While I’m often beating the drum for hybrid sales in The Morning Dump, it’s only because hybrids are the most obvious interim powertrain solution for the biggest chunk of the market in the United States. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for regular ICE-powered vehicles or even electric cars, for that matter. Some automakers are good at one of the three, and a few are good at two-out-of-three, but I’m going to argue that Hyundai-Kia is the only automaker that does all three well.
Sales bear out my thesis, as Hyundai and Kia both had record months in November, pushed by a mixture of increases across all ranges and powertrains. It’s a good time to be Hyundai-Kia. It’s also a good time to be a lawyer in the ongoing trial over Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s compensation, especially after a judge in Delaware ruled that Musk can’t really be paid $56 billion.
The CEO of Volkswagen is named Oliver Blume. A man named Oliver Blume bought part of a Volkswagen plant in Hannover, Germany. This is a different Oliver Blume, apparently.
And, finally, Porsche has announced a long-term partnership with the Iron Dames racing team. This makes me happy.
Hyundai-Kia-Genesis Are The Real Triple Threat
That Hugh Jackman. He can sing, he can dance, and he sure can act. He’s also so damn charming. He played Harold Hill in a revival of The Music Man and then really ran off with Marian the Librarian! Side note: If your wife says she’s going to play the romantic lead opposite Hugh Jackman in anything, you might as well pack your bags.
You know another triple threat? Hyundai.
I assume when I talk about car companies that are not 100 years old having sales gains some people naturally think that these are small brands. Though Hyundai and Kia have not been in the American market as long as some automakers, the fact is that they’re kicking metric tons of butt these days. For all the people who swore off Kia after all the car thefts, there seem to be plenty of people who don’t care.
Because not everyone reports monthly, I can only say with certainty that through the first three quarters of the year, the combined Hyundai-Kia-Genesis brands in the United States were outselling all Stellantis brands and all Honda brands. The company was also almost twice as big as Nissan, nearly three times as big as Subaru, and not that far off Ford over here in the states.
This might be why the automaker made its head of North America the head of the whole company last month. Looking at the November sales report, it’s clear that the company isn’t slowing down.
Let’s start with Hyundai. Sales were a record 76,008 units, up 8% over November 2023. This includes a 64% increase in sales of the Santa Fe Hybrid and a 227% increase in Tuscon Hybrid sales. It wasn’t just regular hybrids, even vehicles like the Tuscon PHEV were up (23%). Electric cars saw increases, as well, with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 up 110% over last November. Gas-powered cars? If you want to feel good about things, the Elantra N performance ICE sedan was up 140%.
Kia also had record sales, cresting the 70,000-vehicle mark in November, compared to just 58,338 sales last November. The brand didn’t break down sales quite as much as Hyundai, so all we know is that “electrified” models (PHEV, HEV, BEV) saw a 45% increase year-over-year. The company also had a huge month for the ICE-only Telluride SUV, which hit 11,568 deliveries in November.
How Hyundai did this is not a huge surprise to anyone paying attention. The range they have is quite impressive. The company covers the low end of the market with affordable and nice cars like the Elantra, Venue, Kia Soul, and the new Kia K4. At the other end of the market, the new Santa Fe and Telluride are extremely nice crossover/SUVs. While Genesis is not likely to ever hit Lexus numbers, the brand is finding a niche in the luxury space. It also helps that almost every product looks attractive and distinct.
More importantly, no other automaker really offers the powertrain range Hyundai does in as many vehicles. Stellantis has more popular PHEVs, but just one BEV (Fiat 500e) and no HEVs. Ford offers all variations, but has entirely abandoned sedans, and doesn’t have quite the same range of BEVs (though it does have a truck and a van). GM is closest in terms of BEVs and, arguably, does better with ICE-powered vehicles because it has big trucks, but has no hybrids.
It’s not that surprising that Hyundai put together such a great lineup of vehicles, it is surprising that few other automakers realized that powertrain diversity would be an advantage.
Elon Musk Again Denied The Biggest Paycheck In Human History, Lawyers Denied $5.6 Billion Payday
It was almost two years since the trial over Elon Musk’s compensation started. This was fun to write about because I got to write that Elon Musk was going to trial over the biggest paycheck in ‘human history.’
