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The US international trade deficit in goods and services increased to $75.7 billion in June from $71.0 billion in May (revised) because imports increased more than exports. This was the highest on record. However, the June exports of goods ($145.9 billion) were also the highest on record. Continue reading
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President Biden will sign an Executive Order that sets an aggressive new target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles, the White House said this morning. The Executive Order also starts the development of long-term fuel efficiency and emissions standards to save consumers money, cut pollution, boost public health, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis.
The weak points in the plan is allowing for hybrids, and worse plug-in hybrids, which have laughable range running as an EV. However this is a politically needed SOP for most automakers that have been slow to embrace pure EVS. This is industrial policy on a grand scale that proponents argue is needed to survive in the global economy. Less than 4% new vehicles sold in the U.S. during June were electric or plug-in hybrids. This puts the Republicans in a tough spot. Helping Big Business – in effect tax cuts for the rich – is their highly selective policy. But creating middle class jobs while acknowledging Global Warming and setting policy that benefits all of “we the people” is counter to their failed attempts at governing for the selective few.
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Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has announced decent financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2021. In a filing with the Tokyo Stock exchange it also increased its full-year profit outlook for fiscal year 2021.
For the first quarter of the Japanese fiscal year, consolidated net revenue was ¥2.008 trillion, consolidated operating profit was ¥75.7 billion, and the operating profit margin was 3.8%. The net income1 in the first quarter was ¥114.5 billion.
During the first three months of the fiscal year, Nissan unit sales increased sharply as the industry rebounded from the pandemic disruption of 2020. Both total industry volumes and global Nissan retail sales increased by more than 60% with keeping pace with the industry volumes. Nissan’s digitally influenced sales have further increased in quarter one. Continue reading
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General Motors extended its winning record today by posting strong earnings again, including a record earnings (EBIT-adjusted) of $4.1 billion in the second quarter, and $8.5 billion in the first half. Chair and CEO Mary Barra said that it is also “accelerating our engineering and capital investments in electric vehicles (EVs) and self-driving technology (AVs) by $8 billion to $35 billion from 2020-2025.” (AutoInformed.com on GM Posts Formidable First-Quarter 2021 Results; GM Ups Bet by $35B in Autonomous, Electric Vehicle Games)
With GM’s evolving view on Automobility it is placing itself squarely in the middle of a global battle royal among other automotive giants such as Honda,Toyota, Stellantis and Volkswagen Group, by developing a full EV portfolio that doesn’t depend on “partial solutions” like hybrids and “electrified” ICE vehicles. It is also a warning about an emerging industry problem – battery fires. Barra said on the earnings call that this is rare but recalled about 69,000 Bolt vehicles to ensure customer safety. Continue reading
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Stellantis today posted record H1 Pro Forma(1) Results with an 11.4% Margin. The conglomerate created in January by the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and Peugeot Group showed that all segments were making money. All segments were also profitable so full-year guidance was raised to ~10% of adjusted operating income(2) margin.
“While delivering this strong operational performance the Company also made significant progress on strategic matters related to electrification acceleration and software, which are fundamental pillars of our strategy,” claimed Carlos Tavares, CEO. Continue reading
The first-generation NSX in 1990 was a new-generation mid-engine sports car it brought together state-of-the-art technologies of the time and achieved both excellent dynamic performance and ease of driving at a high level. I was at Road&Track at the time, and the staff was blown away by how good the sports car was. It was in essence a Japanese Ferrari with Japanese quality and pricing unheard of in the sports cars of the era.
Honda Motor today released early information on a new limited production NSX Type S, which is scheduled to be officially introduced before the end of August 2021. The new NSX Type S will be the final model of the second-generation NSX. Marketing and the development team are attempting to wring the last possible enhancements to performance and design (marketing babble alert> “with the goal to create a model that goes beyond all NSX models that came before.”
