Tata – Page 952 – I wish I had more to offer

Geely presses ahead with European debut as China auto sales slow – Nikkei Asian Review

HONG KONG — Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is moving ahead with plans to roll out models in Western Europe this year after missing its annual sales target amid setbacks at home, the company said Thursday. Rising competition and weak consumer appetite for big-ticket items in China prompted Geely, one of the country’s top private automakers and… Continue reading Geely presses ahead with European debut as China auto sales slow – Nikkei Asian Review

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

Invest
Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Cars

Published on March 19th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

March 19th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Here on CleanTechnica, we keep a close eye on electric vehicle news and sales. However, it’s important to watch competing areas of the market to get a sense of the full dynamic. As part of that, I track the monthly US sales of all the automakers that publish monthly figures. The story lately has been a downtrend in sales at major automakers other than Tesla, and especially those automakers’ car sales.

In the month of February, the following luxury auto companies and car divisions had the following sales drops:

Acura Cars: −12%
Audi: −12%
Audi Cars: −12%
BMW Cars: −12%
Infiniti: −17%
Infiniti Cars: −46%
Lexus Cars: −2%
Mercedes-Benz: −13%
Mercedes-Benz Cars: −4%
Volvo Cars: −77%

On the flip side, these luxury auto companies had the following sales increases:

Acura: 11%
Jaguar Land Rover: 29%
Lexus: 4%
Volvo: 6%

Overall, luxury auto sales from all of those companies were down 2,099 in February and car sales from those companies were down 10,775. No car division saw increased sales.

A few luxury brands are missing here — Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Tesla — because they only report sales on a quarterly basis, and Jaguar doesn’t break out sales by model or class, so its car sales are estimated.

Regarding Tesla, our estimate is that Tesla Model 3 sales were somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 in the United States in February, which would close the gap in 2019 versus 2018 premium-class auto sales, but wouldn’t quite close the gap in premium-class car sales. As has been written many times across the auto world, consumers have been moving from cars to SUVs & crossovers, so that is surely part of the story here as well.

However, as we’ve noted many times in many ways, the Tesla Model 3 actually competes with mass-market cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in terms of 5 or 6 year total cost of ownership, while being a much better forming, better driving, safer, higher tech car. So, I’ve also been curiously looking at mass-market brands. The following are the mass-market auto companies and car divisions that saw their sales drop in February 2019 versus February 2018 (and by how much):

Honda: −1.6%
Honda Cars: −5.5%
Toyota: −6.3%
Toyota Cars: −10.6%
Nissan: −11.4%
Nissan Cars: −9.4%
Kia Cars: −2.6%
Hyundai Cars: −22.3%

Hmm, among the Big 3*, sales are crap.

(*Let’s be honest — Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are the Big 3 in the US if you’re not talking pickup trucks.)

On the flip side, other than Tesla, the following two major automakers saw their February 2019 sales rise compared to February 2018 (despite their car sales dropping):

Kia: 6.4%
Hyundai: 2%

Those two sister companies had ~3,600 more sales, combined, compared to February 2018. Nissan sales were down more than 13,000, Honda sales were down almost 2,000, and Toyota sales were down more than 9,000.

So, what does all this mean in relation to electric vehicle sales, and more specifically Tesla sales?

Who really knows? But if Tesla’s going to deliver another 40,000 or so cars in the United States this quarter, there’s a solid chance Tesla is continuing to take sales away from these other automakers. Furthermore, based on owner satisfaction surveys from Consumer Reports and others, it’s unlikely those Tesla buyers are going to go back to those older brands. And with the Tesla Model Y coming to market in a couple of years, Model 3 owners may well abandon those other automakers completely as they convert their gasoline crossovers and SUVs to Teslas.

There’s a lot of hype among certain people who want to see Tesla fail that Tesla’s days are numbered, that it’s all a house of cards that’s about to fall down. I don’t buy that narrative, but I wonder sometimes how much the other automakers are under that exact threat.

Remember that it wasn’t a 100% collapse in auto sales that caused GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt approximately a decade ago. Overall, US auto sales dropped 11.7% from 2007 to 2008.

Scroll up again and look at those drops in US sales for numerous automakers.

Stepping back another month, in January, the following automakers saw sales down as follows:

Nissan: −20%
Toyota: −7%
Mercedes-Benz: −14%
Honda: −1.5%
BMW: −5%
Lexus: −3%
Infiniti: −3%
Audi: −2%

Nissan is already doing worse than the US auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Mercedes-Benz is also down worse than the auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Toyota is more than halfway there. Honda and BMW are holding on much better but are also down. Audi and Infiniti are down dramatically. Where will all of this lead?

Of course, I’m not implying that these companies will go bankrupt just based on huge drops in US auto sales. These automakers all have strong sales in other markets — China, Europe, and Japan, for example. Nonetheless, executives at the North America divisions must be sweating bullets. The problem is — how do you compete with Tesla?

