Toyota is a car company planning to build a new factory in Texas. They’re asking for tax incentives, and the plan is to start building soon and begin making vehicles in 2030.
Tax incentives are deals where a local government reduces taxes to encourage a company to invest in a new factory. Here, it’s part of Toyota’s plan for a plant in Texas.
Stellantis is a big car company. In this episode, they’re teaming up for new electric cars, using AI to help people search used cars, and even getting into banking.
Company
dong Fung
dong Fung is the Chinese company Stellantis is working with. They plan to build new vehicles together in China starting in 2027.
Peugeot is the car brand for the new vehicles being discussed. The episode says they’re based on concept cars Peugeot showed at the Beijing Auto Show.
Concept
Pev b ev or e REV
The episode is talking about different kinds of electric drivetrains. Some cars would be fully battery-electric, while others would use electricity in a different way (the “e-REV” idea).
This is a smarter search tool that tries to understand what you’re looking for. Instead of you typing exact terms, you can describe what you want and it finds matches.
“spot a Car” is the name of the used-car website/app being discussed. It’s where people search listings, and the episode says it’s getting lots of searches already.
An industrial bank is a more limited kind of bank compared with a traditional bank. The episode says it allows the company to take in FDIC-insured deposits for savings accounts.
A federal tax credit is a discount the government gives you at tax time for buying certain EVs. If it gets removed, EVs can cost more upfront, so fewer people buy them.
Cox Automotive is a company that tracks auto sales and incentives. In this segment, they’re cited for how big the EV incentives were and how that affected market share.
The Volkswagen ID Polo GTI is an electric hot-hatch concept that uses a front-wheel-drive electric motor. It’s designed to feel more like a GTI with special traction and driving modes, not just like a normal EV.
An LSD helps keep power going to the wheel with grip instead of the one that’s spinning. An “electric” version uses electronics to help do that more effectively in an EV.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a van that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s designed to carry people and cargo like a family van, but with an electric motor. The podcast mentions it because the US release schedule skips certain model years.
One-pedal driving means you can slow down mostly by lifting off the accelerator. The car uses the electric motor to slow you down and recharge the battery at the same time.
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Speaker 1: This is Autoligne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Toyota is looking to expand in Texas.
The automaker filed for state and local tax incentives for a two billion dollar assembly plant located next to its current truck plant near San Antonio. If Toyota gets approval,
construction of the facility could start as soon as this year, with the first vehicles rolling down the line in twenty thirty.
It's not known what models the new plant will build yet, but Toyota needs the extra capacity that automaker's North American executives say its US manufacturing network is operating at record efficiency levels and aren't able to accommodate any extra output regardless of demand. Stillants is expanding its partnership with Chinese
automaker dong Fung. They're going to build two all new
Pougeot branded vehicles based on the Concept six and Concept eight that were revealed recently at the Beijing Auto Show.
These will be nyvs, so there'll be some form of pev b ev or e REV and production starts at their joint venture plant in China in twenty twenty seven.
There's no official word on which automaker is providing the platform for these vehicles. They're intended for China and export
to other global markets. Around the same time, two Jeep
branded off road nvs for global markets will be built at the same plant in China, but no details on what those will be yet. Stillantis and dong Fung also
signed a non binding understanding to leverage their scale, expertise and R and D capabilities, which we think could include sharing more of Stalantis's unused manufacturing in Europe. The two
automakers are investing just over a billion euros to expand their partnership, but Stillantis is only expected to contribute one hundred and thirty million euros of that total. Speaking US,
it's using AI to make searching for used cars within its European dealer network easier. Even if you have a
lot of automotive knowledge, you might have to look through pages and pages of listings just to find a few vehicles that might fit what you're looking for. Search filters
do help, but Stillanti's partner to develop its own AI based search engine that allows more natural language When looking on its used car platform, called spot a Car. You
can type something like I want to hatchback under fifteen thousand euros or do you have any cars from Maserati Stillantis things, users can discover a wider selection of vehicles, and retailers will see an increase in higher quality leads.
The company launched the feature called Spoti last year and says it's already logged more than three million searches across Europe.
