Good morning! It’s Wednesday, December 4, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Hybrid Demand Sets Sales Records
It’s been a tough few months for car sales, with Tesla’s deliveries tumbling, Toyota posting month after month of declining sales and Aston Martin falling short of targets. As another month draws to a close, however, the latest delivery figures from automakers around the world reveal one sector is truly thriving: hybrids.
Hyundai and Kia posted gains across their hybrid lineups, while Honda saw deliveries of electrified models (which includes BEVs and HEVs) hit an all-time record, reports Automotive News. Despite stop-sale orders hitting some cars and months of decline, hybrid demand even helped Toyota turn around its fortunes in November:
The company said volume rose 4 percent at the Toyota brand, ending five consecutive monthly declines, and 9.3 percent at Lexus.
The Toyota division’s top sellers had a mixed month: RAV4, down 3.9 percent; Camry, up 25 percent; Corolla, down 4.1 percent; and Tacoma, up 29 percent.
The company’s sales of electrified vehicles, dominated by gasoline-electric hybrids, jumped 49 percent to just shy of 100,000 last month.
Honda Motor Co., behind higher light-truck and electrified-model demand, said November sales rose 15 percent, with volume up 16 percent at the Honda division and 2.6 percent at Acura.
At Kia and Hyundai, the automakers witnessed double-digit gains for hybrids and electric vehicles, and Hyundai in particular saw its sales of hybrid cars more than double compared with the same period last year.
Mazda also posted its best-ever November in terms of sales and company boss Masahiro Moro recently told Automotive News that “about one third” of CX-90 sales were now hybrid and the brand is targeting 40 percent of CX-50 sales to be hybrid options once orders ramp up.
The hybrid love-in doesn’t mean that sales of fully electric cars were down in November, but the battery-powered sector did post more modest gains. Here’s hoping the hybrid cars bought today will be a stepping stone for the impending switch to battery power over the coming decade.
2nd Gear: Three Quarters of All EVs Sold Are In China
One nation that doesn’t require a step between gas power and electric cars is China, which is wiping the floor with the rest of the world in terms of EV sales. In fact, in the last month more than three quarters of all electric cars sold around the world were delivered to drivers in China.
Over the month of October, more than 1.2 million electric cars were purchased in China, accounting for 76 percent of the world’s EV sales, reports
the Guardian. The boost means that the country is on track to increase its share of the total EV market over the course of 2024:
Between January and October, sales of EVs reached 14.1m units, according to the China Passenger Car Association, with 69% of those sales in China. In October, China’s share surpassed three-quarters.
The figures suggest that China is on track to increase its share of the global EV market. Last year, just under 60% of new EV registrations were in China, according to the International Energy Agency.
The vast majority of global EV sales happen in China, the EU and the US, with China dominating the market. But tariffs imposed by the western markets in recent years have threatened to hit the brakes on China’s rapidly expanding industry, which has been named by Beijing as one of the “new three” priority areas for China’s economic development and green transition.
Chinese EVs are all but blocked from the US market. This year,Joe Biden increased the levy on Chinese electric cars from 25% to 100%. Donald Trump has promised to impose an additional levy of 10% on all imports from China. The EU has also decided to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs of up to 35%, on top of existing duties of 10%, a decision that was condemned by China.
Tariffs won’t do much to slow China down at this rate, as car buyers in the country are already hungry to snap battery-powered cars up for themselves. In order to speed up the transition to electric power, lawmakers recently doubled the incentives consumers can claim on EVs sold in China to up to 20,000 yuan, about $2,700, for consumers who trade in their conventional cars.
That might not sound like much, but when you consider that the average cost of a new electric car in China is $34,000 compared with the $55,000 they retail for in the U.S. it’s easy to see why the switch has been a popular one.
3rd Gear: GM Recalls 132,000 Trucks With Faulty Tailgates
After an enormous recall hit more than 250,000 Hyundai models earlier this week, General Motors has hopped on the massive recall hype train and uncovered an issue of its own. The American automaker has been forced to recall more than 132,000 trucks that have been fitted with faulty tailgates, reports the Detroit Free Press.
The recall impacts certain Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks that have been fitted with power-unlatching tailgates, according to documents shared by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Trucks being recalled include the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD 2500 and 3500, and the 2024 GMC Sierra HD 2500 and 3500:
The recall is due to the tailgate’s electronic gate-release switch potentially short-circuiting due to water intrusion, which can result in the tailgate inadvertently unlatching while the vehicle is in park, according to the NHTSA recall notice.
Owners are advised to check that the tailgate is closed and latched before driving, according to NHTSA.
Dealers will replace the exterior touchpad switch assemblies free of charge, and owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Jan. 13, NHTSA said. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020 or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782.
If you are worried that your car might be affected by a recall, there are a few easy ways to check if it’s the case. First up, NHTSA has a super handy app that you can use to see if your vehicle is impacted by a recall, or you can head to the regulator’s website and plug your VIN into its recall search tool.
4th Gear: More People Are Riding The Train Than Ever Before
Finishing things off today with a rarity for the U.S.: some good news about trains. Railroad operator Amtrak has revealed that ridership across its services is up on pre-pandemic levels and has even reached record-breaking highs in 2024.
Amtrak revealed this week that despite lower capacity across its services in the U.S., ridership numbers were up on 2019 levels after more than 32 million Americans rode the train, reports Reuters. Ridership figures are up compared with the operator’s last record year in 2019 and show impressive increases in passenger numbers over the past two decades:
Ridership increased 15% over 2023 to a record 32.8 million customer trips, as passenger revenue hit $2.5 billion, up 9% over the prior year, while total operating revenue was $3.6 billion, up 7%. Amtrak reported an adjusted operating loss of $705 million for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, down 9% over 2023.
Amtrak’s prior record was 32.3 million passengers in 2019, which was up 45% from 2003.
Amtrak in March said it was boosting passenger services on the East Coast as it aims to double ridership nationwide by 2040 to 66 million passengers and faces issues to expand service.
Delays to new services and a shortage of train cars means that capacity across Amtrak’s services was down in 2024, but government funding could soon correct that. Amtrak is working through more than $20 billion in funding to modernize its services, which means new trains, new routes and even more passengers could soon be on the horizon for Amtrak… unless incoming president Donald Trump goes and spoils it all.