AD #3930 - Toyota’s Unique Inventory Strategy; Trump’s Likely Impact on Auto Industry; Xpeng Develops New EREV System

Speaker 1: This is aut Aligne Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Donald Trump was re elected

as president of the United States and it could have a major impact on the automotive industry.

Speaker 2: Let's start with Eve's.

Speaker 1: Trump is promised to stop sales subsidies on electric cars, and he could potentially tell the EPA to drop the waiver that it provides to the California Air Resources Board, allowing it to set its own emission standards. He's promising

to raise terraffs across the board on imported cars, possibly including cars from Mexico and Europe, and there's even talk of the Republican Party rescinding the Chips Act, which provides subsidies to make computer chips in the US, including ones.

Speaker 2: Used by the automotive industry.

Speaker 1: It looks like Elon Musk is likely to be an advisor to Trump or could even end up as a member of the president's cabinet, so that could result in some favorable policies for b EV. In fact, Tesla's stock

was up twelve percent on the news, but that was Tesla.

The shares of German automakers dropped an average of five percent over fears of higher tariffs on the cars they export to the US. Of course, their stock prices didn't

just drop because Trump got re elected. BMW and Porsche

reported third quarter earnings yesterday that were downright dismal. BMW

saw a sharp drop in sales that led to a sixty one percent decline in its ebit and Porsche saw a nearly twenty seven percent drop. And it wasn't just

the Germans reporting week earnings, so did the two largest Japanese automakers. Toyota reported its net profit dropped fifty five

percent last quarter as sales of its cars and trucks fell nearly four percent, despite its success in selling hybrids, and Honda reported that its net profit dropped nearly twenty percent in the first half of its fiscal year as its car sales fell eight percent, mainly from a drop in China. Honda also warned that any tariffs added to

cars imported to the US from Mexico could hurt its sales even more. Okay, back to the US for a moment,

automakers and suppliers will be scrambling to figure out how far and how fast the Trump administration will push to raise tariffs and to.

Speaker 2: Cut EV subsidies.

Speaker 1: The thinking now is that Trump will probably get rid of EV sales subsidies but keep the subsidies to build battery plants. For one thing, those new plants will create

new jobs, but they're also mostly being built in red states, so Trump probably won't want to pull the plug on them.

And if it's like his last presidency, we're probably not going to have to wait long for answers.

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Speaker 1: Live Wire motorcycle business spun off from Harley Davidson is coming out with a couple of scooters, but these aren't your typical putt put urban scooters. They're based on the

same platform as live wires current electric bikes, so they're bigger and more powerful. It says it hopes to launch

them in the first half of twenty twenty six and will expand its partnership with Kymco, which is a Taiwanese motorcycle company that owns about four percent of Live Wire and helps it with engineering, manufacturing, and distribution. Kymco will

also make its own electric motorcycle called the Revo Necks off of live Wire's current platform that it hopes to launch right after the scooters. Chinese automaker Japung is switching

up its powertrain strategy. It currently only sells pure electrics,

but the company CEO announced that it's developing a new extended range EV or e REV. Jipung is aiming for

an all electric range of four high hundred and thirty kilometers or two hundred and sixty seven miles, a total range of fourteen hundred kilometers or eight hundred and seventy miles, and a charging time from ten to eighty percent in just twelve minutes to help provide a better driving experience.

It's aiming to only increase the engine's noise level by one decibel when it's used as a generator, and will also use AI to optimize the system under certain road conditions.

For example, if you're driving in the mountains and the vehicle is running out of charge, the engine will warm up sooner. The powertrain will be available in global markets,

but Japong did not say when it will launch. Toyota's

idea of an ideal amount of inventory is a lot different than most auto makers. It depends on the model

and the season of the year, but a normal level of inventory is considered to be about sixty days supply. However,

when Toyota reached forty seven days in the US in twenty nineteen and forty six days in twenty twenty, it felt like inventories were too high and started offering sales incentives to help sell cars. The three day supply it

had during the chip shortage was too low for comfort, but it sounds like Toyota is more comfortable with where it's been able to get to in the last two years, which was eleven days supply in twenty twenty three and seven days this year. As an extreme example. The other

way ram let inventory get out of hand, especially at the end of last year in the beginning of this year, reaching up around one hundred and eighty days supply. It's

also resorting to sales incentives as well as fresh marketing, which has gotten inventory back to around one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty days. Chinese ev maker

Netta is struggling back. In twenty twenty two, the brand

sold more than one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles, more than Liato, Neo and Japang, but through the first nine months of this year, Nedda has only sold about fifty four thousand, and that's due to a shift in strategy.

The evmaker was founded in twenty eighteen by Hozan Auto as an affordable mainstream brand, but two years ago Nedda decided to go up market with higher price models and that hasn't worked, so it's halted production at its main plant in China, which has an annual capacity of two hundred thousand units. The company has also cut salaries of

some employees by up to thirty percent. But while it

looks like it's in trouble in China, Nedda is hoping to offset the decline by expanding overseas, Ford is hitting a bit of a rough patch with the F one to fifty Lightning. Sales were down nearly fifty percent in

the US last month, and the company is idling production until early next year, likely because it has too much inventory.

So to help get them up off of dealer lots, Ford is slashed the lease price. A lease for a

twenty twenty four XLT standard range model is three hundred and thirty nine dollars a month for thirty six months, with about sixty six hundred dollars due. At signing last month,

it was seven hundred dollars per month. The new price

is about the same as a Mustang Machi, and it's less than a hybrid Maverick, which costs about four hundred bucks a month to lease. However, the Maverick has a

lower down payment. The offer for the Lightning only less

until January first.

Speaker 2: If you build it, he.

Speaker 1: Will come, that he is me, and that it is the Kia Weekender concept, which is based on the automaker's upcoming electric commercial van, the PV five. For a quick

little refresher, Kia revealed the lineup of commercial vans at CES this year from small to large, all with the name PV and a number. The PI will be the

first to launch, and the Weekender is a concept version it showed off at SEMA. I think this thing is

sweet and hope someone is crazy enough to make a conversion kit. Kia also showed off a pretty cool off

road concept version of the EV nine called the Adventure.

Speaker 2: But that's all for today's show. Thanks for tuning in.

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AD #3930 - Toyota’s Unique Inventory Strategy; Trump’s Likely Impact on Auto Industry; Xpeng Develops New EREV System

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