+++ BYD just overtook Tesla to become the world’s top seller of electric vehicles and it’s reportedly handing out rewards to its Chinese car dealers to celebrate. The Chinese EV giant will hand out a total of up to 2 billion yuan ($281 million) to dealers that met their sales targets in 2023. These dealers will receive 666 yuan ($93) for every car they sold in 2023. In Chinese culture, 666 is considered a highly auspicious number. It comes after BYD overtook Tesla as the largest global producer of EVs, with the Chinese firm delivering 526.409 cars in the fourth quarter of 2023 versus Tesla’s 484.507. BYD has been able to challenge Tesla in the EV market by focusing on affordability. For example, the Chinese automaker launched its Seagull electric vehicle, which costs 73,000 yuan (€20.000 in Dutch pricing) last year. Chinese EV firms have been increasingly eyeing overseas expansion as their home market has become more competitive, raising fears that Western markets could be flooded with cheap Chinese electric vehicles. In the United States, officials had become alarmed over plans by BYD and fellow Chinese EV companies MG and Chery to build factories in Mexico, with lawmakers warning it could provide them with a “backdoor” to the US market. After laughing off the threat of BYD over a decade ago, Musk has now changed his tune on Tesla’s Chinese rivals. In an interview in November, he said that Chinese companies like BYD were the biggest threat to Tesla. “By far Tesla’s competition is in China. There’s a lot of people out there who think that the top-10 car companies are going to be Tesla followed by 9 Chinese car companies. I think they might not be wrong”, Musk said. +++
+++ FISKER said on Friday its electric vehicle deliveries jumped more than 4-fold during the final quarter, helping it hand over about 4.700 vehicles for the year. The rise in quarterly sales volume was primarily driven by strong demand for the Ocean, a SUV priced at €63.390 in Ultra form at the Dutch car market. Fisker started making its first deliveries to U.S. customers in June. The company will announce a plan in January to boost sales and deliveries to align production capacity with strong demand for the Ocean SUV. Shares of the California-based EV company were up more than 10% in premarket trading. They have lost about 79% so far this year. Smaller EV firms are facing dwindling cash reserves, pressured by high costs related to production ramp-ups and price cuts to boost demand. Fisker, which has a deal with Magna International’s Austrian unit to manufacture its cars, made 10.142 vehicles in 2023. The company, however, slashed its annual production forecast twice in the past 2 months as it slowed down production to meet working capital needs. +++
+++ FORD reclaimed the position of Britain’s best selling car in 2023 according to data just released by the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders). However, it’s now the Puma that sits at the top of the car registrations league table rather than the Fiesta, following Ford’s decision to stop production of its supermini last year. Just shy of 50.000 Pumas (49.591 units) were registered in the UK in the last 12 months. In second place was 2022’s biggest seller, the British-built Nissan Qashqai, with 43.319 registrations, while 2021’s biggest seller, the Vauxhall Corsa, took third place with 40.916 registrations. The Kia Sportage (36.135) and the Tesla Model Y (35.899) round off the top-5, with SUVs dominating (7 of the top-10 cars are SUVs). The rest of the top-10 bestselling cars in 2023 were the Hyundai Tucson (34.469), the Mini Hatch (33.385), the Nissan Juke (31.745), the Audi A3 (30.159) and the Vauxhall Mokka (29.983). However, despite Ford registrations jumping 13.6 percent in 2023, Volkswagen still sold more cars overall making it Britain’s biggest-selling car brand. In total 162.085 VWs found homes last year, just over 18.000 more than Ford. Audi claimed third place overall ahead of BMW, Toyota and Kia rounding off the top-5. In total 1.9 million new cars were registered in 2023; up 17.9 percent on 2022 and the best year since 2019, as the pandemic hangover and supply shortages due to the component crisis eased throughout last year. