off along with ten other cars, to raise one hundred million dollars to refurbish its facilities. Next

up as a Ferrari two to fifty LM that won the nineteen sixty five twenty four Hours a Lama. It's

expected to go for thirty million. And here's a couple

of interesting points. None of the cars it's selling ever

raced that Indye and the IMS Museum is run separately from Penske Entertainment, which owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, And that brings us to the end of today's show thanks for tuning in.

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