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mcgrew writes:

        I decided a few years ago that I was sick of standing in the snow at a gas station waiting for the person inside the building to finish selling that lottery ticket and turn the pump on so I can stand there some more babysitting it while it fills up and I freeze. The answer, of course, was to buy a car that didn't need gasoline, one I could plug into the house and go inside where it's warm.

        I'm not a rich man, I'm a pensioner who is still paying a mortgage, so I looked for an affordable EV. Used ones are almost nonexistent, and I found out why when I finally bought one: it has a ten year warranty. They haven't been making them much longer than that.

        I swore off new cars decades ago when my month old VW stranded me ninety miles from home with a bad alternator, but if you want an EV, new is your only choice. I kept seeing the Chevy Bolt advertised, but could never find one for sale at all. Then I found that they had stopped making them two years earlier.

        Why? Well, battery problems, they claimed. Why just the not so expensive one, $30,000? GM is still selling electric Cadillacs and Corvettes, why no cheap cars?

        I discovered after buying an EV that the only two advantages of a piston car to an electric one are the lack of infrastructure for long trips, and the high purchase price of the vehicle. Why high? Because only their flagship autos have electric motors, the ones that formerly had V8s.

Car dealers can't sell cars due to living in today's world

Snotnose writes:

Hope you didn't want to buy a car in the near future

Car dealership software-as-a-service provider CDK Global was hit by a massive cyberattack causing the company to shut down its systems and leaving clients unable to operate their business normally.

CDK Global provides clients in the auto industry a SaaS platform that handles all aspects of a car dealership's operation, including CRM, financing, payroll, support and service, inventory, and back office operations.

Brad Holton, CEO of Proton Dealership IT, a cybersecurity and IT services firm for car dealerships, told BleepingComputer that the attack caused CDK to take its two data centers offline at approximately 2 AM last night.

Employees at multiple car dealerships have also told BleepingComputer that CDK has not shared much information other than to send an email warning that they suffered a cyber incident.

Anyone wanna take bets they're running Microsoft stuff?

Why Americans aren't buying more EVs

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Clint and Rachel Wells had reasons to consider buying an electric vehicle when it came to replacing one of their cars. But they had even more reasons to stick with petrol.

The couple live in Normal, Illinois, which has enjoyed an economic boost from the electric vehicle assembly plant opened there by upstart electric-car maker Rivian. EVs are a step forward from “using dead dinosaurs” to power cars, Clint Wells says, and he wants to support that.

But the couple decided to “get what was affordable”—in their case, a petrol-engined Honda Accord costing $19,000 after trade-in.

An EV priced at $25,000 would have been tempting, but only five new electric models costing less than $40,000 have come on to the US market in 2024. The hometown champion’s focus on luxury vehicles—its cheapest model is currently the $69,000 R1T—made it a non-starter.

“It’s just not accessible to us at this point in our life,” Rachel Wells says.

The Wells are among the millions of Americans opting to continue buying combustion-engine cars over electric vehicles, despite [the] President's ambitious target of having EVs make up half of all new cars sold in the US by 2030. Last year, the proportion was 9.5 percent.

High sticker prices for cars on the forecourt, and high interest rates that are pushing up monthly lease payments, have combined with concerns over driving range and charging infrastructure to chill buyers’ enthusiasm—even among those who consider themselves green.

While EV technology is still improving and the popularity of electric cars is still increasing, sales growth has slowed. Many carmakers are rethinking manufacturing plans, cutting the numbers of EVs they had planned to produce for the US market in favor of combustion-engined and hybrid cars.

fliptop writes:

Battery maker LG Energy Solution's second-quarter profit dropped 58% year-on-year to 195.3 billion won ($141m), the company said on Monday (8 July), as demand for electric vehicles (EVs) slows:

The South Korean-based battery company also saw its revenue drop 30% to 6.2 trillion won ($4.4bn).

The company also faces increased competition from its Chinese rivals, which has weakened its share of the market.

Car manufacturers have been calling for battery companies to create cheaper cells to lower EV prices, which has applied pressure to companies like LG Energy.

This led to LG Energy's chief technology officer, Kim Je-Young, stating that the company would commercialise dry-coating technology by 2028, a technology which makes battery manufacturing cheaper and more efficient.

Battery maker SK On declares 'emergency' as EV sales disappoint. Supplier to Ford and Volkswagen may have to be rescued by its South Korean parent as losses mount:

A leading South Korean producer of electric vehicle batteries has declared itself in crisis as its customers struggle with disappointing EV sales in Europe and the US.

SK On, the world's fourth-largest EV battery maker behind Chinese giants CATL and BYD and South Korean rival LG Energy Solution, has recorded losses for 10 consecutive quarters since being spun off by its parent company in 2021. Its net debt has increased more than fivefold, from Won2.9tn ($2.1bn) to Won15.6tn over the same period, as western EV sales have fallen far short of its expectations.

With losses snowballing, chief executive Lee Seok-hee announced a series of cost-cutting and working practice measures last Monday, describing them as a state of "emergency management".

[...] SK On has made a series of aggressive investments in the US and Europe in recent years, betting on a widely predicted boom in demand for EVs. However, it has since announced extended lay-offs for workers at its plant in the US state of Georgia and delayed launching a second plant in Kentucky, a joint venture with its principal US customer Ford.

