+++ We’re only a few weeks away from the unveiling of the redesigned BMW 5-SERIE, but a purported picture of the model has surfaced online. While I haven’t been able to determine the source, the image appears to be the real deal. The car features a streamlined bodywork that lacks the prominent character line found on today’s sedan. Instead, there’s an angular shoulder line and minimalist door handles. The updates continue out back with slimmer taillights and what could be a small spoiler. Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to see besides an edgier Hofmeister kink. We can’t see a model designation, but BMW has already confirmed the car will be offered with internal combustion engines as well as plug-in hybrid powertrains. There will also be at least 2 fully electric variants as the automaker has previously announced plans for an i5 eDrive40 and i5 M60 xDrive. Sticking with the performance theme, BMW has already confirmed the car will come with a 9th generation Vertical Dynamics Management system that uses “wheel speeds, steering angle, yaw rate and acceleration to establish the ideal damping forces”. While that doesn’t sound too special, BMW noted the system no longer relies on mathematical models as it now favors “physical calculation of data on the current driving condition” and this promises to deliver “clearly defined body control and precise suspension response in every driving situation”. The model will also be offered with an Adaptive Suspension Professional system. This promises to help the car have 7-Series levels of ride comfort as well as the agility of the 3-Series. The 5-Series will be getting a significant technology upgrade and one of the highlights is Highway Assistant, which allows for hands-free operation at speeds up to 130 km/h. A camera monitors the driver to make sure they’re paying attention to the road ahead and the system features an automated lane change function that can be “controlled using eye activation”. Drivers simply look at the mirror closest to their desired lane, and the car will change lanes once traffic allows and the driver has confirmed that’s what they want to do. The redesigned BMW 5-Series will debut on May 24th and go into production this summer at the company’s Dingolfing plant. It will then be launched in October. +++
+++ Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD posted a 5-fold jump in its first-quarter profit on Thursday as the company consolidated its leadership in the domestic market. Net profit for the first 3 months of the year was 4.13 billion yuan ($596.56 million); up 410.9% from 808.41 million yuan a year earlier, on revenue up 79.8% at 120.17 billion yuan, the company said in a stock market filing. The Shenzhen-based company outsold Volkswagen-branded cars in the first quarter of this year in China, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Buoyed by its Dynasty and Ocean series of plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars, BYD sold 552.076 new energy vehicles in the first quarter; a surge of 92.81% year-on-year, according to the company. The company sold more than 1.86 million vehicles in 2022, mostly in China. BYD has joined many other Chinese brands in a price war started by Tesla, with the offering of discounts for its Song Plus and Seal EVs in March. The price cuts have eaten into automakers’ earnings, with Tesla reporting a 24% plunge in first-quarter net income. Last week, BYD unveiled its Seagull electric hatchback at the Shanghai autoshow, stunning visitors with a price from just 78,000 yuan; around half the level of the cheapest new energy vehicles available elsewhere. +++
+++ FORD chief executive Jim Farley says Elon Musk’s price war strategy for electric vehicles isn’t anything new. Farley told reporters last week that Musk’s idea to slash prices and protect volume over profit margins is a play right out of Henry Ford’s Model T playbook. “Go read ‘1913’ “, Farley said, referring to a book that features a close look at the year Ford became a mass-producer of vehicles. “This has all happened before”. The strategies are strikingly similar. In 1913, when Henry Ford first started using a conveyer belt on his assembly line, he began slashing the price of the Model T to boost sales as the company was able to build more vehicles in a shorter period of time. Since the start of 2023, Musk has lowered the prices of the most popular Tesla models half a dozen times as the company aims to build 2 million vehicles this year, doubling 2022 production. The price cutting strategy has had an adverse effect on Tesla’s profit margins, spooking some investors, but Musk has insisted he knows what he’s doing. “We do believe we’re, like, laying the groundwork here, and that it’s better to ship a large number of cars at a lower margin, and, subsequently, harvest that margin in the future as we perfect autonomy”, Musk told investors on a quarterly earnings call earlier this month. Using Ford’s history as a guide, Farley had some warnings for Musk. “I think what he’s going to learn is product freshness means a lot”, Farley said. “The product gets commoditized and then you lose your pricing premium. That’s a really dangerous thing”. Ford’s founder eventually learned that lesson, Farley said, introducing different colors and the Model A. But by then, Chevrolet had taken over as the top car brand in the US. Musk has been under pressure to refresh the Tesla fleet, a move he has long avoided by instead introducing newer models and pushing flashy software updates to keep the Tesla driving experience fresh. With a rumored Model 3 update floating around on the internet, analysts and investors have said that updates to the Model 3 and Model Y this year will be key to keeping sales momentum going throughout the year. +++
+++ MERCEDES-BENZ is leveraging its over-the-air software updating system to beam more power to the sedan and SUV variants of the EQE and EQS. The update is compatible with the EQE 350 4Matic and EQS 450 4Matic models, and owners can either purchase it or subscribe to it. While technical details about the update haven’t been released, we know that there are no mechanical modifications involved. It’s all in the software. The company explains that the Acceleration Increase upgrade adjusts the motor characteristic curve, resulting in more horsepower and more torque regardless of the driving mode selected. It sounds similar to the factory-backed software tunes offered by some tuners. Both versions of the EQE benefit from a 60-horsepower bump, so the drivetrain’s total output increases from 290 to 350 horsepower. The sedan’s 0-to-100 kph time drops to 5.1 seconds, compared to 6 seconds flat without the update, and the SUV gets a full second quicker for a 5.2-second sprint. EQS buyers will see an 80-horse increase to 440 horsepower, while the 0-to-60 time drops to 4.5 seconds for the sedan (0.8 seconds quicker) and 4.9 seconds for the SUV (0.9 seconds quicker). Mercedes claims the update doesn’t affect driving range. Pricing depends on the model. For the EQE, the update costs €60 a month, €600 annually or €1.950 to buy outright. Put another way, that’s €32.50 per extra horsepower. For the EQS, those figures increase to €90, €900 and €2.950, respectively (about $36.90 per horsepower). Buyers who want to inject more horses into their EV’s driveline can download the Acceleration Increase update from the Mercedes Me Connect store, which is accessible online. They can download the update from anywhere without stopping by a Mercedes-Benz dealership. The list of so-called digital extras available through the platform also includes Beginner Driver and Valet Service driving modes, a dashcam feature, the AMG Track Pace application, and navigation system updates. Additional functions will join the catalog in the coming months. +++
