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Runtime: 9:11
0:08 Car Sales Near Great Recession Levels
0:37 Tesla Posts Impressive Sales
1:26 Toyota Outselling GM In 2021
2:30 More And More Consumers Ordering New Cars
3:48 VW ID. LIFE Design & Packaging Details
5:27 Rivian Lost $1 Billion Ramping Up Production
6:20 Mercedes Set to Kick Off eActros Production
6:57 Great Wall Motors May Take Over Nissan Plant in Spain
7:33 Ford & GM Settle Lawsuit Over BlueCruise Name
8:07 GM Secures Silicon Carbide Supply
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CAR SALES NEAR GREAT RECESSION LEVELS
New car sales in the U.S. are so bad, they’re almost back to the levels they were during the Great Recession. Last month the SAAR came in at only 12 million vehicles. In 2009, the SAAR hit 10 million, and we could be headed that low in the months to come because inventory levels continue to drop. Automakers managed to sell 1 million cars and trucks, but that was 25% lower than a year ago.
| U.S. Light Vehicle Sales September 2021 | |
|---|---|
| SAAR | 12.1 Million |
| Sales | 1.0 Million |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | |
TESLA POSTS IMPRESSIVE SALES
And yet several automakers managed to do reasonably well. Impressively, Tesla boosted sales 8%. In fact, Tesla outsold Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Mitsubishi, Jaguar-Land Rover and Porsche. And it almost caught up to Volkswagen and Mazda. On a global basis, Tesla sold over 240,000 vehicles last quarter, up 73% from a year ago. The only other automaker that boosted sales last month was Hyundai which was up nearly 5%, thanks to a big increase of imports from South Korea. Others that did reasonably well were Mazda which was down only 0.8%, and BMW was down only 1.4%.
| U.S. Light Vehicle Sales September 2021 | |
|---|---|
| Tesla | 23,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 21,970 |
| Volvo | 9,716 |
| Mitsubishi | 6,705 |
| JLR | 6,660 |
| Porsche | 4,217 |
| Mazda | 24,045 |
| Volkswagen | 23,504 |
| Tesla | 23,000 |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | |
TOYOTA OUTSELLING GM IN 2021
But September was a disaster for General Motors which was down a jaw-dropping 54%. Subaru plunged 30%. Nissan was off almost 28%. All of this is jumbling up the market. The sales ranking for the first 9 months of the year shows that Toyota is outselling General Motors, Stellantis is outselling Ford, while Hyundai-Kia have caught up to Honda.
| U.S. OEM Sales Rankings YTD 2021 | |
|---|---|
| Toyota | 1.85 Million |
| General Motors | 1.77 |
| Stellantis | 1.35 |
| Ford | 1.33 |
| Honda | 1.17 |
| Hyundai/Kia | 1.17 |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | |
MORE AND MORE CAR BUYERS ORDERING NEW CARS
Do you know the most popular colors for new cars in the American market? White, black and silver. Actually, those are not the most popular colors, they’re just the ones dealers order most. Dealers don’t want to be stuck with some brightly colored cars that sit on the lot, so they order cars with neutral colors. But with inventories at rock bottom, more and more consumers are ordering what they want instead of buying what’s on the lot. On Autoline After Hours, Michael Sprague, the Director of Lincoln, said customers are starting to choose brighter colors and personalize their cars.
“Because it does allow them to personalize it cause there isn’t a whole bunch on the lot. What do you really want? You came in for a black and we had 100 whites and we put you into a white one. Now its, your car isn’t going to be available for three months, why don’t you personalize it and make it yours and get you that color. To your point, if it’s the green one that sits, that costs us money, that costs the dealer money, that hurts our residual values. So again its a win-win for both of us.”
VW ID. LIFE DESIGN & PACKAGING DETAILS
Volkswagen showed how it’s going to expand the use of its BEV platforms when it revealed its first FWD MEB-based vehicle early last month, the ID. LIFE. While it won’t be out until 2025, two years ahead of schedule, the EV was made as a proof of concept, to show what’s possible in terms of design and packaging. And the design is radically different from its other ID. vehicles. WardsAuto reports part of that has to do with size. The ID. LIFE’s wheelbase is 4 inches shorter than the ID.3, which means it’s even shorter than VW’s shortest CUV in Europe, the T-Cross. But it is a little wider and taller than that model. Its boxy styling plays into those compact dimensions as well, but also helps create the maximum amount of space. VW says it wanted the design to more easily carry through to the production version without a lot of radical changes. Those aren’t the only differences either. The concept’s battery pack uses Lithium Iron Phosphate cells instead of the nickel-manganese-cobalt ones found in its current family of ID. vehicles. VW estimates 250 miles or about 400 kilometers of range from its 57-kWh battery, but a number of different capacities are planned for the production models. The LFP pack also helps keep costs down and the ID. LIFE is expected to start around 20,000 euros or about $23,000.
RIVIAN LOST $1 BILLION RAMPING UP PRODUCTION
One of the things we’ve learned watching Tesla is that it takes massive investment to expand. While filing for an IPO, Rivian disclosed that it lost nearly a billion dollars in the first half of the year trying to ramp up production for its all-electric R1T pickup. And it’s going to have to spend roughly $8 billion through the end of 2023. We learned that Rivian has a little more than 48,000 pre-orders for its pickup and R1S SUV. And it’s going to make 10,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon this year. Like other major automakers, Rivian is going to start making battery cells in-house to compliment the ones it buys from Samsung. And we learned that Rivian has about 8,000 employees worldwide. That’s a lot of people!
MERCEDES SET TO KICK OFF eACTROS PRODUCTION
And speaking of electric commercial vehicles, Mercedes will start production of the eActros towards the end of this week. And it’s already started producing its powertrain components, including the battery, e-axles and transmission.
GREAT WALL MOTORS MAY TAKE OVER NISSAN PLANT IN SPAIN
Chinese automakers are making a big push into Europe. Great Wall Motors wants to take over a Nissan plant in Spain. Last year, Nissan announced it was closing three of its plants in Spain which are scheduled to shut down in December. Great Wall is looking into using the other two plants but Spanish electric motorcycle maker Silence and a local engineering firm QEV are also in talks to take over the factories. If Great Wall gets approval, it would be the first Chinese automaker with an assembly plant in Europe.
FORD & GM SETTLE LAWSUIT OVER BLUECRUISE NAME
General Motors and Ford settled that lawsuit over Ford using the BlueCruise name for its hands-free driving technology. A few months ago, GM sued Ford, claiming the name infringed on its Cruise autonomous unit and its hands-free driving technology called Super Cruise. Ford claimed it was a frivolous lawsuit and we agreed. Neither company disclosed the terms of the settlement but it looks like Ford will continue to use the BlueCruise name, and to us that sounds like a victory for Ford.
GM SECURES SILICON CARBIDE SUPPLY
But GM still leads Ford in the race to develop electric vehicles. GM just secured a U.S.-source for silicon carbide in its EVs. It formed a strategic partnership with a New York company called Wolfspeed, which is going to dramatically expand its production capacity. Silicon carbide is used in microprocessors and power electronics to boost EV range and allow for higher voltage. And GM hints that it’s going to go beyond 800 volt systems.
That brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll be right back here again tomorrow.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.
