Now, 2020 has rolled around and a bunch more automakers have decided to ditch monthly sales reporting. Nissan (& Infiniti), Jaguar Land Rover, and Volkswagen (including Audi, Porsche, etc.) announced the change with press releases. Others didn’t seem to announce it but just stopped publishing the monthly numbers (Mercedes, BMW, and Toyota).
It’s taken a long time, but Italy’s electric car market is finally starting to take off. Official figures released by UNRAE (the association of foreign carmakers in Italy) confirm 10,566 battery electric cars were sold in the Bel Paese in the 12 months of 2019, doubling 2018 sales and consolidating a trend of exponential growth started two years ago. But why should we care, when a much smaller car market such as Netherlands saw over 12,000 Tesla Model 3s being sold in the single month of December?
In a sense, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will be funding Tesla’s Gigafactory 4 (GF4).
Barron’s noted on January 7th, 2020, that Tesla had become the most valuable auto company in the history of America. Let me repeat: Not just currently. We are talking about the most valuable American auto company since America was born. Congratulations to Elon, Tesla, and the team for unlocking this achievement!
The US auto industry took a bit of a whack in 2019. Excluding Tesla, auto sales were down by 177,839 units in 2019 compared to 2018. That said, only 13 auto brands saw their sales drop, while 18 saw their sales rise.
Back in 2015, when we shopped EVs and then leased a Nissan Leaf, we were the primary EV educators up to the point of sale, not the salespeople. Even during the test drive, we had more knowledge. Our grasp on the function and reality of electric cars seemed to overwhelm the salesperson. We passionately emphasized why we wanted an electric car. Our sales person remained less than enthusiastic.
In this article, I’ll talk about how Tesla’s announcement of its CyberTruck will hurt sales of other pickup trucks, even before the truck ships its first unit. Make sure you also read Frugal Moogal’s article about the broad effects of the industry’s transition to electric vehicles and compares this transition to how other industries dealt with (or didn’t) their own transitions. Frugal also wrote an article that is more specific, dealing with the Mustang’s effect on Ford.
FCA CEO Mike Manley says his company may be interested in purchasing rolling chassis, known as skateboards, from Tesla to jumpstart its electric car ambitions, but has anyone told Elon?
Peugeot SA (PSA) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) have announced that they are creating a new company owned 50% by current PSA shareholders and 50% by current FCA shareholders.
After a long history of falling down, struggling, and getting up again, followed by a failed merger with Daimler AG, there was nobody willing to help rescue Chrysler after the 2008 crises. That is, until the nearly broke and also struggling Italian FIAT Group dressed in its best white knight suit and showed willingness to try it.
