AD #3837 - Dealers Profit $4,500 Per Car; XPeng Claims Best EV Aerodynamics; Tesla Batteries Easily Last 200K Miles

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

Dealerships across the US were hit with two cyber attacks yesterday. CDK Global,

which provides back end software for nearly fifteen thousand car dealers, was forced to shut down its dealer management system because of the attacks. The software is

used for parts service, accounting, finance and insurance, and vehicle inventory.

The first attack occurred yesterday morning and the second attack happened later in the day, which will shut down the system at least through today. While dealers say

it is a headache, they've been able to work around it by doing things the old fashioned way and taking down information with a pencil and paper. Speaking

of car dealers, they enjoyed their best years ever during the COVID pandemic and the chip shortage that followed. With inventory tight they raised their price is significantly.

Wall Street analyst John Murphy from Bank of America says before COVID, dealers typically had a gross profit of fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars per car, not including the luxury brands. During COVID that shot up to six thousand dollars

a car and now it stands at forty five hundred dollars. Murphy says that

if competition starts forcing prices to come down, most of the price cutting could come from dealers, But he says even though their profits have fallen from the COVID highs, there's still twice as high as they were before. But the

European car market has been struggling ever since the COVID pandemic. So far this

year it looked like the market was getting some traction as sales grew, but last month, new car sales fell three percent according to the ACEA, the Automotive Constructors Association. But the real news is that sales of electric cars fell

twelve percent, and in Germany they fell thirty percent. P haves felt even

more than pure electrics, down almost fifteen percent. Gasoline cars were down five

point seven percent, and diesels were down eleven point four Diesels now have less than thirteen percent market share. But there was one segment that was up,

hybrids. They were up a strong sixteen percent and now have thirty percent market

share, up from twenty five percent a year ago. And that's a trend

we're starting to see in many global markets. Hybrids are red hot right now,

and while EV's are slowing in Europe, they're gaining ground in the US.

S and P Global Mobility says EV sales shot up fourteen percent in April after a poor first quarter. Automakers sold over one hundred and two thousand evs

in April, despite the fact that Tesla's sales were down seventeen percent and its market share in the EV segment dip below fifty for the first time. Tesla

had forty six point three percent of the EV segment in April, compared to sixty three point eight percent the year before. S and P Global uses registration

numbers to track Tesla sales since the company does not report them by region, but there is a several month delay in collecting the data, which is why we're reporting April sales now. If you take Tesla out of the equation,

though, US EV sales were up a whopping sixty percent, with big increases from the Mustang, Machi, Toyota Beezy four X and the Hyundai Iyanik five Trusting tires designed for the long haul because you'll always go the distance for friends, that's what really matters. Bridge downe a lens of tires with an eighty

thousand mile unted warranty. A number of Chinese automakers are ramping up their self

driving efforts in the wake of Tesla starting to get approval to test FSD in the country, and now we may have a better idea of who has the best chance of competing. According to Gascu, tech company, Huawei has a

team of seven thousand people working on smart driving technology, which is way more than BYD who has four thousand people, while Japong has three thousand, Neo has fifteen hundred, and li Otto has eight hundred, and several of those also beat out av companies Weimo, who has about twenty seven hundred workers, and GM Crews, who has about fifteen hundred. It looks like Huawei had

a real advantage building its team since it was already coming from the tech industry and with almost double the people working on the tech. The automakers that have

partnered up with Huawei could have some of the most competitive systems. Those companies

include Cherry, Chang Gan, gac, Baic and Ato. And speaking of

Chinese automakers, Japun claims it's new ev the Mona M three has beat the Lucid Air as the most aerodynamic electric car, although just barely. The Air

has a coefficient a drag of zero point one ninety seven. The Mona M

three is said to be rated at zero point one ninety four. You may

remember the solar car company light Year from a few years ago. It claimed

its car had a coefficient a drag of zero point one seventy five, but it went bankrupt and pivoted to offering its solar charging system to other automakers.

But other top performers that are on the market include the Tesla mode Less and Mercedes EQS, which both have a coefficient a drag of just over zero point two. But going back to companies that went bankrupt, it's really hard come

up with a new car name, and Fisker's demise might actually lead to the name Ocean. Living on Electric reports that Lucid has filed for the trademark rights

to Lucid Ocean in the US. Who knows if it will get approval,

but the names Air, Gravity, and Ocean have a pretty nice ring to them. Ford is trying to encourage its dealers to sell inventory faster. It's

updating a program that will give dealers an upfront credit worth one percent of the MSRP of most vehicles. Currently, Ford reimburses floor plan interest charges based on

how many days a vehicle stays on the lot, up to a maximum of seventy five days. The current plan was enacted two years ago when inventory was

low and cars weren't staying on dealer lots for very long, which meant that the credits weren't worth very much. But now that inventory is piling up,

Ford is making the change to help incentivize dealers to keep inventory moving. According

to Cox Automotive, automakers in the US have a seventy four day supply of vehicles, but Ford and Lincoln have more than one hundred days, so the company says it's aiming to cut that down to fifty to sixty day supply.

Some car buyers are worried about purchasing an EV because they're afraid they'll have to replace an expensive battery, but Tesla says its owners don't have to worry about that. It recently released data showing that the battery and the long range versions

of the Model three and Y only lose an average of fifteen percent of its charge after two hundred thousand miles a driving and the models and ax are even better. They only lose twelve percent of their capacity. Tesla points out that

the average vehicle gets scrapped when it hits two hundred thousand miles in the US, so the battery will last the life of the vehicle. And besides,

owners of ice vehicles also have to replace their engines. According to the Production

Engine Remanufacturers Association, one and a half million engines are remanufactured a year in North America. And we invite you to join us for Auto Line after hours

later today. Some of the topics on the show include the meltdown of ev

startups, the Detroit Three being advised to get out of China asap, what Tesla needs to do to kick start at sales, and whether those tariffs are going to stop the Chinese industry. Expert Jack Keebler and Paul Eisenstein from Headlight

Dot News will join John and Gary and we welcome you to take it all in as well at three pm Eastern time. But that brings us to the

end of today's show. Thanks for making Audoline Daily a part of your day

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AD #3837 - Dealers Profit $4,500 Per Car; XPeng Claims Best EV Aerodynamics; Tesla Batteries Easily Last 200K Miles

Ford Mustang

Lucid Air

Tesla Mode

Mercedes-Benz EQS

Lucid Gravity

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