The episode covers major shifts in the automotive industry, including Morelli's financial struggles and potential buyout by India's Motherson Group, driven partly by Nissan's restructuring and asset sales. European car sales dipped slightly due to declining internal combustion engine vehicles, despite strong EV growth. Volvo announced significant global job cuts to reduce costs. Toyota is shifting some Corolla production to the UK to optimize capacity and delivery. BMW is moving forward with a limited-run V8 speed Top model inspired by a past concept. The episode also discusses industry labor challenges and features listener poll insights on US manufacturing revival.
- Major Suppliers Consider Buyout Plan - Nissan Could Sell Its Headquarters - ICEs Drag Down EU Market in April - Volvo Plans 3,000 Job Cuts - Toyota Starts Making GR Corolla in the UK - BMW Brings Back Clown Shoe Design - Alpine Reveals Its 1st SUV - Autoline Poll Results
"...ring Coup, which reminds us a lot of the Callaway Corvette Aerowagon. There's not a ton of detail, but BMW s..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Automotive suppliers have been hit especially
hard over the last five years, with production stoppages during the pandemic lockdowns, the following chip shortage, and now with EV sales not growing as fast as expected. As a result,
will likely see more consolidation among suppliers or some will simply just go out of business. And one that's in
trouble is Morelli, which is the twenty third biggest automotive supplier in the world. The company is owned by investment
firm KKR, which bought Calsonic Cansi from Nissan and Magneti Morelli from FCA and then merged them together to form Morelli.
But Morelli has struggled the last several years and has taken on billions of dollars a debt from foreign and domestic creditors. However, leaders at Morelli want to accept buyout
offer from the Motherson Group, which is India's largest automotive supplier and counts Ford, Hyundai, in Mercedes as customers. The
offer would see KKR transfer all of its shares in Morelli to Motherson Motherson would buy over seven hundred million dollars in new Morelli shares and would also buy out over four and a half billion dollars in debt from creditors.
If approved, the move could rocket Motherson into the top ten of global automotive suppliers, but right now it seems like some creditors don't think Motherson is providing a reasonable offer, and one of the reasons that Morelli is even struggling in the first place is due to the poor performance at Nissan, which is one of its biggest customers. As
we've been reporting, Nissan's new restructuring plan under new CEO Ivan Espinosa includes cutting twenty thousand jobs, closing seven plants, and slashing over three point three billion dollars in costs, and one of the assets it's considering selling is its headquarters in Japan. Nissan moved into the glass building in
two thousand and nine, and it's reportedly worth six hundred and seventy million dollars. While the automaker would sell the building,
it would still lease out the spaces that it's currently using.
Car sales in Europe were down slightly in April, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Automakers sold just over
a million vehicles last month, down zero point three percent from a year ago. However, a electrified vehicles did very well.
BEEV sales in April were up nearly twenty eight percent, phebs were up thirty one percent, and hybrid sales rose seventeen percent, so that means it was the IC segment that dragged down the market. Gas powered car sales were
down twenty two percent and diesels were down about twenty five percent in April. And while EV sales were strong,
Tesla continued to slide, with its sales dropping forty nine percent last month. Through the first four months of the year,
automakers have sold about four point five million vehicles in Europe, down zero point four percent from last year.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal, hey light enough, but with world class composite material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: Volvo is planning significant job cuts in order to save cash.
The automaker announced it slashing three thousand white collar jobs globally, or about fifteen percent of its workforce, but most of the cuts will be in Sweden. Last month, FAVO said
it was looking to slash costs by one point nine billion dollars this year. In order to de liver on
its long term strategy, Toyota is shifting some production of gr Corollas from Japan to the UK, which will then be exported to North America. Toyota will invest fifty six
million dollars to start building the sporty version of the Corolla in the UK next year, and it plans to export around ten thousand units a year to North America.
The UK plant does currently produce the Corolla, but it's only the base version. While you might think this is
tarff related, since Japan faces a twenty five percent tariff on car ship to the US and the UK reached a deal to reduce its tariffs on cars to ten percent, but Toyota said the move is aimed at filling excess capacity in the UK and improving delivery times. In twenty
twenty three, BMW revealed a concept that we felt was a spiritual successor to the Z three coup, which was sold from nineteen ninety eight until two thousand and two and had playful nicknames like clownshoe, bred Van and sportshoe.
While it's been two years since the debut of the concept Touring Coup, it looks like BMW is taking inspiration from that car for a new model that will actually make its way into production. But the three door speed
Top has a more elongated rear end than the Touring Coup, which reminds us a lot of the Callaway Corvette Aerowagon.
There's not a ton of detail, but BMW says the speed Top has the most powerful V eight that it currently offers and that orders are open now, but it will only be limited to seventy examples. And in one
last quick bit of new car news, if you haven't seen it already, Lpene's very first SUV, the A three to ninety, just made its debut about an hour before the show was posted today, so check that out if you're interested, but we'll be sure to cover it in tomorrow show. Okay, it's time to go over the results
of our latest autoline poll. President Trump wants to revive
US manufacturing, but who's going to work in the factories.
There are currently half a million unfilled manufacturing jobs, and we asked you what you think will happen, and only two percent of you said, don't worry. As plants come back,
people will go to work in them. Forty percent said
all it will do is sell more robots in automation, and thirty seven percent said it will create more jobs as well as boost robots and automation, and the remainder said none of the above. Kit Gerhart responded quote, not
many plants will come back. The car companies will weigh
out the lunacy. Meanwhile, prices will go up and vehicle
choice will go down. Ac Held says, I think many
companies will gut it out for the next four years and the hope that the next administration will change course once again. Some will open new factories and they will
be as automated as possible given the labor shortages. Thomas
Bowen had this comment quote, it's just not going to happen.
As costs increase, the market will contract so they won't need as much production capacity. And lastly, Ricardo Rodriguez says,
it takes a lot of time and money to build factories, never mind the workers. And thanks to everyone that participated
and left a comment. Remember these polls are open to
our YouTube and Patreon members. It only costs a few
dollars a month, So if you haven't done so already, please consider joining. That's a wrap for today's show. Thanks
for making Autoline a part of your day.
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