Automakers are adjusting production strategies amid tariffs, with Toyota considering US assembly for the new RAV4 and Mazda halting shipments of the CX-50 to Canada. Urban pollution controls in cities like New York, Paris, and London show promising results in reducing emissions and congestion. Tesla faces a class action lawsuit over alleged odometer manipulation and is cutting Cybertruck prices amid slow sales. Volkswagen is launching its first in-house automated driving system in China. Other highlights include Archer Aviation's EV air taxi plans, a new hybrid powertrain concept, and innovations in bonding materials for lighter vehicles.
- Toyota May Build New RAV4 In U.S. - Mazda To Stop Shipping CX-50 To Canada From U.S. - Traffic Restrictions Help Improve Emissions in Big Cities - Tesla Faces Lawsuit Over Manipulating Odometers - Tesla Cuts Cybertruck Production - VW Develops 1st In-House Automated Driving System - Archer Aviation to Launch eVTOL Service In New York - Horse Reveals Hybrid Retrofit for EVs - ABB to Spin Off Robotics Division - GAMIC Winner Can Bond Any Material Together - Autoline Aptera Poll
"to Model Y production, which the company has been doing since January. At the end of last year, Electric estimates that all of Tesla's factories were operating at sixty percent capacity, and while a lot of that likely has to do with ramping up for the new Model Y, slowing sales growth and now slowing cyber truck production will likely make it hard to build that capacity back up. Volkswagen is set to introduce its first in house developed automated driving system for the Chinese market. The technology was developed by"
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Automakers continue to rethink their production
plans in response to President Trump's tariffs. Writers reports that
Toyota is considering building the next gen RAV four in the US. It originally planned to build the model in
Canada and Japan and then ship it to the US, but now the automaker could make the model at its Kentucky plant too. If you want to know, the current
REF four is built in Kentucky, Canada, and Japan. Toyota
is expected to introduce the new RAF four this year, but it could take until twenty twenty seven before it can build it in Kentucky because of the time it would take to retool the plant and adjust supply chains. However,
this is an extremely important model for Toyota.
Speaker 2: The RAV four passed.
Speaker 1: The F one fifty in sales last year, making it the best selling model in the US, and Mazda announced that it will stop shipping the Sex fifty to Canada from the US because of Canada's retaliatory tariffs. The automaker
will stop producing Sex fifties bound for Canada at its plant in Alabama. Starting on May twelfth. Last year, Mazda
sold seventy two thousand Sex fifties in Canada, or about fifteen percent of its total sales in the country. Many
major cities around the world have enacted measures to reduce pollution by charging congestion fees or creating zero emission zones which ban ice powered vehicles, and now Bloomberg is reporting how those policies are working so far in New York City, Paris, and London. At the beginning of the year, New York
started charging nine dollars to enter certain parts of Manhattan, and according to traffic data from Google Maps, commuting times are down on some of the busiest routes. Last October,
Paris reduced speed limits on the city's outer ring, which has led to a twelve percent improvement in air quality, a seventeen percent drop in traffic accidents, and there are signs that congestion is lower and five years ago, London created low emission zones, which have expanded to cover six hundred square miles of the city. It also charges fees
for separate congestion zones, and the city released data last month that showed NOx emissions have dropped anywhere from thirty three to thirty nine percent, and almost ninety seven percent of the vehicles driving in the low emission zones are compliant with emission standards. We've heard of car owners rolling
back their odometers to make their cars eligible for warranty work, but we've never heard of automakers speeding up their oh dometers to put their cars out of warranty. Yet a
Tesla owner filed a class action lawsuit against the company for exactly that. Reuter's reports that a guy named Nyrie
Hinton says that Tesla uses energy consumption, driver behavior and predictive algorithms to turn the odometer and not the actual miles driven. He's trying to get Tesla to pay for
a ten thousand dollars repair bill for the suspension on his model. Why that's out of warranty. Tesla denies it all,
but we'll have to keep an eye on how many Tesla owners decide to join this class action lawsuit.
