BMW of North America has posted Q4 2021 and full year 2021 sales results for the BMW and MINI brands in the US. During Q4 2021, BMW brand sales in the U.S. totaled 93,031 vehicles, a -5.8% decrease from the 98,750 vehicles sold in Q4 of 2020. For the full year 2021, BMW brand sales increased 20.8% on total sales of 336,644 compared to the 278,732 vehicles sold in 2020. Rival MBUSA clearly trailed BMW with posted sales of 276,102 Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles during 2021. Continue reading
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Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) today reported Q4 2021 sales of 60,326 Mercedes-Benz models. Mercedes-Benz Vans recorded Q4 sales of 15,705, bringing MBUSA to 76,031 vehicles for the quarter, a decrease of -20.2% compared to the comparable period last year. Year-to-date MBUSA posted sales of 276,102 Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles and 53,472 Vans or a total 329,574 units, a slight increase of 1.1% versus 2020.
Mercedes-Benz Certified Pre-Owned (MBCPO) models recorded sales of 33,098 vehicles during Q4 of 2021, +6.6% versus to Q4 2020. On a year-to-date basis, MBCPO sold 143,423 vehicles, an increase of 13.1% compared to last year. Continue reading
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General Motors’ light-vehicle sales during 2021 fell more than those of any other automaker. GM also suffered the ignominy of ceding its top selling position for the first time in more than 80 years, as Toyota outsold GM for the first time in automotive history. In other changes of fortune, Hyundai sold more than Honda, and Tesla was the fastest-growing OEM. SUVs reached a record 55% share in 2021, according to the respected LMC Automotive consultancy. AutoInformed notes that in the rigged for the rich US economy, luxury vehicle sales clearly outran the broader market.
Overall, US Light Vehicle sales in December fell by 27% YoY, ending a chaotic 2021 at 14.9 million units. LMC noted that even December – traditionally one of the strongest months of the year – flopped and registered the steepest YoY decline of the calendar. The rate of change in the Covid infected world is increasingly making traditional long-term based indexes – such as calendar years irrelevant, or even downright harmful indicators for policy makers, businesses and anyone who uses them for planning. Continue reading
GM said this week in an English-like language that its next-generation hands-free driver assist system, Ultra Cruise (originally Super Cruise#), will be powered by a system-on-chips developed by American semiconductor company Qualcomm Technologies. GM will be the first company to use the Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride platform for advanced driver assistance technology, which has what is claimed as an industry-leading 5-nanometer Snapdragon SA8540P SoC and SA9000P artificial intelligence accelerator. (AutoInformed.com: Autonomous Vehicle Nod – Super Cruise on All Cadillacs)
In Silicon Valley geek speak: “The Ultra Cruise compute is comprised of two Snapdragon SA8540P SoCs and one SA9000P AI accelerator to deliver key low-latency control functions on 16-core CPUs and high-performance AI compute of more than 300 Tera Operations Per Second for camera, radar and lidar processing. The Snapdragon SoCs are designed with 5nm process technology, enabling superior performance and power efficiency. The Snapdragon SA8540P SoCs will provide the necessary bandwidth for Ultra Cruise’s sensing, perception, planning, localization, mapping and driver monitoring.” Continue reading
Volvo C40 Recharge.
Volvo Cars’ global sales increased by 5.6% to 698,693 cars in the full year 2021, the Chinese-owned company said today. Volvo said the results demonstrated the continued popularity of Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of cars with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. Sales of Recharge models grew by 63.9% in 2021 compared with 2020. Recharge cars made up 27% of the company’s total sales volume in 2021. The number of Volvo cars sold directly online increased by 316% in 2021 compared with 2020. This growth was driven by increasing customer demand in combination with more choices in more markets. (AutoInformed.com: Volvo to Only Sell EVs Online as a Pure EV Company by 2030)
However, Volvo delivered 64,436 retail vehicles in December, a decline of -18.1% compared to the same month in 2020. “The result was significantly influenced by continued component supply shortages, which affected production and consequently deliveries to customers,” Volvo said. Almost 40% of all new Volvo cars sold in December were Recharge models, with fully electric cars comprising 7.4%. Continue reading
Giving Ford’s Lightning a run for it’s EV money?
In a virtual keynote today at CES 2022, General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra reaffirmed the obvious trend that GM embraced more than a year ago – society is moving toward the mass adoption of electric vehicles.
