Yahoo Autos Unsold Chinese EVs Are Piling Up At Ports
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, April 17, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Ports Are Filling With Unsold Cars, Mostly From China
We’ve all heard the stories recently about electric vehicles sales falling short of expectations. Companies like Tesla have seen sales slow in recent years and automakers such as Ford have even slowed production of their own electric models. Now, we’re seeing what’s happening to the unsold cars that are out in the world already: they’re piling up at ports.
Across shipping hubs in Europe, unsold electric cars are filling storage spaces, with some automakers even looking to rent extra warehousing space to keep their shiny new cars shiny and new, reports Automotive News. As the site explains:
Several automakers have leased large areas in the ports for vehicle imports that so far have no customers for the cars. Logistics companies are also renting additional parking spaces outside the ports.
“This situation currently affects all European ports where large quantities of vehicles arrive,” Gert Ickx, spokesman for the administration of the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.
The issue has been exacerbated by the rise in exports of Chinese electric vehicles, which are sitting in shipping hubs unsold while people argue over whether or not they pose a national security threat.
The Chinese EVs being imported into places like Europe have also been hampered by reduction in subsidies for electric car sales. Automotive News reports that a cut in EV subsidies in Germany has hit sales, leaving many cars stuck on docks with nobody to buy them.
Movement of vehicles around global shipping hubs is also being impacted by a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers, with fewer on hand to drive the cars out of ports and onto their next destinations.
2nd Gear: Toyota Recalls 135,000 Prius Cars Over Faulty Doors
After wowing us all with the slick new looks of its all-new Prius, Toyota is left red-faced after being forced into its first recall for the top-selling hybrid just a year after the new model went on sale. The recall follows a string of manufacturing issues for the Japanese automaker, which included accusations of falsified safety certificates at one of its subsidiaries.
The Prius recall has so far only been called for Prius cars sold in Japan, but has already impacted more than 130,000 units, as Reuters reports. The recall came after issues were found with the door handles on certain Prius cars. As Reuters explains:
Toyota Motor has recalled more than 135,000 Prius hybrid cars in Japan and suspended taking new orders for the model due to a problem with rear door handles.
The cars being recalled were manufactured between November 2022 and April 2024, according to a transport ministry filing. No accidents have been reported due to the fault.
It was not immediately clear if Prius cars sold outside Japan were also being recalled.
An assembly line at one of Toyota’s plants in Japan was also suspended while quality control checks on the Prius went on. However, Reuters reports that this line is once again operational, but is only producing Corolla models at this time.
