#Reports

A recent Cox Automotive poll has shown that U.S. dealers are becoming less optimistic about the upcoming sales period. Top reasons included the economy, high interest rates, and an uncertain political climate. That said, it probably doesn’t take an in-depth study to realize there’s something off about today’s product mix and financing options when the most common question I receive from friends about automobiles pertains to why they all seem to cost so much these days. But it's nice to have the extra data.

Ferrari has furnished its second-quarter earnings reports and it turns out that wealthy people are indeed still buying $500,000 automobiles. However, the report has likewise indicated that the Italian brand will be revising its lineup due to a lack of interest in certain models.

While the driving masses are gradually becoming aware that automakers are using connected vehicles to sell off user data to third-party data brokers, there isn’t a lot of public information on exactly how this business is being conducted. However, headway is indeed being made.

A letter to the Federal Trade Commission has revealed that these automakers are not only selling off your personal data, they’re doing it for a pathetically small sum of money. Penned by U.S. senators Ron Wyden and Edward J. Markey, the document pertains to data broker Verisk and an earlier story that roped in several major manufacturers.

With so many manufacturers retreating from their earlier promises of electrification, the public has begun to take notice. While industry targets often go missed, the EV debate has grown rather contentious due to the strong rhetoric used by automakers for years. Companies weren’t just vowing to sell all-electric vehicles, they were claiming a fundamental shift in transportation was about to happen.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just praised seven out of eight crossovers it tested with rear automatic braking. This comes as the group has pivoted its focus toward pedestrian safety. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute (IIHS-HLDI) also published a paper expressing safety concerns over automated driving systems. The takeaway from that piece was that alleged self-driving systems added nothing in terms of safety, but that partially automated safety systems (like automatic braking) were a net positive.

While new-vehicle inventories have been on the rise this year, we’re still below the average supply levels witnessed prior to 2020. But we're getting closer.

With corporate media finally aware of the perils of connected vehicles, we’ve seen a rash of articles exploring how insurance rates have spiked due to automakers sharing user data. But they’re not the only ones: Phone apps are also a major vector for obtaining and shifting profitable driving data without their owners even being aware it’s happening. It’s another contributing factor to why the average insurance rate has risen between 25 and 40 percent in 2024.

South Korean media is reporting that Hyundai Motor Company will be purchasing electric motors from Lucid for future all-electric vehicles. The units are supposedly going to be installed into Genesis products as a way to ensure its EV technology is on the cutting edge.

The amount the United States has been spending to advance the proliferation of all-electric vehicles in recent years has been genuinely staggering. However, the allocated funding doesn’t appear to be doing much good. EV adoption rates are slowing and the $7.5 billion earmarked exclusively for the construction of charging stations has only resulted in a handful of operational locations.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shared documents that would seem to suggest that U.S. shale oil firms purposefully colluded with the government of Saudi Arabia to fix oil prices between 2021 and 2023. The report was followed by a piece from BIG journalist Matt Stoller alleging that American oil companies and Saudi leadership likely cost the average American household $3,000 via fuel price hikes and the subsequent inflation created by artificially spiking the market.

Honda is said to be changing the naming of its electric cars after customers, particularly those in China, found its name to be exceptionally difficult to pronounce. However, they weren’t the only ones. Europeans likewise didn’t appreciate the name, nor the odd choice of punctuation and capitalization that seems to plague some all-electric vehicles.

A new study is claiming that automakers lose an average of $6,000 for every $50,000 electric vehicle they sell. Boston Consulting Group, an American-based global management consulting firm that issued the report, said the figure accounts for customer tax credits — painting a rather bleak picture for the future of EVs.

A recent report from The New York Times has accused automakers of selling customer driving data to insurance firms. While this is something many drivers had already been made aware of since the implementation of connected vehicles, the outlet claims that the amount of data has ramped up to a staggering degree. Not only is the amount of data being shared staggering, so is the specificity and degree to which it’s impacting people’s insurance rates.

The report focuses on LexisNexis’ “Risk Solutions” program formerly dedicated to keeping track of accident reports and moving violations. However, the division has expanded dramatically over the years and now oversees just about every scrap of relevant data modern vehicles can accumulate about you.

On International Women’s Day, the Kia EV9 was announced as the “Supreme Winner” of the Women's Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY) 2024. However, saying that this is the vehicle women most desire — let alone are willing to spend money buying — is probably a stretch.

A recent study published in the Journal of Transport Geography has alleged that “car harm” cannot be undone by the world pivoting to all-electric vehicles. 

However, the paper doesn’t favor everyone running out to buy the largest diesel pickup they can afford. Instead, it adopts the same anti-driving nonsense we’ve seen from the Vision Zero Network and government regulators that have been caught up in its activism web. The issue, as framed in the study, isn’t that EVs still pose a problem. The complaint is that all vehicles are problematic and the paper recommends sweeping policy changes pertaining to how roads are managed to deal with the matter.