Auto File: Tesla takes the lead in luxury

CIE Automotive India

15/08/2022 16:00

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Aug 15 - Joe White
Global Autos Correspondent
joe.white@thomsonreuters.com
    
Greetings from the Motor City!

Welcome to Car Week! This is the peak week for classic and
collectible car fans. Monterey Car Week is underway, https://whatsupmonterey.com/article/activities/monterey-car-week-overview
 leading up to the hoity-toity Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
on Sunday. I am sorry to see that the best event on the Monterey
Car Week schedule, the Concours on the Avenue in Carmel, is
canceled.  

For those of a less aristocratic, Detroit Iron persuasion,
there’s the Woodward Dream Cruise, nominally on Saturday but
really going on most of the week. Think of it as Mardi Gras for
Muscle Cars. 

Today, we’ll look at how Tesla is gobbling up the U.S. luxury
car business, check in on the dismay over the pending changes to
EV tax credits, and assess the latest blow to the idea of
vehicles talking to each other over wi-fi. 

Here we go -
    
* Tesla now No. 1 luxury brand in U.S.
Tesla is now the leading luxury vehicle brand in the United
States, https://www.autonews.com/sales/tesla-crushes-luxury-registrations-so-far-2022
 counting electric and combustion models together, according to
Experian registration data reported by Automotive News.

Tesla’s U.S. vehicle registrations jumped by 61% in the first
half of the year to nearly 229,000 vehicles, while No. 2 luxury
brand BMW’s registrations dropped by nearly 13% to just short of
158,000 vehicles, according to Experian’s count. 

The silver lining for established automakers is that
registrations were also up for some of the new electric vehicles
they are offering, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Hyundai
Ioniq 5.

* No tax breaks for Taycans
Porsche, Audi and Kia said their electric vehicles https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/audi-says-us-ev-buyers-will-lose-tax-credit-under-legislation-2022-08-12
 will no longer qualify for $7,500 tax credits in the United
States once President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act
and its new electric vehicle subsidy system into law, as
expected later this week. The brands are urging would-be buyers
to place firm orders now for models such as the Porsche Taycan,
Audi e-Trons or Kia Niro EVs.

The bad news for European and Asian EVs should be good news for
Tesla. But Tesla has frozen new orders for the Model 3 Long
Range model https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status/1558297966200307712
 because the wait list is already too long, Elon Musk confirmed
in a tweet. “Will enable again as we ramp production,” Musk
wrote. 

Automakers and dealers are scrambling to lock-in orders for EVs
destined to lose tax subsidies, and at the same time trying to
figure out how the new restrictions on income, vehicle price and
battery origin will work at the showroom level. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/automakers-scramble-decode-new-us-ev-tax-credits-2022-08-12

* Musk’s robotic visions
A column that appeared under Elon Musk’s name in a publication
sponsored by China’s state Cyberspace Administration is getting
attention. The agency controls, and censors, China’s internet. https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/13/23304250/elon-musk-pitch-magazine-china-cyberspace-cac-censorship-agency-tesla-spacex-neuralink
 Tesla, of course, has substantial interests in China that are
threatened by souring relations between China and the United
States.

The article paints a picture of a world in which humanoid “Tesla
Bots” are “initially positioned to replace people in repetitive,
boring and dangerous tasks. But the vision is for them to serve
millions of households, such as cooking, mowing lawns, and
caring for the elderly.” 

These tasks are also known as jobs by the people who do them
now. Worried? Look forward to hearing more about humanoid Tesla
Robots during Tesla’s AI Day on Sept. 30. https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-tesla-ai-day-pushed-sept-30-2022-06-03
 

* Dealmakers look forward to the second half recovery.
Did you worry about making big financial bets during the past
quarter? You had good company. CEOs, boards and bankers in the
industrial manufacturing sector sat on their hands, sending the
number of M&A transactions in the sector down by 32% https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2022/industrial-manufacturing-deals-lost-steam-q2.html__;
!!GFN0sa3rsbfR8OLyAw!dapAtZQUZn_VzUYaArI-i7CH0pxjnw1--Q6aAqmOsEU
jk4d8docrhXNdDnOfDIaz07IEHU3QZgzPxPTgmRc$ from the first
quarter, according to a new survey by consulting and accounting
firm KPMG.

Thanks to a few high dollar transitions, the total value of
deals in the manufacturing sector rose during the second quarter
to $127.5 billion, up 8% from Q1, KPMG found. 

Looking ahead, KPMG said 52% of companies it surveyed expect to
do at least one transaction in the second half of 2022. Concerns
about disruption to current supply chains will be a major driver
for deals, KPMG’s Donald Zambarano wrote. More on industrial
deals from KPMG is here. https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2022/industrial-manufacturing-deals-lost-steam-q2.html

* “Talking cars” take a hit
A federal court struck another blow to the auto industry’s hopes
of using a form of wi-fi https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-court-upholds-fcc-reallocation-auto-safety-spectrum-2022-08-12
 to enable cars and trucks to talk with each other on the road,
the better to avoid collisions. 

The idea of “vehicle-to-vehicle” communication, or V2V in
industry speak, has been knocking around for years, and the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for years has held aside
a chunk of radio spectrum on the promise that the auto industry
would deploy V2V capability on a broad scale. That never
happened, and internet and telecom company lobbyists began a
campaign to reallocate some of the 5.9 GHz spectrum blocked off
for automakers. The FCC did just that, voting to open 60% of the
5.9 GHz spectrum for wireless devices, and the court upheld that
decision.

The court has spoken, but the argument among the U.S.
Transportation Department, the FCC and industry groups over
whether wireless internet browsing and safety-critical vehicle
to vehicle communications can co-exist without interference in
the same chunk of spectrum is not over. 

* Volkswagen expands its EV scale with Mahindra
Volkswagen has agreed to supply components of its MEB electric
vehicle architecture to Indian automaker Mahindra. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagen-mahindra-deepen-electric-vehicle-component-cooperation-2022-08-15
 On its face, this looks like a win for VW’s efforts to expand
the scale economies of its small electric vehicle architecture.
https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/mahindra-and-volkswagen-explore-strategic-alliance-to-accelerate-electrification-of-indian-automotive-market-15122
 It also gives Volkswagen entry to a potentially large, untapped
market at a time when its business in China has hit a rough
patch.

* Wanted: A new U.S. auto safety regulator
Just months after officially taking over the federal agency that
regulates vehicle safety, Steven Cliff is leaving to become
executive officer at the California Air Resources Board. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/top-us-auto-safety-regulator-stepping-down-2022-08-12
 Cliff’s decision to return to California leaves the Biden
Administration without a Congressionally-approved head for the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at a time when
the agency is confronted with rising highway fatalities, and a
complex investigation of Tesla’s Autopilot driving assistance
system.

* Essential Reading

Tow No! The F150 Lightning flunks Motor Trend’s towing test. https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/ford-f150-lightning-electric-truck-towing-test

China cuts rates as the economy slows. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-retail-factory-sectors-unexpectedly-slow-july-2022-08-15

Big Tech confronts India’s caste system https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/caste-california-tech-giants-confront-ancient-indian-hierarchy-2022-08-15