+++ DIESEL cars are expected to account for less than 10 percent of the car market in South Korea for the first time this year since they were made fully available for sale in 2005. Diesel cars were once considered attractive for their power and fuel efficiency, despite often being priced higher than gasoline cars. Demand peaked in the early to mid-2010s, accounting for 45.9 percent of new car sales in 2015. However, as diesel fuel prices have risen, and environmentally friendly cars like hybrids and electric cars have gained traction, diesel cars have declined in popularity. In the first 10 months of this year, a total of 115.350 new diesel cars were registered in South Korea, accounting for only 9.2 percent of overall car registrations. This is a significant drop from the previous low of 12.6 percent last year. The drop is attributed to a global trend towards reducing emissions, as diesel cars produce a lot of nitrogen oxide, a major contributor to fine particulate pollution. Also playing a part is a recent rapid rise in diesel fuel prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. +++
+++ FORD says the need to restore manufacturing operations outweighed the additional costs to sweeten a labor contract to end a strike that has cost it some $1.3 billion. “The important thing for us was to get back to work and get the factories running again”, said Ford chief financial officer John Lawler after the company announced a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers to end the nearly 6-week strike. Ford was the first of Detroit’s “Big Three” to reach a tentative agreement with the UAW, with both General Motors and Stellantis still facing a stoppage. The agreement, which includes a 25 percent wage increase for hourly employees, followed a UAW walkout that took down 3 key company plants responsible for many of Ford’s most profitable vehicles. The UAW agreement must be approved by rank-and-file workers in a vote. Lawlers’s remarks came as Ford reported third quarter profits of $1.2 billion, translating into a per share results that missed analyst estimates. Revenues rose 10 percent to $43. 8 billion. One factor in the disappointing earnings was a $100 million hit from a strike begun near the end of the quarter. The profit impact will be much greater in the fourth quarter, where the bulk of the 80.000 vehicles lost to the strike was felt, according to Lawler. Ford withdrew its 2023 full-year earnings forecast due to the strike. The company isn’t sure how quickly it will be able to ramp back up the struck plants. Lawler cited the risk of “obsolescence” and difficulties with suppliers, who may need to hire new staff. “There’s a tremendous amount of work and uncertainty ahead of us”, Lawler said. Prior to the labor deal, Ford executives had said the company was at its absolute limit in terms of the contract. Lawler said the company would need to identify new cost cuts and efficiencies to cover the agreement, which will add an estimated $850 to $900 in labor costs per vehicle. “We have work to do”, Lawler said. “We’re going to have find efficiencies throughout the system”. +++
+++ GENERAL MOTORS (GM) Korea reported remarkable vehicle sales growth last month, while Renault Korea Motors and KG Mobility continued to display lukewarm performances during the same period. According to data from the automakers, GM Korea sold a total of 46.269 cars here in October, up 72.6 percent from a year earlier. The company widened its winning streak by achieving monthly sales growth for 16 consecutive months. GM’s stellar performance was driven by the continued popularity of the Chevrolet Trax crossover (photo). The brand’s Trailblazer SUV also helped propel the automaker’s overall sales growth. GM sold 16.752 Trailblazer SUVs during the same period. But other automakers, excluding Hyundai and Kia, Korea’s top 2 automakers, suffered steep sales declines. Data from Renault Motor Korea showed that the automaker sold 5.745 vehicles last month, down 70.2 percent from a year ago. The XM3 small SUV (Arkana) and mid-sized QM6 SUV (Koleos) placed their names as the 2 most sought-after vehicles of the company. The automaker hopes to rev up falling sales by running a special promotional event this month offering a super-low interest rate of 0.9 percent on installment payments. KG Mobility also reported a sales fall of 51.3 percent during the same period, hit by production suspension and weakening consumer sentiment. “Our exports declined, as construction is underway for the integration of our 2 assembly lines in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province”, an official at the company said. KG Mobility hopes to achieve a major sales rebound by diversifying its product lineups and boosting sales of its strategic models, such as the all-electric Torres EVX. Hyundai and affiliate Kia reported solid sales growth last month. Hyundai sold more than 377.000 vehicles; up 9.6 percent from a year ago. Sales of Kia vehicles also increased 7.7 percent to more than 257.000 during the same period, boosted by its strong lineup of flagship SUVs, such as the Sorento and Sportage. +++
