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AD #4016 - Foxconn Will Make EVs for Mitsubishi; Clock Ticking on UAW/VW Contract Deal; Magna to Build Chinese EVs in Austria

AD #4016 - Foxconn Will Make EVs for Mitsubishi; Clock Ticking on UAW/VW Contract Deal; Magna to Build Chinese EVs in Austria

Autoline Daily Mar 20, 2025 10 min
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About this episode

Foxconn is set to produce electric vehicles for Mitsubishi, aiming to leverage this partnership to attract larger Japanese automakers like Honda and Nissan. Magna is adapting by assembling Chinese EVs in Austria to offset lost production, while Amazon plans to expand into used car sales online, starting with Hyundai. Labor negotiations between the UAW and Volkswagen in Tennessee face a looming deadline amid disputes over benefits. Meanwhile, Tesla sales dip in Europe, Hyundai explores robotic security solutions, and vehicle thefts in the US decline significantly due to improved anti-theft measures.

Topics: foxconn ev production mitsubishi ev partnership magna chinese ev assembly amazon used car sales uaw volkswagen contract tesla sales europe hyundai robotic security vehicle theft decline automotive labor negotiations ev market trends europe
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Speaker 1: This is Adline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Last week, the chairman of fox
Con said it could signed deals with two Japanese automakers within the next two months to design and build electric vehicles. Well,
according to reports out of Japan, one of those automakers is gonna be Mitsubishi. It says Mitsubishi is going to
outsource production of electric vehicles to fox Con in an effort to cut manufacturing costs and speed up development of new models. It's possible the vehicles could be based on
fox Cohn's EV platform, which it hopes to start producing models on before the end of the year, but we don't know that for sure yet or where the EV's will be built. However, fox Con does have a large
manufacturing plant in the US where the all electric Lordstown Endurance pickup was made. While getting a contract to build
evs for Mitsubishi will be nice, it's overall volume is not that large merge, but the Kyoto News also reports that fox Con is essentially using Mitsubishi as bait to catch some bigger fish.
Speaker 2: It helps.
Speaker 1: The Mitsu deal leads to EV partnerships with Honda and Nissan as well. Mitsubishi and Nissan are partners already, and
the report also says that Mitsubishi will soon announce a collaboration to develop EV software with Nissan and Honda, so that could help Fox con secure bigger deals than it really wants. And in related news, it looks like Magna
is getting a couple of Chinese automakers to help make up for all the production that it's lost at its plant in Austria. According to a report, Jipung and GAC
will start importing semi knockdown kits to be assembled.
Speaker 2: At the site as soon as June as a way to.
Speaker 1: Help the automakers avoid European fines on evis made in China. However,
volume will be low at first, as the automakers want to see how European customers respond to their models. But
Magna's gotta be hoping that goes well because that plan is going to start costing it a lot of profit without more models running down the line, while it has the capacity to build one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles a year. In twenty twenty three, the most recent data
that we have, Magna made just under seventy two thousand units, and we bet that last year was even worse. Fisker
went bankrupt, so it lost Ocean production. Then BMW stopped
making the five series there, and the Jaguar Epace and Ipace are no longer being built. On top of that,
Magna is also losing production of the BMWZ four and Toyota Super and twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: That just leaves the IC versions of the Mercedes.
Speaker 1: G class, which will soon be joined by its EV variant.
So these Chinese vehicles must be a real lifeline for Magna right now. Are you ready to buy your next
use car on Amazon? The director of Amazon Autos told
Automotive News that's the online retailer's next big move, which should be coming to its online shopping platform soon.
Speaker 2: Those will initially be.
Speaker 1: Hyundai Vehicles, Amazon's launch partner, but Amazon is also trying to sign up other brands.
Speaker 2: Its next move beyond used vehicles.
Speaker 1: Is looking into selling add ons like extended warranties and maintenance packages. Heino Motors, Toyota's commercial truck subsidiary, just got
hammered by the US Department of Justice.
Speaker 2: It find the truck maker.
Speaker 1: One point six billion dollars for exceeding emissions in one hundred and five thousand vehicles from twenty ten to twenty twenty two. Heino admitted that it falsified emission data and
