What I Realized At The LA Auto Present Media Day!

Under are 2023 LA Auto Present highlights from the businesses which have the potential to make a distinction, together with Lucid, Hyundai/Kia, Chevrolet, and Toyota. A shock was a roundtable on Chinese language automobiles in Mexico.

The largest information and the one important new car unveiling from my perspective was the disclosing of the Lucid Gravity SUV! It obtained by far probably the most consideration, and even 4 hours after the announcement, the world was swarming with folks taking photos and asking questions of the representatives. Kyle Discipline of our group wrote an glorious piece explaining the announcement right here. I’ll publish his conclusion beneath and add just a few feedback.

Lucid is pushing boldly into the SUV area with the Gravity and has delivered what appears to be like to be an especially purposeful luxurious SUV. Most luxurious SUVs nowadays are 5-seater builds, and that’s doubly true for the extremely premium phase the place homeowners purchase the automobile with plans to have a driver up entrance taking them from place to put. On this configuration, the third row of seats can simply be folded down out of sight and out of thoughts.

The world is in want of extra 7-seater totally electrical choices, and it’s nice to see the Gravity filling on this hole. With its gross sales of the Air already dipping, the corporate is likely to be pinning its future viability on the success of the Gravity itself. Whether or not or not there may be enough demand for an extremely premium 7-seater SUV just like the Gravity stays to be seen, however it appears like a stretch at value tags that may vary from the low $80k vary for a rear-wheel drive construct as much as north of $250k for a completely loaded Lucid Gravity Sapphire.

I agree we’d like extra 3-row SUVs that may seat adults within the third row, and assume it’s key to have a mannequin underneath $80,000 to make the most of the US tax credit score for electrical SUVs. The know-how is actually spectacular and I feel the car will likely be extra profitable than the Lucid Air sedan — as a result of everyone knows sedans are much less common as we speak than SUVs, and 3-row fuel SUVs are very talked-about. Even the Tesla Mannequin X (which is now out there underneath $80,000) has the difficulty that its third row isn’t very huge.

I’ve to say that this firm is dropping some huge cash on each automobile. This implies Lucid must do some mixture of 4 issues:

1. Scale back prices.
2. Scale manufacturing to unfold fastened prices over extra items.
3. Get extra cash from their buyers.
4. Perhaps merge with a competitor that has deep pockets however wants Lucid’s know-how.

The subsequent largest information of the present is the Kia EV9, additionally a big 3-row SUV. I might argue it would have an even bigger influence because it begins at $25,000 lower than the Gravity ($54,900) and ships a 12 months earlier (anticipated within the subsequent month). I obtained to sit down within the automobile, and though I’m 6 foot 2 inches tall on a superb day, I might sit comfortably in all 3 rows. I adjusted the seats to be snug for 7 giant adults. Jennifer Sensiba wrote a nice article protecting all of the vital bits right here.

I noticed it in each the 7-seat configuration and a extra luxurious 6-seat configuration with two captain’s seats within the second row as a substitute of a 3-person bench seat. I obtained the possibility to debate the tax credit score with a Kia government and he defined that they had been capable of shortly shift most of their electrical car gross sales to leases this 12 months, since that enables them to get the $7,500 credit score despite the fact that their EVs are made in South Korea. He additionally talked about the EV9 will likely be made in Georgia beginning in simply 6 months (second quarter of 2024).

Hyundai is predicted to quickly launch an identical car based mostly on the identical platform referred to as the Ioniq 7. Sadly (and it appeared unusual to me), they didn’t convey this car to the auto present.

The LA auto present additionally has just a few enjoyable autos on show. Who doesn’t like Scooby-Doo and the van that transported these meddling children?

I obtained an opportunity to see the ID Buzz in particular person. It wasn’t as roomy, snug, or refined because the Kia EV9. It appeared fairly spartan. Now we have written a complete article on the car right here. My impression is it would promote effectively as a distinct segment car so long as it isn’t overpriced. (We don’t know the value but.) As I repeat, we love our 3-row autos! Even for those who solely have two children, everybody likes their very own row.

I obtained to see the Equinox on the present, however I wasn’t allowed to the touch it. The salesperson didn’t appear too excited, and as everyone knows, GM has a historical past of overpromising and under-delivering. It definitely appears to be like prefer it may very well be a pleasant compact crossover if GM delivers it in quantity beginning on the promised $35,000, however I’m not holding my breath. Steve Hanley has written extra on this car right here.

Toyota just lately introduced it was popping out with the brand new 2025 Toyota Camry. Often, this doesn’t actually imply something. Toyota restyles it and it will get 2% extra energy and a pair of% higher mileage. However this time, they made a major change to the very best promoting sedan. They determined to drop the V6 and the conventional 4-cylinder engines and energy all Camry autos with a barely enhanced hybrid engine. Toyota hasn’t but introduced the brand new gasoline financial system, however right here is the information from the earlier mannequin:

As you possibly can see, the hybrid has double the mileage of the V6 and 62.5% higher mileage than the bottom 4-cylinder engine. I’ve learn that final 12 months solely 18% of the Camrys offered had been hybrids, so this a a giant deal. Toyota offered 295,201 automobiles final 12 months in accordance with this text. I’m engaged on a brand new article on Toyota, however I wrote this text concerning the firm 2 years in the past. Mainly, a hybrid is a gateway car to a plug-in car that introduces the thrill of electrification to numerous customers who’re afraid to purchase an EV or perhaps a plug-in hybrid.

Lastly, I attended a roundtable by Motor Tread on Chinese language car producers coming into Mexico and hoping to make use of that as a base to enter different North and South American markets. Under I’ve pasted a hyperlink to Motor Development‘s documentary. I plan to jot down extra on this topic sooner or later.

All pictures by Paul Fosse except acknowledged in any other case.