China's auto industry faces a crisis due to overcapacity and government-driven production targets causing widespread losses and steep discounts. European automakers seek to ease ICE bans as EV sales remain low, with Renault leveraging partnerships to share EV platforms. Nissan restructures its global design studios amid challenges. Toyota's Chargeminder app encourages EV owners to charge more efficiently. BMW plans a direct sales model in Europe by 2027. US BEV registrations rose 6% in July, led by Tesla despite a decline. Rivian breaks ground on a new Georgia plant, while Ford cuts jobs in Germany due to weak EV demand. A unique story highlights a program enabling visually impaired people to drive race cars.
Topics:china auto industry overcapacityprice wars and subsidieseurope ice vehicle banrenault nissan mitsubishi ev collaborationnissan design studio restructuringtoyota chargeminder appbmw agency sales modelus bev registration trendsrivian georgia plantford ev plant job cuts
- Overcapacity Is Killing China’s Auto Industry - Renault To Build EVs For Nissan and Mitsubishi - Nissan Consolidates Global Design Operations - Toyota Creates App to Get PHEV Owners to Charge More - BMW Adopts New Sales Model in Europe - U.S. BEV Registrations Up 6% In July - Rivan Breaks Ground on Georgia Plant - Ford Cuts 1K Jobs at German EV Plant - Racing for The Visually Impaired
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Could China's auto industry be headed
for a collapse. That's one of the possibilities raised by
an in depth report from Reuter's. Over Capacity triggered a
price war that's turning into a financial disaster. The vast
majority of Chinese automakers lose money because they're building to government issued production targets, not customer demand. On top of that,
seventy percent of car dealers lose money because they're selling cars for twenty percent below their own cost, and there's no relief in sight. Municipal, provincial, and even the central
government continue to subsidize these companies. They do not want
to see factories closing, which would trigger massive layoffs and drag consumer confidence even lower. Even foreign automakers are caught
up in it. Reuter's reports that one independent retailer is
selling Jevverles malibus for ten grand under the sticker price, and Audi's are going for fifty percent off.
Speaker 2: Pretty much.
Speaker 1: Other than Kiya, every other major automaker in Europe wants officials to ease up on the twenty thirty five ice vehicle band because evs only account for about fifteen point six percent of total sales in the region right now.
As a result, pretty much every automaker has at least eased up on their EV plans in some way. But
Renault is helping to mitigate that pain by leveraging its partnerships with Nissan and Mitsubishi. Both are going to use
small and medium EV platforms from ampeer Renault software in EV division. Nissan will come out with the all new
Micra on the small platform and Mitsubishi will use the medium one for the new Eclipse Cross. Those models, which
launch late this year, will be built alongside the lpn A two ninety and three Renault evs at a Renault plant in France. Oh that six models from four different
brands coming out of the same plant, which should help keep plant volume up and investment costs down. Plus I
fully expect even more collaboration after the CEOs from all three companies just met up for their annual meeting in part to quote explore new avenues for growth in value creation.
But one model on one shared platform is not going to be enough to fix all of Nissan's issues, which is why we'll see more consolidation from the automaker. As
part of that, Nissan is completely shaking up its global design operations. Two of its seven studios, one in California
and another in Brazil, will be shut down entirely, and its operations in Japan and London will be downsized. Nissan
says the moves better align its design resources, which also includes studios in the US and China. We know that
not all p have owners plug their vehicle in enough, especially in Europe, and that real world emissions can be about the same as a mid sized gas powered car, so Toyota set out to see if it could change people's behavior, and not surprisingly for this day and age, it created a smartphone app called Chargeminder. It monitors the
owner's habits, like when and where they charge after it learns that reminders will start popping up if they don't plug in, and it shows them a nearby charging spot.
Once an owner does finish a charging session, they get a celebratory message, as well as daily charging grass and even fun little quizzes.
Speaker 2: Plus all those.
Speaker 1: Notifications are tailor made to individuals or groups of people to help increase engagement during a trial. Toyota says users
in the US plug their p has in ten percent more, and in Japan users charge nearly sixty percent more during peak hours for renewable energy. With that success in mind,
the company plans to extend research into Chargeminder.
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Speaker 1: BMW is going to shake up how it sells cars in Europe starting in twenty twenty seven. It's going to
adopt an agency direct sales model. While dealers will still
be involved, they'll no longer own the inventory and they'll act as an intermediary or agent and earn a fixed commission.
BMW will now own the inventory and will be responsible for finance, marketing and sales. Mini, which is part of
the BMW Group, already switched to the agency model last year and it now uses it in twenty three markets.
Some advantages for automakers can include lower distribution costs and more control overpricing, but for some other automakers in Europe, it proved to be more complex and costly to implement than they expected. Of fully electric vehicles in the US
were strong in July. According to S and P Global Mobility,
just under one hundred and twenty five thousand b evs were registered, up six percent from a year ago. As
you likely guessed, Tesla was the top brand with just under fifty thousand registrations, but that was down thirteen percent compared to a year ago.
Speaker 2: Chevy was way behind in second place with.
Speaker 1: More than eleven thousand, six hundred b EV registrations, but that was up a whopping one hundred.
Speaker 2: Percent from a year ago.
Speaker 1: Hyundai was in third with about seventy nine hundred registrations.
Ford was just behind with seventy five hundred, and Honda rounded out the top five with nearly sixty one hundred.
Through the first seven months of the year, EV registrations are up nearly seven percent to more than seven hundred and forty five thousand vehicles, but most analysts predict that EV sales will tumble once the federal EV tax credit is eliminated. At the end of this month, evs startup
Rivian finally broke ground on its plant in Georgia. The
company first announced plans for the factory at the end of twenty twenty one and was supposed to start production last year, but those plans were delayed. Now Rivian says
the first phase of the plant construction is expected to start next year, with production kicking off in twenty twenty eight.
The plant will build its upcoming.
Speaker 2: R two and R three SUVs.
Speaker 1: Once the second phase of construction is complete, the facility will have an annual capacity of four hundred thousand vehicles. Meanwhile,
over in Europe, Ford is cutting a thousand jobs at its electric vehicle plant in Germany due to weak demand.
The plant builds the electric versions of the Explorer in Capri, which are both based on Volkswagon's MEB platform. Starting in January,
the plant will switch to a one shift production schedule, and Ford says it will offer volume and tarry layoff packages.
The plant currently employs just over four thousand workers and has an annual production capacity of two hundred and fifty thousand evs.
Speaker 2: Couple of weeks ago, we did.
Speaker 1: A show on Autoline After Hours about racing, and one of our viewers in France, Christopher maul Blant, saw that show and contacted us because he runs an organization called dvsport Auto that gets people who are blind or vision impaired to drive a race car on a road course.
They get to drive with an instructor telling them to turn, laughter right, to break, or accelerate, which I can only imagine is a thrilling experience. Over one hundred and seventy
people have taken the wheel, and Christopher says his goal is to prove that quote disability doesn't limit dreams, it simply changes the course. And that brings us to the
end of today's show. Thanks for making Audilne a part
of your day.
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