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Runtime: 10:51
0:00 Toyota Posts Record Profits
1:11 BMW Earnings Dinged by Higher Costs
2:15 Rivian Loses Nearly $40,000 Per Vehicle Delivered
3:10 Shenzhen Has More Fast Chargers Than Gas Stations
4:14 Tesla Buys $2 Million Worth of Lidar In Q1
4:50 Tesla Gets Approval to Test Robotaxis In China
5:32 Tesla China-Made Vehicle Sales Down in April
6:18 EU Continues Tough Talk Against Chinese Made EVs
6:53 BMW Against EU Tariffs on Chinese Made Vehicles
7:50 Daimler Truck Reveals Electric L4 Semi-Truck
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TOYOTA POSTS RECORD PROFITS
CEO Koji Sato just finished up his first full fiscal year at Toyota. The numbers look fantastic now, but it’s spending a boat load of money this year, which is really going to cut into its financial results. Toyota and Lexus sold a little more than 10.3 million vehicles in the year, which is a jump of 7.3% compared to last year. That brought in almost $290 billion in revenue, up over 20%. Its operating profit was up over 96% to $34.4 billion and its net profit hit nearly $32 billion, a massive jump of nearly 102%. As was the case with all the Japanese automakers in the fourth quarter of last year, Toyota is still benefiting from a weaker yen. But the company is going to spend $11.2 billion on electrification, software and AI, and expects its net profit for the next fiscal year to be down by almost 28%.
BMW EARNINGS DINGED BY HIGHER COSTS
BMW is showing the effects of increased manufacturing costs. In the first quarter of the year, the Group, including BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, delivered roughly 594,500 vehicles, a slight increase of 1.1% compared to last year. But due to those higher costs, revenue came to 36.6 billion euros, which is down 0.6%. It might have been even worse, but with improved semiconductor chip supplies, BMW was able to make more high-priced models. The Group’s EBIT or earnings before interest and taxes was a bit over 4 billion euros, down almost 25% and its net profit was down over 19% to a little under 3 billion euros. And really BMW’s results for the full year will probably look similar to this; a slight increase in sales, but a decrease in earnings as it continues to deal with higher costs and invests in future models.
RIVIAN LOSES NEARLY $40,000 PER VEHICLE DELIVERED
EV startup Rivian is losing nearly $40,000 on every vehicle it sells. It revealed in its Q1 results that it delivered over 13,500 vehicles, which is an increase of almost 50% compared to last year. Those vehicles brought in $1.2 billion in revenue, which is an increase of over 82%. But its net loss came to $1.45 billion and its gross profit per vehicle delivered was a negative $38,784. Rivian says that’s mainly due to supplier costs and improvements to the R1 platform as well as investments for production of the all-new R2. For the whole year Rivian expects to make 57,000 vehicles and to even post a modest profit in the fourth quarter.
SHENZHEN HAS MORE FAST CHARGERS THAN GAS STATIONS
And getting off all these sales and financial numbers, here’s a fun little stat before break. In the entire U.S., there is currently one fast charging station for every 15 gas stations. In California, it’s one for every 5. But the city of Shenzhen in China is the very first to claim it has more fast chargers than gas stations. It says it has a total of 362 fast chargers and its charging volume reached 670 million kilowatt-hours in Q1, an increase of 11%. The city doesn’t say how many gas stations it has, but it did go fully electric with its bus and taxi system several years ago.
TESLA BUYS $2 MILLION WORTH OF LIDAR IN Q1
Elon Musk has famously bashed the need for lidar in autonomous vehicles. He’s said that lidar is “a fool’s errand” that it is “doomed” and that they’re “expensive sensors that are unnecessary.” But is he pulling back on that? According to lidar maker Luminar’s first quarter earnings report, Tesla was its largest customer and bought $2 million worth of lidar technology. Tesla has used Luminar’s lidars for testing and development in the past but Luminar says it can only speculate what Tesla is doing with $2 million dollars worth of lidars.
