Tim Kuniskis, the straight-talking Stellantis exec whose retirement lasted about as long as your new year commitment to jog five miles every day, is back as CEO of the company’s Ram truck division and he’s got a lot he wants to share. This includes: how badly he wants a mid-size truck, how much the company screwed up the 1500 launch, and how he felt about outgoing Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
The Morning Dump, as always, doesn’t shy away from politics if it’s relevant. Unfortunately, cars and politics are blending more and more lately. President Biden, in his last week in office, has finalized rules that will make it way more difficult to sell Chinese-built cars in these somewhat United States. What will happen to the automakers who do sell those cars already? Most of them will be fine, though a couple seem like they’re in trouble.
Do consumers care about the brands they buy? Yes! And a new survey shows this is only increasing over time, especially for hybrid owners. And, speaking of hybrid owners, the data we most lack is how often PHEV owners actually charge. Thanks to a new study, we can do a little extrapolation.
‘Whether It Makes Sense Or Not, It Doesn’t Matter. It’s Anti-American, You’ve Taken My Flag Away, F*** You”
Last year, longtime exec Tim Kuniskis retired from the company that was once Chrysler and was now Stellantis. There were conspiracy theories about this, stating that perhaps Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares kicked him out after too many disagreements.
Tavares is gone and, magically, Kuniskis is back. Does that mean that the rumors were true? Not quite. He says he “didn’t need to retire” he just needed a break. Don’t we all?
And are we sure Tavares didn’t give that extra push? Here’s what Kuniskis told the Detroit Free Press:
I was totally fine with Tavares. I didn’t agree with him on a lot of stuff, but that’s not unique to him. That’s my personality. I disagree with a lot of my bosses. It didn’t matter what level of the company I was. It’s just who I am,” he said, describing his leaving as “100% my decision.”
This is a fun interview and Kuniskis lays a lot of blame for Ram’s current issues on the decision to do a bunch of stuff at once, including adding an EV powertrain, designing an EREV powertrain, ditching the V8, and adding a new electrical architecture. It was too much and it threatened the big money-maker for the company.
And, speaking of money-makers, the company basically had the Ram 1500 Classic as the fill-in for the midsize truck market. That’s no longer around and Kuniskis wants something better.
Kuniskis couldn’t offer any news on the midsize front, but he noted that “I desperately want one. … I don’t know how you can be a dedicated truck brand and not have one.”
I agree! You have to have a midsize truck. You know, other than the Gladiator, which is a Jeep.
So what of the decision to swap the Hemi V8 for the Hurricane inline-six? That’s an engine David enjoyed, saying he didn’t miss the Hemi V8. Kuniskis lays it on thick for Road & Track in this interview:
“Honestly, the bigger issue is not Hemi vs. T6,” Kuniskis said in an interview with Road & Track. “The bigger issue is we took away a fundamental American thing. Americans love freedom of choice more than anything. When you take away their freedom of choice and tell them ‘you must take this,’ they revolt. Whether it makes sense or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s anti-American, you’ve taken my flag away, f*** you. It doesn’t mean they are making an irrational decision, maybe they are, maybe they aren’t, I don’t know. But we as Americans, that’s what we do.”
Because it says “f***” we’ll have to make some guesses as to what he said there. Funk you? Fark you? Fail you?
This doesn’t mean the V8 is coming back because, as Kuniskis points out, the 1500 has been too short of supply to make any conclusions about comparative powertrain sales. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
American Cars With Chinese Software Banned As Of 2027, Hardware As Of 2029
The long-discussed issues related to Chinese-built cars in America have finally resulted in some concrete rules, with the Biden Administration announcing it’ll ban most Chinese-built items like drones and cars, that have “connected” software or hardware.
“It’s really important because we don’t want two million Chinese cars on the road and then realize … we have a threat,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters in an interview, citing national security concerns.
In September, her department proposed a sweeping ban on key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles on American roads, with software prohibitions to take effect in the 2027 model year and those on hardware in 2029. They also bar Chinese car companies from testing self-driving cars on U.S. roads.
