AD #3846 - U.S. EVs Up Strong, Set Sales Record; UAW’s Shawn Fain Under Investigation; Foreign Automakers Make Most Cars In U.S.

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

While good news on the EV front, sales of electric cars in the US exceeded expectations and set a record for the second quarter. Cox Automotive reports

that EV sales were up eleven point three percent year over year, compared to overall sales that were up only point one percent. Automakers sold three hundred and

thirty thousand, four hundred and sixty three electric vehicles, accounting for eight percent of the market, up from seven point two percent last year, and those sales were up even though Tesla was down. Cox Automotive estimates that Tesla sold

six point three percent fewer cars in the US and Q two. That's based

on actual registrations, since Tesla does not break out regional sales. Most analysts

are expecting EV sales to be even stronger in the second half of the year as more models, especially from GM, Honda, and Stalantis, come into the market in the coming months. And speaking of evs, Hondai faces an

accusation that it falsified sales reports. Automotive News reports that the Napleton Automotive Group,

which is a large auto retailer filed a lawsuit against Hondai Motor America, claiming the automaker would give them more of its fast selling vehicles if they reported unsold evs as part of their loaner fleet that would artificially inflate EV sales.

Hondai Motor America says it does not condone actions like that and launched an immediate investigation. But there's bad blood between the Napleton Automotive Group and the automaker.

Hondai terminated one of Napleton's dealerships in Florida when the son of the group's owner was charged with sexual battery of an employee. UAW President Sean Faine is being

accused of seeking benefits for his fiancee and her sister. That's according to Neil

Borrowsky, a court appointed monitor overseeing the union. He filed a motion yesterday

revealing that he's investigating Fayne over allegations from two UAW leaders, vice President Rich Boyer and Secretary General Margaret Mock, that say Faine stripped assignments from them in retaliation for not taking actions to benefit Faine's fiance and her sister. Borowsky is

also accusing the Union of not providing documents related to the investigation in a timely manner, and the filing revealed a separate investigation into an unidentified regional director, accusing them of embezzling funds. These revelations come at a horrible time for the

UAW. It's trying to organize more plans in the South, including Toyota and

Hyundai, and opponents of the union will no doubt used these allegations to argue that the union is still corrupt. For the first time ever, foreign automakers

built more vehicles in the US than the Detroit three. According to Auto Drives

America and the American International Automobile Dealers Association, four and automakers produced four point nine million vehicles last year in the US, while GM FOURD in Stilantis assembled four point six million. But if you include Tesla, Rivian and Lucid,

which built more than seven hundred and fifty thousand vehicles in the US last year, it boosts vehicles made by US based companies to more than five point three million units. Of course, Stilantis is not an American company and Lucid is

sixty percent owned by the Saudis, but you should get the point we're trying to make here. Four and automakers have significantly boosted capacity in the US from

two point four million vehicles twenty five years ago to four zero point nine million today, an eighty five percent increase. During the same period, the Detroit

threes production in the US has been cut in half, with much of it moving to Mexico, Canada, South Korea and China. Trusting tires designed for

the long haul because you'll always go the distance for friends. That's what really

matters. Breach down a lens of tires with an eighty thousand mile unted warranty.

The Volkswagen Group is on the verge of closing a car plant in Europe for the first time ever. It says it's looking at ways to restructure a

plant in Belgium that makes out eqight E trons, but if no alternative is found, it will shut it down. While this will impact about three thousand

workers, it doesn't sound like the plant has a good chance of survival.

Part of it has to do with location. The building is close to the

city center of Brussels, so any expansion would be difficult and logistics are harder, which means its production costs are higher compared to other plants. The other

part of the equation is that even Audi admits the electric SUV has seen a quote intensified drop in demand and announced earlier this year that the successor to the Q eight E Tron will be built in Mexico. That's why it's hard to

see a path where the Brussels site continues to build. Audis. The last

time that the VW Group closed a plant was its Westmoreland site in Pennsylvania in nineteen eighty eight. China's new energy vehicle or any V sales continue to outpace

the rest of the market. Last month, passenger vehicle sales topped one point

seven million units in China, down six point seven percent compared to last year.

Full year results are a little bit better at over nine point eight million vehicles up three point three percent, but ANYV sales in June were over a million units, up thirty percent, and for the full year, nearly five million nevs have been sold in China, which is a jump of thirty two percent. On the flip side, conventional ic and hybrid sales were down twenty

seven percent last month and are down thirteen percent for the year. A rural

thumb in the auto industry is that a car plant doesn't start turning a profit until it's producing at least eighty percent of the vehicles that it's capable of or its capacity utilization rate. But according to Global data, China's factories were only

running at fifty nine percent last year. That means production lines were sitting idle

for a lot of the time. In fact, twenty percent of factories made

less than one thousand cars and seventeen percent made less than ten thousand. Only

fifteen percent of car plants in China had a capacity utilization rate over ninety five.

But get this, those plants built nearly half of all cars in the country last year. That's part of the reason. Byd, who had an

eighty percent utilization rate, and Liatto were the only two Chinese automakers to turn a profit on any of these last year, while others like Neo lost about thirteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty bucks on every vehicle it sold. Can

you believe it's been this long already? In February of twenty fourteen, a

forty foot wide sinkhole opened up underneath part of the Corvette Museum in Bowling, Green, Kentucky, and while some of the classic Corvettes were damaged, fortunately the museum was closed and no one was inside when it occurred. So now

the museum is commemorating the ten year anniversary. It has an exhibit called Ground

de Sky The Sinkhole Reimagined, which runs until September fifteenth. Two fully restored

vets, a two thousand and nine Blue Devil ZR one, a nineteen ninety two model that was the one million Corvette built, as well as other cars that were damaged when the sinkhole opened up. Auto Line after Hours will be

back tomorrow after being off for a week, and we'll be talking about Vtall's or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with Tim Jackson, who wrote the book Dude, Where's My Flying Car, as well as talking about a company that's using AI to help dealers predict what cars they should order. And that brings us

to the end of today's show. Thanks for making Autoline a part of your

day. Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey,

Intrepid Control Systems, over the Air, Engineering, Boost Your Game, MEDC where Michigan businesses are powering the future of mobility and by Tajent Automotive Technologies the formula for better mobility. Michigan is leading the charge in mobility and innovation and

I can't think of a better state to band. There's nothing wrong with heavy

metal, hey light enough, but with world class composite material, Tagent Automotive Technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly. Intrepid's Neovipie allowing

automotive engineers to interface, capture, and monitor vehicle data using Raspberry Pie.

As a matter of fact, it's the automotive industry's first robust platform for Raspberry Pie. Featuring Intrepid canefting technology and Raspberry Pie compute module. The neovipie is

designed for automotive environments, allowing use with relative power ranges and applications. In

addition, the NEOVIPI enables you to use the Raspberry Pie for compute while avoiding additional development to adapt to network environments. That makes the NEOVIPI powerful enough to

solve your vehicle network problems, yet small enough to fit in your backpack.

One of many Intrepid tools used for developing zonal architecture and software. Divine vehicles,

AD #3846 - U.S. EVs Up Strong, Set Sales Record; UAW’s Shawn Fain Under Investigation; Foreign Automakers Make Most Cars In U.S.

Chevrolet Corvette

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