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Runtime: 11:24
0:24 BMW Q2 Earnings Drop Like a Rock
1:01 Honda Quarterly Earnings Dismal
1:34 Subaru Struggling with Inventory
3:52 Nissan Frontier Racks Up One Million Miles
5:00 Kia Reveals Stonic Hybrid
6:15 Mustang Mach-E Uses Drive Unit from BorgWarner
7:39 Lincoln Developing New Coupe?
8:01 Infiniti Teases New QX55
8:20 Gordon Murray Unveils T.50 Supercar
9:33 Pininfarina Introduces Battista Anniversary Edition
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BMW Q2 EARNINGS DROP LIKE A ROCK
BMW and Honda reported their earnings for the most recent quarter and like its competitors, the coronavirus really hurt their numbers. Let’s start with BMW. Car sales were down by a quarter compared to a year ago, which led to a drop in revenue of over 20%. Its EBIT and net profit both got clobbered and were in the red for the quarter. But as dismal as those numbers are, the company says sales are starting to bounce back and it expects to make a profit if demand recovers. However, its outlook does not factor in the potential impact of a second wave of COVID.
| BMW Q2 2020 Earnings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 485,464 | -25.3% |
| Revenue | €19.9 B | -22.3% |
| EBIT | -€666 M | -130% |
| Net Profit | -€212 M | -114% |
| Source: BMW | ||
HONDA QUARTERLY EARNINGS DISMAL
Moving over to Honda, the numbers don’t look much better. The company sold a little over 790,000 vehicles, which is down 40% compared to a year ago. And its revenue plunged by nearly 50%. That caused a huge drop in both its operating and net profits, which ended up in the red. Looking forward, Honda expects a 6% decline in annual sales and a nearly 70% drop in its annual operating profit, which would be its worst result in a decade.
| Honda Q1 FY2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 792,000 | -40% |
| Revenue | $19.7 B | -47% |
| Op. Profit | -$1.1 B | -145% |
| Net Profit | -$748 M | -147% |
| Source: Honda | ||
SUBARU STRUGGLING WITH INVENTORY
While all assembly plants in the U.S. are running again, automakers are struggling to rebuild their inventory levels. They only added about 3,200 vehicles compared to June. And with sales picking up, that means the supply dropped to only 55 days, down from 59. Subaru is in the worst shape of all. When Tom Doll, the CEO of Subaru of America, was on Autoline This Week, he worried about their days’ supply.
Tom Doll, CEO, Subaru of America
“So we’re expecting a need, to be frank with you, because our days’ supply is so low, as we spoke about earlier. We need to have the pipeline rebuilt as quickly as possible. We’re going to struggle possibly here in July and the first part of August because we’ve got to resupply our retailers. It will probably be mid-August before we get back to a reasonable days’ supply. And then of course in the Fall and as we go through the winter the days’ supply would get back to where we’d like to see, somewhere in that 40 to 45 days’ supply range.”
Let’s put some numbers on the low days’ supply Tom Doll is talking about. Right now, Subaru only has a 16 days’ supply for its entire lineup, while the Ascent, Crosstrek and Forester are only at 14 days. And that explains why Subaru’s sales were down last month.
Keep an eye out later today for our coverage of the Management Briefing Seminars which are put on by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This year MBS is going virtual, and so will our coverage of the conference. We’ll be providing condensed wrap ups that hit the highlights of the conference, so that you can keep up with the latest insights from some of the savviest people in the auto industry.
NISSAN FRONTIER RACKS UP ONE MILLION MILES
Driving your vehicle to ridiculously high mileage might just land you a free vehicle from that same automaker. We’ve seen it before. And that’s the case for Brian Murphy and his 2007 Nissan Frontier. Murphy, an independent delivery driver, racked up over a million miles on his truck and now Nissan’s giving him a brand new one. That’s an insane amount of miles to clock in 13 years, which was achieved through 12 to 14 hour work days at 300 to 400 miles a day. And funny enough, no one knows the exact mileage on the truck. Its digital odometer doesn’t go past 999,999 miles and Brian hit that in late January. So, it’s possible that it racked up over 60,000 more. Also funny is that if the old truck didn’t have the stickers on it, we’re not sure we could tell it apart from the new one. Goes to show how little change the Frontier has seen in that time.
