Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 6:39
0:06 May Sales Better Than Expected
0:40 Best & Worst Sellers in May
1:04 Passenger Cars Continue to Tumble
1:29 Tesla Likely to Make Model Y in Fremont
2:18 Details on GM’s All-New Diesel
3:14 VW Smashes Nurburgring EV Record
3:48 Oil Subsidies Not Keeping People in ICEs
5:10 Head of Jaguar Design Retiring
5:40 Ford Puts Old Water Bottles to Good Use
Visit our sponsors to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone and DuPont.
This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.
MAY SALES BETTER THAN EXPECTED
Automakers reported their sales in the U.S. market for last month, and the numbers came in a little bit better than expected. Customers bought almost 1.6 million new vehicles, which was down one-half of one percent from a year ago. Even so, the seasonally adjusted rate, or SAAR, came in at 17.3 million vehicles, up sharply from April sales, and better than a year ago. Analysts at Ward’s say sales were strong thanks to heavier incentives related to the Memorial Day holiday, and thanks to strong fleet sales.
| U.S. May, 2019 Sales | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 1.579 Million | -0.5% |
| SAAR | 17.3 Million | |
BEST AND WORST OF MAY
The top 5 automakers for the month included Volkswagen, which posted double digit gains. Subaru, Volvo, Hyundai and Toyota also sold more cars and trucks than a year ago. But some automakers had a miserable month, including Mitsubishi and Mazda, which saw a sharp drop in sales. Honda, Ford and BMW also sold fewer vehicles.
| Top 5 Sellers | |
|---|---|
| Volkswagen | +14.4% |
| Subaru | +6.4% |
| Volvo | +4.5% |
| Hyundai | +3.6% |
| Toyota | +3.2% |
| Bottom 5 Sellers | |
| Mitsubishi | -21.5% |
| Mazda | -16.0% |
| Honda | -4.9% |
| Ford | -4.2% |
| BMW | -3.1% |
PASSENGER CARS CONTINUE TO TUMBLE
And consumers continue to show a clear preference for trucks over cars. Sales of passenger cars dropped by 60,000 units or nearly 12%, while truck sales were up 5%. That means trucks now account for 72% of all vehicles sold, and undoubtedly we’re going to see that hit 75% before the year is over.
| U.S. May, 2019 Sales | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cars | 452,000 | -11.8% |
| Trucks | 1,127,000 | +5.0% |
TESLA LIKELY TO MAKE MODEL Y IN FREMONT
Elon Musk says the Model Y, Tesla’s new crossover based on the Model 3, will probably be built at the company’s Fremont, California factory, not in its Nevada gigafactory. He says “my team convinced me the fastest way to get to volume production is to do the Y at Fremont.” Here’s our Autoline Insight. There is only so much capacity in Fremont. So if the Model Y goes in there that means the plant will have to build fewer Model S’s and X’s, and maybe fewer 3s.
And we’ll be back with more right after this.
DETAILS ON GM’S ALL-NEW DIESEL
GM’s all-new 3.0L inline 6-cylinder diesel which goes in the Chevy Silverado, has some interesting details. It has cast a aluminum block with iron cylinder liners, which provides a 25% mass savings over an iron block. The cylinder head is also aluminum. Technologies like Active Thermal Management and ceramic glow plugs, mean an engine block heater is not needed until -22-degrees F or about -7.5-degrees C. Other highlights include low-pressure EGR, a dual path intake manifold and a variable-pressure oiling system. The engine is rated at 277-horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. It will cost about $2,500 more than the 5.3L V8 and nearly $3,900 more than the 2.7L turbo 4.
VW SMASHES NURBURGRING EV RECORD
Volkswagen just smashed the track record for electric cars at the Nurburgring with its ID.R racecar. It knocked more than 40-seconds off the previous record. The ID.R lapped the historic race track in just over 6-minutes and 5-seconds, pushing the electric NIO EP9 into second place. That’s very impressive, but VW still has a long way to go to beat the all-out record of a little under 5-minutes and 20-seconds, which is held by Porsche with its LMP1 hybrid rocket.
OIL SUBSIDIES NOT KEEPING PEOPLE IN ICEs
We love hearing from you our viewers, and we take your input seriously. Steven Sherman wrote to us and said that if we’re going to talk about subsidies for electric cars, then we ought to point out all the subsidies that go to the oil industry. He linked us to an article from an organization called the Fuel Freedom Foundation, which is dedicated to reducing America’s dependence on oil, and has some pretty impressive people involved in the effort. The article claims the oil industry gets $10.7 billion a year in subsidies, which is a lot. But we did some additional math. The U.S. produces 6.4 billion barrels of petroleum a year. That means the subsidies come to about $1.67 a barrel. One barrel yields 42 gallons of gasoline. So the subsidies come to about four cents per gallon of gasoline or diesel. While we agree that the oil industry doesn’t need these subsidies, they are not what’s keeping people in their ICEs.
HEAD OF JAGUAR DESIGN RETIRING
Jaguar’s head of design, Ian Callum, is retiring after holding that role for 20 years. But he won’t leave the company completely. He’ll remain a design consultant for Jaguar. Taking over Callum’s position is Julian Thomson, who’s currently the company’s Creative Design Director. Thomson joined Jaguar in 2000. Callum says some of his career highlights at Jaguar include creating the XF, F-Type and I-Pace.
FORD PUTS OLD WATER BOTTLES TO GOOD USE
Consumers buy around 1.4 billion plastic bottles every day around the world. Most of those end up in the landfill but Ford is putting them to good use. The company is using recycled plastic bottles for underbody shields on all of its cars, trucks and SUVs. The underbody shields are about three times lighter than ones made from regular plastic and that’s important because automakers are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to cutting weight from vehicles. Ford says it uses about 1.2 billion recycled plastic bottles every year, which is about 250 per vehicle on average.
And that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.
