On a bi-weekly basis, Center for Automotive Research (CAR) welcomes our audience to decompress with our President and CEO, Alan Amici, as he covers and shares his thoughts on the latest Hot Topics happening in the automotive industry. While the biweekly newsletter primarily covers three topics, this feature story previews one of the topics covered on November 1, 2022. If you would like access to the full newsletter for better insights into critical industry issues you and your organization are facing, sign up for our mailing list here.

HOT TOPICS WITH CENTER FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH CEO 11/01/2022

Q3 Earnings

• Wall Street eyes auto industry earnings for signs of ‘demand destruction’
• General Motors posts big third-quarter earnings beat but holds full-year guidance steady amid ‘headwinds’
• Ford posts $827M loss in Q3 as it shuts down self-driving startup it backed
• VW Q3 earnings stagnate below pre-pandemic levels
• Hyundai Q3 earnings drop amid rising prices, supply chain disruption
• Tesla Earnings Beat Expectations, Revenue Falls Short
•  

Alan’s thoughts:

Automakers continue to earn profits even as supply chain issues, likely to continue into 2023, constrain production. On the demand side, we’re seeing the effects of a trifecta of elevated fuel prices, rising interest rates, and high vehicle prices damping demand. Will cooling demand bring sticker shock relief to potential new car buyers? There is a dearth of new products at the low end as OEMs allocate constrained parts to high-profit vehicles. Perhaps an OEM will seize the opportunity and offer more entry-level vehicles. Or, we may see the return of incentives.

Regarding autonomous vehicle development, a Ford and VW joint release sent shock waves across the industry by announcing the shuttering of Argo AI. This closure is another sobering indicator that AV levels 4/5 prove to be especially difficult to achieve. Look for Ford and VW to integrate the Argo engineers into their respective ADAS teams. 

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