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AD #4179 - Solid-State Batteries Getting Overhyped; Subprime Defaults Hit All-Time High; VW Could Use Rivian Architecture for ICEs

Autoline Daily Nov 13, 2025 9 min

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About this episode

Subprime car loan defaults in the US have hit record highs, raising concerns reminiscent of the 2009 recession. Experts caution that solid-state batteries, often touted as a breakthrough, won’t see mass production until after 2030, despite some automakers' optimistic timelines. Volkswagen plans to use Rivian’s zonal electronic architecture across its lineup, including ICE vehicles. The episode also covers the booming valuation of Formula One teams, Toyota’s new US battery plant, advancements in robotaxi services in China and the US, and China’s proposal to limit car acceleration speeds. Finally, the discussion touches on automakers potentially outsourcing powertrain development to save costs.

Topics: subprime car loan defaults solid-state battery technology volkswagen and rivian collaboration formula one team valuations toyota battery plant in north carolina robotaxi service developments china acceleration speed limits outsourcing powertrain development

- Subprime Defaults Hit All-Time High - Solid-State Batteries Getting Overhyped - F1 Team Values on the Rise - Toyota Starts Production at New Battery Plant - VW Could Use Rivian Architecture for ICEs - Apollo Go Robotaxi on Profit Path - Waymo Expanding Onto Freeways - China Considers Vehicle Acceleration Limit

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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Well, uh oh, here's something we

need to keep an eye on. Subprime car buyers in

the US are defaulting on their car loans at record rates.

According to Fitch Ratings, the number of subprime buyers who are behind on their car payments by sixty days or more at an all time record. Subprime buyers are those

with low credit scores. They're considered high risk and have

to pay higher interest rates. We saw a similar situation

during the Great Recession in two thousand and nine, but at that time, subprime buyers were.

Speaker 2: Giving up their home before they gave up their car, so some things have changed.

Speaker 1: The good news is there's no problem with car buyers with good credit scores. Only a fraction of a percent

of prime buyers are behind on their loans. Our solid

state batteries getting too much height for being the next big breakthrough in battery technology. At a recent battery conference

in China, several high level experts and executives through cold water on the idea that fully solid state batteries are right around the corner. A number of automakers, including Toyota

say they'll debut the tech around twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight. While the experts agree with this timeline,

they predict it will only be on a small scale.

According to them, mass production won't start until after twenty thirty maybe closer to twenty thirty five, because there's still a lot of R.

Speaker 2: And D work that needs to be done.

Speaker 1: Even semi solid state batteries, which use a mix of solid and liquid electrolyte and are just hitting the market now, may not see widespread availability until the end of the decade.

But these batteries still offer a number of benefits and we will see them in more cars. However, it might

not be as soon and or on the same scale as we expected. You A Formula One racing teams is

skyrocketing and some are looking to cash in. Aston Martin

recently sold a steak in its team that valued it at three point two billion dollars. McLaren also sold a

steak in its team which valued it at more than four billion, and now Mercedes F one CEO Total Wolf is looking to sell five percent of the team to CrowdStrike Holdings, which is a cybersecurity company that already sponsors Mercedes.

The team is being valued at a record six billion bucks, but the deal isn't finalized yet and it could still fall apart, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Toyota just kicked off battery production at its new battery plant in North Carolina, its first battery plant outside of Japan.

The nearly fourteen billion dollar facility has fourteen production lines with an annual capacity of thirty gigawatt hours. It'll make

lithium ion batteries for highbrid, plug in, hybrid, and fully electric vehicles, and as part of the plant opening ceremony, Toyota announced it plans to invest an additional ten billion dollars over the next five years in the US. It

didn't say where or what that investment will go towards, only revealing it will support its quote future mobility efforts.

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Speaker 1: Volkswagen says that the zonal electronic architecture it's getting from Rivian could also end up in its IC cars. That

tech will first appear in Rivian's R two crossover that comes out early next year, while VW's first application will be a roughly twenty thousand euro Compact EV, which starts production in twenty twenty seven. However, VW wants all of

its vehicles, no matter what powertrain, to be based on common platforms with a common electronic architecture, so the tech will likely spread a cross its entire lineup, including Audi and Scout. Our v Tech, which is the name of

the joint venture between VW and Rivian, says other automakers might want to buy this zonal architecture too. Auto line

after Ours co host Gary Vashlash disagrees with us that twenty twenty five is the year of autonomy and the robotaxi, but we keep seeing significant developments in the segment by Dew, which is sometimes described as the Google A China says that its robotaxi service, Apollo Go, saw a nearly fifty percent increase in the last three months and is now giving two hundred and fifty thousand driverless rides a week. Globally,

it's given out seventeen million rides, so at this current pace, Apollo Go is expected to start turning a profit before the end of the year. Reducing the cost of its

robotaxis is also helping in that area.

Speaker 2: Its new six gen vehicle has.

Speaker 1: A price tag of about twenty eight five hundred dollars, and its seventh gen vehicle is said to cost under twenty thousand bucks. In other robotaxi news, Weimo announced it's

expanding in California and that it will also start operating on the Freeway for the first time. It says the

freeway rides will kick off in San Francisco, La and Phoenix, but that it will expand over time. While Tesla's robotaxi

service isn't as big as Weimo's, Tesla had already expanded onto the freeway in Arizona, so no doubt WEIMO didn't want Tesla to have those bragging rights for very long.

Many modern cars, especially Evis, have tremendous amounts of low end torque, which gives them very quick acceleration, but that can be too much for everyday motorist to handle. So

China is floating the idea of limiting how fast cars can accelerate. It's considering regulation that would limit zero to

one hundred kilometers an hour to five seconds, which we would argue with still pretty quick, but there's.

Speaker 2: Still an option for speed junkies.

Speaker 1: The five second limit would be the default setting on cars, so if you wanted to go faster, you'd presumably be able to choose from a performance setting. Should GM Ford

and Stalantis outsource their engines and transmissions, that's what the late Sergio Marcione proposed. The former CEO of Fiat Chrysler

said they all spend billions developing powertrains that are almost identical, and that ninety percent of car buyers don't care what's under the hood. Sergio said that Detroit three could free

up billions in capital that they can invest elsewhere. Years later,

Renault spawn off its powertrain operations into a startup called Horse, and shortly afterwards Gelee joined Horse. Then we were surprised

to learn that Horse has opened in office in Detroit, and so we invited Thomas Lewis Fromhorse to join us on auto Line after hours today to talk about why they're in the motor city. Jack Keebler will also be

on the show, so join John and Gary when it all goes live on the Autoline website and YouTube channel at three pm Eastern Time today. That's a wrap for

this show and I hope to see you later.

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