+++ HONDA ’s profit jumped 34% in July-September from a year earlier as a weak yen helped boost the Japanese automaker’s strong overseas earnings thanks to healthy demand, especially in the U.S. Tokyo-based Honda’s profit rose to 254 billion yen from 189 billion yen. Quarterly sales gained 17% to 4.9 trillion yen. Production in North America continued to recover from the crunch caused by a shortage of computer chips and other supplies, contributing to a recovery in profitability, Honda senior executive officer Shinji Aoyama told reporters. Disruptions due to restrictions on business activity related to the Covid-19 pandemic had caused production delays for automakers around the world, but are gradually clearing up. Aoyama said slowing economic growth in China and Vietnam hurt Honda’s motorcycle sales. Surging demand for electric vehicles in China also hurt sales for Honda, which has fallen behind in the global shift toward battery electric vehicles, Aoyama said. He said Honda will begin offering BEVs from next year. The dramatic shift in the auto industry toward BEVS has made winners out of U.S. automaker Tesla and BYD of China, while catching Japanese manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota off guard with their hybrids and regular gasoline engines. Honda is projecting a 930 billion yen profit for the fiscal year ending in March 2024, up from an earlier forecast of 800 billion yen profit. That’s better than the 651 billion yen earned in the previous fiscal year. A weak yen is a boon for Japanese exporters because it boosts the value of their overseas earnings when they are converted into yen. Honda said it was calculating the U.S. dollar at about 140 yen for the latest quarter. The dollar has been trading at about 150 yen lately. Aoyama said the latest profit surge is mostly a result of sales results, although a favorable currency added 26 billion yen ($172 million) in fiscal half operating profit, compared to the previous year. Cost cuts also helped. In the first 6 months of the fiscal year, Honda sold more than 1.9 million vehicles around the world, up from nearly 1.8 million vehicles last year, with sales growing in Japan and North America. They fell in Europe and the Asian region excluding Japan. In the same period, Honda sold 9.26 million motorcycles worldwide, up from 9.2 million. +++
+++ With upbeat earnings in the third quarter, HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP ’s yearly operating revenue has surpassed the 20 trillion won ($14.8 billion) mark, the company’s earnings report showed. The South Korean auto giant’s Hyundai and Kia brands hit a combined 20.8 trillion won in operating profit and sales revenue of 196.5 trillion won during the January-September period. The 2 carmakers’ annual profit and revenue in 2022 were 17.5 trillion won and 229.8 trillion won, respectively. It is yet another earnings record for Hyundai Motor Group. Last year, it became the world’s third-largest carmaker after selling over 6.8 million units, following Toyota and Volkswagen Group. The stellar record comes after Hyundai and Kia’s announcement on their third-quarter earnings reports this week. On Thursday, Hyundai announced its operating profit from the July to September period surged 146.3 percent from last year to 3.8 trillion won, the highest figure since 2011. It sold a total of 1.04 million cars worldwide, up 2 percent on-year. Sales revenue also jumped 8.7 percent to 41 trillion won in the same period, mostly driven by a surge in sales of profitable car lineups including sport utility vehicles as well as its premium brand Genesis cars. Hyundai’s smaller affiliate Kia on Friday said it posted record-high earnings in the third quarter. Its operating profits skyrocketed by 272.9 percent to 2.9 trillion won compared to a year earlier, while revenue increased 10.3 percent to 25.5 trillion won. It sold 778.213 units abroad and within Korea, a 3.5 percent jump in the same period. Seo Gang-hyun, chief financial officer at Hyundai Motor Group, said a shift from volume expansion to a profit-first strategy has been conducive despite the global economic slowdown. For Hyundai, highly profitable SUV models including Santa Fe, Tucson, Palisade and Genesis cars made up around 60 percent of total sales in the third quarter, improving the product portfolio. Kia also said its flagship recreational vehicles such as Sportage, Sorento and Carnival took up 68.7 percent of the total sales. Hyundai’s US business posted its highest-ever sales with a 27 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Seo noted the company expects continuous growth for SUV sales there, with the new Santa Fe waiting for its debut next year. As one of the firm’s car lineup targeted at the US market, the boxy SUV was jointly developed with Hyundai’s local design centers to cater to the needs of the US customers. Despite a drop in sales in emerging markets (China, India and Vietnam), Kia said the sales in the US and Europe jumped 7.9 percent. Joo Woo-jeong, the chief financial official at Kia, said the company will strive for a turnaround in the Chinese business with the launch of the new EV5 launch of in November. For India, it plans to roll out Sonet PE and expand its footing in the compact SUV market. As for EVs, Joo said, “Our rivals are not just other electric cars but internal combustion engine and hybrid cars. With the recent drop in raw materials prices, I think we can compete head-on with hybrid cars in terms of cost. We plan to increase our market share (in the EV business) while maintaining high profitability”. Kia is to expand its EV lineups with new models. The EV3 is to go into production in the second quarter of next year, EV4 in the third and fourth quarters of 2024. Hyundai and Kia are expected to achieve their annual guidance on profitability, projected earlier this year. Hyundai said it is likely to hit the upper band of the guidance (15 percent growth in sales and 9 percent operating profit margin) while Kia vowed to post a 11.5-12 percent profit margin. +++
