AD #4175 - Ford Considers Axing The F-150 Lightning; Shareholders Approve Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Plan; China Lowers EV Tax Exemption
Autoline Daily
AD #4175 - Ford Considers Axing The F-150 Lightning; Shareholders Approve Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Plan; China Lowers EV Tax Exemption
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Speaker 1: This is outderlying daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. I think there's a good amount
of people that blame Elon Musk for any recent sales drop at Tesla, But yet shareholders heavily voted in favor of the CEO's new pay package, which could be worth up to a trillion dollars, the biggest in history and larger than the GDP of countries like Belgium and Argentina.
The proposal was approved with over seventy five percent support, but in order to receive the full amount, Musk will need to hit some very lofty milestones over the next decade, like delivering twenty million vehicles, getting ten million FSD subscribers, having a million robotaxis in operation, selling a million humanoid robots, and raising Tesla's stock value to eight and a half trillion dollars. However, controversy has swirled around the package because
Elon can still earn billions even if he falls short of those targets. Reuter's reports that must bound it onto
the stage for the company's annual meeting after the proposal went through, and proceeded to talk about plans for its cars, avs, robots, and AI. He says the next gen Roadster, which was
first announced eight years ago, is aiming for a reveal on April first, although in April Fool's debut doesn't instill a lot of confidence that it will come out then.
Around the same time, he says, the cyber cab will enter production at Testless plant in Texas, but no word if it will have a steering wheel or pedals. And
to support all this expansion, the company will need a ton of chips, so it's considering a partnership with Intel.
Full size electric pickup sales are well below what automakers expected.
That's why Stilantis canceled development of rams electric truck back in September, and now The Wall Street Journal reports that Ford is considering scrapping the F one fifty Lightning. Production
is currently halted due to an aluminum shortage caused by a fire at supplier Novellas's plant in October. The company
is debating whether to restart production, but no final decision has been made yet. It's not too surprising if the
model gets axd. Ford only sold fifteen hundred Lightnings last
month in the US, plus the company is developing an affordable electric pickup truck based on its new Universal Evy platform.
That model is expected to launch in twenty twenty seven and start around thirty thousand bucks. But the big question
is what will Ford do with the massive assembly plant that it's building in Tennessee called Blue Oval City. It's
supposed to be tooled up to make five hundred thousand full size electric pickup trucks a year, so we fully expect that Ford will have to make some sort of adjustments to those plans. Tariffs had a big impact on
car buyers. According to the eighty Power twenty twenty five
US Sales Satisfaction Index, thirty six percent of new vehicle buyers say that tariffs impacted their buying process, with most eighty seven percent saying they bought earlier than they planned, and fifteen percent of those buyers also paid more than they originally intended. Even so, overall customer satisfaction with the
car buying process increased over last year. Among the mass
market brands, Buick had the highest overall customer satisfaction, followed by Subaru, Chevrolet, GMC, and Many, and while GM's mass market brands did well Cadillac was below the industry average in the premium segment. Porsche topped the list amongst the
luxury brands for the third consecutive year, and it was followed by land Rover, Infinity, Mercedes, Benz, and Lincoln.
Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.
Learn more at VCSP dot com.
Speaker 1: China is showing signs that it's going to start backing off of government support for evs. At the end of October,
we reported that for the first time in a decade, electric vehicles won't be included in the country's five year development plan, and starting at the beginning of next year, any thes will no longer be fully exempt from purchase taxes, which allowed buyers to avoid up to forty two hundred dollars in costs. Instead, that exemption will now be cut
in half. With ANYV sales soaring past ten million last
year and already topping eleven million this year, China is paying out a lot of money. The Ministry of Finance
estimates total purchase tax reductions from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty seven will reach over seventy three billion dollars, and while any these continue to see sales growth, China estimates that by twenty forty one third of new cars sold will still use an internal combustion engine, and that ice vehicles will still be in the market for another decade or two. Honda really struggled in the second quarter
of its current fiscal year. The automakers sold eight hundred
and forty one thousand vehicles, down about seven and a half percent compared to a year ago that brought in around thirty six billion dollars in revenue, a two percent decrease, and its operating profit plunged by a quarter to one point three billion. Honda's earnings were impacted by one time
EV costs, declining sales in China and other Asian markets, and the next period chip shortage also put a dent in its earnings. While it did take a hit from
US terrace, the impact was less since Honda builds a high number of its vehicles in the US, but the company expects the second half of the year to be taught and is cutting its full year forecast by twenty one percent. Not too surprisingly, Kia saw a big drop
in US EV sales last month. With the seventy five
hundred dollars federal EV tax credit going away, sales of the EV six and the EV nine plunged sixty eight percent in October. The NEUROEV wasn't included in that figure
because there's also hybrid and plug in hybrid versions, and Kia doesn't break down sales for each powertrain. The company
was offering nine thousand dollars discounts on the EV six and EV nine and an eight thousand dollars discount for the NEUROEV last month, but apparently that wasn't enough to attract customers, so now Kia is knocking ten thousand dollars off all the EV's in its lineup to help boose sales.
And while EV sales took a big hit, the slowdown might only be temporary. An analyst at Global Data, a
company that tracks car sales, doesn't believe low EV sales will be a new normal and expects to see a recovery.
He says there weren't many EVE buyers in October because customers bought EV's earlier in the year while the tax credit was still available. While demand will likely remain low
for the rest of the year. Our rebound is expected
after that since automakers are still planning on launching new EV's in the coming years. And that brings us to
the end of today's show. Thanks for making Audoline a
part of your day and I hope that you have a great weekend.
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About this episode
Elon Musk's unprecedented $1 trillion pay plan was approved by Tesla shareholders despite recent sales challenges, with ambitious goals for vehicle deliveries, FSD subscribers, and robot production. Ford is reconsidering the future of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup amid low sales and supply issues, while planning a more affordable EV pickup for 2027. China is scaling back EV tax incentives as EV sales soar, signaling a gradual shift in policy. Meanwhile, Honda faces profit declines due to EV costs and chip shortages, and Kia experiences a steep drop in US EV sales following the loss of federal tax credits, prompting aggressive discounts to boost demand.
Original notes
- Tesla Shareholders Approve Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Plan - Ford Considers Axing The F-150 Lightning - Tariffs Pushed Car Buyers to Make Earlier Purchases - China Cuts Purchase Tax Exemption for EVs - Honda Posts 25% Decline in Operating Profit - Kia Offering $10,000 Discounts for Its EVs - U.S. EV Sales Slowdown May Only Be Temporary
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