Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 10:09
0:00 Key Leaders Leaving Tesla
1:06 Suppliers Fight Stellantis Over Prices
2:13 GM Gets a New Headquarters
2:52 Nissan Making Progress w/ Solid-State Batteries
4:07 Honda Reveals New EV Series for China
5:09 Maserati Drops Top on Sporty EV
5:57 JLR Develops Portable Charger for Testing
6:37 Alfa Forced to Change New CUV Name
8:09 Why VW Has Bentley & BMW Has Rolls-Royce
Visit our sponsor to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone, Intrepid Control Systems and Teijin Automotive.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
KEY LEADER LEAVING TESLA
Tesla is laying off 10% of its workforce because of “hiring inefficiencies due to rapid growth,” but there’s a number of key people included in those leaving the company. Most importantly is Drew Baglino, who’s the head of powertrain and energy engineering and lead projects including 4680 battery cell production and the cathode factory at Austin, Texas. He was one of four people listed in the leadership position on the company’s website, right next to Elon Musk. One of Baglino’s senior managers at the cathode factory is also out the door, as is Tesla’s head of policy and business development and several other members related to a data center expansion in Austin. It’s reported that most of these projects have seen delays, which is likely the reason for the moves, but it also likely means Tesla is behind on development.
SUPPLIERS FIGHT STELLANTIS OVER PRICES
There’s a battle brewing between Stellantis and its suppliers. Crain’s Detroit Business reports that at least two Tier 1 suppliers in the U.S. have stopped shipping parts to the automaker because of disputes over prices. Suppliers are seeking cost relief from inflation from Stellantis but it’s refusing to pay for any increases in the cost of parts. The automaker filed lawsuits against the suppliers to force them to start shipping parts. In one case in February a judge ordered a fastener supplier to resume shipments because it caused the shutdown of Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Plant. But in a separate case, a judge this month denied the automaker’s motion to force a supplier to resume shipments of gears and pinions needed to make transmissions. Because of that Stellantis may be forced to shut down more plants. If the supplier doesn’t resume shipments, the automaker claims the financial impact will be “catastrophic” and cause “tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.”
GM GETS A NEW HEADQUARTERS
General Motors is getting a new home. The automaker announced it’s moving out of its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit to the new Hudson Detroit building next year. This is GM’s fourth headquarters in Detroit since 1911. GM has invested more than $1 billion into the Renaissance Center complex since it acquired it in 1996. But GM’s workforce in the city has dwindled from 5,900 employees in 2018, to just 2,800 last year. So it didn’t need all that extra office space and decided to move to a new location.
NISSAN MAKING PROGRESS WITH SOLID-STATE BATTERIES
Nissan is making progress with solid-state batteries. It showed off the continuing work it’s doing on a pilot line for all-solid-state batteries at one of its plants in Japan. The company says it’s aiming to launch vehicles with these batteries by 2028 or 2029.
HONDA REVEALS NEW EV SERIES FOR CHINA
Concepts that Honda first showed off in 2021 have inspired a new lineup of EVs that will launch this year in China. The Ye Series clearly takes design cues from the e:N Concepts it revealed 3 years ago and the result is a look that’s much different from Honda’s current cars. The models will ride on a new dedicated EV platform that was developed in China. The P7 and S7 SUVs, which go on sale before the end of the year, will be offered in a single motor, rear-wheel drive setup or as a dual-motor AWD model. The next Ye Series car will come out before the end of 2025 and will be a production version of the GT Concept. While it calls it a concept, I don’t think the production GT will be far off from this car. However, there’s virtually no details on the car at the moment. In all, Honda says it will launch six Ye Series models in China by 2027.
MASERATI DROPS TOP ON SPORTY ELECTRIC
Like many other automakers, Maserati isn’t making the transition to electric as fast as it thought it would just a few years ago, but it’s still showing off its next all-electric car, a BEV version of the GranCabrio. Like the hardtop GranTurismo Folgore, it’s based on an 800-volt architecture, features an 83 kWh battery pack, a tri-motor setup with up 610 kW or 818 horsepower and will do 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. Orders for the GranCabrio Folgore will start in August, followed by sales in the fourth quarter and starting price is expected to be around $200,000.