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes told: “2023 was a year that’s been very positive for the UK, not only in terms of car sales, but also investment attracted, backed by government”. Major investment announcements included those by JLR, Stellantis/Vauxhall, BMW/Mini and Nissan. The majority of car sales growth came from the fleet sector, rising by 38.7 percent year-on-year, although that number includes the increasing number of private car owners leasing their cars through salary sacrifice schemes and those leasing through the UK’s largest fleet, Motability. Traditional private buyer registration numbers remained static. However, it was a mixed year for battery electric vehicles. Although sales reached record levels with 315.000 full EVs finding homes, there was no growth in market share which remained static at 16.5 percent. With 30 to 40 new fully electric models arriving in the UK in 2024, according to the SMMT, that figure is predicted to rise to 22.3 percent, in line with the government’s ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) mandate. In total, the SMMT predicts a modest rise in car registrations this year, with close to 2 million cars expected to find homes in 2024. Plug-in hybrid vehicles saw a surge in registrations in 2023; up 39.3 percent with PHEVs now accounting for 7.4 percent of the new car market. Registrations of full hybrids also jumped by 27.1 percent to give these self-charging models a 12.6 percent market share. Diesel market share slipped to just 7.5 percent. The SMMT used the announcement of the 2023 registrations to call on government to support private buyers in the transition to EVs with a reduction in VAT on new all-electric models. “The challenge for 2024 is to deliver a green recovery”, said Mike Hawes. “The government has challenged the UK automotive sector with the world’s boldest transition timeline and is investing to ensure we are a major maker of electric vehicles. It must now help all drivers buy into this future, with consumer incentives that will make the UK the leading European market for ZEVs”. The SMMT wants to see a halving of VAT on EVs to 10 percent. “More drivers would upgrade their existing petrol or diesel car to a new zero emission alternative, widening the future supply of used electric vehicles, and making investment in chargepoint rollout even more compelling”, said Hawes. “Over the past 5 years, BEV uptake has risen almost 20-fold, with the Treasury reaping a VAT windfall due to these vehicles typically having higher purchase costs than their ICE counterparts. Halving VAT would give consumers an estimated additional £7.7 billion in BEV buying power to the end of 2026, while reducing the Treasury’s tax take by just 22% per vehicle for each additional driver switching from an ICE to a BEV. This would encourage an extra 270.000 new car buyers in Britain to go electric and put 1.9 million new EVs on the road by the end of 2026. Such a step would have a profound impact on the UK’s carbon footprint, reducing road vehicle emissions by more than 5 million tonnes cumulatively over the next 3 years”. +++
+++ JAC MOTORS , a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, is set to launch the first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) with a sodium-ion battery through its new Yiwei brand. Although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density (and is less mature) than lithium-ion, its lower costs, more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption. The JAC Yiwei EV hatchback deliveries will begin in January. Yiwei is a new brand in 2023 for JAC. Volkswagen has a 75 percent stake in (and management control of) JAC and owns 50 percent of JAC’s parent company, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holdings (JAG). The Chinese government owns the other half of JAG, making for one of the auto industry’s stranger pairings. The Yiwei EV appears to be a rebranded version of the Sehol E10X hatchback, announced earlier this year. The Sehol model as having a 252 km range with a 25 kWh capacity, 120 Wh/kg energy density, 3C to 4C charging and a HiNa NaCR32140 cell. When JAC revealed the Yiwei brand in May, it said it would drop the Sehol label and rebrand all its vehicles to either JAC or Yiwei, leading us to this week’s EV reveal. JAC hasn’t yet said whether the Yiwei-branded model will keep the E10X moniker. In April, JAC showcased a separate EV called the Yiwei 3 at the Shanghai Auto Show. That model launched in June with an LFP lithium battery, promising the sodium-ion variant would launch later. The new Yiwei EV reportedly uses cylindrical sodium-ion cells from HiNA Battery. JAC assembles the batteries in the company’s modular UE (Unitized Encapsulation) honeycomb structure, similar to CATL’s CTP (cell-to-pack) and BYD’s Blade. The layout can provide for greater stability and performance. +++