The second-generation NSX proposes a “New Sports eXperience,” made possible by a three-motor Sport Hybrid SH-AWD, an original Honda electrification technology. It’s claimed that it has a high-level responsiveness and handling performance, not possible with an engine alone. Continue reading
“While we celebrate these results, we are not taking the full year outlook for granted as we know there are still sizable risks to the year-end…
Bentley Motors has posted the company’s 2021 half-year performance with sales and profits unmatched in its 102-year history. This includes an operating profit of €178 million, greater than any profit posted for a full-year by the firm with a deep background in racing. Retail sales increased by 50% from a pre-COVID 2019 figure of 4,785 to 7,199 in 2021. On the financial side of the ledger, Bentley’s revenue for the first six months of 2021 was €1.32 billion, up from a pre-COVID figure of €834.8 million in 2019. The operating result was €178 million and a subsequent return on sales of 13%, a record high return.
These figures in context are significant: Bentley’s previous record half-year performance was in 2014, with a revenue of €887 million and an operating result of €95.2 million. That year closed as Bentley’s most successful year with a profit of €170 million. This is now surpassed at the half-year point 2021. Continue reading
Volker Holzmeyer (41) is joining Porsche Motorsport North America as the new President and CEO as of January 2022. He succeeds the previous incumbent Daniel Armbruster (53) whose new role will be announced soon. The two managers will work together in the coming months to take a look at the specific features of the market, the customers and processes involved in the central sales and marketing of Porsche race cars and spare parts in the USA and Canada.
Porsche Carrera Cup North America is the most recent Porsche racing program here, starting in 2021, reflecting 30 years of Porsche racing. The one-make race series in the United States and Canada (eventually now that baseball has just returned to Toronto) uses the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup N3 racing slick on the road and street race courses on the continent. As with all national Carrera Cups worldwide, Porsche, through Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA), will manage the single-driver per-entry series. Porsche has 21 one-make championships competing in 31 countries on five continents. Continue reading
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Renault Group said today that revenues reached €23,357 million, up 26.8% compared to the first half of 2020. At constant exchange rates and perimeter1, Group revenues would have increased by 31.8%. AUTOVAZ revenues amounted to €20,339 million, up 29.3% compared to the first half of 2020. The recovery of the automotive market is contributing +23.7 points. The implementation of the new commercial policy, focusing on profitable volumes, led to a positive net price effect of 8.7 points and a negative volume of -8.7 points. The currency effect was negative -3.9 points, mainly linked to the devaluation of the Argentinian peso, the Russian Ruble, the Turkish lira and the Brazilian real.
“These results are the fruits of our strategic Renaulution plan, focused on profitability. They mark only the first step in our turnaround, which should accelerate with the arrival of the new vehicles in preparation. I would like to thank all our employees for their commitment in achieving these results,” declared Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group. To AutoInformed, it seems premature to have a French victory toast at this point in the ongoing covid and automotive wars. C’est fous. Continue reading
Different roads with similar hazards for cars and trucks?
In a high stakes move by the Daimler AG Board of Management and Supervisory Board (ticker symbol DAI) to separate two very different businesses and insulate the parent company from financial threats that Global Warming, connected and autonomous vehicles and automaker upheavals are causing, approved making Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Truck independent companies.
Daimler shareholders will decide on this realignment of their company at an extraordinary general meeting on 1 October this year. A decision is also to be made on renaming Daimler AG as Mercedes-Benz Group AG as of 1 February 2022. This step is intended to emphasize the future focus of the company on the car and van business with the Mercedes-Benz brand as well as the sub-brands Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-EQ. Continue reading
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Total European new car registrations continued to increase in June, but remain paltry compared to pre-pandemic levels. There were 1,268,683 new passenger cars registered last month – an increase of 13% when compared with June 2020. Despite this increase, the market’s rate of recovery has slowed substantially relative to the growth recorded between March and May of this year as the botched EU rollout of covid vaccines continue to result in a very sick economy.
