Formula One is a type of car racing where the fastest cars race on special tracks all around the world. It's the top level of racing with very fast cars.
The Lincoln Corsair is a fancy, smaller SUV that’s like a more comfortable and nicer version of the Ford Escape. It also comes in a hybrid version that helps save gas, but if it’s being stopped or changed, fewer of these fuel-saving cars are sold.
The Ford Escape is a small SUV that many people like because it’s good for families and saves gas if you get the hybrid version. It’s being stopped or changed, which means fewer of these gas-saving cars are being sold.
Carvana is a company that sells used cars online. You can buy a car from them without going to a dealership, and they even have special vending machines for cars.
A plug-in hybrid car uses both gas and electricity. You can charge its battery by plugging it in, so it can drive some distance using only electricity.
TRWP are small bits of rubber and road that come off car tires when they drive around, which can affect the environment.
LIVE
Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Two weeks ago, the price of
a barrel of oil was sixty five dollars. This morning
it hit more than eighty five bucks. So it's climbing fast.
And with the straits of Hormu shut down because of the war and Iran.
Speaker 2: Oil could go a lot higher.
Speaker 1: As we've been talking about here all week, when the prices go up at the pump fast, new car buios scrambled to find more fuel efficient models. Auto Line after
Ours co host Gary Vasslash had a great stat on yesterday's show that for every dollar a gallon of gas goes up, sales of fuel efficient vehicles go up over twenty percent and sales of non fuel efficient vehicles goes down nearly twenty nine percent. That would hurt sales of
full size pickups and SUVs, which in turn could force automakers like gm Ford and Stilantis to change their guidance for the year. And it's not just the price of
oil that's going to impact automakers and suppliers. The price
of aluminum is up nearly twenty three percent from mid February because the Middle East is an important source of the medal. The war in Iran is even affecting the
Formula one season, which is kicking off this weekend in Australia.
That's because F one includes races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and April, a race in Azerbaijan in September, and in Qatar in Abu Dhabi in November and December. All
those countries have been hit by Iranian missiles and drones, so those races may not happen unless this war gets wrapped up quickly. Liberty Media, which owns the Formula one series,
saw it stock drop eight percent since the war began last Saturday, wiping out one point nine billion dollars of its market cap. China is going to continue it's cash
for clunkers like program as part of the government's new five year roadmap for industrial development. It will allocate a
thirty six billion dollars in ultra long term special bonds for trade in programs, including for cars. It was going
to be hard to replicate last year's sales success, with about thirty million passenger vehicles sold in China, which was up over nine percent compared to twenty twenty four, but with programs like these in place, the country's sales are expected to increase slightly this year. On top of special
traded bonds, the government is also setting aside nearly twenty nine billion dollars to put toward large scale equipment upgrades, including modernizing production lines for automakers and suppliers. China's aim
is to remain globally competitive and key sectors of the market.
Automakers in Europe are still lobbying for more emission relief.
Last year, the EU scrapped its plan to require all new vehicles to be one hundred percent zero emission by twenty thirty five. Instead, ninety percent of vehicles must be
zero emission, but the remaining emissions have to be offset through the use of green steel and synthetic fuels. The
EU also rolled back plans to find automakers for not meeting targets by the end of twenty twenty five, and allowed companies to average emissions over a three year period instead.
Automakers heavily lobbied for those changes, but now they say they need more relief. Mercedes Benz ceo Ola Collenius, who's
also the president of the ACEA, the lobbying group that represents europe so ODO industry says the compliance window for meeting CO two targets should be extended from three to five years, and he also says the requirements for green steel and synthetic fuels aren't realistic. Collennius warns that if
the new rules are implemented, it could collapse the car market in Europe. He says the EU should increase the
use of synthetic fuels for the two hundred and fifty million vehicles currently on roads to reduce emissions.
