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Runtime: 9:18
0:00 BMW Beats Tesla with Human-Like Robots Making Cars
1:09 Mark Stewart Jumps from Stellantis to CEO of Goodyear
2:22 Nissan Demands U.S. Suppliers Cut Prices or Lose Rogue Business
3:39 Tesla Takes Cybertruck on Tour in China
4:51 Ford Shows Hard Core Off-Road Version of F-150 Lightning
5:32 BYD Plunges Into Indonesian Market
6:21 Honda to Launch Fuel Cell CR-V Next Week
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BMW BEATS TESLA WITH HUMAN-LIKE ROBOTS MAKING CARS
BMW just beat Tesla to the punch. While Elon Musk has made a big deal about Tesla’s human-like robot called Optimus, BMW is going to start using human-like robots at its manufacturing plant in South Carolina before Tesla does. They’re built by a Silicon Valley AI robotics company called Figure. BMW will train a small number of its robots, called 01, to perform specific tasks in the body shop, sheet metal area and warehouse over the next 12-24 months. If that goes well they’ll expand to even more robots. While there’s comparisons to Tesla’s robot, we also wonder if UAW President Shawn Fain is paying attention? He’s currently publicly attacking all the non-union car companies operating in the U.S. for paying workers poverty wages and wants to hold rallies to get workers to sign union cards. But as we’ve wondered all along, does Shawn Fain really see the big picture?
MARK STEWART JUMPS FROM STELLANTIS TO CEO OF GOODYEAR
Two days ago Stellantis put out a press release announcing that Mark Stewart, the COO of Stellantis North America, would leave the company and be replaced by Carlos Zarlenga, the COO of Stellantis Mexico. The release came out at 2 o’clock in the morning, US eastern time, contained a curt statement thanking Mark Stewart for his contribution, and a long paragraph praising his replacement. It had all the markings of an executive who got fired, and that’s what we reported. But Mark Stewart contacted Autoline, saying he actually resigned a month ago, was working with Stellantis on a transition plan, and would announce a big move very soon. Well very soon means right now. Today, Goodyear announced that Mark Stewart is the new CEO of the company, replacing Rich Kramer who had previously announced his retirement. Autoline understands that Stellantis is going to issue a new press release praising Mark Stewart for his service, to clear up the mess that made it look like he had been drop-kicked from the company. Stewart delivered 60% of Stellantis’ total operating profits for the three years he served as COO of North America.
NISSAN DEMANDS U.S. SUPPLIERS CUT PRICES 20% OR LOSE ROGUE BUSINESS
Nissan is playing hardball with its suppliers in the U.S. It’s demanding an average price cut of 20% for parts used in the Rogue, And if they don’t meet its demands, Nissan is threatening to move Rogue production out of the U.S. to Japan. Some suppliers were asked to cut prices by as much as 30%. Nissan says it’s 20% cheaper to build the Rogue in Japan than the U.S. A decision is expected sometime next month. It would be a big blow for Nissan’s U.S. manufacturing operations if Rogue production is moved. The model accounts for 40% of production at Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. And that plant and its other U.S. factory in Canton, Mississippi need more products to build. They’re only running at 52% capacity. Currently, the next-gen Rogue is scheduled to start production in Smyrna in 2026. But now that’s up in the air.
TESLA TESTING CHINA MARKET FOR CYBER TRUCK DEMAND
It looks like Tesla is testing the waters to see if Chinese consumers will go for the Cybertruck. It announced on the social media platform Wechat that it will launch a tour in China to show off the new electric truck. However, in the year 2000 China started banning trucks from cities as a way to curb pollution and cut traffic congestion, which has impacted the growth of the segment. And even though many cities have lifted those bans, China only sells about 500,000 pickup trucks a year. Elon Musk also said it would be very difficult to get the Cybertruck road legal in China. It’s unclear if he’s referring to the truck ban or if there’s some other reason it might not qualify for road use. And even if it does get certification, it will immediately get slapped with a 25% import tariff since it’s made in the U.S. But it’s possible that won’t be much of a hindrance. Ford has been exporting the F-150 Raptor to China for years and despite a price tag of over $102,000, it seems pretty popular. A similar Raptor would sell for about $78,000 in the U.S.
