Autoline Daily Mar 11, 2026

AD #4251 - Porsche Cuts Costs and Plans New Luxury Models; BYD Explores Entering Formula 1; Mercedes Reveals Luxurious Electric Van

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Car

Porsche Cayenne

The Porsche Cayenne is a big car that looks sporty but can carry more people and stuff. It's like a fast and fancy SUV made by Porsche.

Term

EV writeoffs

EV writeoffs mean the company lost money on their electric cars or related projects, which made their profits smaller.

Term

US tariffs

US tariffs are extra taxes the government puts on cars or parts coming from other countries, making them more expensive for companies and buyers.

Term

Hybrid

A hybrid car uses both gas and electricity to move. This helps save fuel and pollutes less than regular cars.

Term

EV

An EV is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It doesn't make smoke and is better for the environment.

Term

IC

IC means cars that run on gas or diesel, the usual kind of engines that burn fuel to make the car go.

Term

days supply

Days supply tells how long the cars sitting at dealers will last before they sell out. More days means cars are staying longer and might be harder to sell.

Term

Formula One

Formula One is a type of very fast car racing with special cars that race on tracks all over the world. It's the top level of car racing.

Brand

BYD

BYD is a company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They might start racing cars in big competitions soon.

Concept

World Endurance Championship

The World Endurance Championship is a long car race where teams drive for many hours to see who can last the longest and be the fastest over time.

Company

Zeukes

Zeukes is a company that makes self-driving car technology. It was bought by Weaimo and is connected to Amazon.

Company

Weaimo

Weaimo is a company that makes self-driving cars and robot taxis. They are growing and working with companies like Uber to offer rides in cities.

Concept

robotaxi

A robotaxi is a taxi that drives itself without a person driving it. You can use an app to get a ride in one of these cars.

Concept

autonomous vehicle

An autonomous vehicle is a car that can drive itself without a person controlling it, using computers and cameras to see the road.

Company

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is a company that makes computer chips used in phones and cars to help them work smarter.

Company

Waif

Waif is a company that makes smart computer systems to help cars drive themselves better.

Term

Snapdragon chips

Snapdragon chips are tiny computer parts made by Qualcomm that help phones and cars think and work faster.

Company

Intrepid Control Systems

Intrepid Control Systems makes tools and software that help car makers check their cars for problems and make sure they work well before selling them.

Term

diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs)

Diagnostic trouble codes are special messages from a car's computer that tell mechanics what might be wrong with the car.

Concept

small to mid size commercial van segment

Small to mid size commercial vans are smaller vans that businesses use to carry tools or packages around town.

Car

Chevrolet Express

The Chevrolet City Express is a small van that is basically the same as the Nissan NV200, used by businesses to carry things.

Car

Nissan NV200

The Nissan NV200 is a small van that businesses use to carry things around town.

Car

Ford Transit Connect

The Ford Transit Connect is a small van that businesses use to carry stuff around the city.

Car

Mercedes-Benz Metris

The Mercedes-Benz Metris is a medium-sized van that businesses use to carry things and tools.

Car

Ram ProMaster City

The Ram ProMaster City is a small van that businesses use to carry packages and tools in cities.

Term

wheelbase

Wheelbase is how far apart the front and back wheels of a car are. It helps decide how big the car feels inside and how it drives.

Term

track

Track is how far apart the wheels are from side to side on a car. It helps the car stay steady when turning.

Company

Stellantis

Stellantis is a big car company that owns many brands like Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat.

Term

turbo

A turbo is a part that helps a car's engine make more power by pushing more air into it.

Term

8-speed Aisin transmission

The 8-speed Aisin transmission is a type of automatic gearbox that helps the van change gears smoothly and save gas.

Term

Chicken tax

The Chicken tax is a big tax the US charges on trucks and vans brought in from other countries to protect American car makers.

Term

800 volt technology

It's a way electric cars use higher voltage to charge faster and work better.

Concept

modular van architecture

It's a basic design that can be used to build different types of vans, so car makers can save money and make vehicles faster.

Car

The Chevrolet Volt is a car that can run on electricity but also has a gas engine to help it go farther when the battery runs out. It was one of the first cars to use this kind of technology to help people drive without worrying about running out of power. People talk about it when discussing how cars are getting cleaner and more efficient.

