Global car sales remain below pre-pandemic levels, causing underutilized manufacturing capacity in Europe and financial strain on automakers. Tesla outperforms GM and Ford in profit per vehicle despite lower revenue per employee due to its vertical integration. Seven automakers have formed IONITY to build a high-powered charging network to rival Tesla's Superchargers. Rivian cuts prices amid shifting consumer preferences. France halts low-income EV subsidies due to overwhelming demand. Highlights include Aston Martin’s powerful Vantage update and BYD’s ultra-luxury electric supercar with nearly 1,300 HP. Dubai plans to launch Joby Aviation’s electric air taxi service by 2026.
Topics:global car salesmanufacturing capacitytesla profitabilityev charging networksrivian pricingev subsidies franceaston martin vantagebyd electric supercarelectric air taxisautomaker collaborations
- EU Overcapacity Poses Plant Closing Threat - Tesla Makes More $$$ Per Vehicle Than GM, Ford - France Chops EV Subsidies on Too Much Demand - Rivian Cuts MSRP As Price War Rages - 7 OEMs To Build Charging Network to Challenge Tesla - Tesla Made $9 Billion In EV Subsidies - Aston Adds 152 HP To Vantage - BYD Supercar Boasts 1,200 HP - Joby To Start Operating eVTOLs In Dubai
"...s back, when Chrysler added a third shift to make Grand Cherokees at its assembly plant in Detroit, it made the pla..."
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This is Outderlying Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
Global car sales have still not recovered to where they were before the pandemic.
Automakers sold eight million more vehicles in twenty nineteen than they did in twenty twenty three, and that means a lot of manufacturing sites are sitting around doing nothing. Reuter's reports that automakers in Europe are running at only sixty percent of
capacity, which is well below the eighty percent that most automakers need to break even. BMW is doing the best with seventy five percent capacity utilization, with
Mercedes at seventy three percent and the Volkswagen Group at seventy one percent. Staalantis
is at fifty six percent, Renault's at fifty four percent, and Ford's only at thirty nine percent. The problem is that Europeans are buying five million fewer
new vehicles than they did just four years ago, and unless sales start picking up soon, we're gonna see those automakers under enormous financial pressure to start closing plants. Maybe you already saw this story from Reuter's pointing out that Tesla doesn't
make as much revenue per employee as General Motors are Ford. It showed that
Tesla generates six hundred and eighty thousand dollars in revenue per each employee, while GM generates over a million dollars and Ford gets nine hundred and thirty seven thousand.
But what this story fails to take into account is the difference in vertical integration at each company. GM and FOD by eighty percent of the value of
every vehicle they make from suppliers, so much of their head count is actually in the supplier industry. Tesla is almost exactly the opposite. It makes most
of its parts in house. So here's a metric that we think is much
more important to look at. Last year, Tesla made four nine hundred dollars
in operating profit for every vehicle it sold, while GM made sixteen hundred dollars and Ford made twelve hundred. So Tesla makes far more profit per vehicle than
GM or Ford. And here's a bit of history to put this in perspective.
Some years back, when Chrysler added a third shift to make Grand Cherokees at its assembly plant in Detroit, it made the plant's efficiency look worse because it added so many workers, but the extra revenue and profits those third shift vehicles added swamped all the efficiency numbers. So the moral of the story is
keep your eye on the bottom line, because that's where most of the important numbers are. France is halting a subsidy to make evs more affordable for people
with low incomes because there was too much demand for it. In the program,
anyone earning under fifteen thousand, four hundred euros a year was able to lease an EV for one hundred to one hundred and fifty euros a month.
France set aside one point five billion euros to cover twenty thousand leases, but then it boosted it to fifty thousand leases because of huge demand. However,
that still wasn't enough, because it's halting the program for the rest of the year and will only resume it again next year for those in higher income brackets.
France is also offering incentives of five to seven thousand euros for purchasing a new EV to help boost sales. Rivian is cutting the base price of its
R one T pickup and R one ssuv by thirty one hundred dollars in the US. The R one T now starts at seventy one thousand, seven hundred
dollars including shipping, while the R one S starts at seventy six thousand, seven hundred dollars. Both models have a range of two hundred and seventy miles,
and they also qualify for three thousand, s seven hundred and fifty bucks in a federal tax credit. Rivian added a new battery option as well,
with three hundred and fifteen miles of range, and they start at the previous starting prices. Rivian will start delivering those models in March. According to data
from S and P Global, R one T sales fell nearly ten percent from January to November last year because consumers started buying the R one S instead once its supply improved, which helped boost sales of the suv. We want to
know what drives your testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics, Remote Testing Intrepid Control
Systems is here to help you work from anywhere Intrepid Control Systems driven by your data. Seven automakers that sell evs in North America are banding together in hopes
of building a charging network that would rival Taestless supercharger station. Last July,
BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Benz and Stalantis formed Iona, which aims to deploy at least thirty thousand high powered chargers.
Well. It just got approval from authorities and is now officially kicking off
operations, with plans of building its first stations before the end of the year, first in the US, then in Canada. The stations will be able
to accommodate evs with either the NACS or CCS charging port and will have bathrooms, food and shopping there or nearby, as well as canopies over chargers wherever possible. Tesla continues to cash in on other automakers needing to meet emission standards.
Last year, the company earned nearly one point eight billion dollars selling EV credits to other automakers who exceeded emission limits. Tesla has now made almost nine
billion dollars since it started selling credits to other OEMs and two thousand and nine.
Some people like to criticize Tesla for selling the credits, saying they wouldn't be profitable without them, but that's not the case anymore. Tesla would still
be profitable even if it didn't sell them. The Aston Martin vantage is getting
the biggest ever power bump in the company's history. The car's four liter twin
turbo v eight now makes six hundred and fifty five horse power, which is a massive jump of one hundred and fifty two horse power compared to the previous model. All that power comes from new camshafts, bigger turbos, better cooling,
and optimized compression made it to an eight speed automatic trans from ZF.
The new Vantage will do zero to sixty miles per hour in three point four seconds. The chassis also required some reworking to handle all that power, including
additional bracing, bill Stein shocks, and an electronic rear differential. Throw in
a refreshed interior and you've seen most of the highlights of the new Vantage, which will be out in the second quarter of this year. But it ain't
got nothing on the first ev supercar from BYD's ultra luxury division, Yang Wang.
The U nine features four electric motors that combine for a little under thirteen hundred horse power and launched this electric rocket ship from zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in under two seconds. It's also supposed to be available with an
active suspension system called desust X that could make it ride pillowy soft or sportscar stiff, as well as allow it to drive on three wheels and even hop and Yang Wang just revealed that the U nine will officially launch on February twenty fifth. No word on pricing yet, but the brand's g waggon competitor,
the U eight SUV, starts at about one hundred and fifty grand. Evtalls
are headed to Dubai. Jobi Aviation signed a deal with the region's Road and
Transport authority to launch an air taxi service by early twenty twenty six, with initial operations starting as early as next year. Joby's all electric EV Tall can
carry four passengers in a pilot add up to two hundred miles per hour for up to one hundred miles or sixty two kilometers. At first, it will
operate between the Dubai International Airport and the Palm Jumeira Island, which is normally a forty five minute trip by car, but it will only take ten by flying. The deal gives Jobi the exclusive right to operate air taxis in Dubai
for six years, and that brings us to the end of today's show.
Thanks for tuning in Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey and by Intrepid Control Systems over the air engineering boost your game
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