This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.
TESLA: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE IN-BETWEEN
And we’ll start out with everyone’s favorite electric vehicle company, Tesla. The automaker is already raising the price of the Model Y. All trims currently available on its online configurator got a $1,000 price bump, but that doesn’t include the base version as of now. Elon Musk also revealed that all cars in its inventory worldwide will get a price hike of around 3% starting on April 2nd. And speaking of Tesla sales, an analyst for RBC is warning that the company’s deliveries could disappoint. He expects Tesla to deliver 52,500 Model 3’s in the first quarter, which is down from 57,000 in a previous estimate. And overall for 2019, Model 3 deliveries are expected to reach 261,000 units down from 268,000. But it’s not all bad news for the company. A federal judge just dismissed a lawsuit that was brought against it by shareholders that alleged Tesla misled them about the production status of the Model 3. The suit said shareholders bought artificially inflated shares because of bullish statements Tesla made about Model 3 production. But the judge rejected that claim and ruled in favor of Tesla.
VEHICLE SALES DOWN IN SOUTH AMERICA
We like keeping you up to speed with what’s going on in the global auto industry. So, let’s take a look at how automakers are doing in South America. According to WardsAuto, through the first two months of the year, light vehicle sales hit 580,000 units, which is down about 6% compared to the prior year. Most of the largest automakers are down this year as well. General Motors is the top automaker in the region, followed by FCA. Volkswagen is number three, and then there’s a bit of a drop off to Renault, Toyota and Ford, which are all pretty close in sales. As you can see, all but FCA saw their sales drop.
| South America LV Sales YTD |
| Total |
580,537 |
-5.7% |
| GM |
92,931 |
-7.2% |
| FCA |
88,444 |
+10.5% |
| VW |
73,912 |
-8.9% |
| Renault |
52,853 |
-10.8% |
| Toyota |
50,595 |
-5.5% |
| Ford |
48,160 |
-15.8% |
FORECAST CALLS FOR MARCH SLOWDOWN
And speaking of sales, Wards is forecasting that light vehicle sales will fall in the U.S. this month. Its estimating that sales will hit about 1.5 million units, which is a drop of 5% compared to the year before on a daily selling rate basis. The SAAR is expected to hit 16.8 million, which is ahead of the first two months of 2019 but below last March’s 17.2 million figure. Sales are expected to drop due to rising vehicle prices and lower incentives. Wards says there’s no indication that automakers will make an incentive push to counteract the slowdown or to get rid of excess inventory.
SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO?
GM’s Heritage Center houses 700 classic vehicles from the company’s history. On last week’s Autoline After Hours, we were joined by Greg Wallace, who used to run the museum. And he talked about how the company decides what cars to keep and which ones to let go. But first a word from our sponsors.
To learn more about the GM Heritage Center, you can watch that entire discussion right now on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.
ORDER PIZZA RIGHT FROM YOUR CAR
Connected vehicles offer a number of benefits and soon that will include the ability to order pizza right from your car. Domino’s has teamed up with Xevo, the global leader of in-vehicle commerce and services for automakers, to launch a new pizza ordering platform that can be accessed through a car’s infotainment screen. Once logged in, customers are just a few taps away from ordering a pizza. Time can be saved by using an Easy Order function or going back to a recent order. The progress of the pizza can also be followed, customers can locate other stores and even call in an order from the interface as well. It won’t be till later this year when the Domino’s function is added to Xevo’s platform, which is already in vehicles from GM, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota.
FORD FIESTA & FOCUS GETTING 48-VOLT SYSTEM
Ford of Europe says it wants to bring the benefits of electrification to a greater number of consumers and will offer new hybrid models for two of its most popular cars. The Fiesta and Focus Hybrid will be introduced next year featuring a 1.0L 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine paired to a 48-volt mild hybrid system, which includes a belt-driven starter/generator and a small lithium-ion battery pack. The 48-volt system will allow for energy recovery, provide torque assistance during normal driving and acceleration and run some vehicle accessories. And because it helps mitigate turbo-lag, Ford was able to boost the engines power with a larger turbocharger. What you see here are the current engine and cars. Ford hasn’t released the new stuff, so we don’t know if there’s anything unique about them.
But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
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Comments (31)
March 26th, 2019 at 12:02 pm
I checked out the GM Heritage Center last week on the web and was disappointed to see it is not really a museum, there are no hours for individual public, but you can reserve the place for large groups (above 30 people if I remember well) at a cost of $10-15 a head.
