On today’s show…VW will pay its US dealers almost 2 million bucks apiece….Ford has an app that will pay for your parking….and used EV batteries could create a whole new electric industry. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily for August 26th, 2016.

VW SETTLES WITH DEALERS
Volkswagen is making progress with its diesel scandal, but that progress sure is expensive. VW announced It will buy back diesels cars that cannot be fixed and it will also compensate dealers for losses in their franchise value. VW has 652 dealers in the United States and will pay them about $1.2 billion, which works out to roughly $1.8 million for each dealer.

GM WINS IGNITION SWITCH LAWSUIT
General Motors won another lawsuit over its ignition switch defect. A jury in Texas ruled that 19-year old Zack Taylor was driving recklessly on a rainy road, passing people on the shoulder, when he lost control of his 2007 Saturn Sky. The car hit a pickup, killing the driver and leaving Taylor with brain injuries. His family sued GM, blaming the ignition switch defect. While GM offered $595 million in compensation to those injured by the defect. About ninety percent of those injured took the settlement but people held out, hoping to win more money. So far, three of those cases have lost in court.

FORD MAKES PARKING EASIER
Finding a parking spot in a downtown area can be a real pain. That’s why Ford is offering a new service for its FordPass smartphone app, that allows you to find, book and pay for a parking space in a garage before you even get in the car. It shows you all available spots in the nearby area with real-time updates. The service is available in 160 cities across the United States.

SUPER DUTY GETS LARGEST TANK IN SEGMENT
Speaking of Ford, it just increased the range of the Super Duty. But not through engine improvements or other new technology, it just gave it a bigger tank. The gasoline and diesel versions of long-box Crew Cab models now come with a 48-gallon fuel tank, making it the largest available in its class. We figure that will give it well over 700 miles in range. The diesel exhaust fluid tank has also been increased to 7.5 gallons, which is five gallons more than before. The new Super Duty goes on sale this fall.

Uh-oh, looks like the largest retailer in the world is getting into the car shopping business. More about that right after this.

AMAZON A THREAT TO ONLINE CAR SHOPPING SITES
Amazon is really stepping up its automotive game and is a big threat to all those other car shopping sites online. It just launched the Amazon Vehicles website where users will be able to search reviews, images and specifications on thousands of new and classic car models. The site was designed to compliment Amazon Automotive, which is a marketplace for parts and accessories and Amazon Garage where shoppers are able to schedule and pay for routine maintenance. Amazon is quickly establishing itself as a one-stop-shop for all your car needs. Well, just short of that. You can’t buy a vehicle on the site, at least not yet.

HONDA EXPANDS ATV PLANT
Honda has a good problem. It’s side-by-side all-terrain vehicles are so popular its had to expand the South Carolina plant that makes them. It will invest $45 million into a 115,000 square-foot facility, which should create about 250 new jobs. This comes on top of $93 million spent on the plant over the last 5 years for side-by-side production. Honda will also move assembly of small- and medium-displacement engines out of South Carolina to its factory in Japan that currently makes large-displacement engines.

USED BATTERIES GET SECOND LIFE
One of the questions with electric cars is what will happen to used batteries once they need to be replaced. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that they could be a perfect solution for low-cost battery storage. The study found that there will be 29 GWh of used EV batteries coming out of cars in 2025 with around a third of those living on as stationary storage. Currently it can cost up to $1,000/kWh for a new stationary storage system. Used EV batteries could drop that to only $49/kWh in 2018 plus another $400/kWh to convert it to stationary storage. This is why companies like BMW, Mercedes and Nissan are developing their own second-life stationary storage systems.

Coming up next, John is here with You Said It!

YOU SAID IT!
Albemarle has a great question about autonomous cars. “You drive to a big group picnic where you are directed by a volunteer to a parking location in a grass field. How, without a steering wheel do you tell the car exactly where to park?”

That’s maybe the best question I’ve heard about the limits of autonomous cars. And that’s why I think in the future car owners won’t be bragging about horsepower, they’ll be bragging that ‘My car is more autonomous than your car.’

Drew has another good question. “How do these driverless vehicles re-fuel themselves (gas, diesel, ethanol, or electricity)?”

I suppose the owners will have to get out of their cars and do it themselves, although there are a number of experiments with robot gas stations that will put the nozzle in the car automatically.

Speaking of autonomous cars, Gastón Astore says, “I will love the face of my grandchildren when I tell them that cabbies used to be a thing.”

That’s why I keep saying that our grandchildren will have to go to amusement parks to drive a car all by themselves.

Brett wants to know, “When is Ford going to field a Fiesta-based small CUV? Aren’t their competitors flooding into that segment? Chevy Trax, etc?”

You’re right Brett, a B-segment CUV is a gaping hole in Ford’s line-up, but only in the US and Canada. Ford sells the Ecosport in just about every other market in the world. I think Ford believes the current generation isn’t ready for the American market. Guess who else needs a B-segment CUV in the US? Toyota does not have one either.

On yesterday’s Autoline After Hours we were talking about the electric supercharger that Valeo has developed and G.A.Branigan has a question about it, “In reference to the electric turbos. Would that negate the need for the electric turbo to be hooked to the exhaust? Without it being in the exhaust system, the air charge would be cooler, would that eliminate the need for an aftercooler too?”

That’s right. The electric turbo or supercharger is not hooked to the exhaust, so it does not cause backpressure, and it does not need an intercooler either.

Lex should be in marketing. He says, “GM should have used the ‘ION’ nameplate from its defunct Saturn brand for the Bolt. 
Then there would not be any confusion in other markets around the world.”

DocWolph sees all the problems that VW is facing and wants to know, “So, are we watching the slow self-destruct of VW?”

Doc, VW is too big and powerful to self-destruct. But the company has done just about everything wrong. This emissions scandal would have been far less serious if the company had just come clean when it was caught, cooperated with the authorities, and agreed to compensate everyone fairly from the beginning. Now this is going to drag on in court for years to come. Check out the Autoline This Week we did, episode #2009. The panel of experts i had on that show nailed it in terms of what was going to happen to VW and what the company should have done.

Thanks for all your letters and comments, we sure do like getting them, But with that we wrap up today’s show, thanks for watching, have a great weekend and please join us again on Monday.