AD #4011 - Baidu Helps Tesla with FSD in China; EPA Wants Emissions Roll Back; BMW Will Eat Some Tariff Costs

Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The Trump administration continues its efforts

to roll back regulations that were put in place by previous presidents. There's been attempts to rescind the Fuel Economy standards,

EV tax credits, the waiver that allows California to set its own emission rules, and it did stop funding for new EV chargers. Now, the EPA says it started efforts

to roll back nationwide emission standards, which progressed up to a fifty percent cut of fleet wide passenger vehicle emissions by twenty thirty two. That would have required automakers to

build and sell a growing number of electric vehicles in order to meet those targets. The EPA is also reconsidering

regulations that would have cut heavy duty truck emissions by eighty percent over time. While these standards were putting pressure

on automakers and suppliers to meet them, they were put in place to reduce sickness and death as well as help lower costs over time, and they also netted automakers like Tesla billions in ZEV credits. With the standards ramping

up it forced automakers who weren't compliant to buy credits from those that were, so if emissions are relaxed, the credits start to go away, and that could have a big impact on automakers like Tesla, which has made two billion dollars selling ZEV credits over the years. And in

other Tesla news, the automaker is trying to improve the performance of its hands free driving system in China. While

it recently launched an FSD update in the country, the system is still not as capable as the version that it offers in the US because the company doesn't have permission to fully train FSD in China yet. Elon Musk

previously said that it used publicly available video of traffic environments to help launch the update that it just did, but that didn't work well enough with reports of users getting tickets because cars are making illegal maneuvers on the road.

So now comes word that Tesla is also working with by DO to integrate by due's mapping information into FSD so it has more accurate road information. However, it remains

to be seen if this will expand FSD's availability in China, which is currently limited to newer models that only started getting built last year, and a bigger base of FSD users would be good for Tesla because pre orders for the new model Y in China might not be as high as some thought. Reports came out that there could

be more than two hundred thousand people waiting to get their hands on the EV, but an analyst believes that some were getting confused about how Tesla assigns reservation numbers to vehicles. They believe the real number is around eighty

nine thousand units and also includes Model three registrations. That

number would represent just under two months of deliveries for Tesla and China, which is the current delivery time for both models right now. General Motors union workers in South

Korea are worried about losing their jobs because of US tariffs.

The union is concerned GM will reduce or even move production to the US if tariffs go into effect. Bloomberg

reports that union leaders are traveling to Detroit this weekend to meet with GM executives to get more clarity about plans for importing vehicles made outside of the US. The

union leaders also planned to meet with UAW President Sean Fain, who is in favor of the tariffs. GM Korea employees

nearly ten thousand people, and last year it exported nearly five hundred thousand vehicles and almost eighty percent of them went to the US. Speaking of those tariffs, BMW says

it's just going to eat them, at least for now.

The automaker told its US dealers it would price protect certain models that are made in Mexico and subject to the tariffs. Those models include the three series of d

Ant and two series Coup, but BMW says it will only eat those tariffs until May first.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hy light enough, but with world class composite material taging Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

Speaker 1: Volkswagens spent more restructuring the company last year than it made selling cars. It did increase sales by nearly three

percent to just under five million units, which brought in one hundred and forty billion euros of revenue, up one point six percent, but it says restructuring costs and high purchasing incentives at the beginning of the year led to increased spending that dropped its earnings before interest in taxes down to just under seven billion euros, which was four zero point three percent lower, and VW's net cash flow came in at roughly four point seven billion, a drop of nearly seventeen percent. The company says this year it

will continue to try and make its plants more efficient, reduce the number of groups it has for technical development, and gear up for launching a new, more affordable family of eves. Last November, European evy battery maker Norfolk filed

for Chapter eleven bankruptcy in the US in an effort to raise new financing because it was nearly six billion dollars in debt. But Northfolk was unable to secure a deal,

so it just filed for bankruptcy in Sweden. Its business

and assets will be sold by a quarter appointed trustee. However,

Northfolk Germany and Northfolk North America are not filing for bankruptcy in their jurisdictions. Northfolk struggled to ramp up mass

production of batteries, which led to several automakers canceling contracts, which contributed to its money woes. Toyota launched the fourth

model in its Crown lineup, the Estate, in Japan. The

automaker describes it as a combination of an suv and station wagon, and says it's aimed at buyers with an active lifestyle, so to make camping and being outdoors more comfortable.

The model features a pullout chair and table in the luggage area. The Crown Estate is available with a hybrid

and plugin hybrid powertrain, and they both average about forty seven mpg or twenty kilometers per lead based on the WLTP test cycle. But even though they achieve similar fuel economy,

the p Have is much more expensive. The hybrid starts

at forty two eight hundred bucks, while the p Have costs fifty four thousand, six hundred dollars. Toyota says it

expects to sell around fifteen hundred Crown Estates per month in Japan. At the beginning of the year, the outgoing

Biden administration finalized rules that effectively bans Chinese software and hardware in connected cars. And that's why we're intrigued to

see that Mercedes is partnering with Chinese light Our maker has signed to develop smart cars for global markets using Hessei sensors. Reuter's reports it wasn't an easy decision for

Mercedes and that it took months to deliberate because of the legal and geopolitical risks, but the automaker ultimately chose his side because of its low cost and ability to produce lightars at scale. Some European automakers already use hassized

lightars for vehicles that they sell in China, but Mercedes could be the first company to use them for models sold outside of China. And don't forget that. Autoline After

Hours goes live at three pm Eastern Time today. John

says he wants to talk about the most reliable cars that you can buy because we have Jason Norton from JD Power coming on the show. As you may remember,

JD Power recently released its annual dependent and Ability study and we thought that GM did surprisingly well, so no doubt that will be a topic. But that's a wrap

for this show. Thanks for making autoline a part of

your day.

Speaker 2: 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.

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AD #4011 - Baidu Helps Tesla with FSD in China; EPA Wants Emissions Roll Back; BMW Will Eat Some Tariff Costs

Tesla Model Y

Toyota Crown

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