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Runtime: 10:32
0:00 Tariffs or Not, Cupra Targets U.S. Market
1:30 Mitsubishi Stops Shipping Cars to U.S. Dealers
2:16 Lincoln Continues Imports, Exports with China
2:46 Tesla Stops Selling S & X in China
3:31 Tesla Chops Cybertruck Price $10,000
4:47 Neta Auto in Deep Trouble
5:30 Polestar Closing Some Stores in China
6:05 DiDi To Start Mexico Ride-Hailing
6:32 DiDi & GAC To Launch L4 Robotaxi
7:03 20% Uber Rides in Austin With Robotaxis
7:45 VW Customizes Pac-Man for Its Cars
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
I’m filling in for Sean for the next two days as he’s out on a media launch for the new Lincoln Navigator.
TARIFFS OR NOT, CUPRA TARGETS U.S. MARKET
A couple of years ago, when Cupra announced it was going to enter the U.S. market, we thought it was crazy. There are already too many automakers with too many brands making with too much manufacturing capacity aimed at the American market. And when President Trump announced he was going to slap an additional 25% tariff on all imported cars, we were sure Cupra’s plans were dead in the water. But we were wrong. Ignasi Prieto, the chief brand officer of Cupra, says their plan is to enter the U.S. market by 2030, and they’re confident the tariff situation will be resolved by then. Cupra plans to launch in the U.S. with at least three models that will offer ICE, PHEV and BEV options, depending on the model. It’s in talks with Penske Automotive to sell its cars. Cupra is a spin-off of SEAT, which is part of the Volkswagen Group. It has positioned its lineup between VW and Audi, and its prices range from the high €30,000 to high €40,000 range. It’s done rather well in Europe and believes it can do well in the U.S. market as well.
MITSUBISHI STOPS SHIPPING CARS TO U.S. DEALERS
But while Cupra is bullish on entering the U.S. market, other automakers are still reeling from the tariffs. Mitsubishi stopped shipping cars to U.S. dealers and will hold all incoming vehicles at U.S. ports. All of the vehicles the automaker sells in the U.S. are made in Japan and Mitsubishi told Automotive News that it will hold them at ports until it has “additional visibility on tariffs.” It says that it has nearly 100-day supply at its dealers for now. It seems to us the real crisis for most automakers will start to hit at the end of June, after they’ve burned through the inventory they already have.
LINCOLN CONTINUES IMPORTS, EXPORTS WITH CHINA
And yet, despite the tariffs, Lincoln will continue to import the Nautilus from China. It doesn’t plan to raise prices yet, but at some point that will be inevitable. The Nautilus currently starts at just over $53,000. Lincoln also says that it doesn’t expect China’s retaliatory tariffs to have an impact on the Navigator which is shipped from the U.S. to China because it sells in such low volume.
TESLA STOPS SELLING S & X IN CHINA
But while Lincoln will continue to ship Navigators to China, Tesla will stop shipping the Model S and X there. China is retaliating to Trump’s moves by raising tariffs on U.S. made vehicles by 125%, making them prohibitively expensive. And, of course, the S and X are made in the U.S. Reuters reports that Tesla only sold 1,553 Model X’s and 311 Model S’s in China last year, which only accounted for 2.1% of the total sales of those models. We estimate Tesla will lose about $150 million in revenue because of this.
TESLA CHOPS CYBERTRUCK PRICE $10,000
To try and boost sales of the Cybertruck, Tesla is coming out with a decontented version priced at $72,235, or about $10,000 cheaper than the prior Long Range model. That means it also qualifies for the $7,500 rebate for EVs. Tesla got rid of the front motor, the air suspension and a rear light bar. One advantage of going with a 2-wheel drive version is that it picked up 25 more miles of driving range bringing the total to 350 miles. It also charges faster. Tesla clearly has to do something to boost sales. Cox Automotive says it only sold 6,406 Cybertrucks in the U.S. in the first quarter, which is worse than the Ford Lightning, which is also struggling in the market.
NETA AUTO IN DEEP TROUBLE
Many Chinese automakers are growing strong. But not all of them. And Neta Auto is in deep trouble. It only sold 487 vehicles in China in the first two months of the year. And now the automaker is facing protests from its own dealers who claim it has failed to deliver vehicles. About 20 dealer reps protested at the company’s factory gates, demanding that the company reimburse them for operational losses. Neta says it wants to hit positive gross profit margins this year and overall profitability next year. But to us that just sounds like happy talk.
POLESTAR CLOSING SOME STORES IN CHINA
And it’s not just Neta. Polestar is scaling back its operations in China. It’s closing some of its stores and canceling a sales and marketing joint venture with a local company. Even though its first quarter sales were up 76% in China, Polestar only sold 3,120 vehicles last year in the country. The automaker says it’s still committed to China but it sees “a lot of growth in Europe.” Even so, we think Polestar would have to grow its sales by at least 3x to become a viable car company.
