Auto Lovers Land

Tesla’s Model Y was the brand’s most popular model in 2021. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Tesla retains a significant amount of brand loyalty and remains a significant factor among premium vehicle brands, according to Tom Libby, associate director and loyalty principal at S&P Global Mobility. Libby examined automotive brand loyalty amidst the industry’s protracted inventory shortages, examining who chose the same brand when buying their new vehicle from January 2020 through April 2022,  Automotive News reported. Tesla, along with Maserati and Genesis, are the luxury three brands that saw an increase in customer loyalty at a time when brand loyalty is eroding, down 4.5% to 46.3% for the luxury segment, and 2.7% to 52.1% for mainstream segment. Subtract Tesla from the luxury market, and loyalty falls an additional percentage point, or nearly twice that of mainstream brands. The numbers that count Land Rover saw brand loyalty drop the most among luxury brands, ...

While it dominates the U.S. market for battery-electric vehicles today, Tesla is facing the prospect of a sharp slide in market share in the next three years, according to one of the auto industry’s most widely respected analysts. While Tesla’s added capacity in the U.S. and Germany, Bank of America’s John Murphy believes its 75% EV market share will drop to just 11% by the end of 2025. From approximately 75% today, Bank of America Securities’ John Murphy forecasts Tesla’s share will slide to just 11% by 2025. During the same period, both General Motors and Ford will see their share of the emerging market for BEVs grow to about 15% each. “Tesla didn’t move fast enough … to shut the door” on its competition, Murphy said during a presentation to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit on Thursday, and with both legacy and startup competitors racing new products to market, Tesla’s left itself vulnerable. EV market growing — but so is competition Now based in Texas, Tesla was ...

Shopping for a new vehicle has become more complicated thanks to the combination of supply chain disruptions and rising prices, which are narrowing consumer choices even as the industry undergoes rapid shifts across the board. The 2022 VW Tiguan jumps into an extremely competitive segment and more than holds its own. Brands such as Volkswagen, which have long appealed to a diverse set of customers, are making an effort to spice up product lines by dressing up the vehicles at the heart of their product line with new features.  For the R-Line Black version of the Tiguan these include unique bumpers, body-color side sills, and R-Line badging and an ambient lighting system at night, as well as forward collision alert and an alert to making parking easier. The Tiguan R-Line also has extra power thanks turbo-charged, multi-valve, 4-cylinder engine and the solid-driving dynamics, which flow from VW’s tradition of building tight chassis that handle well on the open road and had a b...

Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn expected the Titan to sell 100,000 units annually. Nissan is planning to drop its full-size Titan pickup at the end of the 2024 model year, as the pickup failed to make a dent in Detroit’s dominance of this segment.  Automotive News reported the move, and it confirms a similar report by  Motor1.com  from November 2021. According to someone who spoke to Automotive News and is familiar with the model’s future ­— or lack of one, “There’s no plan engineering’s working on for replacing it, updating it. It’s dead.” Industry analysts do not expect the pickup to be replaced once the current generation runs its course through the 2024 model year. “The full-size pickup market is a really tough market to crack,” Sam Fiorani, vice president, Global Vehicle Forecasting, AutoForecast Solutions LLC, told TheDetroitBureau.com. “We were kind of surprised there was a second generation.” When asked to comment, Nissan spokesman Colin Price said...

With federal data revealing hundreds of crashes involving automated vehicle systems like Tesla’s Autopilot, Steven Cliff, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said it’s time for closer scrutiny and new regulations. Newly confirmed NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said the agency will be looking closely at self-driving technology. ADAS-based self-driving technology meant to keep occupants safe and ease the burden of driving has been linked to a total of 522 crashes since July 2021, according to data NHTSA released last week. And that number is believed to be incomplete. Tesla’s Autopilot system accounted for about 70% of those crashes in the Level 2 category . The list also covered manufacturers including General Motors, Honda and Google’s autonomous ride-sharing service, Waymo, on Level 3-5. That study is the first step in understanding the risks, as well as the benefits, of the automated vehicle technologies that are becoming ever more co...

