Latest news with #Equinox
The Star
8 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Star
As Tesla US sales dip, GM's EVs close the gap
ATLANTA: Janine Warren wanted an electric vehicle (EV) to cut her carbon footprint, but she also wanted a Cadillac, preferably a small sport utility vehicle (SUV). After General Motors Co (GM) launched its Cadillac Optiq early this year, Warren, an accounting coordinator at the public school district in Norman, Oklahoma, picked one up in April, trading in her gas-burning Cadillac SUV. 'We're kind of Cadillac people,' she said. 'But I feel like this is my favourite car by far, as far as a smooth ride and a quiet ride.' Americans bought 310,800 EVs in the second quarter of the year, a 6.3% drop from the year-earlier period, according to Cox Automotive Inc. However, the sales dip – 21,000 vehicles – was nearly equal to the slump in transactions for Tesla Inc, the long-time market leader whose chief executive officer (CEO) triggered a backlash among a wide swath of potential buyers. Other carmakers also reported sagging sales, but many saw a growing number of buyers. Altogether, EV sales from rival brands were level in the quarter, driven largely by a sales surge for new models from GM. The company is now selling 12 fully EVs in the United States and commands 15% of the United States EV market, triple that of Ford Motor Co. That means GM is now selling one EV for every three Teslas, a major coup given Tesla controlled 80% of the market four years ago. CEO Mary Barra said profitable EV sales are now the company's 'North Star' on an earnings call Tuesday morning. 'We are growing in EVs because we have a strategic portfolio of vehicles that people love for their design, performance, range and value,' she said. Honda Motor Co Ltd also notched a sales boom in the period. Meanwhile, a handful of brands saw their EVs lose momentum, including Hyundai Motor Co and Ford, which halted sales of one of its popular models over a software glitch. GM appears to have unlocked the puzzle of EV affordability, which remains one of the bugaboos keeping drivers from going electric. Its Chevrolet Equinox EV, which debuted last year, starts at US$33,600 without federal or state incentives. That's almost one-third less than what a typical car or truck sells for in America these days. From April through June, some 17,420 people drove off in an Equinox EV, behind only Tesla's Model Y and Model 3. 'It's all about the affordability,' explained Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox. 'And consumers are familiar with the Chevy brand.' GM chief financial officer Paul Jacobson has said the Equinox, in particular, is 'gaining momentum with mainstream consumers.' At Cadillac, meanwhile, one in five models sold is now electric. Long-term EV adoption in the United States is expected to slump after the Trump administration dismantled federal incentives and continues to attack clean-air mandates. BloombergNEF forecasts 27% of the US market will be electric by 2030, down from the 48% share it estimated a year ago. However, Cox expects EV buying to be frenzied until Sept 30, when federal purchase incentives of up to US$7,500 per vehicle expire. Ford, for example, is telling dealers to expect a rush of third-quarter buyers. 'We're definitely going to see a lot of manufacturers and dealers try to create a sense of urgency,' Valdez Streaty said. Warren in Oklahoma is one of the customers who accelerated her purchase to grab the government incentives. She had eight months left on the lease of her gas-powered Cadillac but turned the keys in early. She won't be buying another combustion engine. 'The technology is only going to get better, and the range is only going to get better,' Warren said, 'so it's like, 'Why go back?'' — Bloomberg
Yahoo
a day ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results
Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results originally appeared on Autoblog. General Motors had a lot to celebrate after Q2 Only three major automakers reported year-over-year sales growth in the U.S. during Q2, but their delivery percentage increases don't tell the entire story. Ford experienced the most annual gains during Q2 at 14.2%, followed by Toyota at 7.2%, and General Motors (GM) at 7%. While Ford and Toyota experienced higher year-over-year increases than GM, GM delivered more units throughout Q2 than either of these two companies. During Q2, GM sold 746,588 units in the U.S., Toyota moved 666,469 vehicles, and Ford logged 612,095 sales. Growth in year-over-year sales remains a crucial metric among automakers, but quarterly numbers are especially relevant right now, given the market uncertainty introduced by President Trump's tariffs on vehicle and part imports. Duncan Aldred, GM senior VP and president of North America, said in a statement: 'The investments we have made in our crossovers, SUVs, and pickups—both gas and electric—along with great execution by our