The episode covers Hyundai's apology from President Trump after a controversial raid on its Georgia battery plant, highlighting visa issues and workforce impacts. It discusses the negative effects of US tariffs on automotive production and jobs, with projections of further declines. Jeep’s upcoming electric Recon SUV is compared to the more affordable and longer-range Ford Bronco EV available in China. The show also explores Chinese automakers expanding in Europe, advancements in autonomous vehicle testing across US cities, and Neo's development of a powerful in-house driving chip, signaling fierce global competition in EV and autonomous tech.
Topics:hyundai battery plant raidus tariffs impactelectric suv comparisonsjeep recon evford bronco ev chinachinese automakers europeautonomous vehicle testingrobotaxi servicesneo driving chipglobal ev competition
- Trump Apologizes to Hyundai - Tariff Impact: U.S. Production, Auto Jobs Down - Recon Tests Market for Off-Road Jeep EVs - Ford Bronco EV Only $32,300 In China - Xpeng Wants More EU Production - Waymo Expanding to More U.S. Cities - Zoox Offers Public Rides In San Francisco - Tesla Ride-Hailing, But Not Autonomous - GAC Testing L3 Cars At 120 Km/h - Nio AV Chip Outperforms Nvidia Orin
"Bronco BEV starts at only thirty two thousand, three hun..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Two months ago, US Immigration, FBI,
DEAATF and Georgia State Patrol officers launched a major raid on a battery plant in Georgia that's being built by Hyundai and LG Energy Systems. They came in heavily armed,
wearing masks, and started arresting just about every foreign looking person that they could find, who were mostly South Korean.
About four hundred and seventy five people were led away in handcuffs and later kicked out of the country. The
raid kicked off of Heurer in South Korea and came just a month after Hyundai had pledged to invest twenty six billion dollars to boost its manufacturing in the US.
Then it turned out that some of those workers actually had valid visas, and the others had visas that are common used for temporary workers. At the time of the raid,
President Trump said the workers were in the US illegally, but yesterday Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz said he got an apology from the President of the United States. Some of
the workers who were kicked out have actually returned to work at the plant, but most of them decided they never want to go back. President Trump has another problem
on his hands. Those tariffs that were supposed to bring
back car assembly and jobs to the US are not working.
An analysis by W. P. Brown Consulting shows that light
vehicle production dropped by a quarter of a million units this year. Capacity utilization dropped by three percentage points. Automotive
employment dropped by eighteen thousand jobs.
Speaker 2: And that's just this year.
Speaker 1: Brown Consulting says the numbers will drop even more in twenty twenty six and twenty seven because tariffs will drive car prices up and car sails down. While there have
been some on shoring and some plants are building more vehicles in the US, overall, the tariffs have been a net loss for the industry. Say is they're really a
market for a hardcore off road electric Jeep in the US market. We're about to find out. Jeep is finally
launching the Recon, which was first shown to the media three years ago back in September of twenty twenty two.
It goes into production the first quarter of next year at the Stalantis Assembly plant in Teluca, Mexico. The batteries
will be made at a Stella plant in Cocomo, Indiana.
The Recon sits on the Stella large platform and is a powerful beast with six hundred and fifty horse power and six hundred and twenty pound feet of torque. It
will do zero to sixty in only three point six seconds, but it only has a two hundred and fifty fifty mile driving range. The base price is sixty five thousand
dollars and with a limited range in sky high price.
The g people are under no illusions as to how this will sell. They're not going to allocate it to
all their dealers. Instead, they're going to focus on EV
friendly regions, primarily in the Zeb States. Okay, so this
isn't going to be exactly a fair comparison, but take a look at the Ford Bronco EV that's going on sale in China. It has three hundred and seventy six
horse power and thanks to its one hundred and five kilowatt hour battery pack, it has a claimed CLTC range of six hundred and fifty kilometers. We think that would
translate to about four hundred and twenty two miles on the EPA test cycle. There's also an E REV version
that goes even farther. But here's the real kicker. The
Bronco BEV starts at only thirty two thousand, three hundred dollars.
Ford has lost a tremendous amount of market share in China and this Bronco is clearly priced to start turning that around. But we can't help but compare the Bronco
EV to the recon forty percent more range at half the price.
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Speaker 1: Chinese automakers are taking the European market by storm, and Chapan is already looking to expand production in Europe. It's
been using Magna as a contract manufacturer for two evs at the Magna plant in Austria. But Neo's already looking
for other production sites because by boosting production in Europe, Neo will avoid the EU tariffs on Chinese made evs.
We keep saying that twenty twenty five is the Year of autonomy, and here's more proof. Weimo is going to
start testing its robotaxis in Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The trials have already kicked off in Miami,
while the other cities will follow over the coming weeks.
Next year, Weimo will open its doors to riders. And
Zekes is offering free robotaxi rides to the public in San Francisco, and Zekes wants riders to provide their feedback to when prove the experience. The company did the same
thing in Las Vegas in September and claims it will add more locations over the coming months. And Tesla is
making progress and launching its robotaxi service in Arizona. In September,
it got a permit to test and operate autonomous vehicles in the state, but with a safety monitor on board.
Now it got a separate permit to allow a ride hailing service that will allow Tesla to operate an Uber like service and charge passengers, but it does not allow it to operate without a human driver on board. Tesla
launched its robotaxi service in Austin in July with a safety driver, and also operates a ride hailing service in San Francisco with human drivers using FSD. Elon must says
Tesla will launch its robotaxis in eight to ten US cities by the end of the year. But we'll see
most of us have become inured to Elon's promises on autonomous cars, and make no mistake about it, all this autonomous stuff is really a race between the US and China to see who's going to dominate the technology over in China. GAC just became the first automaker to receive
permission to test level three autonomous vehicles on the highway at speeds up to one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour that's about seventy five mph. GAC will be testing
its hype Tech, a eight hundred sedan that it developed with Chinese tech company Huawei. The model features thirty four sensors,
including radar, high res cameras, and lidar. The saidian will
make its public debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show later this week, where its capabilities will be demonstrated for the first time. And in one last bit of av news,
Chinese automaker Neo is going to start selling an advanced intelligent driving chip that it developed in house. Neo currently
uses the in three of its models, and it has nearly four times the computing power of NVIDIAs or an X chip. Neo's new chip has the potential to generate
a lot of money for the company. According to chip
industry experts, a single IP authorization with another automaker could be worth several million dollars, while a system level SoC could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And that
wraps up today's report. But before we go, I want
to personally thank all of you Patreon and YouTube members who support out of Line. You are truly making a
difference in helping us bring you the reports and insights of what's going on in the global automotive industry.
Speaker 2: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by alex Partners.
When it really matters, CSP, the Composites Solution Partner, Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air Engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon members.
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