Tesla cuts the Cybertruck price by $10,000 with a simplified two-wheel-drive model to boost sales and qualify for EV rebates, while facing challenges from Chinese tariffs impacting Model S and X exports. Cupra remains optimistic about entering the US market by 2030 despite tariff uncertainties, planning multiple powertrain options. Chinese automakers like Neta and Polestar face struggles, while ride-hailing giant Didi expands EV and robotaxi operations into Mexico and Brazil. Meanwhile, Waymo's robotaxis capture 20% of Uber rides in Austin, signaling growing acceptance. Volkswagen introduces a Pac-Man game for parked cars in Europe, enhancing infotainment experiences.
Topics:tesla cybertruck price cutus tariffs impactcupra us market entrychinese automakers challengesdidi ev and robotaxi expansionwaymo robotaxi adoptionvolkswagen infotainment gameselectric vehicle rebatesride hailing marketautomotive tariffs
- Tariffs or Not, Cupra Targets U.S. Market - Mitsubishi Stops Shipping Cars to U.S. Dealers - Lincoln Continues Imports, Exports with China - Tesla Stops Selling S and X in China - Tesla Chops Cybertruck Price $10,000 - Neta Auto in Deep Trouble - Polestar Closing Some Stores in China - DiDi To Start Mexico Ride-Hailing - DiDi and GAC To Launch L4 Robotaxi - 20% Uber Rides in Austin With Robotaxis - VW Customizes Pac-Man for Its Cars
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Speaker 1: This is Hotline Daily, the show dedicated to all of you enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. I'm filling in
for Sean for the next two days as he's out on a media launch for the new Lincoln Navigator. A
couple of years ago, when Coopra announced it was going to enter the US market, we thought it was crazy.
There are already too many automakers, with too many brands, with too much manufacturing capacity aimed at the American market.
And when President Trump announced he was going to slap an additional twenty five percent tariff on all imported cars, we were sure Coopra's plans were dead in the water, But we were wrong. Ignaci Prieto, the chief brand officer
of Coopra, says their plan is to enter the US market by twenty thirty and they are confident the tariff situation will be resolved by then. Coopra plans to launch
in the US with at least three models that will offer ICE, PHEV and BEV options, depending on the model.
It's in TX with Penske Automotive to sell its cars, and Cooper is a spin off of Sayat, which is part of the Volkswagen group. It's positioned its lineup between
Volkswagen and Audi, and its prices range from the high thirty thousand euro to high forty thousand euro range. It's
done rather well in Europe and believes it can do well in the US market as well. But while Cooper
is bullish on entering the US market, other automakers are still reeling from the tariffs. Mitsubishi stops shipping cars to
US dealers and will hold all incoming vehicles at US ports.
All of the vehicles the automaker sells in the US are made in Japan, and Mitsubishi told Automotive News that it will hold them at ports until it has and I quote here additional visibility on tariffs. It says it
has a nearly one hundred day supply at its dealers already, and it seems to us the real crisis for most automakers will start to hit at the end of June, after they've burned through the inventory they already have. And yet,
despite the tariffs, Lincoln will continue to import the Nautilus from China. It doesn't plan to raise prices yet, but
at some point that's going to become inevitable. The Nautilus
currently sells at just over fifty three thousand dollars. Lincoln
also says it doesn't expect China's retaliatory tariffs to have an impact on the Navigator, which is shipped from the US to China, and Lincoln's not worried because it sells in such low volume. But while Lincoln will continue to
ship Navigators to China, Tesla will stop shipping the model S and X. China is retaliating to Trump's moves by
raising tariffs on US made vehicles by one hundred and twenty five percent, making them prohibitively expensive, and of course, the S and X are made in the US. Reuters
reports that Tesla only sold one thousand, five hundred and fifty three Model Xes and only three hundred and eleven Model S's in China last year, which only accounted for two point one percent of the total sales of those models globally. We estimate Tesla will lose about one hundred
and fifty million dollars in revenue because of this, and then to try and boot sales of the cyber truck, Tesla's coming out with a decontented version priced at seventy two thousand, two hundred and thirty five dollars, which is about ten thousand dollars cheaper than the prior long range model.
That also means it qualifies for the seven thousand, five hundred dollars rebate for EVS. Tesla got rid of the
front motor, the air suspension, and a rear light bar.
Advantage of going with a two wheel drive version is that it picked up twenty five more miles of driving range, bringing the total to three hundred and fifty miles. It
also charges faster. Tesla clearly has to do something to
boot sales. Cox Automotive says it only sold six thousand,
four hundred and six cyber trucks in the US in the first quarter, which was worse than the Ford Lightning, which is also struggling in the market.
Speaker 2: Performance that shines even in the rain, that's what really matters.
Bridge don't pretends to tires improved grip in wet conditions.
Speaker 1: Many Chinese automakers are growing strong, but not all of them, and Nita Auto isn't deep trouble. It only sold four
hundred and eighty seven vehicles in China the first two months of the year, and now the automaker is facing protests from its own dealers, who claim that it's failed to deliver vehicles. About twenty dealer reps protested at the
company's factory gates, demanding that the company reimbursed them for operational losses. Nita says it wants to hit positive gross
profit margins this year and over all profitability next year.
To us, that just sounds like happy talk, and it's not just Nita. Pollstar is scaling back its operations in China.
It's closing some of its stores and canceling a sales and marketing joint venture with a local company. Even though
its first quarter sales were up seventy six percent. In China,
Pollstar only sold three thousand, one hundred and twenty vehicles there last year. The automaker says it's still committed to China,
but season I quote here a lot of growth in Europe.
Even so, we think Pollstar would have to at least triple its global sales to become a viable car company.
D D, the Chinese ride hailing service, is making a big move into Mexico. It plans to bring one hundred
thousand evs to Mexico by twenty thirty to compete with Uber Mexico, DD will use evs from a variety of Chinese automakers, including Depol, GAC, and BYD. It also plans
to build ten thousand EV chargers in Brazil to expand there as well. Moreover, d D is working with GAC
to come out with a level for ROBOTAXI in China by the end of this year. The car will use
DD's tech stack with thirty three sensors including LDAR cameras, four D radar infrared cameras, and sound sensors, which are all said to work in all weather conditions. And it
wouldn't surprise us to see those robotaxis end up in Mexico and Brazil as well. You know, it looks like
Americans are starting to warm up to the idea of using robotaxis. Twenty percent of Uber rides in Austin, Texas
were handled by Waimo's robotaxis in just its first month of operation. That is the fastest adoption rate that WEAMO
has seen compared to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
A key reason is that in Austin you can order robotaxis using ubers app, while in those other cities, you have to use Weaymo's app. Weimo, by the way, also
has plans to expand into Washington, d C. San Diego,
Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami, and Tokyo, Okay for the adier.
The big news at Volkswagen this week is that you can now play pac Man in your car, well, at least you can in Europe. The game is now available
on the infotainment screen as long as you're park you use your smartphone as a controller. It's a customized version
of the game that replaces classic pac Man icons like Fruit with wheel rims and silhouettes of iconic VW's like the Beetle. Also, in certain id models, the interior lighting
response to inputs by the player and what's going on in the game for a more immersive experience. That game
is now available in about three hundred thousand vehicles in Europe, and that brings us to the end of today's report.
Thank you for watching Autoline Daily.
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