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AD #4174 - Honda Reveals New Modular Hybrid Platform; Bentley Adding Another SUV; Schaeffler Training Humanoids for Production

AD #4174 - Honda Reveals New Modular Hybrid Platform; Bentley Adding Another SUV; Schaeffler Training Humanoids for Production

Autoline Daily Nov 06, 2025 11 min
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About this episode

Porsche faces a tough quarter with significant profit drops and sales declines, especially in China, prompting a new R&D center there. Ford is redesigning dealerships for a more welcoming buying experience, while Polestar considers dealer-operated used car centers to expand service. Nissan struggles with losses but expects improvement, and Ferrari posts strong earnings. Honda unveils a modular hybrid platform with innovative body flexing for better handling and efficiency. Bentley plans a new smaller electrified SUV and revives the Supersports name. Schaeffler partners with Neuro Robotics to integrate humanoid robots into production by 2035. Formula E reveals a next-gen recyclable racecar with advanced AWD and power features.

Topics: porsche sales decline ford dealership redesign polestar used car centers nissan financial struggles ferrari earnings honda modular hybrid platform bentley new suv schaeffler humanoid robots formula e next gen racecar
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Speaker 1: This is out Aligned Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Porsche had a disastrous third quarter.
Its profits were down ninety nine percent, and it actually reported an operating loss. While it shifted from evs, which
had already sunk a bunch of money into played a role in that decline. Sales were also down six percent,
and China continues to lead the way with deliveries dropping twenty six percent in the third quarter. But one way
Porsche hopes to turn that around is by adopting the same in China for China philosophy as parent company Volkswagen, and it just opened a new R and D center in China. That might not sound like a big deal,
but this ten thousand square meter facility is the first R and D center that Porsia has ever built outside of Germany, and it will use it to deploy vehicles and tech that are more suited to Chinese consumers. The
first be a new China exclusive infotainment system that launches across several models in the middle of next year. Ford
is giving its dealerships a facelift in the hopes of making them more welcoming while also making the buying experience less stressful with the help of its global dealers. The
center of the stores feature an oval shaped desk that has Ford branded food and drinks, and it's surrounded by lounge seating and display areas for vehicles. There are traditional
desks to talk with the staff, but the stores will now also feature hospitality spaces to go through the buying process.
Customers can also build price and continue their purchase online as well. There's no deadline for dealers to adopt the
new look, but anyone opening a news store or going through a renovation will be asked to make the switch.
Ford says it plans to have one hundred and ten face lifted dealerships by the end of next year across its global network work and in other retail news Pollstar is considering opening dealer operated use car centers as a way to expand its service coverage. Instead of selling directly
to consumers. Like most EV startups, Polestar went with a
hybrid approach. It partnered with parent company Volvo to open
showroom only stores and to have vehicle serviced at Volvo repair shops, but Polestar only has thirty two stores in nineteen states which means some customers have to drive long distances for service or repair. So to get around the problem,
Pollstar is considering allowing dealers to open their own standalone use car centers with repair shops. A final decision hasn't
been made yet, but one should be made soon, according to the head of the brand in North America. Nissan
has been struggling recently, and it just posted a net loss for the fifth straight quarter. The automakers sold seven
hundred and seventy three thousand vehicles, down four and a half percent compared to last year. That dropped its revenue
by nearly four percent to nineteen point five billion dollars.
The company did manage to post a modest operating profit of three hundred and fifty million bucks, a sixty one percent gain. However, it posted a net loss of seven
hundred and twenty two million. Nissan has slashed thousands of
jobs and shut down plants in order to cut costs, and it even just sold its headquarters in Japan for more than six hundred million bucks to raise cash. And
While Nissan struggled in the first half of its fiscal year, it expects to see improvement in the second half. Sales
should improve thanks to the introduction of new models, and excluding US tariffs, it expects its operating profit to break even.
Ferrari also posted its earnings and it had a strong third quarter. The sports car maker sold three thoy four
hundred vehicles, up one percent from a year ago. Ferrari
says IC models accounted for fifty seven percent of sales, while hybrids made up the remainder that brought in one point eight billion euros in revenue, a seven percent gain.