Term

LFP battery

It's a type of safe and long-lasting battery used in some electric cars, but it doesn't hold as much energy as others.

Concept

joint venture

It's when two car companies work together to make or sell cars.

LIVE

Speaker 1: This is Ontoline Daily. The show is dedicated to enthusiasts

of the global automotive industry. With ten new CEOs taking

over at Automakers and roughly the last year, including the fresh announcement from Slate, there were gonna be a lot of changes. Yesterday we reported on Renault's new future plan

under new CEO Francois Provost, and today we're learning about Michael Lighter's new strategy for Porsche. He says the company

quote will streamline our management structure, reduce hierarchies, and cut back on bureaucracy. So it sounds like more job cuts

are coming. But Lighters also talked about making its products

even more desirable. Quote. We are looking at models and

derivatives both above our current two door sports cars and above the Cayenne. The hope is to sell more vehicles

that make Porsche more money. But the company is still

forecasting the twenty twenty six won't be much better than twenty twenty five. Last year, it delivered about two hundred

and eighty thousand cars, a drop of ten percent. That

cut its revenue to just over thirty six billion euros, which was down nine and a half percent. Operating profit

was really hammered, going from about five and a half billion euros in twenty twenty four to four hundred and thirteen million last year. The company says three point one

billion euros of that was for its EVY writeoffs, while US tariffs ate up another seven hundred million. Looks like

dealers in the US could be gearing up for the spring selling season. The number of new vehicles sitting on

their lots rose last month to just over three million units, about where they were a year ago. However, there is

one ominous sign we'll want to keep an eye on.

Models are sitting around longer than they were in twenty twenty five, which has pushed the average inventory to seventy five day supply, or ten days higher. EV's had the

most supply in February at one hundred and nine days, but like Hybrid sixty one days in IC seventy five days, those numbers were down from the previous month. Price seems

to be the bigger reason for the increase in days supply, with vehicles over eighty thousand dollars sitting on lots for an average of eighty days. In an effort to broaden

its appeal around the World. BYD is considering entering Formula

One or the World Endurance Championship. Bloomberg reports that the

company could create its own team or acquire an existing one, but a final decision hasn't been made yet and don't expect to see BYD on the racetrack anytime soon. It

often takes years of negotiating to get a car and F one, and the cost of entering could also hold back BYD. Developing and entering a car and F one

can cost as much as five hundred million dollars a season.

Weaimo has grabbed a lot of attention with all its recent expansion. Bought autonomous company Zeukes, which is part of Amazon,

is also growing quickly. As we reported yesterday, it added

Phoenix and Dallas to the list of US markets where it operates, which now sits at ten, and today the company announced it signed a multi year partnership with Uber, beginning later this year in Las Vegas and starting next year in Los Angeles. Zeke's robotaxis will be made available

through the Uber app. Uber has also been aggressive and

growing autonomous rides. It has partnerships with twenty five autonomous

vehicle developers, and it offers Robotaxi rides in Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, and Dubai, and it plans to expand to fifteen more cities globally by the end of the year. In speaking

of autonomy, self driving startup Waif and chip maker Qualcom are partnering to develop an AI driving system for automakers.

It will combine waves as AI driver software with Qualcom snap Dragon chips, which will be able to support entry level driver assistance up to advanced driving or in other words, hands off assistance up to hands off and ies off driving Waving. Qualcoms say their product can help automakers reduce

the complexity of combining chips, safety systems, and software from multiple suppliers.

Speaker 2: Ad Intrepid we produce network hardware and software solutions enabling vehicle manufacturers to innovate and design the next generation of modern mobility. Delivering scalable next generation solutions requires thorough testing

and validation of vehicle platforms. Intrepid's Neovi cloud platform helps

manufacturers quickly identify diagnostic trouble codes and defects by pinpointing which vehicles have specific software versions, allows them to isolate non compliant vehicles in real time using analytics, part numbers, DTCs, and organized secure cloud based data. All of these steps.

Speaker 3: Ensure vehicles are cleared for production and ready for the road, taking your fleet testing into the future of mobility intrepid control systems driven by your data.

