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Runtime: 11:10
0:00 U.S. Pauses Tariffs Except for Car Imports
0:58 Jeep Not American Enough for “Made in USA” Badge
1:55 BMW’s BEV Sales Jump in Q1
2:53 VW Impacted by Fines & Restructuring Costs
5:22 Waymo Starts 1st Overseas Road Tests
6:07 Nissan Developing Lidar-Based AV System
6:52 More OEMs Jump Into Humanoid Robots
7:36 ChargePoint Launching Next-Gen Charging Units
8:23 Renault Adds Bi-Directional Charging to Scenic
8:58 U.S. Buyers Turning to Longer Car Loans
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
U.S. PAUSES TARIFFS EXPECT FOR CAR IMPORTS
It feels like tariffs are all that anyone in the auto industry is talking about. And yesterday President Trump put his tariff war on pause for the next 90 days, after they threw the stock and bond markets into a meltdown. All imports going into the U.S. now face a 10% tariff. All, that is, except for cars and their components. They still get hit with a 25% tariff. Automakers are practically begging the President for relief, so that’s going to be the topic on Autoline After Hours this afternoon. We have Glenn Stevens, the executive director of MichAuto coming on the show, and he’s got a lot of behind the scenes info he can share. Henry Payne from the Detroit News will also be on, so join John and Gary when the show goes live at 3 pm eastern time today.
STELLANTIS PULLS ADS FOR DECEPTIVE MARKETING
Stellantis is pulling TV ads after being accused of deceptive marketing. Truth In Advertising or TINA, a non-profit that follows misleading advertising, says Stellantis was not being truthful for claiming that its vehicles are built in the USA. It says the automaker doesn’t really make vehicles in America, it merely assembles them. Because of that TINA says the ads violate Federal Trade Commission rules, which stipulate that products marked as “Made in the USA” should contain “no or a negligible amount of foreign content.” Since the vehicles featured in the ads have parts like engines, motors and transmissions that are foreign made, TINA thinks it should label them as assembled in the USA, not built in the USA. Stellantis says it will adjust the language in the ads and then continue running them on social media.
BMW’S BEV SALES JUMP IN Q1
BMW reported its global Q1 sales and Volkswagen provided preliminary Q1 financial results, with a mixture of both good and bad news for both companies. Let’s start with BMW. Sales were down 1.4% mainly because of a big drop off in China, though they were up almost everywhere else. The company sold 586,000 vehicles, including BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce. But the real story is BMW’s BEV sales, which were up an impressive 32%, accounting for 18.6% of its total sales. And EV sales should be even better this year. BMW will launch its Neue Klasse EVs in a matter of months, which feature a dedicated EV platform that cuts weight by 10%, cost by 20%, adds 30% more range and charges 30% faster compared to its existing EVs.
VW IMPACTED BY FINES & RESTRUCTURING COSTS
Meanwhile, Volkswagen reported that its Q1 revenue rose about 3% to €78 billion, but its operating profit dropped 39%. VW blames that drop on €600 million in CO2 fines, €200 million on restructuring costs at Cariad, its software company, €300 million that it’s still paying for its diesel emission scandal and from having to revalue the vehicles it exports to the U.S. due to Trump’s tariffs. But remember, these are preliminary figures and those CO2 fines and tariffs could be negotiated down.
WAYMO STARTS 1ST OVERSEAS ROAD TESTS
We have a follow up from a December 2024 report that Waymo is about to test vehicles on public roads outside the U.S. for the first time. The autonomous ride-hailing company announced that it was going to Japan and now it says it will start testing in Tokyo next week. It will first map the city with 25 human-operated Jaguar I-Paces with the goal of learning about the city’s infrastructure and driving environment. After that Waymo plans to test autonomous vehicles with a driver on board, but it declined to say when the mapping phase will be finished. As you may remember, GM and Honda planned to launch a self-driving service in Japan but that fell apart after GM axed its Cruise autonomous unit.