FORD SHOWS HARD-CORE OFF-ROAD CONCEPT OF THE LIGHTNING
Speaking of the F-150 Raptor, Ford looks like it’s getting awfully close to offering an all-electric version of the off-road pickup. It revealed a demonstrator vehicle, called the F-150 Lightning Switchgear. Upgrades include a custom independent double-wishbone front suspension, multilink independent rear suspension, coil-over FOX shocks, stabilizer bar, custom control arms and a wider track. It even features unique bumpers that improve the approach and departure angles. Ford doesn’t say what powers the Switchgear, but previous all-electric demonstrator vehicles have had upwards of 1,400 horsepower.
BYD PLUNGES INTO INDONESIA WITH 3 EVs
Legacy automakers are ignoring developing markets because they don’t think consumers will buy EVs. But BYD doesn’t see it that way. The automaker just introduced three new EVs in Indonesia, the Dolphin, Atto 3 and Seal. BYD also announced plans to invest $1.3 billion to open a plant in Indonesia with a capacity of 150,000 vehicles, which would be the company’s fifth plant outside of China. And it will open a network of 50 sales outlets across the country by the end of the year. BYD is making these moves because it’s aiming to become the market leader in electrics in the country. Currently, the Wuling Air EV and Hyundai Ioniq 5 are the top selling EVs in Indonesia.
HONDA TO LAUNCH PLUG-IN FCEV NEXT WEEK
Honda says demand for its hybrids is outstripping supply. The Accord hybrid was the best selling hybrid in the US market last year, and so Honda is going to push hybrid sales even more this year. It’s adding a two-motor hybrid to the Civic lineup and expects that to account for 40% of Civic sales. But it’s not just hybrids. Honda is just months away from launching the electric Prologue and Acura ZDX, which will be sold in the ZEV states, plus Texas and Florida, which it says are hot EV markets. The Prologue and ZDX are based on General Motors’ Ultium platform and will actually be built in GM assembly plants. Even though GM has struggled with production issues with its Ultium-based EVs, Honda says it’s confident it will meet its sales targets. Next week, Honda is also going to launch a low-volume hydrogen powered CRV, using a fuel cell built by GM in Michigan. Interestingly, it’s a plug-in FCEV, so it can run on battery power when hydrogen is not available. Honda has not decided if it will make these CRVs available for retail customers or will only sell it to fleets. We should have a lot more details next week.
How far behind are legacy automakers compared to Tesla or BYD? Far. Really far. We’ve got Mathew Vachaparampil, the CEO of Caresoft, coming on Autoline After Hours this afternoon, to show us the results of their vehicle tear-downs and benchmarking. Their results are going to open your eyes. Mathew will get into specific mass and cost comparisons of various components and systems and his information is pure gold. You’re not going to want to miss this one. Joe White from Reuters will also be on the show, and we invite you to watch it all live when the show gets going today at 3 pm eastern time.
But that’s all for today. Thanks for tuning in.
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When will Honda smarten up and give us an HR-V hybrid. This is a great CUV in search of a drive train. 10 second 0-60 times just don’t cut it in this market!
Ron, If you want fuel economy and performance in that class, it looks like Corolla Cross hybrid is the winner.
Rogue is, by far, Nissan’s top selling vehicle in the US. If they move production out of the current plant, what will replace it, or do they plan to close one of the US factories? Interestingly, they are dropping their second best selling product, Altima.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2023-full-year-usa-nissan-and-infiniti-car-sales-by-model/
It appears the leadership of the UAW is bent on wide adoption in the auto industry of robotic assembly of cars with their demands. The future is here and organized labor needs to re-evaluate their goals and methods to not “strike themselves out in the cold” as a viable menber of the auto family to employ humans!
