European automakers face a deepening global sales crisis with significant declines in key markets like China and the US, while production targets remain unmet. China mandates ABS on new vehicles and restricts one-pedal driving modes due to safety concerns. Tesla is ordered to reimburse a customer over unfulfilled Full Self-Driving promises after arbitration. Ford launches a zero-down, zero-interest summer sales event to boost momentum. Renault partners with Ahorn Camp to offer camper vans in Europe. Plus, a preview of an upcoming discussion on the US skilled trades shortage.
Topics:european automakers sales declinechina automotive regulationstesla full self-driving arbitrationford zero zero zero sales eventrenault camper vansone pedal driving safetyskilled trades shortageautomotive production challengesglobal automotive market trends
- EU Automakers Post Weak Q2 Sales - EU Automakers Face Global Sales Crisis - Xiaomi Success Threatens Foreign Automakers - China Sales Hit All-Time June Record - China Finally Mandates ABS - Stellantis Brings Back SRT Division - Ford Launches New 0-0-0 Sales Campaign - Tesla Owner Reimbursed for FSD - Renault Introduces New Motorhome and Camper
"...mp to offer motor home and camper versions of its Master Van. There are nine versions of the motor home and tw..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the shows dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. We've been warning for some time
that the European auto industry is on shaky grounds, and the latest numbers show that the situation is only getting worse.
Portia said global sales fell six percent in the second quarter.
Mercedes Benz was down nine percent, while Jaguar land Rover was down fifteen percent. Stillantis, which is under enormous pressure
from the Italian government to boost production in the country to a million cars a year, saw a production plummet by thirty four percent in the first half. It only
made about two hundred and forty four thousand vehicles in Italy so far this year, meaning that million car target is just a pipe dream, and the company's market cap is now under thirty billion dollars. The problem for European
automakers is that sales in their home market are nearly three million units a year lower than they were pre COVID.
In China, European brands, like all foreign brands, are getting clobbered, and in the US they're now getting hit with higher tariffs.
The situation is gloomy and it seems like there might be no end in sight. Porsche warns that the second
half of the year is gonna be a lot tougher.
Its sales in China are down twenty eight percent this year and are down fifty eight percent from just four years ago. As Bloomberg points out, who needs a Porsche
Macan when you can get a Shoomi U seven with better specs, higher performance, newer technology, and at a lower price.
While the U seven is clearly targeted at Tesla's model y, the U seven and Sue seven Sedan are eating into Porsche two. Meanwhile, new car sales in China just shot
up eighteen percent to an all time record. In June,
automakers sold two point one million new passenger vehicle. Car
prices keep falling thanks to the price war as well as government incentives for people trading in an old car to buy a new one, and export shot up twenty eight percent to four hundred and eighty thousand vehicles. But
now the question is how sustainable will this be? The
China Passenger Car Association says it expects car sales to start easing up.
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Speaker 1: China is finally mandating ABS on all new vehicles. While
anti lock brakes have been required in Europe since two thousand and three and since twenty thirteen in the US, China is implementing a new standard that will take effect for most new vehicles starting at the beginning of next year and at the start of twenty twenty seven. The
standard also prevents ev makers from setting one pedal driving as the default mode. One pedal driving can bring the
vehicle to a complete stop after the accelerator is released without hitting the brake pedal, but regulators say there's an increased possibility of pedal misapplication and they worry that long term use can lead to delayed reactions when it's necessary to hit the brakes. That's even happened to me mistaking
the accelerator for the break well in one pedal mode.
So I don't like to use it, but we'd love to know your thoughts on the feature. Street In Racing,
Technology is making a comeback. Better known as SRT, a
performance division that launched under the Dodge brand in two thousand and four, will now be the performance engineering arm for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM. It will be headed
up by RAM CEO Tim Kiniskus, who was also given the newly created role of Head of American Brands in North America Marketing and Retail Strategy. Essentially, he's head of
all sales in marketing and speaking of sales in marketing, Ford is transitioning its employee pricing for All campaign to what it's calling the zero Zero Zero Summer Sales event that stands for zero down payments, zero percent interest for forty eight months, and zero payments for the first ninety days.
The deal applies to most Ford and Lincoln vehicles in the US and will last until the end of September.
The company is also extending its power promise for the same amount of time, which offers a free home charger in standard installation to EV buyers. Ford's sales were up
just over fourteen percent in the second quarter, so we'll be interested to see if this zero zero zero campaign helps it maintain that momentum, because does anyone remember when Mitsubishi did this about twenty years ago? Sales shot up instantly,
but when Mitsu lowered its lending standards so that almost any buyer qualified, the whole system collect apps because customers started defaulting on payments and residual values went down the drain.
A Tesla owner who was upset that the company didn't deliver on its promise for unsupervised self driving was able to get reimburse for the feature. Tesla has been selling
its FSD package for a decade now, but the technology still is incapable of providing unsupervised self driving, and the company has admitted that models with hardware three that were promised to eventually reach full self driving will need a hardware update. As part of Tesla's sales contract, customers in
the US must go through arbitration to seek refunds, so that's what one owner in Washington did. He paid ten
thousand dollars for FSD in his twenty twenty one model Y, but even when Tesla unlocked supervised FSD, says he wasn't able to enable it because Tesla restricted access through a safety score, which the owner claimed aimes wasn't mentioned in the contract. Doesn't appear Tesla took the arbitration process seriously
because they sent a service technician as a witness who wasn't prepared to answer the questions. So the arbitrator sided
with the customer and said FSD was not quote functional, operational, or otherwise available. Tesla was forced to reimburse the ten
thousand dollars plus taxes, and it also had to pay eight thousand dollars in arbitration fees. Renault is partnering with
German motorhome brand Ahorn Camp to offer motor home and camper versions of its Master Van. There are nine versions
of the motor home and two camper van models. They're
powered by diesel engines made it to a nine speed automatic transmission that ranged from one hundred and twenty eight to one hundred and sixty seven horse power. The campers
started just under fifty three thousand euros were about sixty two thousand bucks, while the motor homes started a round fifty nine thousand euros or just under sixty nine thousand dollars.
The new vans go on sale later this year in Europe.
And be sure to join us this Thursday for Autoline After Hours when we'll have Sandy Monroe coming on the show.
Sandy is super cranked up about the failure of the US to generate a new generation of skilled tradespeople and he's ready to let loose on that. You won't want
to miss it. But that's a wrap for today. Thanks
for tuning in. Autoline Daily is brought to you by
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