Previously:

• LG Energy Solution to Spend $3 Billion to Expand EV Battery Production in South Korea
• Honda and LG are Investing $3.5 Billion in New Ohio Battery Factory
• Ford Motor Company is Planning a Big EV Future

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

A major American auto manufacturer reportedly laid off about 1,000 of its employees on Monday, including about 600 workers based in the U.S. in a bid to streamline current operations:

General Motors (GM) is making cuts in its software and services business, which was recently put under the command of two former Apple executives in a partial retreat from a hiring spree over the last several years, according to The Wall Street Journal. Monday's layoffs stand as the most recent job cuts at GM, which reached buyout agreements with approximately 5,000 salaried employees in 2023 as part of a cost-cutting effort and got rid of several hundred executive positions in February of that year, according to Reuters.

[...] The layoffs are not related to a specific cost-reduction initiative but are instead a result of the company leadership's review of the business and an effort to find more opportunities for efficiency, a GM spokesperson told the DCNF [Daily Caller News Foundataion]. Monday's job cuts followed a decision by the two new GM executives from Apple, Baris Cetinok and Dave Richardson, to streamline the service and software business, sources familiar with the matter told the WSJ.

The spokesperson could not comment as to how many jobs were affected by Monday's actions but said that around 600 jobs would be affected at the company's global technical center in Warren, Michigan.

Previously: GM to Slash 1500 Jobs at Lordstown, Ohio Plant

Related: Tesla Lays Off 'More Than 10%' of its Global Workforce

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

VW is considering axing as many as 30,000 jobs as it scrambles to save billions of euros amid a slowdown in the car market, German media has reported:

The carmaker recently announced it could close some of its German factories for the first time in history as it struggles to reinvent itself for the electric era.

Analysts at Jefferies said VW is considering closing two to three facilities, with as many as five German sites under threat, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.

[...] A VW spokesman said: "We do not confirm the figure. One thing is clear: Volkswagen has to reduce its costs at its German sites.

R&D will likely be hit hard:

While Volkswagen is staying tight-lipped on specifics, Manager Magazin suggested research and development could take a massive hit. If their numbers pan out, roughly 4,000 to 6,000 R&D employees could be cut from the current number of around 13,000.

Previously: VW Turns on Germany as China Targets Europe's EV Blunders

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Investors sold after the investment bank's analysts warned about what they called the 'China butterfly effect':

Shares of General Motors and Ford Motor traded lower on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley downgraded the overall U.S. auto sector, citing worries that Western automakers might struggle in the intensifying competition with Chinese rivals.

General Motors was downgraded to "underweight" from "equal weight," and its shares fell 5.4 percentage points, to $45.50. Ford went to "equal weight" from "overweight," with its shares dropping more than 4 percentage points, to $10.43.

Electric vehicle (EV) maker Rivian Automotive and Canadian parts manufacturer Magna International were both downgraded to "equal weight" from "overweight." Shares of Rivian were down 5.7 percentage points while Magna's were off 4.7 percentage points.

Investors sold after Morgan Stanley analysts warned about what they called the "China butterfly effect," a metaphor suggesting that even small surges in China's industrial production capacity could have significant ripple effects across the global market.

[...] Bolstered in part by massive government subsidies, Chinese manufacturers have rapidly emerged as major players in the EV industry, accounting for 60 percent of worldwide EV sales and almost one in five EVs sold in Europe last year.

Both Washington and Brussels have hiked tariffs in response to China's excess production of low-price EVs.

Previously:

• VW Turns on Germany as China Targets Europe's EV Blunders
• Auto Woes
• Chinese Automaker Zotye Plans 2020 Entrance into the U.S. Market

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Last week, the House approved a resolution to block the Biden administration's emissions rule that would require more than half of the automobiles sold in the new-car market to be electric by 2032. The 215 representatives who voted for the bill, including eight Democrats, are far more in tune with most of the country than the White House:

Nationwide, the inventory of unsold EVs had grown by nearly 350% over the first half of 2024, creating "a 92-day supply — roughly three months' worth of EVs, and nearly twice the industry average," says Axios, which is 54 days for gasoline-powered vehicles.

Ford, which lost nearly $73,000 on each EV it sold in the second quarter of 2023, continues to yield to reality, now ditching its plans to build a large electric SUV. This "course change," says Just the News, "comes amid lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles."

[...] "Based on where the market is and where the customer is, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions," said John Lawler, Ford's chief financial officer.

[...] "Of the U.S. consumers planning on purchasing a new vehicle in the next 24 months, only 34% intend to purchase an EV, down 14% from 48% in the 2023," says Ernst & Young's Mobility Consumer Index, "a global survey of almost 20,000 consumers from 28 countries."

The story is much the same in Britain. EVs "are losing value at an 'unsustainable' rate as a slowdown in consumer demand sends used car prices tumbling," the Telegraph reported last week. Meanwhile in France, "the EU's second largest market for battery electric vehicles behind Germany," deliveries have fallen by a third.

Germans are likewise losing interest, as the country has "suffered a 'spectacular' drop in electric car sales as the European Union faces growing calls to delay its net zero vehicle targets," the Telegraph said in a separate story.

Related:

• Stellantis Lays Off Thousands of Workers after Pocketing Hundreds of Millions in EV Subsidies
• VW Turns on Germany as China Targets Europe's EV Blunders
• South Korean EV Battery Makers Reporting Big Losses as EV Demand Slows
• Tesla Lays Off 'More Than 10%' of its Global Workforce
• Why are All the EVs so Expensive?

Original Submission