Speaker 1: Once upon a time, the US small to mid size commercial van segment looked mighty enticing to five automakers. There

was the four transit Connect Mercedes Metris Rampromaster City, Nissan ENV two hundred, and a Chevrolet version of that, the City Express. But between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three,

they all dropped out of the market. One reason is

that their small footprint measured as wheelbase times track, meant that they had to meet the fuel economy requirements for small cars, and that dragged down the corporate avera ridge fuel economy ratings for those companies, exposing them to big fines.

But Stillantis realized that a van with a longer wheelbase would move up a class, meaning it could meet a lower MPG target. So the pro Master City is making

a comeback. It's merely a rebadged version of the vans

that Stilantis sells mainly in Europe under the Pougeot, Citrouan, Fiat and Opal brands. It's powered by a one point

six liter turbo made in Michigan with one hundred and sixty six horse power and two hundred and twenty one pound feet of torque. All that goes through an eight

speed ASIN transmission. The vehicle itself will be made in Turkey,

and to get around the twenty five percent Chicken tax on commercial trucks, it will be imported as a passenger vehicle, then converted to a commercial van at a facility at the Port of Baltimore. It will not go on sale

until Q one of twenty twenty seven, so upfitters and RAM dealers have time to prepare for it. And speaking

of vans, Mercedes says it was gonna make its vans more luxurious like its passenger cars, and here's the best example of that so far. It revealed the all new

electric vl It's the first model built on its newly developed modular van architecture. Thanks to eight hundred volt technology,

the VLE can add up to three hundred and fifty five kilometers or two hundred and twenty miles of range in just fifteen minutes of charging. It will first be

available with an NMC battery with one hundred and fifteen kilowat hours of usable energy and a two hundred and three kilowat motor. That setup provides more than seven hundred

kilometers or four hundred and thirty five miles of range based on the WLTB test cycle. Later on, a higher

performance version with the same battery pack and a three hundred kilowatt motor will be available. It can move from

zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in six and a half seconds, and then two versions with an eighty kilowad hour LFP battery will be added to the lineup.

The VLE, which goes on sale early next year, starts at sixty six thousand euros and runs all the way up to about one hundred and thirty three thousand for the top end model. Toyota seems to be doing better

with its in China for China evs than other foreign automakers.

When it launched the BZ three X a year ago, it claims it got so many orders within the first hour that it crashed the company's servers, and it just announced that deliveries topped eighty thousand units for the vehicle's first full year on sale, the model was even the best selling EV from any joint venture in China for five straight months. Toyota didn't have as much influence on

the BZ three X as its other models. It's actually

largely based on an electric suv made by its joint venture partner GAC and is built in China. While it

carries a starting ice right around fifteen thousand dollars. There's

also the option for upgrade at tech like an ad AS system including LDAR from Momenta and that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline

a part of your day.

Speaker 4: 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.

Speaker 5: 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 4: The automotive and industrial sectors are under going 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

by fast, effective execution. You need a partner who understands

complexity from factory floors to boardrooms and delivers measurable results.

That partner is ALEX Partners when it really matters,

About this episode

Porsche is streamlining management and planning new luxury models above its current lineup to boost profitability despite recent revenue drops. BYD is exploring entry into Formula 1 or endurance racing but faces high costs and lengthy negotiations. Mercedes unveiled the luxurious electric VLE van with impressive range and fast charging, aiming to elevate its commercial van segment. Meanwhile, US dealers face rising inventory days, especially for high-priced vehicles and EVs. Autonomous driving advances continue with partnerships like Waif and Qualcomm developing AI driving systems, and Weaimo expanding robotaxi services via Uber. Toyota's China-focused EV, the BZ3X, has seen strong sales and tech upgrades.

800 volt technology 8-speed Aisin transmission autonomous vehicle BYD chicken tax days supply diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) EV EV write-offs Formula One

Chevrolet Express Chevrolet Volt Ford Transit Connect Mercedes-Benz Metris Nissan NV200 Porsche Cayenne Ram ProMaster

Original notes

- Porsche Cuts Costs and Plans New Luxury Models - U.S. New Vehicle Inventory Hits 3 Million Units - BYD Explores Entering Formula 1 - Zoox And Uber Partner for Robotaxi Launch - Wayve And Qualcomm Partner on AI Driving System - Ram ProMaster City Van Returns to U.S. Market - Mercedes Reveals Luxurious VLE Electric Van - Toyota bZ3X Sales Top 80,000 Units in China

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