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Runtime: 9:13
0:00 Wealthy Car Buyers Account for Majority of Sales
1:12 EV Repairs Boost Dealer Revenue
2:13 VW May Replace CEO Of America
3:05 BYD Launches Shark Pickup in Australia
3:59 Nissan Reveals Frontier Concepts at SEMA
4:36 Silverado EV Gets Diagonal Driving Feature
5:08 Volvo’s EVs & PHEVs Nearly 50% Of Sales in October
5:43 Canadian Provinces Roll Back EV Incentives
6:49 Czech Republic Joins EU CO2 Fight
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WEALTHY CAR BUYERS ACCOUNT FOR MAJORITY OF SALES
We’ve got numbers to back up the affordability crisis we’ve been talking about for years that’s now hitting the U.S. car market. Bloomberg reports that 55% of all new car sales now go to households with incomes over $265,000 a year. People who bought or leased new cars before the pandemic are now coming back to the market to find the exact same car is now $300 more a month. And so, 73% of new car buyers are simply holding onto the cars they’ve got. Even used cars are too expensive for many households, which is why the average age of cars is now 12.6 years and growing. And not only are new cars much more expensive, higher interest rates make them more expensive to buy or lease, and soaring insurance costs are making them more expensive to insure. So, we think we’ve hit Peak Auto. New car sales remain well below their pre-Covid levels and show no sign of coming back anytime soon, if ever.
EV REPAIRS BOOST DEALER REVENUE
Some new car dealers aren’t very enthusiastic about selling electric cars, but maybe this will help change their minds. Dealers make more money repairing EVs than they do cars with internal combustion engines. Asbury Automotive, a large dealer group, says it averages $517 to repair an ICE vehicle, but $629 for a PHEV, and $865 for a BEV. Even though EVs have less moving parts, they tend to have more complex technology, which means they take longer to repair and that’s where the higher costs are coming from. According to Wards, Roger Penske says the average BEV repair bill is around $1,300 compared to $700 for an ICE vehicle. That technology also makes it harder for independent repair shops to compete, which drives more EV business to dealerships.
VW MAY REPLACE CEO OF AMERICA
The Volkswagen brand is having a strong year so far in the U.S. Sales are up 19% to more than 275,000 vehicles, but despite that, reports from Germany say that VW is planning to replace the CEO of VW Group of America, Pablo di Si. Volkswagen declined to comment on the report and said Di Si remains in his role. Di Si became head of VW of America in September 2022, he took the spot from Scott Keogh, who is now CEO of Scout Motors.
BYD LAUNCHES SHARK PICKUP IN AUSTRALIA
The BYD Shark pickup is entering another big truck market, Australia. Right-hand drive versions are now launching in parts of the country with a starting price just under $58,000 Australian dollars, which is about $38,000 U.S. dollars. It features a plug-in hybrid setup that combines a 1.5L engine with electric motors, which produces 430 horsepower and provides 800 kilometers or nearly 500 miles of range as well as 2,500 kilograms or 5,500 pounds of towing capacity. We will be interested to see if the Shark has enough to entice buyers away from the truck market leaders in Australia, like the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. Toyota doesn’t offer a PHEV truck and the plug-in version of the Ranger doesn’t launch until the spring of next year. So, BYD has a jump on both.
NISSAN REVEALS FRONTIER CONCEPTS AT SEMA
Speaking of trucks, Nissan is showing the extremes you can take the Frontier to at SEMA. One is an extreme street truck with low-riding suspension, extra wide wheels and tires and a supercharged V6 that makes about 400 horsepower. The other is an extreme off-road tailgating truck with a lift kit, bead-lock wheels and an upgraded lighting system, which highlights the off-road stuff, but it’s also fitted with two 43-inch TVs, powered coolers, a grille and even a kitchen sink.
