On today’s show…Brexit could cause car prices to soar in the UK…a Chinese start-up just bought an assembly plant from AM General…and a supplier company is coming out with seat covers specifically designed for ride sharing. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
 
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

UK CAR PRICES TO SOAR
The pro-Brexit people probably never saw this coming. A study from Deloitte predicts that car prices in the UK will go up by 5,600 euros because of taxes, tariffs and other inefficiencies. That’s $6,250 more per car. Not surprisingly, Deloitte is also predicting a big drop in car sales, as much as 20% by 2019, which is when the UK will officially exit the EU. England is a major player in the European auto market, accounting for 20% of Germany’s car exports. As a result, Deloitte says the German auto industry will lose 18,000 jobs. And that’s going to make the anti-Brexit people in Germany all the more angry.

PEAK AUTO SALES
Last year automakers set the all-time record for new car sales in the U.S. market. But based on historical trends those sales should have been a whole lot higher. In 2001 automakers sold 17.4 million vehicles. Last year they sold 17.5 million. But since 2001 the population of the U.S. grew by more than 39 million people. That means not as many people are buying new cars as they used to. Instead, they’re buying used cars or using other kinds of transportation. And that trend is likely to continue. As ride sharing and mobility services become more popular, a smaller percentage of the population will buy new cars. And that means we may never see car sales go above the levels they hit in 2016.

 
An electric garbage truck? Sure, why not? And that is coming up next.

CHICAGO ADDS EV GARBAGE TRUCKS TO FLEET
We’ve been reporting on all kinds of electric cars, and even electric semi-trucks, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the next step is an electric garbage truck. Chicago is working with a company from the Bay area called Motiv, which created an all-electric garbage truck. Of course, they don’t call it a garbage truck. They call it an “Electric Refuse Vehicle” or ERV. It has a 60-mile range, a payload capacity of nine tons, and 1000 pounds per cubic yard of compaction, which means it has plenty of power to run its hydraulic system. It can be charged in 8 hours using Motiv’s level 3 charger. Chicago plans to add 20 ERVs to its fleet of 600 garbage trucks.

CHINESE START-UP BUYS AM GENERAL PLANT
Speaking of electrics, a Chinese backed company that is based in Silicon Valley and is called SF Motors, just bought an assembly plant from AM General. That’s the plant in Indiana that was making the R-Class for Mercedes-Benz and exporting them to China, a contract that expires in a few months. SF Motors is going to use the plant to make electric cars which will be part of a mobility brand that it plans to launch in the San Francisco area. AM General will keep its separate assembly plant that makes military vehicles. SF Motors is owned by the Chongqing Sokon Industry Group which makes engines and automotive components in China.

REMOVABLE SEAT COVERS
Most cars are used by one person and parked for 23 hours a day. But with ride-sharing, that all changes. Ride sharing cars could be used by anywhere from ten to twenty people a day. That means heavy wear and tear, especially with the seats. So the seat manufacturer Adient decided to design removable seat covers. They can be unzipped and removed to wash, all without damaging the foam. And it offers a coating that makes seats liquid-repellant and stain-resistant.  Adient says their seat covers can also be a fashion statement. There will be several different colors and designs for customers to choose from, to make ride-sharing cleaner and more personal.

Back in 2008 and 2009 the U.S. auto industry collapsed and the state of Michigan collapsed along with it. Today it’s looking a whole lot better and we’ll tell you why right after this.

MICHIGAN’S AUTOMOTIVE RECOVERY
On our television show Autoline This Week the topic is about why and what the state of Michigan did coming out of the great recession to help the automotive industry get back on its feet. Though the show is focused on Michigan, it offers a lot of good examples for other states and countries as they try to give their local car companies and suppliers a helping hand. Here’s a taste of what that conversation is about.

Glenn Stevens, MICHauto: “That is an excellent point, because we put the world on wheels 100 years ago. But for decade after decade, well I don’t want to say, but you could say, we took the industry for granted at times. But it’s really been the last 10-15 years, where you had, you know, my own organization, where we formed a statewide association to be an advocate, a voice, for the industry. You had other organizations becoming more vocal. You had an auto caucus formed in the state legislator about 5 years ago. They never had an auto caucus in the state that put the world on wheels. So, you really have had some game-changing events here that we didn’t have before which makes that environment and really communication public to private and private to private, whatever it may be.”

Matthew Gibb, Deputy County Executive of Oakland County: “Well there’s one important point, John. So, people will look and say, well Michigan builds cars, and we do, we build more cars than anywhere else in the country. But all the growth we’re talking about has not been on the backs of new manufacturing plants for automobiles. It’s been on the backs of diversifying ourselves into the future of the automotive industry.”

John McElroy: “How so? Elaborate.”

Matthew Gibb: “So listen, just in my county, in Oakland county, but it applies statewide, the state has brought it more than 500,000 new jobs in the last five or six years. My county alone, the great majority of jobs, 30 or 40 thousand of those statewide jobs in my county, have been in a knowledge-based economy. $75,000 a year or more average salary, advanced degrees.”

If you live in the U.S. or Canada you can watch that show this weekend on many public television stations, or you can watch it right now at our website, Autoline.tv or on our YouTube channel.

But that wraps up this week’s news, thanks for watching and please join us again on Monday.