MCG Executive Briefing for October 6, 2023

Lucid Motors has launched a cheaper, two-wheel-drive version of the Air EV, the Air Pure priced at $77,400. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.

 

Today’s headlines:

 As usual, the top-selling vehicles  in the USA so far this year are the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram pickups, now followed by the Toyota RAV4 and Tesla Model Y. More at Car and Driver.

 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials are recommending  the recall of 52 million air bag inflators produced by suppliers ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive. More at Reuters. 

 Ford Motor Co.’s sales rose 7.7 percent in the third quarter versus the same period last year, while General Motors reported a 21 percent jump and Stellantis slipped 1 percent. More at The Detroit News. 

+  The FIA has formally approved the Formula 1 entry application of Andretti Cadillac Racing, which now goes to Formula One Management (FOM) and the current teams for approval. More at Racer. 

 In its Q2 2023 letter to shareholders, Rivian revealed that it lost $32,595 for every vehicle it sold that quarter. which observers attribute to its complicated skateboard chassis. More at Motor Trend. 

 +   Auto parts maker Marelli has paused the closing of its Crevalcore plant in Italy, directing an adviser to seek potential buyers for the site, which employs around 230 workers. More at World Auto Forum. 

+   Hyundai and Kia announced they will adopt Tesla’s NACS electric vehicle charging system in the United States, with plans to begin the switch in the fourth quarter of 2024. More at CNBC. 

 Luxury electric carmaker Lucid Motors has launched a lower-priced, rear-wheel-drive version of the Air sedan, the Lucid Air Pure starting at $77,400, as it seeks to increase demand. More at Autoblog. 

+   LG Energy Solutions has signed an agreement with Toyota to provide batteries from its Michigan plant for the Li-Ion Monopolar pack in U.S.-built Toyotas starting in 2025. More at MotorIllustrated. 

 NASCAR has released its 2024 Cup race calendar, with Iowa Speedway on the schedule for the first time and the Atlanta spring race moved to February just after Daytona. More at NBC Sports.

Photo courtesy of Lucid Motors. 

Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from October 2 here. 

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9 thoughts on “MCG Executive Briefing for October 6, 2023

  1. When a “cheaper version” of anything costs $77,000 I know I won’t be buying one, and neither will anybody I know.

    • The average transaction price of a new Mercedes is $76K and it sold 220,000 cars in the USA last year. About twice as many as Buick.

      • I won’t be buying a Mercedes either, but I can see why people do. Mercedes has been around for about as long as there have been cars, and there are Mercedes dealers everywhere. Lucid is a new company, I’ve never seen a Lucid on the road or a Lucid dealership. Buy one today and next year you could find yourself owning a $77K orphan car that you can’t get fixed anywhere.

  2. In that same light, you can’t lose $32,595 on every vehicle you sell and stay in business long. Rivian, Lucid, and a lot of others will go through the same purge that was seen in the late 40’s to mid to 50’s when most of the small independent carmakers went belly up or merged with someone else to hang on a few more years ala Studebaker Packard.

    I’ve seen a few Teslas and a Mustang Mach or two around the nearest big city, but have never seen any EV in the entire county I live in. No demand for them here.

  3. BA,
    I don’t know what area you live in, but I’m in the mid-Atlantic region, and I can tell you there are EV cars everywhere, even on the less populated eastern shore. It’s hard to drive on major roads more than a few miles before encountering at least 1 Tesla. Many of the major re-fueling places have multiple charging spaces, and it’s common to see cars being charged. The convenience store chain WaWa, known for having 12 or more gas pump islands, is now building stores with only EV charging stations. I pulled into a big WaWa last week, only to find I was unable to get gas for my ICE car, and the EV spaces were full of Teslas, with a couple more waiting for their turn.

    • I live in eastern PA, and you’re right about Teslas, I see quite a few of them and have been seeing them for a few years now. I’ve seen 2 Rivians on the road and a handful of Nissan Leafs over the years. Never seen a Lucid yet. But there are only a few charging stations around here that I know of, and I almost never see a car plugged into one. I’ve never seen EV charging stations in any of the local WaWas, in fact they just built a huge new WaWa right down the road from me and it has dozens of gas pumps but no EV chargers that I can see. When I pull into a WaWa to get gas and have to wait my turn I might be waiting 2 minutes, when you are waiting your turn at an EV charging station you might be waiting a much longer time.

      • Barry,
        You bring up a serious challenge to the concept of changing over the vast majority of vehicles to EV instead of ICE, and that is of servicing the same amount of ICE cars in use today.

        I live near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge’s western end. There is a very large EXXON station nearby. One Friday afternoon this past summer, I was waiting at the EXXON for someone to follow me back to our home. Traffic was terrible, and I ended up waiting for over a half-hour. During that time I watched various ICE and EV cars come and go, and I began timing both refueling areas. The ICE area had 2 islands, each hosting 4 pumps each, for a total of 48 pumps. The EV section off to the side had 4 spaces and were marked Tesla.

        My observation was made during a very busy time, so there was always a situation with another car filling the pump space as soon as the other car exited. I only counted cars of owners who didn’t go into the convenience store to buy additional food or drink. I only counted those people using a credit card at the pump.

        The average time the ICE car spent at the pump was about 6 minutes. That would allow a maximum of 10 cars an hour, per pump, or 480 cars each hour. I decided to discount that number to account for car owners who didn’t pull away from the pump to the parking area in front of the store. So I settled on an average of 400 cars per hour [CPH]

        During the roughly 35 to 45 minutes I waited there, all 4 of the EV stations were in use by only the 4 cars I observed at the start of my observations. There were a couple of Teslas waiting to charge, and I assume they were too low in charge. For the basis of argument, I’m going to assume the average EV will need 2 hours of time recharging at a commercial station, but I’m going to assume that the charging times will be reduced over the next decade, so I’m going to list it as 1 hour per charge.

        At the1 hour rate of charging EVs, a 100% EV fueling station capable of charging the same amount of former ICE vehicles would need space for 400 chargers. A typical convenience store with refueling for EVs would need about 4 ACRES of land for the refueling.

        And then there is the problem of electrical power supply. My formal education is electrical engineering, and there is no location in the USA that is anywhere near capable of suppling this level of high voltage power.

        The most promising solution is automatic charging from embedded wiring lines under roadways, but this is a long way off.

        If I wasn’t too old, I would seriously consider the possibility of creating a company to supply rental charging packs, delivered by light truck to an EV with little or no power, the battery pack to be returned for deposit.

    • Bill, I am in central AL, about 1.5 hours away from Birmingham, about 1 hour from Tuscaloosa. I live in a rural area of the state, so I don’t know what goes on in the major cities as much, but do travel a good bit throughout the state. The only charging station I have ever seen was at a truckstop about 45 miles ne of Birmingham, a Tesla unit. That’s not to say there aren’t others, I just haven’t seen any.
      I did see my first EV in county yesterday at a car show, a Ford Lightning pickup. But it wasn’t sold at the local Ford dealer, it came from Birmiingham.
      I don’t claim to be an expert, just a good witness to what I see around here!

  4. Electric vehicle sales are expected to surpass the 8 million mark in 2023, with over 2 million in the USA.

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