+++ The winner of the 2024 NORTH AMERICAN CAR OF THE YEAR (NACOY) awards have been announced. This is the 30th anniversary of the award, and jurors picked 2 vehicles from an array of new cars. The Toyota Prius takes home the car award, which marks only the second time that Toyota has won. The previous time was in 2004 with the second-generation Toyota Prius. It also represents the only hybrid to win this year, and it beat out the Honda Accord and the Hyundai Ioniq 6. Kia once again takes home a NACOY award with an electric vehicle: the 3-row EV9. It’s based on the same electric vehicle architecture as Kia’s winner last year, the EV6. It’s also one of the few 3-row electric options on the market, and one that’s large enough for that third row to be usable. It marks the 8th win for the Hyundai Motor Group as a whole, but that was a given because the other finalists were the Genesis Electrified GV70 and the Hyundai Kona (Electric). +++
+++ Tesla topped NORWAY ’s car sales for a third straight year in 2023, extending its lead over rivals despite an ongoing conflict between the U.S. electric vehicle maker and the Nordic region’s powerful labor unions. Almost 5 out of 6 new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by battery only, with Tesla’s share of the overall market rising to 20.0% from 12.2%, registration data showed. Electric vehicles accounted for 82.4% of new vehicles sold in 2023, up from 79.3% in 2022, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said. Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway exempts fully electric vehicles from many taxes imposed on internal combustion engine rivals, although some levies were introduced in 2023. Tesla faces a backlash from unions and pension funds in the Nordic region as the automaker refuses to accept a demand from Swedish mechanics for collective bargaining rights covering wages and other conditions. As a result, Swedish dockworkers, truck drivers, postal employees, electricians, cleaners and others refuse to service Tesla, and have won backing from unions in Norway, Denmark and Finland who help block imports of Tesla cars into Sweden. Still, there is no sign that the conflict is hurting Tesla sales in Norway, said Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian EV Association. “We see no signals indicating that”, Bu told. The biggest brands by market share after Tesla were Toyota with 12.4%, up from 8.0%, and Volkswagen with 10.8%, down from 11.6%. The Tesla Model Y was again the most popular model of the year, ahead of Volkswagen’s ID.4 and the Skoda Enyaq. Bu said the market share of electric cars could rise to 95% in 2024, a year before parliament’s 100% goal is to be reached. “It is a big jump but we’ve had a similar jump previously, from 2021 to 2022, where we had a jump of almost 15 percentage points, so I think we can do it in 2024”, said Bu. The Moller Mobility Group, Norway’s biggest car retailer which sells the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda brands, predicted EVs would take a 90% market share in 2024, leaving “much work” still to reach the 2025 goal. In Norway’s capital Oslo, more than one third of the city’s private cars are now fully electric, a number that could reach 50% in the next 2 years, Bu predicted. But while noise and air pollution have eased, not everyone is happy. Some electric car owners complain about a lack of street charging points and argue current policies favor those who can afford their own. “An electric car should be a real option for anyone… no matter if you live in a building with parking or no parking”, said Oslo resident Inger Sophie Finch. +++
+++ The latest refresh applied to the 992-series PORSCHE 911 isn’t far away from a public debut. Believed to be called the 992.2-series, we’ve already been privy to updates such as active vertical louvers in a new front intake design, new headlights with integrated turn signals, and a new rear bumper with reworked exhaust outlets. The new coupe should arrive within the next 6 months and it will eventually become the first-ever hybrid 911 in the lineage. Before we get to that, though, Porsche’s reworking engines in the standard lineup. The 3.0-liter flat-six in the entry-level Carrera is said to gain 10 horsepower and 25 Nm of torque after the refresh, to reach 390 hp and 470 Nm. The engine in the Carrera S sees an almost equal boost of 10 ponies and 20 Nm to 460 hp and 550 Nm. The Carrera S and the Carrera GTS are supposed to get 48 volt mild hybrid assistance. The GTS will pair this tiptoe toward electrification with a larger-displacement engine, a 3.6-liter flat-6 instead of today’s 3.0-liter. Signaling big plans for this motor, Kacher says the 3.6-liter will replace not only the 3.0-liter in the regular Carreras, but also the 4.0-liter flat-6 in the GT3 ,GT3 RS and the S/T in the name of achieving European emissions compliance. In its first application on the market in the GTS, though, it is expected to make 490 hp and 