Financial Results – Page 8392 – I wish I had more to offer

Audi closes 2018 with around 1,812,500 automobiles sold

Audi delivered around 1,812,500 automobiles to customers worldwide in 2018, 3.5 percent less than a year ago. In Europe, sales fell 13.6 percent in the past twelve months. On the home continent, Audi had replaced almost a third of its deliveries with important model changeovers for the A1, A6, A7 and Q3 since the start… Continue reading Audi closes 2018 with around 1,812,500 automobiles sold

Ford Europe to slash thousands of jobs in turnaround plan

FILE PHOTO: The Ford logo is seen at the New York Auto Show in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Ford (F.N) on Thursday said it will cut thousands of jobs, exit unprofitable markets and discontinue loss-making vehicle lines as part of a… Continue reading Ford Europe to slash thousands of jobs in turnaround plan

Jaguar Land Rover to make ‘substantial’ job cuts after China, diesel slump- source

Workers set up the booth for British car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover’s Jaguar brand inside the National Exhibition and Convention Center, the venue for the upcoming China International Import Expo (CIIE), in Shanghai, China October 28, 2018. Picture taken October 28, 2018. China Daily via REUTERS LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover… Continue reading Jaguar Land Rover to make ‘substantial’ job cuts after China, diesel slump- source

Tesla FUD: Tax Credit & Tesla Pricing — #TSLA

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Published on January 5th, 2019 |

by Frugal Moogal

Tesla FUD: Tax Credit & Tesla Pricing — #TSLA

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January 5th, 2019 by Frugal Moogal

The goal of this series is to examine current topics being written about Tesla [TSLA] that appear to be stirring up “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt” (or FUD). The plan is to try to provide reasonable analysis about the validity of the claims. I generally do not link to the articles that “inspire” me to write this, as I do not wish to reward analysis I feel is poor with increased traffic. However, I will freely admit that my analysis may contain incorrect assumptions, and will do my best to acknowledge them in future articles.

If you somehow missed it, Tesla just announced Q4 deliveries totaling 90,700 vehicles, and that the company was dropping the price of its vehicles by $2,000 in response to the phaseout of the federal EV tax credit.

The stock price responded by dropping almost 7% on the day.

There is actually a TON to unpack in Tesla’s Q4 communication, and I intend to do that soon, but I wanted to briefly touch on the believed reason for the stock hit — the price drop on the vehicles and the supposed “price ceiling” to Tesla’s current offerings.

Before I go on, my usual boilerplate paragraph about my stock: I’ll note that I remain a Tesla shareholder with a whopping 8 shares, with no intention to add to or sell that stake. I do think that Tesla remains a risky investment for a plethora of reasons that I won’t get into right now (a few people commented that they want to hear that, so I need to think about how to explain it without creating my own Tesla FUD article…), but also one that has the potential to increase astronomically in the future, which is why I decided to purchase and hold a very limited number of shares. I would not suggest anyone use the following article as their sole data point to decide to invest nor sell shares in Tesla.

What Did The Market Expect?
I don’t get what the market wanted Tesla to do here.

Like it or not, the federal EV tax credit is considered to be a discount on the purchase to nearly all buyers of EVs. Every other time we have had a market where EV credits or rebates have phased out, we have generally seen a surge in demand followed by a sudden drop in demand, especially if the pricing of the vehicles remains the same.

Duh?

Between Black Friday and Christmas, Microsoft knocked $100 off its Xbox One S console, making it just $199 to get one. It was advertised as a limited time promotion, and today the same console does indeed cost $299 to purchase. Is anyone expecting Microsoft will sell the same number of Xbox One S consoles this month as it did last month? If so, they seem to have missed some lessons on supply and demand, and the impact of pricing on that demand.

