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Runtime: 11:36
0:00 Nissan in Deep Trouble
1:04 Infiniti Dealers Can Co-Locate with Nissan
1:41 U.S. Approaching EV Tipping Point
2:19 GM & EVgo Surpass 2,000 Fast Chargers
2:55 China Pivots to Hybrid Exports to EU
3:40 U.S. November SAAR Hits 16.7 Million
4:09 Ford Sets Monthly EV Sales Record
4:42 Genesis Shifting to HEVs & EREVs
5:31 Genesis Joining Endurance Racing
6:10 UAW Organizers Go On Strike Against UAW
7:04 Jeep Slashes Avenger EV Price by $6,000
7:44 BYD Uses EVs for Emergencies in Japan
8:32 Amtrak Sets Passenger Record
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NISSAN IN DEEP TROUBLE
Nissan is in deep trouble and CEO Makoto Uchida is struggling to hold onto his job. Global sales have fallen from 5 million a year when he took over in 2019 to only 3.3 million this year, a 34% drop. And the stock price is down 43%, which is the worst performance of Nissan stock under any CEO over the last 5 decades. The company is now a target of activist investors, and they don’t like CEOs who destroy shareholder value. One big problem Nissan faces is that it doesn’t sell any hybrids in its U.S., which has been its most profitable market. Uchida’s response is to cut global production capacity, slash costs and lay off thousands of employees. But that may be too little too late, and those activist investors are almost certainly going to try and push him out.
INFINITI DEALERS CAN CO-LOCATE WITH NISSAN
And to show you how desperate the situation at Nissan is, Automotive News reports that Infiniti dealers in the U.S. can now co-locate their stores with Nissan outlets. Infiniti sales have fallen 51% in the last five years. So far this year Infiniti dealers are only selling about one car a day on average, and they’re all losing money. By co-locating stores, they can combine their back office operations and cut costs significantly. But what Infiniti really needs is an updated product line.
U.S. APPROACHING EV TIPPING POINT
The U.S. is fast approaching a tipping point where a lot more people will consider getting an EV. And that’s because the number of public fast chargers is ramping up fast. In 2020 only 28% of the most heavily travelled roads in the U.S. had a fast charger within 50 miles of them. Today it’s 59% and by the end of next year it will be 70%, according to the Department of Transportation, which is when that tipping point will happen. There are over 200,000 fast chargers in the U.S. today and there will be 500,000 by 2030.
GM & EVGO SURPASS 2,000 DC FAST CHARGERS
And as if to put an exclamation point on that, General Motors and EVgo announced they have more than 2,000 350-kilowatt DC fast chargers installed at 390 locations in 45 metropolitan areas. The chargers are located in shopping areas, coffee shops, and dining destinations near interstate highways as well as city centers and apartments. The charging stations are co-branded as EVgo and GM, and the goal is to build another 850 of them.
CHINA PIVOTS TO HYBRID EXPORTS TO EU
The EU is trying to tamp down a flood of Chinese EVs into Europe with its new import tariffs. But those tariffs don’t include hybrids, so now that’s what they’re shipping. Automakers are ramping up exports of China-made hybrids to Europe with one analyst forecasting those shipments will go up 20% this year and continue to grow in 2025. Sales of plug-in hybrids, especially extended range electrics or EREVs, have really taken off in China. So much so that automakers are now introducing EREV versions of models that launched as BEV-only. And we think that’s another area where Chinese automakers will attack the European market.
U.S. NOVEMBER SAAR HITS 16.7 MILLION
Looks like November car sales in the U.S. came in better than expected. While many automakers only publicly report sales on a quarterly basis, the numbers are actually available to select outlets. Global Data reports that total sales hit 1.37 million vehicles, up a very healthy 12%, and the SAAR came in at 16.7 million units, which is the strongest it’s been all year.
FORD SETS MONTHLY EV SALES RECORD
And right on cue Ford reported its sales which were up more than 14% and it just set a monthly record for EVs with sales up 20% to 10,821 vehicles.
GENESIS SHIFTS TO HEVs & EREVs
Genesis is pulling back the reins on its EV push. It had planned to only introduce new EVs after next year and go fully electric by the end of the decade. But instead next year it will start introducing hybrids to its ICE models and then go to EREVs, which according to some reports could come out as early as 2027. Not only will its lineup be more in tune with market demand, but because EREVs are considered close to BEVs in terms of North American environmental standards, Genesis should still be able to meet emission targets. The word is the range extender will first go into the GV70 SUV, which will be built at the Hyundai Group’s new plant in Georgia, instead of Alabama where it’s currently built.
