AD #4317 - U.S. Tariffs Cost Japanese Automakers Billions; VW To Cut 28,000 German Jobs By 2030; Peugeot Launches All-Electric E-208 GTI
Autoline Daily
AD #4317 - U.S. Tariffs Cost Japanese Automakers Billions; VW To Cut 28,000 German Jobs By 2030; Peugeot Launches All-Electric E-208 GTIAutoline Daily · Jun 12, 2026
Supervised FSD is Tesla software that can do more driving on its own, but you’re still expected to watch the road and be ready to take control. It also depends on government approvals in each country.
Term
array
An “array” here means several sensors mounted together. The goal is to let the vehicle collect different kinds of information at once.
Renault is talking about using electric vans/cars (“TwinGo”) in city fleets. They’re meant to collect information about roads and the environment to help cities maintain infrastructure.
Smart sensors are devices that can measure things like pollution or noise and report the results. In this segment, they’re used to help cities understand what’s happening around them.
The Ford Edge is a mid-sized SUV/crossover that’s designed to be comfortable for daily driving. It typically offers more space than a compact SUV, but it’s not usually as large as a three-row family SUV. The podcast brings it up because some Edge owners are thinking about switching to the Explorer.
The Ford Explorer is a midsize SUV that many families buy. In this episode, they say its sales are rising, partly because of how Ford is managing inventory and because the off-road “Tremor” version is drawing attention.
The Ford Escape is a popular SUV sold in the U.S. Here, it’s mentioned because changes around it seem to have influenced how well another Ford SUV (the Explorer) sold.
The Ford Bronco is Ford’s more off-road-focused SUV. The hosts mention it to show how other Ford models are doing compared with the Escape and Explorer.
A robotaxi is a self-driving taxi that’s meant to carry passengers without a human driver behind the wheel. Here, they’re talking about how many cities it operates in and how many rides it does.
Extended-range electric cars are mostly electric, but they also have a backup system that helps generate power so you can drive farther without charging. The idea is to reduce “range anxiety,” especially for bigger SUVs.
Car
Peugeot E-208 GTI
The Peugeot E-208 GTI is an electric version of the 208 that’s tuned to feel like a sporty “GTI” hot hatch. They say it gets more power and firmer suspension parts to make it handle more aggressively.
A limited-slip differential helps the car put power to the wheel(s) with better grip. That can make the car feel more controlled when turning or when the road isn’t evenly grippy.
The Volkswagen Golf is a compact car, usually a hatchback, meant for everyday use. The podcast mentions a special “GTI” version that people can order, which is typically a more performance-focused trim within the Golf lineup. It’s brought up because it’s a popular model and new versions draw attention from buyers.
LIVE
Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated.
Speaker 2: To enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Europe's largest automakers, Volkswagen,
Stalantis and Renault, are joining forces to urge the EU to adopt simple Made in Europe rules and stronger incentives to boost local production. The automakers sent a joint letter
to European Parliament members calling for seventy percent of car sold in the EU to have seventy percent local content, covering the full value chain from engineering to manufacturing.
Speaker 1: On top of that, they want incentives.
Speaker 2: To boost car in battery production, and they're also asking for more flexibility and regulations, especially for small cars, to make evs more affordable and to support local supply chains. Collectively,
the three auto groups combined for about sixty percent of Europe's car production, and just to underscore the challenges automakers in Europe face, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Bluma said it plans to cut nineteen thousand jobs in Germany by the end of the year and it will cut a total of twenty eight thousand jobs by twenty thirty to help save money and staying in Europe for the moment, Tesla continues to rack up more approvals for its hands free driving system.
It just got authorization for supervised FSD in Belgium, but it has to wait until it successfully completes a series of tests. Belgium is now the fifth country to approve
FSD in Europe, after the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.
Japanese automakers are getting hammered by US terraces along with shifts in EV and a mission policy. According to Automotive News,
they have cost Japan's automakers twenty eight billion dollars so far, and by March of next year that number could rise to as much as forty billion. Toyota is being hit
the hardest, with an expected impact of more than seventeen billion.
Honda isn't far behind at fifteen billion dollars, and Nissan's impact is expected to.
Speaker 1: Hit three billion.
Speaker 2: The automakers not only face terrace on the models that they import from Japan, they also get hit with terrace for vehicles that they build in Canada and Mexico, where they have a large presence. And when you combine that
with rollbacks and EV and emission regulations, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have had to adjust plans which have triggered massive EV write offs.
Speaker 1: Renault hopes to help.
Speaker 2: Maintain cities with fleets of TwinGo evs that are strapped with an array.
Speaker 1: Of sensors on the roofs.
