Nissan appoints Ivan Espinosa, a longtime product planning executive, as its new CEO amid financial struggles and falling sales. Chinese automaker XPeng plans a massive $13.8 billion investment into humanoid robots, highlighting growing industry interest in robotics. Tesla faces a significant stock drop after UBS lowers sales forecasts. McLaren is set to merge with UK EV startup Four to Seven Holdings as part of a turnaround plan including adding SUVs. Ford invests billions in its German operations but faces bankruptcy concerns. Bridgestone studies tire wear particles' environmental impact, while BMW introduces a new zonal vehicle architecture reducing wiring weight. Volkswagen reveals plans for a low-cost EV, the ID.1, to be produced in Portugal.
Topics:nissan ceo changexpeng humanoid robotstesla sales forecastmclaren mergerford european operationstire wear environmental impactbmw zonal architecturevolkswagen id1 evautomotive industry investmentselectric vehicle technology
- Nissan Promotes Product Guy to CEO - XPeng Investing Billions in Humanoid Robot - Tesla's Stock Down Most in 4 Years - McLaren Merger Expected Soon - Ford's German Union Still Worried About Bankruptcy - Bridgestone Measures Environmental Impact of Tires - BMW About to Launch New Zonal Architecture - VW's Affordable EV Will Be Built in Portugal
"...covered the wheelwlls of what looks like a Nissan leaf to prevent the particles from scattering everywhe..."
Select text to request an explanation
Speaker 1: This is out Aline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Speaker 2: Nissan has a new CEO.
Speaker 1: The company announced that its current Chief Planning officer, forty six year old Ivan Espinosa, will take over from Akoto Uchetah on April first. Ucheedah will remain on the board
at least until the company shareholder meeting in June. According
to reports, only internal candidates were seriously considered for the CEO position, and Espinosa has been with Nissan since two thousand and three, the same year Yuchetah joined the company.
Espinosa is also a Mexican national who's spent time in that market, as well as Southeast Asia. In twenty ten,
he moved into Global Product planning and then started leading that entire division last year. But he's taking over as
CEO at a time when the company is losing money, sales are falling, its stock prices down, and it recently broke off merger talk with Honda. Apparently, the board was
split on whether to let Espinoza take over right away or keep.
Speaker 2: U Cheetah on until things smoothed over.
Speaker 1: Even Nissan's chairperson said it will quote be a very challenging start for Ivan. But this wasn't the only executive
shakeup at Nissan. It's also getting new heads of its
technology and manufacturing divisions, as well as customer experience. Chinese
automaker Jipung could invest a boatload of money into humanoid robots.
The company CEO said it could shell out another thirteen point eight billion dollars into the tech. Japong has been
working on robots for the last five years, and in November unveiled its first humanoid called Iron you know, like Iron Man. Most major automakers are involved in some sort
of project with humanoid robots, and Elon must thinks they'll be the reason Tesla's were twenty five trillion dollars soda.
But Tesla's stock continued its slide yesterday, seeing its biggest drop in four years. It fell fifteen percent after UBS
Group cut the company's sales forecast for the first quarter and the full year. UBS expects Tesla to sell three
hundred and sixty seven thousand vehicles in the first quarter, sixteen percent below its original estimate. UBS also no longer
expects Teslass sales to increase for the full year and is forecasting a five percent drop. Tesla's market cap peaked
at one point five trillion dollars in December, but it is sense declined by seven hundred billion dollars. In an
effort to turn around McLaren, Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings, which took control of the automaker in December, is planning to merge McLaren with its UK based EV startup for.
Speaker 2: To seven Holdings.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg reports that an official announcement is expected in the coming weeks.
Speaker 2: Former Jaguar land Rover executive.
Speaker 1: Nick Collins is expected to lead the group, while current McLaren CEO Michael Laters will remain head of the car company.
Part of the turnaround plan includes adding SUVs to its lineup, which McLaren has resisted for years, but little is known about the company it's merging with. Four to seven hasn't
revealed any plans for models or when it will start selling them, but last year it signed a technology deal with Chinese automaker Neo, and CYVN is also an investor in Neo.
Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composite material, Tagent Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: As we reported yesterday, Ford is pouring four point five eight billion dollars into its German operations to help turn it around, but union leaders are still concerned Ford's European operations could go bankrupt. The funding agreement replaces a policy
that had been in place since two thousand and six, which said Ford would cover any losses at its German subsidiary.
But by doing this, Ford's European operations no longer have in solvency protection, which the union says puts it at higher risk for bankruptcy. Ford's European business is estimated to
have nine billion euros in debt, and if it can't boost sales, that's likely to increase. Ford's market share in
Europe was three point three percent last year, down from four percent in twenty twenty three. To help cut costs,
Ford eliminated four thousand jobs last year, in addition to three thousand, eight hundred cuts in twenty twenty three. A
study from Yale University found that on a global basis, ar shed six million pounds of rubber every year. So Bridgestone,
a sponsor of Audo Line, developed a new process to study the environmental impact of its tires. It calls the
rubber particles that get worn off of tires when they're driven on the road tire and roadwear particles, or TRWP.
To find out how they're created, Bridgestone covered the wheelwlls of what looks like a Nissan leaf to prevent the particles from scattering everywhere, and then collected them with a suction hose.
Speaker 2: By using an.
Speaker 1: Electric vehicle with autonomous driving and regenerative braking, Bridgestone says it can collect the TRWP without the influence of exhaust emissions or brake dust. It can then study the physical
and chemical characteristics of the particles to learn about their environmental impact. BMW claims it's the first automaker to launch
a new zonal architecture for any type of vehicle or any type of powertrain. A few weeks ago, we reported
on a new control unit the automaker developed to manage the high voltage battery system on its all new EVS that start launching later this year. It calls the unit
Energy Master, but it's not just for EVS, and it's actually one of four new computers, or what BMW calls superbrains which have more than twenty times the computing power compared to its current system. As we said, it's using
a setup called a zonal architecture, which divides the wiring into different zones, in this case a front, middle, roof, and rear zone. These superbrains are centrally located and control
all the main functions of the vehicle, including infotainment, automated driving, driving dynamics, and HVAC controls by managing smaller control units in each zone. And here's the big advantage. BMW says
it took out six hundred meters or nearly two thousand feet of wiring from its system, which cut the weight of its harness by thirty percent. Last week, Volkswagen revealed
the ID everyone concept, a low cost electric car. Report
said the production version might be built in Germany, but the head of the VW brand, Thomas Schaefer, says it will make the ID one in Portugal, where it currently builds the t Rock crossover VW Pick Portugal because it has low labor and energy costs. VW also said that
it's considering using Chinese suppliers to help lower costs as well.
Production of the ID one starts in twenty twenty seven and the model will have a starting price around twenty thousand Euro. That brings us to the end of today's show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 3: Autoline Daily is brought to you by Intrepid Control Systems, over the air Engineering boost your game and by Tagent Automotive Technologies the formula for better mobility.
Speaker 4: Developing today's vehicles. Issues can happen in an instant. When's
the best time to solve a problem? The minute you
know you have one. Meet Wireless neovi Cloud. You're secure
off the shelf solution, empowering real time collaboration for quick resolution.
With Wireless neov Cloud, your team can prevent issues before they can escalate. Driver communication, data and remote diagnostics to
analyze and resolve your problems using OTA, allowing your executives oversight throughout the process. Wireless neovi Cloud your vehicle update,
solution and production and on the road Intrepid control systems driven by your data
Request an explanation for:
1 cars
1 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark.
Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