There is another very impressive collection about 90 min drive from here, Stahl’s collection, which is open to the public only Tuesdays 1-4 PM. (no admission price, donations)
March 26th, 2019 at 12:04 pm
South Am sales, total of 580,000, but only for 2 months, so maybe 6 million a year. Still, all of SA is only 20% of what a good year in China sales is.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:06 pm
@Larry D – I need to get to Stahl’s collection. I’ve heard the same as you say, that it’s impressive, but I’ve never been there.
And if you haven’t had the chance or heard of the Gilmore Car Museum, it’s another great place in Michigan to check out. But make sure to carve out a lot of time. That place is huge.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:09 pm
3 @ Sean, I saw a 22-min video of Stahl’s collection, there is a half-hour program on PBS where the host visits interesting sites in MI, and he was there earlier this winter (or maybe it was a rerun). Maybe it is on the PBS site. It airs Thursdays 8 or 8:30 PM. The cars were mostly US-made, and included some very ancient ones.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:10 pm
4 I believe the program is called “Under the radar Michigan” and it’s at 8:30 PM each Thu.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:13 pm
https://www.pbs.org/video/chesterfield-stahls-automotive-collection-eqehex/
here is a short video. The collection includes memorabilia and music
March 26th, 2019 at 12:18 pm
6 good video, just watched it. They are also open the 1st Saturday of each month from 11 AM to 4 PM. So Sat April 6 they are open.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:19 pm
I have been to all three venues… Gilmore, Stahl’s, and GM Heritage Center. They are all worthy of any car enthusiast’s time. The Gilmore is a near religious experience.
My bucket list includes three other venues… Peterson, LeMay, and Hershey… but attendance at all three is unlikely. Can anyone offer advice to help my prioritization effort?
March 26th, 2019 at 12:22 pm
Can I assume the South America numbers can maybe be tied to, in a word, Venezuela. They couldn’t have sold too many in that politically ravaged country. I wonder, if my guess is correct, what the actual environment (sales wise) that South America represents.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:31 pm
Speaking of car museums, another great one, less than 3 hours from Detroit, is the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana.
http://www.automobilemuseum.org
Just the building, an art deco factory showroom is great.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:31 pm
9 half of the South Am economy is Brazil, Ven is much smaller, even smaller than Argentina.
8 I’ve been to Peterson (Petersen?)’s in LA when I lived in the LA area in summer 2003 for 7 weeks. Good collection, saw my first RR Phantom VII (the BMW one) there, plus lots of other RRs. Also saw Nethercutt collection, had some very luxurious floors with ultra-expensive cars from the 30s etc, and a much larger lot with many others, this was in Sylmar, I believe, where they grew olive trees earlier.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:34 pm
Just checked out Gilmore, from April to Nov it’s $15 adults and $10 kids. 9-5 and 9-6 Sat. about 2 hrs west of Detr and another 2 east of Chicago. Was it worth it?
March 26th, 2019 at 12:35 pm
10 yes, that’s a famous one and I have not seen it yet.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:39 pm
8 it depends where you live. LeMay is in Seattle (Tacoma), Peterson and Nethercutt in LA (a 24 hour drive south from Seattle on I5).
If you’re in the Midwest, it is easier to drive to Stahl’s, Gilmore and Cord-Duesy and see all of them, 1-2 hours drive each way.
March 26th, 2019 at 12:46 pm
Here is an list of passenger car sales by country, for 2017.
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/passenger_cars_sales/
Interestingly, showing only ~6.1M for the US, it appears to list only actual cars, not SUVs, CUVs, and pickup trucks. Venezuela sold 4506, so there weren’t many cars sold there, even before things were as bad as now.
March 26th, 2019 at 1:01 pm
I love the Gilmore Car museum. I go to it a couple of times per year and can always see something different each visit. They place is enormous. Last year they were offering rides in their classic cars which was very special. They stated that they will be doing that again this year. I also have one of my cars stored there for the winter. Needless to say, I love that museum.
March 26th, 2019 at 3:03 pm
@16 – The Gilmore cleanses my soul… as does nature’s beauty in Utah, Arizona and western Colorado.
I have also been to the Auburn/Cord museum. Wonderful.
March 26th, 2019 at 9:30 pm
Another museum in the area is the Studebaker Museum in South Bend. They’re in a new building since I visited several years ago. Good museum, but not on the caliber of the Gilmore or the ACD.
March 27th, 2019 at 7:49 am
From today’s “Top Gear”
“The Tesla Model 3 outsold the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4 across Europe last month, according to new data from JATO. Twitter, prepare yourself.
