News: Listen and Win

Rivian: Wins and Losses

Electric truck maker Rivian is celebrating a unique win in an otherwise rough season. While Tesla won the overall EV game for 2023, in the class of "Big EVs," Rivian beat the Model Y and Ford's F-150 Lightning.

• Rivian sold 24,783 R1S EVs in 2023, the most of any large EV.
• While not top of their pile today, Ford's Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, VW's ID.4, and Hyundai's IONIQ 5 each had record sales years.  
• Small EVs with wider affordability had a good year, too; GM's Chevy Bolt sold just over 62K before the company stopped production to focus on more expensive models.

Trophies don't pay the bills. Despite the stand-out performance in their precise market, Rivian's market presence took a significant dip. While the last 30 days show a 3.32% increase in the stock, pros expect a -$1.37 per share to follow Rivian's Feb 21st full-year earning report.

Kia and Uber: DIY Vans

Kia has a new modular PBV platform with five concepts to show, and a big customer is already lined up.

• The Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) is designed with a fixed driver cab and interchangeable body types. This allows for quick changes between taxi, delivery, or personal vehicle styles.
• Models within the platform determine the capacity with models like the spacious PV7, the compact PV1, and multiple configurations of the PV5.
• Kia plans to establish a dedicated PBV plant by 2025 with 150K yearly production and a fleet management system for their buyers.

What buyers? Welllll, Uber is already sniffing around. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding.

Hertz: EV Yardsale?

Uber's digging into the electric dream, while Hertz is trying to wake up from their body shop nightmare. The rental car firm says it will sell 20K of its EV fleet and replace them with ICE.

That was short-lived. Previously, the company committed to ordering 100K Teslas by the end of 2022 and another 65K Polestars over five years. Due to high collision and damage repair costs, they are changing direction.

• Hertz shares fell 3% after the announcement.
• They expect ~$245M in incremental depreciation expenses from the EV sale in Q4 of 2023 and warn of potential impacts on its adjusted corporate core profit.
• Despite the sale, Hertz intends to improve profitability for its remaining EV fleet.

You know that old saying: "If you can't fix it, you don't own it"? CarGuru dove into the cost of EV maintenance and found it was about $330 a year cheaper to maintain an electric car. But, as a still emerging industry segment, EV repairs and the pros who perform them aren't available and are more expensive.

The right service center could pick money off electric trees if they got good at beating the high cost and extended wait times of EV bodywork.

Cox Data: New Market Changes

Inventory rises = prices fall. That seems to be the name of the game in December 2023. As the new vehicle sector transitions into a buyer's market on the heels of higher inventory, prices (and margins) are dipping under MSRP.

• December saw a 2.4% year-over-year dip in average transaction prices, ending at $48,759.
• The dip in December followed a 1.3% increase in November.

Discounts and incentives. Still looking at December, new vehicle sales incentives hit an average of 5.5%, the highest average since August 2021.

• Luxury and EV incentives were the highest at over 8%.
• As luxury prices dipped 8.8% YOY, sales of luxury brands surged 22.1%. The luxury segment accounted for 20.2% of all US sales in December.

"Merry Christmas, dear! We owe Mercedes-Benz $80K!"

Toyota: Solid-State

Toyota says its solid-state batteries will be out sooner than they thought. At one point, the auto-titan said production would start in 2027 with their eye on a 2028 release.

Breakthrough? The company says they've had a stroke of luck and are closing in on batteries with 600+ miles of range and a 10-ish minute charging time.

…

You can't please em' all, and if you try, you likely won't please any of em'.

The market evolution surrounding alternative powertrains has some companies announcing lofty environmental goals and others shouting to stake a claim while the getting is good. Ultimately, they all want to sell cars to people who want to buy cars.

Dealers are uniquely positioned to hear what people want in real-time, not just make broad, sweeping declarations based on last year's data and expert analysis.

In truth, you can please em' all if you ask, listen, and answer them one at a time.