SILVERADO EV GETS DIAGONAL DRIVING FEATURE
And in one last bit of truck news, Chevy has a new name for the diagonal driving maneuver that the Silverado EV can make using its 4-wheel steering system. It’s called Sidewinder, like a snake and works up to 20 MPH. Chevy says it will be standard on all 2025 RST models and offered as an OTA update on 2024 versions. The Hummer EV has the exact same capability, but GMC calls it Crab Walk.
VOLVO’S EVs & PHEVs NEARLY 50% OF SALES IN OCTOBER
Volvo’s sales were up in October thanks to its electrified models. The automaker sold more than 61,000 vehicles globally last month, up 3% from a year ago. And its BEV and PHEV sales accounted for nearly half of that figure, at nearly 30,000 units, a 40% gain from last year. Through October, Volvo has sold more than 622,000 vehicles worldwide, a 9% increase. And it has sold more than 286,000 electrified models, which is up 34%.
CANADIAN PROVINCES ROLL BACK EV INCENTIVES
Automakers in Canada are concerned about meeting EV sales targets in the coming years because several provinces are ending purchase incentives. The federal government currently provides C$5,000 or about $3,600 U.S. dollars for purchasing an EV. And provinces like Quebec and British Columbia provide EV incentives of C$7,000 and C$4,000 respectively. But Quebec is phasing the subsidy out in 2027, earlier this summer British Columbia limited who qualifies for its incentives and Ontario ended EV incentives back in 2018. However, Canada is planning to phase out sales of new ICE vehicles in 2035 and the percentage of EV sales are supposed to ramp up between now and then. EVs must account for 20% of sales in 2026 and 60% of sales by 2030. But so far this year, they’re at about 10% market share and with EV incentives being rolled back, automakers are worried about being penalized for missing targets.
CZECH REPUBLIC JOINS EU CO2 FIGHT
And over in Europe, there’s a battle over stricter CO2 standards that go into effect next year. Italy has already called for the regulations to be delayed or relaxed and now it’s being joined by the Czech Republic. The country’s Transport Minister says automakers will have a hard time meeting the targets because of weaker EV demand in Europe, so it wants to help automakers from being fined for missing them. The ACEA, a group that represents most automakers in Europe, says companies face fines up to $15 billion next year for not meeting CO2 standards.
And that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your day.
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Is there any information on the electric range and gas-only mpg of the Shark pickup?
Canada’s EV mandate? Cold weather effect on batteries. Is this going to be a problem in The Great White North?
Sean, the affordability problem is real, but I think sales were always going to be sluggish because more consumers don’t know when the right time is to switch from ICE to BEV. That confusion leads to people hanging on to their old car and waiting to see what happens. I believe the sudden rush to hybrids occurred when the people waiting suddenly realized the hybrids were a good one-time solution to the confusion. I bought a hybrid myself this year for that exact reason. The only catch is that that the ICE vs BEV questions still remains. When my hybrid needs replacing, I’ll have to re-evaluate the issue again. Personally, I believe the answer is for the OEMs to stop making ICEs entirely and only offer hybrids and BEVs. I hybrid can do everything an ICE can and get better gas mileage almost all of the time. If the OEMs went that way, they would have no problem at all meeting the government mandates. of fuel economy or CO2. Maybe you could do the math for us to prove that?
Good point Kevin.The OEMs are however caught between a rock and a hard place. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids won’t meet the fuel or co2 standards in a few years so they are a short term solution.
If we think cars are expensive now, imagine the prices that will need to be charged to cover the penalties the governments will charge for not meeting standards.
I may never replace my hybrid, unless something comes along that I like better for transporting my toys, like a hybrid station wagon. Unless I live to 110 or so, I’m not going to wear out the Highlander.
Yeah, hybrids are probably an interim solution, though a very good one when properly done. As far as complying with CO2 standards, the north American based companies would do better if they hadn’t abandoned the car market. Focuses, Fiestas, Fusions, Cruzes, Sonics, etc. get a lot better mpg, thus emitting a lot less CO2 than F150s, Silverados, Escalades, and Navigators.
