The year 2024 has been a wild ride.
Former President Donald Trump got re-elected for a non-consecutive second term against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris after the incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew. The Olympics took place in Paris this year, while the Los Angeles Dodgers won against the New York Yankees in a landmark World Series bout.
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Many significant events occurred this year. Still, the list of all the significant events that occurred would be miles long, even for the automotive industry.
Nonetheless, it was a year that tested the viability of some of the biggest names and crafty startups alike. Whether electric or gas-powered, the industry was a lion’s den that did not discriminate; however, looking back, I found that these companies proved themselves to be the best and worst this year.
A BYD electric car store is seen inside China’s first new energy vehicle block in Shanghai, China, December 19, 2024.
BYD was THE EV brand to beat in 2024:
If this year in EVs were like one big Formula 1 Grand Prix race, BYD (BYDDY) would be like Max Verstappen, the driver in pole position who drove far past the competition and lapped them. If they were a baseball player, they’d be like Shohei Ohtani, dominating both in the batter’s box and on the mound.
The Chinese automaker, whose name literally stands for “Build Your Dreams,” is dominating its competition. BYD became the auto industry’s worst nightmare, becoming the pound-for-pound champion in the EV revolution. Its rise sent the world’s automakers scrambling.
First, BYD’s use of in-house vertical integration is a watershed moment in manufacturing. Unlike rivals who play by the rules of the auto establishment and rely on batteries from partners like LG or Panasonic and electric motors and assemblies from Bosch, BYD does it all and profits from it.
As a result, its cars are cheaper, and its supply chains have no weak links, allowing for a level of production capacity that would make Henry Ford drool.
Additionally, making cheaper cars allows them to beat the price game. BYD isn’t just producing run-of-the-mill EVs; it’s producing affordable, desirable, high-quality machines that make Tesla’s Model 3 and Y look overpriced.
Related: BYD has a huge problem that no one is talking about
Meanwhile, traditional automakers like Ford and GM have posted losses in the billions of dollars. Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have confirmed that they are exploring a merger because even they can’t compete with BYD.
BYD’s plans didn’t stop in China; they made their presence known wherever they could sell cars. While Detroit’s Big Three have been focused on their own woes, BYD has caught them asleep in key markets like Europe, Southeast Asia, and even Latin American countries like Mexico.
BYD may not sell any cars in the U.S., thanks to restrictive tariffs and trade restrictions already in place, but its influence is felt by even the most desperate of politicians.
Its success forced the U.S. auto industry and government to rethink EVs and how they will compete, whether by creating legal hurdles or ducking them on the production lines.
Tesla may be the leader in the United States, but BYD rewrote the rulebook on what it means to compete in the EV space and how automakers compete. While other automakers write off the Chinese auto market, time will tell to know what BYD will do next.
We all know that if BYD has already done something, the competition has much work to do to catch up.
An attendee photographs a new Toyota Prius during the Electrify Expo In D.C. on July 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images
Toyota proved it was the master of Hybrids in 2024:
If one auto manufacturer can be characterized as offering EVs out of spite, it would be the Japanese automotive household name Toyota (TM) .
Toyota may offer the bZ4x crossover EV in its United States lineup. Still, its commitment to combustion engines and hybrid-electric vehicles mainly reflects the rhetoric shared by its chairman, Akio Toyoda.
At a January Toyota company event, Toyoda rationalized that an ecosystem that supports the seamless use of EVs needs to be built for them to work, which can’t happen everywhere.
“BEVs and FCEVs [fuel cell vehicles] come as a set with infrastructure,” Toyoda said in a statement translated from Japanese. “However, one billion people worldwide live in areas without electricity. In the case of Toyota, we also supply vehicles to these regions, so a single BEV option cannot provide transportation for everyone.”
Additionally, he predicted that EVs would top out at a 30% market share, with the remaining 70% being a mix of hybrids, other alternative fuel cars like hydrogen, and regular combustion-engined cars.
“I think this is something that customers and the market will decide, not regulatory values or political power,” he said.
Related: Toyota exec slams “impossible” EV mandate amidst political chaos
For Toyota, the market is deciding that they like their hybrid cars.
According to data seen by Automotive News, Toyota’s program of solely offering hybrid engines is helping to boost sales of its “electrified” cars, including mainstream models like the Camry and the Land Cruiser.
In November 2024, Toyota’s electrified vehicle sales, which include EVs, plug-in hybrids, and gas-electric hybrids, increased by 49% to about 100,000 units.
In 2025, Toyota is expected to revamp its bestselling car, the RAV4 crossover SUV. Like its rival, the Honda CR-V, the RAV4 is offered as a purely gasoline-engined model and a hybrid. However, like its sedan stablemate, the Camry, it is expected to be provided solely as a gas-electric hybrid.
If so, it would be safe to assume that gas-electric hybrid cars will be the new normal.
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Canoo LTVQC Bulldog
Canoo
Canoo could have been a real Tesla competitor, but it turned into a penny stock.
I know what you are thinking.
You’re probably asking: “James, why did you write down a company we never heard about as the worst EV player in 2024?”
You see, there is a reason why you say Canoo is a “company you have never heard of.”
Canoo was once a promising EV startup that promised vans that looked like spaceships. It got some well-deserved hype by promising to make the future of commercial vehicles look cool.
However, promising a product is not the same as actually delivering a product. In 2024, it did the latter and suffered the consequences.