Notably, low emissions cars (BEV and PHEV) continued to perform well, recording a new record total market share of 18.5% – up from 8.2% in June 2020. Registrations of BEVs totaled 126,000 units during the month, ahead of the 104,000 registered PHEV units. Yes that’s right pure EVs out sold hybrids, which were at the center automakers plans to fight emissions and global warming. Fiat, Tesla, Skoda, Volkswagen and Ford gained the largest market share in the BEV market while Cupra, Jeep, Volkswagen, Renault and Seat posted the highest market share gains in the PHEV market. Continue reading
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Ford posted acceptable operating results in Q2 of 2021 – selling 764,00 vehicles – while further rolling out its reorganization plan dubbed Ford+. It earned 14-cents/share. Ford also to some degree limited the ongoing damages from semiconductor supply shortages. As a result, it raised projected full-year 2021 adjusted EBIT and adjusted free cash flow, respectively, to between $9 billion and $10 billion and between $4 billion and $5 billion.
During April with the semiconductor situation worsening, Ford said it expected to lose about 50% of its planned second-quarter production, which would have resulted in a loss in the period. Ford did better than that using the strong demand from the Biden Administration economic boom to improve revenue and profits through lower incentives and a more expensive and profitable mix of vehicles. These generated company-wide adjusted earnings of $1.1 billion before interest and taxes. (AutoInformed.com on Ford Leads NA Production Cuts from Semiconductor Shortage; Ford Posts Q1 Income of $3.3B. Semiconductors Still Difficult; Ford Follows GM: Q2 2021 Earnings to Exceed Its Expectations; Billion Dollar Oops – Ford F-150s, Edges Without Electronics) Continue reading
The complaint further alleges that Milton ultimately reaped tens of millions of dollars in personal benefits as a result of his misconduct.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Trevor R. Milton, the founder, former CEO and former executive chairman of Nikola Corporation, “for repeatedly disseminating false and misleading information – typically by speaking directly to investors through social media – about Nikola’s products and technological accomplishments.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Milton founded Nikola in 2015 with the primary goal of manufacturing trucks that run on alternative fuels with low or zero emissions, and building an alternative fuel station infrastructure to support those vehicles. Milton allegedly helped Nikola raise more than $1 billion in private offerings and go public through a business combination conducted by a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). (GM Signs MoU with Nikola to Supply Hydrotec Fuel Cells; Nikola and General Motors Partner! Nikola Badger Truck to be Engineered and Manufactured by GM) Continue reading
Penske Automotive Group (NYSE:PAG), today announced second quarter and six months 2021 results. For the three months ended June 30, 2021, the company reported a 652.9% increase in income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders to $338.8 million and a 650.0% increase in related earnings per share to $4.20. This compares to income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders of $45.0 million, or $0.56 per share, in the prior year.
Q2 income from continuing operations and related earnings per share include charges of $21.4 million, consisting of $12.6 million of debt redemption costs ($0.16 per share) and $8.8 million of charges relating to the increase in U.K. corporate taxes in 2023 ($0.11 per share). Excluding these items, adjusted income from continuing operations increased 700.4% to $360.2 million, and related earnings per share increased 698.2% to $4.47. Foreign exchange positively impacted earnings per share by $0.11. Continue reading
US Vehicle Sales Drop in July for Third Month Running
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US sales in July volumes were at 1.28 million units, according to LMC Automotive. The is only a 3.5% Year-over-Year increase, resulting from an improved economy and market reopening since last July. The annualized selling rate (SAAR) shows a more pronounced cool-down from previous months. The SAAR fell to 14.5 million units in July from 15.3 million in June – and by more than four million units from the peak back in April. Sales dropped “more substantially in the last week of the month, suggesting that more challenges are ahead,” said LMC. (AutoInformed.com on 2021 Q2 US Sales – Light-Trucks, Crossovers, SUVs Rule)
Toyota, General Motors and Hyundai were the three bestselling OEMs, while Ford had the weakest performance compared to last July. Ford remains mired in semi-conductor shortages and long-standing troubled relationships with suppliers. Hyundai re-introduced the Compact Pickup segment in July when the first units of the Santa Cruz were delivered. This segment of course was once dominated by GM and Ford before Toyota and Nissan moved in. Now come the Koreans to fill an obvious need. Continue reading →