AD #3825 - Toyota Slowly Ramps Up EV Sales; U.S. Market Hits 16 Million SAAR; Great Wall Shuts German HQ

This is out Aline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. The US car market hit a sixteen million units are for the first

time this year. That's an important milestone for the industry, but it's still

not back to pre COVID levels, when sales hit seventeen million vehicles a year for several years in a row. Not all automakers have publicly reported their sales

yet. General Motors and Stallantes only report sales on a quarterly basis, and

Ford won't report its May sales until tomorrow. But JD Power estimates that automakers

sold one point four million vehicles, up seven percent from a year ago, though there was one more selling day last month compared to a year ago.

Sales of evs did not grow as fast as the overall market, and they hit eight point four percent market share, down point four percent from April.

JD Power also had a word of warning for the entire industry. Automakers are

building cars faster than they can sell them. Inventory levels are rising, and

it expects to see prices coming down. Last month, the average transaction price

for a new car was forty five thousand dollars, down a grand from a year ago. Japanese automakers are in hot water with authorities in Japan. The

country's Ministry of Transportation rated the offices of Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha because it says the companies engaged in fraudulent acts involving their vehicle certification tasks. It told the automakers to stop shipments of all the affected vehicles

until regulators can determine their in compliance. The automakers have suspended shipments and apologize

for falsifying test results, but the companies say the affected vehicles are still safe to drive. While Europe is concerned about a wave of Chinese evs flooding the

market, not every Chinese automaker is doing well there. Great Wall Motor announced

that it's closing its European headquarters in Munich in August and will lay off one hundred employees. It says uncertainties in the market forced the move, but it's

obviously got to do with poor sales. Last year, great Wall only sold

about sixty three hundred vehicles in Europe and it's facing a slowdown in China too.

Last month, great Wall sold ninety one thousand vehicles, but that was down nearly ten percent from last year. However, new energy vehicles or nyvs

accounted for about twenty four thousand, six hundred sales last month, which is up sixty percent from a year ago. Toyota Corp. Is slowly ramping up

sales of pure electric vehicles. Last month in the US, Lexis sold a

little under fifteen hundred rzs, slightly beating out the Toyota BZ four X at two twelve hundred and sixty units, and the Subaru Solterra, which is based on the same platform as the RZ and BEZ, actually outsold those models, with fifteen hundred and forty six reaching customer hands in May. However, Toyota

has had more consistent EV sales throughout twenty twenty four, and its sales are nearly double that of Lexus and subrew so far this year. Taesla started turning

a profit on Eve's roughly around the time it started building fifty thousand model threes a quarter, so by that measure, Toyota still has a long way to go back. In March, General Motors had a software Mike Abbott left the

company due to health reasons. Had hired Abbott away from Apple, and CEO

Mary Barr accredited him with helping turning around its software development. Now, the

automaker is promoting two former Apple execs to fill in abbot shoes. Barris Setinak

and Dave Richardson will head GM's software and services organization. Setinac will manage products,

programs and design, while Richardson is responsible for software and services engineering.

They'll both be based in GM's new tech center in California. BYD is taking

global markets by storm. After major moves in the South American market, it's

now entering the Caribbean. Just off the coast of Venezuela, the Chinese automaker

opened its first dealership in Trinidad and Tobago, showing off several of its new energy vehicles, including displaying its first ever pickup truck, the shark on social media. Car sales in the Caribbean market are dominated by the Japanese and Korean

automate. It used to be the same way in South America, but Chinese

automakers like BYD have found real success in the region and now they're expanding beyond Trinidad and Tobago. BYD also has plans to expand to more Caribbean nations,

including Jamaica, Barbados, and the Cayman Islands. When the Biden administration announced

it was raising terrace on Chinese made cars to one hundred and two and a half percent, it caught Polestar flat footed. All of Polestar's cars are made

in China, but that's about to change. This summer, the Polestar three

will be built at a Volvo plant in South Carolina, and half of that production will be exported. Next year, the Polestar four will be built in

South Korea by Renault and mainly shipped to the US. In twenty twenty seven,

the company hopes to build the Polestar seven in Europe. We're also waiting

to hear about Volvo's decision on the ex thirty. It's also made in China

right now and was supposed to go on sale in the US this summer.

We think the most likely scenario is that it will be delayed until Volvo starts production in Belgium and can export them to the US without that hefty tariff.

Ford officially kicked off production in Germany of the all new Explorer EV, which is based on Volkswagen's MEB architecture. The company invested two billion dollars into its

plan to be able to build evs there, and a second MEB based vehicle starts production later this year. Ford says it's a sports crossover that will be

revealed soon. And speaking of Ford, Thursday is a big day for the

city of Detroit and the company. That's when the Michigan Central Train Station officially

opens after a nearly billion dollar restoration. Built in nineteen thirteen and abandoned in

nineteen eighty eight, the building became the poster child of post and dust ruin in the city, but Bill Ford saw an opportunity to transform the broken down hulk into a gleaming gem. And the grand opening is gonna be a big

bash, with performances from Jack White, Diana Ross, Big Sean, Jelly Roll, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and a whole bunch more. All of

it will be streamed live on Peacock, and NBC will boil it down to a one hour special that's gonna air at seven pm Eastern Time. And this

wraps up today's show. But before we go, here's a brief video clip

we shot some years ago. When they held a drifting competition in front of

the train station when it was still a broken down mess. Auto Line Daily

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