Let’s start with the fact that they are experiencing a dire financial situation. Despite raising significant funding in its early days, Canoo quickly burned through its cash reserves on many things, making its executives look like they were making EVs.
While vehicles failed to roll off the assembly line, execs expensed on excess, including private jet flights for the CEO.
While all this was going on, Canoo made headlines for mass job cuts framed as “cost-saving measures;” to be fair, when you’ve already blown through a massive chunk of funding, layoffs are done more out of desperation than strategy. Add a revolving door of executives entering and exiting, and the message is pretty straightforward.
Related: A struggling EV startup is making bold moves to survive
Canoo previously boasted huge partnerships with Walmart and NASA, but these deals quietly fell apart. Losing Walmartᅳone of its most significant fleet contractsᅳwas a bat signal to the market that Canoo couldn’t deliver. Additionally, its deal with NASA (yes, the NASA) only produced a handful of vehicles and not much besides a few publicity photos.
To make matters worse, competitors caught up while Canoo went through all of this.
That Amazon driver coming with your mountain of Christmas gifts probably came in on a Rivian, which has also started selling vans to non-Amazon customers. Ford’s E-Transit made up for the lost Canoos that Walmart would have bought, and even Mercedes-Benz, with its electric Sprinter van, is cutting itself a piece of Canoo’s cake.
Canoo, stuck in a loop of missed deadlines, excuses, and incompetence, has allowed competitors to not only eat the cake but also come around for seconds.
For all it’s worth, if Canoo continues down this road, it will be a case study in overpromising, overspending, and underdelivering, where hype without execution is a one-way ticket to irrelevance.
Carlos Tavares, chief executive officer of Stellantis NV, speaks during a press event at the 2023 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.
Stellantis’s woes under Tavares put it in a bad place.
I admit to being involved in this. Much of the automotive press has hyper-focused on Stellantis (STLA) in 2024, but honestly, it was for a good reason.
The parent company of 14 auto brands, including Detroit staples like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram trucks, was suffering from bloated inventories and falling sales that angered its dealers. The company blamed then-CEO Carlos Tavares for being the sole architect behind its woes.
The workforce filling these dealer lots didn’t have a better situation. Factory workers, including those at the Toledo Assembly Complex, have jeopardized thousands of employees’ employment and left the United Auto Workers (UAW) union to mobilize to “save Stellantis from itself.”
Related: Stellantis former CEO was personally responsible for Dodge snubbing Hemi V8s
By October, Stellantis reduced its adjusted operating income margin guidance from “double digits” to between 5.5 – 7.0% for 2024, noting that it expected a negative cash flow of between 5 billion and 10 billion euros ($5.58-$11.17 billion).
However, on December 1, CEO Carlos Tavares resigned, citing strategic clashes with its board members. While it is still looking for a replacement for the Chief executive post, former Stellantis figureheads, such as former Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis, are returning.
Though it is difficult to see how dramatic the ship will turn in 2025, there are inklings that suggest smoother waters. On December 20, Stellantis announced that it had backed off its plan to lay off about 1,100 workers at Toledo, a Christmas miracle for a desperate workforce.
“Now that Carlos Tavares is out of the picture, I believe things are starting to move in a more positive direction,” UAW Vice President and Stellantis department head Kevin Gotinsky wrote in a Dec. 19 letter to union leaders. “The company has already partially reversed some previously announced layoffs at Mack, Jefferson North, and Toledo Assembly. With changes to leadership, the company may be reconsidering their plans to offshore UAW jobs.”
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT
Hyundai
Hyundai’s position as the “Anti-Tesla” makes it the one to watch in 2025
The year 2024 has been Hyundai’s year. (HYMTF)
I saw my first Tesla at a showroom at the Garden State Plaza in New Jersey. I remember being mesmerized by the seamless marriage of technology and automotive engineering, especially the Model S’s features, which I hadn’t seen outside the latest S-Class Mercedes.
But if you told me that Hyundai would become a brand that threatened its existence, I would assume you were kidding. However, Hyundai has been serious about the EV revolution and is doing a lot to protect itself from risks.
Unlike Tesla and other EV startups that stay in their EV silos, Hyundai and its Kia and Genesis brands have realized that there will be some people that are hesitant, offering a lineup that has everything from full-on EVs to hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and gas-powered internal combustion cars to make sure no buyer gets alienated.
Related: Hyundai’s aggressive EV plan aims to be Toyota’s worst nightmare
For those who want an actual EV, there are options like Hyundai’s IONIQ 6 sedan and Kia’s three-row EV9 family SUV. For those not quite ready to go fully electric, hybrid versions of popular models like the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Sportage provide further distance between fill-ups.
This way of doing things has worked for Hyundai.
According to Hyundai’s November 2024 data, the Hyundai brand saw a 70% jump in EV sales and a 104% increase in hybrid sales. The most significant gains came from hybrid versions of its mainstream models, such as the Santa Fe and Tucson crossover SUVs. Sales of the two models jumped 64% and 227%, respectively.
In a statement, Hyundai Motor America CEO Randy Parker credited EV and hybrid vehicles’ strong performance and availability as the driver behind an “exceptional sales month.”
By not putting all its eggs in one basket, Hyundai covers all the bases and helps erase its former past as a cut-rate automaker.
In short, 2025 may be the year that many buyers will break their prejudices and put a Hyundai on their driveway.
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