employees, suppliers, and dealers, have made GM the engine of growth for the U.S. industry this year.' A closer look at GM's Q2 success GM's electric vehicle (EV) sales rose by more than 100% during Q2 after it became the industry's second-highest seller of the segment last year. Cadillac proved to be intense competition for Tesla as the luxury EV market share leader in Q2. GM's Q2 crossover sales were up a record 16% during Q2 and 23% during the first six months of the year. The automaker also reported a 12% year-over-year sales increase for the first half of 2025, leading the U.S. industry in total and retail sales and outpacing the 4% total market growth estimate. Buick had the most significant first-half sales increase of any GM brand, up 29% with its crossover portfolio. Chevrolet sales increased 9% during the first half of 2025, with its Equinox SUV leading the way and GMC boasting record Sierra pickup deliveries, placing GM on track toward its sixth year in a row as the industry's full-size pickup sales leader and its 51st year as the full-size SUV leader. While the fleet business decreased by 3% during Q1 and Q2, GM's fleet, Envolve, increased by 10%. In total, GM moved 1.4 million units during the first six months of 2025, with a market share of 17%, representing the industry's largest year-over-year increase. Final thoughts Q3 could allow GM's EV sales to make more headway as consumers rush to capitalize on the remaining federal tax credit that expires on September 30. GM's EV sales during Q2 were especially significant given that the overall segment declined annually by 6%. Stephanie Valdez Streaty, senior analyst at Cox Automotive, said: 'The year-over-year [EV sales] decline in Q2 was only the third decline on record, and a sign of a more mature market. The increase from Q1 may well be the start of a rush ahead of the federal incentive phase-out, offering a short-term boost in an otherwise uncertain landscape.' GM also announced in June that it's investing $4 billion in the expansion of gas truck and SUV production, allowing it to more readily meet varied consumer demand between internal combustion engines and electric driving. Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results first appeared on Autoblog on Jul 21, 2025 This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results
Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results originally appeared on Autoblog. General Motors had a lot to celebrate after Q2 Only three major automakers reported year-over-year sales growth in the U.S. during Q2, but their delivery percentage increases don't tell the entire story. Ford experienced the most annual gains during Q2 at 14.2%, followed by Toyota at 7.2%, and General Motors (GM) at 7%. While Ford and Toyota experienced higher year-over-year increases than GM, GM delivered more units throughout Q2 than either of these two companies. During Q2, GM sold 746,588 units in the U.S., Toyota moved 666,469 vehicles, and Ford logged 612,095 sales. Growth in year-over-year sales remains a crucial metric among automakers, but quarterly numbers are especially relevant right now, given the market uncertainty introduced by President Trump's tariffs on vehicle and part imports. Duncan Aldred, GM senior VP and president of North America, said in a statement: 'The investments we have made in our crossovers, SUVs, and pickups—both gas and electric—along with great execution by our employees, suppliers, and dealers, have made GM the engine of growth for the U.S. industry this year.' A closer look at GM's Q2 success GM's electric vehicle (EV) sales rose by more than 100% during Q2 after it became the industry's second-highest seller of the segment last year. Cadillac proved to be intense competition for Tesla as the luxury EV market share leader in Q2. GM's Q2 crossover sales were up a record 16% during Q2 and 23% during the first six months of the year. The automaker also reported a 12% year-over-year sales increase for the first half of 2025, leading the U.S. industry in total and retail sales and outpacing the 4% total market growth estimate. Buick had the most significant first-half sales increase of any GM brand, up 29% with its crossover portfolio. Chevrolet sales increased 9% during the first half of 2025, with its Equinox SUV leading the way and GMC boasting record Sierra pickup deliveries, placing GM on track toward its sixth year in a row as the industry's full-size pickup sales leader and its 51st year as the full-size SUV leader. While the fleet business decreased by 3% during Q1 and Q2, GM's fleet, Envolve, increased by 10%. In total, GM moved 1.4 million units during the first six months of 2025, with a market share of 17%, representing the industry's largest year-over-year increase. Final thoughts Q3 could allow GM's EV sales to make more headway as consumers rush to capitalize on the remaining federal tax credit that expires on September 30. GM's EV sales during Q2 were especially