A lot of this hedges on the fact that Musk and the Tesla Board of Directors (largely controlled by Musk) set extremely ambitious targets for the CEO that, if achieved, would result in a big payout. Musk more than exceeded those expectations and was ready to get paid when a group of investors sued in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming that this was an unfair and essentially rigged process.
In order to get around this, Tesla put Musk’s paycheck up for a vote and won by a large margin. Yesterday, the judge in this case basically told Musk it doesn’t work that way. You can’t lose a court case and then change the evidence after the fact. Here’s a quote from the judge’s opinion:
At bottom, Defendants seek to introduce a new fact that they created for the purpose of flipping the outcome of the Post-Trial Opinion. Defendants do not cite to a single case where a court has provided such relief under Rule 54(b) or otherwise. And no wonder: Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable.
Given how often Elon Musk is sued, it might behoove him to make lawsuits essentially unsettlable. On the other hand, the legal fees might start to make a dent in his outsized wealth. As one lawyer buddy put it: “Hourly billing, baby.”
The successful lawyers on the other side also argued for their own big payday, asking for 11%, or $5.6 billion. Unsurprisingly, the judge also rejected this, stating that merely giving someone hundreds of millions of dollars was probably sufficient enough for a lawyer to take the case and that lawyers being able to earn billions of dollars suing people would make settling cases nearly impossible.
Instead, the lawyers will get only $345,000,000, which Tesla is allowed to pay in stock. Of course, they’re not going to be paying that because this is going to keep getting appealed.
No, Not That Oliver Blume
Volkswagen is in neverending trouble and has to make a lot of hard decisions about closing plants in Germany, which it doesn’t want to do but probably can’t avoid at this point. But which plants? A lot of this involves politics, and Manager Magazine has a great rundown of each German plant and what it means to close them down.
For instance, the Hanover plant in Hannover-Stöcken makes the ID.Buzz is kinda important politically:
Hanover is also the seat of the Lower Saxony State Chancellery: Prime Minister Stephan Weil (65, SPD), who also sits on the VW Supervisory Board, has once again campaigned impressively for the return of the purchase premium for electric cars.
A reminder that Lower Saxony’s government owns about 20% of the voting rights to Volkswagen.
Here’s an even weirder part of the article, though, having to do with the sale of the radio tower at that plant:
The fact that VW has now removed the “VW Commercial Vehicles” lettering from the old radio tower at the main station (“Telemoritz”) and sold the tower is not seen as a bad omen in Leine. The buyer of the tower is an investor named Oliver Blume, who is not related to the VW Group CEO.
It turns out Blume (the non-VW one) wants to turn it into an apartment building/retail space. It sounds awesome. I’m a weirdo so I found an article on the project:
What is Oliver Blume’s concept for preserving the Telemoritz? Blume wants to extensively renovate the tower and then encase the so-called shaft with a 20 by 20 meter cube that will accommodate 120 to 130 apartments. “We will absorb the loads via the foundation and thus also relieve the load on the old shaft.” The apartments, with an area of around 25 square meters, large windows and high-quality furnishings, are to be rented for 450 to 500 euros without heating. The income will then finance the costs that Blume has calculated for the renovation. “That will be classic real estate financing.
Hell yeah.
Iron Dames x Porsche
I’m a big fan of global sports car and endurance racing, so I’ve been keenly following the exploits of Iron Dames racing, which has focused on fielding teams of women drivers in various events around the world. The team, which includes Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting, has competed successfully in all levels of sports car racing.
During the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, I was working on a documentary and was set up not too far from their garage, and got to enjoy their exploits in a Ferrari. The teams have also raced in Lamborghini Hurcans and other sports cars.
Now? Expect more Porsches. From the company:
“Porsche X Iron Dames – because every dream matters” is a slogan that represents the close collaboration between Porsche Motorsport and the renowned initiative to promote women in motorsport. The project kicks off with the start of the Asian Le Mans Series next weekend in Sepang, Malaysia. Four fast female drivers will compete in four top series behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 R. Michelle Gatting from Denmark, Rahel Frey from Switzerland, Sarah Bovy from Belgium and Célia Martin from France will race for the Iron Dames squad in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. The schedule also includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
I like that even more than a radio tower apartment.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I’ve never thought of Nelly’s “Air Force One” as a Posse Cut, but I suppose it is (shout out St. Lunatics). It’s also kinda wholesome, like when Murphy Lee is getting close to a woman selling shoes, and rather than rapping about taking her out he basically just thanks her for helpful service.
