On today’s show… as diesels come under fire, Toyota’s hybrid sales are booming in Europe, the first Chinese car the IIHS crash tests passes with flying colors and BMW develops an airbag jacket for motorcycle riders. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
DIESELS IN TROUBLE IN EUROPE
Diesel engines are in trouble in Europe. Environmentalists and even some major cities want to ban them. And the VW diesel emissions scandal has hurt the image of the engine. Maybe that’s why Toyota is doing so well selling hybrids in Europe. They now account for 41% of all Toyota sales there and 98% of all Lexus sales. Ward’s Auto reports that Toyota and Lexus will sell about 300,000 hybrids and plug-ins in Europe. That’s nearly twice as many that they sell in the U.S. market, despite the fact that Toyota sells far more vehicles in the U.S. than it does in Europe. And both brands are unveiling three new hybrid models at the Paris auto show this week, the C-HR, the Prius Prime and the Lexus LC 500h coupe.
EUROPEAN MILLENNIALS WANT HYBRIDS & EVs
This ties into a study that Nissan did with millennials in Europe. Two out of three millennials in the survey said they would buy a hybrid in the next 10 years. And more than half say they would buy an electric car. Nissan surveyed 2,500 millennials with 77% of them already owning a car. We could see the European market hitting a tipping point, where electrification pushes the diesel engine into the background.
PRIUS COULD GO ALL PLUG-IN
Maybe this is why Toyota is considering making every Prius a plug-in. The company says that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to improve the gasoline engine in the car, and that the only way to achieve significant improvements in fuel economy across the line is to make every Prius a plug-in.
The delivery trucks used by the U.S. Post Office are about 27 years old and it desperately needs new ones. That’s coming up next.
POST OFFICE WANTS NEW TRUCKS
Did you know that most of the delivery trucks used by the U.S. Post Office were made when Ronald Reagan was president? They don’t have backup cameras, or airbags and don’t get very good fuel economy, either. In fact, they’re falling apart. So the Post Office wants to replace them with modern trucks and a bunch of companies are bidding to get the business. The Post Office is testing them right now to decide which one it wants to buy. And it wants to buy a lot of them, some 180,000 trucks priced somewhere between $25,000 and $35,000. The total package would come to somewhere between $4.5 and $6.3 billion. That’s would be a big financial strain on the Post Office. Last year it lost $5 billion and this year doesn’t look a lot better. But there’s no question it needs new trucks.
BMW OFFERS AIR BAG JACKET
Safety is paramount to anyone that rides a motorcycle and now BMW Motorrad is offering a jacket with airbag technology. The bike maker teamed with Alpinestars to launch the Street Air line of jackets that come in a range of colors for male and female riders. The system uses an algorithm to know when to deploy the airbags, which are sewn into the jacket and require no link to the bike. It will help protect the back, kidneys, chest and shoulders, but for best overall protection, the jacket is meant to be paired with Alpinestars airbag vest as well. The Street Air jacket goes on sale starting next month.
ROGUE TO PASS ALTIMA
As we’ve been reporting for some time now, the crossover segment is on fire and is cannibalizing sales of passenger cars, especially mid-size sedans. And just to give you an idea of how popular it’s become, when Nissan reports September sales, it expects the Rogue to overtake the Altima and become the best selling vehicle in its U.S. line-up. This will be the first time since 1995 that the Altima is not the best seller in the company’s portfolio. And Nissan expects the Rogue to maintain that position for the foreseeable future.
While working on the road to autonomy somehow Nissan got sidetracked into autonomous chairs. That’s coming right up.
CHINESE ENVISION EARNS TOP SAFETY PICK PLUS
When automakers like Volvo and Buick announced they would sell Chinese built vehicles in the U.S., there were concerns over the quality of the vehicles. But the IIHS says not to worry, at least with the Buick Envision. The safety agency just awarded the crossover with its Top Safety Pick Plus rating, earning good ratings across the board. The Envision is the first Chinese built vehicle the IIHS has ever tested.