And in one last bit of Stilantis news, the automaker is getting into banking. It just received approval from the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to create its own industrial bank. The
bank is governed and regulated like any other bank, but it's more limited. However, an industrial bank allows the company
to accept deposits ensured by the FDIC into its savings accounts, which Stilantis couldn't do before. Those deposits can then generate
earnings and greater savings opportunities for consumers, and if those people do their banking with an automaker, they're probably a lot more likely to buy their cars. At the beginning
of this year, General Motors and Ford also receive federal approval to create their own industrial banks.
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 these CSP.
Speaker 1: EV sales took a significant tumble in the US after the Trump administration eliminated the federal tax credit last year, but it looks like the segment is showing signs of recovery.
According to S and P Global Mobility, registrations of new b EV's in March fell twenty five percent compared to a year ago, to eighty seven thousand, eight hundred units.
While that's still a big drop, that's the highest number of EV registrations since the tax credit was repealed. It's
also significantly higher than February's fifty six thousand, seven hundred registrations.
March's EV market share was six point two percent, up from four point eight percent in February, but a lot of that growth was thanks to generous automaker incentives, which averaged eight thousand bucks in March. According to Cox Automotive.
While most automakers saw a drop in EV sales, Toyota did especially well. It's EV registration and skyrocketed one hundred
and forty percent. In March, Lexis was up one hundred
and eighty three percent, and Subaru, which shares Toyota's EV platform, was up fifty percent.
Speaker 3: And speaking of.
Speaker 1: Subaru's electric vehicles, the automaker is going to share a platform with Toyota longer than expected. Subaru had planned to
start building a new independently developed EV at a new plant in Japan, which is scheduled to open in twenty twenty eight, but now Subaru is delaying production of that model and is taking a three hundred and sixty two million dollar charge to do so. The plant will focus
on producing gas powered and hybrid vehicles instead, and will add evs later depending on demand. Subru needs to cut
costs in order to offset the effect of US tariffs, which wiped out one point four billion dollars in earnings last year. The US accounts for seventy percent of Subru'
sales globally, and about half of those vehicles are imported from Japan, which gets slapped with a fifteen percent tariff.
Volkswagen is coming out with a sporty er GTI version of the ID Polo that it recently revealed. At its
heart is a more powerful one hundred and sixty six kilowatt or roughly two hundred and twenty five horsepower electric motor which drives the front wheels, but it also comes with an electric limited slip diff adaptive chassis, nineteen inch wheels in sports seats, along with a new GTI driving mode.
The setup will do zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in six point eight seconds. Cooper actually uses the
same package on the new Revolt with a trim it calls VZ pre Sales of the ID Polo GTI starts in Germany as early as September and prices will start at about thirty nine thousand euros. And in one more
bit of VW news, it skipped a twenty twenty six model year for the ID Buzz in the US because twenty twenty five versions arrive late, so it basically has enough inventory of twenty fives to cover the twenty six model year since the EV doesn't sell in big numbers in the US. However, VW is coming out with a
twenty twenty seven version, which will include upgrades like the company's newest software system, one pedal driving, and a camper van that has a fold out mattress, window blinds, ventilation, and a special battery mode to use power even when the car is off. But that brings us to the
end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in and I
hope that you have a great weekend.
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About this episode
EV registrations in the U.S. are rebounding after the federal tax credit was removed, with March hitting 87,800 units and the highest level since repeal. The show also covers Toyota’s filing for incentives for a $2B assembly plant near its San Antonio-area truck facility, plus Stellantis expanding its China partnership to build two new Peugeot-branded electrified vehicles. Volkswagen’s new sporty electric ID Polo GTI brings a 166 kW front motor and a GTI driving mode, while the ID Buzz gets software and one-pedal upgrades in 2027.
- Toyota Plans New $2B Plant in Texas - Stellantis and Dongfeng Expand Partnership for New NEVs - Stellantis Uses AI to Simplify Used Car Searches - Stellantis Receives Approval to Launch Industrial Bank - U.S. Electric Vehicle Sales Show Signs of Recovery - Subaru Delays New Electric Vehicle to Cut Costs - Volkswagen Debuts Sporty New Electric ID. Polo GTI - Volkswagen Updates ID. Buzz
