European new car sales surged 6% last month, driven by strong growth in electrified vehicles, with BYD outperforming Tesla significantly. Kia supports the EU's 2035 ICE ban, contrasting with other automakers lobbying for eased CO2 targets. Tesla and Weimo reveal differing robotaxi strategies, while Chinese automaker Li Auto faces declining profits. Mercedes showcases innovative cooling and fast-charging tech in its AMG concept. Volkswagen expands its partnership with Amazon to boost factory efficiency. A French designer reimagines the rare Skoda Felicia Fun pickup, and a Chinese vacuum maker aims to challenge Bugatti with a supercar. The episode also previews upcoming discussions on chassis tech and sales models.
Topics:european car saleselectric vehicleseu ice banrobotaxi strategiesmercedes amg conceptvw amazon partnershipchinese automakersskoda felicia funsupercar developmentauto industry regulations
- EVs Drive Up Sales in Europe - Kia Wants EU to Keep ICE Ban - Tesla and Waymo Take Different Approaches to Robotaxi Expansion - China Could Lose a Profit Maker - Mercedes Reveals EV Efficiency Efforts - Designer Reimagines the Skoda Felicia Fun - VW Says Amazon Will Save It Millions - Next-Gen Renault Clio Styling Mostly Unchanged - Chinese Automakers Not Backing Off Price War - Chinese Vacuum Maker Targets Bugatti
"...o make a supercar that will challenge the Bugatti Veyron. It makes a vacuum motor that can run at two hund..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. In general. It seems like we've
been reporting mostly negative things about the European auto industry, but here's some good news. New car sales last month
were up a strong six percent, and it all came from electrified cars. Evs were up more than thirty three percent,
PHEVs were up fifty two percent, and hybrids were up eleven Meanwhile, gasoline and diesel powered cars were down by double digits. The Volkswagen Group, Renault Group, BMW, Volvo, and
Ford were some of the biggest gainers, but the biggest percentage gainer came from BYD, which was up two hundred and six percent and sold thirty percent more cars than Tesla did. And it was another disastrous month for Tesla,
which dropped forty two percent. With the overall market up
in July, new car sales in Europe are now even with last GUS. Yesterday, lobbying groups representing automakers and suppliers
in Europe sent a letter to the EU urging it to ease off as CO two targets. They say it's
impossible for them to eliminate one hundred percent of CO two emissions by twenty thirty five, but not Kia. It
wants those regulations just as they're written because it based its product planning all around them. Keia's head of European
operations says he wants to keep the twenty thirty five IC ban in place because it has a quote avalanche of electric cars coming and that it would cost the automaker a fortune if it had to reverse its plans.
We'll soon see which side wins the debate, but our money is on the legacy European automakers because there's a bigger worry about losing jobs. Tesla's and Weimo's approach with
robotaxis couldn't be more different. Weimo is taking a slower,
more methodical approach to expanding. It first maps a say
before test vehicles with drivers, and then after that it phases in its autonomous ride haling service. Tesla, on the
other hand, says it can scale much faster because it doesn't use censors or extensive mapping like Weimo does, and instead relies on just cameras and artificial intelligence to train its software. Elon Musk claims that its robotaxis will be
available to quote half the population of the US by the end of the year and will have millions of teslas operating autonomously by the second half of next year.
Weimo currently has a fleet of two thousand vehicles and operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, which would cover about three percent of the US population.
Liato is one of the few Chinese car companies that makes a profit, but that may not last much longer.
It just reported lower sales, lower revenue, and lower profits.
For the last quarter. It made a bit over one
hundred and fifty two million dollars in net profit, which is only a three point six percent profit margin, and things are gonna get even worse. Le Auto expects its
revenue this quarter to drop about forty percent.
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: Mercedes recently set a bunch of records with a prototype it calls the Concept amggtxx, But more importantly to us, it's releasing a lot of the car's technical details and we're going to go over a few that we think will actually make it into production vehicles. One is the
central coolant hub. It's like a brain for the entire
cooling system and can heat or cool the coolant depending on which part of the car it's going to because components like the drive units operate in a different temperature range than the batteries do. The concept also deploys active errow,
but instead of just some louvers that open and close behind the radiator, the coolers and the wheel arches were added to the system as well. They stay closed most
of the time to improve aerrow, but open when additional cooling is needed. Lastly, is a new fast charging system.
For its record runs, the AMG gt xx was charged at an average of about eight hundred and fifty kilowats thanks to a specially developed charging unit that's capable of transmitting currents of up to one thousand amps. For comparison,
the fastest chargers available to the public right now are about four hundred kilowatts, so matching the charging performance of the concept is not currently possible. Will provide a link
to the rest of the press release because there's a few more interesting details, but we tried to to the stuff that we think will make it into production, because it's hard to imagine a vehicle that you or I could buy would have all of this tech packaged into it.
Have you ever heard of the Skota Felicia Fun Don't worry if you haven't. It's a small pickup truck that
was made in the Czech Republic and only sold just over forty two hundred units in its three year run from nineteen ninety seven until two thousand. It's a cool
little vehicle. And now a French designer has reimagined the
Felicia Fund but in Scota's current design language. This is
what he came up with. It's a bit more sporty
than the original, and I think it kind of looks like a hot hatch with the hatch cut off of it.
But the picture of it by the beach is perfect because that's exactly where I imagine a vehicle like this driving around. Volkswagen is extending its partnership with Amazon to
provide digital services at its factories worldwide. VW is using
Amazon Web Services Digital Production Platform, which provides cloud computing services at forty three sites in the US, Europe and South America. VW says plants connected to the platform operate
more efficiently by optimizing assembly, and it expects the service to save it tens of millions of euros in the medium term. There renau Klio was the best selling car
in Europe in the first half of the year, with roughly one hundred and thirty thousand units sold, and the automaker revealed that it's going to debut the new six gen version at the Munich Auto Show in the second week of September. However, based on this teaser, it doesn't
look like the styling is going to change all that much.
But we don't have anything else to go on right now, so we may have to wait until September to find out more. Remember a couple of months ago when the
Chinese government told automakers to stop the price war because it was going to damage the auto windustry. Well, nothing's happened.
Automakers have barely reduce their sales incentives. For example, BYD
only cut them zero point four percent, while other automakers even increased incentives or offered other perks like zero percent loans or free connectivity. The Chinese industry has massive overcapacity
and sales are softening as the Chinese economy seems to be slowing down. Last month, the average price of a
new car in China dropped two hundred dollars to sixteen thousand dollars. The Chinese government has a firm grip on
so many parts of its economy, but maybe not so much when it comes to automotive retail prices. You know,
another thing that the Chinese government wanted to stop is more car companies coming into the business. But a company
that makes vacuums called Dream Technology says it's going to make a supercar that will challenge the Bugatti Veyron. It
makes a vacuum motor that can run at two hundred thousand rpm and says it wants to apply its electric motor technology two supercars. Even though the government doesn't want
new players, they'll probably ignore this one. Bugatti only sells
forty five to seventy five cars a year, and Dream Technology probably won't sell much more than that. And before
we go, don't forget to tune into Auto Line after hours.
Today we're going to talk next gen chassis technology, the possibility of the US and EU sharing regulations, and that war brewing between dealers and direct sales that discussion kicks off live at three pm Eastern Time on our website and YouTube channel, and with that we wrap up this show.
Thanks for tuning in and I hope to see you later today.
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