In this demanding market if Nissan thinks suppliers can just cough up 20% they must be smoking something stronger than weed. This has been tried before and they may find many suppliers willing to tell Nissan to just come get their tools. Many will be losing money if they cut prices 20%. Nissan isn’t big enough to make these threats like this. Other automakers tried this and held a much larger percent of the market. Some suppliers caved out of fear of losing not just the business they had but all future business. However, other opted to give up the job rather than build it at a loss.
It’s just not a very good way to work with your supply base and shows that the purchasing dept is just plain lazy. Imagine being a farmer signing a 4-year contract to sell X amount of beef at $100 and a year into the contract the buyer says you need to start selling it them at $80. Even though your labor, medical, raw material costs went up you need to cut out 20% or they’ll just pull all business and move the next town over. Almost seems unethical doesn’t it.
What Nissan fails to see is all this really does is create a bunch of chaos/cost while some suppliers agree and others bail. Then all those future programs the suppliers will try and make up that loss. Every future quote is going to be marked up 25-30% so they can again give back 20% and try and make up money lost on the last job. Its a lot of shuffling of numbers to come right back to the same conclusion that no one is going to make parts for the privilege of working with Nissan. They need to make money and are in business to make money. What an utter disaster and if I were Nissan’s NA CEO I would fire the head of the purchasing dept for his flat out laziness to do his job and find ways to cut cost rather than send out a blanket threat to all suppliers. I hope they find out very quickly how unimportant they really are to assume they can throw their weight around and just get what they want.
Rogue volume was a substantial 271,458 in 2023, but there is no way suppliers can reduce prices 20%. They are operating on very small margins, or losing money already. I can’t imagine that there would be any where near that much operating efficiency to be gained.
I can guarantee that Nissan is not willing to make any design changes that will result in a 20% price reduction. So they are asking them to eat into their profit. Given the typical margins of the tier 1s, there are probably zero suppliers who can do that. Maybe Nissan makes 30-50% profit on every car they sell, but I guarantee that they would never let their suppliers even come close to a 10% profit. This is a sign that Nissan is in very deep trouble and likely headed for bankruptcy. They have zero compelling products other than the Rogue, and even then it is plagued by electronics and major CVT issues. CVTs have been slowly killing Nissan for many years now and they are too stubborn to change anything. I guess that is the hill that Nissan wants to die on.
Imagine even lower quality parts than are already going into Nissans.
This strategy of squeezing suppliers worked really well for Ford. They’re number 1 in recalls for 2022 and 2023. The Rogue has had its share of recalls already.
Almost everyone uses CVTs. Are Nissan’s worse, or even different from the ones Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Chevy use?
Definitely worse, and always have been. The key difference in the other OEMs is that CVTs are used where it makes the most sense and has a chance to last. Nissan just plasters a CVT on anything. They seem to have no discriminating standards on when and where to apply a CVT. Obviously these OEMs are trying to use them for fuel savings, but in the case of Nissan I think they are using it as a mask for an inefficient engine. An inefficient engine limits their options when it comes time to decide whether to use a CVT or not.
Nissan used to use CVTs with 3.5 V6s, not good, but I think they quit doing that.
Honda and Toyota use CVTs with 1.5t and 2.0 non-turbos. Hyundai, Kia, and Chevy Malibu use them with similar, smaller engines.
IMHO, Nissan’s cost reduction requirement is just an excuse to bring the Rogue’s assembly back to their home market. They received all kinds of local tax incentives to build the US plant and that their current employee pay increase may not be enough to keep them (or a supplier they use) from unionizing, they are laying the ground work for either threaten their employees and suppliers that they are leaving, or packing up their wares and closing the plant! I think they know their suppliers can do a 20% cost reduction, but the threat of leaving may indirectly make employees think twice about bringing I a union that would fight for higher pay and benefits!
