On today’s show… Tesla makes the biggest market share gains of any car company, Renault is building a new assembly plant in Pakistan of all places and the supplier Schaeffler changes its strategy to keep up with changes in the market. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

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

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!
FCA is once again in hot water over its gear shifters. Earlier this year, the company recalled Jeep Grand Cherokee’s over its electronic shifters because it can be hard to tell when the vehicle is in Park. The problem was put under the spotlight when Hollywood star Anton Yelchin was killed when his Grand Cherokee rolled backwards down his driveway, pinning him against a brick pillar and metal gate. Now NHTSA is launching a new investigation into rotary shifters in 2013 to 2016 Ram 1500’s and 2014 to 2016 Dodge Durango’s. The agency is getting complaints that the vehicles are rolling away unexpectedly. But it’s not just FCA. NHTSA just launched an investigation into faulty rotary shifters involving Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. But we wonder if this a problem with the shifters, or are people simply not using them properly? So far none of the investigations have turned up a defect.

RENAULT EXPANDS IN PAKISTAN!?
Renault will expand its manufacturing footprint in one of the most unlikely countries in the world. Wards Auto reports it will start building vehicles in Pakistan under a joint venture with a company called Ghandhara Nissan. It will be low-volume production, starting at only 16,000 units a year and working its way up to 50,000 SUVs and sedans annually. Pakistan sounds like a dangerous place to build cars, but the market could potentially be big one day. It has the 6th largest population in the world, with over 200 million people. Honda, Toyota and Suzuki dominate the car market in Pakistan.

SCHAEFFLER SHIFTS STRATEGY
The electric vehicle market has the potential for huge growth and both suppliers and automakers alike are evolving their strategies to adjust to that reality. Just last year BorgWarner bought Remy International, which makes starters, alternators and electric motors. And now giant supplier Schaeffler purchased Compact Dynamics, which also makes electric motors. These suppliers are dominant players in supplying parts for internal combustion engines, but as the market is changing, so is their business strategy.

Still to come… Tesla is gaining market share faster than anyone else, and by a wide margin.

THEY’RE GONNA PUT ME IN THE MOVIES
Owning an Acura NSX puts you in a pretty exclusive club. But Acura wants to make that experience as unique as possible. Not only do owners get a custom scale model with the exact paint, interior and features of their car, but now they get a custom video of their car being built on the assembly line. Acura revealed a new campaign, called NSX Originals, that depicts the exact specs and options of the owner’s car and its unique serial number. Luxury and supercar makers are always trying to come up with new ways to make their brand experience as unique as possible and this is just another way Acura is hoping to set itself apart from everyone else.

MARKET SHARE GAINERS & LOSERS
One of the best ways to measure which automakers are doing the best is to look at their market share. And so far this year, Tesla made the biggest gains in the American market. It’s share is up 50% for the first 11 months of the year. It’s numbers are small, but growing faster than anyone else. Next is Volvo, up 25% this year thanks to the new XC-90 and S90. Jaguar Land Rover is gaining fast, up 20%, mostly because of the hot selling F-Pace. Kia, Subaru, Nissan and Honda are also stealing market share away from others. The companies that are giving up the most share this year include VW, down 10%. No surprise there. But the next one is a big surprise. BMW’s market share is down 8.7% this year. Mazda, General Motors and Toyota also lost share.

GM HAS TOO MANY CARS
General Motors is going to temporarily lay off 10,000 employees as it idles 5 assembly plants for up to three weeks due to high inventory levels. All of the vehicles affected by this are passenger cars. Most of GM’s truck, SUV and crossover assembly plants are running on overtime to keep up with demand as the market continues to shift away from cars. The highest inventory level is with the Chevrolet Camaro, which has 177 day’s worth of inventory sitting on dealers’ lots. But the Chevy Impala only has 53 days, which is quite low. But the Impala and the Volt are built in the Hamtramck plant which includes the Cadillac CT6 which stands at 110 day’s worth of inventory.

Coming up next, a look at all the changes Chrysler made to the Pacifica to turn it into a plug-in hybrid.

HOW TO MAKE A PLUG-IN
As you know, the new Chrysler Pacifica is available in two versions, a regular gasoline powered model and a plug-in hybrid. While they look very similar, the engineering team had to make a number of modifications to the hybrid to accommodate the battery and its other components. And this means it needs to be built differently than the gasoline version. On last week’s Autoline After Hours we were joined by Kevin Mets, the Chief Engineer of the Pacifica Hybrid and in the following clip he shares how engineers worked with the manufacturing team to create the electrified minivan.

(Clip from AAH #359 can only be viewed in the video version of today’s show.)

And for more info about the development of the Pacifica Hybrid you can watch that entire discussion right now on Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow for the latest news in the global automotive industry.