AD #4046 - Ford Scraps All-New Electronic Architecture; GM Expects $4-5 Billion Tariff Hit; U.S. Considers Annual EV Fee
Autoline Daily
AD #4046 - Ford Scraps All-New Electronic Architecture; GM Expects $4-5 Billion Tariff Hit; U.S. Considers Annual EV Fee
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Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. It could get more expensive to
own an EV in the US. Republicans in the US
House of Representatives advanced a bill to place an annual fee on electric vehicles to help fund road repairs. The
bill would place a two hundred and fifty dollars annual fee on evs and one hundred dollars fee on hybrids.
According to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Highway Trust Fund faces a one hundred and forty two billion dollar shortfall over the next five years.
Speaker 2: Road repairs are funded through taxes.
Speaker 1: On gas and diesel, which EV drivers don't pay. However,
the EV advocacy group, the Electrification Coalition, says the two hundred and fifty dollars yearly fee on evs is unfair because the average gas powered vehicle only pays about eighty eight dollars a year in federal fuel taxes. And House
Republicans are also ramping up their efforts to revoke California's ability to set its own vehicle emission standards. Yesterday, they
voted to rescind California's mandate for zero emission heavy duty trucks by twenty forty five, and also repealed a separate EPA waiver that restricted NX emissions from big trucks and engines, and today House Republicans will vote to repeal an EPA waiver that allows California to ban sales of new gas powered vehicles in twenty thirty five. Republicans are trying to
revoke the waivers using the Congressional Review Act or CRA.
Speaker 2: However, it's unclear if they have the.
Speaker 1: Authority to do so after the Government Accountability Office ruled in March that the House can't revoke the waivers with the CRA, which requires a majority vote in the Senate.
Speaker 2: The European auto industry continued.
Speaker 1: To limp along in the first quarter, and the situation will likely get worse as Trump's tariffs her car exports to the United States. The ACEA, or the group that
represents automakers in the EU, says Q one sales fell one point nine percent. Even so, there were some bright spots.
Sales of evs were up twenty three point nine percent, with nearly four hundred and thirteen thousand b evs sold, even though Tesla was down thirty six percent. Hybrids were
up nearly twenty one percent to nine hundred and sixty four thousand units, and PEVs were up a little over one percent. But gasoline cars fell over twenty percent and
diesel was down twenty seven percent, which dragged down the whole market. And with the European market so weak, it's
not a surprise to see that Mercedes, Stilantis, and Volvo all reported lower sales and earnings. Mercedes saw it sales
of cars and vans fall four percent, while revenue fell seven percent. It's EBIT plummeted forty one percent, and its
net profits were even worse with a forty.
Speaker 2: Three percent drop.
Speaker 1: Volvo posted some miserable numbers two It sold one hundred and seventy two than two hundred cars, down six percent, revenue dropped eleven point seven percent to only three point four billion dollars, Its EBIT plummeted seventy two percent, and profits fell seventy three percent to very low levels, and these numbers help explain why Volvo dumped its CEO, Jim Rowan, and brought Hakan Samuelson back out of retirement to run the company again. Stillant has posted its Q one numbers,
but for some odd reason, it does not publish its operating or net profits, just its sales and revenue, and that must be a real frustration for investors because it really doesn't give them a clear idea of what's happening at the company. Stillant has sold one point two million
vehicles in the first three months of the year, down nine percent, and its revenue fell fourteen percent to thirty five point eight billion euros. He can only imagine the
bottom line looks terrible, but we probably won't know how bad it is until it reports its first half results and one quick tariff update here, General Motors says those tariffs will shave anywhere from four to five billion dollars off its bottom line this year, and once we get guidance from all the automakers, suppliers and retailers, the cost of the tariff is going to be.
Speaker 2: A staggering number.
