AD #4160 - Cadillac Drops CT4, Keeps CT5; U.S. Automakers Hit With $10.6B Tariff Bill; Porsche Wants a New CEO

Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Porsche could have a new leader soon.

The automaker is in talks with its current CEO, Oliver Bluoma about an early termination. Blooma has been Porsche's CEO

for a decade and kept his position after being named CEO of the Volkswagen Group in twenty twenty two. But

investors aren't happy with his dual role, and with the luxury carmakers struggling financially, they want to see him replaced.

The board of Porsche even went to the lakes of saying that Michael Lighters is available as a possible successor.

Lighters previously worked at Porsha until twenty thirteen. He then

became chief technical officer at Ferrari for eight years before being hired as CEO of McLaren. But while Bluma will

likely be replaced at Porsche, he will continue to be CEO of the VW Group. Oh no, here we go again.

The auto industry is about to get hit with another chip shortage, and it's all got to do with the Chinese company called wing Tech Technology that bought a Dutch chip maker called Nesperia. The Trump administration warned the Netherlands

that Nextperia could get blacklisted because it's Chinese ownership, post national security problems for Europe. So the Dutch stepped in

and took control of the company. For now, Nexspiia is

not making chips in the Netherlands and it has stopped exporting them from China. And here's the problem. Nextspiia makes

about forty percent of the transistors and diodes that go into automotive chips, and while automakers and suppliers are scrambling to find alternative sources, this has blown a big hole in their supply chains. European automakers are negotiating with the

Chinese to at least export chips out of China, but it looks like this is going to start shutting down assembly lines before this month is over. Meanwhile, in the US,

automated have been hit with ten point six billion dollars in tariffs and that's just on the terraff for vehicles and components coming in from Mexico and Canada, which were enacted in April. So on an annualized basis that suggests

the bill would come to about twenty five billion dollars, and it doesn't include the terrace on steel, aluminum, and other commodities. These numbers were calculated by the Anderson Economic Group,

which points out there is no way that automakers can absorb these costs without raising prices. So far, automakers have

resorted to eliminating incentives and raising destination charges. We think

they don't want to have the Trump administration attacking them for raising MSRPs, but with their bottom lines getting bashed in, it's only a matter of time before consumers will start paying the price of these tariffs.

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Speaker 1: STILLANTIS is partnering with Chinese autonomous vehicle company pony Ai to test level for avs in Europe. Ponyais technology will

be integrated into poujo E Traveler electric vans, which will first be deployed in Luxembourg in the coming months and then roll out to more cities in Europe in twenty twenty six. The test will focus on validating safety performance

and meeting local regulations. The companies say the vans are

ideal for autonomy because there's size, flexibility, total cost of ownership, and efficiency allows them to be used for different applications, from a compact robotaxi to a vehicle that can seed up to eight passengers. And In other autonomous vehicle news,

Weimo is partnering with food delivery company door Dash to deliver food in itsself driving cars. The service will begin

in the coming months and Phoenix, and will initially deliver orders from Dashmart, which is door Dash's convenience, grocery and retail stores. The companies plan to add more local merchants

over time, but they need to be located within Waymo's three hundred and fifteen square mile service area in Phoenix.

Door Dash customers that are interested in the service just have to opt into autonomous delivery when checking out, and once the delivery arrives, the customer can open the trunk with the door dash app. Solid state batteries could represent

the next big breakthrough in battery tech, and China Central Television is making some pretty bold claims about the potential of three new approaches to improving how these batteries perform.

While solid state batteries offer a number of benefits, long term durability without slowing down the transfer of ions within the battery is still an issue. That's the main focus

of these new methods, which I don't think I could do a good job of summarizing here, so we'll provide a link. China Central Television claims that a one hundred

kilogram or two hundred and twenty pounds solid state battery pack without these improvements would provide about five hundred kilometers or three hundred in ten ten miles of range, but with them it could more than double that number. According

to an AI search, a two hundred and twenty pound battery would only be as big as twenty five kilowatt hours, so to get over one thousand kilometers of range would be extremely impressive. Several OEMs planned to have fully solid

state batteries out in the next two to three years. However,

these new methods being developed in China here sound like they're still in the very early testing stages, so they may not be featured in those first gen versions. Magna

has developed an intriguingly flexible powertrain that seems to do it all. You can run it on just internal combustion

power or purely on battery power, or run it as a parallel hybrid or as a series hybrid, and it's all in one package. Magna calls it Intelligent Command. They

took a seven speed DCT, remove two gears and replace them with a one hundred and twenty kilowatt motor that's about one hundred and fifty six horse power. Then they

set it up so the electric motor can send power through the shaft with the second and fourth gears, while the IC engine sends power through the shaft with the first, third, and fifth gears. And here's the crazy thing. Both the

electric motor and ic engine can send power through those shafts at the same time, or they can do it individually.

And then just for good measure, Magna added a one hundred and sixty kilowat motor on the rear axle with two clutches to the rear wheels so they can do torque vectoring for better cornering. It sounds pretty complicated and

it is, but we also got to test the intelligent system in a range rover and it drove beautifully. We

found it to be absolutely seamless. The four hundred volt

system was quite efficient too. With twenty one and a

half kilowat hours of usable battery, it can deliver a one hundred and ten kilometer ev driving range or about sixty eight miles. Magna is showing the system to automakers

and things. It could be in production in about three years.

Cadillac is trimming it's the DAN lineup. Production of the

CT four at GM's Lancing Grand River plant will end in June, although that does mean new models will continue to be sold until they're cleared out of inventory. That

plant also makes the Cadillac CT five sedan, but production of the current model will continue until late twenty twenty six, and it's supposed to get a next gen version as well.

That new model will still be built in Lansing Grand River and it could come out sometime in twenty twenty eight.

But that brings us to the end of today's show.

Thanks for making autoline a part of your day, and I hope that you have a great weekend.

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AD #4160 - Cadillac Drops CT4, Keeps CT5; U.S. Automakers Hit With $10.6B Tariff Bill; Porsche Wants a New CEO

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