AD #4081 - Maserati In Deep Trouble, Up for Sale?; Ford Claims Skunkworks EV Matches China Cost; Audi Talking About Greenfield U.S. Plant
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Speaker 1: This is outderligned daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Maserati is in deep trouble. Sales
fell forty five percent last year, revenues fell more than fifty percent. There are no signs of anything turning around,
and the US's tariffs will likely kill sales in North America.
So it comes as no surprise that Stalantis is considering selling off the iconic Italian luxury brand. The company denies
the report, but with fourteen major car brands as well as additional sub brands, Stillantis is saddled with a massive investment bill every year to keep them all fresh and competitive.
If it does decide to sell Maserati, the most logical buyer, we think could be one of the Chinese automakers trying to make inroads into the European market. Politically, that would
generate massive blowback, but it also might be the only way to save the brand the jobs that go with it.
It looks like younger people are not interested in getting their driver's license. Alex Partners tracked what percentage of Americans
hold a driver's license, and it did so by age group over the last twenty two years. What it found
was that if the same percentage of Americans had a license today compared to the year two thousand, there would be three point seven million more drivers and there would be four and a half million more cars. We'll add
this to the mix as well. When you consider slower
population growth and an aging population, it becomes more and more likely that new car sales will never return to the twenty sixteen record of seventeen point five million units.
Sales of new cars this year will likely be about two million vehicles.
Speaker 2: Below that.
Speaker 1: We're getting a few more details about Ford Skunkworks EV program.
According to Lisa Drake, Ford's VP of Technology, Platform and EV Systems, the new platform will match the full system costs of the leading Chinese automakers. That includes the pricing
for the battery, chassis, and the thermal systems. There will
be up to eight body styles built on the platform, the first of which will be a mid sized pickup truck that's expected to look like an electric Ranger, and the vehicle will feature Prismatic LFP batteries that were developed with Coatl and produced.
Speaker 2: In the US.
Speaker 1: However, Ford's pricing projections rely on federal tax credits in part for the new battery plant that it's building in Michigan, And as we reported yesterday, that plant is coming under a lot of political fire, and there's a proposed bill from the US House that would eliminate those tax credits.
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Speaker 1: Yesterday we reported that alex Partners calculates that the US terrace will cost automakers and additional thirty billion dollars a year, and German automakers will be responsible for a big chunk of that. According to the industry lobbying group for German automakers,
they paid an estimated five hundred million euros more on importing cars to the US in April. That's because all
cars and parts coming from the EU now face a twenty five percent tariff, which could get negotiated down, but reports say that the US will not go below ten percent, and that would still be a significant jump over the previous two and a half percent import fee. This is
probably the reason Audi is considering building a new manufacturing plant in the southern part of the US, at least according to reports out of Germany. If this were a
move to only appea's President Trump, we think Audi could have just announced an investment in VW's plant in Tennessee or scouts new plant in South Carolina. But since it's
considering a new facility, which would cost an estimated four billion euros, Audi probably thinks the tariffs are here to stay and there's no way that German automakers can afford paying an extra half a billion euros a month on shipments to the US. Stillantis and Renault s Europe needs
its own version of Japan's K cars, and their lobbying the EU to loosen safety requirements to bring them to the market. Car makers in Europe have largely given up
on the small car segment because regulations make them bigger, heavier and more expensive, and currently small cars only account for five percent of the market, so Stilantis chairman John Elkan and former Renault CEO Luca DeMeo have been publicly campaigning for Europe to allow smaller cars with fewer safety features that will be less expensive to build. Automakers are
interested in growing the small car segment to help boot sales as well as meet CO two targets. In speaking
of we have more details about its partnership with Jili in Brazil. The two automakers formed a joint venture in
February to produce in sell cars in Brazil, and according to a new filing by Jili, Renault will have a seventy three percent stake in the JV and Jili will control the remainder. The joint venture will build in sell
vehicles under the Renault and Gili brands, and it will produce and distribute light commercial vehicles under the Renault brand, but the deal still needs to get regulatory approval. Chinese
tech giant by Du currently operates the largest robotaxi fleet in China with more than a thousand vehicles, but now it wants to expand its robo taxi service outside of the country. By Dou is planning to enter Singapore and
Malaysia as early as this year. It's in discussions to
partner with mobility service providers, taxi companies, and fleet operators in the two countries. In addition to Southeast Asia, Bydu
has announced plans to expand into the Middle East and is also looking to operate in Europe and Turkey. But
that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks
for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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