AD #4151 - Kia Axes the Soul; Trump Considers Tariff Relief for U.S.-Made Cars; What Will Tesla Unveil Tomorrow?

Speaker 1: This is Autoligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The Trump administration seems to be

getting the message that it's terrafs are hurting the American auto industry. Reuter's reports that it's considering terror for really,

for any vehicles that have final assembly done in the United States, the government would provide automakers with a tax credit worth three and a half percent of the retail price of those vehicles for the next five years, which could also extend to the final assembly of engines as well.

That's good news for automakers who make cars in the US, but it doesn't seem to provide any relief for suppliers.

Several suppliers CEOs have told Auto Line that they're extremely worried about smaller Tier two and Tier three suppliers because they're under severe financial distress from the tariffs, especially terrafs on steel and aluminum. Speaking of terras that Detroit automakers

are now feuding over them, Bloomberg reports that Stilantis is lobbying the Trump administration to get rid of or lower a possible twenty five percent tariff on its medium duty trucks.

That are made in Mexico, but General Motors and Ford are lobbying the administration to ignore that request because they say it will give stialant As a cost advantage over trucks built in the US that use imported parts already subject to tariffs. UBS analysts estimate that the twenty five

percent tariff will cost Delantis around two billion dollars in adjusted operating income a year. However, the timeline the Administration

set to impose the terraffs on October first has already passed, and it's not known when a decision will be made on them. As we reported last week, Jaguar land Rover

is slowly beginning to resume production after a cyber attack crippled the company, but it's far from out of the woods.

It's not expected to hit full production until after Christmas, and it's mostly got to do with its supply chain.

JLR suppliers are under so much financial distress that it's going to provide them with five hundred million pounds or six hundred and seventy four million dollars in relief. The

British government provided JLR with a one point five billion pound loan while the company is trying to raise another two billion pounds from banks. Is Tesla going to unveil

a new low cost car tomorrow? That's what investors are

expecting after the company posted a couple of teasers on Twitter that suggested some kind of announcement is coming. We've

been waiting for Tesla to come out with a decontented version of the model. Why that would be priced around

thirty thousand bucks. But then again, maybe it's finally ready

to unveil the Roadster, which has been in the works for years. And yes, we know that Twitter was renamed

x after Elon Musk bought it, but we noted that in one of his recent livestream events that he was calling it Twitter too. More and more car owners are

ordering parts online to save money, but you need to be careful. Last year, the US government seized more than

two hundred and eleven thousand counterfeit parts, which is double the amount from twenty twenty three, but experts say the number is a lot higher than that. The Department of

Commerce estimates that there is three billion dollars worth of counterfeit parts coming into the US every year. They're on

the rise because custom officials can only inspect a small percentage of the parts coming in, and counterfeitters are getting better at making parts look like the originals. Experts say

be on the lookout for parts that are significantly cheaper.

Also check details on the box, like the logos or the language on the packaging, which can all indicate a counterfeit.

Speaker 2: Performance that shines in the rain. That's what really matters.

Rich don't pretends to tires improved grip in wet conditions.

Speaker 1: The EU slapped terrace on Chinese made evs because it was worried about low priced models flooding the market, but those models aren't just coming from Chinese automakers. In fact,

the cheapest new EV you can buy in Europe right now is the Dashia Spring at just under seventeen thousand euros or about twenty thousand bucks, even though it's made in China, and now it's getting some significant upgrades based on a platform developed by Chinese partner dong Fung. The

Spring is getting a new LFP battery that's slightly smaller than the previous pack at just over twenty four kilowa hours, but it still provides the same two hundred and twenty five kilometers or one hundred and forty miles of range, and it offers faster charging capability. Standard motor output is

increased from forty five to seventy horse power, while the more powerful option went from sixty five to one hundred horse power. The upgraded Spring also gets aerodynamic improvements and

digital screens now comes standard. However, pricing still remains the same.

And speaking of Dashia, it revealed a boxy new concept car called the Hipster. The company envisions this as a

future affordable car for the masses, kind of like the Spring, but when that future comes, it wants to have cut its carbon footprint in half compared to its current evs.

One way it plans to do that is with lightweighting.

The Hipster is twenty percent lighter than the Spring, even though they're both about the same size, which is slightly larger than a Fiat five hundred E. Affordability will also

be a key in the future. The average price of

new vehicles in Europe rose by seventy seven percent between twenty ten and twenty twenty four, which is pricing people out of the new car market. Kia says it plans

to sell two hundred and fifty thousand all electric vans by the end of the decade. These are the company's

platform beyond vehicles or pbvs that are built on a next gen platform that allow for up to sixteen different configurations.

The first to launch is the PV five this year, followed by the PV seven and twenty twenty seven and the PV nine and twenty twenty nine. Production of passenger

and cargo versions of the PV five are already underway in Korea, and now we're getting important details about the model.

The cargo is available with three battery packs just over forty three kilowad hours fifty one and a half and a little over seventy one kilowad hours, which provides up to four hundred and sixteen kilometers or roughly two hundred and sixty miles of range on the WLTP test cycle.

The passenger version only gets the two larger packs, but both are power by a single one hundred and twenty kilowat or one hundred and sixty horse power electric motor.

Other highlights include the ability to power other devices, large display screens, and advanced driver assistance functions. And at other

Kia news, it's killing off the soul at the end of this year. The model injected some funness into the

brand not long after it was introduced in the US in two thousand and nine, and since then it's sold over one point five million examples, But the Soul does not fit into key as future plans for its utility vehicle lineup. Okay, it's time to go over the results

of our latest poll. We asked our YouTube and Patreon

members how big of an incentive you would need to consider buying an ev and twenty two percent said you need an incentive of five thousand dollars or more. Only

four percent said you needed an incentive of one to five thousand dollars. Fifty four percent said you'll buy an

evy without an incentive, and twenty percent said you don't want an incentive at all because you're not interested in an EV. As always, we got some great feedback. Thomas

Joyce commented, I voted no incentive even though I would like to own an electric car. The money spend on

incentives should have gone into building out the charging infrastructure.

Sabinakoppola said cars should be priced competitively without relying on government incentives. Thomas Bowen said I'm on my fifth ev

since twenty nineteen, but I only received tax credits on two of them. The credit was important for my first

and it shaped my decision on my current because it determined which was the best value. And Kyle Robinson said quote,

I already owned three evs, so I'm good for now.

Thanks for all your feedback. While not a huge sample size,

I found those numbers to be pretty interesting. But that

wraps up today's show. Thanks for watching.

Speaker 2: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridge Stone 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.

Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Don Hatfield from Traffic Control Systems and I'm presenting the wireless BEMS solution from Intreping Control Systems. Come

and see us in this demo at Booth forty six hundred at the Battery Show, and also analog devices will be there as well. Be happy to talk to you

and help you with your solution.

Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineer across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.

Learn more at VCSP dot com

AD #4151 - Kia Axes the Soul; Trump Considers Tariff Relief for U.S.-Made Cars; What Will Tesla Unveil Tomorrow?

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