A full week in automotive news with a lot of moving parts. Here’s what got buried under the bigger headlines.
Citroën’s concept vehicle with cardboard body elements made significant rounds this week — the Oli concept is a lightweight EV study that uses honeycomb cardboard panels on the roof and hood as part of a broader argument about the merits of building smaller, lighter electric vehicles rather than heavier, range-maximized ones. It’s genuinely interesting engineering thinking, even if the material choices are provocative. The core question it raises — whether the industry should be optimizing for weight reduction rather than battery capacity growth — is worth taking seriously regardless of how the concept is received.
Toyota’s chairman Akio Toyoda continued his public skepticism about EV-only mandates this week, reiterating the company’s position that a diversified approach — including hybrids and hydrogen — will reduce emissions more effectively and more broadly than forcing a single battery electric technology path. He’s been saying versions of this for a while, but the California mandate has given the argument renewed urgency. Whether regulators listen is a different question from whether the argument is analytically sound.
The Ford F-150 Lightning took another price increase, compounding the gap between what early reservation holders expected to pay and what the truck now costs. The economics of EV production continue to bump into the realities of battery material costs and manufacturing ramp challenges, with buyers absorbing the difference.
Used car prices continued their gradual correction this week. Manheim’s wholesale index is now showing meaningful declines from the historic peaks of early 2022, and that’s beginning to filter through to retail. It’s not a dramatic price drop — the used market is normalizing, not collapsing — but buyers who have been priced out for the past 18 months may find more reasonable conditions in the months ahead.