Welcome to My Car Week, a newsletter by Thomas Gigold. I’ve been writing about cars and mobility for 20 years now. Feel free to share & subscribe, helping me to keep it real. ✌️

Hello there.

Look at you, how good you look after that little holiday. 😉
Hope you had a bit of time & enjoyed it.

And without further ado, let’s start!
– Thomas

In this mail

• BMW Sells More EVs Than Tesla in Europe

• Mercedes Struggels With its Luxury Strategy

• EU: No Punitive Tariffs on Chinese Manufacturers - Yet

BMW Leads EV Sales in Europe For The First Time

BMW overtook Tesla to lead the European electric vehicle market for the first time in July. With this, the German carmaker is extending its strong run of growth as other manufacturers struggle.

While Tesla still holds a commanding lead in EV sales on a year-to-date basis, it's losing market share in Europe to the likes of BMW and Volvo. Tesla's Model Y maintained its position as the best-selling electric model in Europe in the first half of the year, although the demand is declining, with sales down 16% in July.

Nevertheless, demand for electric cars in Europe is cooling after countries such as Germany and Sweden removed or reduced subsidies. A lack of clarity about the incentives for - and future of - electric vehicles remains a barrier for consumers. / Jato, Image: Business Insider

💧 Hydrogen cars flopped, but fuel cells are finding new life in trucks and boats - Mining trucks, cement mixers, and terminal tractors all seem like the perfect use of hydrogen fuel cells. But they run into the same challenges around price and fueling. / The Verge

Electric Mobility: The Struggle is Real

Ford Steps Back From EVs, Says Hybrids Are the Future

The automaker will be pivoting away from its existing electric future and instead expand its other platforms. This means, Ford is killing its electric three-row SUV, delaying a next-gen pickup, and committing to future gas and diesel vehicles, citing a lack of consumer interest in full-EV cars.

"What we've learned is that customers want choice, and so we're providing that choice, with a full lineup of EVs, hybrid, electric, gas and diesel products," Ford CFO John Lawler told reporters. / WIRED

VW Sticks to Its EV-Strategy

In contrast to some competitors such as Ford and Mercedes, Volkswagen does not want to adjust its course in electromobility – despite sales problems.

VW CEO Oliver Blume sees no other realistic solution for future mobility. He is therefore ultimately also calling for politicians to commit to electromobility (instead of dreaming the pointless dream of hydrogen or e-fuels, like some German parties). / Vision Mobility (DE)

That written, Volkswagen postpones the launch of its electric car Trinity again. From 2026 to 2032. This also has implications for the all-electric Golf, which is now not due to be launched until 2029. The reason: ongoing software problems for the new VW car platforms. / Handelsblatt (DE)

BMW Manager Wants Commitment For EVs From German Politicians

Not only VW CEO Oliver Blume is calling out on German Politicians. Same goes for BMW Board Member for Production, Milan Nedeljkovic.
While sales of EVs have been weakening in Germany for months, Nedeljkovic spoke out in favour of alternative incentives – instead of purchase premiums coming from the government there could be privileged access to city centres, free parking or dedicated lanes on the autobahn for EVs. / Merkur (DE)

🔥 Korea Moves To Ban EVs With Fully Charged Batteries From Parking Garages – Government officials also want to restrict public chargers from topping up EV batteries to over 80% capacity / Korea JoongAng Daily

Mercedes: Luxury Strategy Not Working?

Mercedes in trouble: the shift in focus from ‘premium’ to ‘luxury’ was intended to increase margins and sales. But it seems that neither customers nor dealers are buying into it.

Sales are falling - 30% less of the S-Class has been sold in the first 6 months of 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023. Mercedes is now even having to massively reduce production at the Sindelfingen plant.

While BMW is gaining market share with its luxury models, Mercedes is in crisis mode: overall sales are down 19 % in the USA, down 27 % in Europe - and China is even worst due to the ongoing property crisis, which is causing even wealthy customers to shy away from investments. / t-online (DE)

🔋 Porsche rescues the bankrupt German battery manufacturer Varta. Why that, well the special large-format lithium-ion round cells for the new Porsche 911 Hybrid are sourced from Varta … / heise (DE)

Norway: Nearly Electric Only!

Fewer and fewer cars with combustion engines are being put on the road in Norway. By July 2024, the EV share of new registrations was a whopping 85.6 per cent - almost 58,000 new cars with electric drive systems hit the roads. The share was particularly high in July, when it was 92 per cent. In comparison: in Germany, the share of EVs fluctuated between 10.5 and 14.6 per cent in the first six months of 2024. / WELT (DE)

EU: No Punitive Tariffs on Chinese Manufacturers - Yet

For months now, the governments in Brussels and Beijing have been arguing about tariffs on electric cars coming from China. The reason why the EU wants to levy them is that China is subsidising the development and construction of electric vehicles on a large scale - thus giving Chinese manufacturers a competitive advantage over domestic manufacturers in Europe.

The EU Commission has now decided not to impose any additional tariffs on Chinese electric cars for the time being. A final decision on whether such tariffs should be imposed will now be made by the end of October. Chinese manufacturers also do not have to worry about having to pay retroactive penalties - there is no legal basis for this procedure, according to the EU.

Not only the Chinese Government is against the imposition of punitive tariffs, even the European manufacturers are.

On the one hand, they fear retaliatory measures from China. The market there is immensely important for German manufacturers in particular.
On the other hand, manufacturers such as Tesla or BMW and others would themselves be affected by EU tariffs because they produce certain models in China and import them into the EU themselves. / heise (DE)

New Cars, Baby!

The Monterey Car Week once again was the playground for manufacturers to show their (new) performance cars. The coolest ones:

• BMW M5 Touring, which will also be available in the US. / BMW Blog

• Acura Integra Type S HRC Concept … a prototype of what customers could do with their own Integra based on the HRC performance program. Love it. / NetCarShow

• Maserati GT2 Stradale – a track car, type-approved for use on the road, feat. a 3.0 litres V6 with 640 hp. Price: at least 350.000 Euros. / Maserati

• Lamborghini Temerario. Oh boi. The successor to the Huracan is equipped with a 4.0 l twin-turbo V8 hybrid powertrain with a total system output of 907 hp. Maximum speed: over 340 km/h, (0 to 100 km/h in just 2.7 seconds); minimum price: not announced yet. / NetCarShow

• Mercedes-Benz SL Monogram Maybach. A boring, expensive version of the Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster. / Motor1

• Audi RS3 Sedan. The not so boring hatchback of Audi. Like it. / Car&Driver  

• Rimac Nevera R. A new hyper-version of the (not so good selling) Nevera. Making the 0 to 100 in under 1.74 second. Able to hit 300 km/h in 8.66 seconds. The limited edition will only have 40 units - with a price of 2.3 million Euros per car. CRAZY! / NetCarShow

That’s all folks.
Readin’ you next time!