Please Wait: Germany’s Carmakers Swamped By Sudden Demand
Carmageddon? What carmageddon? Germany’s auto industry has a huge problem: Way too many customers. “We have that fattest order books of all times,” said Esther Bahne of Audi to Germany’s Spiegel...
View ArticlePent-Up Demand AWOL: Less Than 13 Million Sales Expected For This Year
U.S. auto sales will probably come in lower than 13 million this year, Ford’s CFO Lewis Booth told Bloomberg. That’s below the low end of Ford’s estimate. According to Bloomberg, “Ford had forecast...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Global EV Demand Stuck At 2%-4%. Unless…
Of all the persistent questions faced by the auto industry in these tumultuous times, perhaps the most pressing is: how many consumers would actually consider buying an electric car? There’s no single...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peak Oil, Meet Plateauing Demand
TTAC is no stranger to the topic of Peak Oil, but the theory has fallen by the wayside with the recent explosion in unconventional oil and gas. A study by the British think tank Chatham House argues...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bloomberg: Subaru “has to decide what kind of company it wants to be”
Subaru has a problem, though it’s a problem many other automakers would love to have. The small Japanese automaker is growing at a rapid rate and it’s fully expected to run out of capacity to fulfill...
View ArticleSuppliers Have More Lithium Than EV Manufacturers Currently Need
The lithium industry — essential for the production of battery electric vehicles — has run into a problem. It’s currently amassing more of the metal than it needs. Despite automakers like Tesla...
View ArticleForget Sex and Adventure – Fear Could Be the Big New Sales Motivator
It’s something we’ve touched upon in the recent past: the fact that, in these pandemic times, a private vehicle is the safest way to get around (from a contagion standpoint). It seems we’re not the...
View ArticleLong Road to Recovery: Supply Chain Troubles Impact Industry Relaunch
As predicted, supply issues are hampering the automotive industry’s relaunch. The good news is that practically everyone on the planet understood this would be a problem, but it’s undercut by the...
View ArticleTight Inventory Stands to Hamper July Sales, At Least for Some
Fall holiday discounts aside, the height of summer is typically a good time to head out and buy a car. The weather’s good, new models are rolling into dealers, and markdowns are appearing on older...
View ArticleU.S. Vehicle Inventories Exceptionally Lean Going Into Fall
Not that it should be any surprise with pricing creeping up, but U.S. vehicle inventories are some of the lowest we’ve seen in roughly a decade. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get a solid estimate on...
View ArticleChip Shortage Expands, GM Forced to Idle Factories
While the Great Semiconductor Shortage of 2021 probably isn’t going to the defining historical topic of the modern era, it’s presently doing a number on the automotive industry. Volkswagen Group, Ford,...
View ArticlePass the Chips: VW Group Demands More Semiconductors for Europe
Residual complications from COVID-19 lockdowns and overdependency on Central Asian suppliers have left most of the automotive industry fretting over where they’ll be sourcing their semiconductor chips...
View ArticleSemiconductor Shortage By the Numbers, Looks Bad
The global shortage of semiconductor chips has really done a number on the industry and it’s just one of several major supplier issues created by our response to the pandemic. Years from now, people...
View ArticleThe Great Used Car Buyup of 2021
With automakers having a difficult time keeping production schedules thanks to COVID restrictions nuking demand and upending supply chains, 2021 arrived with plenty of problems. Desperate to replenish...
View Article