NISSAN LAUNCHING LIDAR-BASED AV SYSTEM AROUND 2027
Nissan has partnered with an AI company, called Wayve, to develop the next-generation of its driver assistance technology or what Nissan calls ProPilot. The automaker will integrate Wayve’s AI Driver software into a new lidar-based system that Nissan claims will set new standards for autonomous driving because of things like the ability to avoid accidents. It looks like they’re working predictive maneuvers, like swerving around an object that comes flying into your lane or around a crash that’s happening in front of you. Nissan says this next-gen ProPilot tech will launch from its 2027 fiscal year, which runs from April of 2027 to the end of March in 2028.
MORE AUTOMAKERS & SUPPLIERS JUMP INTO HUMANOID ROBOTS
Humanoid robots seem to be getting more and more attention in the auto industry. Automakers including Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Hyundai and Tesla, are all developing or testing them. And now the supplier Schaeffler is jumping into the market with plans to produce the robots for automakers. The company is showing off the components it can make for humanoids including sensors for perception and electric motors and power electronics for limbs and joints. And along the same lines, Chinese automaker GAC revealed next-gen joints and servo drivers for humanoid robots that it developed in-house, which allow for a range of uses, from precise operations to heavy-duty movements.
CHARGEPOINT DEVELOPING NEXT-GEN LEVEL 2 CHARGERS
ChargePoint controls an estimated 61% of all public Level 2 EV chargers in the U.S. and it’s about to launch an all-new generation. Level 2 chargers range in output from 3 kilowatts up to 19.2 kilowatts, and these new units will operate at that highest level. ChargePoint claims they can double the charging speed of a typical Level 2 unit with the ability to charge from 0-100% in as little as 4 hours. On top of that, they’ll also offer bidirectional charging capability as well as solar and battery storage compatibility and both NACS and CCS connectors. ChargePoint says the new units launch in Europe this summer, followed by the U.S. at the end of this year.
RENAULT ADDS BIDIRECTIONAL CHARGING TO THE SCENIC
Speaking of bidirectional charging, that’s one of the upgrades that Renault is making to the electric version of the Scenic. The vehicle now comes standard with an 11 kW two-way charger or there’s an optional 22 kW unit. This gives the Scenic the ability to power almost any device that runs on electricity or send power back to the grid, which allows owners in France to lower their electric bill. Other new features include one-pedal driving and Plug & Charge services as well as upgrades to the seats, safety and connectivity.
U.S. BUYERS TURNING TO LONGER CAR LOANS
New cars are really expensive in most of the world. And yet lots of people need a new car. So in the U.S., car buyers are going with much longer car loans in order to bring down their monthly payments. The average new car loan is for 5.8 years, for an average of $41,473. But according to Edmunds, last year 20%, or one out of five car buyers, went with an 84 month loan, which is 7 years! Interestingly, the average loan duration for used cars is the same as new, 5.8 years, even though the average loan amount is $28,338 or over $13,000 less than a new car. Edmunds says these long loans show that consumers are financially stretched and that it will only get worse with more tariffs.
And that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.
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Leave it to Stellantis to not be able to get its advertising right, not only does it screw up building vehicles, excuse me I mean assembling vehicles. Maybe they will merge with another company and assemble vehicles with some quality.
@Danny on Stellantis: the facts and figures determine the product quality of an automaker and I take your word for it. Interestingly enough, all Stellantis vehicles I have had have been flawless: two Jeep Grand Cherokees, one Alfa Romeo Stelvio, and my Jeep Wrangler. Especially the Alfa Romeo surprised me: I grew up in Europe and Alfa had a bad rep when I still lived there. Admittedly, that was until 1994. The Stelvio was a great vehicle and the quality was perfect.
The Wrangler has been off-road a lot and been really banged up. Nothing breaks, and it is 4.5 years old in the meantime.
Again, I am not disputing your statement which is probably based on facts, just shared my personal experiences of 150,000 miles on four vehicles.