+++ The KIA EV6 is set to get a completely new look, with the facelifted car heralding a major redesign to bring it closer in appearance to the brand’s newly-launched EV9 flagship. Due towards the middle of 2024, the EV6 (Kia’s first dedicated electric car and the basis for a deluge of forthcoming EV-badged models) will get a cleaner front end and more distinctive daytime running lights (DRLs). Marketing director for Kia Europe, David Hilbert, told: “Some time in the future, there will be enhancements to the EV6 and having that common design language with the EV9 will be something to look forward to”. Hilbert wouldn’t elaborate on exactly which “enhancements” the EV6 would get, but hinted that commonality with the EV9 and EV5 SUVs, plus the EV3 and EV4 concepts, is all but a given. This should mean the EV6 gets a slimmer set of headlights, as well as more recognizable vertical DRLs. It’s likely Kia will remove the current car’s narrow grille in favor of a single piece of slim black trim, while implementing a flatter front end, too. Expect the EV6’s fundamental shape to remain, with no dimensional changes planned at this stage. All of Kia’s most recent models (EV3, EV4, EV5 and EV9) share their so-called ‘Starmap’ tail-light design, so it’s likely the EV6 will adopt a similar signature next year. However, the current car’s rear clusters are connected via a full-width lightbar. It remains to be seen whether chief designer Karim Habib will incorporate the new look while also retaining this original defining feature. Inside the facelifted EV6, I expect a significant tech upgrade, possibly lifting the EV9’s 3-screen layout wholesale. This would eliminate the need for the EV6’s slightly-fiddly touch panel, which cycles between the climate control and media functions, possibly adding physical buttons for the heating and ventilation like those found in the EV9. We don’t expect huge changes under the skin, with the EV6 retaining its E-GMP platform and range of rear and dual-motor powertrains. The EV9 is offered with a larger 99.8 kWh battery than the EV6, but this is unlikely to find its way into the smaller car, due both to size and weight. The Tesla Model 3 rival will retain its 800 volt architecture and high peak charge speed, however, for a 10-80 percent top-up in less than 20 minutes. Hilbert wouldn’t give us a definite time frame for the revised EV6, but said “Every three years is a facelift, and then a full model change every six”. This would suggest we’re likely to see camouflaged cars testing early in 2024, before a full reveal sometime in the summer. +++
+++ NEXEN TIRE , a leading global tire manufacturer, said that its N’Blue 4 Season 2 tires have received the “Green Tire” seal of Auto Bild, one of Germany’s most prestigious automobile magazines. The N’Blue 4 Season 2 is an all-weather tire that excels in a variety of weather conditions, from summer rain to winter snow. Through a wide range of grooves for smooth drainage performance on wet roads and fine micro-kerf design on the patterned surface, the wet road and snow performance of the V-shaped directional pattern design is improved over the first-generation products. The shoulder block features 3D kerf technology, which increases block rigidity for stable handling performance in all weather conditions, and the block edge design, which is shaped like a saw blade, effectively improves braking performance in the snow. The tire was also awarded the main prize in the product design category of the Red Dot Design Awards in Germany. Meanwhile, the company has been demonstrating its commitment to becoming one of the most forward-thinking tire companies in terms of ESG. Earlier this year, it unveiled its sustainable-material demonstration tire, which is composed of 44 percent renewable materials and 8 percent recycled materials. Nexen Tire, founded in 1942, currently works with 150 countries and owns 4 manufacturing plants, 2 in Korea and 1 in Qingdao, China. In 2019, another plant in the Czech Republic went into operation. The firm manufactures tires with advanced technology and design excellence for passenger cars, SUVs, and light trucks. It supplies original equipment tires to global automakers in a variety of countries around the world. For the first time among the various tire manufacturers in the world, the company achieved a grand slam of the world’s top four design awards in 2014. +++