In theory, this would screw companies that sell Chinese-made cars in America, which include:
- Lincoln Nautilus
- All EV Lotus cars
- Buick Envision
- Volvo S90
- Volvo EX30
- Polestar 1 and Polestar 2
But, as always, there are some exceptions. Cars with hardware or software that existed before the rules go into place are fine, so long as the software isn’t being managed by a Chinese company. That should help with Lincoln and Buick. It’s the Geely companies that are in trouble here. Does the US Government consider Volvo a Chinese company? Was the EX30 already on sale before the rules went into effect? What is Polestar going to do?
It’ll be up to the new Trump Administration to enforce these rules, although this has generally been an area of bipartisan agreement so I doubt they’ll be immediately reversed.
Consumers Like Their Brands Even More, Are More Likely To Stick With Hybrids Than In The Past
For all the complaints about high prices, people tend to enjoy the brands they already own. This makes sense as you already know where to get service, you’re used to the buttons, et cetera. This is the second year of the LexisNexis brand loyalty survey, and the findings are consistent with what I’d expect post-pandemic.
Loyalty is determined by a buyer returning to the same brand they own, so if you own a Honda HR-V and then buy a Honda Passport you’re counted as loyal. Basically, during the pandemic, there was such a shortage of vehicles that some people migrated to other brands due to availability, not necessarily displeasure with their current car.
That behavior is mostly gone, and the loyalty rate has jumped to 52.6% of all buyers, which is near pre-pandemic levels. What’s more interesting to me is the behavior related to fuel type:
Consumer migration across fuel types saw owners continuing to dispose of an ICE (internal combustion engine) in exchange for hybrid and electric powertrains (see figure 1). Loyalty to ICE was 97.6% in 2019 and has steadily fallen to 85.2% in 2024. Loyalty to electric and hybrid vehicles have both been on an upward trajectory since 2019 however electric vehicle loyalty in 2024 decreased slightly from 77.7% to 74.7%. Hybrid vehicle replacements jumped 5 pp from 2023 to 52% in 2024.
Hybrid owners are the least sticky, in part because many of them probably migrate to EVs, though more and more hybrid owners seem to be happy with their hybrids.
The other reason, of course, is that there are way more and better hybrid options for buyers than in the past.
Do People Plug In Their Plug-In Hybrids?
Most automakers with PHEVs probably have some idea of how often those consumers plug in their vehicles. They rarely, or maybe never, share this data with us. This is annoying. Is this a sign that PHEV buyers never plug in, as sometimes alleged? No. Automakers are just weird like that.
Thankfully, PlugShare did a large survey of Canadian buyers (n=16,041) that helps provide a clue. I didn’t see in here where they ask PHEV buyers specifically how much time they’re plugging in, but they did ask about how they charge. But they did ask where and how.
According to the survey, most PHEV charging (46%) happens at Level 1 at home, 39% happens at Level 2 at home, and about 16% happens anywhere else. Why would you have a Level 2 charger at your home and not use it? It makes little to no sense, so right there we can assume at least a third of Canadian PHEV owners charge at some level. Those who charge at a Level 1 at home are maybe not likely to charge all the time, but I still assume most probably do.
That last about 16% I’m a little more suspicious about, but this does make me think that most Canadian PHEV owners probably charge their PHEV most of the time. If I had to guess, I’d say about 75% of PHEV buyers use charging regularly.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
The new season of Shoresy is coming out, so I’m jamming to the Season 3 music this week. Here’s Art d’Ecco with “Serene Demon” and an enjoyable strange video.
The Big Question
Did taking away the V8 make you feel one way or another?
Top graphic image: Jay Leno’s Garage/YouTube
“Straight talking” f-bomb-dropping truck company exec who “disagrees with a lot of people” ISNA generous way to say “loud-mouth a-hole” but I understand you have to be less aggro. :p
The Chrysler/Stellantis companies sure like their angry men in charge, don’t they? Recent Ford CEOs have still been energetic but more measured publicly, with Farley and Bill Ford and Mulally.
Shame his whole life is 8 tiny penile based. Man talks like he needs deported to f-u Florida where the swamp has nearly infinite alligators.