AD #3356 – EV Jobs Growing, ICE Jobs Falling; Tesla Has Best Brand Loyalty; Used Car Shortage Looming Next Year

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

EV JOBS GROWING, ICE JOBS FALLING
EV jobs are growing, while ICE jobs are falling. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It says jobs related to battery electric vehicles jumped 26% in 2021, adding nearly 22,000 in total. Jobs related to hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles also made big gains and added more than 42,500 jobs in total. At the same time, jobs related to the fossil fuel industry shrank last year, falling by more than 31,500 and coal jobs dropped by more than 7,000 workers. However, the bio-fuel industry saw a slight increase of about 1,200 in 2021.

TESLA HAS BEST BRAND LOYALTY
Guess which luxury brand has the highest customer loyalty in the business? Tesla. I’m interested to know if you think Tesla is still a luxury brand? But this new loyalty study is according to auto analyst Tom Libby at S&P Global, which used to be known as IHS Markit. More customers come back to buy another Tesla than do customers who own a Mercedes, BMW or Audi. In fact, Audi has the worst brand loyalty of the luxury brands. Tom Libby says that in March, the loyalty rate for the Tesla Model 3 hit a stunning 76.6% and that this represents, quote, “an ominous trend for the rest of the industry.” 

2022 SALES TO DROP BELOW 2020
Remember when we thought 2022 was going to be the recovery year for the auto industry? We all thought the pandemic and chip shortage would be over by now. But in fact, things are actually getting worse. Cox Automotive says new car sales in the American market will be lower than they were in 2020. Before the year got started, Cox Automotive thought new car sales would hit 16 million vehicles. Then it dropped that to 15.3 million. And now it’s dropped it to 14.4 million. In 2020, automakers sold 14.6 million vehicles.

 

BUICK TOPS JD POWER QUALITY INDEX
Supply chain issues not only hurt car sales, they also hurt vehicle quality. According to JD Power’s 2022 Initial Vehicle Quality study, problems per 100 vehicles rose 11% to 180 problems, up from 162 last year. A lower score translates to higher quality. But it’s now the highest mark in 36 years. The survey included responses from nearly 85,000 new car owners and lessees and only 9 of the 33 brands in the study improved vehicle quality with Buick topping the list. Mass-market vehicles had fewer problems than premium ones. And electric vehicles reported more problems compared to ICEs.

HYUNDAI IONIQ 6 IS ONE SWOOPY CAR
It’s common for a production vehicle to look nothing like the concept that inspired it, but that’s not the case at Hyundai. Following in the footsteps of the IONIQ 5, Hyundai revealed the IONIQ 6, a swoopy all-electric sedan that bears a strong resemblance to the Prophecy concept. I’m interested to know what you think of the design. I really like the rear end but not sure if I’m sold on the front yet. I can’t wait to see one in person. A couple of things we’d like to point out are the pixelated lighting, which is picked up on the front and rear as well as a newly designed ‘H’ emblem, and the use of digital side view mirrors. That’s something that’s not featured on the IONIQ 5 but does appear on Genesis’ all-electric CUV, the GV60. The interior is highlighted by two 12-inch display screens combined into the infotainment and instrument cluster. No details on the powertrain were provided but it’s built on the same platform as the IONIQ 5, so we should be able to expect a similar layout. It has both rear- and all-wheel drive and a 77.4 kWh battery pack that returns up to 303 miles of range. But more concrete details will be released sometime in July.

CITROEN C4 GOES ELECTRIC
Speaking of EVs, Citroen is coming out with a new version of the C4, called the C4 X. You’ll probably notice a strong resemblance to the new Peugeot 408 we showed the other day. It has that same combination of sedan and fastback SUV, but with Citroen’s design flare thrown on top. It’s powered by a 100 kW or 134 HP electric motor and features a 50-kWh battery pack that provides 360 kilometers or 224 miles of range, based on the WLTP test cycle. ICE versions are also available with a range of gas and diesel engines. Sales kick off soon and in many European markets only the electric version will be offered.

GOT A DODGE? HEAD TO HWY 93
Despite high gas prices, many people are still planning summer road trips. And if you’re a muscle car head and are in the U.S., Dodge just might have something for you. It’s charting a course along what it calls HWY 93. It’s not an actual highway, but is a route that connects 93 Dodge-inspired events and locations all across the country, one for every one of the 93 days of summer. Dodge says it will leave no roadhouse, rest stop or drag strip unturned. We’ll provide a link in the transcript or description box if you’d like to learn more.

CLARIOS LOW-VOLTAGE BATTERY PERFECT FOR EVs
Did you know that when you plug in an EV, that the high-voltage battery is actually disconnected from the rest of the vehicle? So you need an auxiliary, low-voltage battery so you don’t have to reset the clock and radio stations every time you charge or perform an OTA update. Clarios is a battery company that says it has a better auxiliary battery and it’s all about what it calls AGM, or absorbent glass mat. Mark Wallace is the CEO of Clarios and he’ll be joining us for Autoline After Hours tomorrow to talk about the batteries that nobody else seems to talk about. 

 

TESLA AXES 200 AUTOPILOT WORKERS
Earlier this month, Elon Musk warned that layoffs were coming because Tesla grew too fast and he had a bad feeling about the economy. But we never thought those cuts would involve people working on Autopilot. Tesla closed a facility in California and let go of 200 employees working on Autopilot, most of whom were data analysts. The site employed about 350 workers and those that got to keep their jobs were transferred to a nearby facility.

USED CAR SHORTAGE LOOMING NEXT YEAR
We thought that the prices of used cars would start to be easing up by now. That’s not happening and it’s going to get a lot worse next year, says Scott Painter, the CEO of a company called Autonomy, which offers subscription services for the Tesla Model 3. Scott Painter points out that the best source of used cars is from cars coming off lease. Most people lease a car for three years and at the end of the lease, those cars end up in the used car market. But in March of 2020, when Covid lockdowns hit, new car sales dropped off dramatically. So in March of 2023, three years after the Covid shut downs, we’re going to start to see a big shortage of off-lease cars. In fact, there will be several million fewer cars coming off lease next year. Painter says the thought of that terrifies him, because you know what that shortage means. Prices are going to go up higher than they are now. The average price of a used car right now is around $28,000. And this suggests it will go well over thirty grand.

CADILLAC LYRIQ PIONEERS MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUE
Some of the things that impressed us so much about the Cadillac Lyriq involve new manufacturing techniques. Take a look at what looks like the grille on the front end. It’s a polycarbonate panel that is painted black on the backside of it. Then to get all those lines you see, they use a laser to etch out the black paint into the pattern they want. And then they backlight it so you can see the pattern. Cadillac says it can easily change the pattern simply by reprogramming the laser. So they can designate different models, like a V-Series, by etching out a different pattern. That panel went through all of GM’s stone chip tests and because the outside surface is smooth, it won’t collect dirt and is easy to clean. Cadillac says it’s the first automaker in the world to use this technique.   

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.