AD #4072 - Should U.S. Automakers Get Out of China?; Cadillac Unveils Optiq-V; U.S. Auto Imports Plummet in May

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. That cutoff of rare earth minerals

from China is triggering alarms all across the auto industry, but there's good news for general motors Ford and Stilantis.

Reuter's reports that China has granted temporary licenses for rare earth materials to suppliers of the Detroit Three. The licenses

are valid for six months, and we don't know how much or what types of rare earth were approved. Even

though it's only a temporary reprieve, this is a big win for the automakers and suppliers who were facing imminent production shutdowns. In fact, Ford had to stop building the

Explorer for a week in May at its plant in Chicago because of the shortage. China controls around ninety percent

of global rare earth production, and it began restricting exports in retaliation to Trump's tariffs in April. And the reprieve

isn't just with US automakers and suppliers. Bloomberg reports that

China agreed to speed up approvals for rare earth exports to Europe, but that's also part of its negotiations with the European Union over its tariffs on Chinese evs. China

and the EU are close to an agreement on setting minimum prices for Chinese made evs, but no doubt the clampdown on rare earth exports gave China a powerful bargaining chip. Meanwhile,

Trump's tariffs have clabbored car imports to the US. According

to trade database Descartes Data Mine, US imports plummeted seventy two percent in May compared to a year ago, and car parts were down fifteen percent. And this does not

include Canada and Mexico. Analyst say, automaker are pausing exports

and so they really know what's going to happen with those tariffs, and you know, China might be facing a backlash from all of its automotive exports, but so far it hasn't shown up in the numbers, at least not for evs. For the first five months of the year,

EV exports were up nineteen percent. Cherry, MG, Glee, and

BYD were the top four exporters. Say, should US automakers

just get out of China? That's what autoanalyst John Murphy

from Bank of America is saying. He points out that

demanding the Chinese market is falling, the industry is caught up with a wicked price war, and there's going to be massive consolidation to address the massive amount of overcapacity that is weighing down the industry. But Murphy's advice to

get out of China applies to GM and Ford. He says,

Tesla really needs to stay in China, even though there's a lot of risk for the company there.

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Speaker 1: Cadillac is really putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to evs. It's coming out with four all

electric models this year, including the Escalade IQ, the Vistick, the Celestic, and the Optic, and now it's just added the V version of the Optic to the lineup. Here's

the specs. It cranks out five hundred and nineteen horse

power and six hundred and fifty pound feet a torque or eight hundred and eighty newton meters. That power goes

through all four wheels to propel the suv to sixty miles an hour in three and a half seconds, but there's a trade off for all that performance. Driving range

is two hundred and seventy five miles from its eighty five kilowatt hour battery pack. That's about four hundred and

forty three kilometer, though it does come standard with a NAX connector opening it up to Tesla's supercharger network. It

also features an adaptive suspension from ZF Brembo front breaks including six piston calipers and Continental Sport Contact six tires.

You can spot the V version by the cladding along the rocker arms, the rear splitter and spoiler, and slightly different front drill. Inside there's an optional trim package featuring

blue accents, including blue seat belts. The Optic V goes

into production this fall with a starting price of sixty eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety five dollars, which includes destination chargers. That's about fourteen thousand dollars more than the

base Optic, but it's also twelve thousand dollars less than the Lyric V. Cadillac will sell the Optic V in

the u US, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, Israel, and Japan.

The Ram brand is getting its mojo back. First, it

brought back the iconic five point seven leader Hemi V eight to its lineup, and now it's getting back into NASCAR in the Craftsman Truck Series. It will join the

series next year after a thirteen year hiatus. That's all

we know right now. No word on which teams or

which drivers will be involved. Tim Kiniskus, the head of Ram,

said NASCAR is the perfect fit for the brand. Twenty

million people are NASCAR fans, fifty percent of them drive a pickup truck, and twenty percent of them own Ram trucks.

Vin Fast, the Vietnamese automaker, reported its first quarter earnings, with some numbers looking better and others looking worse. It

sold thirty six thousand three hundred and thirty cars. That

was up two hundred and ninety six percent. That brought

in six hundred and fifty six million dollars in revenue, up one hundred and fifty percent, but it posted a net loss of seven hundred and twelve million dollars, which was nearly one hundred million dollars worse than a year ago, and it needed a one point four billion dollar loan from its parent company to keep things going. Japanese auto

supplier Morelli is considering filing for bankruptcy in the US. Yeah,

you heard that right, Japanese supplier Morelli. For all of

us who remember when Magneti Morelli was part of Fiat and Italian through and through, those days are long gone.

Merrill was bought by Japanese supplier Calsonic Canse, which in turn is owned by US private equity firm KKR, and KKR is thinking about taking Morelli into Chapter eleven to ensure that its operations will not stop if it's restructuring talks with creditors fall apart. Morelli is the twenty third

largest auto supplier in the world, and it's a key supplier to Nissan and STILANTUS okay, we got the latest results from our outlined poll, which is open to our Patreon and YouTube members. The poll noted that automakers are

looking at sharing powertrains with other automakers. What they want

to know is if customers will care. What would you

tell the car companies. Well, fifty eight percent of you

said that customers won't care because most of them don't even know which engine is under the hood of their car.

About a quarter of you said it will matter a lot to enthusiasts, and the rest of you had different opinions.

Thomas Bowen said, everyone and their mother makes that two liter turbocharged four cylinder engine, and the operating characteristics are nearly identical. Why duplicate the engineer and production expense when

your customer will never know the difference. Randy Lamp noted this,

I remember the uproar in the early eighties when GM consolidated engines among Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, and Cadillac. It

was a big deal until it wasn't. But RF Mark

said engine sharing is not a good idea. That's what

differentiates the brands, he says. Scott Stevenson said, I'd wager

that ninety percent or more of Bronco Sport owners don't have a clue there's a three cylinder engine under the hood, and you know he's right. There is an optional three

cylinder one point five liter turbo available in the Bronco Sport. Hey,

thanks for all your comments.

Speaker 3: We know the.

Speaker 1: Automakers are keenly interested in getting this kind of feedback.

But with that we wrap up today's show. Thanks for watching.

Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey, Intrepid control systems, over the air engineering boost your game, Tajan Automotive Technologies the formula for better mobility, and by.

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AD #4072 - Should U.S. Automakers Get Out of China?; Cadillac Unveils Optiq-V; U.S. Auto Imports Plummet in May

Ford Explorer

Cadillac Lyric

Ford Bronco Sport

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