News: Passenger Cars, Minivans, and SUVs

2021-11-21

Hyundai Motor Launches ‘Wage Half Price Plant’

For the first time in 23 years, a finished car plant has started operations in South Korea. The operator is Gwangju Global Motors (GGM). This unfamiliar company was established under the leadership of the city of Gwangju in southwestern South Korea, with Hyundai Motor taking a stake, to specialize in contract manufacturing of small cars. The city of Gwangju, which aims to attract industry and create jobs, and Hyundai Motor, which wanted a plant where production can be outsourced at a low cost, coincided in their intentions.

The site area of 455,000 square meters is lined with three buildings: a pressed car body factory, a painting factory, and an assembly factory. Inside the assembly plant, which measures 340 meters by 140 meters, eight colorful car bodies flow smoothly down a three-dimensional production line.

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AutoVAZ Stops Production at Tolyatti Plant

AutoVAZ stopped assembly of cars on all three production lines at its Tolyatti plant Nov. 12, because of parts shortages, according to the plant’s trade union representative.

The plant produces Lada Largus, Lada X-Ray, Renault Sandero, Logan, Lada Niva Legend, Lada Kalina, and Lada Granta.

AutoVAZ systematically stops its conveyors because of component shortages. To compensate, the OEM tries to implement 6 day work weeks, but these also were cancelled because of parts shortages.

AutoVAZ also stopped production for a corporate vacation July 26 – Aug. 15.

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Chip Shortages Cause Worst Festive Season in Decade for Auto Industry

Aditya Kondejkar

2021’s festive period from Navratri to Diwali (October) marked the worst performance for India automakers in nearly a decade. Usually, sales of PVs peak during the period, however, the demand was much lower this year. 

Further, two-wheeler and tractor sales dropped by about 10%. The major reason for this drop is supply-side challenges on semiconductors and lack of demand in entry-level segments for both PVs and two-wheelers.

In the commercial vehicles space, the situation was somewhat better with an increase in demand for interstate movement of goods.

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Argentina Car Sales Drop 24%, But Production Grows

Fabio Ferraresi
Fabio Ferraresi

Sales in October 2021 are 24.1% lower than the same period of 2020 in Argentina, at about 25,000 units. This is also 1.6% lower than September 2021. On the other hand, production has grown 42.8% in October 2021 over October 2020 with 41,000 units produced, driven by strong exports.

Source: Automotive Business     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Brazil’s shortage of cars is due to a shortage of semiconductors and supply chain issues caused by the demand increase for Argentinian cars and the effect of higher exports. Economic issues and exchange rates boost the high demand in Brazil.   PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director-Business Development South America for Power Systems Research

2021-10-24

Auto Production Down Sharply in Asia

SOUTHEAST ASIA REPORT: VIETNAM, THAILAND, MALAYSIA

Akihiro Komuro
Akihiro Komuro

At the end of September, an auto parts manufacturer operating a plant near the southern Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Minh is struggling with a sharp drop in orders. The parts produced at this plant are delivered to Toyota group companies.

On Sept. 10, Toyota revised downward its production plan for the same month and October, adding about 70,000 units to the originally planned production cut of about 360,000 units in September, and cutting production by about 330,000 units in October.

The company also announced that it would revise its full-year production plan from 9.3 million units to 9 million units. Parts suppliers in Vietnam were affected by this. It was around the same time that Toyota announced its production cutbacks that the manufacturer mentioned above was told by its business partner that it wanted to significantly reduce orders for October.

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Subsidy Program for Scrapping Diesel Vehicles Ineffective

FAR EAST: SOUTH KOREA REPORT

About half of those who received South Korean government aid to scrap their old diesel vehicles early have purchased diesel vehicles again, according to a new study. The government spent 845.4 billion won (about 79.6 billion yen) in the last five years (2016-2020) to scrap 959,000 aging diesel vehicles, but the number of all diesel vehicles increased by 9% during the same period. The government has pointed out that diesel vehicles are the main culprit of particulate matter such as PM2.5 and has implemented a policy to “eliminate” them, but this policy has not been effective.

There is subsidy support if old diesel cars are scrapped depending on the level of emissions in operation. In addition, there are additional subsidies if you buy an eco-car or a gasoline/LPG car.

