AD #4322 - Peak Oil? Nope. Demand Keeps Growing; 7,000 Tesla Owners Join Class Action Lawsuit; Europe Needs to Save Its Auto Industry
Autoline Daily
AD #4322 - Peak Oil? Nope. Demand Keeps Growing; 7,000 Tesla Owners Join Class Action Lawsuit; Europe Needs to Save Its Auto IndustryAutoline Daily · Jun 19, 2026
“Peak oil” is the claim that the world will reach a high point in oil use or oil production, and then it will start going down. The segment says those predictions didn’t happen the way people expected.
OPEC is a group of countries that produce a lot of the world’s oil. They can affect how much oil is available and what prices tend to do. Here, they’re saying oil demand will keep rising.
This means Land Rover is having another company help design and build the Defender instead of doing everything internally. That can be faster or cheaper, but it can also make coordination harder.
Company
Stilantis North America
Stellantis North America is a big car company group that operates in the U.S. The hosts say it will help build the Defender, meaning Land Rover is partnering for production work.
Joe Eberhard is the executive leading JLR North America. The segment says he’s stepping down, which the hosts connect to bigger changes happening at the company.
The Freelander is a type of SUV made for regular driving, with features that can handle rougher roads too. The podcast mentions a new electric version of the Freelander brand that has started being sold. That means the same name is now being used for an electric vehicle.
Intrepid is a tech company that helps car makers test and validate vehicles. They provide tools and software that help vehicles communicate and collect data during development.
Root cause identification means figuring out the real reason something went wrong, not just fixing what you can see. It’s used to stop the same problem from happening again.
Remote update deployment means the car can get software updates over the internet. That way, fixes and new features can be installed without going to a shop.
Doovi is a cloud service used to collect and analyze data from vehicles. The idea is to help teams understand issues faster and update vehicles remotely.
“Supervised FSD” means the car can do a lot of driving tasks, but a person still has to watch and be ready to take control. It’s not meant to be fully hands-off all the time.
“Hardware three” is the name Tesla uses for one generation of the computer inside the car. Owners are upset because they believe the newer FSD promises don’t work the same on that older computer.
“Hardware four” is the newer generation of the computer Tesla uses for FSD. The approval mentioned in the Netherlands only applies to cars that have that newer computer.
Natural language commands are instructions you can say in normal language. Instead of tapping a menu, you can tell the car what you want like “drop me off here.”
Right to repair means the people who own equipment (or fix it) should be allowed to get the instructions and tools they need to fix it. Here, it’s about military vehicles where only approved technicians can repair them because the contractor controls the software and repair info.
Car
Cherry Stockman
The Cherry Stockman is a mid-size pickup truck. The key detail here is that it’s described as a plug-in hybrid with a diesel engine—meaning it can run on electricity sometimes and you can also charge it.
A plug-in hybrid is a car that uses both an electric motor and a gasoline/diesel engine. You can charge the battery by plugging it in, so you can often drive on electricity for part of your trip.
“Profit margins” are a measure of how much money a business keeps after costs, often expressed as a percentage. Here, the hosts connect tariff-driven cost pressures and weaker sales to squeezed dealer margins—meaning dealers may earn less per vehicle sold.
LIVE
Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Remember around twenty seventeen when Tony Siba,
the founder of rethink x, predicted that electric cars would cause the oil industry to collapse by twenty thirty. He
sure got a lot of headlines. So did Bloomberg New
Energy Finances prediction of a global oil glut by twenty twenty six. There was a lot of talk about peak
oil back then, but that was then. Now OPEK just
came out and said it sees no signs of peak oil.
Speaker 2: It's just the opposite. OPEC sees quote robust growth.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, the world consumed ninety one million barrels of oil a day. Last year, it hit one hundred
and five million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Agency.
OPEK predicts it will hit one hundred and thirteen million barrels by the end of the decade, and it says oil demand will continue to grow through at least the middle of this entry. We're worried about what we see
happening at Jaguar Land Rover. First of all, we think
Jaguar's strategy of going all electric and moving way upscale is beyond risky, it's dangerous. Now comes word that land
Rover will outsource development and assembly of the Defender to Stilantis North America, according to a presentation that it gave to investors.
Speaker 2: On the heels of that announcement.
Speaker 1: Joe Eberhard, the CEO of JLR North America, announced he's quitting the company to quote pursue other opportunities. Meanwhile, in China,
the new electric Freelander brand that just went on sale was largely developed with Cherry, and the price of a new land Rover Evoke in the country dropped almost in half.
Consumers can pick one up for just under thirty thousand dollars.
In the US, it starts around fifty thousand bucks. They
say that desperate times demand desperate measures, and these sure sound desperate to us. We also don't like what we
see going on in Europe and are very worried about its auto industry. BMW and Mercedes announced yesterday that they're
getting ready to talk to employee representatives, and you know what that means. They're getting ready to get rid of
more jobs. That's what Volkswagen announced earlier this week nineteen
thousand jobs going away by the end of this year, and that was just in Germany. What we're seeing is
Europe's auto industry starting to crumble, and we think it's only going to get worse and going to accelerate. We
say Europe needs to do a lot more to protect its industry. Yeah, we're just gearheads from Detroit, but we've
always respected the European industry and we don't like the way things are going.
