Heavy truck sales in the U.S. have dropped sharply, signaling economic concerns linked to tariffs and reduced freight shipments. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway exited its BYD investment amid the automaker's recent struggles. BYD's U9 electric hypercar set a new production car speed record. Nissan is developing an advanced full self-driving system with Wave, aiming for a 2027 launch in Japan. Tesla received approval to test robotaxis in Arizona. California won't replace the expiring $7,500 EV rebate due to budget constraints. Cyberattacks are disrupting Jaguar Land Rover and Stellantis operations. Cadillac introduces a rear-drive electric Optiq, while Porsche shifts from all-electric plans to mixed powertrains.
Topics:truck sales declineeconomic indicatorsbyd electric hypercarwarren buffett investmentnissan autonomous drivingtesla robotaxi testingcalifornia ev rebateauto industry cyberattackscadillac electric suvporsche ev strategy
- Danger Sign- U.S. HD Truck Sales Plunge - Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Sells Its BYD Stock - BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme Goes 308 MPH - Aptiv to Sell EDS Unit - Nissan Developing FSD-Like System w/ Wayve - Tesla Gets Robotaxi Approval in Arizona - California Can't Afford $7,500 EV Rebate - Hackers Target Stellantis - Cadillac Optiq RWD is $52,395 - Porsche Pivots Away from EV Strategy
"fifty two thousand, three hundred and ninety five dollars including destination charges, which we think is a great price for a luxury electric CUV with an estimated driving range of three hundred and seventeen miles. Our Mercedes EQB is about the same price, but it has two hundred and fifty one miles of range, and AUDQ four e Tron sells for just under fifty two grand with two hundred and eighty eight miles of range. BMW's IX three will likely be a lot more competitive, but it's not out yet, and so we expect the Optic to keep selling well."
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Speaker 1: This is Ouderline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. There's a lot of uncertainty about
the future of the US economy because of tariffs, and here's a danger sign. Heavy truck sales started dropping in May,
a month after President Trump announced the tariffs. Last month,
Class four through seven retail truck sales fell more than twenty eight percent. Industry experts say that's because there's been
a drop in freight shipments and they blame the terraffs for that. And for the full year, sales are down
about seven to eight percent. These truck sales can be
considered a leading indicator of what lies ahead for the economy, and this doesn't look good. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was
considered something of a savant to have his company, Berkshire Hathaway, invest very early in BYD, well before it emerged as China's largest automaker. But Buffett has been selling off shares
for some time now, and we've learned that Berkshire Hathaway completely sold them all by Q one of this year.
BYD has been running into some problems lately. It lowered
its sales target by nearly a million vehicles, and its profits dropped almost thirty percent in the last quarter. The
stock price is down about twenty percent since its peak in May, though it is still up for the full year.
But sure looks like Buffett got his company out at the right time, maybe to take some of the sting away from that buffet. News BYD announced that the extreme
version of its yang Wang U nine electric hypercar posted the highest speed ever for a production car. It went
a tad over four hundred and ninety six kilometers per hour or just over three hundred and eight miles per hour, beating out the Bugatti Sharon by about six kilometers an hour.
The U nine speed was verified at the ATP test facility in Pappenberg, Germany. BYD says it will only build
thirty U nine extremes and we'll sell them for about two hundred and thirty three thousand dollars, which is three point six million dollars cheaper than the fastest Spugatti Sharon.
Auto supplier Aptive is planning on selling its electrical distribution unit instead of spinning it off. The company announced plans
to spin off the unit earlier this year, but now Aptive is reaching out to potential buyers for the unit, which could be valued at five billion dollars. Aptive stock
is up thirty five percent this year and it now has a market value of eighteen point five billion dollars.
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Speaker 1: In a report last week, the chip maker and Vidia is considering investing half a billion dollars into ukav startup Wave, we mentioned that Nissan partnered with Wave for its next gen pro pilot system. Will Now Nissan is sharing a
few more details about that effort. It says it developed
a fleet of prototype aria evs with eleven cameras five radar and onelidar to demonstrate how the system would perform in downtown Tokyo. Instead of reacting to a single object,
Wave claims that its tech has the ability to understand its surroundings, anticipate what will happen next, and how its own actions will affect the environment, so that it drives more like a human. Nissan will first launch its next
gen pro pilot system in Japan. It will go on
select higher production vehicles and it will come out within its twenty twenty seven fiscal year. But just remember that
fiscal year runs from the end of March in twenty twenty seven until the end of March in twenty twenty eight.
And speaking of autonomous vehicles, Tesla won approval to start testing its robotaxis in Arizona. This is similar to the
services that it offers in Texas and Nevada, where a safety monitor rides in the front of the car. That
monitor sits in the passenger seat for rides on surface streets, but is in the driver's seat if the cargoes on the highway. While Tesla opened the Robotaxi app to the
public at the beginning of the month, Bloomberg reports that it has not gotten the proper license for that yet.
In Arizona, California won't be replacing the seventy five hundred dollars federal EV tax credit that is set to expire at the end of this month. Last year, Governor Gavin
Newsom pledged to restart the state's EV subsidies if the Trump administration followed through on its campaign promise to remove the EV tax credit, But now the governor says that the state won't provide direct subsidies because California doesn't have the budget to support them. California ended its EV tax
credit program in twenty twenty three, but it could still be revived next year, when the state will allocate millions of dollars from a carbon sharing program. It looks like
hackers are targeting the auto industry. Jaguar land Rovers still
hasn't restarted its operations since it was hit with a cyber attack several weeks ago, and now Stillantis says that a third party service provider's platform that supports its North American customer service operations was hacked. Stillanta says the hackers
were only able to access contact information and not any financial or personal data. Stillantis is asking customers to avoid
clicking any suspicious links or sharing personal information from unexpected emails, texts, or calls. Cadillac is coming out with a rear drive
version of the Optic for the twenty twenty six model year, and it's about two grand cheaper than the all wheel drive version. The base price for an Optic is now
fifty two thousand, three hundred and ninety five dollars including destination charges, which we think is a great price for a luxury electric CUV with an estimated driving range of three hundred and seventeen miles. Our Mercedes EQB is about
the same price, but it has two hundred and fifty one miles of range, and AUDQ four e Tron sells for just under fifty two grand with two hundred and eighty eight miles of range. BMW's IX three will likely
be a lot more competitive, but it's not out yet, and so we expect the Optic to keep selling well.
Like all other automakers, Porsche is pivoting away from its EV strategy in the face of sales being much lower than expected. Its next generation platforms will accommodate IC engines
and p have powertrains instead. Of being all electric. Its
future EV platforms will be developed with the Volkswagen Group to hold down costs, and it will keep combustion powered cars longer. But by tearing up its previous product plan
to have eighty percent of its lineup go fully electric by twenty thirty, Porsche says it will take a six billion euro hit and that wraps up today's show. Thanks
for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
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