Tesla’s Response
Tesla decided to offset the $3,750 reduction in the federal tax credit by reducing the cost of its vehicles by $2,000. To me, it’s a genius move for a whole variety of reasons. I’m trying to keep this article short, so here’s a quick rundown of some of the positives here:

Auto loans don’t take into account the tax credit (that has to be claimed by the individual who owns the car), meaning that this makes the monthly payments for purchasing a new car cheaper. Most people take out loans to purchase cars.
Tesla is making more than $2,000 in profits off all of its cars. It can reduce the price and still make money.
According to Tesla, more than ¾ of Model 3s sold were to new customers, not reservation holders, meaning that new Model 3 demand was more than 45,000 vehicles. Considering that Tesla hasn’t started international deliveries, that means that demand remained very strong. Some of that demand may have been moved up due to the tax credit expiring, but not all of it.

Let’s also remember, Tesla hasn’t pulled several demand levers for the Model 3 — in particular, international sales and the start of leasing.

Conclusion
I have been accused of being a Tesla shill in the comments before, and I guess this article may continue that trend, as my conclusion for this one is simple: Not just did I expect Tesla to make a move like this (I expected it to be a slightly larger reduction, actually), but the scale of Tesla’s EV production leaves the company in a much stronger position to reduce pricing to raise demand as the tax credit begins its phaseout process than other automakers producing electric vehicles.

In short, I don’t understand the reaction here.

If you think I’m overly positive on this one, leave me a comment explaining why — the more detail, the better. I intend to write a longer article soon unpacking how the tax credit affects demand, and different demand levers that I expect Tesla can and will use to keep that demand up, and I’ll do my best to incorporate and reply to any comments I get.

About the Author

Frugal Moogal A businessman first, the Frugal Moogal looks at EVs from the perspective of a business. Having worked in multiple industries and in roles that managed significant money, he believes that the way to convince people that the EV revolution is here is by looking at the vehicles like a business would.

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Exclusive: VW, Ford to reveal deeper alliance next week – sources

HAMBURG/DETROIT (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) will unveil a deeper alliance next week that goes beyond cooperating in commercial vehicles in a move meant to save the automakers billions of dollars as they develop new technologies, two people familiar with the plan said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: A car with… Continue reading Exclusive: VW, Ford to reveal deeper alliance next week – sources

At reopened Ford plant, F-150 rolls off line in 52 seconds – Detroit Free Press

CLOSE Ford continues to dominate the heavy-truck market, with F-Series truck sales at a 12-year high. Wochit The first Ford F-150 truck built after an eight-day shutdown rolls off the line on May 18, 2018, at Dearborn Truck Plant. The assembly line restarted after a supplier fire. (Photo: Ford Motor Co.) After being fully shut… Continue reading At reopened Ford plant, F-150 rolls off line in 52 seconds – Detroit Free Press

Tesla Model 3 Used Car Stats As Depressing For BMW & Audi As New Car Sales

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Published on January 6th, 2019 |

by Michael Barnard

Tesla Model 3 Used Car Stats As Depressing For BMW & Audi As New Car Sales

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January 6th, 2019 by Michael Barnard

The Tesla Model 3 has many superlatives associated with it. The most pre-orders of any production car ever. The highest volume sales of any small or midsize luxury sedan in the USA. The highest revenue for any car sold in the USA for the last 4–6 months of 2018. The fewest buttons, switches, and dials of any car.

But there’s another superlative.

The fewest used cars available. By an order of magnitude.
Autotrader is the largest online used car site in the USA. A search for second-hand Tesla Model 3s on January 1st found 78 Tesla Model 3s for sale on the site. There were roughly 140,000 Tesla Model 3s sold in 2018 when you include likely December sales per earlier CleanTechnica reporting.

78 used cars represents about 0.06% of the Tesla Model 3s on the road. That number doesn’t seem that high.

Using the November sales chart, I also looked at the cars which ranked just above and below the Model 3 in January–November 2018 sales volume. Checking for used 2018–2019 Chevy Malibus on Autotrader, there are over 1,000 for sale right now, and there were only a few more of them built and sold in 2018 than the Model 3. There are 986 used 2018–2019 Ford Focuses available for sale right now, 13 times more than Tesla Model 3s, with fewer built and sold. That’s about 0.8% that are up for resale.

There’s an order of magnitude fewer Tesla Model 3s for sale than cars which sold in equal numbers in 2018 in the USA.

But what about its closest competitors, small, luxury, performance sedans such as the BMW 3 Series and the Audi A4? They have similar price points and target demographics, so are arguably better to compare to the Model 3 than either the Malibu or Focus.

