Kia EV5 shows promise in the world’s largest EV market as brand sales top 20,000 again
Kia is growing in China as most foreign automakers are rapidly losing market share. Foreign automakers like Toyota, Volkswagen, and GM are struggling to keep up with aggressive price cuts and an influx of new competition. After launching its new low-cost electric SUV, the EV5, Kia is already seeing the results, as brand sales in China topped 20,000 for the third straight month in August.
Kia officially unveiled the EV5 at the Chengdu Motor Show last August, claiming it “brings a new era of electric mobility to the compact SUV sector.”
The EV5 shares much of the design and tech from Kia’s larger EV9 but in a smaller, more affordable package. At 4,615 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,715 mm tall, the EV5 is roughly the size of Tesla’s Model Y (4,760 mm long x 1,921 mm wide x 1,624 mm tall).
Powered by a 64.2 kWh BYD Blade Battery, the EV5 gets up to 329 miles (530 km) CLTC driving range. The longer-range (88.1 kWh battery) model is rated with up to 447 miles (720 km) driving range.
Kia launched the EV5 in China last November, starting at just $21,000 (149,800 yuan). The price undercuts the Model Y, which starts at around $35,000 (249,900 yuan).
According to Kia’s Chinese joint venture partner, Jiangsu Yueda Kia, the EV5 is already making an impact.
The company announced it sold 22,498 vehicles in August, up 36% from last year. August was Kia’s best month so far in 2024 and its third straight month of topping 20,000 in brand sales.
Kia EV5 charges up sales streak in China
“By sustaining monthly sales of over 20,000 units, Kia has shown it’s on the right path in China,” Kim Sung-rae, a Hanwha Investment & Securities market analyst said.
Kia’s sales in China, including exports, reached 154,243 through the first eight months of 2024, a 61% jump from last year.
According to TheKoreaHerald, Kia is now a top-selling brand among joint venture automakers in China.
Kia expects to sell over 230,000 vehicles by the end of 2024 at its current pace. If Kia hits its mark, it would be the first time it has crossed the 200,000 sales mark since 2020.
The EV5 has been a key factor as Kia revamps sales in China. Kia sold nearly 6,000 EV5 models in China through July.
Kia exports in China are also surging. As of August, its Yancheng plant exported over 300,000 vehicles, the highest among joint venture partners in China.
Electrek’s Take
While many foreign automakers have struggled to keep pace in China’s fast-moving EV market, Kia is taking advantage.
Earlier today, Electrek reported (based on a Bloomberg report) that Volkswagen’s Chinese joint venture with SAIC is eyeing a possible plant closure due to overcapacity.
Kia’s new low-cost EV5 is helping the brand compete with domestic automakers like BYD, which dominate the market. BYD’s Seagull EV, which starts at under $10,000 (69,800 yuan), was China’s top-selling car in August, with nearly 41,000 models sold
Kia is launching the EV5 in new markets like Australia and New Zealand later this year, likely boosting sales further.
China is not the only market in which Kia’s sales are surging. Last month, Kia sold more vehicles in the US than it ever has. With over 75,200 cars sold in August, Kia topped its US sales record for the third consecutive month.
Kia’s first three-row electric SUV, the EV9, is helping drive growth in the US. Through August, Kia has sold nearly 13,900 EV9 models in the US this year.
With a series of low-cost EVs, including the EV3 and EV4, rolling out globally, Kia will be a brand to watch over the next few quarters as it takes on market leaders.
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British oil and gasoline company BP (British Petroleum) signage is being pictured in Warsaw, Poland, on July 29, 2024.
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British oil giant BP on Tuesday posted slightly weaker-than-expected first-quarter net profit, following a recent strategic reset and a slump in crude prices.
The beleaguered oil and gas major posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $1.38 billion for the first three months of the year. That missed analyst expectations of $1.6 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.
BP’s net profit had hit $2.7 billion a year earlier and $1.2 billion in the final three months of 2024.
The results come as the energy major faces fresh pressure from activist investors less than two months after announcing a strategic reset.
Seeking to rebuild investor confidence, BP in February pledged to slash renewable spending and boost annual expenditure on its core business of oil and gas.
BP CEO Murray Auchincloss told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that the firm was “off to a great start” in delivering on its strategic reset.
“We had a great operational quarter. We had our highest upstream operating efficiency in history. Our refineries in the first quarter ran at the best they’ve run in 24 years. We had six exploration discoveries in a row, which is really unusual and we started out three major projects,” Auchincloss said.
For the first quarter, BP announced a dividend per ordinary share of 8 cents and a share buyback of $750 million.
Net debt rose to $26.97 billion in the January-March period, up from $22.99 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. BP had previously warned of lower reported upstream production and higher net debt in the first quarter, when compared to the final three months of last year.
Shares of BP fell 3.3% on Tuesday morning. The firm is down roughly 8% year-to-date.
Activist pressure
BP’s green strategy U-turn does not appear to have gone far enough for the likes of activist investor Elliott Management, which went public last week with a stake of more than 5% in the London-listed firm.
The disclosure makes the U.S. hedge fund BP’s second-largest shareholder after BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, according to LSEG data.
Elliott was first reported to have assumed a position in the oil and gas company back in February, driving a share price rally amid expectations that its involvement could pressure BP to shift gears back toward its oil and gas businesses.
BP’s Auchincloss declined to comment on interactions with investors when asked whether the firm was under pressure from the likes of Elliott to go beyond the plans announced in its February pivot.
Notably, BP suffered a shareholder rebellion at its annual general meeting earlier this month. Almost a quarter (24.3%) of investors voted against the re-election of outgoing Chair Helge Lund, a symbolic result that reflected a sense of deep frustration among the firm’s shareholders.
Mark van Baal, founder of Dutch activist investor Follow This, told CNBC last week that he hoped the shareholder revolt means Amanda Blanc, who is leading the process to find Lund’s successor, will look for a new chair who is “climate competent” and “will not respond to short-term activists so quickly.”
Lund is expected to step down from his role next year.
Takeover candidate
BP’s underperformance relative to industry peers such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell has thrust the energy major into the spotlight as a prime takeover candidate. Energy analysts have questioned, however, whether any of the likeliest suitors will rise to the occasion.
BP’s Auchincloss on Tuesday said that he wouldn’t speculate on whether the company is a takeover target, but confirmed the oil major had not asked for any sort of protection from the British government.
“What I will say is we’re a strong, independent company and we’ve got sector-leading growth. And if we can deliver the sector-leading growth, and the first quarter is a fantastic example of that, then I have no concerns. I think we’re going to do great,” Auchincloss said.
Murray Auchincloss, chief executive officer of BP, during the “CERAWeek by S&P Global” conference in Houston, Texas, on March 11, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oil prices have fallen in recent months on demand fears. International benchmark Brent crude futures with June delivery traded at $65.19 per barrel on Tuesday morning, down more than 1% for the session. That’s lower from around $84 per barrel a year ago.
Asked whether weaker crude prices could put the some of the firm’s reset plans in jeopardy, Auchincloss said, “Not really. We have a balance of products that we think about that generate revenue for us. So, oil, natural gas and refined products as well.”
— CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this report.
Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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