Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
The harsh realities of the global transition to electric vehicles emerged at the 2024 Automotive News Congress today in Pontiac, Mich.
It's not all doom and gloom despite EV sales not meeting growth expectations, but clearly the time for happy talk has ended.
At this panel discussion, U.S. dealers continued to promote their franchise business model as the best way to sell and service EVs, but EV makers such as Tesla, Lucid and Rivian don't see it that way.
The bottom line is affordability, said Dave Katarski, COO of Feldman Automotive Group.
"We're seeing a ton of people flock to them — when they can afford them," he said.
EV market uncertainty gets magnified in the current election year, as these experts said during this morning's session at the Congress. Clearly, automakers will need a Plan A and a Plan B depending on the outcome of the U.S. presidential race.
At Ford Motor Co., Marin Gjaja, COO of Ford's Model e, described how the company plans to turn around its money-losing EV business.
"My job is to figure out how to sell and market a vehicle that people don't appreciate its value until they own it for three years," he said at the Congress. Ford expects a new low-cost dedicated EV platform to play a key role in the turnaround, he said.
Volkswagen certainly isn't isolated from EV challenges in the U.S., but VW Group of America CEO Pablo Di Si must also negotiate a contract with the UAW, which just organized his plant this year.
"We need to discuss, learn, adjust, and something that we made clear is that we're not the Big 3," Di Si said at the Congress this morning. "We're in Chattanooga."
In another major EV story breaking this afternoon, Rivian Automotive Inc. is beginning to offer pre-owned vehicle sales, a natural move as the company taps a new revenue stream as its new-vehicle sales stall.
That's it for today. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
