AD #3619 - BMW Doing Better w/ EVs Than Others; Tremec Develops EV Drive Unit; We Drive Nikola's Trucks

This is Auto Line Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The US car market is getting back to being healthy again. Automakers

sold one point three million vehicles in July, up fifteen percent from a year ago, according to Global Data, and the sar OR seasonally adjusted annual rate hit fifteen point eight million units, up from June's thirteen and a half million, and for reference, a star of sixteen million is considered a strong market.

Fleet sales are helping to boost sales too. They were up sixty one

percent last month, accounting for eighteen percent of all light duty vehicle sales.

But inventory levels are also on the rise, standing at one point nine million vehicles in August, which is fourteen percent higher than a year ago, and because of that, automakers are off ring more incentives. They averaged nearly nineteen

hundred dollars in July, up one hundred and seven percent compared to last year.

BMW posted its second quarter earnings and the numbers looked pretty good. It

sold six hundred and twenty six thousand, seven hundred and twenty six cars, which was eleven percent better than a year ago. Motorcycle sales were up eight

percent, and all of that brought in seventy four billion euros in revenue, up twelve percent. It posted an operating profit of nine point seven billion,

up a whopping forty two percent, but its net profit fell fifty percent to six point six billion euros. But that's because a year ago, BMW booked

a massive one time gain of seven point seven billion euros when it absorbed its Chinese partner, Brilliance, and it also generated three point one billion euros in free cash flow. But the big news here is that BMW is outperforming its

traditional competitors when it comes to selling electric cars. It delivered more than eighty

eight thousand b evs from January to June, up over one hundred and seventeen percent and representing twelve point six percent of total sales, and in the second quarter it got even better. Pure electric cars made up over fourteen percent of

sales, and BMW expects that to hit fifteen percent by the end of the year. Because of that, BMW will invest about twenty percent more on developing

b evs, which also happens to be the same amount of growth it expects in electric vehicle deliveries. Next year, and speaking of selling electric cars,

Buick is picking up pace in China. According to Gascou, Buicks sold nearly

eighty seven hundred b evs in China last month, and the majority of those sales, nearly fifty five hundred units, came from its two newest all team based evs, the Electric E four in E five. So that makes us

wonder if we can expect similar output in North America once GM gets more batteries.

It's been battery constrained in the region, resorting to building packs by hand, which has resulted in disappointing sales. GM has sold less than twenty four

hundred all team based evs in North America for the entire year, while Buicks sold almost fifty five hundred in one month in China. We expect North America

to start to turn around as battery production picks up and more models like the New Blazer hit the market, but will it happen fast enough? Can you

believe that Jurassic Park is thirty years old? While to celebrate the anniversary of

the movie, Jeep is offering a graphics package to make wranglers and gladiators look more like the y J. Sahara that was used in the original film.

There's two graphic kits, one that sells for five hundred and fifty bucks and another for six hundred and fifty bucks, which will fit twenty eighteen to twenty twenty four Wranglers in twenty twenty to twenty twenty three Gladiators. But it's only

going to make a hundred examples, and we expect them to go quick if they're not already sold out. Here's another example of a legacy supplier transitioning to

the EV world. Tremik, which builds transmissions for high performance models like the

Corvette and Mustang, developed a drive unit for high performance EV The two motor unit weighs two hundred and forty three pounds and produces six hundred kilowatts or about eight hundred horsepower, and it's even compact enough to fit in the same space as a single rear drive motor like the one used in the Mustang Makie, which weighs about the same but produces less than half the power. Tremic plans

to introduce the drive unit in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five, but only for low volume specialty vehicles. It wants to ramp up to ten thousand

units per year by twenty twenty eight. GM self driving business crews just made

a smart move. It signed its first labor agreement with two unions in San

Francisco that will employ dozens of workers who will construct and staff cruises facilities.

Unions, like the teamsters, have complained that autonomy will cost jobs, so by letting its workers unionize cruises taking some of the sting out of that criticism, Nicola could be on track to turn itself into a viable truck company.

After its founder and CEO, Trevor Milton, was convicted of securities fraud, the survival of the company was in doubt, but now its future looks much brighter. Nicola has landed several hundred orders for both its electric and fuel cell

Class eight semitrucks. The trucks, the fuel cells, and the battery packs

are assembled at Nicola's plant in Arizona. The cabs come from I Vecco in

Europe, while the fuel cell stacks come from Bosch. Nicola had signed up

twelve dealer principles across the country with one hundred service points, and most of them are typically Caterpillar dealers who have experienced with hydrogen forklift trucks, and yesterday the company held an event in the Detroit area so the media could drive them.

The trucks are a dream to drive, quiet and have none of the shaking and vibration that diesels have, and they accelerate far faster, meaning that drivers who will be able to better keep up with traffic and make quicker turns.

Nicola's fuel cell customers will use the trucks for hubbin spoke routes, not for long haul trucking. That way, they'll always return to a yard that's

equipped to refuel them with hydrogen. But we will also say that two recent

fires with its battery electric trucks has us keeping a close eye on any possible pack issues. With the chip shortage and a big drop in production over the

last three years, we thought that automotive suppliers were struggling, but two of them just posted their Q two earnings and the results are surprisingly good. Borg

Warner, which is one of our sponsors, is in the middle of transforming itself from a traditional manufacture of components for IC engines to a supplier of EV components, and its sales jump twenty percent to four and a half billion dollars.

It's operating profit shout out forty percent to three hundred and eighty three million, but its net profit fell five percent to two hundred and four million dollars, mainly due to a big increase in income taxes. Meanwhile, Active,

which used to be part of Delphi but has transformed itself into a software driven supplier of mobility technology, saw its revenue shoot up twenty eight percent to five point two billion dollars. It's operating profit rocketed up three hundred and twenty two

percent to four hundred and ten million dollars, and its net profit came in at two hundred and twenty nine million dollars, compared to a loss last year of sixty one million bucks. It also generated five hundred and thirty five million

dollars in free cash flow. We'll have to keep an eye on other suppliers

and see if they report strong earnings, because these numbers from Borg Warner and Aptive are much better than what we expected. Hey, can it be true

that car buyers are now more interested in gimmicks and tech features than they are in styling. While that's going to be one of the things that we'll be

talking about on Autoline after Hours. This afternoon, we'll have Ed Kim from

Auto Pacific, which has some eye opening data on this ALEXA. Saint John

from Insider will also be on the show, So join John and Gary when we go live at three pm Eastern Time. But that's the end of today's

show. Thanks for joining us. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone

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AD #3619 - BMW Doing Better w/ EVs Than Others; Tremec Develops EV Drive Unit; We Drive Nikola's Trucks

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