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Speaker 1: At the beginning of the month, Tesla reportedly had twenty four hundred cyber trucks in inventory worth an estimated two hundred million dollars. But even with sales promotions and a
new decontented version that's ten thousand dollars cheaper, Tesla has only been able to reduce cybertruck inventory by about one hundred units, so now it's outright cutting prices and throttling back production. Prices on most models are being reach by
about eight thousand dollars, while some higher end versions are being cut by ten grand and Business Insiders spoke to two Tesla workers who claim that the company has lowered production targets for multiple cyber truck lines, with some lines already running at a fraction of their previous rate, and that it slashed some cyber truck production teams by more than half. However, some of those workers were moved over
to Model Y production, which the company has been doing since January. At the end of last year, Electric estimates
that all of Tesla's factories were operating at sixty percent capacity, and while a lot of that likely has to do with ramping up for the new Model Y, slowing sales growth and now slowing cyber truck production will likely make it hard to build that capacity back up. Volkswagen is
set to introduce its first in house developed automated driving system for the Chinese market. The technology was developed by
Carries on a joint venture between China's Horizon Robotics and VW Software division.
Speaker 4: CARIAD.
Speaker 1: VW will showcase the system at the Shanghai Auto Show next week, and while there aren't many details yet, it will be a Level two plus plus system, which means it can operate on both city streets and the highway.
It will first debut in a Volkswagen branded vehicle in China by the end of the year, and next year the technology will roll out to more affordable models based on a China specific compact car platform. Archer Aviation wants
to help reduce travel time in New York with its EV calls. Together with United Airlines, it unveiled a plan
that would allow its EV calls to transport passengers between existing airports around New York. Archer says this air taxi
network would allow people to travel between the airports in five to fifteen minutes, greatly reducing the amount of time it would take compared to driving. The company expect to
get type certification from the FAA sometime this year, which would allow it to put its EV toll into service, but so far it hasn't received that yet. Horse Powertrain,
the IC joint venture between Renault Glee and a Ramco, revealed its new future hybrid concept that's meant to replace the front drive unit of an EV by attaching directly to the vehicle subframe. Fewer modifications are needed to fit
it into existing platforms, and it could be assembled on the same production line as an EV plus. It's been
designed to be mounted in either direction to run on multiple fuel types, and it can even be used as a range extender. Horse says it expects the new hybrid
setup to be used in series production in twenty twenty eight.
We've seen a flurry of activity with robotics in the auto industry lately, so we were surprised to see that Swiss manufacture ABB is planning to spin off its robotics division because it is its least profitable unit. The unit
employs around seven thousand people and last year it generated two point three billion dollars in revenue, or about seven percent of ABB's total sales. The robotics company is expected
to start trading in the second quarter of next year.
It's very difficult to bond different types of metals together, like steel and aluminum. It's even harder to bond plastics
with metals. That's why a German company called Nacit won
a Gamic award. It's figured out how to bond almost
any kind of material with another using what it calls nanoscale sculpturing. It uses a chemical process to treat the
surface of the materials that almost gives them a hook and loop appearance like velcrow, but on a microscopic scale.
By bonding different types of materials together, automakers can come up with cars that are lighter and stronger at a lower cost. Gammic is the global Automotive and Mobility Innovation
challenge that invites startups to demo their technology and then helps the winners make contacts with automakers and suppliers. One
of the topics on yesterday's Auto Line After Hours was about Aptara. It's been promising its three wheeled solar car
for years now but still hasn't delivered, and now the Securities in Exchange Commission is investigating the company over how it's been selling stock to private investors. So we've got
a poll to get your input. The question is ap
Tara was founded in two thousand and six and has gone through three reorganizations, yet it still does not sell any vehicles. What do you think is going on? One
Launching a new company is hard, just give it time.
Two ap Tara can't raise enough money to go into production.
Three management is content with comfortable salaries. What's the rush?
Or four none of the above. See my comments below.
The poll is open for voting right now for any of our Patreon and YouTube members, but we'll report the results to everyone on Monday. And that's a wrap for
this show. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope that
you have a great weekend.
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