On today’s show…jolly old England is in the headlines. It wants to force all gas stations to offer EV charging…while Amazon wants to sell cars directly to UK consumers…and by Jove! Rolls Royce buyers are younger than we thought. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

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

AMAZON WANTS DIRECT CAR SALES IN UK
Uh-oh, all you car dealers in the United Kingdom better look out. You’ve got competition coming your way. Wards Auto reports that Amazon is gearing up to sell vehicles directly to customers. The company did a small trial run in Italy last year selling Fiat 500s but now the internet retail giant is making a serious effort to sell cars directly to consumers in the UK. Europe’s franchise laws are not as strict as they are in the U.S. Amazon is recruiting car sales executives and will locate its headquarters in Luxembourg.

EV CHARGER MANDATE FOR UK GAS STATIONS
And speaking of the UK, it wants to be one of the leaders in electric vehicles. It set a goal of having almost only zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2050. To make that happen, the government introduced legislation mandating that gas stations on motorways and any large fueling station install EV chargers, and hydrogen pumps. A recent survey found that 70% of car buyers said that limited charging options is the largest deterrent to them buying an EV.

ROLLS-ROYCE BUYERS YOUNGER THAN EXPECTED
While most people who buy luxury cars are in their 50’s, the average Rolls-Royce buyer is only 45 years old. Only 7 years ago that average age was 56. Rolls-Royce says it’s attracting more self-made millionaires who are younger, instead of a traditional client base that inherited its money. We think the big drop in the average age comes from China. Dean Sciole, the Brand Director of Cadillac China tells Autoline their average buyer is only 35 years old. In the U.S, that number is 52 years old.

And a programming note here. Autoline Daily will be off all next week as the whole Autoline crew takes a well deserved mid-year break. And we’ll resume our normal programming on July 10.

Coming up next, in Seoul, South Korea, they’re retrofitting buses to reduce diesel emissions.

FAURECIA SYSTEM GREATLY REDUCES NOx  
Governments and municipalities around the world are cracking down on diesel vehicles to reduce NOx emissions. Now Seoul, South Korea is working with French supplier Faurecia to install its Amminex system on 20,000 buses and commercial vehicles. Amminex injects gaseous ammonia into the exhaust stream and can reduce NOx emissions by as much as 99%. Most diesels use AdBlue, which is sprayed in as a fluid, which is good, but not as effective. Faurecia says Amminex works best at low engine temperatures which makes it ideal for buses and commercial vehicles.

FORD LAUNCHES BIKE SHARING SERVICE
Every time we turn around another car company is expanding into mobility services. Now Ford is teaming up with Motivate, a leader in bike-share technology. They’re launching a bike-sharing program in the San Francisco Bay area. Called GoBike, the service starts today. Users can register online, use the FordPass app, or just walk up to a station to rent a bike. Ford says by the end of the summer it will have 3,500 bikes ready for rent and by the end of next year will have 7,000 bikes and nearly 550 stations.

OSRAM CREATES SMALLER & BRIGHTER LEDs
LEDs are making rapid gains in automotive applications and here’s the latest from OSRAM. It created a new surface-mountable LED that’s 20-times smaller and over 3.5-times brighter than its predecessor and comes in a wide range of colors. They’re suitable on the interiors of cars for displays, ambient lighting and backlighting of switches and instruments, and would be great for anyone in the industry who needs to reduce packaging space.

Coming up next, Toyota thinks it can breathe new life back into the sedan segment with its all new Camry.

CAN THE CAMRY REVIVE SEDANS?
As you know, car buyers are ditching passenger cars and are instead purchasing SUVs and crossovers. So you might think the timing couldn’t be worse for Toyota, which is introducing the all-new Camry. But Jack Hollis, the Group VP of the Toyota Division, believes the Camry can help the sedan segment, much like the Tacoma has helped revive mid-size trucks.

(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

That episode is jam-packed with details about the new Camry, so to learn all about it, check out the show on Autoline.tv or on our YouTube channel.

And speaking of After Hours, be sure to join us this Thursday when we take a deep dive into the development of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. We’ve got Reid Bigland who runs Alfa worldwide, and Pieter Hogeveen, who runs Alfa in North America. They’ll be telling us about their plans to roll this vehicle out into the marketplace. We’ll also talk to several automotive journalists to get their driving impressions of the Stelvio. So join John and Gary for some of the best insights as to what’s going on in the automotive industry

But that’s it for today’s show, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.