New Tesla Model 3s outsold new 3 Series and A4s by a large margin in 2018 in the USA, three to four times the sales volume. But going back to Autotrader and looking solely at used 2018–2019 cars for sale is instructive. There are over 1,000 BMW 3 Series available right now for those model years. There are 502 Audi A4s available. There are 7 to 13+ more used new-model BMWs and 6 times as many Audi A4s for sale as Tesla Model 3s.

Let’s run the numbers a slightly different way. If all else were equal, the number of cars available used should be aligned to the number of cars sold. The ratios should be relatively close. There were more BMW 3 Series sold than Audi A4s and there are more available used. The ratio isn’t perfect, as new is roughly 4:3 and used is in the range of 2:1, but the principle applies.

When we look at Tesla vs BMW, we see a ratio of 3:1 new and 1:13 used. Really, the way to look at this is that potentially 40 times as many BMW owners are dumping their new 3 Series as Tesla owners are doing with their Model 3s. Audi is 4:1 and 1:7. There are about 30 times as many Audi owners dumping their A4s as Tesla owners.

There were certainly anecdotal stories of people who bought the two-wheel drive as soon as they could but then put down the more serious money for the AWD or Performance version when it was made available. And there are certainly people who were speculating on the Model 3, intending to make a fast buck by flipping it to people who wanted one.

But what about mileage? Well, a scan of the mileage on Autotrader found a range from 11 miles to 14,000 miles on the cars. There were some that were obviously bought to flip second hand with 11 to 45 miles on them. There were some in the 1,000–2,000 range. The majority were in the mid-1,000s. There were a handful over 10,000, which is reasonable given annual mileage averages in the USA are about 13,500.

Did some people buy to flip? Yes, and no surprise. They probably did okay in June, but wouldn’t be doing okay today with Tesla running 6,000–7,000 a week. Speculation on the Model 3 for quick flips is more a thing of the past, although obviously this does suggest that resale value remains high. Some of the variance can be explained by high demand for used Model 3s, meaning that used inventories remain low.

But really, the statistics show that Tesla Model 3 owners are very happy with their cars and keeping them. Demand is very strong for the newest Tesla. For BMW and Audi? Not so much.

About the Author

Michael Barnard is Chief Strategist with TFIE Strategy Inc. He works with startups, existing businesses and investors to identify opportunities for significant bottom line growth and cost takeout in our rapidly transforming world. He is editor of The Future is Electric, a Medium publication. He regularly publishes analyses of low-carbon technology and policy in sites including Newsweek, Slate, Forbes, Huffington Post, Quartz, CleanTechnica and RenewEconomy, and his work is regularly included in textbooks. Third-party articles on his analyses and interviews have been published in dozens of news sites globally and have reached #1 on Reddit Science. Much of his work originates on Quora.com, where Mike has been a Top Writer annually since 2012. He's available for consulting engagements, speaking engagements and Board positions.

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Leading manufacturing ERP software company IQMS acquired by Dassault Systèmes for $425 million

VELIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, 09-Jan-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced the completion of the acquisition of IQMS, a leading manufacturing ERP software company, for $425 million. With the acquisition of the California-based IQMS, Dassault Systèmes extends the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to small and midsized manufacturing companies seeking to digitally transform their business operations.

By integrating IQMS’s solutions into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud, Dassault Systèmes will provide these manufacturers with an affordable system for operations that improves the collaboration, manufacturing efficiency and business agility needed to serve their customers successfully. The manufacturers – many of them SOLIDWORKS users – also gain the flexibility to rapidly scale-up as a business grows. In parallel, these manufacturers can engage in new business opportunities and create value by supplying their manufacturing know-how and services to a large community of designers and engineers in Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace – the world’s largest virtual factory.

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to become the business operations platform for small and midsized manufacturers seeking digital transformation in today’s Industry Renaissance.

In the context of the Industry Renaissance – the convergence of a diverse and powerful collection of digital technologies that is transforming every aspect of industrial business – the world’s 250,000 small and midsized manufacturers must adopt and optimize new ways of producing and doing business through digital transformation in order to innovate and accelerate their growth in an increasingly competitive, global marketplace.