JLR DEVELOPS PORTABLE CHARGER FOR TESTING
Sustainability is a big goal in the auto industry. That’s why Jaguar Land Rover has developed a new portable battery storage system with used Range Rover and Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid batteries. The automaker partnered with energy storage startup Allye Energy to create the system. Each one contains seven second-life batteries that can store 270-kWh of energy and can recharge up to nine Range Rover plug-ins at once. The automaker’s engineers will be the first to use the battery storage system during testing for the new Range Rover Electric vehicle that debuts later this year.
ALFA FORCED TO CHANGE NEW CUV NAME
The Alfa Romeo Milano, which just debuted last week is already dead. But don’t feel bad because it’s only changing the name and we’re getting one of the greatest automotive stories I’ve heard in a long time. The Italian government has been pretty pissed off at parent company Stellantis and CEO Carlos Tavares for originally announcing job cuts and plans to scale back production in the country. It has since made commitments to boost production in Italy, but not all new products are going to be made in the region. One of those products being made elsewhere is the new Milano, a name that was crowdsourced as one of the most popular by Italian residents. It was announced that it will be made in Poland and then Tavares ticked off the Italian government even more by saying it would cost 10,000 euros more if the Milano had been made in Italy. So the Italian government turned to a law that was enacted in the early 2000’s that prohibits the use of foreign made products from using Italian sounding names. Officials came out after the Milano’s debut saying that the name violated the law, so Alfa obliged and changed it to Junior. It has used the name Junior for past models from the 1960s and 70s and it was another favorite of those crowdsourced names. The company says it would also like to thank the Italian government for the free publicity brought on by the debate.
WHY VW HAS BENTLEY & BMW HAS ROLLS-ROYCE
This reminds me of the story of why Volkswagen has Bentley, and why BMW has Rolls Royce. In the late 90’s VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech went on a buying spree trying to corner the market on luxury brands. That included paying $780 million for Rolls-Royce and Bentley, or at least what he thought was Rolls-Royce. But at the time BMW and Rolls Royce collaborated on making jet engines and BMW’s then-CEO knew that Rolls-Royce the jet company actually owned the Rolls-Royce name. So, he waited as Piech paid all that money and quietly cut a deal to legally get the name for $65 million. Even so, Piech was so impressed that he eventually hired that guy as VW’s CEO, a dude named Bernd Pischetsrieder.
But that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for tuning in.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Sean- the Nissan Battery plant story has to be the shortest story you’ve ever covered. All of 16 seconds and into a commercial. Seemed like it was a chance to show some quick renderings of what the plant will look like.
I wonder how the Hudson lease agreement compares to Renaissance Center. I would think GM has to be saving some money with the move.
I guess Pepperidge Farms better hope the Italian government never finds out about their Milano cookies .
Pepperidge Farms is probably ok, as long as they don’t sell the cookies in Italy.
@Sean: I am not sure that Dr. Piech hired Pischetsrieder because he was impressed with him. Maybe because Pischetsrieder, while still with BMW, approved a face-saving deal, allowing VW to sell the produced what VW thought were Rolls Royce vehicles under the Rolls Royce brand name.
Doing research on the GM move, I suspect that it will cost GM very little. GM will move into Dan Gilberts Hudson building and I suspect that Dan Gilbert will buy the ren cen. He was looking to purchase it not too many years ago and he and GM leadership seem to have a close link. If that is the ultimate deal that goes through, then GM will likely come out money ahead as the ren cen is worth more than the new hudson building. Well, technically GM will have lost a lot of money since rennovating the rencen over the past 28 years has cost them 1 billion dollars. I also have to imagine that the rencen is in need of more major repair/updates. Moving to a new location that requires nothing rather than sinking even more money into their current location likely makes more sense. Especially if they do not need the space of the rencen.
On the local news, it was suggested that the Rencen maybe turned into condos and high rise apartments! While that sounds cool, they also mentioned that there might even be a boat dock too, which seemed less cool.
I was in Ren Center once, not long after GM moved in, and what I remember is that it seemed kind of “glitzy,” at least the lobby area.
Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than 450,000 Bronco Sport SUVs and Maverick compact pickup trucks manufactured between 2022-2023. An undetected low battery charge could lead to some electrical accessories such as hazard lights not functioning properly or cause a loss of drive power in affected vehicles, according to the NHTSA. The issue affects 456,565 vehicles.
Last week, Ford had issued a recall for concerns over cracked fuel injectors that could leak, increasing the risk of sparking a fire in engines. That recall is for certain 2022-2023 Bronco Sport and 2022 Escape models with 1.5-liter engines, totaling 42,652 vehicles.