+++ NISSAN ’s profit zoomed up more than 10-fold in July-September from a year earlier, boosted by a weak Japanese yen and strong vehicle sales around the world. The Japanese automaker, allied with Renault, reported a 190.7 billion yen profit in the last quarter, up from 17.4 billion yen the year before. Quarterly sales surged 25% to 3.15 trillion yen, the company said Thursday. Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, Infiniti luxury models and X-Trail sport-utility vehicle, got a solid boost from the weak yen, as did its Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda. The weak yen generally helps the results of Japanese exporters by raising the value of their overseas earnings when they are converted into yen. The U.S. dollar has been trading at about 150 yen lately, up from 130 yen and 140 yen levels last year. The one regional market where Nissan’s sales struggled was China, where demand for electric vehicles is strong. Japanese automakers have fallen behind in offering battery electric vehicles, or BEVs. Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, raised its profit forecast for the full fiscal year through March 2024 to 390 billion yen ($2.6 billion). That’s up from an earlier projection of 340 billion yen. It earned nearly 222 billion yen in the previous fiscal year. Its chief executive, Makoto Uchida, said the company was playing catchup, especially in China, with strong BEV offerings planned for the second half of 2024. “This puts us on track toward delivering our targets and achieving sustainable growth”, he said. For the first half, although Nissan’s vehicle sales in China plunged 34% from a year earlier, they grew nearly 11% in Japan, 40% in North America and 19% in Europe. Nissan kept its sales forecast for the year through March 2024 unchanged at 3.7 million vehicles, up from 3.3 million vehicles sold in the previous fiscal year. The Japanese-French Nissan-Renault alliance has had its ups and downs. Carlos Ghosn, sent in by Renault to lead a turnaround at Nissan, was a star executive until his arrest in Japan in late 2018 on various financial misconduct charges. The alliance, which also includes smaller Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motor Corp, has been eager to put the Ghosn scandal behind it. Ghosn, who now lives in Lebanon after jumping bail in late 2019, says he is innocent. Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan. +++
+++ RENAULT and partner Nissan officially launched their “rebalanced” alliance on Wednesday as they seek to reset a rocky 24-year-old partnership. The companies announced an agreement in February to put their partnership, which also includes Mitsubishi, on an equal footing, with Renault giving up its dominant position. “After having obtained all required regulatory approvals, the New Alliance Agreement between the Renault Group and Nissan comes today into force”, the companies said in a joint statement. “This is a very important step for Renault Group, Nissan and Mitsubishi”, the chairman of the alliance, Jean-Dominique Senard, said in the statement. He said the deal “lays the foundations for a new fair, long-standing and effective partnership that will create value for each Alliance member and for all our stakeholders”. The partnership began in 1999, when Renault rescued Nissan from bankruptcy. Mitsubishi joined in 2016, with Nissan taking a 34-percent stake in its struggling Japanese rival. But tensions erupted in 2015 when the French state increased its stake in Renault. This was later reduced and an agreement was reached to cap the government’s ability to interfere in the alliance’s affairs. The union was shaken again in 2018 with the arrest of Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in Japan. Ghosn, who was sacked and fled to Lebanon to avoid prosecution in 2019, claimed the charges against him were intended to prevent him from bringing the Japanese and French automakers closer together. In Wednesday’s statement, the companies said the new alliance “lays the foundations for a new balanced, fair, and effective governance”. As part of the deal, Renault reduced its stake in the Japanese automaker from 43.4 percent to 15 percent, the same size as Nissan’s share in its French counterpart. The voting rights of Renault and Nissan are capped at 15 percent, the statement said. Nissan announced earlier this year it would investment 600 million euros in Renault’s new electric vehicle venture, Ampere, though the amount of money was smaller than Renault had hoped. Mitsubishi is pouring 200 million euros into Ampere. “We are now effectively entering this new era of the Alliance with a pragmatic and business-oriented approach”, Renault chief executive Luca de Meo said on Wednesday. Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said: “Based on this equal footing, Nissan will continue to harness our core competencies and be more agile to explore further growth opportunities that support our business strategy”. +++
+++ TOYOTA reported a more than doubling of second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by a weak yen and strong sales, and raised its full-year forecast by 50%. The world’s top-selling automaker said operating profit for the 3 months to the end of September rose 155.6% from a year earlier to ¥1.44 trillion ($9.52 billion). The Japanese automaker said it sold more cars in all global regions, including the United States, Asia and its home market, over the 6 months to end-September compared to the same period a year earlier. Toyota lifted its full-year profit forecast to ¥4.5 trillion from ¥3 trillion, largely due to favorable effects from foreign exchange rates. It expects the weaker yen to account for ¥1.18 trillion of the revision to the full-year profit. It said a further boost from cost reduction and marketing efforts and price revisions