AD #4103 - Lexus Dropping V8s and Gaining An EV Supercar; Stellantis Faces Tough Decisions After Losing Billions; Cheap Chinese EV Aces Cras

Speaker 1: This was on Theline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Stillants posted its earnings for

the first half of the year, and the numbers are pretty grim. It sold almost two point seven million vehicles,

down eight percent. Revenue came in at just over seventy

four billion euros, which was down thirteen percent. It's adjusted

operating income fell off ninety four percent to only five hundred and forty million euros, and it posted a net loss of two point two billion compared to the five point six billion euro net profit it posted last year.

The only bright spot was in South America, where sales, revenue and profits were up sharply thanks to a turnaround in Argentina, but poor performances pretty much everywhere else, especially in the US, easily erased those gains. In fact, it's

entirely possible that Stillantis's UAW workers in the US will not get any profit sharing checks for twenty twenty five.

Antonio Filosa, the company's new CEO, says terrace in the US will cost it one point seven billion dollars this year, and it warns that tough decisions lie ahead. That makes

us wonder if Maserati could be spun off or put up for sale. Sales and revenue continue to drop, and

the famous sports car brand is bleeding red ink. We've

been warning for some time that China's automotive industry really needs to consolidate and restructure because almost all of its automakers are losing money. And here's a sign that the

central government is starting to lay the groundwork for that to happen. Chang Gan, the car company that was owned

by the city of Chang King, was officially recapitalized this week as a new company that's now controlled by the central government. You might remember that back in April there

were reports that Changan and dong Fong could be merged into one company. Well, dong Funk is another automaker that's

controlled by the central government, and so with the central government in control of both companies, we think those merger talks could resurface again. So the question could become how

would that affect other automakers. Changan makes cars for Mazda

and Ford, while dong Funk makes cars for Honda and Nissan.

Weimo is expanding once again, this time to Dallas. The

company will launch its autonomous ride hailing service in the city next year, and it signed a multi year partnership with car rental company Avis to manage the fleet. This

is the first time the two companies have worked together, and they plan to expand to more locations in the future.

Weimo currently operates in five cities, providing two hundred and fifty thousand paid rides to customers every week. In addition

to Dallas, Weaimo will expand to Miami and Washington, DC next year. And speaking of self driving cars, Shanghai is

aiming to become a global leader and fully autonomous driving.

The city will open roads for autonomous testing in one of its main districts by the end of the year, and it also issued new licenses to robotaxi companies like pony Ai and by Do so they can start charging for autonomous services in core urban areas by twenty twenty seven.

Shanghai is targeting more than six million Level four autonomous passenger rides and opening five thousand kilometers or about thirty one hundred miles of roads for self driving vehicles.

Speaker 2: Developing today's vehicles, issues can happen in an instant. What

good is knowing your problems without the data to solve them.

Meet Wireless Neova Cloud, your secure off the shelf solution, empowering real time collaboration for quick resolution. With wireless Nearvi Cloud,

your team can prevent issues before they can escalate. Driver

communication data and remote diagnostics to analyze and resolve your problems using OTA, allowing your executive to oversight throughout the process.

Wireless near Vi Cloud your vehicle update solution in production and on the road intrepid control systems driven by your data.

Speaker 1: The Neo Firefly, which has a starting price of just under seventeen thousand dollars in China, became the first compact car to get an all good rating across all four categories in the China Insurance Automotive Safety Index, which from what we can tell, is very similar to the IIHS in the US. While it wasn't the only model to

receive that same score, it is the smallest and least expensive.

For reference, The Firefly model is about the same length as the last gen Ford Fiesta and nearly as tall as a FOURD escape. Obviously, you need to have a

solid structure to perform that well in a crash test at that size, but the Firefly is also equipped with nine airbags, which is more than a Mercedes S class.

It even outperformed the Shaumisu seven and updated Tesla Model three.

The V eight engine is dying off from Lexus's lineup.

The RC and RCF will be discontinued at the end of this year, and Automotive News reports that both the LC five hundred and the performance version of the IS, the IS five hundred, will no longer be produced after next year. That means no model in Lexus's lineup will

have a twenty twenty six. However, that doesn't mean performance

is dying too. Toyota chairman Akio Toyota is allegedly overseeing

development of an all new electric sports coup that's inspired by the Lexus LFA, launching late in twenty twenty six.

It's said to be targeting a low two second zero to sixty time in over four hundred miles of range, possibly by using solid state batteries. If you'd like to

learn more about future product plans at Lexus, just click the link in today's description box or transcript. Audi is

warning car buyers in Europe about a used car scam.

Scammers have created fake websites and catalogs that appear real looking but are offering non existent used Audi vehicles at low prices in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Audi says several

customers have already been fooled and it encourages any victims to contact the police. Audi has also filed a criminal

complaint and says it's working with authorities in their investigations.

Opel is improving the plug in hybrid version of the Astra.

It increased battery capacity to just over seventeen kilowat hours, which provides up to eighty three kilometers or just over fifty miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. That's

about sixteen more miles of range compared to the previous version, and also the same number by which the company increased output, which now comes in at just under two hundred horse power.

But even with those improvements, the starting price remains the same at roughly thirty eight thousan five hundred euros. The

Astra is also offered with a mild hybrid and pure battery electric setup. And now let's go over the results

of our latest poll. We wanted to know which of

the two Corvette inspired hypercar concepts that came out of GM's design studios that you like the best, either the one from the UK or the one from California. Only

seventeen percent like the one from the UK, while forty three percent said the California concept look the best. But

a sizeable number forty percent said GM needs to go back to the drawing board. Here's some of the feedback

that you gave us. Brian Falchuk says they both look

great and have some related shapes with each other. The

Cali design seems to pull more from the corvette design language over the years, while the UK design, though cool, is more unrelated. Randy Lamp really like the UK concept.

Quote Wow, The UK concept front view screams B two spirit.

Of the two, it has the most appeal for me.

The rear view pays homage to the sixty three stingray.

I agree with this. The future should look like the future,

but a lot of you were unimpressed. Irvin Wright says,

quote I chose neither. These both look too much like

a few future Lamborghini. I would hope GM sticks with

the historical corvette design themes with a few surprise touches to make it stand out from the pack and thanks to everyone that participated. I know design is very subjective,

so we appreciate your feedback, and here's a heads up for all our auto line members from Patreon and YouTube.

Be sure to join us later this afternoon when I'll be live with John talking about some of the hot topics in the industry, like will eliminating EV subsidies in the US kill the EV segment? And are we starting

to see foreign automakers turn the tide in China. We're

also going to take your questions, so start thinking about what you might like to ask and then join us when we go live at two thirty pm Eastern Time.

But that's a wrap for this show. Thanks for tuning in,

and I hope to see you later today. Autoline Daily

is brought to you by Intrepid Control Systems over the Air Engineering boost your game, and by