+++ TOYOTA set a global annual output record in the business year ended in March, just edging past its target of 9.1 million vehicles as factory disruption from global chip supply woes and pandemic lockdowns eased. But the world’s biggest automaker by sales warned it continued to see impacts from the long-running global chip shortage, saying it remained hard to predict its effect going forward. Toyota said on Thursday it produced 9.13 million vehicles in the 12 months through March 31, a fraction ahead of its target, though that goal was downgraded twice from an initial goal for the year of around 9.7 million amid industry disruption. In the previous year vehicle output was 8.57 million. Global sales for the 12 months ended March rose to 9.61 million vehicles from 9.51 million in the prior year, setting another annual record for the company. The company didn’t release new sales or production targets for the current business year that started in April. It disclosed it has so far sold just 17.473 battery electric vehicles (EVs) worldwide, including those of its luxury Lexus brand, for the first three months of 2023. That compared with 24,466 battery EVs sold by Toyota worldwide for the whole of 2022. +++
+++ The number of electric car chargers available in the UNITED STATES (and where those chargers are) leaves a lot of people and communities out. EVs have some serious accessibility and equity challenges to overcome before they go mainstream, as there are major disparities in terms of financial and socio-demographic factors as to who has access to public EV charging, according to a new study from vehicle report platform Bumper. For example, the richest people in the U.S. have the most access to electric car charging, with nearly 72% of public EV charge plugs in the country’s wealthiest counties. The top 5 of counties in the US (those that are least distressed in terms of income, poverty, and unemployment) account for nearly 33% of all EV charge ports here. Meanwhile, more than 95% of EV chargers are in counties with majority-white populations. Because the highest-income earning areas in the US also tend to correlate with higher numbers of white and Asian residents, according to Bumper, and there are more charging stations in those areas, generally more white and Asian residents have access to public EV charging. And while over 63% of the counties in the U.S. have charging stations, 36% of counties do not. Data indicates there were more than 51.000 public EV charging stations in the U.S. as of March, with over 131.000 plugs. But that balances out to less than 3 charger ports for every 10.000 people in the US, and it’s even fewer for more impoverished areas. Though it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, for context, one estimate suggests there are 145.000 gas fueling stations in the country. While a vast majority of charging can be done at home, plenty of U.S. residents live in multi-family dwellings or buildings without access to a garage and plug, making that difficult in the near-term. Automakers say they are all in on electric cars, pouring up to $1.2 trillion into new product development, new factories and battery investments. The federal government, too, is keen on EVs, with a goal for 50% of new cars here to be electric by 2030, bolstered by $7.5 billion in Infrastructure Law money going to a nationwide charging network. But concerns over charging (along with the average cost of new EVs) continue to stand in the way of their widespread success, as adoption hit around 7% in the U.S. in 2022. If EVs are generally too expensive, and charging isn’t available in one’s community, the industry can’t expect them to be able to go electric. +++
+++ Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VINFAST said on Wednesday it had received a fresh round of funding pledges worth $2.5 billion for its future development, in a move that may signal a new delay to its planned listing in the United States. 2 people familiar with the matter had previously told that VinFast’s planned U.S. initial public offering (IPO) may be further delayed, with one saying it could be pushed into next year due to unfavorable market conditions. “We remain committed and focused on our listing process”, VinFast said Wednesday, without elaborating on the time frame of the planned IPO. VinFast, which began operations in 2019, is gearing up to expand in the U.S. market, where it hopes to build a car and battery plant to compete with legacy automakers and startups, although shipments of vehicles from its factory in Vietnam have so far proceeded slowly. It has delivered a handful of vehicles to U.S. customers. Of the new pledges, $1 billion will be provided as a grant within the next year from founder Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam’s richest man, the company said in a statement. Parent company Vingroup, Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate, will provide a grant of $500 million plus a $1 billion loan with a maturity of up to five years. That would increase total funds raised by VinFast to $10.7 billion, based on earlier company filings. The grants and loan will “give a push for VinFast to accelerate its development”, the company said. Vingroup has plans to raise money from possible sales of assets from its shopping mall arm and real estate developer. VinFast first flagged a U.S. IPO in April 2021, aiming to raise $2 billion with a valuation of about $60 billion. The listing was initially planned for the second half of last year, and a number of bankers have since said the IPO was expected this year. However, there was no updated timeline in the company’s latest filing to U.S. authorities in March. The market valuation for EV startups has drastically cooled after some companies with sky-high valuations faced scrutiny amid the gloomy global economic outlook. +++