AD #3295 – U.S. Car Market Plummets, Tesla Soars; Car Thieves Turn To Loan Scams; BYD Drops ICE-Only Cars
April 4th, 2022 at 11:53am
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Runtime: 9:34
0:08 U.S. New Car Market Plummets, Tesla Soars
1:55 Hertz to Buy 65,000 Polestars
2:38 Car Thieves Turn to Loan Scams
4:10 Electrified Cars = 40% Of French Sales
4:44 BYD Drops ICE-Only Cars
5:05 Tesla Shanghai Still Shut
5:26 Beijing Auto Show Postponed Again
5:40 Mercedes’ Massive Price Hike in China
6:39 BMW i3 Name Reborn in China
7:34 EV Vans Cheaper Than Diesels
8:30 Ford Tops List of AWD Sales
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U.S. NEW CAR MARKET PLUMMETS, TESLA SOARS
Sales of new cars and trucks in the US market in March fell an alarming 25% compared to a year ago. Even so, automakers managed to sell 1.2 million vehicles. And sales in March were 6% higher than they were in February. But many automakers had a terrible month. Volkswagen dropped the most, with sales plummeting 46%. Nissan was down 40%. Subaru, Porsche and Mitsubishi each lost about one third of their sales. Only one automaker had a terrific month. Only one. And you all know who it was. Tesla. It was up 28%. Wards Intelligence estimates Tesla sold 36,000 cars in the US market last month, easily outselling BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Thanks to Tesla, the total market share of EVs was 4.5%. Of course, it wasn’t only Tesla that drove up sales of electrics. We saw a lot of new entries that came into the market over the last year, such as the Hummer EV, Mercedes EQS, BMW iX, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and models from Lucid and Rivian. Tesla continues to dominate the EV segment, but these new entries stole two points of market share. A year ago, Tesla had 66% of the segment. Now it has 64%. As long as Tesla continues to see its sales grow it probably won’t worry too much about losing share. But it will continue to lose share as more entrants come into the market. It’s a mathematical law. All market share has to add up to 100%.
| U.S. NEW VEHICLE SALES MARCH, 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 1,246,336 | -24.9% |
| BIGGEST LOSERS | ||
| Volkswagen | 22,713 | -46.4% |
| Nissan | 80,547 | -39.9% |
| Subaru | 43,322 | -36.5% |
| Porsche | 3,698 | -34.4% |
| Mitsubishi | 9,485 | -31.3% |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | ||
HERTZ TO BUY 65,000 POLESTARS
Along those lines, Hertz announced it will add 65,000 Polestar EVs to its fleet of rental cars. That’s on a global basis, and over a 5-year period. The cars will become available in Europe, the US and Australia this year. Hertz also offers Tesla Model Ys to rent, and said it was going to add 100,000 of them to its fleet. But Elon Musk said Tesla would not discount those cars and that Hertz would just have to get in line to buy them like anyone else. So it’s unclear if Hertz is turning to Polestar to be able to get the number of EVs that it needs and at the price that it wants.
CAR THIEVES TURN TO LOAN SCAMS
Car thieves are getting more sophisticated. Instead of breaking into cars, they’re walking into dealerships, presenting fake financial information, and getting dealers to give them financing to buy a new car. Wards reports that last year fraudulent car loans came to $7.7 billion, which is a staggering number. Their favorite targets are the Dodge Charger and Challenger, Land Rovers and Mercedes-Benzes, and even the Toyota Camry. They use false credit-application information, like forged pay stubs, fake identities and phony places of employment. And they honed their skills during the pandemic by scamming the government’s unemployment and paycheck protection programs. Car dealers are now investing in software that can identify a potential scammer.
ELECTRIFIED CARS = 40% OF FRENCH SALES
For the first time ever, sales of electrified vehicles outsold gasoline powered models in France. BEVs, plug-ins and hybrids accounted for 40% of sales in the first quarter compared to 38% for gasoline cars. But when you include diesels, ICE models still top the list. The Tesla Model 3 was the top selling EV in France last month. But the total French market was down 20% in March, the tenth straight month sales have fallen.
