Locator: 48689EVS.
Locator: 48689TARIFFS.
Other links:
- Volvo.
- BYD price cuts shock China's EV market, spark fears of price war escalation.
From the blog, February 26, 2024: essay on EVs -- a snowball rolling downhill.
BYD: announces a new $233,450 EV Supercar to rival Ferrari, Lamborghini:
- Lamborghini: surging; up another 1% today; at all-time highs; and I put Ferrari (RACE) on my bucket list about a year ago and have been accumulating shares, though will probably hold off for now
Ford:
- Ford Lightning F-150: previously reported; the Verge; Ford is still holding back on full story; Ford stops shipping 2024 F-150 Lightnings for "quality checks";
WSJ: why Rivian, Lucid, Polestar will struggle; knights on white horses; scorecard here.
- Amazon for Rivian
- Saudi Arabia for Lucid
- Polestar: the Volvo knight fell off his horse, but still out there.
From the blog, September 4, 2024:
EVs: in a world of hurt. Two links today -- EVs are tracked here:
- TWSJ: the VW story; nothing new, but a very, very credible source.
- AFP: new car sales in Europe pummeled as EV sales plunge.
- Evan: Volvo -- scraps EV plans. Holy mackerel! And here!
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Volvo
There are so many story lines here, I simply don't have time.
When Volvo announced that it would offer the EX30 electric SUV for just $34,950, it sounded too good to be true. It was, but not for any reason Volvo could have foreseen.
In between announcing the compelling price for the Volvo EX30 and today, the U.S. has imposed two heavy tariffs on imported vehicles. The first was a 100% tariff on made-in-China EVs, which scrapped the original plan to sell China-built EX30s here. Then the company spent a bunch of money ramping up production in Belgium to satisfy the U.S. market and a China-wary Europe, only for American tariffs to derail things once again.
The new 25% blanket tariff on imported vehicles means that the EX30 will already be getting more expensive. If Trump increases tariffs on EU goods to 50%, as he threatened today, the economics will become unworkable, Volvo's CEO said. And he isn't mincing words.
Bringing Belgian-built EX30s to the U.S. would "of course be almost impossible," Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson told Reuters. He added that the tariff costs will have to be passed on to consumers, as they almost always are.
Auto companies don't have 25% margins—6% tends to be considered "good" in this business—and they certainly aren't clearing 50% in profit. So they'll either stop importing cars—reducing competition and therefore driving up prices—or raise prices themselves.
