Toyota reports record profits with strong vehicle sales but expects a profit dip next year due to heavy investments in electrification and AI. BMW faces rising manufacturing costs, leading to lower earnings despite slightly higher sales. EV startup Rivian loses nearly $40,000 per vehicle but anticipates profitability by year-end. Tesla invests $2 million in lidar tech, hinting at a shift in stance despite Elon Musk's past criticism. China leads in fast charging infrastructure, while European officials debate tariffs on Chinese EVs amid concerns about subsidies and supply chains. Daimler Truck tests Level 4 autonomous electric semis, aiming for a 2027 launch.
Topics:toyota profitsbmw earningsrivian lossestesla lidar investmentchina fast chargingeu ev tariffselectric vehicle salesautonomous trucksev market competitionautomotive technology investments
- Toyota Posts Record Profits - BMW Earnings Dinged by Higher Costs - Rivian Loses Nearly $40,000 Per Vehicle Delivered - Shenzhen Has More Fast Chargers Than Gas Stations - Tesla Buys $2 Million Worth of Lidar In Q1 - Tesla Gets Approval to Test Robotaxis In China - Tesla China-Made Vehicle Sales Down in April - EU Continues Tough Talk Against Chinese Made EVs - BMW Against EU Tariffs on Chinese Made Vehicles - Daimler Truck Reveals Electric L4 Semi-Truck
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This is outolgned daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
CEO Cogsato just finished up his first full fiscal year at Toyota. The
numbers look fantastic now, but it's spending a boatload of money this year, which is really going to cut into its financial results. Toyota and lexis sold
a little more than ten point three million vehicles in the year, which is a jump of seven point three percent compared to last year. That brought in
almost two hundred and ninety billion dollars in revenue, up over twenty percent.
Its operating profit was up over ninety six percent to thirty four point four billion dollars, and its net profit hit nearly thirty two billion dollars, a massive jump of nearly one hundred and two percent. But as was the case with
all the Japanese auto makers in the fourth quarter of last year, Toyota is still benefiting from a weeker yen and the company is going to spend eleven point two billion dollars on electrification, software and AI and expects its net profit for the next fiscal year to be down by almost twenty eight percent. BMW is
showing the effects of increased manufacturing costs. In the first quarter of the year,
the group, including BMW Mini and Rolls Royce, delivered roughly five hundred and ninety four thousand, five hundred vehicles, a slight increase of one point one percent compared to last year, but due to those higher costs, revenue came to thirty six point six billion euros, which is down point six percent.
It might have been even worse, but with improved semiconductor chip supplies, BMW was able to make more high price models. The group's EBIT or earnings
before interest in taxes, was a bit over four billion euros, down almost twenty five percent, and its net profit was down over nineteen percent to a little under three billion euros. And really BMW's results for the full year will
probably look similar to this, a slight increase in sales but a decrease in earnings as it continues to deal with higher costs and as it invests in future models. Ev startup Rivian is losing nearly forty thousand dollars on every vehicle it
sells. It revealed in its Q one results that it delivered over thirteen thousand,
five hundred vehicles, which is an increase of almost fifty percent compared to last year. Those vehicles brought in one point two billion dollars in revenue,
which is an increase of over eighty two percent, but its net loss came to one point four five billion dollars and its gross profit per vehicle delivered was a negative thirty eight thousand, seven hundred and eighty four dollars. Rivian says
that's mainly due to supplier costs and improvements to the R one platform, as well as investments for production of the all new R two. For the whole
year, Rivian expects to make fifty seven thousand vehicles and to even post a modest profit in the fourth quarter. And getting off all these sales and financial
numbers, here's a little fun stat before the break. In the entire US,
there is currently one fast charging station for every fifteen gas stations. In
California, it's one for every five. But the city of Shenzhen and China
is the very first to claim that it has more fast chargers than gas stations.
It says it has a total of three hundred and sixty two fast chargers and its charging volume reached six hundred and seventy million kilowad hours in Q one, an increase of eleven percent. The city doesn't say how many gas stations
it has, but it did go fully electric with its bus and taxi system several years ago. There's nothing wrong with heavy metal, hey light enough,
but with world class composit material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly. Elon Musk has famously bashed the need for lightar and
autonomous vehicles. He said that lightar is quote a fool's errand and that it
is quote unquote doomed, and that they're expensive sensors that are unnecessary. But
is he pulling back on that. According to lightar maker Luminar's first quarter earnings
report, Tesla was its largest customer and bought two million dollars worth of light our technology. Tesla has used Luminar's lightars for testing and development in the past,
but Luminar says it can only speculate what Tesla is doing with two million dollars worth of light oars, but perhaps this is what the company will be using them for during Elon must visit to China last month, China Daily reports that must propose equipping China's taxis with Tesla's full self driving or FSD technology.
It reportedly received partial support to test them, but it still doesn't have approval for widespread use of FSD in the taxis. It was previously reported after the
meeting that the government gave the go ahead for Tesla to roll out its FSD technology for passenger vehicles in the country. The company is planning to unveil its
Roo taxi in August, and Elon Musk has shifted most of the company's focus to that model. And speaking of Tesla and China, sales of Teslas's China
made vehicles fell in April. According to the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla
sold more than sixty two thousand China made vehicles last month, a drop of eighteen percent compared to a year ago. Deliveries were also down thirty percent compared
to March. And while Tesla is slumping, sales of electric vehicles in China
arising. Sales of new energy vehicles, which includes BEVs and phebs, reached
eight hundred thousand units in April, up thirty three percent compared to last year.
China's biggest automaker BYD saw its sales go up nearly fifty percent to just over three hundred and twelve thousand vehicles. European government officials sure are talking the
hard talk against allowing low cost Chinese evs into the market. Earlier today,
the President of the European Commission said that Europe needs to take steps to prevent Chinese made evs from flooding the market. The EU is concerned that Chinese companies
are receiving unfair subsidies that put them at a competitive advantage over European automakers, so EU officials are considering imposing tariffs on Chinese made evs, which could happen as soon as July. But not all automakers are on board with the tariffs.
BMW CEO Oliver Zipza warned against them and said, quote, our industry doesn't need protection. First off, BMW imports evs made in China to Europe,
so they'd be slapped with those tariffs too. But Zipsa said the tariffs
could also hurt Europe's stricter CO two emission goals that kick in next year.
That's because European automakers are reliant on Chinese battery materials, and ZIPSA says that quote, there will be no single car in the EU without components from China, and zips is probably afraid of retaliatory action from China if the EU imposes terras on EV's imported from China. We've seen US officials back off EV content
rules because it would have been hard for automakers to comply, so we wonder if something similar will happen in Europe. Daimler Truck revealed a prototype version of
its electric ecs Kadias semi truck equipped with Level four autonomous technology. The self
driving system was developed by Torque Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck.
Daimler is currently testing the trucks on US highways, driving them to and from its freight centers. The company says that while it is testing the system in
an electric Ecasskadia, the technology has the potential to evolve into a modular, scalable platform that can work with any powertrain. Daimler Truck is aiming to introduce
Level four autonomous trucks in the US by twenty twenty seven, and that it expects the business to generate three point two billion dollars in revenue by the end of the decade, and before we go, I realize I've been a crummy promoter of our own content. We've now got several new videos with John and
Terry Wachowski from Caarsoft on their teardown of the cyber truck, and we also got Autoline After Hours coming up tomorrow. But that's the end of this show.
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