KIA REVEALS STONIC HYBRID
Kia showed off the hybrid version of its B-segment crossover, the Stonic, which is aimed primarily at the European market and goes on sale next quarter. As you know, Europe has very strict CO2 emission standards and that’s what this package is all about. Kia will release efficiency numbers at a later date. It features a 1-liter turbo with a 48-volt mild hybrid. A CVT comes standard with the package, but Kia also offers its intelligent manual transmission. That allows you to shift the gear lever like a regular manual, but there’s no linkage from the clutch pedal to the transmission. Instead the clutch is activated electronically. Interestingly, both transmissions allow the engine to turn off when the car is coasting, and then it restarts the instant the driver gets back on the gas. And it works at speeds up to 125 kilometers an hour, or about 77 miles an hour. That kind of reminds us of the old Saab Sonett which is probably the most recent vehicle that allowed for what they call free-wheeling. But the engine on the Sonett never turned off because that was way before electronics ever made their way into cars.
MUSTANG MACH-E USES DRIVE UNIT FROM BORGWARNER
While General Motors wants to build almost all the components for its EVs in-house, Ford is taking a different tack. It’s sourcing the drive unit for the Mustang Mach-E from BorgWarner. And that includes both the rear-drive and all-wheel-drive versions. Borg is making the gearbox and thermal management unit, and will integrate them with motors and power electronics from other suppliers. While Borg designed its own integrated power unit, this one differs slightly. Instead of using parallel axis gearing, it uses concentric gears with outputs on the same axis as the electric motor which results in a more compact package. And here’s where the numbers get interesting. The drive module can take input speeds up to 13,800 RPM. And it can handle 4,278 newton meters of torque. That’s 3,155 pound feet of torque, which we think is just perfect for going grocery shopping.
LINCOLN DEVELOPING NEW COUPE?
Could a new version of the Lincoln MKVIII be coming out? It’s a possibility. Autoforecast Solutions reports that Ford is going to start building a Lincoln coupe in China in 2023 that fits into the C/D segment. That’s all the information we have for now, but what do you think it should be named? MK9 or maybe something else?
INFINITI TEASES NEW QX55
Speaking of coupes, Infiniti is taking the same path as a number of German automakers and will offer a coupe or fastback version of one of its utility vehicles. The automaker teased this image of the all-new QX55, which will be revealed on social media on November 11th.
GORDON MURRAY UNVEILS T.50 SUPERCAR
Gordon Murray revealed his new supercar the T.50. Murray, probably best known for designing the McLaren F1, wanted the T.50 to be a spiritual successor to the F1. And one thing we do see carry over is the central driving position, which is flanked by seats on either side. The body and chassis are made from carbon fiber and with a key focus on lightweighting, the T.50 tips the scale at a little under 1,000 kilograms, which is a hair short of 2,200 pounds. That’s amazingly light, especially considering it has a V12 engine sitting behind the driver. The 3.9L unit is naturally aspirated, revs to over 12,000 RPM and makes roughly 660 horsepower. Another highlight is a 400mm fan off the back that helps improve aerodynamics. Add it all up and the T.50 should have blistering performance. Production, which is limited to 100 examples will start in January of 2022 and pricing starts at 2.36 million pounds or about $3.1 million.
PININFARINA INTRODUCES BATTISTA ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In other supercar news, Pininfarina, which was purchased by Mahindra in 2015, is coming out with an anniversary edition of its all-electric Battista that will debut in a series of videos starting on August 7th. The standard Battista is already an amazing car with four electric motors that combine for 1900 horsepower, which allows the car to hit 100 km/h in under 2-seconds. It also features a carbon fiber body and chassis. But the anniversary edition, which is limited to five examples, takes that a step further with a bespoke rear wing, rear aero fins and other details that improve downforce. Lighter wheels and three signature colors are available as well. Like the T.50, the Battista anniversary edition is priced like a supercar at 2.6 million euro or roughly $3.1 million.
Before we go, a reminder here to catch this week’s Autoline After Hours with Mark Del Rosso, the CEO for Genesis in North America. He has a ton of automotive experience having worked at Toyota, Bentley and Audi and we’re eager to learn how he is going to rebuild Genesis in the American market. Keith Naughton from Bloomberg will also join us. He covers the Ford beat and he’ll have a lot to say about why Jim Farley was named CEO at Ford and why they announced that now.
And so we come to the end of today’s report, thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.