Of course, properly done hybrid versions of those big vehicles would get much better mpg than the current ones. My Highlander hybrid gets about 50% better overall mpg than the non-hybrid version, both in EPA ratings and Consumer Reports testing. The hybrid gets just short of twice the mpg of the non-hybrid in CR’s city test. There’s no reason you couldn’t scale up that system for bigger vehicles, just as my Highlander has a very successfully scaled up version of a Prius/Corolla hybrid powertrain.
What a set up. Create unenforcable mandates on what consumers can purchase. Then fine the oems for those people not buying them. This government needs to be sued as they are trying to backdoor ICE bans. Time to make all these backdoor measures illegal and wipe out the epa budget for every EV sold under such backdoor mandates.
MERKUR, the EPA does not set the CAFE standards. NHTSA does. In any case, you should be able to buy whatever gas hog you want for the foreseeable future. Also, vehicles last a lot longer than they used to, especially in places where they aren’t destroyed by road salt, so you should be able keep a currently made vehicle in good condition for at least 20-25 years.
In one of the “see through” images of the the BYD Shark, it showed the hybrid battery next to the gas tank. With batteries having the potential for thermal runaway in a crash, I would question having the battery so close to the fuel tank?! I’m sure that there is a lot of fire suppression between the to, but perception can be reality for some and having seen this makes me nervous.
Kit — I think NA OEMs may be able to meet EPA standards with bigger vehicles with a hybrid or PHEV they have today, but the question, like with BEVs, would anyone buy? So of the challenge with Tahoes, Suburbans, expeditions, Navigators and the like (along with their pickup variants), is that they are body on from vehicles! This weight alone and what those vehicles are asked to carry and haul, ask for a power plant to match. On the SUV/CUV side, the current generation of the Chevy traverse, for example, has gotten pretty big with its unibody construction. As big as it has gotten, though, it’s currently motivated by a four-cylinder engine if I’m not mistaken. While I’m not sure how much bigger GM could go on that architecture, but with some packaging adjustments and adapting that four cylinder for duty as a hybrid, could that architecture serve as a suitable replacement for the Tahoe and all the vehicles that use those building blocks? Maybe, but would anyone who currently buys a Tahoe or the standard wheel base Escalade, want a FWD based, AWD replacement, WITH a four-cylinder hybrid?! Remember the four-cylinder engine that Chevy/GM made for the Silverado? While it was just as powerful as the current V8 of that time, there was no improvement in mpg. Yet, even if they could make that work today, how many pickup buyers would buy a full-size, unibody pickup, with a four-cylinder hybrid?! So, while it may be doable with todays tech, it would be throwing good money for something that may not sell in the volume that OEMs would need, though it would probably fill the needs of most buyers. So, to your point, had they not walked away from sedans they would be in a better spot then they are today, but, according to them, they were not making much money, or loosing money trying to stay competitive.
Traverse is about the same size as Grand Highlander. There are two hybrid powertrains available in the Highlander, the one like in my non-grand Highlander, and a 2.4 turbo hybrid. Even the “hot rod” turbo hybrid gets significantly better mpg than the Traverse. As with many other examples, the switch from the 3.6 V6 to the turbo four didn’t buy much mpg in the Traverse. They need to reverse engineer the Toyota hybrid powertrains for that vehicle.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=46753&id=46754&id=48467&id=45388
GM made hybrid big pickups and SUVs from about 2010-2013 that got somewhat better mpg than the non-hybrids, but from things I’ve read, they had reliability problems. If they did hybrids again, maybe they could improve reliability.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=31862&id=31447&id=31951&id=31501
Those had 6.0 V8s and NiMH batteries. I suspect if they again made hybrid versions of the big body on frame trucks, they’d more likely use a V6 or turbo four. The would use lithium batteries.
Then, there is the F150 hybrid which gets substantially better city mpg then the 3.5t or V8, but no better highway mileage. It has been very unreliable in CR’s surveys.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=47612&id=47611&id=47616&id=47614