Nissan's new CEO Ivan Espinosa outlines plans to boost cash flow through partnerships, including ongoing talks with Honda for joint vehicle platforms and faster development cycles. Nissan also revealed upcoming models like the new Leaf crossover and improved ePower tech. Tesla faces regulatory challenges in China and Canada but benefits financially from emissions pooling in Europe. Rivian spun off its micromobility division into a new company, Also, signaling confidence in small vehicle markets. BYD targets doubling overseas sales with local assembly plans, while Aurora advances autonomous truck testing in harsh conditions. Waymo's self-driving cars racked up numerous parking tickets, highlighting operational challenges.
Topics:nissan partnershipsvehicle development speedelectric vehiclestesla regulationsemissions poolingrivian micromobilitybyd global expansionautonomous truckswaymo parking violations
- Nissan Still in Partnership Talks with Honda - Tesla Drops 'FSD' and 'Autopilot' Names in China - Canada Bans Tesla from Upcoming EV Rebates - More Automakers Pool with Tesla in Europe - Rivian Spins Off Secret Micromobility Business - BYD Wants to Double Overseas Sales - Aurora Doing AV Tests in Harder Conditions - Waymo Racking Up Expensive Parking Tickets
"... Rogue in Kashkai, a next gen centrisedan refresh Pathfinder in Frontier and Navara, a new Juke EV, a couple o..."
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Speaker 1: This is online daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We're getting an idea of how
Nissan will be run under new CEO Ivan Espinosa, who efficially takes over the leadership role. On April first, at
an event where the company showcased a number of new products and technologies, Espinosa basically said that Nissan needs to generate more cash and one way of doing that is by building valuable partnerships with other companies That will include expanded roles with current partners Renaul and Mitsubishi. In fact,
it revealed that the Micro name will be making a comeback in Europe, going on sale before the end of the year as an all electric model that's based on the Renault five. But Espinosa also says that the company
never stopped talking to Honda about working together. However, instead
of Nissan possibly becoming a subsidiary of Honda, Nissan chief planning officer says, they're talking about doing individual programs together and developing many vehicles off of a single platform. And
a new goal for developing future models like these is the slash the amount of time it takes to make them right. Now, it takes Nissan about four and a
half years to completely develop a new model, but it wants to slash a year and a half off of that to get down to thirty seven months. It believes
this will make it more competitive with other automakers, but until it can start implementing all of these changes, both Nissan and Infinity have a slew of models that are getting ready to launch around the world. That includes the
all new Leaf, which now has a much more crossover shape and is based on the same architecture as the Aria.
While we'll get more details by the middle of this year, we can tell you it will be available in North America first, where it will come standard with a naxt charging port, and will launched sometime in Nissan's current fiscal year, which ends in April at twenty twenty six. But there
will also be new versions of the Rogue in Kashkai, a next gen centrisedan refresh Pathfinder in Frontier and Navara, a new Juke EV, a couple of new unnamed SUVs, as well as new and refreshed models for Infinity. Rounding
out all of the announcements. At Nissan, it's improving its
ePower tech two, which is the company's fancy name for an extended range electric or e REV. It says a
new one and a half liter engine makes the system more efficient, especially at higher speeds. Many people have been
critical of Tesla for using full self driving and autopilot for the names of its hands free driving systems, and it looks like regulators in China might feel the same way.
As you may know, the ev maker has been ramping up its efforts to launch a version in China similar to Supervised FSD, which it offers in the US, but it had to pause the program as it works to comply with Chinese rules around OTA updates sent to vehicles for eight ass functions. And now Tesla has dropped both
the FSD and autopilot names from its website in China and just calls it intelligent assisted driving. The company charges
about eight eight hundred bucks for FSD in China, so it has the potential to generate a lot of revenue for Tesla, and we think the name change probably gets it closer to unlocking the feature for customers. But while
it looks like it's ban on FSD and China could be lifted soon, Canada is banning Tesla from its upcoming federal EV rebate programs. We recently ran a story which
we'll link to if you'd like to learn more about it, but basically, Canadian authorities are investigating Tesla owned stores over a suspicious number of requests for EV rebates right before the rebate program ended, and as part of this new band, Canada is also freezing the forty three million dollars in rebates that were deemed suspicious while it continues its investigation into the matter. However, there is one area where Tesla
will be making a nice amount of money, a mission pooling in Europe. By pooling emissions with Tesla, automakers can
meet a mission targets and avoid fines. It already signed
up for Toyota, Stalantis, Mazda and Subaru, which the UBS Group estibates would net Tesla about a billion euros, but that figure could go even higher because Honda and Suzuki also joined the pool. While the EU did propose allowing
a three year window to meet this year's targets, some see the pooling as providing them more flexibility with their vehicle lineups.
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Speaker 1: You know that Rivian is involved in micro mobility. Neither
did we, But Rivian is so confident in its potential that it just spun off its micro mobility business into a new company called Also. Rivian says it started a
stealth program focused on micromobility several years ago to see how it can leverage its technology to offer small, lightweight vehicles, and as its efforts advanced, Rivian realized that it had the potential to quote unlock a large opportunity that deserved to be its own company. While it didn't reveal the amount,
Rivian says it has a substantial minority stake and also and the spinoff secured a one hundred and five million dollar investment from the venture capital fund Eclipse. Rivian CEO RJ.
Scringe will serve as chairman of Also's board, and more details about its plans and products will be revealed soon.
BYD is aiming for big growth outside of che Yina this year. Last year, the automaker sold four point two
seven million vehicles, and just over four hundred and seventeen thousand of those were overseas sales, but during an earnings call yesterday, BYD's chairman said it wants to double its overseas sales this year, aiming to sell more than eight hundred thousand vehicles outside of China. Bydcs the UK, Latin America,
and Southeast Asia as its best opportunities for growth and to avoid tariffs. The company will assemble vehicles in local
markets and is currently building plans in Brazil, Thailand, Hungary and Turkey. At some point, BYD's chairman expects overseas sales
to account for a majority of its profits, and he also believes that BYD will pass Toyota in profit per vehicle once it reaches Toyota's volume, because it says it has better cost control, but BYD has a way to go to hit that goal. Last year, Toyota sold ten
point eight million vehicles globally, more than double BYD. Autonomous
commercial trucks startup Aurora is making progress with itsself driving tech.
The company announced plans to test trucks in poor weather conditions without a safety driver on board. Aurora is scheduled
to launch its commercial service in Texas in April, and it also has plans to operate on public roads in New Mexico and Arizona this year. They'll be tested in
cities at day and night and in highway construction zones where they can hit speeds of up to seventy five miles an hour. And before it launches its service, Aurora
will step up testing of its trucks, including virtual simulations.
Aurora is backed by Uber, and earlier this year, it signed a long term deal with Nvidia and German supplier Continental In Speaking of self driving vehicles, Weimo racked up thousands of dollars in parking violations last year in San Francisco.
The company was issued five hundred and eighty nine parking tickets totally just over sixty five grand among other violations.
Waymo's cars were cited for obstructing traffic lanes, ignoring street cleaning restrictions, and occupying no parking zones. Weaimo was also
issued seventy five tickets in Los Angeles, where it started operations last November. Waimo says its vehicles are programmed to
take the safest action during the time it's picking up or dropping off riders, and that's when it got most of the tickets. But that's a wrap for today's show.
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