TESLA GETS APPROVAL TO TEST ROBOTAXIS IN CHINA
Perhaps this is what the company will be using them for. During Elon Musk’s visit to China last month, China Daily reports that Musk proposed equipping China’s taxis with Tesla’s Full Self Driving or FSD technology. It reportedly received partial support to test them but it still doesn’t have approval for widespread use of FSD in the taxis. It was previously reported after the meeting that the government gave the go-ahead for Tesla to roll out its FSD technology for passenger vehicles in the country. The company is planning to unveil its robotaxi in August and Elon Musk has shifted most of the company’s focus to that model.
TESLA CHINA-MADE VEHICLE SALES DOWN IN APRIL
And speaking of Tesla and China, sales of Tesla’s China-made vehicles fell in April. According to the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla sold more than 62,000 China-made vehicles last month, a drop of 18% compared to a year ago. Deliveries were also down 30% compared to March. And while Tesla is slumping, sales of electric vehicles in China are rising. Sales of new energy vehicles, which includes BEVs and plug-in hybrids, reached 800,000 units in April, up 33% compared to last year. China’s biggest automaker BYD saw its sales go up nearly 50% to just over 312,000 vehicles.
EU CONTINUES TOUGH TALK AGAINST CHINESE MADE EVs
European government officials sure are talking the hard talk against allowing low-cost Chinese EVs into the market. Earlier today, the President of the European Commission, said that Europe needs to take steps to prevent Chinese made EVs from flooding the market. The EU is concerned that Chinese companies are receiving unfair subsidies that put them at a competitive advantage over European automakers. So EU officials are considering imposing tariffs on Chinese made EVs, which could happen as soon as July.
BMW AGAINST EU TARIFFS ON CHINESE MADE VEHICLES
But not all automakers are on board with the tariffs. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse warned against them and said “our industry doesn’t need protection.” First off, BMW imports EVs made in China to Europe, so they’d get slapped with tariffs too. But Zipse said the tariffs could also hurt Europe’s stricter CO2 emission goals that kick in next year. That’s because European automakers are reliant on Chinese battery materials and Zipse says that “there will be no single car in the EU without components from China.” And Zipse is probably afraid of retaliatory action from China if the EU imposes tariffs on EVs imported from China. We’ve seen U.S. officials back off EV content rules because it would have been hard for automakers to comply, so we wonder if something similar will happen in Europe?
DAIMLER TRUCK REVEALS ELECTRIC L4 SEMI-TRUCK
Daimler Truck revealed a prototype version of its electric eCascadia semi-truck equipped with Level 4 autonomous technology. The self-driving system was developed by Torc Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck. Daimler is currently testing the trucks on U.S. highways, driving them to and from its freight centers. The company says that while it is testing the system in an electric eCascadia, the technology has the potential to evolve into a modular, scalable platform that can work with any powertrain. Daimler Truck is aiming to introduce Level 4 autonomous trucks in the U.S. by 2027 and that it expects the business to generate $3.2 billion in revenue by the end of the decade.
And before we go, I realize I’ve been a crummy promoter of our own content. Check out our recent video going through Caresoft’s teardown of the Tesla Cybertruck and be sure to check out tomorrow afternoon’s Autoline After Hours.
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Remember a couple of years ago how Toyota was ridiculed for being left behind in the EV adoption race? How times have changed. Of course Toyota was always on the right path, partly due to the fact that they weren’t under the same government pressure that US and European manufacturers faced. It also helped that Toyota really understands the market and takes the long view.
It would be good to know whether Shenzhen has more EV chargers than gas pumps. We appear to be comparing apples and oranges here.
It would also be good to know how many gas pumps you need for a number of ICE cars and how many fast chargers you need for the same number of EVs, It would be different because 100% of gas cars use gas pumps but many EVs only use fast chargers occasionally because they charge at home.
If all you build are EVs and you lose 40K per unit made why would existing companies want to switch to that model ? It makes no damn sense. When the reviews say it’s a good product but people either can’t afford to buy it or don’t want to buy it what are you going to do but go belly up.