NISSAN INVENTS AUTONOMOUS CHAIRS
Well we knew that autonomous technology was catching on quickly, but we never imagined this. Earlier this year Nissan decided that someone needed to figure out how to park office chairs neatly around desks and conference tables. So it came up with a self-parking feature. But that wasn’t good enough. So now it came up with the ProPILOT Chair which electronically connects office chairs to each other and then they autonomously follow a lead chair which takes them to where they need to park. So what’s the value in a car company making autonomous chairs? Who knows? But the chairs will making appearances at select restaurants across Japan.
But that brings us to the end of today’s show, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (18)
September 28th, 2016 at 12:21 pm
Glad to see your coverage of the postal long life vehicles replacement – most on the road look to be well past their prime even though they get “rebuilt” regularly. I believe there are actually two versions of the postal LLV’s. There is one based on the S10 chassis (the oldest version with a wide rear axle) and a “newer” one based on the older “right hand drive” Explorer chassis (a previous attempt at replacing the LLV S10 chassis version). You showed both versions in your story (look at the wheels for quick ID) as if they are both being replaced. The postal site noted that 142,000 long-life vehicles (LLVs) out of the 190,000 need to be replaced. Do you know if the Explorer chassis based vehicle are remaining?
Thanks for the information but I expect more from Autoline than just rereading a postal press release. Add your automotive insights – that’s why we watch!
September 28th, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Ha! That’s a good one John. A leftover April Fool’s joke in September. Sign me up for an autonomous bar stool so I don’t have to get up to go to the bathroom!
September 28th, 2016 at 12:42 pm
Autonomous chairs could be the next logical step toward autonomous cars if used properly.
Using them for wheel chairs for example.
Other practical uses than mere lazy uses should be at the top of the list.
September 28th, 2016 at 12:46 pm
The current Grummen postal trucks have first generation S-10 chassis, and many have “iron duke” engines, not the greatest, even when new. They are clearly showing their age now.
Granted, the bodies of the old trucks have held up well to 30 years of road salt, etc., but wouldn’t it make more sense to use off-the-shelf vans like promaster city, transit connect or similar, which are made as RHD for other markets? They wouldn’t last 30 years, but would cost less than purpose-built vans, and would allow for a powertrain/technology update every 10-15 years, rather than 30 years.
September 28th, 2016 at 12:51 pm
If the US Postal Service is not looking so good financially then why did they decrease the price of a first class stamp from 48 cents to 47 cents? I bet those pennies could have helped to buy those new mail delivery vehicles.
September 28th, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Why not have the carriers park their vehicles and walk around the neighborhoods with a cart like they used years ago. We would save on gas and equipment and they would get healthier as well.
September 28th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
#4
If they were not burdened with an unfair mandate from Congress to fund their pension SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OUT, they’d have no issues at all.
Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Under the terms of PAEA, the USPS was forced to prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span – meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something that no other government or private corporation is required to do.
From what I recall, the USPS went back to Grumman for more trucks, but Grumman, like any other aircraft mfg, had scrapped all of the tooling for the things when the contract wasn’t renewed/extended. Oops…
September 28th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
I with you Lex, the Postal Service is doing okay (with the help of some of the private delivery services; i.e., they do final delivery for some of Amazon’s sales). The Grumman trucks have done stellar service; not cutting edge technology but they got the job done (and have lasted). I hope the replacements can be as good as the outgoing models.
Anyone seen “Wall-E”, the movie; so now we can’t get our butt out of a chair and move to the next in cue; pitiful, just pitiful. Yes, might be useful for the walking impaired (but they mostly, already have a wheel-chair).
