The average age of vehicles in the US has risen to 12.6 years, driven by longer-lasting pickups and fewer new passenger cars. Rising auto insurance costs, due to expensive repairs and parts shortages, are making new cars less affordable. China threatens tariffs on larger gas engines amid global trade tensions affecting European automakers. Europe sees strong new car sales growth, especially in EVs and hybrids. Tesla’s Cybertruck battery teardown reveals advanced tech improvements. Ford’s updated F-150 impresses with tech and utility upgrades, but the company pauses dealer EV investments amid slowing demand. Meanwhile, BYD launches an electric double-decker bus for London, aiming to replace diesel models with a cost-effective, long-range alternative.
Topics:vehicle age trendsauto insurance costschina import tariffseuropean car saleselectric vehicle technologytesla battery innovationford f-150 updatesford ev dealer programelectric double-decker busbyd london buses
- Average U.S. Car Now 12.6 Years Old - U.S. Auto Insurance Rates Soar - New China Import Tariff Could Hurt EU Automakers - EU Car Sales Up 12% In April - A Look Inside the Brains of The Tesla Cybertruck’s Battery - Ford F-150 Updates - Ford Tells Dealers to Halt EV Investments - BYD Launches Double-Decker Bus in London
"... one hundred and ten thousand dollars for the new Raptor R, and those include destination charges and more..."
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The average age of vehicles in the US keeps getting older as more people hold on to the cars and trucks they've got instead of buying new ones.
SMP Global says the average vehicle is now twelve point six years old, with pickup trucks at fourteen point two years, passenger cars at fourteen years, in utilities at nine and a half. The reason pickups are the oldest is they're
designed to last longer, and owners tend to keep them properly serviced, especially fleet owners. Pass cars are getting older because it's a shrinking segment and there
are just fewer new ones coming into the market. SNP Global says an older
fleet should really help businesses that sell aftermarket parts and service cars. There are
two hundred and eighty six million vehicles in operation in the US. One out
of three vehicles on the road are less than six years old, while two out of three are six to fourteen years old or even older. One reason
why new cars are becoming less affordable for many US households is that auto insurance rates are soaring they're up twenty two percent from a year ago and average one hundred and eighty six dollars a month, which used to be about the same as a car payment in the pre COVID era. There are several reasons why
insurance rates are up. There's a shortage of texts, so it takes longer
to fix cars, and today's cars have a lot of expensive sensors that add to repair bills. Quote, a bumper is just a bumper, but a
bumper full of sensors costs more to repair, said Christian D. Check,
a policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. By the way,
we want to thank our viewer Bill KAFORI hope I said that right for suggesting that we look into the impact of insurance rates. And if you ever come
across something you think we ought to report on, feel free to reach out and let us know about it. Now, let's move over to China,
where the government is threatening to put a twenty five percent import tariff on vehicles that come into the country with a two and a half liter gas engine or bigger. Some experts see this as retaliation to the Biden administrations one hundred percent
tariff on imported Chinese evs, but we see this as a threat to the European Union, which is considering putting thirty percent tariffs on Chinese cars. We
think it looks like China is trying to get the EU to reconsider its tariff European automakers while the German automakers actually are caught in the crosshairs of these tariff wars. China is their largest market, and while they make a lot of
cars in China, they also export them from Germany. In the US,
for example, Mercedes, Benz and BMW export full size SUVs made in Alabama and South Carolina to China. China already has a twenty five percent import tariff
on any USA made vehicles, and a new twenty five percent tariff on vehicles from Europe would really hurt their sales in China. And speaking of Europe,
automakers are super happy that new car sales came in strong in April. Sales
shot up twelve percent to just over a million units. But there were also
two extra selling days in April this year, so on a daily selling rate basis, the increase was less than that evs grew faster than the overall market.
They were up fourteen point four percent to over one hundred and forty four thousand vehicles. In areas like Germany, EV sales were flat, but that
was made up by countries like France and Belgium, where sales were up over forty percent. Hybrid sales shot up twenty nine percent, and pehebs were are
up five point five percent. Gas and diesel cars had forty seven percent market
share, which shows the real shift in the market. Before the emission scandal,
diesels alone accounted for half the European market. Keeping your heart racing in
and out of the gym, that's what really matters. Bridge don't pretend to
sport as tires with a fifty thousand mile limited warranty. Have you ever wondered
what the physical differences are between a four hundred and eight hundred volt electric vehicle?
