The discussion covers several pressing issues in the global automotive industry, including potential US tariffs on steel and aluminum that could impact automakers, and a looming shakeout in China's overcrowded car market with state-owned companies considering mergers. European automakers may get temporary relief on CO2 fines through regulatory tweaks. Nikola, the electric semi-truck startup, faces potential bankruptcy. Chinese automakers are integrating AI tech, while Nio nears profitability with its battery swapping network. New electric commercial vans from Renault and Volvo and Ford's Delivery Assist tech for European transit vans also highlight innovation in commercial vehicles.
Topics:us tariffs on steel and aluminumchina auto industry shakeouteuropean co2 emission regulationsnikola bankruptcy riskchinese automakers ai integrationnio battery swapping profitabilityelectric commercial vansford delivery assist technologychinese cars in russiaauto industry mergers
- Trump to Hit Canada, Mexico With Steel and Aluminum Tariffs - Big Shakeout About to Begin in China - EU OEMs Get Some CO2 Relief, Sorta - Nikola Teetering on Bankruptcy - Russians Complain of Crummy Chinese Quality - DeepSeek Taking China Cars by Storm - Nio Battery Swapping Almost Profitable - Renault-Volvo Unveil EV Vans - Ford Launches New Tech to Help Delivery Drivers
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Speaker 1: This Zudoline Gaily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. President Trump's tariff threats are back. He
says he's gonna slap twenty five percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, particularly on Mexico and Canada. The US
imports more steel from those two countries than anywhere else, and when it comes to aluminum, the US imports about half of all the aluminum it uses, of which Canada is number one and Mexico is number three, behind the United Arab Emirates. Though Trump did not say when the
tariffs will go into effect, they would immediately raise prices across the industry and that would have a significant impact on automakers and suppliers. But let's see how this plays out.
Trump imposed the same twenty five percent tariffs in his first term, but then he got rid of them as part of the negotiations for the USMCA free trade Deal.
Now let's move over to China, where we could be seeing signs of a major shakeout of the auto industry.
China has too many car companies making too many cars, with too many brands and too many models. This is
a key reason why a price war broke out, why automakers are leaning so heavily on exports the domestic market simply can't absorb all that production, And even more worrying is that sales trends suggest that the Chinese market is no longer growing now. Two state owned automakers, dong Fung
and Chang'an, have announced that they are restructuring and are exploring mergers with other state owned automakers. Since these statements
came out at the same time, there's speculation that they're going to merge with each other, and since the central Chinese government owns both companies, it would undoubtedly be the force pushing for the merger. This could be a sign
that the big shakeout in the Chinese industry that everyone's been expecting for years is starting to happen. European automakers
have been begging for relief over massive CO two finds that they face this year, and it looks like they could get some help thanks to some tricky regulatory massaging.
Rather than cut back on CO two standards, the EU is proposing a change in the way that automakers can bank and borrow emission credits. It would give them more
flexibility to try and avoid fines this year, but it also kicks the ramp up down the road. Automakers would
have to reduce emissions even more in future years to make up for their shortfall now, and with ev demand slowing in Europe, that would be difficult to do. It
seems very likely that the EU will have to come up with yet another solution sometime next year. Electric sem
My Trucks startup Nicola is in trouble. Last month, we
reported that the company is exploring a number of possibilities to raise cash, including selling part or all of the company, and it's also considering partnerships. But it doesn't look like
Nikola is having much luck because Bloomberg reports that the company is now working with a law firm and financial advisors to potentially file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy, but the company hasn't made a final decision yet. Nikola needs to
find a solution fast, though, because last October it revealed it only has enough funds to operate through the first quarter of this year.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composit material taging, automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: After Rush invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two, most Western automakers left the market, and Chinese car companies quickly filled the void. There are now sixty Chinese brands selling
vehicles in Russia, and they account for nearly half of all car sales in the country. But a Russian newspaper
reports that owners of Chinese cars aren't happy with their vehicles.
Seventy percent have issues with their CVT transmissions. Owners also
have complaints about the engines, faulty warranties, and difficulty getting spare parts. Taxi drivers say they don't last as long
as well. They say that the service life for Chinese
vehicles is only about ninety three thousand, two hundred miles or one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers, compared to up to one hundred and eighty six thousand miles or three hundred thousand kilometers for Western brands. Russian car buyers are
also unhappy with relatively high prices for Chinese vehicles, which average around twenty two thousand dollars, and the cost of maintaining a Chinese car after five years of operation is more than the cost of a new vehicle. Automakers in
China are raising to integrate deep Seek AI into their vehicles.
As we reported last week, Jili and dong Fung were the first car companies to announce they'll adopt the Generative AI program for their vehicles, and since then, Chang'an, Leap Motor, im Motors, Baujan, Gac, and Great Wall have all announced they'll do the same. The technology will be used to
improve the voice assistant in vehicles to have a more natural conversation, amongst other upgrades. Deep Seek was only introduced
a few weeks ago, but it's gained a lot of attention because it's cheaper to operate than Chat GPT and it runs on lower tech chips. The CEO of Neo
says that the Chinese automaker is close to making a profit with its battery swapping business. While he didn't provide
any details or reveal when that would happen, there were reports last week that Neo performed a record number of swaps in a single day. That total was about one
hundred and thirty six thousand, seven hundred, which means that each of Neo's roughly thirty one hundred swapping stations changed out forty four battery packs. The automaker has really seen
good growth with its battery swapping business, especially over the last year and a half. In that time, it's added
well over one thousand swapping stations, it has at least five new automakers as partners, and Neo's newest brand, Envo, is about to get access to it swapping network as well.
If swapping catches on in a big way, it sure would eliminate all those complaints about the time it takes to charge an ev.
Speaker 2: Flexus.
Speaker 1: The commercial vehicle joint venture between Renault and Volvo revealed the names of the ev vans it just showed off at the end of January. One will be the all
electric version of the Renault Traffic, a van that's sold over two and a half million copies since its release in the nineteen eighties. The others are called the go
Elette and S Defect, which fans of the Renault brand might recognize as previous models that first debuted in the nineteen fifties. You might also remember the S Defect concept
that Renault debuted in September of last year. All three
are built on a software to find vehicle architecture called FlexE Van that was developed by Renault's ev division am Pier.
It says the platform is capable of charging to eighty percent in less than twenty minutes and offers up to four hundred and fifty kilometers or about two hundred and eighty miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. The
vans will be produced at a Renault factory in France and are scheduled to hit the market sometime next year.
And in other commercial van news Ford's commercial division, Ford Pro is helping out delivery drivers in Europe. Electric and
IC versions of the Transit and Transit custom will come out with a new feature this summer called Delivery Assist that automatically turns off the engine if it's IC closes the windows, locks the doors, and switches on the hazard lights anytime the driver stops and gets out. After the
delivery is complete and the driver unlocks the door and steps on the brake pedal, the engine starts back up and the windows go back to the previous position. Forward process.
The tech reduces the number of tasks, which should speed up deliveries, and it also provides more peace of mind to fleet operators, but that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in.
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Speaker 1: Knowing that a little rain won't slow down your day, That's what really matters.
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