LMC’s outlook for US Light Vehicle sales in 2021 has been upgraded again, to 16.0 million units, an increase of 11% from 2020. Retail sales are projected to grow by 9% and fleet by more than 20% from 2020. Click to Enlarge.
Blame the weather since US light vehicle sales dropped to 1.18 million in February, according LMC Automotive, an automotive global forecasting consultancy. The -3% Year-over-Y decline in LMC’s view was caused by two fewer selling days this year, as well as abnormally cold weather and winter storms across many key markets. Any way you look at it, the selling-day adjusted sales volume was still down by -5.5% YoY. The annualized rate dropped to 15.7 million units, down from 16.6 mn units in January.
Compact and mid-size SUVs performed better than large pickups. They were the two most popular segments, which appears the long-term trend with mid-size SUVs gaining 0.9 percentage points of share from February 2020. Only Compact Premium SUVs grew more, up by 1.2 pp, likely from new product launches. Not surprisingly, mid-size Cars lost 2.5 pp of share from a year ago, more than any other segment. Here LMC hedges, “although consumers have been moving away from cars, lower fleet volume also hurt the segment significantly. While six segments sold more than 100,000 units last February, only four reached the threshold this year – Compact SUV, Mid-size SUV, Large Pickup and Small SUV. Combined, they accounted for 57% of total sales.” Continue reading →
GM Needs Range, Battery Cost Cuts to Speed EV Plans
GM’s next-generation lithium metal batteries could enable higher range in a similarly sized pack or comparable range in a smaller pack.
General Motors President Mark Reuss announced a joint development agreement with lithium metal battery firm SolidEnergy Systems (sic) or SES. To accelerate Li-Metal battery commercialization, GM is working with several companies and making investments that will allow it to scale up to production quickly. GM’s lithium metal battery with a protected anode will have a combination of affordability, high performance and energy density, it’s claimed. The initial prototype batteries have completed 150,000 simulated test miles at research and development labs at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. This GM claims demonstrates real-world potential.
“Affordability and range are two major barriers to mass EV adoption,” said Reuss. “With this next-generation Ultium chemistry, we believe we’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation improvement in energy density and cost. There’s even more room to improve in both categories, and we intend to innovate faster than any other company in this space.” Reuss was speaking one year after the reveal of the first-generation Ultium Platform. Continue reading →