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AD #3882 - Hyundai Taking Tesla-Like Approach; Brand Loyalty Highest in 4 Years; JD Power Lowers EV Sales Forecast

AD #3882 - Hyundai Taking Tesla-Like Approach; Brand Loyalty Highest in 4 Years; JD Power Lowers EV Sales Forecast

Autoline Daily Aug 29, 2024 10 min
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About this episode

Global EV markets face challenges with falling sales and stock dips, especially in China and Europe, where incentives have dried up. In the U.S., JD Power lowered EV sales forecasts for 2024 amid automakers cutting launch volumes and offering steep discounts. Hyundai revealed plans to boost sales with hybrids and range-extended EVs, plus new battery and autonomy tech. Brand loyalty is rising in the U.S., with Tesla leading, making it tougher for automakers to attract new customers. A viral story highlights a Kia salesperson thwarting a car theft scam, showcasing real-world dealer challenges.

Topics: ev market challenges china ev sales decline europe ev incentives us ev sales forecast hyundai ev strategy brand loyalty automaker discounts ev charging technology dealer service profits car theft scam
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts the global automotive industry. The EV movement ran into a buzz
of bad news today from all over the world. Let's
start in China, where the stock prices of most EV automakers took a nosedive. Leotto dropped over nine percent on
worries triggered by its fifty two percent drop in profits in the last quarter. Japung and Neo were down more
than five percent, and even BYD which just posted a thirty three percent jump in profits, saw it stock fall almost two percent. The Wall Street Journal reports that investors
are worried that car sales are falling in China and that it could spread to the EV segment. Pollstar reported
another big loss of two hundred and forty two million dollars because it's having a hard time selling its evs despite big price discoun ounce. Pollstar shares are down ninety
percent since it was spun off Evolvo last year. Lotus,
which is owned by g L and only makes high end evs, cut its sales forecast by fifty four percent, largely triggered by higher tariffs in the US and Europe on imported Chinese Electrics, and speaking of Europe, EV registrations dropped nearly eleven percent last month, and they plummeted almost thirty seven percent in Germany after the government there stopped offering sales incentives when the money to do that ran dry.
EV market share in Europe is down to twelve point one percent, several percentage points below where it had been hovering.
Pehebs were down fourteen percent, while hybrid shot up almost twenty six percent. Overall, the total EU market was up,
but only by zero point two percent. Now over to
the United States, where the EV situation doesn't look any better, JD Power lowered its sales forecast for electric vehicles for twenty twenty four. At the beginning of the year, it
thought they'd a count for twelve point four percent of all sales this year. Now it believes they'll account for
nine percent. While that would be better than last year's
seven point six percent, automakers across the board are cutting back on the volume and timing of the evs they plan to launch in the American market. A couple of
them are also offering blowout labor day sales. Electric reports
that Honda will slash the price the Prologue by fourteen thousand, two hundred and fifty bucks, making it cheaper to lease than a civic and Vinfest is cutting the price of its VF nine by fourteen thousand, five hundred and fifty dollars.
Even though these are holiday deals, they come off as desperation moves to try and get more customers looking at their EVA. And even with all that said, we still
believe electric vehicles represent the future of where the auto industry is headed. But everything we've reported here shows that
the transition is likely to be difficult and slow.
Speaker 2: So when we did our research for the talent that we need for this program, Michigan was really the top of the list. In order to be successful in this space,
you really have to have the right people, the right mindsets, the right environments.
Speaker 1: While public EV charging is improving, there's still too many issues unless that charger has a Tesla logo. So charge
Point is turning to technology for help. It announced it's
implementing an AI tool that can identify problems with chargers and then send a report to charge points Networks operation Center, which then comes up with a fix. One of the
few things I could see holding back its effectiveness is that it requires the user to report the problem and post pictures on the company's app. I'm not sure how
many people will be willing to do that. The big
news to come from Hondai's investor Day is that it wants to increase global sales by thirty percent and plans to do that with more hybrids and range extended electrics.
But its investor Day event was over two and a half hours long, so there were a number of other announcements that we think are important but just didn't have the time to cover. That includes sell the vehicle technology
where it eliminates the floor of the car and the battery pack becomes part of the body structure, like Tesla first started doing with the Model three. Hondai says that
will allow it to cut the cost of the battery by thirty percent not including the cells, and chop overall way to the pack by ten percent. It's also developing
software to find vehicles that will use a new zonal electronic architecture and a high performance computer. It will first
come out with a test vehicle at the end of twenty twenty six before rolling the technology out to future models.
And lastly, Hondai plans to offer autonomy from level two plus to level four. To help accelerate those efforts, it's
creating a new business venture that will sell an AV platform to AV software companies with the aim of speeding up development. Not only will this be applied to customer cars,
but also to Hyundai's robotaxi business, called Motional. It currently
uses Ionic fives, but plans to apply what it learns from the new business venture to make a new third gen robotaxi platform. Americans are becoming more loyal to the
car brands they already own when shopping for a new car.
According to S and P Global Mobility, the autowindustry's brand loyalty is at fifty two and a half percent, about two percent higher than it was a year ago and the first year over year increase since twenty twenty. More
than half of all brands saw one percent or better increase.
One reason brand loyalty is going up is that there's more cars in inventory, with the chip shortage mostly over.
When inventory was tight, some shoppers had to look at other brands to get what they wanted. Among individual brands,
Tesla has the highest loyalty in the industry, sixty seven point eight percent of Tesla buyers come back and buy another one. The Model three has the highest loyalty of all,
seventy two point one percent, and General Motors is the highest rated multi brand OEM with a sixty seven point seven percent loyalty rate. But with customers more loyal than ever,
it's harder for automakers to go out and find new ones.
According to a study by Reynolds and Reynolds, dealer service departments can make more money if the technicians, you know, the actual people working on your car, help in the sales process. It's not saying tech should replace the service advisor,
but rather use digital tools that allow them to provide insight into the work they're recommending, as well as do things like crosschecking to make sure all the parts are available.
It says even busy shops that write over twelve hundred repair orders a month can increase profits this way. Well,
here's a wild story. Get this. A guy walked into
a Kia dealership in Tennessee ready to buy two tell You rides for nearly one hundred and sixty grand, But the customer was actually a scam artist. He had stolen
a dead man's identity and when the salesperson realized this guy was using a fake driver's license, he called the police, but to stall them until the hops got there. The
sales rep played along as if nothing was wrong, going through all the paperwork in the sales process. There's a
TikTok video of it all, which is racked up more than fifteen million views. It shows the thief shaking hands
with one of the salespeople and getting a round of applause, as they do with all customers about to take delivery of a new car. Then it abruptly cuts to the
guy getting cuffed by the cops and charged with forgery and attempted theft. That's crazy stuff and I hope that
salesperson gets a raise. And on that note, we wrap
up today's report. Thanks for watching Autoline Daily.
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