I wanted to leave a comment about the Chrysler side of Stellantis, but I didn’t get a chance to make it a few days ago. Chrysler, Dodge and Ram has left a lot of money on the table, by not offering more SUV and CUVs to their individual brands! As sedans fell out of favor and crossovers begin to dominate, they simply let the Jeep brand be the torch bearer for the automaker. Raising Jeeps importance within the automaker superficially, all the other makes have suffered as a result. Their is simply no reason that Dodge/Ram and Chrysler could not have had either a go fast or luxury version of what Jeep offers, without the heavy off-road ordinance that many Jeep model require. To think that the current Hornet is a much, much lesser (perceptionally) version of the Tonale, which is a heavily breathed over Renegade, is both hilarious and shameful! Chrysler could have built the the Hornet from the Renegade bones years ago and gave Chrysler a version of the Compass, all with the same level of cosmetic surgery that separates the previous generation Grand Cherokee from that of the Dodge Durango! The same is true with the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. They could have also spawned both a full-size SUV for Dodge/Ram and Chrysler, just as GM has done with the Tahoe/Suburban, Yukon and Escalade! If the Chrysler side of Stellantis is bring the company big dividends now, just think how much they can be pulling in had they had more CUVs amount their brands, especially two other full-size SUVs to work with. Yet, as was said, money left on the table!
With the low temperatures in the last few days, and problems of not charging to total capacity, and taking long charging times, all in the news. Will that reduce people’s interest of EVs?
wmb, Jeep is the Chrysler group nameplate with brand equity. A badge engineered Dodge or Chrysler version of the near worst-in-class Compass and Renegade would not increase sales much. Could they sell more Wagoneers with a Chrysler Imperial version? I doubt it. There aren’t enough potential customers who remember what Imperial was in the ’50s and ’60s.
In the space of just about two years, the Dollar has strengthened %30 against the Yen.
I’m beginning to understand why Japanese are saying they’re poor, relatively speaking no doubt.
I guess Nissan is banking on being able to fill positions in a factory at home with attractive wages.
As has been said above, domestic suppliers simply can’t slash prices by that much. I guess a Rogue made in Japan would be full of mainland Chinese parts. It’s worth thinking about a tariff on vehicles with certain amounts of sourcing from there, rather than say Viet Nam, Thailand, et cetera.
Compact crossovers are big in all the world’s significant markets: the Toyota RAV4 was the best selling vehicle globally in 2022 (followed by the Tesla Model Y in ’23, a step up in size and price).
It’s noteworthy that the two domestic competitors are behind their rivals in sales. The new ’25 Chevy Equinox looks great, though, and will also be made in China. I don’t see how a car like that couldn’t be successful in Europe and Asia.
Kit — I guess on that front we will have to agree to disagree, which is fine. For if that were true, why would they do it now, by cycling the Renegade platform through the Tonale and back to the Hornet? As much as my wife loves her Renegade, the only grip she has is that it’s not as quick as her previous vehicle, our daughter’s HR-V, or the Maverick. Yet, with quicker step and either front or awd, a Dodge version of the Renegade could have played well with the Dodge Boys brotherhood of muscle as a junior Durango SRT! On the Chrysler side, a lux-ed up version of either the Compass, may not have had to be as efficient as the class leaders, but could have been competent against rivals like the previous generation MKC and Buick Encore (the original Encore built from the architecture of the less then efficient South American Trax of that model year). On the higher end of the market, the fact that Stellantis builds the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, but does not include any Jeep badging on each of those models, show that they see the value and have confidence that a fullsize NA assembled premium vehicle would sell here on these shores! The lack of Jeep badging on the Wagoneer twins, shows that the vehicles are not necessary market to Jeep customers and , besides that, I believe Stellantis/FCA employees could keep each of the vehicles mentioned selling in enough volume to support the vehicles manufacturing. Even if they didn’t sell in big numbers, two more vehicles in the Chrysler side of the showroom (a luxury version of the Compass, which Jeep doesn’t sell) and a souped up version of the Renegade (which the Dodge brand just started selling), could have made a big help to supporting those brands with more product and showroom foot traffic.
