- Tesla’s Shanghai Plant Is Back To 70%. Delivery Estimates Look Too High. – Barrons
- Musk Gets in Twitter Spat With Satirical Site Over Uncredited Image – Businessinsider
- Tesla, VW Keep Shanghai Workers Isolated Even as Lockdown Eases – Bloomberg
- South Korea’s auto production sinks to 17-year low of 3.46m – Nikkei
- Dogecoin co-creator calls Elon Musk a ‘grifter’ who had trouble running basic code – Businessinsider
- Tesla Might Drive Away from India’s Electric Ambitions – Wall Street Journal
- New 2022 Peugeot 408 confirmed for June reveal – Autocar
- SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carries IBM technology – Axios
Archives for May 2022
Tuesday Morning Auto News, May 31, 2022: Tesla’s Shanghai plant back to 70%, delivery estimates seem high; Tesla, VW keep worker under lockdown; more
Monday Morning Auto News, May 30, 2022: France issues red notice, Lebanon quizzes Ghosn; Tesla investors getting fed up; more
- Lebanon questions auto tycoon Ghosn after Interpol notice – Washington Post
- Tesla Investors Are Getting Fed Up With Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover – Barrons
- Tata looks to buy Ford India plant in EV push – Automotive News
- Fiat to axe all non-electrified models in UK from July – Autocar
- Tata Motors to buy Ford India plant – Just-Auto
- VW says it’s taking Brazil human rights probe seriously – Automotive News
- Great Wall to launch ‘Funky Cat’ in UK – Just-Auto
- GM and Posco finalise cathode joint venture deal in Canada – Just-Auto
- Stellantis and Toyota to expand partnership with large commercial van – Reuters
Dailykanban declares alleged “battery skeptic” World’s Largest Automaker 2022 (yes, 2022) and a Volkswagen insider explains why his company is falling way behind.
Pending an absence of falling skies, Dailykanban declares Toyota Group World’s Largest Automaker 2022. Yes, 2022. In the past, our predictions usually were pretty solid, but never did we dare to call a winner with only four months on the books. The distance between #1 Toyota Group and #2 Volkswagen Group simply is (for Volkswagen) too depressingly large, and the gap keeps on growing. Now here is the strange part: According to published media, battery electric vehicles are the key to hyper-growth in the auto industry. Yet, according to statistics on hand, a bet on BEVs does not appear to guarantee success. Toyota is (unfairly) branded as a battery-skeptic, yet it leads the market, supply chain problems and Chinese lockdowns be damned. Volkswagen bets the bank on BEVs, its CEO Diess wants to beat Tesla by 2025, but deliveries crater. Sure, BEVS (or HEVS) may have replaced the ICE in a few decades, but an OEM needs to remain alive before we get there. Toyota hasn’t lost sight of that simple fact. Volkswagen seemingly has.
To understand how badly Volkswagen is doing, let’s note that total global industry volume was down 11% in April, and 7% for the first four months of the year. Toyota outperformed the market with year-to-date sales down 5.8%, and April sales down 10.4%. Volkswagen Group, however, is down 26% for the year, and a very hard 37.8% in the month of April. If Volkswagen maintains its current trajectory, it could end the year with some 7 million units delivered, a far cry from the >10 million of years gone by. Meanwhile, Toyota plans for close to 10 million units for the current fiscal ending in March 2023, and its current trajectory leads into that direction. Declaring Toyota Group World’s Largest Automaker 2022 is a safe bet.
