The alternative headline for this morning’s news roundup, soon to be called The Morning Breakdown (if I can persuade everyone [Ed Note: It seems a little boring, so we’re gonna workshop it. -DT]), is WTF GEELY? The Chinese automaker already has its hands in Polestar, Lotus, and Volvo. I’d forgotten Geely also owned the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC), aka the maker of those London Black Cabs we associate with the city. Now Geely apparently wants to make it a consumer brand with both passenger and commercial vehicles. I say, yet again, WTF?
London Taxis For Everyone
It’s a sort of knee-jerk reaction of those of us who write these morning roundups and worship at the altar of our one true prophet, newsletter-king Matt Levine, to jump into things with a kind of faux-learned skepticism. I’m going to resist the urge and instead approach today’s weird news with a serene open-mindedness.
Here’s the headline that woke me up this morning, from Reuters: “Exclusive: Geely plans to turn maker of London black cabs into EV powerhouse.”
From the article:
China’s Geely (0175.HK) is planning a big investment to turn the maker of London’s iconic black taxis into a high-volume, all-electric brand with a range of commercial and passenger vehicles, executives at the unit told Reuters.
London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) also aims to expand its suite of services, which include cars arranging their own maintenance and recognising their owner’s interests to help them book activities.
Um… Say WHAAAAAAAT?
A little context: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, aka Geely, is a Chinese mega-conglomerate that owns so many brands that I can never quite remember all of them. In addition to all the ones above, Geely also has Terrafugia (the flying car people) and Lynk & Co. Oh, Proton. Can’t forget Proton. And, like, 10% of Mercedes-parent Daimler.
Somehow, with all the above (and a bunch of other Chinese brands), the company isn’t leaving behind LEVC, which was one of its first major international purchases.
I sort of love this? Geely’s done a seemingly good job with the London Black Taxi (this Car And Driver review of their EV version is fun) and the cars have a recognizable design with plenty of space for passengers.
From the beginning, the dream of the EV is to have a suite of shared components that can be used to create a truck or an SUV or a van or a sports car or a whatever. Modular architecture turned up to 11. There are plenty of markets where the London Black Taxi look and vibe could carry a brand (probably not the United States, but that’s apparently why Zeekr was created). The article alludes to this possibility:
Allen said LEVC was exploring a range of commercial and passenger car models on a common electric platform. It can lean on other group brands that already have EVs to “move forward in a fast, agile way”.
The company already uses an infotainment system and software developed by Volvo and a steering wheel from the Swedish carmaker, allowing it to cut costs, Allen said.
If the cars are to be true to the London Black Taxi heritage, it needs to have the world’s best navigation system paired with some problematic thoughts about people from Pakistan.
Cash Rules Everything Around Maybach, C.R.E.A.M.
We’ve already touched on how well luxury cars performed last year relative to the rest of the market, and that trend should continue into 2023 with a twist: Cash.
With interest rates rising, if you’ve got the cash why would you finance? A $200,000 loan over 48 months at a relatively low 3.0% interest rate works out to more than $12k over the course of the loan. You know how much caviar that could buy? No, seriously, do you know? I don’t know. I assume a lot.
I bring this up because Bloomberg’s Hannah Elliott, whose job it is to know what rich car people are thinking, talked to some experts about the trend for this article:
“Cash was important last year and will continue to be in 2023,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive. “More wealthy consumers will buy with cash rather than finance in 2023.”
Stock market volatility and economic uncertainty have wealthy consumers sitting on bigger cash reserves, so they are spending more money in absolute dollars. Meanwhile, auto loan interest rates are currently hitting 20-year highs.
This trend in the luxury sector will have lingering impacts on industry profits and future consumer behaviour. All-cash purchases mean that dealerships see lower income from financing — something dealers for Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Infiniti and Jaguar have already begun to try to combat by offering consumers aggressive lease offers, said Mr Krelle.
Leases are going to be fun to watch.