DIDI TO START MEXICO RIDE-HAILING
Didi, the Chinese ride-hailing service, is making a big move into Mexico. It plans to bring 100,000 EVs to Mexico by 2030 to compete with Uber Mexico. Didi will use EVs from a variety of Chinese automakers, including Deepal, GAC and BYD. It also plans to build 10,000 EV chargers in Brazil to expand there as well.
DIDI & GAC TO LAUNCH L4 ROBOTAXI
Moreover, Didi is working with GAC to come out with a Level 4 robotaxi in China by the end of this year. The car will use DiDi’s tech stack with 33 sensors, including LiDAR, cameras, 4D radar, infrared cameras, and sound sensors, which is said to work in all weather conditions. And it wouldn’t surprise us to see those robotaxis also end up in Mexico and Brazil.
20% UBER RIDES IN AUSTIN WITH ROBOTAXIS
Looks like Americans are warming up to the idea of using robotaxis. 20% of Uber’s rides in Austin, Texas were handled by Waymo’s robot taxis in just its first month of operation. That’s the fastest adoption rate that Waymo has seen compared to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. A key reason is that in Austin you can order robotaxis using Uber’s app, while in those other cities you have to use Waymo’s app. Waymo has plans to expand into Washington DC, San Diego, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami and Tokyo.
VW CUSTOMIZES PAC-MAN FOR ITS CARS
The big news at Volkswagen this week is that you can now play Pac-Man in your car, well at least in Europe. The game is now available on the infotainment screen, as long as you’re parked. And you use your smartphone as a controller. It’s a customized version of the game that replaces classic Pac-Man icons like fruit, with wheel rims or silhouettes of iconic VW’s like the Beetle. Also, in certain ID models, the interior lighting responds to inputs by the player and what’s going on in the game for a more immersive experience. The game is now available in about 300,000 vehicles in Europe.
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Don’t know about the headline on the Cybertruck story, chopped price?? no AWD no tonneau very de-contented version for a lower price is that a “chopped price”? Although for now, the subsidy kicks in
@Dave it is more “chopping product”
I think the cyber truck time has come and gone. Anybody that wanted a cyber truck has a cyber truck. The design was far too polarizing for the mass market. Making a de-contented cheaper version might get some stragglers that were still on the fence to buy at the lower price point. On the whole I think the market for the CT hit its peak at least 7 months ago if not longer. I don’t think at 73K this is going to save it.
VW should use some of the silhouettes of their discontinued models as ghosts on the pacman game. I am all for a Scirocco, XL1, or Harlequin Golf ghost.
Well put Merkur Driver. How many people want to buy a vehicle that is the butt of many jokes. CyberTruck was a swing and a miss. As predicted.
Get ready for the disappeared incentives. Any brand that will be significantly impacted by the tariffs and is slowing or stopping shipments, will now be sold at full sticker price. The dealers won’t have more inventory coming for some time. They need to sell what they have. And, future shipments will likely include a higher price due to the tariffs. So, the dealers have no reason to discount their current inventory. Thank you Mr. President for taking such quick action to decrease prices on consumer goods.
Agree with Merkur. I’d add most of those who wanted a CT bought and sold it already, it’s too relatable to the dude with a chainsaw. I’d rather drive a neon green Pontiac Aztek with strobe lights than a CT these days, it would be less embarrassing 🙂
I knew someone who had an orange Aztek. That was a factory color.
The Aztec was probably one of the last vehicles to actually have a more complete color palette versus todays white/black/grey cars. The Aztec had white, black, grey, beige, orange, yellow, blue, green, and three shades of red including corvette victory red. An amazing array of color as compared to todays color palette or lack there of. I miss the days of actual colors on vehicles.
Chevy Spark had some colorful colors, They’ve added yellow for Prius for 2025. It was available last year in some markets, but not US. They now have red, yellow, dark blue, black, white, and two or three shades of grey.
In the early 2000s, my sister was going to buy a new Hyundai Elantra, and they offered it in red and blue if you were willing to pay thousands more (I think it was only offered on their GT line). The other options were black, white, and all the greys. One of the greys had a little blue in it, so she went with that dull blue-grey. The vehicle was great, but the dealership experience prompted her to not get another Hyundai.
As far as the Aztec, I test drove one out of curiosity (not too serious about getting one though). It really drove well, since it was essentially a tall, full sized Pontiac sedan. If they had not designed it to look like a tall Chevette, it probably would have sold better. The more rounded version, the Buick Rendezvous looked better.
Aztec and Rendezvous were based on the GM minivans, Venture et. al., but had hinged instead of sliding rear doors. Rendezvous had about the wheelbase and overall length of the “short” minivans. Aztec was a little shorter, both wheelbase and length.
You are right, Kit. I was led to believe they were on the well lauded G platform that large Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs rode on, but they were in fact on a shortened U platform which underpinned the GM minivans.