The Big Question
Is someone else a bigger triple threat? Who does all three things as well as Hyundai?
Top Image: Kia, Hyundai, Genesis and Hugh Jackman / The Music Man
Two thoughts connecting two of the stories:
As mentioned, it’s wild how many different types of vehicles and powertrains Kia has managed to offer – even in the same models – the Niro/Kona is one of very few cars in ICE, hybrid, or full EV form.
On a related note, Kia’s marketshare is roughly 4x that of Volkswagen, who, more confusingly, sells zero hybrids in the US despite offering them elsewhere. It would seem like an obvious way to pick up some sales, no?
Hyundai/Kia have done an amazing job having the right products at the right prices for over a decade now. If only the engines didn’t explode they’d probably be my favorite automaker and I’d have a Veloster N in the garage.
Several do things better than Hyundai/Kia: Toyota/Honda/Ford, BMW even.
I think part of why Hyundai/Kia are diversifying their powertrains so much is they have so many troubles with powertrains. Their engines grenade, they have EV battery recalls from LG, circuits on their Ioniq inverters fail letting the 12v starter batteries die, and their hybrids are a combination of underpowered motors coupled to a Hyundai/Kia engine, with some LG batteries, like all these things are bad, what if we combine them?
Yes they look nice, but so did the Scoupe(remember the Scoupe?), but it was just an Excel underneath.
Their EVs are pretty good, but that’s just general improved reliability and performance from an EV. The issues they have had with the EVs may just be growing pains and they are ahead of the curve a little with them, but GM and others are gaining. Say what you will about others not having sedans but the Blazer EV sits low, almost gives Dodge Magnum vibes as a low slung wagon, similar to how the Ioniq 5 doesn’t sit that high and the 6 is pretty much a sedan, but their on a crossover platform.
I want to like Hyundai/Kia and honestly both Kias my parents own have been fine (a Sportage and a Sedona) – although also with very low mileage for their age so haven’t hit failure points yet.
However, my father-in-law’s Soul had an engine give up the ghost at under 60K miles and although Kia did eventually replace the engine under warranty it sat at the dealer for over three months with no offer of a rental. I had to loan my in-laws one of my cars for those 3+ months, something which I was fortunately able to do.
I just can’t see buying an HKG product for myself yet.
yep, this all day
RE: The Tesla pay deal. Reading through the opinion the judge has majorly fucked up- as she notes, this is the first time a compensation contract like this has ever been rescinded in it’s entirety. She notes that while the issue has come up before a Delaware court three times before, all three prior courts avoided definite rulings, but she will “boldly go where no man has gone before.” Spoiler- those prior courts avoided the issue because a ruling like this directly conflicts with federal law.
There is a line in the opinion that reads “Defendants argue that rescission is a harsh consequence that would leave Musk uncompensated. But Musk’s preexisting equity stake provided him tens of billions of dollars for his efforts.” Bluntly, this is an astonishing fuckup from a judge who should know better.
Musk’s prior equity is not applicable to this employment contract. Just like any stock I happen to hold in my employer is not applicable to my contract- if the stock price goes up my employer cannot just stop paying me an say “well, you still made money so no complaining.” CEOs are employees too, and thus covered by federal labor law. This rescission entirely voids 5 years of pay for an employee and, as the ruling admits, leaves them entirely uncompensated for their labor. The sole justification given is reference to another case some executives had their cash bonuses clawed back after a failed deal, but completely fails to mention the part where those executives still received their (grossly inflated) salaries- ie they were fairly compensated for their labor. This ruling is saying the fair thing to do is pay someone nothing at all for years of work. You can’t do that. There is a constitutional amendment that specifically says you cannot do that. Now I realize we are talking about the richest person on earth, and no one is going to shed any tears for him, but holy fuck this is a terrible precedent.
