Automotive World Magazine – March 2025

In this issue:

Data

• Global light vehicle sales forecast – February 2025 edition
• Stellantis model plans and production forecast to 2029

Results

• Ford 2024 profit constrained by EV losses, outlook weaker
• GM 2025 earnings could exceed 2024’s record
• Honda Q3: motorcycles continue to outperform
• Hyundai on course for mild profit decline in 2025
• Mazda Q3 profit down, forecast unchanged
• Mercedes work vans continue to outperform luxury cars
• Mitsubishi slashes full-year outlook
• Nissan Q3: automobile ops in the red for third quarter
• Renault outperforms in 2024, optimistic for 2025
• Stellantis Q4 sales and revenue fall, outlook slashed
• Q3 marks end of Subaru’s 9-quarter run of rising margins
• Suzuki raises full-year forecast again in Q3 2024/25
• VinFast scores high sales at home, but foreign markets lag
• Volvo: new EVs will “protect margins” in a challenging 2025

Strategy

• Ford CEO weighs in on EVs, AI, and policy changes
• As merger becomes acquisition, Honda and Nissan scrap talks
• Nissan US job cuts underway as merger talks stall
• Honda’s latest organisational change: same as usual?
• Northvolt offloads industrial systems division to Scania
• Asian markets anticipate potential Dongfeng-Changan merger
• Stellantis prizes relationships with new leadership picks
• What shapes brand value in the age of new mobility?
• Zeekr: where next for China’s fastest-growing EV brand?
• Nikola (not diesel) is dead—or is it?

Markets

• Trade wars: and they’re off
• China criticises US, “Trade and tariff wars have no winners”
• Euro auto still lacks consensus on CO2 emission policy
• VW, Audi dealers file legal challenge against Scout Motors
• Tesla sales backslide in Europe amid wariness of Musk
• Ford CEO Farley labels Trump tariffs “cost and chaos”
• Trump tariff war advances to steel and aluminium
• Is de-emphasising EVs in China “dangerous” for German OEMs?
• How to survive a trade war: auto braces for worst case
• Accept, adapt or exit: US OEMs face China import tariffs
• Lexus: Japanese luxury brand goes native in China
• As vehicle prices rise, EU buyers postpone purchases

Models

• VW provides glimpse of new “cornerstone” entry-level EV
• Ferrari confirms its first EV will be revealed in October
• Rivian expands access to Electric Commercial Van in US

Software-defined vehicle

• Stellantis deepens AI investment with in-car voice assistant
• Location data advances: a live map in every vehicle
• New Cerence CEO flags AI agents on the tech horizon

Autonomous mobility

• Camera-only vs sensor fusion: the autonomy debate isn’t over

Electric mobility

• Bain: global battery capacity will surpass 4,100 GWh by 2030
• Automakers urge Trump to reverse charging fund suspension
• Porsche’s “firm commitment to e-mobility” further softens
• Xos: ‘cautious optimism’ from fleets on wireless EV charging
• Policy call to action: huge value in Europe’s battery waste
• MIT: open-source dataset turbocharges AI-driven EV design

Manufacturing

• Would repealing IRA kill US truck and bus manufacturing?
• Hyundai WIA increases Mexican investment despite tariff threat
• Canada: how much production will be lost to tariffs?
• How tariffs could reshape Mexican vehicle manufacturing
• JLR invests US$81m in new bespoke paint operations

Safety

• Vehicle recalls are changing in a software-defined industry