U.S. new car sales in August showed modest growth but fell short of early-year expectations due to high interest rates and prices. BYD leads China’s auto market with strong profits despite a price war, while Li Auto struggles. Hyundai plans to expand its lineup of extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), highlighting cost advantages over PHEVs. GM and Samsung SDI are investing heavily in U.S. battery production. Chinese automakers are expanding overseas to bypass tariffs, with new plants planned in Algeria and Europe. Mercedes-AMG teases a limited-run, windshield-free sports car inspired by Formula One technology. Lexus aims to boost body rigidity to compete with German luxury brands.
Topics:us car salesbyd financialschinese automakers overseashyundai erevsgm battery plantluxury car designmercedes-amg sports carprice warsautomotive tariffsautomotive manufacturing
- U.S. August SAAR Falls To 15.2M - BYD Profits Up 33% Despite Price War - Li Auto Profits Plummet 52% - Hyundai Doubles Down on EREVs - GM and Samsung Finalize Battery Plant Deal - Another Aussie Takes Top Design Position - Lexus ID’s Body Structure as A Weakness - Acura Refreshes the RDX - VW Misses Cost Cutting Goals - 3 Chinese OEMs To Manufacture in Algeria - Xpeng Hunts for EU Plant - Mercedes Pure Speed Headed to Limited Production
"... Accura is launching the refreshed version of the RDX in the US. Speaker 1: Truth be told, there's not ..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outline Daily, the show dedicated.
Speaker 2: To enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. There's good news
and bad news about new car sales for August in the American market. S and P Global predicts that sales
will hit one point four to two million units, up seven percent over last year and up eleven percent from July.
Speaker 1: That's the good stuff.
Speaker 2: The bad news is that translates into a SAR, or seasonally adjusted annual rate, of only fifteen point two million units.
At the beginning of the year, automakers were confident the SAR would go over sixteen million, but that's not happening.
The problem is high interest rates and high car prices, so we could see more aggressive sales discounts, and if the FED cuts interest rates, making car loans cheaper, we could see sales pick up.
Speaker 1: Byd is on a tear.
Speaker 2: Not only has it grown to be the biggest car company in China, it's putting some serious money on its bottom line, and that's even with a price war raging in the Chinese market. It sold almost a million vehicles
in the last three months, about sixty percent where P has and forty percent Beeves revenue hit twenty four point seven billion dollars, up almost twenty six percent from a year ago, while its net profits hit one point three billion, up almost thirty three percent. Its gross margin was twenty percent,
and it sees no signs of slowing down. BYD wants
fifty percent of its sales to come from outside.
Speaker 1: Of China by the end of the decade.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Liato is still the only other Chinese automaker making a profit on electrics, selling mostly E revs, but it saw its profits plummet fifty two percent from a year ago, even though it sales and revenue were up, So it looks like the price war it really took its toll on li Auto and shows that BYD's vertical integration strategy to hold down costs was a smart move. And speaking
of erevs or extended range electrics, that's one of the ways Hondei wants to go as it targets a thirty percent increase in global sales by the end of the decade.
It's going to double its lineup of hybrids to fourteen models, and in twenty twenty six it's going to start building hybrids at its US plant in Georgia, which originally was only going to build evs. Reuter's reports that those hybrids
are going to be range extended evs, and a key reason why so many automakers are looking at erevs is that they can be cheaper to make than PHEVs. Since
the range extending engine only operates in a limited rev range, it can be made cheaper and erevs don't need transmissions or drive shafts, which cuts costs and weight. Even more so.
As BEV sales seemed to plateau, I bet you see a lot more e res hitting the market. General Motors
and Samsung SDI finalized plans to open a battery manufacturing plant in the US. The two companies will invest three
and a half billion dollars to build the plant in New Carlisle, Indiana.
Speaker 1: Production will start in twenty twenty seven with.
Speaker 2: An initial capacity of twenty seven gigawatt hours, which will later be boosted to thirty six gigawott hours. The two
companies first announced the partnership in March at twenty twenty three, and up to this point GM was working with LG to produce EV batteries in the US. Could Australia become
a new hot bed for car designers. The head of
design at GM, Mike Simcoe, is Australian and now Ford just put an Osse in charge of its global design.
