On today’s show… Nikola Motors reveals a hydrogen-electric heavy-duty truck, Toyota teases the all-new Camry and car sales in the U.S. take a hit in November. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

NOVEMBER SALES TAKE A DIP
Well, while everyone else is reporting that car sales shot up strongly last month in the U.S. market, we’re here to tell you the opposite. On a daily selling rate basis, sales were down 4.6%. That’s because there were two more selling days in November, 2016 compared to November, 2015. So there were actually fewer people coming into showrooms every single day of the month. And it wasn’t just in November. Over the course of the last three months, sales are down 1%. But for the full year they’re still up one-tenth of one percent.

Total sales for last month came to 1.3 million vehicles, and the SAAR hit 17.7 million, down from 17.9 million a year ago.

Amongst the full line manufacturers, General Motors was up ever so slightly, Toyota dropped 4.1%, Ford fell more than 3%, Fiat-Chrysler plummeted over 21%. The company says it’s trying to get off fleet sales, but Jeep sales were down by double digits, which could be an alarming development. Honda was down 2% and Nissan was down only 1%.

The most impressive performers include Volkswagen, which shot up more than anyone else. It gained 14% thanks to strong sales of the Golf, Passat and Tiguan. It was followed closely by Porsche. Jaguar Land Rover were up 9% and Kia was up by six. Subaru and Volvo also eked out small gains.

The one brand that did the worst was BMW, down a whopping 22%. In fact, that includes Mini. Take Mini out of the total and BMW was down nearly 25%. Something is going wrong at BMW. For the whole year it’s sales are down as much as Volkswagen’s, and VW could not legally sell a good chunk of the cars on its lots due to the diesel scandal. Sales of the 3-series and 5-series are plummeting, and BMW’s SUVs are not making up the difference. We hate to say it but when you see sales performances like this, heads start to roll.

We’ll have more to say about sales in the days to come, but remember you heard it hear first. Sales were down in November, not up, so ignore the happy talk that others are reporting.

Still to come… a look at a new Chinese crossover designed by Pininfarina.

PININFARINA TURNS TO CHINA
Italian design house Pininfarina is best known for its work with Ferrari but for the past several years it has turned its sights to China. In 2012 it formed a partnership with Chinese automaker South East Motors and last year the two came out with their first vehicle, a SUV called the DX-7. It earned many design awards and exceeded sales estimates and now they are following that up with a compact CUV, called the DX-3. While the vehicles share a few character lines, they are largely different on purpose as the DX-3 is meant to appeal to a younger buyer. The clean, modern exterior design carries over to the interior as well, where you’ll notice an open dashboard layout topped with round vents and a large touchscreen in the middle. This design language is said will carry over to future generations of the SUV. With vehicles like this, I think Chinese automakers are proving they’re becoming much more sophisticated.

TOYOTA TEASES NEW CAMRY
Toyota is teasing the all-new 2018 Camry ahead of its debut at the Detroit auto show. Based on this picture it looks like the Japanese automaker is giving the car a little more attitude, similar to what we’re seeing with its other new vehicles. We’ll provide a link for a livestream event if you’d like to check out the unveil for yourself.

AMG GT DROPS ITS TOP
Speaking of new cars, Mercedes is showing off the convertible version of the AMG GT. In the U.S. the top of the line C model comes with a 550-horsepower twin-turbo V8 that’s mated to a 7-speed DCT. It also features a wider rear track and rear wheels, active ride-control suspension and rear axle steering with an electronically controlled locking rear differential. The base model, if you can even call it that, is no slouch either. It also comes with a twin-turbo V8 that pumps out nearly 470-horsepower and can hit 60MPH in under 4-seconds. The roadsters will hit U.S. dealers in the fall of next year.

Coming up next, start-up company Nikola Motors takes the wraps off a hydrogen powered semi-truck.

CAN YOU SMELL ME NOW?
Air pollution is a big problem in China. And that’s why GM engineers are developing a filtration system to improve air quality inside the vehicle. It combines a High-Efficiency Particulate Arrestance or HEPA filter with an air ionizer and a monitoring system that updates the driver with real-time info about particulate matter inside and outside the car. Within five minutes of use, the new system can reduce harmful particles in the car by up to 80%. And after 10 minutes, the air inside the vehicle is up to 10 times cleaner than outside the vehicle. While this system is being developed in China, the company says it will make it available globally.

HYDROGEN-ELECTRIC SEMI TRUCK
Start-up company Nikola Motors, which is based in Utah, just revealed a Class 8 semi-truck that runs on hydrogen-electric power. Called the Nikola One, it’s expected to have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles while cranking out 1,000 horsepower and 2,000 pound feet of torque. Energy for its lithium-ion batteries is provided by an on-board hydrogen fuel cell. The company is currently in talks with several states to find a manufacturing location and will choose a spot in first half of 2017. But one problem facing hydrogen-powered vehicles is the lack of stations to fill them up. So in order to tackle the issue, Nikola will build a network of 364 hydrogen-fueling stations across the U.S. and Canada starting in 2018. The company is aiming to have it in production by 2020 and will lease the truck for $5,000 to $7,000 a month.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching, have a great weekend and we will see right back here again on Monday.