significant given that the overall segment declined annually by 6%. Stephanie Valdez Streaty, senior analyst at Cox Automotive, said: 'The year-over-year [EV sales] decline in Q2 was only the third decline on record, and a sign of a more mature market. The increase from Q1 may well be the start of a rush ahead of the federal incentive phase-out, offering a short-term boost in an otherwise uncertain landscape.' GM also announced in June that it's investing $4 billion in the expansion of gas truck and SUV production, allowing it to more readily meet varied consumer demand between internal combustion engines and electric driving. Ford and Toyota Won't Like General Motors's Q2 Sales Results first appeared on Autoblog on Jul 21, 2025 This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
Fast Company
7 days ago
- Health
- Fast Company
TikTok thinks a weighted vest will change your body. Here's what the science says
If a regular hot girl walk is no longer cutting it, why not add a weighted vest to the mix? While not exactly new, weighted vests are making a strong comeback, especially on TikTok and Instagram, where wellness and fitness creators are touting the benefits of adding a 12-pound vest to your daily strolls. 'It's my weighted vest era,' menopause expert Dr. Mary Claire Haver posted to Instagram. 'Walk as much as you can in a weighted vest and you will be unrecognizable,' one TikTok creator wrote. 'This is my clubbing,' another creator posted. 'The strobe lights are the stars I see while walking 3 miles in 90 degrees with a 30lb weighted vest on.' From the $30 Zelus vest dominating your For You Page (often linked through influencers' Amazon storefronts) to a sleek 20-pound version from Equinox priced at $375, the concept is simple: Adding weight to your walks, runs, or workouts may help boost endurance and stamina. Now fitness and wellness creators are also promoting it as a weight-loss hack, with some claiming they've shed up to 30 pounds just by incorporating daily walks with the vest. But what does the science say? In one frequently cited study, participants wore weighted vests equal to 11% of their body weight for eight hours per day over three weeks and lost an average of 3.5 pounds. Another study had participants wear vests for 10 hours per day and found no significant weight-loss benefits—though many did report sore backs.
Elle
7 days ago
- Health
- Elle
‘Skin Longevity': Why You're Seeing This Beauty Buzzword Everywhere
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. When I applied for my first beauty editor job, the listing didn't include, 'thinking every day about how you will slowly march towards death'—the cerebral answer that a 20-something actress once gave me when I asked how she thought about aging. Still, on my desk and in our magazine's beauty closet, there are hundreds of creams and serums focused on anti-aging. The labels promise to prevent, to reverse, to freeze—time, I suppose, and the evidence of it. But one recent day at Equinox, I saw a new phrase airbrushed onto the wall near the spa like an ancient mythic text: 'Skin Longevity.' The biggest beauty companies in the world are positioning skin longevity moisturizers and serums as the new frontier in wellness—beauty products to go along with your cold plunges and tonal linen sets. In 2023, Estée Lauder founded a Skin Longevity platform, complete with an advisory panel of 'pro-aging' dermatologists from top medical and research institutions. Its Re-Nutriv line even includes a complex made of sirtuins, which experts call the 'longevity gene.' Earlier this month in Paris, L'Oreal presented its Longevity Integrative Science initiative, announcing its new focus. WWD recently reported that facialist Pietro Simone is opening up a 'skin longevity playground' in the West Village. Charlotte Palermino, the founder of the skin care brand Dieux, says that on a recent trip to Seoul, South Korea—largely considered the epicenter of beauty innovation—she saw an entire beauty section devoted to skin longevity. Even on PubMed, an online database of scientific research papers, 'you see that the longevity term has gone up exponentially,' says Zakia Rahman M.D., a dermatologist at Stanford Medical School who studies at the school's Center on Longevity. In short, skin longevity is the movement towards lasting skin health. 'For us, it is synonymous,' says Charles Rosier, co-founder of the science-backed beauty brand Augustinus Bader. The company recently launched an AI-powered longevity metric tracking platform in partnership with Deepak Chopra called AB Chopra Epigenetics. 