Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
It might come as a surprise that Gen Zers and millennials actually collect cars and maintain their own kind of social media-fueled car culture.
Richard Truett's story today starts out with anecdotal evidence of this unheralded movement but then reports some surprising data from Michigan classic car insurer Hagerty. In its survey of more than 2,000 Gen Z drivers, 32 percent said they have owned or currently own a classic enthusiast vehicle; that figure was 30 percent for millennials, Truett reports.
This report dispels the myth that younger generations aren't partaking in the joy of collecting cars. Truett has picked up on this trend before. This story from last month explores an emerging trend of 25-year-old imports becoming popular in the U.S. Why? Younger drivers — perhaps with a passion for cars stemming from social media and "Fast and Furious" movies — are coming of age with discretionary income.
In other news today, we found out Stellantis is backing away from megacasting, an emerging auto production technique championed by Tesla. Arnaud Deboeuf, Stellantis' chief manufacturing officer, poured a lot of cold water on it.
"We have done some internal studies, and today we don't see the benefit," Deboeuf told Automotive News Europe. "We don't see the benefit in manufacturing, we don't see the benefit in [capital expenditure], and we don't see the benefit in aftersales."
Automakers are also differing in their viewpoints about lidar technology. Pete Bigelow's story digs into why. There's a whole lot of red ink being spilled on these autonomous driving sensors, but proponents say the technology still has enormous potential.
Meanwhile, Honda is recalling more than 2 million vehicles in North America over a steering defect. The automaker has fielded more than 10,000 warranty claims from Honda drivers since 2021, according to our report today.
Finally, we have some fresh commentary from The Battery Show in Detroit this week. As we anticipated, there's a lot of exciting developments coming from the rapidly emerging EV ecosystem.
Looking ahead, we'll be following up on what General Motors brass told investors yesterday about GM's new generation of internal combustion engine vehicles. You might be surprised.
That's it for today. Have a great rest of your afternoon.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