Now realistically this issue will be resolved by another shareholder vote probably granting the same deal, except now that Tesla is incorporated in Texas it will go through, and this whole ruling will be moot. But goddamn do I wish this gets appealed higher because sometimes judges need a judicial smacking.
I’d buy into an auto-journo’s rah rah of hybrids if the “year of the hybrid” had been 15+ years ago — which it could likely have been if big oil and big auto weren’t actively preventing greater electrification while being aided by some of the same journalists saying things like “the Prius isn’t a real car.” If car companies leaned into hybrid technologies for many (if not most) of their cars back then, an incredible tonnage of atmospheric CO2 would have been avoided, all while getting a leg up on battery production and charging infrastructures.
(This article speaks approvingly of continued production of ICE-only vehicles in a couple places, so I don’t think too many rats asses are given.)
Exactly! Toyota came out with the second generation Prius in 2004. It was cutting edge then, but that was 20 years ago. What they’re selling now is not that different. Even EVs aren’t all that new anymore. The Nissan Leaf came out in 2011 and the Tesla Model S in 2012. Those cars were revolutionary in their day, but that was well over a decade ago. EVs are significantly better now, but the basic technology that underlies them is not dramatically different.
The head and the heart are always in conflict when it comes to Hyundai and Kia (for me anyway). My family has had some great examples over the years, and Hyundai/Kia has always provided us the sorts of form factors (hatches, wagons, box cars) that we have wanted. But the Kia Boyz shit with the Soul, on top of the absolutely useless/evil dealers really has turned us away from those brands. And it sucks, because I actually love a lot of their current designs. But they’re on suspension in my mind, until the bad vibes wear off.
This. I’ve owned both Hyundai and Kia vehicles in the past, with moderate success for the price, but terrible dealers have prevented any interest in getting a vehicle from either brand. The thefts didn’t help either, though if I’m honest I’d likely not have bought a model without an immobilizer (though my neighbor did and lost his car to the Kia Boyz).
I think this puts it well for me. We’ve had decent examples in the family too, the dealers in my area aren’t really any better or worse than other brands. I do still like several of their products, but I also feel like I know more people that have been affected by one of the H/K issues at some point more than any other make or model.
I bought a 2024 Ev6 gtline1, and I’ve got about 24000kms since I bought it 6 months ago. So far no problems except for the constantly freezing Tesla styled door handles. Or they disappear the second it snows.
I did buy an extended warranty since I expect to do 180000kms in the next five years and I’ve got a bumper to bumper 5 year 200000kms warranty (cost about 5 grand)
No company that has made as many explody ICE as Hyundai/KIA can be considered good at it. The EVs seem pretty good, but I have no interest in those at all.
All of their cars just come across as cheap knock-offs of the real thing to me. There is no universe in which I would choose a Genesis over an actual German car, nor most of the cheap ones over a Toyota or Honda. And given constant work travel, I have rented most of what they make. They are cheaper for a reason.
The sole exception, pardon the pun, is the KIA Soul. Mostly because it really has no competition anymore in the US as a cheap low floor tall hatch with no pretentions of being a butch off-roader, since Toyota gave up on the Scion XBs that started the trend here. The perfect car for my lady-of-a-certain-age mother, though I find it utterly hateful to drive.
I had a Kia Soul with an explody engine before there was a class-action. Kia’s handling was abysmal. I had mine repaired because I was the original owner. While at the dealership another person with the same issue was told to pound sand because they were not the original owner.
Hyundai/KIA then ignored the whole Kia Boys issue. I would see wrecked Hyundai/KIAs often in Oakland. The kids would snatch them and destroy them in the same day.
When the company shows you who they are, believe them.
I don’t blame KIA for the lack of immobilizers, they weren’t required at the time. The cars are cheap for good reasons. They are no easier to steal than any of the MANY millions of cars made before immobilizers were a thing. That a bunch of ill-raised brats followed Internet instructions on how to commit felonies is not their problem.
The current Soul does not have an engine in the current explodey family, and my mother won’t put enough miles on the thing to matter before she hangs up the keys. KIA’s “10yr” warranty is only 10yrs for the FIRST owner. But I certainly agree that it is no fun to drive at all. Nothing unsafe about it, it’s no worse than any other cheap econobox. But I can afford better things, so I drive better things. But my mother needed cheap and cheerful and new so *I* don’t get the call when something goes wrong with it. Nothing has so far other than a flat tire and she keeps running into things and getting run into. For barely $20K, good enough, and most importantly, she liked it best of literally every car available out the door for under $30K.
