AD #3626 – Stellantis Fires Back At UAW; Lotus Dreams Big With U.S. Assembly Plant; BYD Targets Jeep, Bronco, Land Rover

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

STELLANTIS FIRES BACK AT UAW
Historically, corporate executives always kept their mouths shut whenever the UAW vilified them in the media during contract negotiations. They always felt that would just ramp up the rhetoric. But with new UAW president Shawn Fain attacking them personally, they’re starting to fire back. In an email sent to employees, Mark Stewart, the COO for Stellantis of North America, called the union’s demands a “losing proposition” that would end up eliminating UAW jobs. He also said he was disappointed with Fain’s theatrics and personal insults. Fain dramatically threw the Stellantis proposal in the trash on a live streamed video the union posted a week ago. We haven’t seen this kind of public bitterness between labor and management in the auto industry before, and we’ve got the feeling it’s about to get worse.

TESLA CUTS PRICES AGAIN IN CHINA
Tesla is cutting prices in China, again. It cut the price of the Long Range and Performance versions of the Model Y by nearly $2,000. They now start at about $41,000 and $48,000, respectively. On top of that, Tesla announced that it will offer insurance subsidies of $1,100 for entry-level, rear-wheel drive versions of the Model 3. But Tesla needed to do something. According to the China Passenger Car Association, sales of its made in China vehicles fell 31% in July compared to June. And while Tesla sales are always lower at the beginning of each quarter, sales in the overall Chinese market have fallen for the last two months.

USED CAR PRICES FALL IN U.S.
Meanwhile, in the US, used car prices fell in July. According to Manheim’s Used Vehicle Value Index, used vehicle wholesale prices dropped 12% last month compared to a year ago. It’s the 11th straight month prices have dropped. The seasonally adjusted average price in July was just over $19,000 compared with nearly $22,000 last year. Manheim expects prices to continue to decline for the rest of the year but it says the rate has slowed. We think that’s because new car sales are strong thanks to rising inventory. And it looks like more people are deciding to buy a new car instead of a used one.

GM EXTENDS CHEVY BOLT PRODUCTION
Production of the Chevy Bolt is being extended by a month. It was supposed to stop rolling down the line in November, but GM Authority reports that production will now last into December. That plant, Orion Assembly in Michigan, is being converted to make the Silverado EV next year as well as the GMC Sierra EV. GM recently announced that the Bolt will get another generation and it will be powered by its Ultium batteries and motors.

LOTUS DREAMS BIG WITH US ASSEMBLY PLANT
Lotus has ambitious expansion plans that we think are just crazy. The British sportscar maker only sold 576 cars last year but it wants to grow that to 150,000 annually by 2028. And to help reach that goal, the company’s CEO says it’s considering opening a plant in the U.S. and will make a decision before the end of the year. Lotus currently builds cars in England and China. The company is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, which bought Lotus in 2017 and has invested nearly $4 billion into it. Lotus’s sales have always been minuscule, so Geely must think that the luxury segment will grow or that it can steal sales from Porsche. A lot of sales. But either way, we think Geely’s crazy if it thinks Lotus can sell 150,000 vehicles a year.

BYD TARGETS JEEP, BRONCO, LAND ROVER
Chinese automakers are coming out with news models at blistering speed and right now consumers prefer whatever is the latest and greatest. I don’t see this changing, but that’s a topic for another day. BYD, already the biggest automaker in China, is launching yet another NEV brand in China. It’s a premium brand, called Fang Cheng Bao, that will slot below its other new ultra-luxury NEV brand, called YangWang. CarNewsChina reports its first vehicle, the Leopard 5, will be priced between $55,000-$83,000 and will share technology with the more expensive YangWang NEVs. That includes its large, extended range hybrid platform, which is purely electric driven, but uses a combustion engine to charge the battery. The system is said to be over 500 kW or 670 horsepower and will do 0-100 km/h in 4 seconds. The Leopard 5 also is expected to feature BYD’s in-house developed suspension system, but it’s not known exactly which version, which ranges from a more basic damping system to a hydraulic setup that can drive on three wheels and hop. With a total length around 5 meters or over 16 feet, this is meant to take on other big luxury SUVs. We say look out Jeep, Ford Bronco and Land Rover. Others should also pay attention when the biggest automaker in China expands into more market segments and don’t forget its CEO last week called on all Chinese brands to come together to “demolish the old legends.”

U.S. COULD MANDATE FRONT CAMERAS
They call them frontovers. It’s the kind of accident when there’s a little kid in front of a stopped vehicle that the driver can’t see because the hood creates a blindspot. And so the driver pulls away not knowing there’s someone in front of their vehicle. In the U.S., it’s a growing problem. From 2008 to 2020, the number of children killed annually in frontovers doubled to 526, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. One culprit is the high hood height of pickups and SUVs. A report in Ward’s says the answer may be with front mounted cameras that have AI, or 4D short range radar. And right now, Senator Richard Blumenthal is introducing legislation mandating technology to prevent frontovers.

GOOD-BYE DIESEL JEEP GLADIATOR
The diesel version of the Jeep Gladiator is going bye-bye. It was first offered in the truck for the 2021 model year, but production will end with a limited-edition version. The Gladiator Rubicon FarOut will be available to order through the end of September and is limited to 1,000 examples. It comes with a bunch of upgraded equipment as standard and is priced a little below $72,000, including destination charges. That leaves the Gladiator with one engine option, Stellantis’ 3.6L Pentastar V6.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AUTOMAKERS BY SALES
How do the world’s automakers stack up against each other in sales? Well, we now have the numbers for the first half of the year. Toyota was the biggest car company in the world with 4.6 million vehicles sold, with the Volkswagen Group, in second with 4.4 million. Impressively, the Hyundai Group, which includes Hyundai, Kia and Genesis is now the third largest automaker at 3.6 million, followed by Stellantis at 3.2 million. General Motors is in 5th place with 2.9 million, and then Ford at 2.1. Nissan and Honda are extremely close at 1.8 million, BMW tops Mercedes, 1.2 million to one million even. And, because everyone wants to know how Tesla stacks up, it came in at just under 890,000 vehicles. Some reports still combine Renault and Nissan and Mitsubishi sales together, but we feel that’s a mistake. That was an alliance in name only. There was no P&L for the alliance, no annual report. So we have to look at each of them separately. After all, General Motors and Honda are doing a lot of work together. GM is even going to make cars for Honda. But we don’t combine their sales together. John has more info on this and you can find a link to his video in today’s show notes.

But that’s the end of today’s show. Thanks for joining us.