Leases Are Going To Be Fun To Watch
See what I did there? Let’s get another quote from a Cox Automotive expert, this time from an Automotive News piece about leasing:
Experts are predicting that leasing will grow as a proportion of auto sales in 2023 after falling last year to what Cox Automotive said was its lowest share of the market in at least a decade.
Affordability concerns and increased automaker incentive spending are expected to help drive that growth, experts said.
Cox Automotive projects that leasing will represent 21 percent of new-vehicle retail sales in 2023, up from an estimated 19 percent in 2022, according to Charlie Chesbrough, the company’s senior economist.
That would be dope for car dealers and automakers, who have had to weather shortages and all sorts of other pandemic-related nonsense only to then be faced with rising interest rates and inflation fears. Being able to find a way to get people into some cars with reasonable monthly payments means bankable revenue for automakers and, potentially, increased affordability for consumers.
I’m not big on leasing, personally, but if you’re going to want a new car every few years then it’s not a bad deal.
Check Out This Bathurst Bentley
Enough financial news. Check out this sweet, sweet Bentley. The ginormous but awesome Bentley Continental GT3 won the prestigious Bathurst 12 Hour race, which is a sports car race on Australia’s Mt. Panorama. To celebrate, Bentley is making two customer cars inspired by the win. From the company’s press release announcing the cars:
The two cars in the pair both have individual specifications. The first car takes inspiration from the livery of the winning race car, with an exterior is bright Apple Green, contrasted by a Beluga black roof, wing mirrors, lower bumper and rear boot silhouette. The unique front visual also includes a number seven painted on the grille matrix, as per the racer.
The contemporary performance theme continues with the inclusion of the Blackline Specification – replacing all exterior bright chromework with polished black versions – and the Styling Specification (front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser in carbon fibre) providing a more aggressive visual stance.
The cabin is far more luxurious than the race car counterpart whilst offering a performance feel. Using a mixture of Leather and Dinamica in Beluga with Apple Green accents via micro-piping and contrast stitch, the interior complements the exterior perfectly. ‘BATHURST’ has been stitched into the headrests and ‘One of Two’ can be seen on the treadplates. A unique metal overlay depicting the track has been included in the carbon fibre technical finish fascias on the passenger side, and the names of the victorious drivers together with the winning number seven can be found on the centre console.
Neat. You also get a little model. That’s fun! This is fun. I like this.
The Flush
Have you ever leased a car? Would you again?
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Even CarMax’s CEO Thinks Used Car Prices Are Too High
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Alpine Is Coming To The United States And Appears To Already Be Screwing It Up
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How BYD’s American Dreams Got Cut Short—For Now
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Toyota’s Back, Baby
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The Mazda CX-30 Plug-In Rotary Hybrid Is Coming And The Logo Is Amazing
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Nearly 70% Of CarMax’s Tesla Inventory Disappeared In Three Days
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Here’s What You Need To Know About Tom Zhu, Tesla’s New ‘Number 2’
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
Photos: LEVC, Kia, Mercedes, Bentley
Regarding the LEVC, is it too late for GM to slap a Checker Marathon-inspired body on some leftover Chevy Volt mechanicals? Nice car, terrible headroom, and what do you need highway aerodynamics for when you’re in stop-and-go traffic anyhow? Although realistically, I think the market has spoken and 5-year old Corolla Hybrid is well on track to being the universal taxi of choice.
I did used to think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to mount fiberglass Checker replica bodies on Crown Victoria or F-Series chassis and use them for tourist sightseeing tours around Manhattan or something
Did you really use the the phrase “that would be Dope”?
How about just The Warm-Up? Fits with Cold Start…
As for leases, never have. My parents leased a car (Audi 5000) when I was a teenager, then ended up buying a cheap second car (used Cadillac Cimarron) to keep the Audi below the mileage cap. Ironically, the Cimarron was by far the more reliable car…
I’d consider a lease on a cheap EV if the price was right. But I’ll never buy another ICE car that I can’t pay cash for outright.
