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Greetings from the Motor City!

Welcome to what could be a short but busy week in the world of cars.

Media events for the New York Auto Show (you remember auto shows?) kick off Wednesday – which is also the beginning of Passover. The show opens to the public on Friday (conveniently a holiday for New York financial markets and the start of the Easter holiday weekend.) All of this is happening during Ramadan.

But who observes holidays and weekends? I suspect a lot of auto industry financial and marketing personnel were busy over the weekend figuring out if their company’s EVs still qualify for U.S. EV subsidies.

And consider that the No. 1 story for today’s Auto File dropped on Sunday:

• Tesla’s first quarter delivery numbers fell short
• Fatter inventories could boost U.S. auto sales
• Polestar will build SUVs for the world in America

Wall Street wants to look under the hood.

Tesla on Sunday dropped its Q1 delivery and production figures, and the more investors and analysts studied the numbers the less impressive they looked. Tesla shares dropped 4% in early trading.

Yes, Tesla boosted year-over-year deliveries by 36% to 422,875 vehicles (thanks in part to more production coming online in Berlin and Austin.) But compared to the fourth quarter, deliveries rose just 4% – following price cuts as deep as 20% on some models.

Analysts wanted to see deliveries exceed 430,000 vehicles, according to Refinitiv.

Now, attention turns to Tesla’s Q1 financials, due out April 19.

How much (if any) profit margin did Tesla give away to generate the relatively modest sequential unit sales growth? Did Tesla cut production costs enough to offset revenue per vehicle reductions? What will be the impact of the shifting landscape of EV subsidies in the U.S. and China?

Mark your calendars.

A Polestar 3

Polestar, the EV brand backed by Volvo and Geely, will use the Charleston, S.C. factory it shares with Volvo to build Polestar 3 SUVs not just for the U.S. market but for Europe and other markets outside of China, CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Reuters in an interview.

In the context of supply chain challenges, concerns over the carbon footprint of shipping cars and the impact of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, Polestar decided it needed to move more quickly to “establish a more balanced factory footprint,” Ingenlath said.

Polestar currently uses four assembly plants in China, in addition to the factory near Charleston, according to its Q4 report.

The Inflation Reduction Act challenges Polestar on a number of levels. Polestars made in China don’t qualify for U.S. consumer tax credits. Polestar 3 SUVs assembled in Charleston might qualify, but that will now depend on the domestic content of the batteries.

Moving supply chains and production sites requires a two-to-three-year horizon, Ingenlath said. “It’s impossible to invest in each and every tool set” to build every model the brand sells in every region of the world.

“We produce the Polestar 3 in the U.S. The cars we export should enable us to import a car from another region of the world,” Ingenlath said.

Jeeps: Ready to roll.

U.S. automakers are expected to report improved sales for the first quarter, mainly because they were able to build more vehicles. (Among companies reporting as of Monday morning, Honda said U.S. sales rose 6.8%. Hyundai’s U.S. sales jumped 16% in Q1.)

S^{hortages of semiconductors and other materials are getting better but have not gone away. AutoForecast Solutions estimates more than 1.1 million vehicles of production have been lost in North America this year due to semiconductor shortages. Many vehicles that have been built lacked chip-enabled features, AFS said.}

^{OPEC introduced another wild card over the weekend with a surprise move to slash oil production. A return of $100/barrel oil and higher U.S. gasoline prices could help EV sales, but it could slow demand for the trucks and SUVs that are the U.S. auto industry’s profit machines.}

Shared electric scooters will be banned in Paris as of Sept. 1, the city’s government said. The decision followed a Twitter poll in which 89% of respondents said they wanted e-scooters off the streets. (Caveat: Only 7.46% of registered voters responded.)

If you’ve been following the news from France, it’s the rare issue on which 89% of French citizens agree. The other, apparently, is maintaining the retirement age at 62.

E-scooter companies said they’ll keep fighting.

Electric luxury truck and van maker Rivian reported delivering 7,946 vehicles during the first quarter – more than analysts had forecast. But Rivian’s production remained suppressed due to supply chain problems.

Ryder will add 4,000 BrightDrop electric vans to its fleet through 2025. It’s a solid win for BrightDrop, a unit of General Motors, which competes with Rivian, Ford, Stellantis, Mercedes and several startups in the electric delivery van market.

Indonesia slashed the VAT on electric vehicle purchases to 1%. The country is pushing to develop domestic EV and EV materials production using its rich nickel reserves as a foundation.

Chinese telecom power Huawei said it plans to work with more legacy automakers to build Aito EVs powered by Huawei’s Harmony OS operating system.

Elon Musk wants a judge to toss out a lawsuit accusing him of running a racket to support the value of the Dodgecoin cryptocurrency and seeking $258 billion in damages.

Volkswagen’s combustion Golf is headed into the sunset, a senior VW executive told Automobilwoche. VW currently does not plan a new combustion-powered generation of the car, VW executive Thomas Schaefer said. The Golf was once the best-selling car in Europe, but has been eclipsed by Tesla’s Model Y. VW is focusing investment on EVs and EV infrastructure.

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