#AD 4313 – Carvana to Invest in Slate; Dodge Charger Headed to Europe; China Car Sales Drop Yet Again

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

CHINA CAR SALES DROP AGAIN
When new car sales in China dropped off in a big way at the beginning of the year, the China Passenger Car Association predicted that they would start to pick back up in April. But that’s not happening. They were down 21% in April and fell 22% in May compared to last year. Even sales of New Energy Vehicles fell 7.5% last month. Total retail sales were 1.5 million vehicles, and so far this year they’re down 19.5%. The Pass Car Association still predicts sales will pick up later in the year, but says they’ll be down 11% for the full year.

$6.50 AN HOUR? CHINA WANTS MORE AUTOMATION
Automakers in China pay their factory workers an average of $6.50 an hour, according to a company called Dragon Sourcing. Even though that’s shockingly low, that’s nearly twice as much as workers earn in Vietnam or Thailand. So to protect its manufacturing juggernaut, the Chinese government is pushing manufacturers to embrace smart factories that rely heavily on AI and automation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology established a 4-tier program, from the most basic automation to the highest, and is encouraging all manufacturers to embrace the program. There are now 43,000 of these so-called smart factories. Avatr and Huawei are two of the automotive leaders, using high levels of automation to make electric cars. China is also preparing its industry for a declining population. According to Rand Research, China’s population will decline by 3 million people this year.

           

CARVANA TO INVEST IN SLATE
Like all other EV startups, Slate plans to forego the franchised dealer model and sell directly to consumers. And it’s possible used car retailer Carvana could help get trucks into customer hands. TechCrunch reports that paperwork filed within Slate’s latest funding round gives Carvana the authority to purchase an unknown amount of shares in the EV startup. With Carvana’s experience delivering vehicles right to customers, a partnership with Slate seems like it would make a lot of sense. Same goes for any EV startup, really. And this is not Carvana’s first attempt to sell new cars. Earlier this year it bought 7 Stellantis dealerships.

VINFAST REPORTS 42% REVENUE INCREASE
Vinfast is reporting a 42% increase in revenue for its latest fiscal quarter. It brought in $920 million, which is a big jump. The company sold over 58,000 EVs, and 143,000 e-scooters and e-bikes, mainly in Vietnam, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. The company’s efforts in the U.S. and Europe are struggling, due to the poor quality of the cars it offered when it launched them three years ago.

DODGE CHARGER HEADED TO EU
The Dodge Charger is going to Europe. In honor of the car’s 60th birthday, the brand says it will introduce both the gas-powered SIXPACK and all-electric Daytona, but didn’t reveal when they’ll go on sale, where and how it will sell them, or prices. In the U.S. the SIXPACK starts at roughly $52,000, while the Daytona is over $72,000. In the first quarter, Dodge sold less than 2,000 units, which it blames on an incomplete rollout of models to dealerships. Even so that’s got to be pretty disappointing and probably part of the reason the model is headed to Europe. While the brand says the Charger is making its “return” to the region, the only evidence we could find of the model making its way over was through grey-market imports.

PEUGEOT LAUNCHES EV HOT HATCH
Speaking of Stellantis in Europe, Peugeot is bringing back its performance GTi trim line and debuted the new E-208 GTi, which is the brand’s first fully-electric car to get the GTi badge. Unfortunately, it really only revealed that the car’s performance figures are expected to “WOW.” Right now the top version of the E-208 has a single electric motor that produces just over 155 horsepower.

PEPSICO OPERATES 41 AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS
There’s a lot of autonomous vehicle news today. First up, PepsiCo is now operating 41 driverless trucks on roads in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas. And that makes it the first consumer goods company to operate an autonomous fleet at scale. The medium and heavy-duty trucks are made by Isuzu and equipped with autonomous technology from self-driving truck company Gatik. Pepsi started the driverless runs last year and the trucks have achieved 99% on-time arrivals with no accidents on public roads.

UBER OPENS LONDON ROBOTAXI WAITLIST
Next up, Uber has opened a waitlist for customers in London that are interested in riding in a robotaxi. The ride-hailing company is partnering with Wayve to offer driverless rides in modified Ford Mustang Mach-E’s. Uber is planning to debut the service in the UK this year, but it still hasn’t received regulatory approval.

TESLA EXPANDS UNSUPERVISED ROBOTAXIS IN AUSTIN
Meanwhile, down in Austin, Tesla expanded its unsupervised robotaxi service to the entire metro area. According to city officials, Tesla has around 50 vehicles operating in Austin.

DONGFENG LAUNCHES AV VAN
And finally, Chinese automaker Dongfeng just launched a new autonomous commercial vehicle company called OpenVAN. And it unveiled four self-driving cargo vehicles it developed with autonomous vehicle company Zelos.

FIRESTONE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF SERVICE STORES
Bridgestone, which is one of Autoline’s sponsors, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Firestone service stores in the U.S. Here’s a little interesting history, Harvey Firestone established the first network of service stations in 1926, growing to 1,800 locations today. And that makes it the largest network of automotive service providers in the world. In fact, the company created a website with historical archives that documents the 100-year history and we’ll provide you the link if you’d like to see more.

And that wraps up today’s Autoline Daily. Thanks for watching.