AD #4094 - Stellantis Throws In the Towel with Fuel Cells; Volvo To Shift SUV Production to U.S.; Mercedes Reveals 1st All-Electric Wagon

Speaker 1: This is Autoligne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Stillantis is giving up on hydrogen

fuel cell technology. It announced that it's discontinued the development

of the program because it says there's quote no prospects of mid term economic sustainability. The company blames the lack

of a refueling network, high investment costs, and the need for purchase incentives as the reasons why it doesn't think fuel cell commercial vehicles will be bought in the kinds of volume needed to sustain the business. Stillantis's commercial division,

called Stilantis pro One, had planned to launch a new range of hydrogen powered vans this year, but it will now focus on hybrid and electric vehicles instead. Those vehicles

were also part of a hydrogen joint venture called Symbio, which was formed between for Via Michelin and Stilantis and has ties to the supplier Scheffler, but Stillanti's plans to be gone from that partnership by next year as well.

It says it's in discussions with shareholders to evaluate the consequences of it leaving and to preserve the best interests of Symbio. But the future of the joint venture is

unclear without Stilantis on board. Honda also recently announced that

it would be delaying and scaling back its next gen fuel cell program. However, as of right now, it's still

moving forward with its production plans. Ten years ago, Ford

sold one point three million passenger cars in Europe, but last year it sold under four hundred and thirty thousand.

Speaker 2: That's a huge drop caused by.

Speaker 1: Chopping models from its passenger car lineup to focus on like commercial vehicles because they were seen as more profitable.

But it's extremely difficult for an automaker as big as Ford to maintain a business with that kind of volume without making any changes. As crazy as it sounds, we

wondered if Ford might drop out of the European passenger car market altogether, but help is on the way. Automotive

News reports that dealers in Europe were told that CEO Jim Farley is planning to develop a new lineup of models.

Speaker 2: For the region, and they won't just be evs.

Speaker 1: I'm sure dealers wish that they already had these cars on their lots, but no word on when we'll see them.

Yet More automakers are shifting production to the US to avoid tariffs. Yesterday we reported that Nissan is looking into

moving the Armada and Infinity QX eighty from Japan to its plant in Canton, Mississippi, and now Automotive News reports that Volvo is planning to build the XC sixty and XC ninety at its plant in South Carolina. The two

crossovers are currently imported from Sweden, and they accounted for nearly half of all those sales in the US in the first half of the year. In addition to avoiding tariffs,

shifting production to the US will also help improve volumes at the South Carolina plant, which is severely underutilized. Last year,

the factory only produced twenty thousand vehicles, just thirteen percent of its capacity. Last week, we made a chart with

the top twenty two car companies in the world based on market cap, and it seems like investors really like the potential of robotaxis, with Uber only ranking behind Tesla and Toyota, and China's Bydu surging past Delantis and nine other automakers, and now those two giants are teaming up.

By the end of this year, users will be able to order a by due Robotaxi from Uber's app in cities across Asia in the Middle East. The service will

then expand to other international markets to help give Uber and by Do a more global presence. In the US,

Uber also has Robotaxi deals with Weimo and Volkswagen.

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Speaker 1: Renault has a new CEO, well for now. The automaker

announced that it appointed Chief financial Officer Duncan Minto as interim CEO. He'll run the day to day operations along

with Renault's chairman until a new CEO is hired. Renault

is looking for a new leader after former CEO Luca DeMeo unexpectedly resigned last month to run the luxury group Caring.

Renault also shared its first half financial guidance for the year, which disappointed investors. The company said June sales were weaker

than expected, and it also lowered the targets for its operating profit margin and free cash flow for the year.

Speaker 2: As a result, Renault shares.

Speaker 1: Tumbled as much as eighteen percent and are on track for its worst day since March of twenty twenty. Earlier

this year, Mercedes revealed the new all electric CLA Sedan, and now it's showing off the station wagon version, the first electric wagon in Mercedes lineup. Like the CLA Sedan,

the wagon, or the Shooting Brake, features a two hundred kilowat or nearly two hundred and seventy horse power electric motor for the rear drive model, while all wheel drive versions come with two hundred and sixty kilowatts or four hundred and fifty horse power. The wagon also features an

eighty five kilowatt hour battery pack like the Sedan, but it gets less range because of the extra weight. Rear

drive wagon models have seven hundred and sixty one kilometers or four hundred and seventy two miles of range, while all wheel drive versions are at seven hundred and thirty kilometers or four hundred and fifty three miles based on the WLTP test cycle. The electric CLA wagon goes on

sale next year in Europe, which will be.

Speaker 2: Followed by a hybrid version as well.

Speaker 1: Honda is pitching in to help the US Olympic bobsled and skeleton teams. It's letting them use its wind tunnel

in Ohio to help improve aero dynamics. Bob sleds are

capable of hitting speeds of ninety miles an hour and on skeletons, how athletes position themselves, including where they place their head, hands, arms, and legs, can have a significant impact on arrow Honda's wind tunnel has a moving ground plane that simulates the ground rushing underneath the sleds, which gives them more accurate measurements. Honda has a five year

commitment to the program and will use the Accurate brand as the sponsor. We'll see the results of this effort

at next year's Winter Olympics in Torono, Italy, as well as through multiple seasons of the World Cup and World championship competitions all the way to the Winter Olympics in France.

Speaker 2: In twenty thirty.

Speaker 1: We found an interesting comparison that Car News China did looking at the profitability of Chinese automakers in the first quarter.

There are at least eight automakers who are profitable, though in most cases their bottom lines are mighty slim.

Speaker 2: Byd leads the list.

Speaker 1: With a healthy one point two billion dollars in net profit, and Jeli came in second place with seven hundred and ninety million.

Speaker 2: But then it really starts to drop off.

Speaker 1: Seic made four hundred and twenty one million dollars, great Wall made two hundred and forty four million, Changan made one hundred and eighty eight million dollars, Baic made one hundred and twenty nine million, Series came in at one hundred and four million dollars, and Liatto made ninety million bucks.

Except for BYD's profit, none of these other companies are making much money, and that means the rest are all losing money. I think there's two things to read into this.

The price war in China is really taking a toll on the bottom line, and this also shows why Chinese automakers are exporting so heavily because they can get higher prices overseas. And here's a real quick stat that I

found interesting, so I thought you might too. Mercedes claims

that worldwide last year, one in every ten sprinter vans sold was converted into a motor home or camper. That

seemed like an awful lot at first, but the sprinter is an awfully popular platform for conversions, So now that's what I'm going to be looking for every time I see a sprinter Van on the road. That's a wrap

for today's show. Thanks for making autoline a part.

Speaker 2: Of your day.

Speaker 1: Autoline Daily is brought to you by intrepid control systems over the air engineering boost your game, and by

AD #4094 - Stellantis Throws In the Towel with Fuel Cells; Volvo To Shift SUV Production to U.S.; Mercedes Reveals 1st All-Electric Wagon

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