Todd Willing has been with Ford for twenty one years, starting in Australia, but also taking assignments in Japan, Germany and the US, designing both cars and try He also did the exterior.
Speaker 1: Design of the twenty seventeen four GT.
Speaker 2: You know, what is it about Australians rising to some of the top spots in automotive design. Maybe it's something
they've put in the water, or maybe it's something in the beer.
Speaker 3: There's nothing wrong with heavy metal, hey light enough, but with world class composite material taging automotive technologies makes vehicles lighter, safer, and more eco friendly.
Speaker 1: Other than the spindle grill.
Speaker 2: The biggest criticism I hear most often about Lexus is that it's just a.
Speaker 1: Tartet up Toyota. But soon that could change.
Speaker 2: Automotive News reports that Lexus has been benchmarking German luxury vehicles from Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Portia and found one of the biggest differences between their vehicles and.
Speaker 1: Its own is body rigidity.
Speaker 2: So Lexus will eventually add races to the front rear of its vehicles, as well as two more in the middle section. It's already increased the number and the NX crossover,
and says trials have started on its entire lineup. It
thinks this will make its vehicles feel more sporty while also improving safety and sticking with premium Japanese brands for a moment. Accura is launching the refreshed version of the
RDX in the US.
Speaker 1: Truth be told, there's not a whole lot different.
Speaker 2: It features a new frameless grill, trim and wheels on the outside and a rework center console on the inside.
Power still comes from a two hundred and seventy two horse power turbocharged two liter four cylinder engine that's made it to a ten speed auto, and all wheel drive is standard. Starting prices ranged from forty six thousand dollars
to just under fifty six grand for an ASPEC version with the Advanced Package, and those prices include destination charges.
Last year, Volkswagen set a bold goal to cut costs by ten billion euros by twenty twenty six, but it's not working. The plan focused on cutting administration jobs, developing
new vehicles faster, slashing production times, and scrapping a planned eight hundred million euro R and D facility It targeted to boost the VW brand's return on sales from two point three percent to six and a half percent, But Germany's Hondelsblot newspaper reports that VW is two to three billion euro short of its four billion euro savings goal for the year. It's run into part shortages that have
disrupted production, a slowdown in demand, and increased incentives to help asset that slowdown in sales. So now VW is
looking at other areas to cut costs, including its sales operations.
As more countries add tariffs to block Chinese in imports, Chinese automakers are building more plants overseas. Gili, Jac and
Cherry will open plans in Algeria. Jac's production plans aren't
known at this time, but Cherry plans to build one hundred thousand vehicles a year in Algeria in the next three years, and Gil's two hundred million dollar plant will have an initial capacity of fifty thousand vehicles a year.
Last year, only one hundred and thirteen thousand new cars were sold in Algeria. This year, sales are on track
to top one hundred and fifty thousand units, so most of that Chinese capacity will probably be exported to other markets, and the EU is a likely target. And over in Europe,
Chinese automaker Jipung is looking for a manufacturing site. The
company CEO says it's in the initial stages of choosing a location and that it wants one with quote relatively low labor risks that probably means East Europe. It also
wants to set up a data center in Europe. The
EU recently slapped an additional tariff of twenty one point three percent on the evs that Japung imports into Europe, on top of the existing ten percent tariff on all imported cars, so it would avoid all of that by building in the region. McLaren has the Elva Ferrari.
Speaker 4: The Manza SP one and SP two, Aston Martin, the V twelve Speedster, Feng Cheng Bao, the Super nine, and soon Mercedes AMG will be added to the list of automakers that offer.
Speaker 2: A sports car with no top or windshield. It revealed
that it's in the final stages of testing the Pure Speed, which at first showed off in May. Instead of a roof,
it features a halo bar like its Formula one car, and while it hasn't revealed what's under the hood, we think the powertrain will also take inspiration from F one and offer some sort of hybrid system. The Pure Speed
is the first vehicle in a new limited series of cars to come from Mercedes AMG called Mythos, and it will only make two hundred and fifty examples of the Pure Speed that are just for enthusiasts and collectors.
Speaker 1: That brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks
for tuning in.
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