If old diesel vehicles with a gross weight of less than 3.5 tons are scrapped early, they can receive up to 6 million won (about 570,000 yen) in subsidies. According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, 48,757 people in the Seoul metropolitan area purchased new cars in the first half of last year after receiving subsidies to scrap their old diesel vehicles. However, of the cars purchased by these people, 21,686 (44%) were diesel vehicles. Moreover, 15,990 of them were used diesel cars, 2.8 times more than the number of new cars (5,696).

Source: Chosun Online

PSR Analysis: It is hard to say that this is a flaw in the system, but the reality is that this system has not achieved its purpose and has produced the opposite effect. The reason for this situation is simple: many of the users of trucks under 3.5 tons are small businesses, and considering their expenses, they do not choose gasoline vehicles, and new vehicles are not an option, so they choose used diesel vehicles.

EVs and fuel cell vehicles, which are now being widely reported, are attracting attention as vehicles equipped with next-generation technologies. However, especially in the case of commercial vehicles, the high initial cost is frowned upon. The market should take another look at the fact that inexpensive vehicles that can easily demonstrate their contribution to business will be selected. PSR

Akihiro Komuro is Research Analyst, Far East and Southeast Asia, for Power Systems Research

2021-10-23

Almaz-Antey Group To Develop Car Powered by Hydrogen Cells

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

This OEM is developing a passenger car dubbed E-NEVA which will use hydrogen as a fuel.

Almaz-Antey is a group of 60 enterprises, specializing in air defense weapons. With this current effort, OEM is making civilian products based on the developments from the military industry. In August, the concern introduced a self-propelled electric chassis that could be used  to create passenger cars on the basic chassis. The chassis includes two electric motors and a set of batteries of 90 kWt/hrs, providing up to 400 km on a single charge.

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Russian Car Sales in September Drop 22.6%

Sales on new passenger cars and LCVs in September 2021 declined 22.6%, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB). In total, automotive salons and dealers have sold 119,4 000 cars, which is 34,9 vehicles less than in 2020 September.

According to AEB head Tomas Schterzel, “negative trend is going on” (in August the sales dropped 17%), although the totals for the first nine months of 2021 are showing 15.1% growth versus the same period in 2020. The shortage of vehicles on the market is connected to decreased production and the deficit of semiconductors. The energy crisis in China and UK, growing prices of raw materials and other problems will support negative trend in the market during the near term.

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PSR Analysis: The problem here is not only in components deficit, but primarily in the car prices going up and the consumer’s incomes going down. So, the negative trend will develop further. PSR

Maxim Sakov is Market Consultant – Russia Operations, for Power Systems Research

KAMAZ Increases Nine-Month Production 21%

KAMAZ has significantly increased production for the first nine months of 2021 versus the same period last year. Through September, the OEM produced 30,979 vehicles, up  21% from the same period in 2020, reports the company.

In September, KAMAZ made 4,067 vehicles (versus 3,676 vehicles in September 2020.

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PSR Analysis: KAMAZ has found ways to resolve the problem with components (mostly by offering simpler models), working with pent-up demand and increasing its market share.

Maxim Sakov is Market Consultant – Russia Operations, for Power Systems Research

Personal Mobility Segment Lacks Sparkle, Stocks, Demand Drop

Aditya Kondejkar

Passenger vehicles sales dropped 41% to around 160k units in September as the shortage of semi-conductors disrupted production at most of the OEMs. OEMs are facing supply shortages rather than demand problems. We are seeing robust customer demand as increasing preferences towards personal mobility increase.

2-wheel sales declined 17% to 1.5 million units in September. The Motorcycle segment is heavily impacted as sales is dropped 23% in September. Owing to high vehicle acquisition costs and high fuel prices, inquiries regarding new vehicles have dropped significantly compared with last years’ level.

“Indian automobile industry continues to face new challenges, said Kenichi Ayukawa, President, SIAM. “While on one hand, we are seeing a revival in vehicle demand, on the other hand, shortage of semi-conductor chips is causing a major concern for the industry. Many members have curtailed their production plans.”

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PSR Analysis: So, we believe the on road segments have witnessed a V-shaped recovery since the second wave of COVID-19 and won’t see a regular festive season spike for this year.   PSR

Aditya Kondejkar is Research Analyst – South Asia Operations, for Power Systems Research