She also teased the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV, a full-size pickup developed from GM’s Ultium platform. Customers will have the ability to buy or lease the truck within various price ranges, with MSRPs around $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 and much, much more for the more for the flagship RST First Edition, which will debut with an MSRP of $105,000, plus $1695 for shipping. The Silverado EV will be offered only in Crew Cab models.
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You will be tracked in real time.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Stellantis N.V. (NYSE/MTA/Euronext Paris: STLA) today announced a series of global, multi-year agreements that will change the in-vehicle experience for millions of Stellantis customers and advance the mobility industry’s transition to – what else – a software-defined, fee generating future. Amazon Web Services and Stellantis will work to deliver software for Stellantis’ new digital cabin platform, STLA SmartCockpit, starting in 2024. (Autoinformed: FIH Mobile, Stellantis JV Begun on Connected Car Technology; Stellantis Ups Electrification Strategy by $35.54 Billion)
Amazon and Stellantis will collaborate to deliver software for STLA SmartCockpit, which will run in millions of Stellantis vehicles globally starting in 2024. The software-defined platform will seamlessly integrate with customers’ digital lives to create personalized, intuitive in-vehicle experiences through AI-enhanced applications for entertainment, Alexa-enabled voice assistance, navigation, vehicle maintenance, ecommerce marketplaces, and payment services. Amazon will be the first commercial customer for the new Ram ProMaster Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in 2023.
The STLA SmartCockpit platform will use Amazon products that are purpose-built for vehicles, it’s claimed. Stellantis will produce custom, brand and vehicle-specific capabilities. The software will offer services through an app store displayed through an “adaptive user interface design that presents timely, relevant information and features suited to each occupant’s individual needs and preferences.” In other words, you will be tracked. What happens to your personal information – how it is used, sold or resold or given to government entities – was not disclosed in the announcement.
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Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) today reported December U.S. 2021 sales of 174,115 vehicles, a decrease of -30.2% on a volume basis or -27.7% on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis compared to December 2020. For calendar year 2021, TMNA reported U.S. sales of 2,332,262 vehicles, an increase of 10.4% on a volume basis and an increase of 11.5% on a DSR basis.
Based on early sales reports, TMNA was the leading seller of electrified vehicles for the 22nd consecutive year with electrified powered vehicle – hybrids, plug-ins and fuel cells – at 583,697or +73.2% in 2021. EPV sales now make up one-quarter of total volume. There now are 18 total EPVs available in dealerships between both the Toyota and Lexus brands, the most among any automaker, with two more in showrooms by middle of 2022. Continue reading
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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and its dealers delivered 2.2 million vehicles in the US during 2021 with the ongoing inventory shortage caused by semiconductor supply issues resulting in a year-over-year decrease of -13%. Results were helped by strong pickup truck and SUV sales Combined sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra LD and HD were 768,689. The company’s share of the retail truck market in 2021 was approximately 39%, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates. Leaving aside individual brands, preliminary data show that overall Toyota* is the number one retail brand for the 10th consecutive year. GM’ Q4 sales dropped -43% y-o-y to 441,000.
The GM pickup claim is ~10 points higher than the next closest competitor, the Ford F-Series. However, GM is combing the sales of two brands – Chevrolet and GMC. Ford F-Series has led the full-size pickup truck market for 45 years running. By using the combined numbers, GM has led the industry in retail sales in the full-size pickup segment every year since 2003, according to J.D. Power. GM commercial fleet sales of full-size pickups increased 10%, while Medium Duty trucks were up 30%. Commercial sales of GM full-size SUVs (up 59%) and midsize pickups (up 37%) also increased during 2021. Another misleading use of the combined number comes with Ram. The Ram pickup truck easily beat sales of the Chevrolet Silverado. During 2021 Ram sold 569,388 pickups; Silverado 529,765. Continue reading
We have stopped digging our environmental graveyard. Now we need to fix many things.
AutoInformed notes here, wryly, that its vision is mostly clear on the significance of long past occurrences. Nonetheless, we still attempt to bring insight into events of the time. When we get it right, on view is a richer perspective that observes the past as partial influence of the chaos of the present with glimpses through the darkness and shadows obscuring tomorrow.