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Jaguar Land Rover installs 166 smart charging stations for EVs at Gaydon facility

VinFast Launches Limited Edition Lux SUV in Switzerland – Business Insider

HANOI, VIETNAM – Media OutReach – 6 March 2019 – VinFast will introduce its first luxury SUV at the Geneva Motor Show 2019 in Switzerland from March 7-17. Equipped with the powerful 6.2-litre V8 and outstanding interior and exterior upgrades, the newly-launched VinFast Lux V8 has quickly attracted the attention of international experts and media. VinFast Lux… Continue reading VinFast Launches Limited Edition Lux SUV in Switzerland – Business Insider

Fiat Chrysler gains after Peugeot president points to merger potential

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A row of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) 2017 Crysler Pacifica minivan vehicles are displayed for sale at a car dealership in Moline, Illinois, on Saturday, July 1, 2017.

Fiat Chrysler shares jumped on Tuesday to the top of Europe's STOXX 600 after the president of Peugeot family holding company FFP told French daily Les Echos he would support a new deal and suggested Fiat Chrysler was among the options.

“With them, as with others, the planets could be aligned,” Robert Peugeot was reported as saying, asked about targets for acquisitions or mergers.

Fiat Chrysler declined to comment.

Shares in the Italian-American carmaker were up 5.2 percent by 6:50 a.m. EST, while Peugeot gained 2.7 percent, helping boost Europe's autos index which was up 2.5 percent.

Peugeot's remarks came on the heels of reports the group's CEO Carlos Tavares is open to deals and that Fiat, General Motors, and Jaguar Land Rover could be ideal partners.

FCA's new boss Mike Manley, who took over after deal-making guru Sergio Marchionne died last year, said this month the carmaker was open to pursuing alliances and merger opportunities if they make sense and strengthen its future.

FCA is often cited as a possible merger candidate because of its strong exposure to the North American market, where it generates the lion's share of profits, and because of its popular Jeep, RAM and Maserati brands.

“PSA is essentially an EU pure play as things stand (roughly 90 percent of consolidated unit sales in EU) so an acquisition of a company with a broader reach would make strategic sense,” said Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst.

Investors and analysts alike were wary of betting on an imminent deal, though, mindful of potential antitrust obstacles.

“Although we believe that some M&A could materialize in the automotive sector, we do not expect it in the short term,” said Mediobanca Securities analyst Andrea Balloni.

STOXX600

—

FFP

—

FCA

—

Fiat Chrysler revs up as Peugeot points to merger potential

LONDON (Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler shares jumped on Tuesday to the top of Europe’s STOXX 600 after the president of Peugeot family holding company FFP told French daily Les Echos he would support a new deal and suggested Fiat Chrysler was among the options. FILE PHOTO: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles logo is seen on a panel… Continue reading Fiat Chrysler revs up as Peugeot points to merger potential

Jaguar Land Rover awarded for environmental standards

× {{dictionary[‘Added to your cart’]}} × {{dictionary[‘CART WARNING’]}} {{dictionary[‘Sorry, your cart is currently full. Please remove ‘]}} × {{dictionary[‘Cookie message and title’]}} × Pagination Warning! Sorry, Please add a number less than maximum pages {{dictionary[‘User Licence – pop up text’]}} You have been detected as being located in: {{userLang}} A media site housing news, photo… Continue reading Jaguar Land Rover awarded for environmental standards

Peugeot ready to support a PSA offensive

They agree with the applied historical epithet PSA’s latest financial results. Six years after the eventual rescue of the automaker then under water, members of the Peugeot bicentennial dynasty can only congratulate the return to grace of the group led by Carlos Tavares. “The Opel operation is an exceptional success, we did not think that… Continue reading Peugeot ready to support a PSA offensive

PLUGGED IN: JAGUAR LAND ROVER INSTALLS UK’S LARGEST SMART CHARGING FACILITY FOR EVs

× {{dictionary[‘Added to your cart’]}} × {{dictionary[‘CART WARNING’]}} {{dictionary[‘Sorry, your cart is currently full. Please remove ‘]}} × {{dictionary[‘Cookie message and title’]}} × Pagination Warning! Sorry, Please add a number less than maximum pages {{dictionary[‘User Licence – pop up text’]}} You have been detected as being located in: {{userLang}} A media site housing news, photo… Continue reading PLUGGED IN: JAGUAR LAND ROVER INSTALLS UK’S LARGEST SMART CHARGING FACILITY FOR EVs

INEOS Projekt Grenadier 4×4 on track for 2020 reveal, production in 2021 – Autoblog – Autoblog

The pursuit for a proper philosophical successor to the Land Rover Defender continues under the auspices of billionaire British businessman Jim Ratcliffe. In the past two years, Ratcliffe’s chemical company INEOS has created the standalone division INEOS Automotive, put CEO Dirk Heilmann in charge of a team of auto industry veterans, and contracted with MBtech… Continue reading INEOS Projekt Grenadier 4×4 on track for 2020 reveal, production in 2021 – Autoblog – Autoblog