Lucid Motors' CEO Peter Rawlinson steps down amid disappointing financial results despite sales growth, signaling a need for leadership focused on scaling production. Tesla faces declining stock and public backlash, especially in Germany, linked to Elon Musk's political controversies. Stellantis reports sharp drops in sales and profits while searching for a new CEO. Mitsubishi dealers in the US struggle with low sales and aging product lines, urging for new models. Hyundai advances plant automation with private 5G tech, and Kia introduces smart EV charging solutions. Volvo teases its new electric ES90 sedan with impressive range and fast charging. Toyota restructures its board to streamline decision-making.
Topics:lucid ceo changetesla stock declinestellantis earningsmitsubishi dealer struggleshyundai private 5gkia smart ev chargingvolvo electric sedantoyota board restructuringautomotive industry financialsev market developments
- CEO Rawlinson Out at Lucid - Tesla Stock Trips and Falls - Stella’s Earnings Plummet - NHTSA Cuts 4% Of Workforce - Hyundai Using Private 5G Spectrum in Manufacturing - Kia Emphasizes Bi-Directional Charging - GM and Tesla Score Highest Owner Loyalty - U.S. Mitsubishi Dealers Losing Money, Beg for New Product - Volvo ES90 Gets 800V, 435 Miles Range - Toyota Shrinks Board, Appoints an American
"... WLTP test cycle, and thanks to its eight hundred volt architecture, it can add three hundred kilometers..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the local automotive industry. Seems like there's never a dull
moment in the auto industry right now, and Lucid Motors dropped something of a bombshell yesterday announcing that Peter Rollinson is stepping down as CEO of the company and into.
Speaker 2: An advisory role.
Speaker 1: Mark Winterhoff, the chief operating officer, was named as interim CEO as the board searches for a new full time replacement.
So it sure sounds like something happened for such a quick departure of Rolinson, and Lucid's latest financial earnings could have been what triggered it all. Even though sales were
up seventy percent, the company only sold a little over ten thousand cars. Revenue was up thirty six percent, but
only came to a little over eight hundred million dollars.
The company posted a three billion dollar operating loss, about the same as a year before, and a three billion dollar net loss, which was actually a bit worse than before.
And on top of all of that, the stock price has been stuck in a rut for the last year.
No doubt that weight on the board's decision. Lucid expects
to double production this year with the launch of the Gravity Suv, and while Rolinson is a brilliant technologist, it's pretty clear what kind of CEO the company needs right now.
Somebody who can move the metal. And things don't look
very rosy at Tesla either. The stock price is down
almost twenty four percent over the last month, and the company's market cap is now under a trillion dollars. Bloomberg
reports there are a growing number of anti Tesla protests and even vandalism at company stores and non private vehicles, and it's all because of the provocative and political stands of Elon Musk. That's especially true in Germany, where Musk
has been bashing the political leadership of the country. One
survey shows that eighty percent of the German public have an unfavorable view of the Tesla CEO, and last month, Teslass sales in Germany fell fifty nine percent. At this point,
we don't think this can be explained away by people waiting for the new model Y or plant retooling, or lower deliveries early in the quarter. Something seems to have
fundamentally shifted, and that something is public opinion Stellantis also posted its twenty twenty four earnings, and the numbers are brutal.
It's sold five and a half million vehicles, eight hundred and sixty seven thousand fewer than the year before. Revenue
came to nearly one hundred and fifty seven billion euros, but that was thirty two billion euros less than before.
It's operating income dropped by more than eighteen billion to only three point six billion euros, and its net profit fell seventy percent to five and a half billion. Stella's
board is searching for a new CEO and promises that this year's results will be a lot better. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it's cut four percent of its workforce as part of President Trump's government layoffs.
NITSA says the agency grew by thirty percent during the Biden administration, and even after the cuts, there are still more workers than there were four years ago. NITSA had
more than eight hundred employees before the layoffs. Safety advocates
were critical of the cuts, but we'd point out that traffic fatalities have increased twenty percent over the last decade in the US. Despite NITZA mandating all kinds of extra
safety equipment.
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: The Hyundai Group, along with Samsung, are improving the communication skills of robots and plants. It was the first Korean
company to use what's called Private five G in mass production.
Private five G uses a specific frequency band within the five G spectrum that allows safe wireless communication, which Hondai leverage to control a fleet of autonomous mobile robots at one of its plants in South Korea.