There’s no reason to have “Morning” in the daily news roundup, especially when it occasionally doesn’t get published until after noon.
While “The Morning S/S/S (s**t/shower/shave)” might work, that doesn’t account for those who don’t shave in the morning….
Maybe call it “Morning Traffic”? Bad news would earn a SigAlert, just like it does around the Autopian mothership.
You know, the fact that the rich are comfortably paying cash for six figure luxury items that are selling better than ever while massive swaths of the population are living paycheck to paycheck is probably something we should think about. Statistically all of us (yes, even you, wealthy Autopians) are significantly more likely to wind up on the street than to wind up as the next Jeff Bezos. Shouldn’t we all want to live in a society that takes care of the vulnerable and doesn’t allow the top 1% of the population to hoard nearly all of the resources? I mean that sounds neat to me and my wife and I are doing quite well financially. If we need to pay some more taxes so someone who can’t afford to go to the doctor can it’s a okay with me.
Oh dear. *Puts on Hazmat suit*. Anyway…I don’t lease personally and I think it’s generally a bad financial decision. I’ve had people ask me why I don’t since I have a habit of switching cars…which is valid, but I want to be holding on to something at the end of my ownership…be it the title to the car or a fat stack of equity.
When you lease you’re just paying to eat the depreciation. The same could be said of financing to a degree, but as long as your interest rate isn’t bonkers and you aren’t taking out a ridiculously long loan you’ll usually wind up better off in the end. I think 0-5% interest with a max of 5 years and a payment that’s 10-15% of your income is the sweet spot, but that’s just me and I’m pretty conservative when it comes to money management.
I also think it’s necessary to put money down. If you don’t have a down payment you can’t really afford the car IMHO. Putting money down makes you less vulnerable to market shifts, which seemingly happen every 20 minutes these days. That way it’s harder to wake up and realize you’re underwater on a loan…as so many Tesla bros have experienced recently.
Bentley still “The world’s fastest lorry”. Maybe shoulda bin a ute.
The Morning Breakdown: Crying into your coffee as existential dread of another day on this planet washes over you.
My first two cars were hand-me-downs that I drove to their graves, but once I got a “real” job I started leasing all my cars. I get why it doesn’t make sense for some people, but for me, it has always worked.
I realize also that most people on the site love to own and work on cars, but not this guy. I look at them kinda in the same way as a phone. Use it while under warranty and get a new one every few years to have a better version and “usually” guarantee that it’ll always work when needed. What can I say? I like new toys.
“The morning constitutional” would work just as well.
It’s go well with the concept of the “Morning Breakdown”. If your car breaks down every morning, then you’re going to be taking a walk each morning.
Remember: when used as a noun, the word “constitutional” means a walk, not a poop.
I’m not really feeling the “Morning Breakdown”.
The Autopian “Morning Malaise” has a nice ring to it…. it harkens back to a period of time which none of us really pine for. I suppose it is most akin to “The Morning Dump” without evoking the runner up in the game of bio-breaks.
“Taking a shift” might also work.
I have leased two vehicles, one of which I purchased. With rising interest rates, leases are going to certainly be worth watching. If the terms are right and you can afford to do it, setting money aside over the course of the lease to buy out in cash at the end could be cheaper than paying the interest on a loan, and there is the possibility, however slight, that low interest rates could come back by buyout time.
My first lease was a Honda Civic, and it cost me a bit. But my car got hit twice, so the value wasn’t as high as it could have been. My second was a Kia Niro. Because of some bad assumptions about the complexity of claiming the PHEV tax credit, I leased it, but it worked out. I got a small loan at the end of the lease because the rates were good, and the value is still pretty high (not like it was a few months ago, when I could have gotten pretty much the new value on a trade, but still good).
No leasing for me.
So far I’ve bought CPO in cash and keep the cars for around 10 years. Leases would dramatically increas cost of ownership.