I have one too, and agree with the “no fun” part. But I can easily get 35 MPG on trips, even cruising 80+ MPH for stretches (it’s not very pleasant going much faster than that). Seats down and you can fit a lot of crap in it. And the low price was great. So, it’s fine, until I hit my midlife crisis and get something a little more fun.
It’s all the car anyone actually needs. But cars are not just about needs necessarily. It is not a car that I want for myself, in any way, and I only need to drive the thing on the rare occasion I go somewhere with my mother in her car. But assuming she doesn’t total it, it will serve her adequately for the rest of her driving life, then I will sell it.
I get it. My mother still likes her PT Cruiser. I’d be shocked if she drives 1000 miles a year in it though.
That was $56 billion, not $5.6
The lawyers are trying to get 11%, so $5.6B for them
GM is closest in terms of BEVs and, arguably, does better with ICE-powered vehicles because it has big trucks, but has no hybrids.
Forget about the e-ray? tisk tisk.
To be fair, the E-Ray is just now actually on sale, right?
2024 model year I think sales started in August 2024.
And I’m not suggesting that it really matters for the actual discussion at hand. But for someone on a car website to say “has no hybrids” and forget that GM actually offers a mid-engine borderline supercar hybrid is kind of shocking.
That’s like the most exciting kind of hybrid, at least for performance enthusiasts.
K,H,G… never paid much attention to them, outside of a couple of rentals which were fine, if not overly generic. Some long-term renters/friends of mine won’t be going back after their Hyundai 2015 crossover’s engine took a shit on them earlier this year and they were told it wasn’t worth fixing. Pretty sure they still owe a bunch more payments on it as well.
I do like those swanky G-90 sedans though. Might make for a fun cruiser in a few years if the current crop of V-series Cadillacs haven’t depreciated enough for champagne-on-burger-budget tastes.
Go Iron Dames! My daughter is quite jazzed at their pairing with Porsche as that’s her current third-favorite make behind Corvettes and Miatas. Our introduction to that racing team was great. At our first ever IMSA race, we stumbled into the Sebring 12-hour morning grid walk because that’s where the crowd was headed, not knowing a thing about IMSA or any of the teams, we happened upon a pink Lamborghini. This was of course the Iron Dames GTD Pro car. The driver was in the process of autographing something for a young girl all dressed up in pink clothes matching the exact shade of the car. The girl had the excited look of a future race-fan-for-life on her face and my daughter, 14 at the time, was like “Woman are driving Lamborghinis in this race? This just keeps getting better!” It was one of many moments that day that cemented our status as newly-minted IMSA/WEC fans.
The Koreans may be the current darlings in the Automotive blog world but in the real world there is a massive undercurrent that’s nicknamed these peninsular-sourced vehicles the unwantables. Sometime around 2013, as you know, the troubles began. Oil consumption, engines grenading, DCT’s self-destructing, you all know this.
Only a fool would take their hard-earned cash and put it on a Korean -made vehicle, especially an EV. Sure, the pretty colors shine like diamonds but will all that glitters still shine after even 50k.
I’ve seen more Hyundais and Kia’s smoking from their tailpipes lately than anything formerly FCA and just last week saw a gorgeous and flawless looking Santa Fe belching blue smoke out its ass.
If they can’t make reliable ICE engines, do you trust them with the battery-powered toys?
I buy salvage cars for a living and guess what vehicles I see that are significantly newer than any other up for sale at the auctions as inoperable?
Hyundai, Kia and FCA. Junque. The Koreans haven’t figured out that planned obsolescence isn’t something you should actually and actively advertise.
After ridding my family of our ‘17 Tucson that treated 5w30 as like Red Bulls at baseball practice, I will never so much as entertain a look at a Korean made automobile. H/K, you are trash.
You can make them pretty but I don’t shop Claire’s at my local mall or Temu for my cars.
yeah, check out salvage auctions, and you can find all sorts of patterns in all kinds of cars that I wish auto journalists would cover.