Strong October sales were highlighted with Hyundai and Kia setting US records, driven by electrics and hybrids, while BYD shattered its own global sales record, pushing it up the ranks worldwide. Volkswagen faces significant profit declines across its luxury brands and software division, though its truck unit shines. Scout's new US plant may produce vehicles for other brands, stirring dealer opposition. Ford addresses a Tesla adapter issue for EV charging, GM partners with Walmart for electric delivery vans, and Carvana rebounds with impressive sales growth. Renault aims to cut EV costs and accelerate development, while Toyota and Infiniti showcase adventurous and luxury concepts at SEMA.
Topics:us october sales recordsbyd global sales growthvolkswagen profit challengesscout assembly plant plansford tesla adapter issuegm walmart electric vanscarvana financial turnaroundrenault ev cost reductiontoyota land cruiser conceptinfiniti tailgate luxury concept
- U.S. New Car Sales Up 11% In October - BYD Sets Sales Record - Leapmotor Sales Leap 110% - Porsche, Audi Profits Plummet - Scout Could Build Vehicles for Other Automakers - Ford Turns to Lectron for NACS - Walmart Chooses GM Brightdrop Vans - Carvana Is Screaming Ahead - Ampere Targets 40% EV Cost Cuts - Toyota Reveals Open-Air Land Cruiser Concept - Infiniti Creates Luxurious Tailgating Concept
"...A, and now it unveiled an open top concept of the land Cruiser. It's called the Land Cruiser ROX or ROCKS, which..."
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Speaker 1: This is Outoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. It's a new month, which means
automakers will report October sales over the next few days.
So far, we only have Hondai and Kia's numbers, but both set October records. Honday's sales in the US were
up eighteen percent to nearly seventy two thousand vehicles, and kia sales were up sixteen percent to about sixty nine thousand units. Big gains from electrics and hybrids drove that growth.
We'll have a clear picture of the US market next week when more automakers report their sales, but October is expected to be a good month. According to estimates from
the major data firms, US sales are expected to increase as much as eleven percent, and the seasonally adjusted annual rate or SAR is expected to come in between fifteen point eight and sixteen point one million units, about the same as September, but had a last year's fifteen point six five million SAR. BYD just set an all time
sales record. It sold a little over five hundred thousand
vehicles in October, which is more than eighty thousand units more than the previous month and nearly two hundred thousand vehicles more than last October. P has including extended range electrics,
pass bvs and sales in February and accounted for over sixty percent of all of BYD's vehicles sold last month.
For the year, the company has sold a little over three point two million vehicles, which is already about two hundred thousand units more than last year's total, when it ranked ninth in worldwide sales. At the end of this year,
BYD should move up to eighth and will probably put a lot of pressure on Ford in Honda. And it
wasn't just BYD that had a good sales month in China.
A number of automakers recorded solid increases. But we're going
to shine a little extra light on Leap Motor because it just started launching models in Europe with the help of its new partner Stilantis. Leap Motor delivered over thirty
eight thousand vehicles in October, which is not a massive number, but it's a record for the company and a nearly one hundred and ten percent increase over last year. And
will be interested to see how that partnership with Stilantis will continue to impact sales. Volkswagen, as you know, is
going through a really rough time. Most of the focus
has been on the VW brand itself, but we dug deeper in the latest financial earning show that the problems run throughout the company. VW's Progressive group, which includes Audi, Bentley,
Lamborghini and Ducatti, saw its profits drop more than fifty four percent so far this year. The sport luxury group,
which only includes Portia, saw its profits drop twenty eight percent, and Cariad, the software group that has stumbled so badly, has lost two billion euros compared to a loss of one point seven billion at this time last year. The
only bright spot at VW is Tratton, the heavy truck manufacturer that also owns Navistar. It generated three billion euros
in profits this year, up sixteen percent. In fact, Tratton
is now more profitable than Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducatti put together, and that shows just how serious the problems are at VW. And we've been wondering how VW could
justify building a new assembly plant in the United States for Scout at the same time it's talking about closing three assembly plants in Germany. But Automotive News reports that
the Scout plant could also be a contract manufacturing facility to make vehicles for both Audi and Volkswagon and other car companies, and it could also manufacture aftermarket accessories. If
that plant did make vehicles for other car companies, it would help Scout's claim that it's independent from Volkswagen. And
that's an important point because Scout wants to sell its vehicles directly to consumers, and if a car company has used franchise dealers in the past, it cannot legally drop them to sell cars direct. VW's dealers are really mad
about Scout's plans, and the NADA, the National Auto Dealers Association, is already preparing a legal strategy to oppose it, possibly with lawsuits filed in every one of the fifty states.