Speaker 3: Ad Intrepid we produce network hardware and software solutions, enabling vehicle manufacturers to innovate and design the next generation of modern mobile ability. Delivering scalable, next generation solutions requires thorough
testing and validation of vehicle platforms. Intrepid specializes in network interfacing,
data logging, simulation, and gateway capabilities. Intrepid's Doovi cloud platform
provides real time data collection, instant cloud upload, intelligent detection, advanced issue analysis, root cause identification, and remote update deployment.
All of these steps 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: Despite five countries in Europe approving Tesla's supervised FSD, there's pushback against widespread adoption. Sweden's Transport authority is recommending the
EU vote against approval unless Tesla disables its ability to exceed speed limits. FSD has a feature called speed offset,
which allows the vehicle to go over speed limits by a margin set by the driver. EU officials will meet
at the end of the month to debate approving FSD, However, a final vote is expected to come later. In order
to be approved, fifteen of the EU's twenty seven member states, representing at least sixty five percent of the population, must vote in favor of it. Speaking of FSD in Europe,
Tesla faces a lawsuit from owners that could be very costly.
Back in April, the Netherlands Road Authority RDW approved FSD, but it was only for vehicles with the current hardware four.
This upset owners with hardware three, who were promised the system was capable of full self driving, but they claim FSD will never work with hardware three. So one owner
launched a website in April seeking other hardware three owners to negotiate a settlement or to pursue possible legal action.
The initiative received three thousand sign ups in its first week, but now it's grown to seven thousand owners and a Dutch law firm is also supporting the case. If Tesla
is forced to refund or replace the hardware, it could end up being very costly for the company. And in
one last bit of FSD news, Elon must tease a couple of updates for the system. One will remember your
parking preferences quote so that the car goes to the right location at your.
Speaker 2: Home, office, school, drop off, etc.
Speaker 1: And the other update will allow owners to talk to the vehicle through groc the AI assistant from Musk's XAI.
It will allow for natural language commands like turn right here or drop us off here.
Speaker 2: That feature is expected.
Speaker 1: To arrive in about three months or so, similar to Indo penant repair shops, The US military is also fighting for the right to repair its own vehicles.
Speaker 2: Currently, it's illegal.
Speaker 1: For military personnel to perform maintenance on things like trucks, drones, and jets because while it owns the physical hardware, the contractor retains the IP on the software, tools and manuals, so even if a vehicle breaks down in combat, only approved technicians are allowed to fix it. Lawmakers have pushed
for legislation called the Warrior Right to Repair Act, which would grant military personnel the access that they need, but it was stripped from the most recent version of the Defense budget. So now the lawmakers are trying to include
the Act and future bills, but it may take more awareness from the public to make it through. According to
a survey from the Specialty Equipment Market Association, nearly eighty percent of voters would support military right to repair, but prior to that over seventy were unaware of the issue.
Chinese automaker Cherry recently launched a new pickup truck division for global markets that it calls Rely, but the Cherry brand itself is also getting into the pickup truck market, and it looks to us like the new mid size Stockmen that it just revealed is a rebadged version of the Rely truck. The Stockman features a diesel plug and
hybrid powertrain and is also designed for global markets, so there's a good chance the two brands will cannibalize sales from each other. However, Rely is part of Cherry's commercial division,
so it may be able to separate the two by gearing the Stockmen to retail customers and or making it a little more upscale. We asked our autoline members about
the cost impact of US auto tariffs. We wanted to
know whether they thought automakers, suppliers, dealers, or consumers carried the burden.
Speaker 2: Here's some of the feedback that we got.
Speaker 1: Don Squeers said, just like everything, the eventual source of the money is the consumer. David Hanby agreed. The customer
always pays, he said. Stephen Relia said, while consumers are
impacted in higher vehicle costs fifteen hundred to eight thousand dollars per car, US automakers and suppliers are absorbing billions in losses because of tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and autoparts.
Speaker 2: Car dealer profit margins.
Speaker 1: Are squeezed due to lower sales, with average car prices now passed fifty thousand dollars, and Mike McCallister had this to say, quote tariffs threatened not only the automobile industry, but the entire economy of the US. And thanks to
all you members out there who support AUDO line and especially for your feedback. Autolne is really well watched amongst
people who work in the auto industry, including policymakers and we like to provide a little insight into what you're all thinking.
Speaker 2: That's a rat for this show and this week. I
hope that you have a great weekend.
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About this episode
OPEC is pushing back on “peak oil” talk, saying it sees “no signs of peak oil” and “robust growth” in demand. The show then zooms in on Europe’s auto stress: Land Rover plans to outsource the Defender, while Volkswagen is cutting “nineteen thousand jobs” in Germany. Tesla’s supervised FSD is also under scrutiny in Europe, with owners suing over hardware differences and a growing class action. The episode closes with right-to-repair efforts and tariff-driven pricing pressure on vehicles.
- Peak Oil? Nope. Demand Keeps Growing - JLR’s North American CEO Quits - Land Rover Relies on Chery For Freelander - Europe Needs to Save Its Auto Industry - Sweden Wants Changes to FSD - 7,000 Tesla Owners Join Class Action Lawsuit - Use Grok To Talk to FSD - Public Supports U.S. Military Right-To-Repair - Chery Launches Pickup Truck Division - Autoline Poll on Tariffs