Speaker 2: It says they can detect pollution, places with too much noise, and bad roads. That last one builds on a piece
of tech that Renault first showed off nearly two years ago that literally listens to the sound of tires over pavement to determine road conditions, along with sidewalks signs that are also equipped with smart sensors, and even info from pedestrians.
Renault says it can provide all this data to cities, municipalities and governments on a single platform so they can maintain and make improvements to the infrastructure.
Speaker 3: Performance that shines even in the rain. That's what really matters.
Rich don't pretends to tires improved grip in wet conditions.
Speaker 2: The Ford Explorer is attracting former Escape and Edge owners despite having a higher sticker price. Ford stopped building the
Edge in April twenty twenty four and the Escape last December, and surprisingly the Explorer has benefited the most from those models being dropped through May, sales of the Explorer in the US are up eighteen percent from a year ago, making it the fast this growing model.
Speaker 1: In Ford's lineup.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, sales of the two model's closest in size and price to the Escape in Ford's lineup are down. Broncos
Sports sales have slipped one and a half percent, and the Maverick is down twelve percent so far this year.
Ford says higher inventory the new off road Tremor trim, along with name recognition have helped lead to the boost and Explorer sales. Weimo is launching a new membership plan
that costs thirty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: It will be an invite only.
Speaker 2: Offer to its most frequent users in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix to start, then it plans to expand to more cities in the future. For that thirty dollars, members
will get a ten percent discount in the form of rider credits, preferred pickups, five cancelations a month in early access in new cities. At the end of twenty twenty five,
it costs roughly seventeen dollars and twenty five cents for a Weimo ride in the San Francisco Bay Area, so Bloomberg estimates a user would need to use the service at least four times a week for the membership to pay for itself. While that might seem like a lot,
Weimo says it will be reaching out to tens of thousands of customers in those first three cities with the offer.
In total, the Robotaxi company operates in eleven cities, giving rides to five hundred thousand paying customers a week, and by the end of the year it plans to expand to twenty cities, hitting a million paid rides a week.
Shaomi saw it sales shoot up the last few years, but like most Chinese automakers, they've started to plateau in twenty twenty six, So with just two models on the market, Shaomi is moving into new segments. It plans to launch
a medium to large or full size suv, but unlike its current cars, it won't be eviy only. The automaker
received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to produce extended range electrics. While Shaomi could have made
the model electric, some Chinese consumers still worry about range with large SUVs, so extended range electrics are common in the segment. Pougeo revealed details about that hot hatch version
of the E two oweight that.
Speaker 1: We recently reported on.
Speaker 2: The car's top output figure goes from one hundred and fifty five up to two hundred and eighty one horse power thanks to a new M four plus electric motor.
It's also lower, wider, has stiffer springs and shocks, thicker swaybars, a limited slip diff and a number of special touches inside and out. Pougeo is now taking orders for the
E two oweight GTI, and in France it starts at just under forty three thousand euros including taxes. Should automakers
agree to use a common skateboard designer cross the industry then put all their efforts into exterior styling, interior design, and their user experience, they could eliminate billions in capital expenses, get enormous economies of scale, and make cars a lot more affordable. That's one of the ideas we got into
with Chris Boroni Bird on Autoline after Hours yesterday. Chris
is a scientist who worked at Chrysler General Motors qualcomm Mit in Weimo, and he has a radical vision of where transportation and mobility are headed in the future. There's
a lot of fascinating things in that show, so that's why we think you should check it out if you haven't already.
Speaker 1: But that's a rap for this show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in, and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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Speaker 6: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.
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About this episode
Tariffs and industrial policy take center stage as the hosts note U.S. duties have already “cost Japan's automakers twenty eight billion dollars so far,” with more risk ahead. On the tech side, Tesla’s supervised FSD keeps expanding—“It just got authorization for supervised FSD in Belgium, but it has to wait until it successfully completes a series of tests.” Elsewhere, Ford points to Explorer momentum, while Peugeot unveils the electric E-208 GTI with a power jump to 281 hp.
- EU Automakers Demand Stronger "Made in Europe" Rules - Volkswagen To Cut 28,000 German Jobs By 2030 - Tesla Earns FSD Approval in Belgium - U.S. Tariffs Cost Japanese Automakers Billions in Losses - Renault Twingo EV Fleets Monitor Urban Infrastructure - Ford Explorer Sales Surge as Smaller SUVs Dropped - Waymo Launches Monthly Robotaxi Subscription - Xiaomi Expands into Extended Range Electrics - Peugeot Launches All-Electric E-208 GTI Hot-Hatch - Should Automakers Share a Common Skateboard Design?
