AD #4119 - Oil to Drop Under $50/Barrel; China Media Disses 3-Row Model Y; VinFast Kills Direct Sales, Goes Dealer Route
Autoline Daily
AD #4119 - Oil to Drop Under $50/Barrel; China Media Disses 3-Row Model Y; VinFast Kills Direct Sales, Goes Dealer Route
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Have you been watching the price
of oil? A year ago it was eighty one dollars
a barrel. Today it's sixty seven, and at this time
next year it could be fifty dollars a barrel, or maybe even less. That's according to the latest forecast from
the US Energy Information Agency. That sixty seven dollars a
barrel is the WTI or West Texas Intermediate price, which is the US price. The international price, which they call
Brent crude, is a few dollars a barrel more, but it's also dropping. The EIA says that oil producers around
the world, especially Opek, are making too much oil, far exceeding demand, and that's what's driving down prices. We would
add that a slowing global economy is causing demand to fall as well. And yet even though oil prices are dropping,
the EIA expects the price of natural gas to double from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty six. Just one
automakers and suppliers in the US thought they were starting to get their arms around their tariff challenges, the Trump administration dumped another load of terraces in their laps. The
administration is slapping fifty percent terraces on the aluminum and steel that is used in important components like mufflers, exhaust pipes, clutches, buses, vans, semi trailers, and any passenger vehicle with more than one thousand cc engines. And it's a double whammy two because
the tariff stack. You pay fifty percent terraffs on the
steel and aluminum content in those products, and then you pay a tariff for importing the product itself. Reuters reports
that Tesla asks for an exemption for the steel it uses in its electric motors, saying that nobody in the US make it's that greatest deal, but that request was rejected.
Yet there is some good news in the tariff area.
More and more automotive components imported from Canada and Mexico are USMCA compliant. Fitch Ratings reports that in May about
fifty six percent of components from Canada were USMCA compliant.
Now it's eighty one percent. In Mexico, it was forty
two percent compliant in May, while it's now seventy seven percent.
This is a big deal because any components that are USMCA compliant don't pay any tariffs, and that's also a mighty fast turnaround. It shows just how resourceful automakers and
suppliers can be when their backs are pressed against the wall, in this case, the tariff wall. California is fighting back
against the Trump administration's anti EV policies. The California Air
Resources Board wants the state to pay for the seventy five hundred dollars tax cre for new evs and the four thousand dollars for use ones when the federal incentives are phased out in September. But it's being realistic too,
It says the incentives would be quote contingent upon available resources.
CARB says it's also working on new zero emission vehicle requirements just in case the courts uphold the revoking of the EPA waiver by the Trump administration, which allowed California to set its own emission standards.
Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.
Learn more at VCSP dot com.
Speaker 1: Buick is upgrading the tech inside its cars for the Chinese market. The new Electra L seven Sidan will be
the first model to get Momento's newest driver assistant system called our six Flywheel, which they claim is the first reinforcement learning model implemented into a production vehicle in China.
This type of system is supposed to provide more safety, convenience, and efficiency across the wider range of driving scenarios. The
Electra L seven is also the first model to feature Qualcom's newest snap Dragon chip to run most of its interior features. It enables faster and crisper display screens and
powers a large head up display. Bwett claims it's a
fifty inch HUD, but I'll say that picture doesn't do it justice. You may recall the Electra L seven as
the first model to be built on a next gen nine hundred volt architecture that's tailored to the Chinese market and can support many body and powertrain types. The L
seven is launching as a plug in hybrid, but what we've seen so far has been so impressive we're starting to wonder how different this platform is from Ultium and if we'll see it used for other models and other markets.
Opel is taking the Corsa and turning it up to eleven.
The standard version of the small car puts out about one hundred and fifty five horse power, but the Corsa GSE Vision Grand Turismo Concept generates an eye watering eight hundred horse power and will do zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in two seconds based on the Stella small platform. It's also lower and much wider than the
standard Corsa, while the styling is pretty wild and the arrow elements are pretty extreme. Opal says the concept gives
a preview of upcoming GSE models, which is what the company calls its performance cars, and as its name implies, you'll be able to drive the concept in the Grand TURISMOST seven video game. As we reported last week, EVE
startup Vinfest is pivoting away from the US and Europe and focusing on Southeast Asia, the Middle East in Africa, but the company isn't completely giving up on the US market and is shaking up its sales strategy. VinFast just
opened its first franchise dealership in California and is no longer offering a direct sales model in the state. VinFast
started opening franchise dealers in the US in late twenty twenty three, but it decided to keep its fifteen direct sales showrooms in California. However, due to poor sales, VinFast
has now closed those stores and is looking for dealer partners.
VinFast currently has nearly thirty franchise dealers in fourteen states, and hopefully the change works for vin Fast because according to S and P Global Mobility, it only registered nine hundred and forty seven vehicles in the US in the first half of the year, down thirty seven percent from a year ago. Tesla is opening the model wide to
a broader range of the market by introducing a new three row, long wheelbase version, but one media outlet in China says that the back row doesn't offer much room or support for passengers. Leg and headroom were cited as
potential problem areas, and the outlet estimates that anyone over one hundred and seventy millimeters tall, which is about five feet five inches, could feel cramped. So we'll be real
interested to see what actual customers have to say about the model.
Speaker 3: Yl.
Speaker 1: Amazon is expanding in to use car sales. The retail
giant partnered with Hondai to sell used in certified pre owned vehicles on its platform, which are made available through Honday's dealerships. The service started at the beginning of the
month and it's currently only open to car buyers in Los Angeles, but Amazon also partnered with Hurts to sell used vehicles from its rental fleet. It will initially begin
in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and will eventually expand to forty five locations nationwide. As you probably remember,
Amazon started selling new Hondai vehicles online at the end of last year, which allows customers to braw whouws finance and arrange for pickup from a participating dealer. That's a
wrap for this show. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for Your Journey CSP, the Composites Solution partner Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air Engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon members.
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About this episode
Oil prices are forecasted to drop below $50 per barrel due to oversupply and slowing demand, while natural gas prices are expected to double by 2026. The US imposes new tariffs on steel and aluminum automotive components, complicating supply chains, though USMCA compliance is improving. California pushes to maintain EV incentives amid federal rollbacks. Buick debuts advanced driver assistance tech in China, Opel unveils a high-performance Corsa concept, and VinFast shifts from direct sales to dealerships in the US due to poor sales. Tesla's new 3-row Model Y faces criticism over rear passenger space. Amazon expands into used car sales with Hyundai and Hertz partnerships.
Original notes
- Oil to Drop Under $50/Barrel - Auto Components Hit with More Trump Tariffs - USMCA Compliance Soars for Auto Components - California Considers Paying $7,500 EV Credit - Chinese Buick Electra L7 Bristles with Tech - Opel Concept Is Cool Hot Hatch - VinFast Kills Direct Sales, Goes Dealer Route - China Media Disses 3-Row Model Y - Amazon Now Selling Used Cars
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