A day after the United Auto Workers set a strike deadline for about 700 union members employed at GM Subsystems, the two sides reached an agreement.  UAW VP Terry Dittes set a strike deadline for workers at four GM plants in Michigan, but the deal got done. The tentative deal covers workers employed by a subcontractor responsible for maintenance work at four General Motors assembly plants in Michigan, including two plants building electric vehicles. In a memo to local UAW officers and bargaining representatives at GM plants around the U.S., Terry Dittes, the head of the union’s General Motors Department, said the union set a strike deadline for Thursday morning for employees of GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, a contractor handling subassemblies at the GM truck plant in Flint, Michigan as well as EV plants in Orion Township, Michigan and Detroit as well as a passenger-car plant in Lansing, Michigan. What could have been Dittes gave local union officers at the four Michigan...

With regulators moving to ban internal combustion engines, the auto industry faces a dire prospect, a top Stellantis executive warned on Wednesday, a complete “collapse” if battery-electric vehicles are priced out of reach of the typical motorist. Stellantis CMO Arnaud Deboeuf warned if EV prices don’t come down, the market will “collapse” before it even gets started. The warning sounded by the automaker’s Chief Manufacturing Officer Arnaud Deboeuf isn’t the first to raise concerns about an all-electric future. Last December, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda sounded a similarly apocalyptic note in his role as the chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, or JAMA. But Stellantis CMO Debouef’s warning comes at a time when the industry is facing severe shortages of key EV components, such as semiconductor chips, that have begun driving up costs. And even if consumers accept the need to switch from gas and diesel to electric vehicles, “the market will collapse” if the indust...

Hyundai’s been charging hard on the expansion of its battery-electric vehicles while still developing its hydrogen fuel-cell program further.  Hyundai’s Hydrogen Wave will be a little late hitting the shore as the next-generation Nexo is delayed to 2024. However, that “track” suffered a bit of a set back as the second edition of its Nexo fuel-cell vehicle appears to be delayed until 2024. A South Korean newspaper reported Wednesday the company is still dealing with issues related to fuel-cell development, according to Reuters. The automaker was tracking to debut the next-gen model next year with production beginning late in the year. However, the development issues now have pushed the start of production to 2024, the Seoul Economic Daily reported.  It’s unclear if the delay will have any impact on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for Hyundai’s luxury brand, Genesis. Zero emissions programs While Hyundai’s pushed hard to expand its electric vehicle program, saying there wo...

Near record gasoline prices also are making fuel efficiency an issue for motorists thinking about purchasing a new vehicle, according to analysts from Cox Automotive.  A lack of inventory drove sales results for down in the first half of 2022. This comes as constricted inventories still have overall sales down by double-digit percentages every month in 2022. Cox’s  June sales forecast shows the seasonally adjusted annual rate  (SAAR) of new-vehicle sales this month is expected to hit 13.8 million, up from last month’s 12.7 million pace but well below last year’s 15.5 million level.  Tesla is the only major brand to increase sales year over year in the first half. Honda, Nissan and VW all see first-half sales drops in excess of 30% year over year. The rise of the EV maker is a trend that is expected to continue for some time.  First-half sales are forecast to be down 17.3% from the same period in 2021, with the second quarter falling 19.3% compared to Q2 ...

If you’ve been driving a little bit less lately, hoping to stretch your fuel dollars, you’re far from alone — new research found Americans, on the whole, drove 6% less in April compared to the same month in 2019, before the COVID pandemic struck. More people will be on the road during the Fourth of July holiday, but their driving shorter distances to save money due to high gas prices. The real test could come during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, however. It’s normally one of the busiest events of the year from a travel perspective, and as many as 48 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home during the extended holiday, according to AAA. And the road and travel service forecasts 42 million of them will do so by car — which would set an all-time record. “The volume of travelers we expect to see over Independence Day is a definite sign that summer travel is kicking into high gear,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president, AAA Travel. “Earlier th...