September 28th, 2016 at 1:43 pm
With the economy of scale of building 180,000 new vans and the lack of amenities these vans really need ( 1 seat, RH airbags only, no radio, etc.), $25,000 to $35,000 seems like a lot of money unless they all come with 2 or 3 government hammers. I like the idea of buying an off the shelf product, but I believe all of that product is procured outside of the USA, something I am not in favor of.
September 28th, 2016 at 1:59 pm
If they build 180,000, but with no prospects for building more of them after that, the purpose-built vans would not be cheap.
In any case, the idea of purpose-built vehicles, intended to last 25-30 years like the Grumman vehicles, doesn’t make make sense, especially now, with things changing so fast. Not only does technology change, but so does the use of the vehicles. Letter writing is dead, and many people, like myself, use auto-pay for bills, so there is much less “thin envelope” mail than there once was. On the other hand, there is a lot more parcel delivery, and the USPS delivers a lot of it, along with, and sometimes for UPS and FedEx. What will any aspect of mail vehicle requirements be 30 years from now? No one knows, but it will be different from now.
Maybe they could get some RHD Dodge Caravans cheap. I think they build them in Canada for other markets. They wouldn’t last 30 years, but requirements would change enough that they’d be ready to replace them in 10-12 years anyway.
September 28th, 2016 at 2:17 pm
This is a good opportunity for the Postal Service to purchase a hybrid (with regenerative braking) for their fleet; when you talk about ‘stop and go’ driving they even make city buses seem like long haul vehicles. And if they can get a two hundred mile (range) vehicle, they could actually go with a full ‘electric’; talk about saving fuel costs.
September 28th, 2016 at 2:49 pm
If they buy Chinese made mail trucks, I am moving back to Cuba
September 28th, 2016 at 3:02 pm
10 Hybrids would be great for delivery runs where they stop every 50 feet at a mail box. I just read that the Grumman trucks get about 9 mpg in typical use. A hybrid could probably triple that.
I suspect pure EV’s would have the range for many delivery routes. They could charge them overnight “off peak,” when they are not used anyway.
September 28th, 2016 at 3:56 pm
Wrt Buick Envision, it didn’t quite ace the IIHS tests: rated barely acceptable for seat Kinematics. The driver test dummy’s head’s sliding off airbag and hitting dash with its face (OW !!).
September 28th, 2016 at 5:57 pm
I think USPS started using the old (solid rear axle) Explorer chassis about 15-20 years ago when they needed to build replacement delivery trucks.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:13 pm
The USPS has been using Dodge Caravan Cargo Vans and lately Ram Promaster Citys’ to fill in for the lost postal vans. It will be interesting to see where those retired postal vans wind up. Can’t wait to see them customized.
October 1st, 2016 at 7:21 pm
I suspect that some hybrid powertrain is being tested. Ford might offer a ecoboost but most USPS would never get to boost required speed. Small diesels might be ideal but likely everyone would complain and it would probably mean having Adblue exhaust tech. In Europe we use Transit connect type Vans. Why not pair with UPS/Fedex and buy their vans with USPS livery. Those vans must be pretty reliable by now and both firms are trialing greener powertrains like CNG or hybrid
October 2nd, 2016 at 8:15 am
Just to update Autoline on how Diesel is fairing in Europe. Sales are only dropping marginally. Its the no1 fuel type in the UK/Ireland and Eastern Europe. Only that small Fiesta size cars predominate in Italy, Spain and France and they are usually petrol based counters this. Merc and BMW sell mostly diesel even in the 7-series and S-class. Until EU emission rules increase the cost of cleaning the exhaust gasses and thus the cost of the car vs petrol/hybrid then diesel will rule the day for “larger” cars and especially SUVs which are also selling as well as the US. Only London has a congestion charge based on emissions. Other European cities are just considering it more seriously now they know diesels are dirty. What we will see the every diesel car will soon come with Adblue emission filtering or else disappear. The EU has already given heavy warning to Eu car makers that the clock is ticking even if they can’t just wave a magic wand and impose stricter emission regs with zero prep.