BYD DROPS ICE-ONLY CARS
Chinese automaker BYD stopped producing ICE-only cars last month. But it will continue making engines for plug-in hybrids. The company sold nearly 105,000 new energy vehicles in March, its highest total ever. New energy vehicles include plug-ins, BEVs and fuel cell vehicles.
TESLA SHANGHAI STILL SHUT
Tesla still can’t restart production in Shanghai. That’s because of drastic COVID lockdowns in the city. It had hoped to open back up today but had to cancel that plan. That plant was making about 16,000 cars a week, but it’s not clear when it will fire up its assembly lines again.
BEIJING AUTO SHOW POSTPONED AGAIN
That COVID outbreak in China is also forcing the Beijing auto show to be indefinitely postponed. The show was supposed to be held later this month but now it’s postponed until further notice.
MERCEDES’ MASSIVE PRICE HIKE IN CHINA
Keeping with China for the moment, Mercedes is significantly boosting prices. For example, the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC just got a nearly $20,000 price hike. It now costs–are you sitting down–about $490,000. The Mercedes-Maybach S 580 4MATIC got $16,000 added to the price, while the Mercedes S 400 L went up about $4,700. Those are the high-end models. Prices for its more mainstream vehicles are going up anywhere from $100 to $1,000.
BMW i3 NAME REBORN IN CHINA
Hey, check out the new BMW i3. No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That’s a sedan. You may remember we previously reported that the old i3 is on its way out and the name is being reused for the all-electric version of the 3-Series in China, which is based on the long-wheelbase model. But the new and old i3 have nothing in common, other than they’re both BMWs. The new sedan is powered by a single rear motor that produces over 280 horsepower and is fed by a 66.1 kWh battery pack that provides 327 miles or 526 kilometers of range based on China’s test cycle. No range extender for this version. It’s also said the i3 sedan will do 0-100 km/h in 6.2 seconds.
EV VANS CHEAPER THAN DIESELS
Sales of electric cars are really taking off in Europe. They accounted for 9% of new car sales last year. But it’s a different story for electric vans. They only made up 3% of new van sales in Europe in 2021. And that despite the fact that they’re significantly cheaper to operate. According to trade group Transport & Environment, the average electric van costs 25% less to own and operate in Europe over a 4 to 5-year period, compared to a diesel-powered van. Including purchase price, running and maintenance costs an electric van will cost .15 euro cents per kilometer versus .20 cents per kilometer for the diesel van. This does include subsidies for the electric vans but even if you don’t include them, the electric vans are still cheaper to operate in five out of the six countries it ran the numbers in.
FORD TOPS LIST OF AWD SALES
Who do you think sold the most 4-wheel drive vehicles in the U.S. last year? You might say Jeep, but according to data from S&P Global Mobility, it was Ford. It sold 1.2 million 4-wheel powered vehicles, which includes AWD, 4-wheel drive and electric all-wheel drive. That 1.2 million was 18% better than Toyota, the next best-selling brand, and 42% more than Jeep. When you slice it all up, Ford has 13 model variants that would fit into this category.
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Comments (21)
April 4th, 2022 at 12:13 pm
Is Tesla #1 in percentage of vehicles sold with 4WD? Model 3 is the only one sold with RWD, at least now, and most 3s are probably the 4WD versions.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:14 pm
the sales are going to keep going down because people cannot afford a car payment when the gasm that goes into it cost half as much as the car payment a month
April 4th, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Since Tesla doesn’t have dealerships to provide “test drives”, I would think getting a large number of cars into the hands of Hertz and or Enterprise would be a good move. They may actually have customers who might not have considered a Tesla want one after having a chance to drive one for a few days.
Or maybe they are concerned that it could have the opposite affect and without having a home charging set-up or familiar with charging infrastructure for a rental the inconvenience may steer people away.
