Volkswagen and BMW Really Need to Save Money on EVs

Asked how the carmaker would respond to the wave of electric vehicle (EV) price cuts, [Chief Financial Officer Arno] Antlitz said: “Our focus is on quality of the business, rather than on volume. This is specifically true for EVs... we don’t want to lose our margin parity target out of sight.”

Volkswagen aims to achieve the same margin from combustion engine cars as EVs, though the latter are still far more expensive to produce, in part because of high prices of raw materials.

BMW will not cut electric vehicle (EV) prices in China and may raise some car prices at a global level, to help weather the higher input costs of EV production, it said on Thursday following first quarter results.

The carmaker reported a higher earnings margin for its cars segment, at 12.1% from 8.9% a year earlier, but kept its outlook unchanged in the face of ongoing high costs and rising competition.

BMW said in March it intended to keep prices stable this year after two years of passing on rising costs to customers, but Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter said some more moderate hikes could still be expected.

“When it makes sense, we could adjust a price here and there,” said Peter, who will from this month be replaced in his role by Walter Mertl.

While an earlier efficiency drive had begun to show results, more was needed, CEO Jim Rowan said in a statement.

“Economic headwinds, increased raw material prices and increased competition are likely to remain a challenge to our industry for some time,” he said.

The 1,300 positions equate to 6% of Volvo Cars’ workforce in Sweden.

Rowan told Reuters the group did not yet know how much it would save from the new measures. “We’re still working the details through on that,” he said in an interview.

The company said it had issued redundancy notices for 1,100 employees, while the remaining 200 white-collar positions would be identified following a review of the business across Sweden.

It said it also expected to cut jobs and reduce costs across its global operations in the coming months, including its consultancies.

Rowan said he could not yet specify where those jobs would be cut, but that focus would primarily remain on office-based positions.

“We sell in over 80 countries or so worldwide, so I think there’s opportunities for us to become more efficient across the entire network,” he told Reuters.

Results were driven by sales of the Portofino M, the 296 GTB and the 812 Competizione models, as well as pricing capacity, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

CEO Benedetto Vigna said demand for Ferrari’s cars stretched into 2025.

Ferrari had decided to reopen orders for its new Purosangue, which had been suspended “due to an initial unprecedented demand,” Vigna said. [...]

Deliveries of the 390,000-euro Purosangue are due to start in the current quarter.

Ferrari, which unveiled the Roma Spider in March, has promised a total of four new models this year.

Ferrari’s margin on adjusted EBITDA grew 2 percentage points to 37.6 percent, compared to the same quarter last year.

Revenue was $1.5 billion.

“If we’ve gotten it right—from the regulatory framework, from the level of safety that the public expects, and if all that comes together—then it’s a world that we only thought about as science fiction before that becomes science fact in the moment,” [Acting FAA Administrator Billy] Nolen said Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival in New York.

At the event, Mr. Nolen announced that the agency had issued a new blueprint for flying taxis, called its concept of operations for urban air mobility.

Flying taxis are likely years away from becoming a common presence in U.S. cities. A number of prototypes are in various stages of development and certification by the FAA, which must issue safety approvals for the vehicles, operating procedures and integration into the nation’s complex airspace. Mr. Nolen said he expects the first air taxis to win FAA approval as soon as next year.

It isn’t yet clear how much flying taxi rides may cost, or whether the flying public will embrace them as a safe alternative to public transit or car services.

Mr. Nolen said he expects the public to welcome flying on the vehicles once regulators demonstrate they come with the same level of safety that passengers expect on commercial flights.

“What I’ve said to the industry: When you put the first paying passenger on board, it has to meet the same standard, whether I’m on a Cessna, whether I’m on a Gulfstream corporate jet, or whether I’m on a Boeing 787,” Mr. Nolen said.

The self-driving technology company said Thursday it has doubled the service area in which its Waymo One ride-hailing fleet operates in metro Phoenix. Its vehicles will now carry customers across 180 square miles in the region, connecting Phoenix and its major suburbs. Previously, the company operated in two distinct areas, downtown Phoenix and the East Valley, that were not connected.

Now the company, a subsidiary of Alphabet, says its operating area will be largest contiguous area in which a driverless ride-hailing service is offered. For the first time, the operating area includes Arizona State University in Tempe, a potentially lucrative market. Waymo is also opening a second pick-up and drop-off location at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport.

In San Francisco, Waymo will give its “Trusted Testers” group of approved customers access to new locations, including Fisherman’s Wharf and the North Beach neighborhood.