Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Wednesday, July 9.
You can probably hear the sales pitches in your sleep.
"There has NEVER been a better time to buy an electric vehicle!"
"Folks, come buy or lease your brand-new EV today before the $7,500 federal tax credit expires!"
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The reality is that the U.S. EV tax credit expiring at the end of September gives automakers and dealerships less than 90 days to dent more than 100 days worth of EV inventories in the U.S.
This year U.S. EV registrations rose 7.4 percent to 506,807 through May, according to data compiled by the Automotive News Research & Data Center.
Cox Automotive said in a report that new-EV days' supply in the U.S. rose 8 percent month over month in May to 111 days, though it remains 12 percent lower than the same period last year. New EV days' supply continues to exceed gasoline-powered vehicles by more than a full month, Cox said. The National Automobile Dealers Association estimated June 27 that total EV inventories on dealer lots stood at 140,000 units.
EV makers Tesla and Rivian will be hyping the credit expiration, as this Reuters story explains.
"This is certainly a great time to be considering an EV," Rivian's finance chief, Claire McDonough, told Reuters. Once the tax credits end, Rivian might introduce additional incentives, she said.
EV makers will likely show a bump in third-quarter results, but after that?
"We believe (the third quarter) will see a significant EV pre-buy, with sharp declines in the months to follow," Barclays analysts wrote.
In other stories, a New York state dealership that was at the center of a Volkswagen of America lawsuit over alleged weak sales performance no longer has the German mass-market franchise, Jack Walsworth reported.
Finally, automakers in recent years have used their vast assembly plant acreages to build solar arrays, but Kia America took this trend to another level in West Point, Ga. It is combining solar panels with hailstorm protection on a 3.2-million-square-foot roof over an inventory holding lot there, Mary Corey reports today.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day. If you want to view this story in your browser, click here.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
