Good morning! It’s Friday, October 18, 2024, 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: Stellantis To Review Brand Closures From 2026
Stellantis has had a rough few months, with sales dropping around the world, the CEO announcing his impending retirement and outsiders even stepping up and offering to take some brands off the company’s hands. Now, despite turning down an offer from the Chrysler family to acquire the historic automaker, Stellantis has revealed that it’s preparing to review its portfolio and reassess which brands are actually worth keeping in the stable.
The Fiat and Jeep owner will carry out a review of its brands as early as 2026, reports Automotive News. The review will analyze performance of the 14 brands currently in Stellantis’ portfolio, with a decision then being made about which automakers are worth continuing to market, as Automotive News reports:
“We will review each (Stellantis) brand’s performance at about two-thirds of the way through the Dare Forward 2030 plan, so you could expect decisions in two to three years,” [CEO Carlos] Tavares told journalists at the auto show here on October 14.
Given that Tavares is set to retire in spring 2026, and Stellantis plans to select his successor by the end of 2025, the final decision on the future of the automaker’s 14 brands will most likely fall on his successor.
Tavares said that when Stellantis was created in 2021, each brand in the group started with an approved 10-year product plan in which the first five years were fully financed.
Tavares refused to comment on individual brands at this stage, but there are a few companies that certainly aren’t thriving under Stellantis. American dealers have repeatedly raised concerns about the automaker’s American brands like Jeep and Chrysler, which are both struggling with aging model lineups and excessive stock at dealers across the country.
Prestige brand Maserati also isn’t at its best right now as it makes a full switch to electric power in the coming years. The problems the Italian brand is facing are a result of marketing issues at the automaker, claims Tavares, instead of shortcomings on its models and technology, Automotive News adds.
2nd Gear: Stellantis Deliveries Down 20 Percent In 2024
If you want a sneak peek into how the review of Stellantis’ brands performance may go, look no further than the automaker’s latest delivery figures for 2024, which are not looking good. Shipments of cars from across Stellantis’ portfolio are down in every market except South America, reports the Detroit Free Press.
Stellantis shared an early look at its global shipments for Q3 of 2024 this week, which showed that deliveries of its cars are down by as much as 20 percent. The drop meant the automaker shipped around 1.1 million vehicles during the three months to the end of September 2024, compared with 1.4 million vehicles in the same period last year, as the Free Press reports:
For North America, shipments dropped 36% or about 171,000 vehicles, of which more than 100,000 units related to “preannounced production cuts intended to reduce dealer inventory as well as product portfolio gaps.” The gaps reference the time before the release later this year of the electric Dodge Charger Daytona and Jeep Wagoneer S and the end of production of vehicles, such as the gas-powered Dodge Charger and Challenger and Chrysler 300.
The company, which released third-quarter U.S. sales earlier this month showing a 20% drop from the same period in 2023, said its market share increased during the quarter, from 7.2% in July to 8% in September. That’s certainly an improvement, although Edmunds.com has noted that Stellantis’ U.S. market share now trails General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Honda.
CEO Carlos Tavares, speaking to reporters during the Paris Motor Show this week, blamed the company’s inventory issues with dealers on a poor marketing plan in the second quarter and said the automaker was on a “good track” with inventory reductions to make a fresh start in 2025. The automaker announced a leadership shake-up last week that will mean a new chief operating officer for the North American region and chief financial officer for the whole company, along with changes elsewhere.
The 20 percent drop in shipments for Stellantis is considerably lower than the decline it has seen in sales during the quarters, the Free Press adds. According to figures released this week, Stellantis saw sales drop by around 15 percent during the period, which was attributed to “portfolio transitions” and the automaker’s attempt to reduce dealer inventory.
The figures teased this week highlight the number of vehicles delivered from its production facilities to dealerships around the world. The company will release its full shipment and revenue numbers for the period on October 31.
3rd Gear: Lucid Eyes $1.67 Billion Boost From Stock Sale
After electric vehicle startup Fisker filed for bankruptcy, Rivian revealed the enormous losses it was making on every car sold and Polestar lost its CEO as sales cratered, EV makers around the world might be quaking in their boots. Lucid is hoping to ride out the tough times facing the world’s EV makers by raising a boat load of cash. Specifically, it’s hoping to bring in $1.67 billion to keep its product pipeline running well into the future.
The Californian EV maker, which has received a series of massive investments from Saudi Arabia, is now looking to raise more cash to keep building boujie electric cars by offloading company stock, reports Reuters. The company plans to sell around 637 million shares, which could inject up to $1.67 billion into the company:
The stock sale as well as its latest warning of a bigger-than-expected loss for the third quarter sent Lucid shares down as much as 16.5% to $2.74, the lowest since July 2.
The company expects to report a loss from operations of $765 million to $790 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with expectations of $751.7 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Besides a public offering of more than 262 million shares, Lucid signed up Ayar Third Investment, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its biggest shareholder, to sell nearly 375 million shares in a private placement.
Ayar expects to maintain its ownership of about 59% of the company’s outstanding shares, Lucid said.
The funding boost being sought through the stock sale follows an additional $1.5 billion injection from the sovereign wealth fund’s affiliates back in August. That boost was initially said to be enough to support Lucid through the fourth quarter of 2025, but the latest round suggests this may not be true anymore.
Lucid currently markets the Air sedan here in the U.S. and has plans for a new model to launch soon. The Gravity is a luxury SUV from the brand that it’s hoping will hit the highway from 2025.
4th Gear: More Than Half Of All EVs Sold Are SUVs
Despite what some say, EV sales are doing OK in the U.S. Sure, they’re not rising at the rate they once were, but they are growing steadily and a new record for EV sales was set just last month. Now, a new study has looked into what kind of EVs are actually selling here in the U.S., and it’s bad news for anyone that’s a fan of small cars.
According to a report from the Department of Energy that was shared by Clean Technica, SUVs are the top selling vehicle when it comes to battery-powered models. SUVs make up more than half of all EVs sold and more than three quarters of all plug-in hybrids sold across America:
Many have decided that electric SUVs or trucks are the ideal choice to offset that load of CO2 environmentally. This is especially true for people who are hauling goods, planning occasions such as weddings, coordinating design, and gathering children for school or family trips. When considering one’s carbon footprint and climate change, or just the financial aspect, electric vehicles (EVs) are a superior option. Not to mention handling the aftermath of climate-related catastrophes.
“In 2023, SUVs accounted for more than half of all BEV and PHEV sales,” the US Department of Energy writes.
“Manufacturers now provide EVs in a variety of vehicle categories. The compact SUV category saw the most sales, but when coupled with the regular SUV category, SUVs accounted for 53% of BEV sales and 83% of all PHEV sales. Cars (indicated by the blue colors in the chart) accounted for less than 10% of total PHEV sales but 43.4% of BEV sales.”
Across EV sales in America, midsize, compact and subcompact models accounted for just 23.4 percent of sales. Pickup trucks made up 3.4 percent of sales last year and large cars made up 8.3 percent of sales. The remainder consisted of station wagons and minivans, which made up the remaining 12.2 percent of EV sales in America.
Of course, these sales are for 2023, so with the launch of new electric SUVs their share of the market could have grown in 12 months. On top of that, we’ve now got the Tesla Cybertruck to contend with, which will no doubt have boosted the pickup truck’s share of American EV sales.