especially outside of Japan was likely to offset higher expected expenses. The new projection compared to analysts’ average forecast of ¥4.0 trillion. The quarterly results compared to an average 1.08 trillion yen profit estimate in a poll of 10 analysts by LSEG and a profit of 562.8 billion yen in the same period last year. Toyota unveiled in June a sweeping revamp of its battery-powered vehicle strategy and committed to technologies to improve the driving range and cut costs of electric vehicles. It said overnight it would boost investment by $8 billion in a North Carolina plant that will make batteries for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full-battery vehicles. In the first nine months of the year it sold 7.5 million cars, which included the Lexus luxury brand, nearly a third of them hybrids. It sold around 76.000 battery EVs, or about 1% of total sales, during the same period. While Toyota has avoided the kind of hit other Japanese automakers such as Nissan and Honda have taken in China from a shift to EVs and the rise of domestic brands, Toyota still faces pressure in the world’s biggest auto market. It also faces a battle in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand due to rising Chinese investments, fueled by higher demand for EVs. +++
+++ VOLVO is putting the pedal to the metal as it inches closer and closer to overtaking Audi’s third place in South Korea’s auto import market that has long been led by the 3 German brands: Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. According to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association’s (KAIDA) monthly report released Friday, the Swedish automaker sold 1.263 units in the country in October. Audi which sold 1.141 vehicles in the same period. With that, Volvo Korea became the third-biggest auto importer last month, taking the No. 3 spot for the second consecutive month. The KAIDA’s cumulative figures showed that Volvo has sold 13.770 units in the country as of October since the beginning of this year and accounts for 6.29 percent of the total auto import market here. Audi has sold 15.258 cars to take up a 6.96 percent market share. Compared to last year, the Swedish automaker’s sales in the first 10 months of the year increased by 37.7 percent, whereas the 3 top German brands suffered on-year losses between 3 to 10 percent during the same period. The Volvo XC60, the carmaker’s global best-selling hybrid SUV, has propelled the brand’s rise here. According to the KAIDA’s data, Volvo sold 899 units of the SUV in September alone, seeing a 248 percent increase from the previous month. The XC60 was the highest-selling SUV and became the second most-sold model in the country only behind the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. “Despite the challenging environment that the auto industry is facing right now, we are seeing around 33 percent growth this year with strong demand based on the trust from individual customers in their 30s and 40s”, said Lee Man-shik, head of sales and marketing at Volvo Korea. “Moving forward, we will roll out the models for 2024 and increase the quantity, as well as expand our service network to continue our high-quality growth”. As of August this year, South Korea was the 8th largest market for Volvo and the biggest market in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China. Earlier this year, Volvo Korea laid out its goal of selling 10.000 units for the fifth year in a row and eventually selling over 17.500 units; an increase of about 20 percent on-year. The automaker also announced its plan to invest 111 billion won ($83 million) to open 7 new exhibition halls and add 8 service centers to improve customer experiences. +++
+++ XPENG unveiled the interior of the X9. The SEPA 2.0 platform-based electric MPV has 7 seats and a large touchscreen inside. It will start pre-sales at the Guangzhou Auto Show on November 17. The Xpeng X9’s interior was previously exposed in spy shots and a blurry teaser image. Now, the Chinese automaker has released high-quality images. The X9 has a 2-spoke steering wheel with a flat bottom and a minimalistic Xpeng logo. Behind the wheel, we can see a small LCD instrument cluster and a gear selector. The main feature of the center console is a large screen. Its diameter has yet to be revealed. But it is bigger than the Xpeng G6 fastback SUV’s monitor. We can see a single air vent, two wireless charging pads, and two cup holders under the center screen. The front passenger hasn’t got an independent screen. It is a drawback since the X9’s rival, Li Auto Mega, offers an additional monitor for the front passenger. The Xpeng X9’s interior has 7 seats with a 2+2+3 layout. Its second row has 2 independent captain chairs. They are equipped with armrests and separate charging ports. Each front seat has a folding table. Inside, the X9 has 180 cm of space in width. The third-row passengers have two cup holders and an independent climate control zone. The Xpeng X9 sits on the SEPA 2.0 architecture that supports a rear-steering mechanism. Its dimensions are 5.293/1.988/1.785 mm respectively and the wheelbase is 3.160 mm. The Xpeng X9 adopts the 800 Volt high-voltage SiC platform, which is good for fast charging. It will have 3 range options: 610 km, 640 km and 702 km. The Xpeng X9 will compete in China with the Zeekr 009. +++