560 Nm, a change of 10 more horses and 10 Nm fewer pound-feet compared to the current GTS. Still in the non-GT lineup, the Turbos downsize from their 3.7-liter to a reworked and more frugal 3.6-liter. It appears the twin-turbo 3.0-liter engine will live on in the hybrid model, which won’t be a plug-in and is probably 18 months to 2 years away from market launch. Developed with Rimac, the so-called T-HEV system adds a very small, high-performance battery on a 400 volt architecture to charge an electric motor underneath the fuel tank making up to 90 hp and 200 Nm. Engine power and regen braking keep the battery topped up, a generator-motor integrated with the engine out back fills in power delivery valleys while the turbos spool and runs ancillaries. According to sources, 2 variants would provide a couple of steps between the Carrera and the Turbo. One hybrid would make combined output of 490 hp and 650 Nm, the other would raise that to 540 hp. +++
+++ RENAULT treated its big-selling Clio to a refresh in the second half of 2023, and the company is working on a similar reboot for the closely related Captur that should break cover in the first half of this year. The updated version of Renault’s current Nissan Juke rival leaked just before Christmas, via some European patent applications. It showed how the Captur will evolve, with a more dramatic, sharp-edged front end that pulls the design towards that of the flagship Austral, and slightly further away from the more closely related Clio. There’s a more aggressive front bumper, while the front grille plays with Renault’s latest corporate identity. The rear will be more familiar, with the current car’s C-shaped tail-lights being carried over and only mild revisions to plastic components, such as the bumper. And as is usually the case with mid-life updates, key metal panels, such as the doors, will remain unchanged. Expect several major upgrades in the cabin, though, with a further boost in material quality (one of the existing Captur’s strongest facets) and both the larger, 9.3-inch portrait-layout infotainment system and the 10-inch instrument panel rolled out to more of the trim levels. There’s no word yet on whether the plug-in hybrid variant may reappear, perhaps in a modified form with increased electric range, but it’s conceivable that Renault will stick with full-hybrid tech on this Captur, allowing a switch to even more efficient petrol-based hybrid powertrains (jointly developed with Chinese conglomerate Geely) on the next completely new generation, due in 2026. +++
+++ RIVIAN Automotive missed market estimates for 4th quarter deliveries as tough competition and high interest rates weighed on demand for its electric vehicles, sending the company’s shares down nearly 10%. The company handed over 13.972 vehicles in the last 3 months of 2023, which is 10% lower than the previous quarter, and below estimates of 14.430 units per 13 analysts polled by Visible Alpha. High interest rates in the United States have raised monthly payments for electric vehicles, making them less affordable and prompting a price war by market leader Tesla. Amazon.com, Rivian’s biggest backer and a large customer, does not take deliveries during the 4th quarter while it’s focusing on holiday shopping. “It’s likely that holiday schedules slowed down deliveries vs production”, said Vitaly Golomb, a Rivian investor and an electric and autonomous mobility expert. Rivian produced 17.541 vehicles in the last 3 months of 2023; up 7.5% from the prior quarter. That took the annual production to 57.232 units, beating its forecast of 54.000. While an earlier-than-expected bond issuance in October had sent Rivian’s stock plunging on fears over its financial health, the company is widely seen as better placed among the EV startups such as Lucid and Fisker. Rivian has so far avoided cutting prices of its vehicles, betting instead on sustainable demand. The company last month signed a deal for its electric vehicles with U.S. wireless carrier AT&T, the first after its exclusivity pact with Amazon ended in November. Some analysts said the Rivian R1T pickup is unlikely to face major competition from Tesla’s Cybertruck, unveiled in late November. +++