conducted the test improperly. The company is also prohibited from
importing diesel engines into the US for the next five years, and part of that one point six billion dollar penalty will go towards improving some of those old polluting engines.
But Hino isn't the only automaker in trouble with authorities.
The European Union is investigating whether BYD's plant in Hungary received unfair subsidies from China. The probe is in the
beginning stages, but if the EU determines that China did provide BYD with unfair aid, then it could force the automaker to sell some assets, cut production, repay the subsidy, and pay a fine.
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Speaker 1: The clock is ticking for the UAW to secure a labor contract with Volkswagen. The union has been negotiating with
the automaker for the past six months to get a deal done for workers at VW's planted Tennessee, which voted to unionize nearly a year ago, But if a deal isn't reached by April thirtieth, workers can vote to DC certify the union. VW's latest offer includes a twenty percent
pay raise over four years, which would bring wages close to the forty two dollars an hour that the Detroit three UAW members will earn in twenty twenty eight. VW
is also offering cost of living adjustments, annual profit sharing, and improved healthcare benefits, but the two sides are still clashing over retirement bonuses, shift premiums, and increase paid time off, which VW objects to Adding to the tension, the UAW filed unfair labor practice charges against VW with the NLRB earlier this month, accusing the automaker of trying to cut jobs.
While the labor experts say it's unlikely that workers will vote for decertification, the deadline does put pressure on the UAW to get the deal done. Testless sales continue to
slide in Europe. According to market researcher Data Force, the
automaker's registered rations plunged forty four percent in February to fifteen thousand, two hundred and fifty five units.
Speaker 2: Sales were down in most major.
Speaker 1: Markets, except for the UK, where it posted a twenty percent increase. The Volkswagon brand outsold Tesla with more than
nineteen thousand, five hundred registrations, up a whopping one hundred and eighty two percent from a year ago. VW had
three of the five top selling EV models in February, the ID four, ID seven, and ID three respectively. Meanwhile,
the b EV market in Europe was up twenty six percent in February to nearly one hundred and sixty one thousand units, but overall sales were down three percent to about nine hundred and fifty thousand vehicles. Hyundai hopes to
replace existing security systems that you might see at office buildings.
Speaker 2: Or hotels with robots.
Speaker 1: It signed a memorandum of understanding with Suprema, a supplier of biometric access control systems, to develop a total security solution based around robotics in AI. They planned to integrate
Suprema's facial recognition tech into both robots and access systems.
While the first thing that popped into my head was robot security guards trained to take out any criminal, and when you see the capabilities of the humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, which is owned by the Hyundai Group, you might think that's possible. But these will initially be more
like pods that will deliver food in packages. Vehicle thefts
in the US declined significantly last year. According to data
from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Thefts fell sixteen percent
to about eight hundred and fifty one thousand vehicles. That's
down from a record high of one point zero two million in twenty twenty three. The main reason for the
drop was Hyundai and Kia fixing the vehicles that it didn't equip with engine immobilizers. Which made them easy targets
after videos on social media showed how to steal the vehicles, but despite the measures they implemented, Hyundai and Kia vehicles were still among the top five stolen models last year.
Car thefts also declined last year thanks to improving supplies of car parts, which means you couldn't make as much stealing a car and parting it out. And if you
want to know how car sales are going to be impacted by uncertainty in the market and tariffs, as well as how automakers and suppliers will react if they go down, you won't want to miss today's Auto Line After Hours, which goes live at three pm Eastern Time. We'll also
dive into that GM and Nvidia deal, Tesla crashing through a fake wall, and seeing if the US can compete like China.
Speaker 2: But that brings us to the end of today's show.
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 Tajan Automotive Technologies the Formula for Better Mobility.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal Speaker 3: Hay light enough, but with world class composite material Tajent Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

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