GENESIS TO JOIN HYPERCAR/LMDh SERIES
And in other Genesis news, it announced it’s getting into endurance racing, revealed a wild new hybrid race car and built a brand-new team, called Genesis Magma Racing, to run it all. It will field two cars in the hypercar and LMDh categories, first in the WEC series in 2026 and then IMSA in 2027. By adjusting the rules a couple of years ago to allow similar-spec cars to run in both racing series, organizers got more participation from the car companies and will now have 7 car companies represented, including Genesis.
UAW ORGANIZERS GO ON STRIKE AGAINST UAW
Well this is pretty bizarre. A group of UAW organizers is striking against the union claiming it’s not bargaining in good faith. They also want job security and protections for temporary workers who work on three-month contracts for up to three years. They want higher wages, severance payments, a two-month layoff notice and sick days for temps. The UAW claims it has been bargaining in good faith and that it offered two proposals addressing the concerns, but that didn’t stop the strike. And what a coincidence; fighting over temp workers. These are almost the same issues that the UAW used against the Detroit 3 last year in contract negotiations, which eventually led to strikes that cost the automakers billions of dollars in lost production.
JEEP SLASHES AVENGER EV PRICE BY $6,000
Jeep is significantly cutting the price of its all-electric Avenger SUV in Europe. When it launched last year, it had a starting price around $45,000. But now the automaker is slashing that by over $6,000 and it now starts just over $38,000. The Avenger is now cheaper than the Volvo EX30 and Mini Aceman electric and its price is about the same as the Ford Puma Gen-E that launched earlier this week. By slashing the price, Stellantis seems to be dumping former CEO Carlos Tavares’ strategy for improving margins in favor of going for sales.
BYD TO USE EVs FOR EMERGENCIES IN JAPAN
BYD is putting its Vehicle-to-Home function to good use. It partnered with local governments in Japan to use the bi-directional charging capability of its EVs at 10 of its dealerships in the country to power places like shelters and hospitals during natural disasters. While Japan has made deals with other automakers for relief efforts during natural disasters, those have typically been with local companies, so this could be a way for a Chinese automaker to get on the good side of Japanese buyers. Foreign automakers have never really had any sales success in Japan. BYD first started selling cars there in January of 2023, but through September of this year it sold less than 1,800 units.
AMTRAK SETS PASSENGER RECORD
Here’s something we found interesting. Amtrak set an all-time ridership record this year with 32.8 million passengers using its trains. That brought in $2.5 billion in ticket revenue, up 9% from a year ago and it posted a total operating revenue of $3.6 billion, a 7% gain. Amtrak also invested $4.5 billion to improve infrastructure to support future growth. It’s aiming to double its ridership to 66 million passengers by 2040. And it’s surprising to see Americans flocking back to trains.
SCOUT’S CHRIS BENJAMIN ON AAH
If you want to learn more about the Scout brand’s strategy to hit the market you won’t want to miss Autoline After Hours today. We’ve got Chris Benjamin, the chief design officer of Scout coming on the show, and it will be fascinating to hear about how he and his team went about reviving a brand that went out of the market in 1980. Chris has a great design background including stints at BMW Designworks, Volvo and at Jeep. So join John and Gary when the show goes live on our website and YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.
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I contributed to those November sales numbers, buying a Prius.
It’s hard to believe that only 59% of Americans have a fast charger within 50 miles with a lot Tesla superchargers in big cities where the majority of the population is plus on interstates there is almost always a supercharger every 100 miles one has to question that stat just for Tesla alone. Then there is the Iowa farmer who has a Cybertruck can easily put up solar panels for free electricity rather than pay money to those fancy oil companies for gas/diesel. However, maybe it is like the PBS show on EVs which showed those pesky Tesla superchargers plentiful and lurking in the background with fog misting around them and of course evil music.
Apparently the top management at Nissan forgot the biggest lesson taught by Carlos Ghosn: “there is no problem that great products can’t fix.” You would think that when Honda passed them to become the #2 Asian brand in America, and the rise of Kia/Hyundai became evident, that management would have taken more drastic measures to defend their turf and grow market share. But, their new products have been lackluster for many years and are widely known to consumers as the brand you buy when you can’t afford anything else or have poor credit.
