Hybrid sales rise as electric vehicle growth takes hold in the US market

Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news in the context of wider themes impacting the industry.

I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures and I’m glad you could join us.

Let’s kick off this week’s segment with more evidence that hybrid powertrains seem to be really resonating with US consumers and filling a nice gap between internal combustion technologies and full battery electric vehicles.

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for 18.7 percent of all new light vehicles sold in the second quarter of this year, according to new data from Wards Intelligence analyzed by the US Energy Information Administration. This is an increase from 17.8% in the first three months of the year.

That growth was “primarily driven” by hybrid sales, according to Wards and EIA, which grew nearly 31 percent from 2023 and accounted for nearly 10 percent of light vehicle sales in the second quarter. Sales of plug-in hybrids also increased, while the market share of battery electric vehicles was almost flat compared to the second quarter of last year.

The trend looks set to continue in the back half of the year. In July, hybrid sales rose about 23 percent in the U.S. from last July, and the gap between hybrid and electric sales widened, according to data from Morgan Stanley.

Legacy automakers are really embracing the new consumer desire for hybrids. LAST quarter, Ford reported that 245 percent of all F-150 sales are now hybrids, and that hybrid units are more profitable than ICE vehicles.

We move on to the second news of this week. By the end of 2024, Elon Musk expects more than 1,000 of his Optimus robots to be working at Tesla. Two robots are already on the Tesla factory floor, though the company has not said what tasks they perform.

Deutsche Bank expects the Optimus robots to cost between $27,000 and $76,000, although analysts expect the robots to generate “significant cost savings by the end of the decade.” Some of these “cost savings” would come in the form of replacing its humans with robots.

Assuming a production worker clocks 40 hours a week and will be paid $62,400 in 2027, Tesla could save $31,900 by replacing them with a robot. Replacing 10 percent of those workers would save $141 million a year, according to Deutsche’s model.

If the same worker was still at the company in 2030 and earning $72,800 a year, Tesla could save $57,550 by putting a robot in their place. Do that over and over again until 20 percent of workers are replaced, and Tesla could save up to $509 million annually, Deutsche says.

We are about to enter a brave new world where companies justify replacing humans doing repetitive tasks with humanoid robots.

So with that, let’s move on to our Companies to Watch.

Each week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to watch. If you read my Weekly Intel Report, we introduce you to a company to watch, and we take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.

Today, our new company to watch is Fleetyr

Even the most cutting-edge analytics tools are only as good as the data that powers them.

“Dirty” data – such as inaccurate GPS data, incorrect fuel readings, misclassified data, duplicate entries and overlooked errors – significantly skews your analytics and leads to poor decision-making across your fleet.

Fleetyr allows you to connect, clean, enrich and view all your fleet data.

Your data can do so much more for you – and it should. Fleetyr takes care of putting your data to work for your fleet so you can focus on the business decisions that matter.

With all your data connected and easily accessible in one place, you can monitor multiple systems at once and discover useful information that helps you create a safer, healthier and more cost-effective fleet.

Fleetyr allows you to gain full visibility into all your fleet data, drill down into the most valuable information, track expenses and identify cost savings, improve driver behavior and safety, and continuously optimize and improve your fleet.

Maintaining efficiency is critical to keeping your fleet operations running smoothly, but how efficient can you be when data sources are disconnected and limiting your full view?

From telematics to maintenance to fatigue management and more, Fleetyr connects all data sources to give you a 360° view and 100% transparency of your fleet’s operational ecosystem.

If you want to know more about Fleetyr you can check them out at www.fleetyr.com

So that’s it for this week’s Automotive Future segment.

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Be sure to check out my book, The Future of Automotive Retail, which is available on Amazon.com. And keep an eye out for my new book, The Future of Mobility, which is almost ready and coming out soon.

Thanks (as always) for your continued support and for tuning in to CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. See you next week!