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Runtime: 9:56
0:00 Companies Want to Poach Laid Off Tesla Employees
1:44 Honda To Make More Parts In-House
3:13 More Automakers Pull Back EV Plans
4:13 Used Car Prices Drop in U.S.
5:02 U.S. To Impose Tariffs on Chinese EVs
5:46 China Car Exports Surge to New Record
6:31 Ford Promotes CFO Lawler To Vice Chair
7:03 Cadillac Makes Documentary About Return to Le Mans
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COMPANIES WANT TO POACH LAID OFF TESLA EMPLOYEES
A bunch of other companies are trying to benefit from all the layoffs at Tesla. On top of a 10% reduction worldwide, Tesla cut most of its team working on Superchargers, which seems to have triggered a few other people to quit and now it has essentially removed all real job postings from its website in North America. But there’s plenty of other companies ready to swoop in. A GM rep posted on LinkedIn that it’s looking to hire any Tesla software interns that were let go during the recent cutbacks. BP says if there’s any real estate partners that have been left stranded by Tesla’s decision not to open as many new locations, that they should call it. BP also laid off 10% of its employees working on its global EV charging network BP Pulse, but says it’s going to concentrate on the U.S., China, the UK and Germany, so that explains why it wants those abandoned Supercharger locations. Plus, BP Pulse signed a $100 million deal with Tesla late last year to get Tesla-built charging units that are branded with BP Pulse. Revel, a ride-hailing and EV charging startup, said it’s also considering abandoned Supercharger sites. And another charging startup called EnviroSpark, is looking to hire as many people from the Supercharger team as it possibly can. The Atlanta-based company just got a $50 million investment and hopes to grow its network across North America, which currently sits at a little over 8,000 charging plugs.
HONDA TO MAKE MORE PARTS IN-HOUSE
Like Toyota, Honda had great results in its latest fiscal year. It sold a little more than 4.1 million vehicles around the world, up 11% from the year before. That pushed revenue to just over $131 billion, which is an increase of about 21%. Honda’s operating profit came to roughly $8.9 billion, a 77% surge and its net profit shot up 70% to $7.2 billion. But remember that Honda did benefit from a weaker yen. And it says its future earnings will be impacted by an increase in spending. The company believes in order to compete in today’s market that it needs to make more parts and components in-house, which will allow it to move quicker and eventually cut more costs down the road. But vertical integration requires more upfront capital and Honda expects its R&D spending to increase 23% in the upcoming year. To help offset some of that additional spending, it plans to boost sales of hybrids, which typically have a higher price tag and Honda says it’s now earning as much profit as a gas-only model for every hybrid that it sells. Last year it sold about 800,000 hybrids worldwide but wants to boost that by another 400,000 units this upcoming year.
MORE AUTOMAKERS PULL BACK EV PLANS
Speaking of hybrids, it’s painfully obvious that most automakers were too ambitious with their EV plans. A number of OEMs have pulled back on going all-electric, which naturally means more hybrids, and now we’re seeing even more. Mercedes’ CEO says its transformation to zero emissions will take longer than expected and that it will continue to offer hybrids well into the 2030’s as long as there’s demand for them. VW’s CEO calls plug-in hybrids a bridge technology to pure electric, but with demand for EVs “plateauing” he says that VW still needs this transitional technology. And this slowdown in EVs is not just impacting mainstream brands. Rimac says hypercar buyers don’t really want all-electric anymore. So, we’ll probably see a return of more piston-powered supercars with high-reving engines.
USED CAR PRICES DROP IN U.S.
Good news for car buyers, used vehicle prices in the U.S. are on the decline. According to the auction firm Manheim, used vehicle wholesale prices were $18,150 in April compared to $21,110 in April of last year, or in other word it’s a 14% drop. Analysts say that more availability and better deals on new vehicles is putting a dent in demand for used ones.
U.S. TO IMPOSE TARIFFS ON CHINESE EVs
The Biden Administration is planning to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and an announcement could happen as soon as next week. In addition to EVs, Chinese made batteries and solar cells would also face new tariffs. The administration says it is standing up to China’s “unfair economic practices and industrial overcapacity” and wants to avoid a wave of cheap Chinese EVs entering the market, like what’s happened in Europe. However, the tariffs will have little impact in the short term, since there are relatively few Chinese made EVs exported to the U.S. That’s because they’re already hit with a 27.5% tariff.
CHINA CAR EXPORTS SURGE TO NEW RECORD
But there’s no doubt that China is shipping its excess production overseas. According to the China Passenger Car Association, China’s car exports hit a record high in April, with automakers shipping 417,000 vehicles out of the country, which is a 38% increase compared to a year ago. Companies are mainly exporting vehicles to South America, Australia and other Asian countries. The record high exports come at the same time sales in China are down. Automakers sold 1.5 million vehicles last month, which is down nearly 6% from a year ago. So to deal with the drop in China, companies are sending those vehicles overseas.
