AD #3622 - Gas Stations Closing Fast; Nissan Axes Titan Pickup; China's Car Market Stopped Growing

This is Autolyn Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry, and we start today's show with big news. In China, car sales

fell for the second month in a row. Writers reports that they were down

two point six percent last month and down two point nine percent the month before that. For the full year, sales are up one point seven percent,

but economists are watching the latest numbers because of fears that the Chinese economy is failing to bounce back from the country's COVID lockdowns. Sales of new energy vehicles,

including BEVs and pahas, were up strongly in July compared to last year, but we're down compared to the month before. Automakers are making up for

the soft market with exports, which shot up sixty three percent. Even Tesla

exported half of its production last month. Automakers are slashing crisis and the government

extended subsidies for nvs, which is working for those models, but so far, car buyers in general seem to be waiting as public ev charging stations pop up all across the US and Europe. The number of gas stations is falling

fast, according to DBRs morning Star, which is a credit ratings company.

The number of gas stations in the US and the UK have fallen thirty five percent since the year two thousand and There are now sixty five thousand fewer gas stations in the US than there were in the nineteen nineties. Morning Star says

gas station owners face a lot more competition than they did before. Many ev

owners are installing home chargers, Companies like Walmart are installing public chargers, Many automakers are licensing Tesla supercharger network, and seven and automakers are joining forces to develop their own charging network in the US. Morningstar says gas station operators need

to evolve and offer more services to remain competitive. It isn't easy being an

evy startup. Last month, Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy, and now pro

Terra, the company that makes electric buses and battery packs, just filed for Chapter eleven. Pro Terra will continue its operations for now, but it's been

unable to reach manufacturing scale. Lucid reported its second quarter earnings, and while

its top line is growing, so are its losses. It reported over one

hundred and fifty million dollars in revenue, up fifty five percent but it posted an operating loss of eight hundred and thirty seven million dollars, which was fifty percent higher than it was last year. Its nets grew to seven hundred and

sixty four million dollars, which was three and a half times worse than a year ago. Lucid sold fourteen hundred cars in the last three months, but

that was nearly a thousand fewer than it's sold in the first quarter. The

company says it's on track to sell ten thousand cars this year, but that means it will have to nearly triple sales in the second half of the year.

At Schiffler, we Pioneer Motion electrifying mobility, manufacturing smarta, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean. Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the

World Moves. GM's fleet management business, called GM Involve, released a video

on its YouTube channel detailing the new police version of the Blazer EV and like the standard Blazer, the PPV or police pursuit vehicle, uses a four hundred volt architecture and can charge at up to one hundred and ninety kilowatts. It

features a two motor all wheel drive set up and up to four hundred and ninety eight horsepower and five hundred and thirty one pound feet of torque. By

comparison, the most powerful Blazer EV, the SS, has five hundred and fifty seven horsepower and six hundred and fifty eight pound feet of torque. The

PPV also comes standard with Brembo six piston front brakes and twenty inch wheels.

The battery pack is one hundred and five kilowatt hours, and the EV requires an extra four hundred to twelve volt DC power module for all the lights and accessories, and as you might suspect, all those extras are a Dragon Range, A non ass all wheel drive version of the Blazer EV, has a GM estimated two hundred and seventy nine miles of range, but the PPV is estimated to have two hundred and fifty miles. That doesn't sound too bad considering

many police vehicles just sit around most of the day, and GM says the PPV could idle anywhere from twenty to fifty hours on a full charge. Like

many Global sedans that are sold in China, BMW is coming out with a long wheelbased version of the new five series, including the all electric I five, exclusively for that market. Unfortunately, it doesn't say how much longer it

is than the standard version, which is just under two hundred inches, but the previous generation long wheelbase was extended over five inches. BMW also doesn't say

what will power the models, but it will have gas and diesel hybrids, a plug in hybrid, and pure electric setup to choose from. We expect

the I five for China to have the same rear drive and all wheel drive setups, but since it's being built in China for China, we wouldn't be surprised if it used a different battery maker, and with that extra space between the wheels, it could also have a bigger battery than the standard wheelbases eighty one kilowatt hour pack and illuminated five at the rear C pillar. A huge

thirty one inch rear screen from the seven series, and China specific digital services round out the main highlights for the new long wheelbase five series. Tesla's chief

financial officer, Zachary Kirkhorn unexpectedly reported that he was stepping down from that position and did not say why, but there doesn't seem to be any bad blood between the two, because he will remain with Tesla until the end of the year to help with the transition. Kerkorn is thirty nine years old and was

seen as a potential successor to Elon Mosk as CEO of Tesla. He worked

at Tesla for thirteen years and was named CFO in twenty nineteen. Tesla named

its head of accounting, a person I fear I would absolutely butcher their name as its new CFO. I've long heard people complain that Harley Davidson's motorcycles costs

way too much money, and maybe they were right. Harley is going to

offer a bike in India called the X four forty that starts at just under two thousand, eight hundred dollars and goes up to a little over thirty two hundred bucks, And even though it doesn't go on sale until October, it already has twenty five thousand pre orders. It's a bare bones motorcycle with a

single cylinder engine. The base model only comes with wire wheels and in one

color like the Model T, but instead of black, it has a mustard colored gas tank. Fancier models offer other paint colors, as well as graphics

and alloy wheels. Harley doesn't even make the bike though in twenty twenty,

it closed down its operations in India, but it partnered with India's Hero Motorcorp, the largest motorcycle maker in the world by sales, to develop and sell motorcycles under the Harley brand, and judging by orders, it looks like the strategy could pay off. E bikes are now a billion dollar business for Bosch,

which is the largest auto supplier in the world, but it also makes electric bike components in that business unit just hit a billion dollars in annual revenue.

The unit is housed within Bosch's Mobility division that's based in Michigan, and it supplies parts like electric motors, batteries and displays. With the increasing global

popularity of e bikes, Bosch expects the business to continue to grow. It

says, like cars, connectivity is the next big technology for e bikes, and it's currently developing software to offer different services for those models. Nissan is

giving up on trying to sell full size pickups in the US market. When

it launched the Titan in the early two thousands, it hoped to sell one hundred to two hundred thousand a year, but it never sold more than eighty seven thousand and last year, sales plunge to just over fifteen thousand units, so it's going away after twenty twenty four. Nissan also made the Envy commercial

vans on the same platform as the Titan, but due to poor sale they were also discontinued back in twenty twenty one. The truck and van were built

at Nissance plant in Mississippi, which is being retooled for electrified vehicles. But

that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for tuning in.

Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey Intrepid Control Systems.

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