Either way discounting them may not make sense but if I couldn’t get a deal for a bulk order I would probably look elsewhere too.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:36 pm
It’s about time the US consumer took action and refused to pay the stupid prices that the greedy dealers were asking. Meanwhile the US manufacturers still can’t figure out how to make chips that would allow them to make reasonable priced models again.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:38 pm
Are those Tesla vehicle built or delivered?
April 4th, 2022 at 12:42 pm
@3: I agree with you, to me it seems that a rental car company is a great way to promote EVs. Driving an EV impressed me a lot and we bought one for my wife.
@2: my daily driver is an ICE powered vehicle and these days I put as many miles on my wife’s EV as possible, whenever it is available. The EV costs $0.04/mile in electrical power, so that is a fraction of my fossil fuel powered one.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
2, Agreeing with motorman (and I’ve commented before of same); it’s getting to the point where the cost of new/used vehicles are actually limiting purchases (with people holding onto their older vehicles longer). The somewhat increase in wages has not kept up with inflation and the ‘slide’ is continuing.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
3 I test drove a Tesla Model 3 at a store about 4.6 miles from my condo. It is much more conveniently located than Ford, Chevy, Toyota, or any other dealer except for Lincoln/Jaguar/Land Rover, which is about across the street from Tesla. Yeah, Tesla test drives are not nearly as convenient for most people.
Many rental cars are only used locally, and driven within the range of one full charge during the rental, but for EV rentals that would be used longer distances, I’d think Teslas, with “supercharger” access, would be much better than Polestars.
As far as my 1/2 hour test drive, I really liked the way the Model 3 drove, but I didn’t like having to use the center display for everything, including checking the speed, and didn’t like the lack of normal controls. It would be interesting to know if my thoughts on the latter would change much if I had one as a rental for 2 or 3 days.
April 4th, 2022 at 12:57 pm
I am surprised at how in some countries EV sales are reaching a substantial %. Here in Canada there are no EVs to buy.
In a Toyota Red Tags radio ad this morning, they end with something like – See your Toyota dealer now for the vehicle you want to order. Ouch
April 4th, 2022 at 12:57 pm
2,7 The cost of new cars is hurting sales, and higher gas prices are probably hurting sales of fashionable, and high profit big trucks and SUVs. If gas prices stay where they are, or go higher, I would expect demand for EVs to increase substantially.
4 I suspect the dealers are already backing off from the “extra dealer profit,” except on a few models that are in high demand. Are Broncos still that way?
April 4th, 2022 at 1:00 pm
9 “See your Toyota dealer now for the vehicle you want to order” I wonder if that is for real, or maybe you can order Toyotas in Canada, but not in the US. At least you couldn’t order them in the US as recently as about a month ago.
April 4th, 2022 at 1:14 pm
3) Hertz actually has TESLAs to rent now in certain markets. As HERTZ seems to struggle with figuring out if their car has been returned, it may not be wise for anyone to rent from them. Way too many people have been arrested and put in jail because Hertz reports the car as stolen even though it is physically sitting at a hertz location. I wouldn’t risk it with Hertz
April 4th, 2022 at 1:37 pm
12 I hadn’t heard about Hertz losing their cars. I guess I wouldn’t want to go there, if I wanted to take a 2 or 3 day Model 3 test drive.
April 4th, 2022 at 2:08 pm
That car loan scam is nothing new. Years ago someone stole my Mom’s identity and tried to buy a minivan claiming they were her grandson and that she was invalid and unable to come in a sign the paperwork herself and they were acting on her behalf. Now believe it or not the only thing that saved her was that she had ZERO credit history. She never had credit cards and anything ever bought on payments was by my Dad. So the dealership called to verify the lack of info and that is when she told them that she doesn’t in fact have a grandson and was far from invalid. So instead of the car dealership notifying the police so they could have a under cover pose as a loan officer and arrest them as soon as the signed the paperwork they simply refused the sale. You can put all the measures in place but if the dealership doesn’t use them what’s use ? They only care about sales the money from the car loan is the bank’s problem.
