AD #3996 - New Twingo World's Most Efficient EV?; Mercedes Cutting Production; GM Has Short-Term Solution for Tariffs

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Tesla has avoided selling vehicles in

India because of high import taxes, but that could change the country currently slaps a one hundred percent tarif on imported vehicles that cost forty thousand dollars or more, and as sixty percent terrify on cars that cost less. So

in order to avoid the terraffs, Tesla would have to build a plant in India, which President Trump says would be unfair to the US. But last week Elon Musk

met with India's Prime Minister in Washington, and now India is expected to lower its import tariffs on EV's as part of a deal with the US, and it could also raise the cap on ev imports from eight thousand vehicles to as many as fifty thousand. Likely as a result,

Tesla started listing job openings in India earlier this week, including staff for showrooms and a man and orders and deliveries, and now Bloomberg reports the Tesla will start shipping vehicles to India in the next few months, and that it plans to start selling vehicles in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, but it's not yet known which models it will import or what factory they'll come from. And speaking of tariffs,

General Motors says it can withstand President Trump's tariffs in the short term. GM chief financial officer Paul Jacobson says

that the automaker can shift production at existing plants that are quote relatively low cost, but if the tariffs become permanent, GM will have to discuss if it needs to move assembly.

Jacobson also says that GM is quickly cutting inventory at its foreign plants by thirty percent and moving them to the US as fast as possible so they don't get hit with the twenty five percent tariff that Trump is threatening to start. On April second, Renault reported its earnings

for last year, and the numbers look pretty good except for one big problem it has with Nissan. But first

the numbers. Renault sold two point two million vehicles globally

last year, up one point three percent. Its revenue jump

seven point four percent to fifty six point two billion euros.

Its operating profit was up three point six percent, coming in at two point five billion, but its net profit fell by one point four billion, coming in at only eight hundred and ninety one million euros. That's because Renault

always counts on Nissan to provide it with a big cash infusion since it owns thirty six percent of Nissan.

But Nissan's profits had fallen ninety percent, and that really hurt Renault's bottom line. In fact, all the problems at

Nissan costs Renault two billion euros and extra costs and loss profits. And during its presentation to analysts, Renaul dropped

some pretty interesting facts about the replacement for its TwinGo subcompact car, which is now going fully electric. We think

the design looks terrific and stays true to the look of its predecessors, but a lot of the initial engineering was actually done at Renault's Advanced R and D center in China. The whole program was done in less than

two years, which is lightning fast for a traditional automaker.

The new TwinGo has thirty percent fewer parts than the Renault R five. It uses a twenty three kilowad hour

LFP battery pack that Renault claims only uses ten kilowad hours of electricity for every one hundred kilometers it's driven.

That converts to six miles for every kilowad hour, which means it could be the most efficient EV in the world.

But admittedly it's a dinky little car with a dinky little battery, but that is still an impressive level of efficiency.

The TwinGo EV will be built in Europe and it goes on sale next year.

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Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four was a rough year for Mercedes, and as a result, it's making a number of moves to make the company more efficient. It sold just under two

million vehicles worldwide last year, a drop of three percent that dragged revenue down four and a half percent to one hundred and forty five billion euros. Mercedes earnings before

interest in taxes came in at about thirteen point six billion euros, which was down nearly thirty one percent, while its net profit fell over twenty eight percent to ten point four billion euros, and the numbers for this year might not end up much better. Mercedes says it's starting

the most intense product launch program in the company's history, beginning with the all new CLA this year that will be followed by all electric versions of the GLC, C class and E class. Mercedes also announced that its next

gen Van architecture won't be electric only and will have an IC variant called Van Combustion Architecture that shares about seventy percent of its components and will roll down the same assembly line as the BEEV version, and the company will even come out with a smaller version of the G Class. All that product will result in its investments

peaking in twenty twenty five, only starting to ease in twenty twenty six. So to help turn things around, Mercedes

plans to cut its global production cost by ten percent by twenty twenty seven, on top of plants it exited in France Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia. The company says it's

also considering adjustments to its dealer network and production footprint in China. Globally, it will trim manufacturing from about two

and a half million units to between two to two point two million, but it says it won't close any plants.

In Germany. Production capacity will instead be averaged out to

three hundred thousand units at each site. However, Mercedes plans

to cut fixed costs well by ten percent over the next three years, which will include discussions with its works council as well as a reduction of management positions. Kia

is providing a better look at what the production versions of its new commercial van will look like. The PV

five is set to enter production sometime this year, and the company is showing off the passenger and cargo models.

They're a very simple box shape, which should provide good space whether you're moving people or packages. But other than

saying the vehicles will leverage the company's EV technology, it didn't reveal many details that will come at the end of this month at its second annual Kia EV Day, where it plans to show conversion options, derivative models, and reveal the global business strategy for its all new commercial vans or what it calls platform Beyond Vehicles. Everyone's complaining

about the high cost of cars, and with good reason.

The Triple A or American Automobile Association, published its latest numbers on what it cost to buy a new car and drive it for five years, and are you sitting down for this? It comes to an average of twelve thousand,

two hundred and ninety seven dollars a year. That includes

the depreciation the car goes through, the financing costs over five years, the insurance you'll pay, the fuel you'll buy, and all the maintenance and repairs you'll go through. The

Triple A calculates these costs by looking at nine different vehicle categories and then it takes the top five selling models in each category. In twenty nineteen, the Triple A

said the average cost per year was nine thousand, two hundred and eighty two dollars, so the cost has gone up by three thousand bucks, which helps explain why new car sales have never recovered to their pre pandemic level.

The transition to a electric vehicles is going slower than anticipated, which is forcing automakers and suppliers to scale back EV plans, and now it's borg Warner's turn. The supplier is planning

to close two plants in the Detroit area and lay off one hundred and eighty eight workers from the battery pack manufacturing business it acquired four years ago because it's shifting battery production to South Carolina. Last year, borg Warner

announced it's aiming to save one hundred million dollars over the next few years through job and spending cuts due to falling EV demand. New cars are going to be

the topic on Autoline After Hours today. We've got two

car critics coming on the show, Mark Feelin from the Detroit Free Press and Greg Migliore, the editorial director at Vertical Scope, and they'll dive into the pros and cons of the newest cars that are just getting introduced. So

join John and Gary when the show goes live at three pm Eastern Time today. That's a wrap for this

sh show, and I hope to see you later today.

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Renault Twingo

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