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Speaker 1: Last month, four told its evy customers to stop using a complementary next to CCS connector that it provided because of a potential issue that could cause reduce charging speeds or even damage to the charging port. That adapter was
supplied by Tesla. So to help customers get back access
to Tesla Supercharger network, Ford partnered with Electron to also supply it with NAS adapters and is now shipping that new connector to customers across the US. It's free for
those who already qualified to receive the complementary adapter. Customers
who weren't eligible can purchase it from Ford for two hundred dollars. GM announced a partnership with Walmart to supply
it with fully electric bright Drop vans. These are the
shorter wheelbase bright Drop four hundred vans, which will be used to deliver goods to Walmart customers. They don't say
how many Walmart is going to buy, but it's going to deploy a fleet of them in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Northwest Arkansas, Orlando, and the San Francisco Bay Area by the end of the year. Use car retailer Carvana has
seen quite the turnaround in the last couple of years.
In late twenty twenty two, it was on the brink of bankruptcy but resorted to an aggressive cost cutting plan that trimmed over a billion dollars from its expenses, and it's really paid off. In the third quarter, it's sold
over one hundred and eighty five hundred vehicles, which is up thirty four percent from last year and a more than seven percent growth from Q two. That's driving up
income and revenue, which is driving investors to the company.
Its stock is trading at roughly two hundred and fifty dollars a share, a more than four hundred percent increase so far this year and a whopping seven thousand percent jump from that low point in late twenty twenty two.
And here the in house evy startup at Renault is making some pretty impressive claims thanks to what it learned working with a team in China. It expects to cut
the cost of c segment evs by forty percent by twenty twenty eight by using cobalt free LFP battery and sell the pack battery design. It plans to have Europe's
first SDV or software to find vehicle by twenty twenty six, and it says the new Renault TwinGo was fully developed in less than two years, which means it shaved at least a year off of Renault's typical product development time.
And Pere is also supplying LP, Nissan and Mitsubishi with its tech stack, and while it canceled its plans to do an IPO earlier this year, if it can deliver on these targets, maybe the financial markets will be more interested in seeing it going public. Yesterday, Toyota showed off
a convertible concept of the Forerunner at SEMA, and now it unveiled an open top concept of the land Cruiser.
It's called the Land Cruiser ROX or ROCKS, which stands for Recreation Open Experience. It's based on the twenty twenty
four model and fifty percent of the suv had to be reinvented or fabricated. It features skeleton doors with open
upper and lower sections, a retractable soft top and a midgate that opens the cabin to the bed for access to the integrated tailgate seating and extra storage. To make
it more off road capable. The rocks includes a customized
independent suspension from TRD, a four inch lift kit, and an eight inch wider track. Infinity also showed off a
concept at SEMA aimed at tailgaters who want a more luxurious experience. It's a modified version of its QX eighty
suv called the Autograph Lounge. It features a big screen
TV and a custom sound system, and the cargo area also comes with custom leather wrapped slide out drawers to store tailgate items. But that brings us to the end
of today's show and this week thanks for tuning in.
I hope that you have a great weekend.
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