With that in mind, here’s our take on the last annum of automobility, from autonomous vehicles to global warming, to driving death disasters, to trade and tariffs and, alas, to the rise of American fascism. We do this with a humble awareness that AutoInformed conducts its education in public. We begin with our comments on significant recent automotive stories as we enter another year of plagues – Covid, political, social or otherwise. Continue reading
Road Fatalities: US Road Fatalities were the Grim Reaper rampant during 2021. NHTSA’s Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities for the First Half (January-June) of 2021, showed the largest six-month increase ever recorded in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history. An estimated 20,160 people in the US died in motor vehicle crashes in the first half of 2021, up 18.4% over 2020. That’s the largest number of projected fatalities in that time period since 2006. The fatality rate for the first half of 2021 increased to 1.34 fatalities per 100 million VMT, up from the projected rate of 1.28 fatalities per 100 million VMT in the first half of 2020.
“This is a crisis. More than 20,000 people died on U.S. roads in the first six months of 2021, leaving countless loved ones behind. We cannot and should not accept these fatalities as simply a part of everyday life in America,” said United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Continue reading
Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 185,000 2021-2022 F-150 pickups. In a required filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford said that underbody heat and noise insulators may loosen and contact the aluminum driveshaft, which could damage the driveshaft and cause it to fracture. A fractured driveshaft may result in loss of motive power while driving, unintended vehicle movement while the vehicle is in park, if the parking brake is not applied, and may result in secondary damage to surrounding vehicles.
Affected vehicles are F-150 4×4 145” wheelbase Crew Cab configurations with 302A and above equipment group and sound insulation package that are equipped with an aluminum driveshaft. Ford said it is not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this safety hazard. (see AutoInformed on: Ford Motor Recalls F-Series, Ranger, Bronco, Transit, Transit Connect, Maverick for Various Safety Defects; Bad Brakes – Ford Recalls Bronco Sport, Escape SUVs; Three More Ford Recalls – 885,569 F-Series, Explorers, Aviators) Continue reading
US fueling infrastructure – lack thereof – is a giant problem with hydrogen technology.
“The Indian government has budgeted more than ₹259 billion (US$3.4 billion) in incentives to accelerate the production (and eventual adoption) of advanced automotive technology products under its recently announced Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the Automobile and Auto Component Industry,” said Ammar Master, Senior Manager, Asia-Pacific Vehicle Forecasts at the LMC Automotive Consultancy today.
The scheme stresses battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and components and energy storage to advance the government’s aims of vehicle electrification in India, along with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which are intended to support India’s National Hydrogen Mission.
This is not an isolated occurrence. Electric vehicles, the so-called hydrogen economy and connected cars are the future of the planet and high paying employment. Virtually all major industrial nations are promoting policies and incentives to become major forces where no automaker dares to go alone. Except the dis-United States it seems. Even Senator Manchin’s next Maserati that he drives to his yacht will likely be an EV. Built where? The question facing Washington politicians of this ilk is simple: Do you care about the people in your district? Build Back Better1 is the answer. You are the problem. Continue reading
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS), those who were unvaccinated1 against COVID in early December 2021, reported an assortment of reasons why:
BMW – Digital Art Coming in Cars During 2022?
Well, it appears that we are not in Bavaria any more. Wherever the haus has landed after a tornado of words is a place where ‘ultimate driving machine’ becomes the 21st century equivalent of a stoner looking at a lava lamp – the ultimate digital high?
BMW has shown a new “Digital Art Mode,” claiming it will be the first to bring digital art into vehicles. The so-called Digital Art Mode is part of the four all-new My Modes*, which are broader applications beyond the Sport, Efficient and Personal modes in use at BMW, and under similar customization names at other automakers. Until now these electronic settings dealt with traditional ride, performance and handling aspects of the machinery. AutoInformed views the latest programming as perceptual and emotional tripping, so to speak. It’s coming during the second half of this year as options.
These new modes in BMW geek speak, filtered through a marketing babble wash: “Their unique moments enhance BMW’s driving experience by creating a synergy of the vehicle’s functions and its interior design. Depending on the driving situation and the overall mood, a holistic user experience featuring both a functional and an emotional level can be created at the touch of a button or via voice control. To that end, drive control and steering control, mood lighting and sound as well as the color scheme and graphics of the BMW Curved Display are precisely synchronized.” Continue reading →