The tipping point for EVs is NOT the number of chargers along a highway or having 500+ miles of range. Who wants to travel long distance in an EV? Not many are willing to put up with hassle: where is a charger, will it work when I get there, during a holiday weekend will there be waiting line for a charger, how long do I have to wait for it to charge, etc.? The real issues are the cost of an EV, people living in apartments and condos not being able to charge where they live or less than a block away, getting multi car families to consider transitioning 1 vehicle that they use for around town errands be an EV (this could be a used EV (low cost), no need for 200+ mile of range, if you average 40 miles a day or less all you need is a level 1 charger (120V) that came with the vehicle).
@George Ricci on EV cost: exactly, public charging will be an exception because why would you charge for 3X the price you can get over-night at a home charger?
Which is aligned with the point often made by Lambo and to a certain extent Kit that EV adoption in the U.S. is limited because those who do not have a charger at their home don’t have a relevant cost advantage using public charging all the time.
George and Wim, yep, the thing keeping me from having an EV is lack of home charging at my condo. Even if public charging were available next door, I wouldn’t buy an EV, because operating cost would be higher than for the hybrid gas cars I buy. Also, it would be inconvenient to need to plug it in, and then retrieve it after 30 minutes, or whatever. If I had even level 1 charging at utility rates at my condo, I’d probably have an EV as one of my cars.
For my twice a year highway trips, I wouldn’t want to use an EV, no matter how plentiful and reliable the chargers were, since I like to drive about 450 miles with one 10-15 minute stop. I doesn’t work that way with EVs.
If you have a ev, and home charging,could you power up your home if the power went out?
Merv,
If you have an EV and wall charger that allows for bi-directional charging, then yes. Not all EVs are equipped for this. In fact, relatively few are equipped for this type of capability.
@Merv: yes, if the vehicle’s electrical system is laid out for it. I believe the Ford Lightning is.
I am not an electrical engineer, so please correct me if needed, but believe you need to have an outlet on the vehicle and the right voltage coming off the EV. Most EVs have a 400 Volt system, some an 800 V system. I believe the systems are DC, while the power supply from the utility company to a home is AC.
Could somebody help this chemical engineer to answer the question correctly?
I like the size, shape, and styling of the Avenger, Jeep should bring it to the US as a hybrid, if priced right I would definitely look at it.
wim, It takes some complex electronics to use the DC from batteries in an EV to power a home or feed it to the power grid.
Regarding Nissan, I recently had an Altima as a loaner/rental while my car was being serviced, and it was a complete turnoff. For a start, it had obnoxiously loud beeping with the turn signals which could not be turned off. Then, it had fake shifts with its CVT, compromising acceleration and efficiency, for what? Yeah, other car companies do that, but I wouldn’t buy those either. Beyond that, the car wasn’t terrible, but had a lot of road noise compared to a Camry. This was a soon-to-be-discontinued vehicle, but are other Nissan products any different?
The allure of short term riches brought auto manufacturers and their capabilities to China. Once China acquired design, engineering, and manufacturing capabilities they turned the tables on those companies and are now bringing inexpensive vehicles to their markets threatening their existence. It is over for everyone else in China’s market.
VW, and to a lesser extent, GM had a lot of good years in China, but those days are certainly gone now.
Merv, as others have stated, not all EVs have bidirectional charging, but many do including some from Ford, Tesla, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and VW. These are setup for doing it with ease, and may include the vehicle computer monitoring the flow. You can however, get a dc to ac inverter from just about anywhere, that will convert the flat direct current signal to the sinewave alternating current signal, so you can power ac items from any 12 volt vehicle.
The question really becomes how much can you power and for how long, and who is monitoring the source vehicle. An old 12 volt car couldn’t power very many appliances, and not for very long, and you would have to keep an eye on it. The other extreme is having the vehicle that is setup to just plug into the house and let the car monitor the flow. I would think that somewhere in the middle, in an emergency, you may be able to power one household circuit, such as the kitchen with a vehicle having a large battery pack (hybrid or EV) for a longer time. You would just need the right power inverter.
Here’s an article discussing some of the vehicles with bi-directional charging.
https://www.cnet.com/home/electric-vehicles/bidirectional-charging-and-evs-how-does-it-work-and-which-cars-have-it/
The RAM 1500 REV, the electric, bi-directionally charging RAM truck is supposed to be available now. Even the RAM website still says available Q4 of 2024, but no updates or availability. I know Autoline had the scoop on the delay last week and one other site that says it is delayed until the first half of 2025, but no one told the RAM website yet! Any insight yet on why the delay, or if it really will hit all the stats that it claims it will (beating all the competition on towing, range, payload, and price)?
https://www.autoblog.com/news/rams-first-electric-truck-delayed-until-2025