Yup, the new Model 3 sold 3,630 units in February, which was apparently more than The German Big Three did.
It also topped the pure electric vehicle charts, outselling the Renault Zoe, Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Hyundai Kona.
We’re told the sales of the Model 3 came mostly from private registrations rather than fleet.”
March 27th, 2019 at 7:55 am
19 if the European market did not sell more than 3,630 C class or A4 or 3 series (smaller cars are much more popular there than their bigger and more expensive siblings the E, 5 and A6 etc), then it must be in really bad shape.
March 27th, 2019 at 8:05 am
19, 20: A popular comment on the article says:
“Funny enough they only started delivering the Model 3 around the middle of February. March will be way more crushing. Pent up or not – people will see them on the road and word of mouth will create a few questions to ask the incumbents.
14 (up votes)
•”
March 27th, 2019 at 8:23 am
20 In Germany, the BMW 1, 2, and 5 all outsold the 3. I was a little surprised about that. This is 2018 data, so Tesla doesn’t show up.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/germany/2018-full-year-germany-best-selling-car-models/
March 27th, 2019 at 8:27 am
22 the 1 and 2 should outsell the 3 in Europe, they are smaller and more affordable. The 5 is a bit of a surprise, but the reason is that it is more popular than the 3 as a corporate “executive car”. Likewise the E and the A6, also used in Govt fleets (top officials get an S or an A8 or a 7) and a ton of taxis for the E
March 27th, 2019 at 8:33 am
ps 22 the Feb 19 data were not just for Germany, but for “Europe”! They seemed awfully low.
March 27th, 2019 at 8:33 am
Neither the 3, nor the C, nor the A4 made the top 25 for all of Europe in 2018. Mostly smaller cars, from non-premium brands ruled. Only one model of any type from the “German Big Three,” actually the German Premium Three made the top 25, the Mercedes A-Class at #23. Do you know where the Tesla 3 ranked overall for last month in Europe? It will be interesting to see the numbers after it has been sold there for a while.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2018-full-year-europe-best-selling-car-models-in-the-eu/
March 27th, 2019 at 8:47 am
25 of course, obviously they did not, they are not Corollas or Golfs! Did you really expect them to be best sellers? In the US market, likewise, nobody compares $100k Tesla S and Xs with.. Accords and Camrys, not even with E and A6, but with the flagship models, the S and the 7 and the A8, and the S destroyed them.
All I got is that Top Gear article today. And the success of the 3 is despite it was sold only for the second half of Feb, as the comment said.
March 27th, 2019 at 8:51 am
25 How come the Corolla did not even make the Top 25? (they sell the Auris there which is a variation of the corolla) but the tiny Yaris did. The Golf dominates sales despite its higher price than the smaller Fiesta and the cheaper Renault Clio, but more interestingly, the VW Polo (which is the size of a 1988 Golf or more) was high up too. If you add the Skoda and Seat VW owned Golf and polo Variants, VW really dominates the Euro market.
March 27th, 2019 at 9:44 am
26 “of course, obviously they did not,” Whatever. I would have expected one or two “premium” cars to make the top 25, but they didn’t.
27 I remember a time, maybe in the ’80s, that the top 5 or 6 brands in Europe were within a couple percentage points of market share. As I remember, VW, PSA, Renault, Ford, Opel/Vaushall, and maybe Fiat were pretty close, all around 10-12% For a number of years, though, VW has dominated overall in Europe, and probably in most individual countries. They “bought into” some of it with Skoda and Seat, but they would dominate, even without those brands.
March 27th, 2019 at 10:41 am
28 No, not “whatever”. Nobody in his or her right mind would expect a $50-60,000 car that went on sale just for two weeks in Feb 2019 in Europe to sell as much as the $20-$25,000 econoboxes everybody can afford there.
Your top 25 list includes not only several poor quality cars from France and Italy, but also two (!!) cheap Romanian exports from Dacia, which makes very low-quality versions of Renaults. I assume the sales include poor Eastern Europe nations.
March 27th, 2019 at 11:32 am
29 Whatever. I wasn’t talking about the Tesla 3. I was surprised that not even one “premium” car, like C-Class, A4, or any BMW made the top 25.
I couldn’t find what all countries were including for that list, but yeah, it probably included some eastern countries. Dacia sells in western countries, though.
March 27th, 2019 at 11:42 am
Here’s some Euro data that includes both the countries counted, and February, 2019 sales numbers by brand and model.
https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2019-february-europe-new-car-sales-market-analysis/