Speaker 1: Ford has scrapped an in house development program that was aimed to create an all new electronic ar architecture. It
was supposed to be a fully networked zonal architecture for both electric and ice vehicles that had more OTA capabilities and services for customers. It was also meant to cut costs,
improve quality, and generate more revenue for the automaker, but Reuter's reports that the program has run into delays and was part of the reason that Ford lost four point seven billion dollars on software and evs in twenty twenty three and five billion dollars last year. All automakers have
seemed to struggle in some sort of way developing centralized zonal architectures, but it's been especially hard for legacy automakers like Ford that can have one hundred and fifty different modules from dozens of suppliers that all need to talk to.
Speaker 2: And work smoothly with one another.
Speaker 1: So Ford says it will absorb what it learned from the program into its current software system and will rely on its skunk Works program to develop the new electronic architecture.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, some members of Tesla's board reached out to executive search firms about a month ago to find a possible replacement for Elon Musk. It says they were concerned about the CEO's
focus on his role in the Trump administration and its possible relation to the company's falling sales and stock price.
Speaker 2: At the time.
Speaker 1: Tesla's ex page has since posted a response from chairperson Robin Denholm that the report is false and that the board is confident in muscibility, and Elon called it a quote deliberately false article, but the journal says the board spoke to it CEO about spending more time at the company, and one analyst from web Bush Securities even called it a quote very tense situation and a warning.
Speaker 2: Shot from the board.
Speaker 1: However, they'd be surprised if the board was still searching for a replacement after Elon announced in Tesla's latest earnings call that he cut his time at the White House significantly and that Musk is likely to stay on a CEO for at least the next five years, and in other Testla news, the company also plans to roll out its own network of public chargers for its Semi truck.
At a presentation during the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, the senior manager of tesla Semi program said that it's aiming to deploy forty six public megawatt chargers, mainly in California and Texas, by early twenty twenty seven. The Semi has
been designed to have up to roughly five hundred miles of range, and the manager also claims that test trucks have already driven nearly eight million miles. Issuzu is jumping
into the EV truck segment with an electric version of its Dmax mid size pickup. The truck features a nearly
sixty seven kilowat hour battery pack and two electric motors that combine for one hundred and eighty eight horse power and two hundred and forty pound feet of torque. That
pack provides a range of one hundred and sixty three miles or two hundred and sixty three kilometers based on the WLTP test cycle, and it makes enough power to move from zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in ten point one seconds. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but
it's expected to cost more than the diesel power Dmax, which starts at forty one six hundred dollars or thirty six thousand, five hundred euros. While the Dmax EV will
be built in Thailand, it will first launch in left hand drive European countries in the third quarter, and right hand versions for the UK launch in early twenty twenty six.
The pickup will also be sold in Australia and don't forget to tune into Auto Line after hours. Today we've
got Chad Durky from the supplier for Via coming on the show. It just showed off a bunch of cool
new tech at the Shanghai Auto Show and no doubt we'll get into the impact of terrace on suppliers. Industry
expert Lindsay Brook will also be on the show, So join the fun with John and Gary this afternoon at three pm Eastern Time. If that's a wrap for me
and I hope to see you later today.
Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Intrepid Control Systems.
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About this episode
The discussion covers significant developments in the automotive industry, including U.S. legislative moves to impose annual fees on EVs and efforts to revoke California's emission standards. European automakers face declining sales and profits amid tariff impacts, with GM expecting a $4-5 billion hit. Ford abandons its ambitious electronic architecture project due to delays and cost overruns. Tesla's board reportedly considered replacing Elon Musk amid concerns over his divided focus, though Musk remains CEO. Tesla also plans a public charging network for its Semi truck. Isuzu enters the EV truck market with an electric Dmax pickup launching in Europe and Australia.
Original notes
- U.S. Considers Annual EV Fee - U.S. House Targets California's ZEV Truck Mandate - EU Sales Droop in Q1 - Mercedes' Q1 Profit Drops 43% - Volvo's Profit Plunges 73% - Stellantis Posts Lower Sales and Revenue - GM Expects $4-5 Billion Tariff Hit - Ford Scraps In-House Central Compute Platform - Tesla Denies Looking for New CEO - Tesla Building Public Chargers for Semis - Isuzu to Launch BEV Pickup
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