+++ Having saved SSANGYONG from liquidation in 2022, KG Mobility has announced that the Korean firm’s existing dealerships will be rebranded as KGM Motors outlets by the middle of 2024. The SsangYong dragon-wing logo will remain but there’s a new slogan of “Go different. KGM”. Initially, SsangYong was going to be relaunched as ‘KG Mobility’, however the firm changed tack not long after, electing instead to use the simpler ‘KGM’ name in Europe. The full KG Mobility brand name will be used in Korea. Speaking on the rebrand, managing director of KGM Motors UK, Kevin Griffin, said: “the ultimate vision is to focus on the application of a modern brand that is future-oriented, utilises new technologies, ventures into electrification, autonomous driving and connectivity. The rebrand is an important and fundamental steppingstone”. What does this mean for the current SsangYong line-up? Changes will be limited to some specification tweaks, with renamed trim levels for the Korando, Rexton and recently facelifted Tivoli SUVs. Meanwhile the Musso pick-up truck and Korando e-Motion (the brand’s first EV) will be untouched. The first car to wear any KGM-specific branding is likely to be the new all-electric Torres EVX that’s arriving in Dutch showrooms in early 2024. KGM has 3 more EVs in the works, including an electric pick-up truck slated to launch by the end of 2024. This as-yet-unnamed model will be based on the Torres EVX, with both vehicles featuring batteries from Chinese company BYD. Details about the 2 remaining EVs are under wraps for now. +++
+++ TESLA delivered a record number of electric vehicles in the 4th quarter, beating market estimates and meeting its 2023 target of 1.8 million vehicles as a year of price cuts and a year-end sales push paid off. The automaker delivered 494.989 vehicles in the quarter, but it fell short of the 526.409 fully electric vehicles handed over by China’s BYD, Tesla’s main global rival. BYD’s annual deliveries were 3.02 million, though that included about 1.4 million plug-in hybrid EVs, meaning Tesla was still ahead in fully EV deliveries for the year. BYD’s deliveries show price cuts are working for the Chinese company, said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The fight will hurt margins for both companies, but BYD clearly believes it’s a price worth paying to increase market share and recognition”, she added. Tesla increased discounts and offered incentives like 6 months of free fast charging if customers took deliveries by December-end, in a bid to boost sales before some variants of its Model 3 lose U.S. federal tax credits in 2024. That helped it post a growth of 11% over the immediately previous quarter and higher than estimates of 473.253, according to 14 analysts polled by LSEG. It made a record 494.989 vehicles in the quarter after the third quarter was beset by a production halt to upgrade assembly lines, taking total production in 2023 to 1.85 million units. Tesla shares were flat in a broadly weaker market. “Tesla is sticking to their guns and delivery numbers being up 38%, that’s not the 40% that CEO Elon Musk liked to see but it’s much, much, much better than domestic U.S. car companies”, said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager at Tesla shareholder Hodges Capital. Smaller rival Rivian also reported deliveries on Tuesday, with the company missing market estimates amid a broader pullback in EV demand. The weakness has led U.S. automakers including Ford and General Motors to become more cautious about their EV production capacity plans. Tesla is facing scrutiny from regulators over its self-driving technology with the company recalling more than 2 million vehicles last month to install new safeguards in its Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system, after a federal safety regulator cited safety concerns. Consumer Reports (an influential U.S. nonprofit that conducts extensive reviews of cars and other goods) said its preliminary evaluation suggests the software update to fix issues were not sufficient and did not go far enough to prevent misuse and driver inattention. Some analysts said Tesla could have to continue the price cuts it started in January last year to maintain demand, after the end of the tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) brought forward sales into the 4th quarter. “Tesla may have to cut prices further, especially for a vehicle like the versions of the Model 3 that lost their tax credit”, said Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar. The rear-wheel drive and long-range variants of Tesla’s Model 3 no longer have federal tax credits of $7.500 this year as updated requirements on battery material sourcing kick in, under the IRA. Goldstein, however, said that most of the price cuts were in response to higher interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve so Tesla may maintain prices if borrowing costs start coming down. The Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 461.538 deliveries in the quarter, while Tesla handed over about 23.000 units of its other models. Tesla did not disclose if the deliveries included the newly launched Cybertruck. +++
