AD #4123 - Honda at War w/ California Dealers; Nissan Market Cap Drops Under $9 Billion; Ford Tweaks Maverick Prices

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. First it warned Honda with a

stern letter, then it fired a warning shot with a seasoned assistant junction. Now the warzon. The California New Car

Dealers Association filed a lawsuit against Honda because the automaker wants to sell electric cars under the Apela brand directly to consumers, not through its franchise dealer network. The dealers

got the California legislature to enact a law two years ago that prohibits legacy automakers from creating new car brands that don't use existing dealers. And as we keep saying,

this is going to turn into a mega legal battle, especially when Volkswagen gets hit with lawsuits by trying to sell Scout trucks and SUVs directly to consumers. Yesterday we

told you that Nissan stock was going to take a dive.

Mercedes Benz pension Fund sold all of its stock in the Japanese automaker. Well they did, and then it did.

The stock fell more than six percent, dragging Nissan's market cap to less than nine billion dollars, which could make it mighty tempting for someone to launch a hostile takeover.

Ford says it seeing a dramatic increase in customers using Blue Cruise. It now has over a million trucks at

SUVs on the road equipped with the hands free driving technology.

By comparison, GM has over half a million vehicles equipped with Supercrews, which is double last year's total. But the

Lantis just shut down development of its more advanced Level three hands free tech, blaming high costs and not much customer demand. Stella says it will now rely on suppliers

in a tech company that it bought called Ai Motive, which is located in Budapest, Hungary. Despite more countries slap

tariffs on Chinese made evs, Chinese automakers continue to boost exports, which are up eighteen percent this year, and Leap Motor just shipped the first batch of its B ten crossover to Europe. The model goes on sale next month with

a starting price just under thirty thousand euros or about thirty five thousand bucks. Leap Motor currently sells vehicles in

eighteen countries, exporting nearly twenty five thousand vehicles in the first half of the year, and by the end of the year. Leap Motor plans to expand to twenty more

markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa in South America.

In related news, a business controlled by Chinese automaker SEIC called Angi Logistics just added another row row or roll on rolloff car hauling ship to its fleet. It can

hold ninety five hundred vehicles and will soon start shipping vehicles to Europe. Angie Logistics operates the largest car carrier

fleet in China with thirty eight ships. To avoid European tariffs,

BYD just started shipping evs from Thailand, not China. The

EU slabs BYD's Chinese made evs with thirty percent teriffs, but the Dolphin EV's that are made in Thailand only face a ten percent tariff, and the first nine hundred units were shipped to Germany, Belgium and the UK. Earlier

this week, Speaking of BYD and overseas plants, the automaker announced it will open a CKD or completely knock down plant in Malaysia that will start operations next year. Why

Malaysia BYD has been the top selling EV brand in the country for the past three years, It's not known how many vehicles the Malaysian plant will build. But BYD's

factory in Thailand is also a CKD plant and it has the capacity to produce one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles a year. While Chinese brands are own opening factories overseas,

Audi just opened a new plant in Shanghai that it operates with SAIC. The nearly five hundred million dollar plant

has the capacity to produce three hundred and sixty thousand vehicles a year. The first model it's building is the

new E five Sportback that was specifically designed for the Chinese market. Audi's sales in China have fallen by double

digit percentages, and no doubt, the plans to build this new assembly plant were finalized before the company saw this drop off coming.

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Speaker 1: The average new car price in the US is now close to fifty thousand dollars. That's up twenty eight percent

in the last five years, so buyers are now turning to longer term loans to get a lower monthly payment.

Edmunds says that six year car loans are now the most common, accounting for about thirty six percent of all loans.

Seven year loans account for about twenty one percent. The

monthly payment on a fifty thousand dollars vehicle is more than two hundred dollars cheaper on a seven year loan compared to a five year loan, but that's more than wiped out over the extra years that you pay for the loan. A buyer with a seven year loan pays

an average of forty six hundred dollars more in interest compared to a five year loan, but for most customers it's all about the cost of the monthly payment. The

Ford Maverick is doing well. Sales are up more than

eleven percent this year in the US and now they're getting exported to South America. So far tariffs on the

Mexican made pickup haven't hurt sales, and to keep it that way, Ford is making some changes. The base model

is now a front drive two liter turbo, not a hybrid.

It's priced at just over twenty eight eight hundred dollars including destination charge, which is one thousand dollars less than the hybrid. By the way, Ford raised the destination prices

by one hundred bucks. It also made the sliding rear

window an option on the Lariat and Tremor models, which cut their price by three hundred and fifty bucks. And

we're probably going to see other automakers make changes like this as they try to juggle the extra costs of the tariffs. Chevy is recalling higher performance versions of the Corvette.

It's possible for spilled gas to pool around the filler cap and the left side radiator cooling fan on Z six and ZR one models can potentially suck up those fumes into a hot engine compartment, creating a fire hazard.

As a result, It also issued a stop sale on those models while it develops an insert or shield to divert any spilled fuel, which will get installed by the dealer.

The recall impacts over twenty three thousand, five hundred Z sixes and ZR ones between the two twenty twenty three and twenty twenty six model years. That's not a massive number,

but the Z six starts at roughly one hundred and ten thousand bucks, so those performance corvettes have generated at least about two point six billion dollars in revenue, and obviously Chevy sells a lot more corvettes if you consider all versions. However, a total of just under thirteen thousand

were sold in the first half of the year, which represents a drop of nearly thirty percent. Pougeot is coming

out with a refreshed version of the three to oh eight that features new exterior styling at the front and rear, as well as a little extra battery capacity for BEEV and p HAVE versions. The pack in pure electric versions

is a little over four kilowad hours bigger, taking range up to four hundred and fifty kilometers, which is thirty four kilometers more than before. The p HAVE now comes

with the roughly seventeen kilowad hour battery that provides up to eighty five kilometers of evy round twenty more than before.

All versions of the new three to eight, including a station wagon, hybrid and diesel model, are made in France and orders open this fall. And before we go, we

want to alert our Patreon and YouTube members that John and I will be doing another live Q and A today at two thirty pm Eastern time. If you've got

a question you'd like to ask or a topic you want us to get into, just send it in and if you're not a member, it's really easy to sign up and it only costs a few dollars a month, and we truly appreciate all of you who are supporting autoline.

That's it for today's report, Thanks for watching, and we'll be right back here again tomorrow.

Speaker 4: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for Your Journey CSP, the composites solution partner Intrepid Control Systems over the year engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon members.

Speaker 5: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.

Learn more at thecsp dot com.

Speaker 4: Making the life full of memories, one road trip at a time. That's what really matters. Rigdon Weatherpeak Tires with

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AD #4123 - Honda at War w/ California Dealers; Nissan Market Cap Drops Under $9 Billion; Ford Tweaks Maverick Prices

Ford Maverick

Chevrolet Corvette

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