Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to all of you enthusiasts of the global lot A votive industry. Another day,
another change in Trump's tariff policy. Now, the President says
he wants to give automakers temporary relief on the parts that they bring in from Canada and Mexico. He says
automakers need more time to make the transition to building more cars and components in the US, but he did not say when or how this tariff relief might happen.
Even so, investors jumped at the news. Gmstock was up
three and a half percent, Ford was up more than four percent, and US suppliers were up an average of almost two percent. Of course, that's what's happening today in
this ongoing tariff soap opera. Tomorrow could be completely different. Meanwhile,
Honda is reportedly looking at moving production from Mexico and Canada to the US with the gole of hitting ninety percent US production for vehicles sold in the American market.
That would involve moving the CRV out of Canada and the HRV out of Mexico and going to a three shift operation at a US assembly plant, maybe more than one.
That would result in a thirty percent increase in US production over the next two to three years. The US
is Honda's biggest market, accounting for forty percent of the company's global sales, and Nissan will stop exporting the Rogue from Japan to the US for three months starting in May.
It will use that time to assess where the tariff situation is going, and if it decides to make this a permanent move, that would cut imports of the Rogue by fifty two thousand units a year. Nissan also makes
the Rogue at its plant in Smerna, Tennessee, and presumably would boost production there. Okay, on off of all the
tariff stuff already Now over to China, where an auto expert says any EV maker in China that sells fewer than two million EV's a year will not survive. He
says that Neo, Chipong and Li Auto will either have to merge, restructure, or go bankrupt. Professor Juji Khan from
the School of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University says the odds of these EV startups surviving on their own is zero. Hey,
if we've got some intel on the next generation Chevrolet Corvette Auto four cast solution says the next gen VET will go into production in June of twenty twenty nine at the Bowling Green assembly plant in Kentucky. Interestingly, the
internal code that General Motors is using for the platform still calls it a C eight. Maybe that means that
the new one is just a highly modified version of the current platform, But we're also curious to know if the next gen Corvette will look anything like that concept hypercar that it unveiled just a week ago.
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Speaker 1: General Motors could see production of its most profitable trucks and SUVs come to a screeching halt, and it's got nothing to do with tariffs. Two of its suppliers are
arguing overpricing. South Korean thairod maker Primax and Chinese owned
steering column supplier Next Tier. Primax stops shipping parts to
next year because it wants higher prices due to raw materials costing more. Next Tier said no and filed the
lawsuit against Primax to force it to continue supplying parts.
GM is in danger of running out of steering columns by the end of this week, and that could force it to stop production of models like the Chevy Silverado, the Tahoe and Suburban, as well as the GMC Sierra and Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade. And as everyone in
this business knows, any supplier that causes an auto maker to shut down its assembly lines is in danger of never getting any new business ever again. The largest TV
maker in the world, CAATL, had a super strong first quarter.
Its revenue hit eleven and a half billion dollars in the first three months of the year, up six percent compared to a year ago. That's its first revenue increase
in five straight quarters. But the big news is that
caatl's net profits soared thirty three percent to one point nine billion dollars. Carlos Tavares was pushed out of Stalantis
as CEO last year as sales and profits plummeted and it got into fights with the suppliers, dealers and unions.
Even so, Taveres is walking away with a pay package worth over forty million dollars, and investor groups are hopping mad that is getting so much money after their stock drops sixty seven percent from a year ago. They're advising
shareholders to vote against the payout at the company's annual meeting today. And speaking of Stilantis, the automaker is closing
in on choosing a new CEO. Reuter's reports that it's
got a shortlist down to only five candidates, and two of them are internal, Antonio Felosa, who's the head of North America, and Maxim Picuott, the head of procurement. Stella
has also interviewed three external candidates and wants to hire its new CEO by the end of the first half of the year. Say did you know that that cathote
is by far the most expensive part of an EVY battery.
In fact, it accounts for fifty one percent of the cost or as much as three thousand, six hundred dollars for a typical battery. So a startup based in Blacksburg,
Virginia called Fermi Energy is working on a new type of cathode that could cut its cost in half. It's
a lithium iron phosphate cathode made with what the company calls mechano fusion dry processing. It can boost the range
of an EV that gets two hundred and fifty miles of range up to three hundred and twenty miles with no other changes, and with a fast charger it can add twenty five miles of range each minute. Fermi Energy
was one of the winners of this year's GAMMIC Awards.
GAMMIC is the global automotive and mobility innovation contest, and the winners are selected by a panel of automotive and technological expertise. That brings us to the end of today's report.
Thank you for making Autoline Daily a part of your day, and a special things to all of you who have signed up for Patreon and YouTube memberships because you're the one that makes this all possible.
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About this episode
Tariff relief hints from the US government sparked a surge in automaker stocks, while Honda plans to boost US production by shifting models from Canada and Mexico. Nissan pauses Rogue exports from Japan amid tariff uncertainty. In China, experts predict consolidation among smaller EV makers. The next-generation Corvette is slated for 2029 production, possibly on an evolved C8 platform. GM faces potential production halts due to a supplier dispute over steering columns. Meanwhile, startup Fermi Energy aims to halve EV battery cathode costs with innovative technology, promising longer range and faster charging.
- Auto Stocks Jump on Hint of Tariff Relief - Honda Considers 90% U.S. Production for U.S. Market - Nissan Stops Rogue Imports to U.S., For Now - Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto Won’t Survive, Says Expert - Next-Gen Corvette Due In 2029 - Supplier Dispute Threatens GM Pickup Production - CATL’s Net Profit Up 33% - Shareholders Mad About Tavares’s Pay Package - Stella’s Shortlist for A New CEO - Startup Aims to Cut Cathode Cost in Half