“We must no longer think of industry as a set of means of production, but as a process of value creation. This applies not only to disruptive startups and established corporations, but also to the hundreds of thousands of mainstream manufacturers that produce parts integral to the development of new consumer experiences. In that context, we are creating ‘3DEXPERIENCE@WORKS’: a new family of business applications based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for the mainstream market. The IQMS Manufacturing ERP portfolio rebranded as DELMIA WORKS is part of this new business applications family to serve the mainstream manufacturers,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO, Dassault Systèmes.

“Given my experience with manufacturing, finance and industry investments, I’m very excited about the future for IQMS and our relationship. This merger represents a turning point in technology for IQMS; the opportunity is immense. Companies like KKSP and all of IQMS’ manufacturing customers will reap tremendous benefit from the enterprise perspective of an international technology partner such as Dassault Systèmes. Dassault Systèmes is a leader in innovation and inspires confidence that we will have the best resources available for future growth,” said Mark Murray, CFO, KKSP Precision Machining.

IQMS’s software – on premise EnterpriseIQ and software as a service WebIQ – deliver an all-in-one solution to mid-market manufacturers for managing engineering, manufacturing and business ecosystems by digitally connecting order processing, scheduling, production and shipping processes in real time. IQMS’s solutions are used by 1,000 customers based primarily in the U.S. whose 2,000 manufacturing facilities in 20 countries produce for the automotive, industrial equipment, medical device, consumer goods, and consumer packaged goods industries. Customers include Westfall Technik, KKSP Precision Machining, AMA Plastics, Donnelly Custom Manufacturing, FlowBelow Aero Inc., Global Interconnect, Inc., Jabil Packaging Solutions, Schnipke Precision Molding, Steinwall Inc., Scientific, Inc., Sturgis Molded Products, Tribar, and Ventura Manufacturing Inc. IQMS’s 2017 revenue was around $56 million.

Dassault Systèmes will help IQMS expand its customer base by leveraging the presence in the mid-market space achieved with Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS applications, which are delivered and supported by the company’s Professional Solutions global partner channel.

For more information:

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions: www.3ds.com

About Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations. Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. The group brings value to over 220, 000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit www.3ds.com

3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass logo and the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES and 3DEXCITE are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.

MEDIA CONTACT

Investors contacts:
Bordonado François-José / Beatrix Martinez
+33.1.61.62.69.24
investors@3DS.com

Corp/France
Arnaud Malherbe
+33 (0) 1 61 62 87 73
arnaud.malherbe@3ds.com

EMEAR
Virginie Blindenberg
+33 (0) 1 61 62 84 21
virginie.blindenberg@3ds.com

China
Grace Mu
+86 10 6536 2288
grace.mu@3ds.com

North America
Suzanne Moran
+1 (781) 810-3774
suzanne.moran@3ds.com

Japan
Yukiko Sato
+81 3 4321 3841
yukiko.sato@3ds.com

India
Santanu Bhattacharya
+91 124 457 7100
Santanu.BHATTACHARYA@3ds.com

AP South
Magdalene Tan
+65 9487 1206
magdalene.tan.contractor@3ds.com

Korea
Hyunkyung Chae
+82 2 3271 6653
hyunkyung.chae@3ds.com

SOURCE: Dassault Systèmes

WLTP causes ‘wide variance’ in dealers’ financial performance

The new WLTP rules impacted that came into force in Q3 impacted the market in November with wide variances in performance between franchises. According to dealer profitability specialist ASE November 2017 was a poor month, with retailers clocking up record losses as they coped with the cooling market. “This has not been replicated in 2018,… Continue reading WLTP causes ‘wide variance’ in dealers’ financial performance

Caterham CEO Graham Macdonald: PH Meets – Pistonheads.com

After years of being dogged by its ignominious F1 team, Caterham is finally a company on the move. Its latest special edition, the Seven SuperSprint sold out in just a matter of hours, the factory is operating at capacity and there are even talks of Caterham exploring the dark art of electric propulsion. But perhaps… Continue reading Caterham CEO Graham Macdonald: PH Meets – Pistonheads.com