On today’s show… Lucid Motors shows off its Tesla killer, heavy-duty truck sales are falling off a cliff and can you guess how many countries export cars to the American market? All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

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

TRUCK SALES CONTINUE TO SLIDE
Sales of medium and heavy-duty trucks have been dropping throughout the year and the trend got even worse in November. Wards reports that big truck sales plunged 22% last month compared to a year ago. Class 8 trucks had the biggest drop at 33%. Through November, combined medium and heavy-duty sales are down nearly 11%. And it’s not just the U.S., big truck sales in Canada are down 18% so far this year as well. Economists use heavy trucks as a leading indicator of where the economy is headed, and this is a disturbing trend because it means a lot of companies are postponing their capital expenditures.

VW SEES GLIMMER OF HOPE
In sign that Volkswagen may be recovering from its diesel emissions scandal in Europe, the brand eked out a very small sales gain in November. Sales were not up by much, only 0.8 percent, but it’s the first glimmer of hope that VW has seen in over a year.

VW ADOPTS ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
And in a fascinating development, Volkswagen will adopt English as the official language spoken at the company. We’ve seen a few automotive supplier companies do this, but this is the first automaker we know of that’s dropping its native tongue in favor of English. It’s doing so because in today’s connected world English has become the de facto language of commerce. And a company like VW has operations all around the world, from China to India to Brazil and Russia. But the move to English is also about shaking up VW’s staid and bureaucratic corporate culture. And it’s a clear signal that the top management ranks could be open to more than just German executives.

Lucid Motors is another EV startup that has Tesla in its cross hairs. Coming up next, we’ll take a look at the car.

LUCID UNVEILS TESLA-FIGHTER
Luxury EV startup Lucid Motors unveiled its all-new Tesla-fighting sedan yesterday. And it’s quite the futuristic-looking machine. A long, thin bar that incorporates the headlights sits atop a large half moon shaped cutout on the lower facia. In side profile it almost has a hatchback quality to it. The rear is also dominated by a long thin lightbar, which helps tie it to the front of the car. One interesting aspect is how it looks like the rear trunk will open. Notice how the cut line dips almost to the bottom of the rear fascia. It seems as though the whole rear end, possibly even the back glass will all lift as one piece. And now let’s move to the interior, which I would describe as a futuristic lounge. A large display screen sets in the driver’s view, while a tablet-like touchscreen extends from the center of the dash. Highly adjustable lounge seats in the rear finish off the interior. Lucid Motors says its “battery is capable of 1,000 horsepower and enabling up to 400 miles of range.” The company clearly has its sights set on Tesla, but we want to know what you think. Is there room for more luxury EVs in the market and can Lucid take a bite out of Tesla?

TIRE SCANNER READS YOUR TREAD
Checking for how much meat is left on your tires is not all that difficult, heck even the change in your pocket can help with that, but every time I look at people’s tires in the parking lot I’m shocked to see bald tires all around. But Finnish tiremaker Nokian has come up with an easy solution that doesn’t even require you to get out of the car. A device, called SnapSkan uses 3D imaging to take a picture of the tread of the tires when a vehicle drives over it. It then analyzes the data and sends a report to the driver via a text or email.

BMW’S FUTURE INTERIOR
BMW will show off its vision of what future car interiors will look like at CES next month. Called the HoloActive Touch system, it borrows head-up display and gesture control features, to create a virtual touchscreen, free-floating display that the driver operates by using finger gestures. And even though you don’t actually touch the controls somehow or other it still provides a pulse or feedback to confirm the command for the driver.

Coming up next, can you guess how many countries export cars to the American market? We think you’ll be surprised by the number.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5…
Here’s a trivia quiz for you. How many different countries export cars to the United States? The number might surprise you. It’s easy to guess some of them. There’s Canada and Mexico, and obviously Japan. Don’t forget Korea, Germany or Italy. We know that Jaguars and Land Rovers come from England. Most Volvos are from Sweden, but they also come from Belgium and China. Now it all gets harder. Spain is on the list thanks Ford’s Transit Connect. And we get the Ram Pro-Master from Turkey. Australia is still on the list, but won’t be for long. And did you know the Toyota Yaris comes from France? That the Fiat 500L is from Serbia? Or the Mitsubishi Mirage from Thailand? We were surprised to learn the Buick Cascada comes from Poland, the Audi Q7 from Slovakia, and the Mercedes CLA from Hungary. The Mini Clubman comes from Austria, and last of all the VW Eos comes from Portugal. Add it all up and 21 different countries export cars to the American market.

We’ve got a great Autoline After Hours coming up later this afternoon. We’ll be talking about the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in, and joining us for that show are Alisa Priddle, from Motor Trend, Jean Jennings, from JeanKnowsCars; and Anton Wahlman from Seeking Alpha.

But that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.