The Equinox is Chevy’s 2nd best seller in the US, after Silverado, and is a decent vehicle. A couple friends have them, and like them. It could use a powertrain upgrade. It’s 1.5 turbo/6-speed auto is a little slow and a little thirsty, compared to some competitors. I’ve read that the upcoming 4th generation will have a 9-speed transmission. Equinox should take some CVT hater sales sales from CR-V and Forester.
If they sell the 2025 in Europe, I assume there will be additional powertrain options, maybe a manual trans. At one time, definitely a diesel, but maybe not now.
wmb, My main point about more badge engineered Chrysler group vehicles is, do you sell many more after spending millions of dollars to do the badge engineering on them?
As far as Renegade, I think it looks good compared to most competitors, but is thirstier than all of its competitors, and slower than some.
Aren’t all Chrysler group dealers now Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram? They are where I am.
The Crossover/CUV is the new sedan in the US. The big Three have given up on cars. The days of the sedan and coupe are over. GM only has the Malibu, scheduled to die in 2025, CT4 dying in 4 months, and the CT5 may be around a while. Ford has nothing, while Stellantis has nothing from Dodge, Ram and Chrysler and only the Alfa Giulia is only available by order only. So, by 2026 as of right now the only sedan left will be the Cadillac CT5 and whatever is available from the imports.
Which is sad considering they all look alike. Vehicle design will have to focus on the interior to stand out. I’m not sure how much you can do with that, but we are already seeing the simplification of the interior. It’s kind of funny how cars in the 80-90’s tried to look busy and like it was an airplane cockpit. Extra gauges and switches and LCD screens and buttons for everything. Maybe influenced from shows like Knight Rider. But futuristic meant wrap around dashes with screens and lots of lights. Then as the center screen became popular and automakers have been packing more and more controls into the center screen it’s become cleaner. Now they are almost going too far (Tesla) with trying to move all controls and gages to the screen and just leave a steering wheel and start button. With EV’s no need for oil psi, engine temp, fuel gage, Tachometer, Turbo boost, gear select just battery level and speed.
All I know is the 2050 car shows are going to be pretty boring to walk around and see 30 year old CUV’s. Thank goodness for sportscars. But even those are in danger with the interest toward the likes of the Urus and Cayenne.
Considering everything I mentioned in my previous post I’m not sure Stellantis needs Chrysler. I’m not sure GM needs Buick. The SUV/CUV design lends itself to a very common design offered in a variety of sizes. Like T-shirts and you can get basically the same vehicle in XS, S, M, L, XL and luxury versions of M, L ,XL. So honestly how many different engine combinations do you really need? Once they go electric its the same motor in either FWD or AWD and different size batteries. Simplified down to about 5 combinations.
I suspect we will start to see reduction of brands and a lot more consolidation going on while automakers figure out how to offer different interiors within the same vehicle. So rather than have a Chevy, Buick and Cadillac version of the same vehicle you can order it with interior A , B or C which has really only been the difference anyway.
As far as car “brands,” being an old guy, I hate to see them go away, as with Plymouth and Oldsmobile, but yeah, they don’t really mean much. Pacifica could, and maybe should be a Dodge, leaving Chrysler with nothing. Envision could be a Chevy, or just go away, and offer the 2.0 engine in the similar Equinox. They don’t really need three versions of Traverse. Two is plenty, so Enclave could go away, leaving Buick with Encore. Hmmm. The main purpose of GMC is to give Buick/Cadillac dealers higher volume products to sell, though I guess some people actually believe that GMC trucks are “professional grade,” while nearly identical Chevys are amateur grade.