How upsetting - 12 November 2024

OCTOBER 2024 NEW CAR REGISTRATIONSThe Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has revealed the new car registration figures, for October 2024. They are not good. For the month of October the market is 6% down on 2023. Even Fleet dropped, for the first time in a long while. One bright spark, no pun intended, is that EV registrations grew to 20.7% market share for the month. This is to be expected as the end of 2024 approaches and so do the fines for not hitting the mandated levels. Click this link to read more, from the SMMT’s own article. FOLLOW UP: FINANCE INDUSTRY THROWN INTO TURMOILFollowing a court ruling regarding commission on finance agreements, the industry has been thrown into turmoil as there are questions on what they need to do in order to be compliant. Some companies have halted all offerings for car finance until the situation is clarified. You can find out more, by clicking this AMOnline article link here. MANY MANUFACTURERS REVEAL STRUGGLING RESULTSThe number of brands that are reporting challenging results, after Q3, has grown. There is a real problem for the industry, globally, and it might not get better anytime soon. Expect a lot of management word salads, littered with the likes of “efficiencies” and “cost-cutting” etc. BMW’s woes thanks to the ongoing brake recall and huge profit drop, can be read about by clicking this Reuters article link here. To read about Audi’s problems, click this Autocar link. Audi plan to cut jobs to help save money, click this Reuters article link here, to find out what that means. Toyota are also hit by problems, with quality issues, safety recalls, plant stoppages and a Chinese market that is proving tough for all but the home grown brands. Click this Yahoo Finance article link to read more. Honda announced a surprise drop in profits, thanks in large part to the ongoing issues in the Chinese market as their economy struggles. Click here to read more from a Yahoo Finance article link. Nissan are not immune to the industry wide slump. They announced the cutting of around 9,000 jobs and dramatically that they are entering “emergency mode” as profits drop 304%. You can read more, from Autocar, by clicking this link here. JLR profits hall 10%, which is being blamed largely on the aluminium supplier issue discussed a few weeks ago, click this Liverpool Business News article link for more. Lotus are far from immune to the problems the industry are suffering from, as they announce they will be shedding around 200 jobs at their Hethel site, ahead of the Lotus Technologies (Chinese sister brand that brought out the Emeya and Eletra EVs) financial results announcement later in the month. If you wish to find out more, click this Autocar article link here. Rivian, the EV maker who recently signed a deal with VW Group, lost just over $39,000 per car sold in the last quarter. You can read more, by clicking this article link from The Autopian. For context and more information about what is going on, click this article link from The Autopian, which discusses Nissan, Audi and Stellantis, but from a mainly US perspective. HEADLIGHT GLARE BEING RESEARCHED Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) are beginning an investigation into the complaints over modern headlight glare. They will set up monitoring devices to establish if the anecdotal reports are valid and if so, what is causing the issue. If you wish to learn more, click this BBC News article link here. FISKER CLAIM NORTH KOREAN AGENT STOLE THEIR MONEY Fisker, who is being investigated by the SEC in the United States over their collapse into bankruptcy, has made the claim that they lost $6 million due to a hired remote member of staff, who turned out to be a North Korean agent that funnelled the money to the regime’s missile projects. They are not the only car maker to be targeted. Click this Torque News article link to learn more. Thank you, to Damien Scully for sending us this fascinating item! If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST NEW NEW CAR NEWS - Suzuki eVitaraSuzuki has revealed their first own developed EV, the eVitara. They have chosen to use a familiar name, which will come with two batteries. The larger giving an estimated 250 mile range. The vehicle is expected to sell from just under £35,000 in the UK. Click this Autocar article to read more. Bentley ‘Urban SUV’Bentley announced that their first EV, which is due in 2026, that will be the world’s first “true luxury urban SUV”, whatever that is. With little other details the chaps are left to speculate about “urban SUV” and “true luxury”. They also stated that their EV only goal has been pushed back to 2035. If you want to hear more, click this Autocar article link here. Kia EV9 ADVNTR and PV5 WKNDRAt the US customisers show, SEMA, Kia unveiled two rugged, go anyway variants on their EV car and van the EV9 and PV5. They have been suitable raised up, had chunky tyres added and a number of off-road adventure accessories fitted. They look great. But the PV5 is what caught the attention of the chaps the most. We are now hoping that the PV5 becomes a people carrier. Click this EV Powered link to read more. LUNCHTIME READ: SWORDS AND PLOUGHSHARESFriend of the show, Nir Kahn, tells us a bit about his history, his philosophy for future vehicles and what he is going to be working on next. Very much worth your time in reading this LinedIn piece from him, which can be accessed by clicking here. LIST OF THE WEEK: EPIC STARS OF THE SEMA SHOW 2024We are increasingly struggling to find good List of the Week article to share with you. If you find one, please do send it our way and if its good enough we’ll put it on the show! Autocar have another slideshow for you to run through, this time with a selection of vehicles from SEMA. Do you agree with Alan and Andrew’s choices? Click this link to find out. AND FINALLY: TACO BELL COMING TO A MOTORWAY NEAR YOUTaco Bell is expanding their footprint in the UK by opening at five locations on the UK’s motorway network. Click this link to a Motorway Services article, listing each of the places you can get Mexican food from soon.