'We're talking about trying to keep skin cells as healthy as possible to prevent them from aging prematurely, [which happens] when you subject them to environmental stress,' explains Alan Widgerow, M.D., chief scientific officer at Galderma, the global dermatology company that owns Cetaphil and Restylane. Stanford's Rahman simplifies the concept for her patients as: 'Your skin looks better because it's working better. Longevity is the optimal functioning of your cells.' Many brands are rooting their formulations to a discovery made years ago by scientists studying cognitive decline and other age-related disorders. They found that the accumulation of non-functioning cells—referred to as senescent, or more colloquially as 'zombie cells'—leads to accelerated aging. But zombie cells can also cause wrinkles and the skin to look more dull, obviously of interest to the beauty industry. Skin longevity is not technically a synonym for anti-aging, in the same way that soft serve is not ice cream, an emoji is not an emoticon, and Meghan Markle's 'fruit spreads' are not jam. The concepts are related, but different and nuanced. As an exercise, I asked experts what treatments or formulations they considered to be skin longevity, versus traditional anti-aging. Sunscreen and anti-oxidants (like vitamin C) are considered protective in nature, so they fall under skin longevity. Anything regenerative or that stimulates collagen, including retinol, peptides, polynucleotides, PDRN (in the form of salmon sperm), or even certain fillers like Radiesse or Sculptra would be classified as skin longevity. (Conveniently, a lot of what already exists in the beauty industry can be classified as skin longevity.) The discussion got a little trickier when it came to Botox. For instance, Rosier says a neurotoxin injection doesn't qualify as skin longevity: 'According to us at Augustinus, not so much, because it weakens the muscles. Our vision of skin longevity is more about empowering elasticity in the skin.' But according to Rahman, 'It absolutely does.' She points to different applications of Botox, including when it is injected into scars to help heal tissues. 'Botox affects the quality of the skin' at a base level, she reasons. In those areas where skin is less elastic or atrophic, you can have a depression and thinning of the skin, which Botox can help. Does getting a facelift at 40 count as skin longevity? Don't be so quick to scoff. It depends on how you think about it. 'When people think about their goals, it includes preparation for how you will age in the future. How do you want to look and how do you want to age?' says Shereene Idriss, M.D., a dermatologist in New York City. To some, this new thinking feels more positive and proactive. Anti-aging is futile. 'You're set up to fail,' Idriss says. 'You're never going to fight the aging process. It implies that something is wrong with you, that you're fighting something.' In contrast, Palermino says, 'Skin longevity feels truthful because you are actually improving the longevity of your skin. You're making it stronger for longer, just like working out is good for you.' It's also gender neutral, speaking the language of Silicon Valley biohackers and Instagram wellness influencers alike. A tech bro with a 'skin care protocol' is not into beauty, but he is into 'skin longevity.' The wellness industry is now three times the size of the pharmaceutical industry, and driving the skin longevity trend. 'Men don't want to be seen as feminine. Skin longevity must be a capitalist dream, because it makes beauty palatable to women and inspirational to men,' theorizes Palermino. Just as wellness can easily disguise diet culture, and emphasize thinness, pseudoscience, and unrealistic expectations, skin longevity could just further exacerbate our culture's obsession with youth. It could become anti-aging, just with a cuter outfit. 'There are excellent things with the wellness industry, but it can go sideways very quickly. With beauty, I could see the same thing where skin longevity is really just a code word for looking young forever. That's where I would challenge the industry to not go,' Palermino says. Some people may still roll their eyes at the term. Rahman was speaking to a retired colleague of hers at Stanford who extensively studied epigenetics and big data. When talking to him about the school's skin longevity program, his reaction was, Of course, people care about how they look. Rahman told him: 'I don't want you to think of it as vanity. I want you to think of it as vitality.' She calls it a light bulb moment. 'When people understand it that way, they embrace it the same way that they do optimizing their muscle, cardiovascular, or brain function.' This 'glass half full' approach (as Idriss calls it) has already appeared in some beauty marketing. Shiseido's new Ultimune Power Infusing Serum has tempered expectations, says Salina Urben, senior manager of U.S. education and training for the brand. 'We're not going to say it carves 20 years off your skin, but there's something about truly healthy skin that's beautiful and radiates.' Ideally, adds Palermino, skin longevity could become a healthier way of looking at getting older. 'We need to make aging the beauty standard. It's okay to age. It's a beautiful thing to age. How you want to age is what differs.'