Fun fact, my total depreciation costs over years 3-13 of our car’s life is about the same (lower with the crazy market last 2 years) as the total depreciation cost over years 1-2. Yikes.
Call me a child but I like the morning dump.
Cabs would be a great use of the tech. Can charge when not in use and they tend to follow set routes or stay in the city.
Leasing – Never again. Did it one as an experiment. All the “savings” when to a down payment for the next one. Now just I buy good used cars when I think of leasing. If I can can’t afford a new car, then rentals are not the way to go.
Yay Boatley! Also the Bentley GT3 should be immortalized in large Lego Technic form, I would buy one.
I like the Morning News Roundup – direct and no frills, like that famous red Holy Grail that will be put back together any day now.
However, if we want to do something more whimsical, I suggest either “The Autopian Daily Driver” (has a old newspaper charm to it), or “The Autopian Quarter Mile“. That last one should conclude with either a “Finish Line” or a “Breakdown/Meltdown” or any of the many funny catastrophic failures old cars are prone to have, depending on the mood of that day’s scribe.
As for the current name, I think that the Morning Dump had a good run, it was fun for a start up site, like when you move to your own place and put up the RoboCop poster on the living room. However, as you start to settle and class things up, you find yourself shopping for drapes and liking it (adult life is weird).
Since the Autopian is about to turn one year old (which is 3 years in dog years, and 29 in human years), I welcome a more respectable name 🙂
I guess I haven’t quite reach that age yet.
How about The Morning Cybernews Rodeo
I kinda like The Daily Driver!
I love the idea of an electric black taxi. I think it would be a great car suitable for passenger or cargo use. These little guys seem to have a ton of flexible interior space. It’s probably even more spacious without the divider and grab bars.
I’m currently on my third Chevy lease, the first one was a wash, the second I had ~$6000 in equity thanks to the crazy used car market, and the third is my Bolt (which will probably be worth less than the buyout due to the Bolt price change and imminent discontinuation). However, I qualify for GM employee pricing through family, so the math works out a little bit differently than usual.
How many weeks / days until Mitsubishi almost puts itself out of business (again) with its very bad leases?
I don’t like driving other people’s vehicles, and a lease that I have to track miles feels like driving someone else’s vehicle.
Any leased or financed vehicle does belong to someone else. Just like your house belongs to the bank until you finally pay it off.
Pay cash, and it actually belongs to you.
I feel like this has been attempted before with LEVC’s predecessors (the company changes it’s name and branding like every 5-10 years)
Their authorized US importer, London Coach, sold versions of the FX4 with luxurious interiors to private buyers from like 1984-87, and their in-house sales operation, London Taxi North America, offered a version of the TXII with the roof sign deleted, a front passenger seat, no partition, and upgraded interior to private buyers in the early 2000s. I believe the big issue was that the cars were enormously expensive for what they were, due to the low volume, cottage industry-style production at the UK plant
Never leased. Five minutes with MS Excel has shown me that for my use cases, leases don’t even come close. Unless subsidization gets crazy good on a lease, I don’t see that changing.
$12 000 will get you about a pound of beluga caviar, it is quite pricey stuff.
No leases for me. I keep my cars 10-12 years on average. Financing will be less total cost 99% of the time.
If we are having a Morning Breakdown, things have gone terribly wrong. A Morning Dump? Refreshed and ready to tackle our day.
Morning tune-up
The Morning Flush?
My vote (I don’t really get a vote) is for the Morning Breakdown.
A little less fecal focus around here would be a good thing.
I’m with you. “Breakdown” is a fine title. So are all the other options that have been floated. The amount of hand-wringing over finding the perfect name seems a bit excessive. A really great name isn’t going to suddenly draw in millions of new viewers. On the other hand, the current scatological focus may be turning some people off.
Morning Dump is cringey but your editors are world-class cringe masters and Torchinsky is, if I do not mistake, a board-certified Professor of Scatology somewhere. So you have an uphill fight.