April 4th, 2022 at 4:24 pm
# 14 the dealership doesn’t want to spend days court as a witness.
April 4th, 2022 at 5:35 pm
#13, 14.) I wonder too if, once they had signed on the dotted line and was arrested, if the criminal can use police entrapment as a defence? That the salesperson ‘pressured’ them into the sell, because he was just coming in to ask questions about the vehicle (because as we know [stereotypically], all salespersons are pushy). So even when they knew the criminals were lying, the salesperson/dealership/police are accused of setting them up (and if you look at it sideways,on some level, they did!) and entrapped them and now the salesperson/dealership/police have to defend themselves AND prove that they are not the ones breaking the law! Just seems easier to refuse the sell, so that the pushy salespeople can get back to selling vehicles and complaining about Tesla not having dealerships and selling directly to customers (which is all they think about, right?)! Seriously, though, as much as some folks talk do on dealersips and salespersons, and a much as some wished for a different outcome, this is actually a win for why it is good to have vehicles sold through car dealer. With all of the identity theft that takes place online, it was the actions of the personnel at they dealership that kept this from having a really bad out for your grandmother! While they have not been able to do so in all situations as pointed out, online purchases do not have all the checks and balances that one may find at a dealership. To Sean’s point in today’s report, there billions of dollars in false claims with the Unemployment Insurance Agency!
Regarding Hertz renting EVs, how does it work with the surcharge when returning the vehicle and it’s not refueled? If you rent the vehicle, they use to require that you return it with the same amount of fuel that it left with, or they charge to refuel it. With vehicles with ICE, if have seen that they might charge nearly twice as much as the going price of a gallon of gas at the time! With an EV, they could literally charge you whatever they wanted, if you returned it with less then you left with and how would you even know, so that you could contest the bill? It the place you were staying didn’t have a EV charger and local area where you were didnt have charging stations available when you were returning the vehicle, youd have do choice but to return to them and pay whatever they said the cost to refuel the vehicle was! I’m not saying that they will, or that the cost for them to recharge the vehicle would be exorbitant, but as exciting as it sound to rent a BEV does come with some level of vulnerability at the moment.
April 4th, 2022 at 7:44 pm
16 I checked the Hertz web site, and while I found information about EV charging options, I didn’t find anything about what they charge if you return the car with a mostly dead battery. I’ll look again later, but they seem to make that info hard to find.
April 4th, 2022 at 8:40 pm
I think I mentioned a while back wondering if Chevron 90 octane E-0 is “top tier.” I emailed them, asking about it ~2 weeks ago, and have not heard back. I assume that means it is not top tier like their other gas.
April 5th, 2022 at 5:47 am
18, I’ve been using Exxon ethanol free in my FJR-1300 for a couple of years with no ill effects. If you are concerned about whether the Chevron 90 has enough cleaners you could always throw in a bottle of Techron every tank or so. The main problem, in my opinion, is that non-ethanol is quite pricey; for my motorcycle (low use, in-frequent fill-ups), not a deal breaker, but I don’t think I’d want to do regular fill-ups with it.
April 5th, 2022 at 7:59 am
19 I put about a half tank of it in my Corvette, to see if I can tell any difference in gas mileage. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t, since the expected difference with ~E5 mix vs E10 would be only ~1.5%. I won’t use it any more in the Corvette, because it has GDI. I would expect it to be fine for you bike. Maybe it would be ok for newer cars, but I certainly don’t want to chance it as a regular thing. Surprisingly, the 90 octane E0 is the same price as mid-grade at the nearby Chevron. At many stations I’ve seen, it costs a lot more than even premium E10.
April 5th, 2022 at 11:26 am
#16 Not sure how one could use a entrapment defense when they walked into the dealership and then began fraudulent paperwork . That’s akin to blaming a victim for the crime committed against then.