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Speaker 1: Ford reported its US sales for February, it sold just under one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles, down five and a half percent from a year ago, but that's mainly because it's getting rid of the Ford Escape and Edge and the Lincoln Corsair. The Louisville plant that makes the
Escape and Corsair is being retooled to make that brand new thirty thousand dollars electric pickup truck, and the Oakville plant in Canada that makes the Edge is being retooled to make heavy duty trucks. Even so, there are two
numbers that are concerning. Sales of Ford's F series pickups
were down sixteen percent, which is significant, and with the Escape and Corsair going away, its hybrid sales were down nearly twenty two percent. We created an index that looks
at all the automotive related stock prices from around the world, and yesterday the stock of the day was Carvana, the used car retailer. Yesterday it was up for four zero
point seven percent, with shares hitting three hundred and thirty one dollars. Over the last year, that stock went on
a tear, shooting up seventy seven percent. So far this
year it's down nine percent, but yesterday it did quite well.
There's a change in the top spot at Chrysler, which has us questioning the future of the brand. Chris Fuell,
who was CEO of Chrysler and head of Alfa Romeo North America, is leaving the company for personal reasons, effective immediately.
She's replaced by Matt McLear, who will also retain his current role as CEO of Dodge. I interviewed Chris Fuel
back in August, and at that time she was very excited about the future Chrysler. She talked about a new
Pacifica coming early this year with very different front end styling inspired by the Hauseion, and said it would have a new plug in hybrid powerchain. But earlier this year
Stillantis discontinued all of its pihevs, and now with Fuel abrupt leaving, it also has us wondering about the future of that all new crossover she said Chrysler was supposed to get in twenty twenty seven, which is a D segment vehicle based on the Stella large platform with gas hybrid and pure electric power trains. Yesterday we reported about
BYD's new Blade battery, which offers fast charging even in extreme cold The company also revealed a new generation of its flask charging stations to help support those new batteries.
Each charger delivers a maximum output of fifteen hundred kilowatts and operates at one thousand volts. That's enough to charge
a battery from ten to seventy percent in just five minutes.
BYD says it already has more than four thousand of these chargers installed in China and plans to have twenty thousand by the end of the year. BYD also plans
to launch the stations outside of China by the end of this year, but it didn't say how many it's targeting to an end stall and speaking of EV charging stations, despite a drop in EV sales in the US, more and more public chargers are being built. Last year, charging
networks added eleven thousand, three hundred fast charging cords in the US, up nearly fifty percent from twenty twenty four, and charging companies like charge point and evy Go are planning to expand their network this year. More of these
chargers are needed because there's now five point eight million evs on US roads and more drivers are starting to rely on public charging. A study from Yale University found
that on a global basis, cars shed six million pounds of rubber every year. So Bridgestone, a sponsor of aute line,
developed a new process to study the environmental impact of its tires. It calls the rubber particles that get worn
off of tires Tire and Road war particles or TRWP.
Last year, bridge Stone showed off a method to collect the particles from a passenger vehicle for the study, but now the company has also developed the collection method for semi trucks and buses. Bridgestone says this testing process allows
it to study the physical and chemical characteristics of particles and learn about their environmental impact. 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.
Speaker 4: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by alex Partners.
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Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.
Learn more at vcsp dot com.
Speaker 5: The automotive and industrial sectors are undergoing historic transformation electrification, digitalization, supply chain reinvention, regulatory shifts. The pace is accelerating and
the pressure to adapt is real. This is not a
time for hesitation. It's a time for bold decisions backed
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About this episode
Rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are impacting global automotive sales, particularly hurting full-size pickups and SUVs. European automakers are lobbying for extended emissions compliance deadlines and more realistic green fuel requirements to avoid market collapse. Ford faces declining sales as it phases out key models to retool for EVs. Chrysler's CEO departure raises questions about the brand's future amid shifting electrification strategies. Meanwhile, BYD advances ultra-fast EV charging technology, and public charging infrastructure in the US continues to grow despite a dip in EV sales. Bridgestone studies environmental impacts of tire wear particles, highlighting sustainability efforts.
- Rising Oil Prices Threaten Automaker Sales and Guidance - Iran War Risks Canceling Formula 1 Races - China Allocates Billions for New Auto Trade-In Program - European Automakers Seek More Relief from Emission Rules - Ford February Sales Drop as Model Lineup Shifts - Carvana Shares Up Despite Year to Date Decline - Chrysler CEO Change Raises Questions About Brand Future - BYD Unveils Ultra-Fast Five Minute EV Charging - U.S. EV Charging Stations Expand Despite Sales Slump - Bridgestone Measures Environmental Impact of Tires