Its operating profit of five hundred and three million is an eight percent increase, and its net profit was up two percent to three hundred and eighty two million euros, and despite all the volatility in the global auto market, Ferrari should remain stable. The company says its orders are
booked through twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2: The automotive and industrial sectors are undergoing historic transformation electrification, digitalization, supply chain reinvention, regulatory shifts. The pace is accelerating and
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Speaker 1: If I'm reading this right, Honda is going to allow body flexing its next gen hybrids as a way to improve handling. The company revealed plans for a new mid
sized hybrid platform and a new hybrid system for larger vehicles that will start coming out around twenty twenty seven.
Here's the line in the release that's tripping me up. Quote.
By generating vehicle behavior as if the body flexes during cornering, the load put on each tire will be controlled to improve road holding performance. Plus, this picture of the vehicle
structure sure looks like the front end is flexing. Let
me know what you think. Am I crazy because the
sure sounds crazy? Or do I have it right? Anyway?
This is all part of an effort to improve the overall rigidity of its hybrid vehicles. The company lessened the
structure in some places and bulked it up in others, but by optimizing that over the entire vehicle, it cut ninety kilograms or nearly two hundred pounds compared to its current hybrid platform. The new platform is also much more
modular because Honda wants all models built off the platform to share more than sixty percent of their components, which will improve its production efficiency and drive down costs. Here's
that new hybrid system for large vehicles that I mentioned.
It's specifically targeting a high towing capacity, and that's one of the reasons this setup will mainly be deployed in the US. Since its primary source of power is a
newly developed V six engine, you can probably expect it to be an option in models that already offer a V six In combination with new drive units in battery pack, Honda is aimed for over thirty percent better fuel efficiency and a ten percent bump in acceleration compared to the same gas only versions. And speaking of new models, Bentley
is coming out with another suv. While it doesn't have
a name yet, it's referred to as an urban suv, so it will be smaller than the Benega. The only
real details we have are that it will be built at the company's updated home plant in England and will be able to go from zero to one hundred miles of range in seven minutes of charging. That obviously means
the new model is electrified, but I'm not convinced it will offer a pure electric option. At first, Bentley announced
it's extending the availability of its IC vehicles and talked about how it seemed positive customer demand for plug in hybrids.
But we'll know more about the new SUV when it's fully revealed next year. Bentley also revealed it's bringing back
the super Sports name. It says the new Supersports will
be the lightest, most driver focused, and first rear wheel drive continental gtever. Look for the model to debut a
week from today. Another company is getting involved in humanoid robots.
German supplier Scheffler is forming a partnership with startup neuro Robotics.
Scheffler plans to integrate the humanoid robots into its global production by twenty thirty five, and while it didn't say exactly how many it will have, it will be a mid four digit number, so presumably around five thousand units.
The two companies will collect production data from Scheffler's global network, which will be used in AI models to train the robots.
Scheffler will also supply the planetary gear actuators for the humanoids, which are used in joints for rotational movement, such as the shoulders, elbows, knees or wrists. Formulae revealed its next
gen racecar, called the Gen four. The car is made
from one hundred percent recyclable materials and it contains twenty percent recycled content, which is double the current car. It's
also the first open wheeled race car with active all wheel drive at all times to help with traction. The
new car produces four hundred and fifty kilowatts or six hundred and three horse power of peak power, but that can be boosted to six hundred kilwatts or eight hundred and four horses for overtaking. The race car also features
seven hundred kilowatts for regenerative breaking, and a battery with a capacity of fifty five kilowatt hours, a forty three percent increase over the previous car. The new car will
make its debut in the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven Formula E season. And before we wrap this show up,
don't forget about autoline. After hours at three pm Eastern
Time today, we'll dive deeper into Porsche's problems, take a look at Uber's massive row, Google taxi plans, and try to work out of Toyota's new concepts could actually make their way to production. Thanks for tuning in and I
hope to see you later.
Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by alex Partners.
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