Friday Morning Auto News, May 27, 2022: Toyota cuts production again; Twitter shareholders sue Elon Musk and Twitter; more
- Toyota cuts production plan for June again, to 800000 vehicles – Reuters
- AOC vs Elon Musk: Tesla boss polls Twitter whether they trust billionaires or politicians more – Fortune
- CATL says to supply BMW with cylindrical cell from 2025 – Reuters
- Elon Musk Is Unintentionally Making the Argument for a Data Tax – Bloomberglaw
- Chinese automaker FAW Group considers buying stake in Didi Global – Reuters
- Special-edition Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio Estrema open for orders – Autocar
- With Maybach Brand, Staid Mercedes Says It Now Wants to Shock – Bloomberg
Thursday Morning Auto News, May 26, 2022: Musk drops plan to use Tesla margin loan to buy Twitter, tells Italians to make more amore; more
- Musk drops plan to use Tesla margin loan to buy Twitter – Automotive News
- Elon Musk Sees Extinction of Italians on Persisting Low Birth-Rate – Bloomberg
- The DMV said it would investigate Tesla over self – driving claims. Then, crickets. – LATimes
- Renault CEO tells shareholders that EV spinoff has strong potential – Automotive News
- Car tech firm ECARX to go public in $3.8 bln blank-check deal – Reuters
- Truck News and Rumors: Ford Tank-Turns, Navistar Updates, Unbelievable Land Rover … – Motortrend
- Ford Bronco goes from nerve-wracking to money maker for roof supplier – Automotive News
- Why Warren Buffett’s Bet on Apple Feels Far Away From a Payoff – Barrons
- Apple car director heads to Luminar after less than a year – Automotive News
Wednesday Morning Auto News, May 25, 2022: Hackers hit GM customer accounts; Stellantis chief warns of battery shortage, recession risk; more
- Hackers hit GM customer accounts; some personal data accessed – Automotive News
- Stellantis CEO warns recession could harm EV adoption – The Detroit News
- Stellantis CEO warns of electric vehicle battery shortage, followed by lack of raw materials – CNBC
- EV Sales Growing Fast, But Stellantis CEO Tavares Warns of “Many Bumps” Along the Way – Detroit Bureau
- Elon Musk Drops Out of $200 Billion Club Again as Tesla Tumbles – Bloomberg
- Samsung, Stellantis confirm Indiana EV battery plans – Just-Auto
- Lyft to Pause Hiring and Trim Budgets, Citing Economic Slowdown – Wall Street Journal
- Samsung SDI, Stellantis Invest $2.5 Billion in US Battery Plant – Bloomberg
Tuesday Morning Auto News, May 24, 2022: Tesla locks up thousands of workers to restore China output; Toyota cuts production again; more
- Tesla Quarantining Thousands of Workers to Restore China Output – Bloomberg
- Tesla fails to move ‘rampant sexual harassment’ case from open court into closed-door arbitration – Fortune
- Shanghai Lockdown Prompts Toyota to Cut More Output in May, June – Bloomberg
- Toyota to cut global production by 100000 in June – Reuters
- Stellantis, Samsung SDI to build new JV battery plant in Indiana – Reuters
- Uber Agrees to Add Local Italian Taxis to Ride – Hailing App – Bnnbloomberg
- Uber seals taxi deal to expand its business in Italy – Reuters
- In a faceoff with Elon Musk, the SEC blinked – Reuters
- New Volkswagen Golf R 20 Years is most powerful production Golf – Autocar
Monday Morning Auto News, May 23, 2022: Tesla plans to ramp to pre-lockdown output in Shanghai; more
- Tesla plans to ramp up to pre-lockdown output in Shanghai by Tuesday – Reuters
- Russia’s Avtovaz names ex-transport minister as CEO after Renault exit – Reuters
- Explainer: Do claims against Musk raise a legal issue for his companies and Twitter deal? – Reuters
- Elon Musk is recruiting ‘hardcore streetfighters’ for a new Tesla ‘litigation department’ – Businessinsider
- Elon Musk says the Biden administration ‘has done everything it can’ to ‘ignore’ Tesla – Businessinsider
- BMW Sticks to Output Targets Despite Growing Supply-Chain Woes – Bloomberg
- Skoda Afriq is one-off, Kamiq-based Dakar weapon – Autocar
- Audi of America hires new advertising agency – Automotive News
- Sempra to develop carbon capture project with Total, Mitsui, Mitsubishi – Reuters