Speaker 2: But a system like this can.
Speaker 1: Be complex and eat up a lot of power, so that's why it's also developing reduced capability or red CAP powered five G networks that offer simplified device configurations, a more compact infrastructure, and reduced bandwidth usage, which lowers power use in costs. Hondai is testing a system like this
in vehicle inspection equipment, small tools, cameras, and tablets. While
Private five G red CAP is faster and more stable than Wi Fi for wireless communication in plants, the group patented dual wireless communication as well, which combines both five networks and Wi Fi, so there's virtually no communication related downtime.
It says these solutions will continue to spread to its plants around the world and could also be used by other businesses and speaking of the Hyundai Group, Kia is launching a couple of smart charging solutions for its evs in Europe in the US. The first is a bidirectional
charging function that will allow owners of the Kia EV nine and seven US states to use their vehicle as an emergency power source during outages, or they can charge the vehicle when electricity is cheaper and use it as a home power source when electricity rates are higher. The
second solution is a smart charging app that will first be offered in the Netherlands and combines data from both the EV and the owner's energy supplier to make sure the vehicle charges as cheaply as possible. And third, it
will start allowing owners to sell electricity from their EV back to the grid later this year. In Europe, General
Motors and Tesla have the most loyal customers. In the US,
once again, SMP Global Mobility revealed its annual Automotive Loyalty Awards and GM was the winner of the Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer Award, while Tesla won the Overall Loyalty to Make award. Both companies earned the same awards in twenty
twenty three, and the Lincoln Corsair won the Overall Loyalty to Model award. While brand loyalty is still below pre
pandemic levels, it has increased three years in a row and reached fifty.
Speaker 2: One point six percent in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: SMP's loyalty awards are based on an analysis of thirteen point one million new vehicle registrations in the US in twenty twenty four. Mitsubishi dealers in the US are begging
the automaker for more product. The company sold just under
one hundred and ten thousand vehicles last year in the US.
Speaker 2: But forty percent of that one to fleets.
Speaker 1: Automotive News reports the dealers only retailed around sixty six thousand vehicles last year, an average of just seventeen cars a month per store. Dealers say that figure needs to
be at least thirty cars a month, so several Mitsubishi dealers sent a letter to North America CEO Mark Chafin asking the.
Speaker 2: Automaker for new product.
Speaker 1: As a result of slow new car sales, some dealers say they've given up on selling new vehicles and are focusing on US sales instead, while rising prices and an aging lineup is hurting their profitability. Net profit per store
averaged four hundred and thirty four thousand dollars last year, about half of what it was in twenty twenty, and Mitsubishi currently only sells three models in the US, the Eclipse Crossed, the Outlander, and the Outlander Sport. The automaker
ended production of the Mirage last year, its second best selling model, and dealers are expected to run out of inventory some time this summer. Volvo has been teasing the
all electric ES ninety sedan for about a week now ahead of its official debut on March fifth. The model
is based on the same SPA two platform as the EX ninety suv, which features a more centralized computing system and software to find vehicle architecture, with just a single set of hardware and software modules to power the vehicle's AI functions, self driving features, including all the cameras and sensors, and its battery management system. The ES ninety uses two
of Nvidia's drive or in computer chip sets. Volvo also
revealed that the model will have up to seven hundred kilometers or about four hundred and thirty five miles of range on the WLTP test cycle, and thanks to its eight hundred volt architecture, it can add three hundred kilometers or one hundred and eighty six miles of range in ten minutes when charging at three hundred and fifty kilowatts.
Toyota is shaking up its board to help streamline decision making.
It's currently made up of a board of directors, a supervisory board, and an audit board, but Toyota is going to eliminate the audit board and supervisory boards, which will be replaced by committees. As a result, the board will
shrink from sixteen members to ten, with five internal and five outside directors. One of the new nominees is Christopher Reynolds,
an American who currently serves as executive vice president and Chief Strategy Officer in North America for Toyota. If he's
approved by Toyota shareholders, he'll be just the fourth American to serve on Toyota's board. He'll also step down from
his role in North America at Toyota, making him the second high profile executive to leave last month, Chief operating Officer Jack Hollis abruptly resigned from the company that brings us to the end of today's show. Thanks for making
autoline a part of your day.
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