AD #4041 - U.S. Providing New Direction for AV Tech; Nissan On Track for Worst Loss in History; Ferrari Could Get EV Platform from Leapmotor

Speaker 1: This is online daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Here's the latest update on the

teriff situation in the auto industry. According to The Financial Times,

President Trump is planning to offer some relief for car makers by exempting car parts from terrace that he's slapping on China over fentanyl. The parts would also be exempt

from the twenty five percent tariff on steel and aluminum. However,

the twenty five percent tariff on imported cars will remain.

But while Trump may give automakers relief on parts, he said yesterday as well that the twenty five percent terrace on cars made in Canada could go up. And it

also appears the Trump administration is looking to impose terraffs on commercial vehicles because yesterday the Commerce Department opened a National security investigation into imported medium and heavy duty trucks. Mexico, Canada,

and Japan are the largest exports of big trucks to the US, and analysts believe the probe could form the basis to imposed tariffs on big trucks, vans, and buses.

Automakers also continue to make adjustments. Hundai says it launched

a Task Force to minimize the impact of the tariff on its earnings and to make plans to increase sourcing of car parts made in the US. On top of that,

it shifted some production of Tucsons made in Mexico to its plant in Alabama and is also considering moving some production of cars exported to the US from South Korea to other locations. And Renault says it's delaying plans to

launch its sports car brand Lpen in the US, but we'll have more details about that later in the show.

Expect the US to release new guidance for self driving vehicles sometime today. It may even be out by the

time you're watching this. According to sources, the US Department

of Transportation is going to provide insight into the current administration's objectives for autonomous driving tech. There's not expected to

be big changes, but rather direction on things like the federal motor vehicle safety standards, the process for getting an exemption from those standards, and how to report crashes. While

current vehicle safety standards were amended in twenty twenty two to allow vehicles without a steering wheeler pedals only neuro which doesn't transport any humans has been given that exemption, but the DOT plans to speed up the time that it processes exemption requests, as well as make tweaks to timelines and thresholds for reporting crashes. This should be good

news for companies like Tesla, which just set it's on track to launch a pilot robotaxi service in Texas in June and start production of its cybercabs sometime next year.

And right on the heels of this report, Volkswagen and Uber announced their teaming up to add autonomous e ID buzzvans to Uber's ride hailing service. The companies will start

tests by the end of the year and they'll start offering rides in twenty twenty six, first in Los Angeles, and the plan is to add thousands of self driving ID buzzes to Uber's fleet in multiple markets over the next decade. VW's autonomous subsidiary Moya, will provide the technology

that will be deployed on Uber's platform. California's ability to

set its own emission standards is once again under attack.

Earlier this month, House Republicans were denied in their efforts to revoke California's waiver, but this time it's the Supreme Court that could do so. Yesterday, justices heard arguments from

fuel industry groups that are appealing a lower court ruling that says they don't have legal standing to challenge an EPA decision to let California set its own standards, and the Justices indicated that they would allow the fuel producers to pursue the case. The oil companies claimed the emission

standards prevent them from quote being able to freely sell our product. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on

the case by the end of June.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal hiy light enough, but with world class composite material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.

Speaker 1: Nissan is probably going to be facing a lot more pressure to find new partners. The company announced that it's

going to post a net loss for its latest fiscal year, which ended in March, of between four point nine and five point three billion dollars. That would be a record

loss for Nissan. It's blaming the performance on quote changes

in the competitive environment and falling sales performance. The company

has been discounting cars to avoid building up inventor and it's been slow to align its lineup with consumer tastes, like introducing new hybrid models, and so far this year, Nissan shares are down thirty one percent. Renault had a

decent first quarter, on the other hand. The group sold

just under five hundred and sixty five thousand vehicles, an increase of nearly three percent. The Renault brand itself fueled

most of that growth, with sales up sixteen point six percent to a little over three hundred and eleven thousand units.

But we'd also like to point out that while its sales were small roughly twenty one hundred vehicles, Alpine shot up over ninety six percent in Q one. But as

I mentioned earlier in the show, Renaul is scrapping plans to introduce Lpine to the US market in twenty twenty seven.

It was in talks to sell models through AutoNation dealers, but the company's CFO says that the launch will probably be delayed because of uncertainties around vehicle imports. There was

no new timetable given for Alpine's possible introduction into the US market, and the decision was called perfectly normal, but a near doubling of sales in the first quarter and new models on the way probably gives Lpine the confidence it doesn't need to rush its expansion. Renault's evs also

had a good quarter, with sales shooting up nearly eighty eight percent and now controlling just over seventeen percent of its total sales. All those vehicles helped bring in a

little under eleven point seven billion euros, which was down zero point three percent compared to last year. That performance

gave Renaul the confidence to confirm its financial outlook for the year. It expects to end twenty twenty five with

an operating margin of around seven percent and to have roughly two billion euros in free cash flow. Speaking of

car sales, they were up in Europe for the first time in two months. According to the European Automobile Manufacture

Association or the ACEA, automakers sold just over one point four million vehicles in March, an increase of two point eight percent. Companies like Renault Volkswagen did particularly well, both

posting double digit gains, but Tesla continued its drop off in the region. Its sales were down over twenty eight

percent in March, even though the rest of the BEEV segment in Europe was up twenty three point six percent.

Chinese evmaker Leap Motor could team up with another European automaker, and it could be a bit of a surprise. The

company's CEO told Reuters that it's in talks with Ferrari about developing a model based on its EV architecture. Ferrari

declined to comment on the report and no other details were given. But Leap Motor also has a joint venture

with Stalantis, and given the close ties between Ferrari and Stillantis, this possible partnership isn't that shocking. Leap motors deal with

Stilantis gives Delantis the right to build and sell Leap Motor evs outside of China, and hey be sure to join us for Autoline after hours later Today, our guest is Mike Chico from Panic Robotics. We plan to answer

the question is automation the answer for US auto manufacturing.

We've got auto industry expert Brett Smith and Steve Plum from Manufacturing Engineering coming on the show to help us get to the bottom of that. Plus we plan to

dive into Tesla's Q one results and how US terrace could impact sales. Join the action live at three pm

Eastern Time today. But that's a wrap for this show

and I hope to see you later today.

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AD #4041 - U.S. Providing New Direction for AV Tech; Nissan On Track for Worst Loss in History; Ferrari Could Get EV Platform from Leapmotor

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