One reason to buy a Rivian now is you’ll never buy a vehicle that costs you less in comparison to its manufacturing cost.
This is just a joke.
You may not have 100% of EV drivers using public charging stations but considering the gas pump is used for about 3 min and the charger for @30min that would lead to assume you need 10X the chargers minus the % of users. So, if only 50% of Ev owner use public charging I would say you’ll need 5X more chargers than gas pumps.
Daimler is smart to make their L4 AV able to be retrofitted to any powertrain. As I would think if they can get this tech to work well there may be many more Diesel trucks still on the road where this system would make sense.
I recently saw a very simple version used for farmers to have the truck follow the combine so it can be filled without having a second driver.
Rivian needs to increase production, if their products are selling. If inventory is piling up, they are in trouble. Anyway, while Tesla went many years losing money, they are now making money, but with so many new EVs hitting the market, who knows what will happen in the next 10 years.
Dont they say new companies rarely make money the first three years. Maybe that’s the case with Rivian. Are they actually losing money based on what it takes to build and then sell or is there a bunch of overhead costs to start the company figured in there? Cause I cant see how by the fourth quarter they are going to make up 40K in process improvements. Something else is going on there.
I remember when everyone was saying Toyota was falling behind in the EV race. Meanwhile the other automakers were throwing around money left and right to partner up or buy any small company they thought might have an advantage in EV or battery technology. I felt they were doing the right thing as it seemed like a knee jerk reaction to get onboard the EV train. Here we are years later and no one seems to have a clear advantage. No doubt billions were wasted but Toyota is right where they need to be. Especially with the resurgence into hybrids.
To me, Toyota is wasting money on fuel cells, but it’s probably a small percentage of their spending, given the size of the company.
I certainly think they are doing the right thing with hybrids. The 2025 Camry will be hybrid only, which makes sense to me. The current Camry hybrid is as quick as the non-hybrid, gets almost twice the city mpg, and gets somewhat better highway mileage. The current hybrid costs about $1500 more than a comparable non-hybrid, but retains that in residual value for a long time. From what I’ve read, the price will barely go up for the 2025s, which will all be hybrid.
@Sean: “But due to those higher costs, revenue came to 36.6 billion euros, which is down 0.6%.” I don’t understand this, Sean. Could you please explain?
@Albemarle, Lambo: good points on comparison number of gas/Diesel fuel pumps and public EV chargers. It is a very complex comparison.
Lambo here’s the thing though. When you roll up to a gas pump and use it for 3-5 minutes you normally leave the pump. When EV drivers use a charger they may leave it there for any length of time even past when it’s fully or nearly fully charged. They are going to do other things like shop, eat, go to a movie to kill time while they are charging . So many of those chargers will be blocked from use meaning that there will definitely need to be way more chargers than gas pumps . The question is where do you put them all ?
For us, with our 2017 Bolt EV, we use public fast charging about 2 times a year, and home charging the rest. If the Bolt was an ICE, we would be buying gas 22 times a year. We have a special overnight rate of 2.8 ¢ /kWh. Gas is $1.60 per litre ($6.05/US gal).
While we don’t travel across Canada in the Bolt, we wouldn’t do it in an ICE of the same size. Since where we live is all two lane roads, we have over 5 hours of highway driving range, 2.5 hrs each way. That’s about all I want to do in the econobox.
The inconvenience of an EV is well worth it for the savings and our belief in doing our bit.
It’s an individual choice, thank goodness, but it’s not an illogical one for many.
XA351GT, some, or many public chargers have incentives to move your car when finished charging, like a $20/hour surcharge for not moving the vehicle. I don’t know how much the charge is, but probably enough to get most people to move their cars when charged.
XA351GT, some, or many public chargers have incentives to move your car when finished charging, like a $20/hour surcharge for not moving the vehicle. I don’t know how much the charge actually is, but probably enough to get most people to move their cars when charged.
