AD #4064 - Alpine Reveals First SUV; Stellantis Names Antonio Filosa New CEO; GM Invests $900M To Build More V8s

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Well, Stillantis finally has a new CEO.

Confirming reports from earlier this month, Antonio Filosa will now be in charge of leading the company, effectively taking over the role on June twenty third. He's also in line

to be elected to the board as an executive director, but that still requires a shareholder meeting and vote, which is said to happen and quote the coming days. Stillantis

had been without a leader since Carlos Tavares left in December of last year, so it was roughly a six month search to land on Filosa, who started his career at Fiata nineteen ninety nine and has been part of the company's executive team since Stilantis was formed in twenty twenty one. We feel like he's going to have to

hit the ground running. His next step will be to

announce a new leadership team, but beyond that, Fellosa needs to figure out what he's going to do with Stilantis's dozen or so brands, some of which aren't performing very well.

That's led to falling sales and profits, as well as sixty five billion dollars of lost market cap in the last year, and on top of that, it also looks like Fellosa will need to lead a software revolution at the company. Reuter's reports that Stillantis has deal with Amazon

to create a more competitive in car user experience is coming to an end. Originally announced in twenty twenty two,

the partnership was part of the automaker's Smart Cockpit project, which would feature a more advanced software system. But now

Stilantis will have to find other solutions, and it's not clear what those are yet. GM's EV sales are increasing,

but not enough to save a three hundred million dollar investment that was supposed to go into its propulsion plant and Buffalo, New York for EV drive units. Instead, it's

investing nearly nine hundred million dollars to make V eights for full sized trucks and SUVs, which are GM's main source of profits. It also invested five hundred million dollars

two years ago to make the same engines in Michigan, as well as about another two billion dollars into the plants that make those vehicles and their components.

Speaker 2: We've previously reported.

Speaker 1: On byd and contractors that it used to hire Chinese workers to build a plant in Brazil, being accused of human trafficking and putting the workers through slave like conditions, while now labor prosecutors in Brazil have filed a lawsuit that seeking forty five million dollars in damages would force the companies to comply with labor rules and find them about eight eight hundred dollars for each violation, multiplied by the number of affected workers, even though those workers have

all already return to China. BYD says it's been in

cooperation with prosecutors and will respond to the claims in court documents. And the price war in China was already heated,

but now it's expected to get even worse. Shares of

the largest automakers in China dropped yesterday after BYD slash prices on more than a dozen models, triggering fears of a deeper price war. But as we've said in the past,

there are too many brands making too many vehicles, so some shakeout is expected. According to Jado Dynamics, there are

one hundred and sixty nine car companies in China and more than half of them have less than zero point one percent market share, but it's not just the automakers that have to be worried. The chairman of great Wall

Motor is warning that the price war is harming the supplier industry and that some suppliers are at risk of failing because they're under pressure from car companies to lower prices.

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Speaker 1: Toyota is serious about developing ev tolls or electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and now it's the largest shareholder in flying taxi startup Joby Aviation, which is based in California.

The automaker first invested in Jobi in twenty twenty and now owns fifteen percent of the company. It just completed

the first half of a five hundred million dollar investment that it announced last year, which will bring Toyota's total investment in Joby to nearly nine hundred million dollars. Joby

is aiming to launch commercial services in Dubai next year, and it's still waiting for full flight certification in other countries including the US. Rivian CEO RJ. Scurringe continues to

share more about the new R two. This time I'm around.

He provided a look at the rear subframe and suspension, which features a five link setup with stamped steel arms that he says delivers incredible ride quality in handling. That

forged aluminium knuckle dubbed Starfish by Scurrnge looks awfully expensive and we wonder if a casting might be cheaper overall than a welded steel subframe.

Speaker 2: But Scringe also says.

Speaker 1: The company achieved its optimized cost structure, so while it's a long way off, will be fascinated to see if Rivian can turn a profit with the R two.

Speaker 2: What do you think? And as I promised in yesterday's show.

Speaker 1: Here's the all new lpn A three ninety, the brand's first suv, which is also all electric. It's based on

the Renault Group's amp R Medium platform, the new name for its CMFEV platform that it shares with Nissan, which will be used for the new Leaf and Aria that are coming this year as well.

Speaker 2: Alpine claims the platform.

Speaker 1: Went through a quote radical overhaul to deliver first class performance.

The A three to ninety features a tri motor setup, one motor in the front, two motors at the rear.

In GT models, they combine for four hundred horse power and provide a zero to one hundred kilometer an hour time of four point eight seconds. GTS models make four

hundred and seventy horse power and can do zero to one hundred which is similar to zero to sixty miles an hour in three point nine seconds. Those rear motors

are permanent magnet synchronous units that control each wheel independently, providing active torque vectoring, which contributes to the A three to ninety feeling.

Speaker 2: Like a quote sports car in a suit.

Speaker 1: According to Lpen, the cells for the electric suv and NMC chemistry with an extra nickel content come from French battery maker Vercore and are specifically designed to be able to handle repeated hard accelerations while still maintaining the same performance down to thirty percent battery charge. This was part

of an entire redesign of Vercore's four hundred volt architecture, which also included an upgrade to the battery's cooling system.

Total pack capacity comes to eighty nine kilowatt hours. For

models with twenty inch wheels, it offers a range of up to five hundred and fifty kilometers or three hundred and forty four miles, while twenty one inch wheels drop that down to five hundred and twenty kilometers or three hundred and twenty three miles of range.

Speaker 2: On the WLTP cycle with.

Speaker 1: An eleven kilowat onboard charger or an optional twenty two kilowat unit, the A three to ninety can provide power to other electric devices, or it also has bi directional charging compatibility with the electric grid. Now, let's shift our

focus to the interior, which is highlighted by a couple of digital displays, but you may notice a blue and red button on the steering wheel as well, which are for the drive modes and an over boost function. We'd

also like to point out the three round buttons on the center console. Those are for reverse, neutral, and drive.

Speaking of drive, let's drive this story home. The A

three ninety is scheduled to come out in the fourth quarter of this year. Pricing for GT models starts at

sixty five thousand euros, while GTS models start at seventy six thousand. And we've got a quick follow up on

a story that we reported on last week. We showed

you this video taken by one of our viewers of a parking lot north of Detroit filled with Tesla's. You

all helped us figure out they're probably storage for a nearby Tesla store, But Crane's Business Detroit report it's the landlord of that shopping center has been notified there in violation of the suburb's code for storing vehicles in the lot, so the testless will likely be forced out. And that

brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for

making autoline a part of your day. Auto Line Daily

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AD #4064 - Alpine Reveals First SUV; Stellantis Names Antonio Filosa New CEO; GM Invests $900M To Build More V8s

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