Good morning! It’s Thursday, April 25, 2024, and this is The morning shift, your daily roundup of the biggest automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Toyota’s hybrid sales rise by a third
While most automakers around the world suddenly switched to electric cars, Toyota stood back and decided stay with… Hybrid models and slowed down the introduction of battery-powered cars. Now this cautious approach to electrification appears to be paying off, because hybrid cars simply helped gave the Japanese car manufacturer a record year for deliveries and sales.
Toyota said this week that it sold more than 10.3 million cars across its brands in the last fiscal year. reports Bloomberg. As the website explains:
Production rose 4.5% to 11.2 million units due to strong demand in North America, Europe and India. Production also remained stable in Japan, despite a temporary supply halt in the second half of the year after Daihatsu was found to have been manipulating crash safety test results for more than 30 years.
Toyota sales in China rose 1.4%, contrasting with the struggles of some Japanese rivals amid the growing popularity of local automaker BYD Co.
The world’s largest automaker sold 116,654 battery-electric cars between April 2023 and March 2024. Sales and production of its flagship Toyota brand and its luxury brand Lexus rose 7.3% and 9.2%, respectively.
While Toyota’s 7.3 percent growth over the year isn’t anything to sneeze at, it pales in comparison to the gains on the other side the company’s hybrid product range. According to the company’s sales figures, Toyota has converted more than 3.5 million hybrid vehicles electric models, which corresponds to an increase of 31.1 percent compared to the previous year. Total sales of electrified vehicles reached nearly 3.9 million, accounting for more than a third of global sales.
Included in these electrified sales are the company’s production of fully electric cars, including Models like the BZ4X. Globally, Toyota managed to sell 116,000 battery electric cars, which was almost three times as many electric cars as the year before.
2nd Gear: Ford loses profits due to delay in F-150
While Toyota celebrated record sales this year, American automaker Ford had a little less reason to celebrate after its revenue fell by around two-thirds in the first three months of 2024 Delays in implementation of the year 2024 F-150 pickup.
Ford was forced to delay this Introduction of the new F-150 Additional quality controls were carried out on the new model earlier this year. This resulted in truck deliveries being delayed by several weeks. This delay was attributed to the Blue Oval’s massive decline in profits. reports that Detroit Free Press. As the website explains:
The company’s Ford Blue segment, which includes internal combustion engine vehicles, posted a 66% decline in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to $900 million, directly attributable to truck production and ramp-up.
Overall, Ford’s revenue for the first three months of this year was $42.8 billion, up 3% from a year earlier, despite a decline in vehicle deliveries. The company has increased sales in each of the past three years and expects to do so again in full-year 2024, Ford said in a press release.
While the delay in the introduction of the F-150 has had a bad impact on Ford’s bottom line, the company argues that it will be better for the company in the long run. This is because quality defects are addressed before the cars leave the factory, thus causing fewer problems will probably be called back at some point They hit customer driveways.
3rd Gear: Toyota delays electric vehicle production in the US
Ford may have been hit by a delay of a few weeks, but now Toyota is also facing a delay of its own that could push its position higher Ambitions of US electric vehicles by up to a year. The Japanese automaker has reportedly pushed back its plans for its electric vehicle production sites in the US to 2026, instead of 2025 as originally planned. reports Reuters.
The The Japanese automaker was original The goal is to produce up to 600,000 fully electric models by 2025, with production of these models split between factories in Japan and Japan a facility here in the USA However, these plans have reportedly been pushed back to 2026, as Reuters explains:
Toyota Motor will delay the start of electric vehicle (EV) production in the United States from its proposed 2025 date to spring 2026, the Mid Japan Economist newspaper said on Thursday.
The automaker will also reduce its domestic vehicle production to less than 14,000 vehicles per day by September this year, the newspaper said without citing a source.
While the news is a murky one, it’s probably worth taking with a grain of salt, but it would bring Toyota into line with other automakers that are slowing their electrification ambitions. In recent weeks, Ford has cut production of its F-150 Lightning truck. General Motors fought back its own plans for new electric models and the rapid growth in EV sales we have seen in the past has begun to subside.
4th Gear: GM only paid Boss Bara $27.8 million last year
In a heartbreaking twist for rich people, General Motors cut wages Chief Mary Barra Last year, after the company failed to meet its stock targets, Reports Automotive News. The move means Barra is no longer the highest-paid executive in the Big Three after taking home just $27.8 million last year.
The wage cut was 3.9 percent Reduction of Barra’s salaryreported Automotive News. As the website explains:
Barra’s salary of $2.1 million, stock awards of $14.6 million and options of $4.9 million were unchanged from 2022, according to a filing Wednesday with the U.S. US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. They and other top executives received lower incentive pay because GM fell short of expectations on electric and autonomous vehicle targets, even though the company exceeded profit and cash flow targets, Wesley Bush, chairman of the compensation committee, said in the Submission.
Going forward, GM will tie bonuses for executives and other employees more directly to four “strategic focus areas” – internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles, AVs, and software and services – to encourage execution “with greater responsibility and a broader corporate perspective.” Bush wrote. Executive incentives will also take into account the company’s progress on its long-term transformation strategy.
Despite this staggering number, Barra is now only the second-highest paid executive at the big three American automakers. She is now behind Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares, who had his massive salary package of $39 million Approved by the company’s shareholders earlier this month.