FORD PROMOTES CFO LAWLER TO VICE CHAIR
Ford announced a senior management change. Chief Financial Officer John Lawler, is being promoted to vice chair early next year. He’s been Ford’s CFO since October 2020. In his new role, he’ll be responsible for leading Ford’s next phase of strategic development, help with current and future global partnerships and engage with global leaders. Lawler is being replaced by Sherry House, who was most recently the CFO at Lucid Motors. She has also held positions at Waymo and General Motors. House will join the company in June and will oversee financial planning and analysis, until she takes over as CFO next year.
CADILLAC MAKES DOCUMENTARY ABOUT RETURN TO LE MANS
Cadillac racing fans can get a behind the scenes look at its return to Le Mans last year. The company partnered with Samsung TV Plus to create the “No Perfect Formula” documentary. It follows the Cadillac racing team’s effort to design, develop, engineer, test and race its V-Series.R racecar at last year’s Le Mans. The 90-minute documentary first airs on Friday, May 31st at 7PM eastern time on the Hagerty Channel on the Samsung TV Plus app. And it will be rebroadcast several times in the lead up to this year’s Le Mans race that starts on June 15.
But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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Theoretically if Tesla developed an 800-mile range battery, what would be the first thing they would do? Maybe get out of the charging station game. Or maybe it’s the fact that it looks like Hybrids are going to be the name of the game for a while. I have no doubt EVs will continue to gain popularity within densely populated areas. But hybrids make so much more sense with today’s tech. Certainly, Tesla is well aware of current trends and properly preparing for the slowing of sales growth. Or maybe Elon knows something more than what has been made public.
Certainly, supported by your third story that all automakers are pulling back on the EV reins.
I have Samsung TV and look forward to the Doc. Thanks Sean! I’ll be sure to check it out.
EVs would continue to gain popularity within densely populated areas, except that there is no place to charge them. With public charging, you’d might as well drive a hybrid, or even a gas car. At typical public charging rates, its cheaper to drive a Camry, even a non-hybrid 4 cylinder one, than a Tesla Model 3, at today’s gas prices in Florida and Indiana. Then, in many, or most densely populated areas, at least in the US, public charging is not conveniently available.
Is Samsung TV Plus free? Would it help that I have a Samsung TV, phone, and washing machine?
I think the suburbs will be the strong market for EVs. They are loaded with houses that have garages for easy and weather-friendly recharging, that are owned by people that commute to work 3-5 days a week (unless they are working from home), and typically have 2-3 vehicles. One of them could certainly be an EV which would save them money on gasoline and maintenance expense. The coming wave of less expensive EVs could really turn EV sales around with this target market playing a starring role.
Lamb — While that would be interesting for Tesla to do, if they had an 800-mile battery, with no real competition, wouldn’t it also still make sense to keep the charging network? With 800-miles of range, one would imagine, with a supercharger, it would take forever to refuel that battery, depending of the stations rate of charge. Then, on top of that, they would still control the supercharger network! Since the competition would not have anything close to their battery, they would depend on Tesla’s charging network even more to compete with their battery?
It just seems that the issue with EVs and the reason for the slow down is cost, range and misinformation. If an EV costed $2K more then a hybrid or PHEV, even if it only got 260 miles of range, if it topped out nicely equipped at ~$30-35K, that might not be a big stretch for someone who could charge at home and it came from an legacy OEM (in this scenario, I’m including Tesla as a Legacy OEM in the since that they have been selling EVs for over ten plus years and despite the CEO/company’s recently decisions, they appear to be currently stable enough to be around for several more years). The one other caveat would if be that of reasonable insurance costs, as well as resale value and a used car market.
If a legacy OEM came out with an EV that, like the Maverick hybrid, had a base price at $20K (and nicely equipped, went as high as $35 out the door), good styling inside and out, great fit and finish, even if the interior materials were only okay, but durable and had a range of 260 miles, I think, like the Maverick, they may have a hard time keeping us with demand. My wife loves her Renegade and even though it only takes a few minutes to refuel, she Hates going to the gas station! We’ve had her vehicle for over three years now and she has less the 7500 miles on it. Being able to refuel at home would certainly be a selling point, even though the cost saving on not buy gas would only be minimal! Spending $50-to-$100K on an EV would not be something she would be interested in, in the the least! I really believe a reasonable price, a decent range and the vehicle coming from an automaker the buyer could trust, would sell of BEVs rise quickly!