Wim van Acker, I’m happy you have had good experiences with the vehicles you mentioned, my experiences with 2 jeeps haven’t been as good as your, a jeep liberty with transmission problems at 200 miles and a jeep grand Cherokee had problems with the power windows and other electrical issues, when you build 100,000 of anything a year a few will have issues.
@Danny: yes, you are right. As to transmission problems of your Jeep Liberty, I believe the Chrysler Group has had transmission issues for a long time. Only solved when they bought the license from ZF to build the 8 speed automatic. All four vehicles I mentioned had that transmission and all were good.
I stand corrected about my “flawless” assessment: I just remember I had a fifth one, a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica. My wife drove it first and then my son and finally my daughter. We sold it after my daughter crashed it twice, each time one dollar short of total loss. That vehicle was haunted, I remember the first problem it had was on the day we picked it up and after 50 miles there was a prompt on the dashboard telling to drive straight to a dealership. My wife did that but the dealership did not know what to do so we continued driving it with the prompt. The next morning I had my first (and also last) meeting with the COO at that time Wolfgang Bernhardt and to make a good impression I took my wife’s brand-new Pacifica to the meeting, putting my car keys clearly in sight. As an ice-breaker I told him of course about the brand-new Pacifica and how excited we were about the product. And that it had its first problem for which the dealership had no solution. Instead of “Let us look into this, we will get this straightened out”, which I expected, he said “Our vehicles are so good and have been equipped with so many sensors that this can happen.”
I’ve have a number of Chrysler vehicles over the years, the most recent a 2015 Challenger, and they have been generally reliable.
The Pentastar V6, used in about everything Stellantis sells in North America seems to have rocker arm roller failures at about 250K miles, but is otherwise reliable (sample 5 friends with them.
Once again commenters mention anecdotal evidence, one or ten out of ten million vehicles, as being any indication of good or poor reliability.
All the stats I have ever seen point out Jeep as one of the most DISMAL brands reliab-like. And if you want anecdotal evidence, a good friend and former colleague, now the President of a U in the East Coast, when he bought a Grand Cherokee, he admitted that while it was fun and he enjoyed it, its reliability was Dismal from BRAND NEW. Of course previously he drove sensible Camrys and other Toyotas, so he knew what a Truly Reliable Vehicle should be. But some here mention… VW (whose owners routinely refer to them as “my damned GTI” and, more recently, “the bloody Tiguan”, as a… quality brand, so with such really low standards, even the Yugo may seem reliable to them.
There is luck involved with reliability with a sample of one, or 5. One thing seldom mentioned is that today’s cars, even the worst, are much more reliable than anything from the “golden age” of the 1960s. Also, even VW and Land Rover have only about twice as many problems as Toyota and Honda, accordind to J.D. Power. CR’s survey results are reported differentlly, but they probably find about the same thing.
Regulus, you are are smart person, but should know that dismal, truly, vehicle, and reliable should not be capitalized.
It is my thought that the entry level models at jeep (Compass, patriot, Renegade) have drug the entire brand to the bottom in reliability rankings. The Grand Cherokee and Wrangler derivatives are not paragons of reliability, but they are what I would say is average for their segment. There will be some with only positive and some with only negative experiences on those models. If Jeep as a brand can lift up their entry level model rankings that would help them immensely. They still have a ways to go in terms of reliability, but Stellantis vehicles as a whole have a ways to go on that front.
All Jeep models are “below average” reliability in CR’s surveys. Of current models, Compass has better reliability results than Wrangler, GC, or Wagoneer, but worse than Gladiator. Compass, of course, is much lower in “Jeepiness” than the others. An interesting thing about Wrangler is that years ago, it ranked high in “owner satisfaction” in CR’s survey, but it’s now only average. I suspect that, before the 4 door Wrangler, buyers knew they were buying a crude, noisy, bad riding, but very off-road capable vehicle. With the 4 door, people are buying it without knowing as much about what it is like.