We don’t notice that many finished charging cars at chargers because of the incentives. What we do unfortunately find are ICE vehicles blocking the charging spots. This is not a good look for their owners.
A lot of data is needed, to even know how much public charging is actually needed. In the US at least, most EV charging is done at home. Where I live in Florida, having an EV without home charging would be very inconvenient, so I don’t have an EV. There are no chargers a short walk from my place, and no chargers at locations I might normally spend an hour or two, like sit down restaurants.
Albemarle, maybe the operators of the charging stations should have a tow truck on duty to remove ICE vehicle blocking chargers, with a $100 charge to get them back.
Kit — That sounds like the meter at the curb! Running out to the curb to put 4 quarters to “feed the meter” to leave your vehicle parked for another hour and keep the meter reader/parking enforcement off your case.
XA351GT — I believe that $40K price tag on every Rivian sold, accounts for current spending and future product. On average, that’s what the lose per vehicle, but as the year goes on and they sell more vehicles, that price on the hood gets smaller. By the end of the year, on average, their spending will go from negative, to slightly positive.
Bryan — By all accounts, it may have seemed Toyota was behind, when you consider what other OEMs were ‘saying’ what they were doing. In the end, though, outside of Hyundai/Kia, Ford, GM and a few others, how many legacy OEMs really have more the one BEV on the road, or in mass production? While some have purchased or joined JVs to build EVs, outside of promises, concepts and proclamations of having something out ‘coming soon’. Many are seemingly no farther along then Toyota, in terms of metal on the streets. It seemed that as soon as the EV market appeared to slow down, many of those who made promises, jumped up to say ‘I knew it would slow down and we’re doing more hybrids as a result’! Maybe they did see the writing on the wall, but from the outside looking in, it just seems like they were looking to see who would blink first. Then they look ready to claim to be in lock step with whatever the current direction is, but not having actually made any real moves. Just talking the talk! The difference is Toyota had taken a stance against wide EV adoption from the beginning, while it appears they were making some decisions in that direction in the long term. Toyota was a lot more authentic, we’re as some others said one thing and headed for the hybrid exit, while not really doing much on the EV front to begin with.
While Toyota has vehicles I like, the serious hybrids designed for efficiency, the company, at least the US branch, continues to pi$$ me off by not allowing factory orders. GM, Ford, Chrysler, Porsche, MINI, probably the rest of BMW and others allow you to “build and price” a vehicle as shown on their web site, and order that car. Toyota, and I think Honda and maybe Nissan will not let you order a car, even ones built 100 miles from where you’d want it delivered.
XA351GT- I’m sure there is some “talking the talk” going on to keep the political side of the business in good favor with current administration. But the EV push is a worldwide direction. So, it appears that almost the entire world is pursuing this EV adoption. In some dense compact areas and countries, it will likely work well and see a high percentage of acceptance. It’s the areas with wide open spaces like parts of the US for anyone that has been in the middle western part of the country in states like North Dakota all the way down to New Mexico. A public charge network is years away if not centuries. In some of those areas a gas station can be almost a full tank away. Then consider countries like Greenland, Mongolia, Australia, Iceland, all which have less than 4 people per square Km. EVs and even hybrids really excel at city driving so in densely populated areas they make sense and work well. Getting people outside the cities to adopt is going to be a much harder sell and that why I feel like these mandates and regulations to force EVs is not realistic. They need to take the entire country into consideration. No doubt in the coming years the realization of what is actually a proper mix of EVs, hybrids and ICE will fully surface. It’s not real practical to force someone in the outback in Australia or middle of AZ to buy an EV. hopefully common sense will prevail but that’s a lot to ask of government.
Kit- Nice shots of that Brickland BTW. I like it and I would consider something like that for a go to work car. My and my daily commute is alone and 28 miles each way while the wife travels 45 miles each way two to three times a week. A small 3 wheeler with at least 150 miles of range would work just fine if the price was right.