What it seems that China is doing, by exporting their vehicles to growing markets, is to capitalize on them on them before make a move to seriously do so. Then, when they reach a point when the classic OEM sees them as a viable opportunity, they would have already saturated the market with their vehicles! If Chinese companies imports their EV/PHEVs (starting off with, as some have called them: cheap and eventually their more expensive offerings) to, say India, and built a charging network like Tesla, for example. When that market hits an income growth point that’s desirable to establish auto makers, they will have to break into a market that Chinese automakers already have a foot hold! The very products that established countries are fighting to keep out, may be doing very well in countries that these established automakers want to get in! Now, turn about is fair play!
GM Veteran — to your point, I would add that I’ve come across several homes with garages and one EV, and a few with two EVs, in suburbs west of Detroit, that charge the vehicles from home, In Their Driveway! They have charging cords that come either out of their attached garage, or the charging port is attached to the side of their home, off the driveway. I guess they figure that if Tesla’s charging stations are outside, why can’t they charge their vehicles outside too?!
GM Veteran, that is my thought exactly. EVs are great commuter cars for those with home charging. They would be good as only cars for a lot of people in my condo, who never take road trips, if we had home charging at utility rates.
wmb, do you ever see open garage doors where people are charging their cars outdoors? Maybe they have other cars, like collector cars in their garages, or maybe the garages are full of junk. It’s possible, though, that some of the people are concerned about the EV catching fire while charging, and would rather not have it in the garage.
As far as price of EVs, Hertz has 1150 Tesla Models 3 for ~$23-26K, 20 or so in Orlando. They have Chevy Bolts for $17-18K.
The $20K Maverick hybrid is now $26.5K, and the non-hybrid is $25K. The hybrid powertrain is now a $1500 option.
Still, they are a very good buy, as pickup trucks go. The cheapest Tacoma is $33K with “destination charge.”
IF EVs had 800 mile range, and IF I had home charging, and IF hotels had reliable overnight charging (some do), an EV would work for me. As things are now, only one of those IFs apply, and that one not always.
Kit — Many in the area I speak of use there garages as extensions of their homes, whether they are attached or detached, and never store vehicles in the garage. They park their vehicle(s) in the driveway (usually near the front of the house) and on the street, in the local neighborhood subdivisions. While I have seen a number of Bolts, so, to your point, there was that directive to park them outside for a time due to fire risk. Yet, the large number of EVs I seen have been Model 3s, Mach-Es and Lightnings, parked outside charging next to the house or in front of the garage. Where I have seen two EVs parked in a driveway side-by-side (a Mach-E and Lightning), in front of a two car garage, there was enough room to potentially park one or two ICE vehicles behind them or on the street. Not trying to be judgmental, but it was a ginormous and perhaps historical house and, if they had the resources to afford that house AND two BEVs, I could imagine them possibly flying or using some other means to go long trips, other then driving their electric vehicles. Or maybe they do and charge as they go?!
wmb, maybe they have an S-Class they use for road trips in one of those garage bays, or maybe they rent something for road trips. Yeah, it’s hard to know, unless you actually know the people.
I know one person who uses an EV for long road trips. I’ll see him this summer when he drives his Model S from the Seattle area to central Indiana. The few other EV owners I know use them only within range of home charging.
Kit, the podcast coldwarconversations.com has a new episode up that might interest you:
America’s Cold War Scottish Bastion (345)
Regardless of range I just don’t see the value of an EV. If everything else was equal meaning the vehicles size quality and amenities I see that the price of charging will likely be a small win for now and probably equal in the coming years. Meanwhile dealing with the inconvenience of the length of charging would be enough to prevent me from buying. Between that and the initial price difference I’m just not interested. They keep making gains in reducing the charging time and range so maybe one day it will appeal to me but not today.
Maybe it’s me getting older and getting some of that old man cynicism but looking at everything from 10,000 ft when has government ever done anything out of concern for the people where it didn’t generate a new tax base or revenue stream of fees? They are pushing these EVs so hard that it’s difficult to not feel like there is an ulterior motive. And I know that climate change is a hot button for lots of people that there are lots of studies to support it and debunk it. I personally believe it’s being used to create policies and laws that provide the government with two simple gains. more power and money through restrictions, permits, and fees and fines. I do believe we should do what we can to curb pollution, but I’m not sold that EVs will eventually do a whole lot of anything to provide the benefits they claim it will. So, for that reason and the one I started with I’m going to hold out on buying an EV for now. Won’t say I’ll never own one but not until it makes sense for me and not because the government wants me to own one.
Sean Wagner, thanks. I’ll listen to it.
Sean, I listened, and it was interesting. A lot of mention of the place I was in the navy in 1970-1971.