AD #3802 - Hybrids Outpace EVs In California In Q1; Aston Martin Not Dropping V12 Engines; China Launches “Cash for Clunkers” Program

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Aston Martin is in a state of transition. The company announced in all

new CEO in March, but Adrian Hallmark, who was previously the CEO of Bentley, is the fourth chief executive officer at Aston since chairman Lawrence Stroll took over in twenty twenty. Hallmark comes in at a time when the company is

getting ready to launch new cars, which required it to stop production of some of its older models. That shutdown and its investment into new products caused Aston

to post first quarter losses that were bigger than expected. Its adjusted pre tax

losses came to about one hundred and thirty eight million dollars, which is nearly double last year. Aston is hoping those new models, which are supposed to

start rolling down the line before the end of the year, will turn around its second half and give it momentum to twenty twenty five. To help create

a little extra buzz, Aston announced it's not dropping V twelve engines. Instead,

it's coming out with a new V twelve that will likely debut in the new Vanquish. The engine features a strengthened cylinder block and connecting rods, redesigned

cylinder heads with reprofiled camshafts, new intake and exhaust ports, reposition spark plugs, higher rate fuel injectors, and higher speed, reduced inertia turbos. The

result is eight hundred and twenty three horse power and seven hundred and thirty seven pound feet of torque, which is sixty four more horsepower and seventy three more pound feet of torque compared to the previous highest output version of its V twelve.

Now, the real question for Aston will be how does it look on the other side of this transition. Toyota made a number of announcements, and

we'll start off with its continued development of hydrogen in fuel cell technology. It

says it's renaming its North American R and D Center in California to the North American Hydrogen Headquarters or H two HQ for short. Toyota reworked the space so

its research and development teams can transition to commercial planning and sales of hydrogen related products. It already has a hydrogen refueling station there and says it will start

several new projects in the coming years. Next Toyota is cutting the number of

executives that report to its North American CEO from eight down to seven. With

that, two current execs in North America, Jack Hollis and Chris Reynolds, are expanding their roles with the company to cover the one less person. And

lastly, Toyota must really see a need for battery recycling, especially in North America. It already has recycling deals with Redwood Materials and Service Solutions, and

now it also has as an agreement with Argon National Lab. The two announced

a collaborative R and D project to develop a direct recycling process for NMC or nickel, manganese and cobalt batteries, which is the fairly standard battery in most long range evs today. They're hoping to come up with something that works on

an industrial scale and to explore next gen recycling tech. While this isn't a

good sign for EV sales in the US, hybrid sales searched more in California than EV's did. While evs still easily out sell hybrids, the rate of

growth has slowed significantly. According to data from Experience Automotive, more than fifty

six thousand hybrids were registered in California in Q one, a fifty three percent increase. Meanwhile, EV registrations totaled more than ninety thousand units, which is

only a two point eight percent gain. Plug in hybrids also so outpaced EV's

in the first quarter, up nine percent to just under sixteen thousand units.

Hybrids and pebs now have a combined sixteen point six percent share of the total new car market in California, and that's up from twelve percent last year.

EV share has remained relatively flat twenty point nine percent compared to twenty point five percent last year, with more automakers pulling back on EV's and shifting to hybrids.

This is a trend will likely see continue not just in California, but the rest of the US as well. While evs are cheaper to maintain than

gas powered vehicles, according to a new study from ic Cars, they're more expensive on a per mile basis, and that's because evs are driven significantly less than gas powered cars and they're more expensive. The study analyzed data from over

one point three million three year old cars. The average gas car is driven

about twelve thousand, eight hundred miles a year, compared to about ten thousand two hundred and fifty miles for evs, and the average price for a new gas car is forty grand compared to fifty two thousand dollars for an EV.

That means electric cars on average cost five thousand, one hundred dollars for every one thousand miles driven per year, which is sixty three percent higher than gas cars, which average thirty one hundred dollars. P Has are also costlier on

a per mile basis, coming in thirty nine percent higher than gas cars.

But hybrids are the most cost effective vehicles and are two percent cheaper than gas cars for every one thousand miles driven per year. And that's because hybrids are

driven almost as much as gas cars and they cost slightly less. To help

cut costs and reduce its workforce, Volkswagen is offering buyouts to workers in Germany.

The automaker announced its offering administration employees nine hundred million euros in buyouts, or fifty thousand euros per worker. Employees have until the end of the month

to accept the buyout. As we reported yesterday, VW had a tough first

quarter. Its sales dip two percent, revenue was down one percent, and

its operating profit fell by twenty percent. While this should help give the Chinese

car market a boost, the government is implementing a program like Cash for Clunkers to help get older, less environmentally friendly vehicles off the road. Vehicles that

qualify for the subsidy are gasoline powered cars registered before June of twenty eleven, diesel cars register stirred before June of twenty thirteen, and new energy vehicles registered before April of twenty eighteen. Owners who scrap their vehicles will receive a fourteen

hundred dollars subsidy to purchase a new energy vehicle, or nine hundred and fifty bucks if they choose an ice car with an engine that has a displacement of two leaders or less. The program runs now until the end of the year.

Ford is going Hollywood to make its dealers a better place for customers.

It's launching a new dealer training and productivity platform called Ford University that includes videos made by award winning producers, content creators, and training specialists. They're meant

to be more personable, so dealer employees and even customers have an easier time learning about a vehicle or other complex topics. The platform also includes gamified learning

experiences, and even an AI Virtual Coach, which allows dealer employees to upload a video that they might send to a customer and give them advice on how to make it better. Ford says this should help dealers adapt to a faster

pace of new products and technology developments. But that brings us to the end

of today's show. Thanks for tuning in. Auto Line Daily is brought to

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AD #3802 - Hybrids Outpace EVs In California In Q1; Aston Martin Not Dropping V12 Engines; China Launches “Cash for Clunkers” Program

Aston Martin Vanquish

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