While I think we're getting a good look at that. As we followed
along with Carosoft's teardown of the Tesla cybertruck, the team there is now down to the cell level in the battery pack, so you can clearly see the layout, and there's already been a change to Tesla's forty six to eighty battery cells. The vent on the cell is now a small b bearing that presumably
pops out when there's a problem, and the plate around the bearing is formed and installed differently. Caresoft president Terry Wachowski speculates this could be one of the
ways Tesla figured out how to improve the manufacturing of the cells. But the
real big changes are to the brains of the battery management system. Where the
four hundred volt model Y from just a few years ago was still using older school transformers and capacitors, the cyber truck uses transformers that are much more power dense and also offer performance in production improvements, and it looks like Tesla did away with old school capacitors altogether. You know, we've just kind of scratched
the surface of what we saw at Caresoft the other day, so we've posted a much more in depth video if you'd like to see more. The reason
I missed hosting a few days last week because I was out driving the updated Ford F one fifty And just as a general note, it really is a mazing how far full sized pickup trucks have come in the last twenty years.
They ride much more like SUVs now than pickups, which makes it easier to understand why they're popular with buyers that might typically not be a truck person much.
Nicer interiors also help. In my opinion, Ram has the best truck
interiors, while Ford seems to be sticking with a more utilitarian look with less soft touch materials. But there is still an improvement, and the F one
fifty now comes standard with twelve inch displays for the driver and infotainment system.
Upgrades to the electronic architecture, and a faster modem improves navigation, Wi Fi and over the air updates as well. The new F one fifty also gets
Ford's updated version of Blue Creuse, which now includes lane repositioning when passing big trucks and assisted lane changes. It worked great on my drive, but that
was mostly on straight sections a highway, so I never really got to push the system. Customers can activate Blue Crews for three years for twenty one hundred
dollars when they purchased the vehicle. Then it's eight hundred dollars a year or
seventy five bucks a month. If you're looking to spot one of these new
F one fifties out on the road, I'd say look at the headlights or tail lights. Those are where the biggest differences are to me. You might
also notice the new Ford logo, which is a little bit flatter than before and ditches the chrome. Or, if you're lucky, the owner will have
opted for the new Pro Access tailgate, which can open like a normal tailgate, but it also has a door in the middle that swings open as far as one hundred degrees. It makes access to whatever you've got in the bed
much easier to get to, especially while towing, and Ford even put a D ten on the door that helps it stop right before it would hit the jack on a trailer. The Pro Access tailgate is part of a sixteen hundred
bed utility package. And speaking of pricing, starting prices for the new F
one fifty come in it just under thirty nine thousand dollars for a base XL and range all the way up to over one hundred and ten thousand dollars for the new Raptor R, and those include destination charges and more on that Raptor are tomorrow. But speaking of Ford, it's telling its dealers in the US
to halt EV investments at their stores. The automaker is making changes to its
EV certification program after it held a meeting with one thousand dealers across the country who are concerned about the slowdown in EV demand. Automotive News reports that Ford
plans to announce the changes next month. Dealers enrolled in the EV certification program
were expected to complete EV charging requirements in the coming weeks, but now Ford is telling them to hold off until it announces the changes. Since Ford launched
its dealer EV certification program, the slowdown in EV demand has led to delays in spending in postponing products. Ford expects to lose five and a half billion
dollars on its evy business this year. The London Electric Vehicle Company, which
makes the city's iconic black cabs, has been owned by Chinese automaker Chili since twenty twelve, and now another iconic vehicle on London's roads could become Chinese byd wants to replace current diesel powered red double decker buses with its own double decker electric bus and just launched its BD eleven model at the London Bus Museum.
I also find it a little funny how close that is to dB eleven as an Aston Martin's car, but the bus is powered by a five hundred and thirty two kilowat hour battery which provides a range of six hundred and forty kilometers or four hundred miles. The company that I operates double decker buses for London
is reportedly on the verge of ordering one hundred of the BD eleven. They
cost four hundred thousand pounds, which is one hundred thousand pounds cheaper than UK competitors. The BYD buses are made in China, but the company says a
third of the components come from Europe and that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making autoline a part of your day. Autoline Daily
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