AD #2146 – Volkswagen Drops the Touareg, Daimler’s Diesel Troubles Deepen, OEMs Want China to Back Off EV Targets
July 13th, 2017 at 11:50am
Runtime: 6:43
To watch this episode on YouTube click here.
- Daimler’s Diesel Troubles Deepen
- FCA Resumes Diesel Ram Production
- Toyota Hydrogen Project Kicks Off
- Volkswagen Drops the Touareg
- OEMs Want China to Back Off EV Targets
- Hyperloop One Passes Its First Test
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On today’s show…Daimler’s diesel troubles deepen…Volkswagen drops the Touareg from the American market…and hyperloop completes its first test. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
DAIMLER’S DIESEL TROUBLES DEEPEN
These diesel scandals just don’t seem to go away. Now the investigation into Daimler is heating up. Yesterday a report out of Germany revealed that the company may have sold more than 1 million vehicles with emission cheating software. German prosecutors say two engines are involved and were sold between 2008 and 2016. One analyst tells Bloomberg that the cost to fix the engines could be more than $500 million. Daimler is meeting with investigators today in Germany to address the allegations.
FCA RESUMES DIESEL RAM PRODUCTION
And in related news, FCA has resumed building diesel Ram pick-ups. The company stopped selling them and Jeep Grand Cherokees, after it was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice back in May. The company has since come up with a fix and a ruling from the EPA is expected soon. So with production resuming, it looks like FCA thinks it will get approval.
TOYOTA HYDROGEN PROJECT KICKS OFF
Toyota is one of the few automakers to have a fuel cell powered car out in the market but it’s looking to use the technology in more than just passenger cars. The automaker, along with other Japanese corporations and the Japanese government, are beginning full scale operation of a project to power fuel cell forklifts through a renewable hydrogen supply chain. Wind turbines are used to generate electricity, which is then used to make hydrogen through water electrolysis. Excess electricity is stored in used nickel-metal hydride Prius batteries, so when there is no wind, the operations can continue. The hydrogen is compressed and loaded into fueling trucks, which is then delivered directly to forklift operators. The forklifts are powered by refurbished fuel cells from the Toyota Mirai. The fuel cell forklifts are currently being used in four locations throughout Japan but the goal is to expand it throughout the country. The Group says that initial tests show the potential to cut CO2 emissions by up to 80% compared with forklifts powered by gasoline or grid electricity.
Coming up next, automakers in China want the government to back off its quota for EVs.
VOLKSWAGEN DROPS THE TOUAREG
A popular question for Volkswagen has been, what’s going to happen to the Touareg now that the Atlas is out? Well Motor Trend reports that the SUV will be discontinued in the U.S. and will not have a 2018 model. It makes sense too. The vehicle hasn’t seen much change since it first came out in 2004 and the price is high. Even a top-of-the-line Atlas with all-wheel drive undercuts the Touareg’s $50,000 starting price. And sales have been suffering. Volkswagen has only sold 1,629 so far this year and it sits on 276 days’ supply, when 60 days is considered good. I will note that is down from 512 days’ supply in May, so Volkswagen is likely offering heavy discounts as it tries to move the last remaining examples.
OEMs WANT CHINA TO BACK OFF EV TARGETS
China recently upheld its strict sales targets for electric and plug-in vehicles. It wants those types of vehicles to hit 8% of sales next year, 10% by the year after that and 12% by 2020. But a German newspaper reports that automotive associations in Europe, the U.S., Japan and South Korea have written to the Chinese government demanding it change its plans. They would like to see the targets postponed by one to three years, less harsh penalties for failing to reach quotas and set the sales mark based on an automaker’s production volume. China already ignored concessions it made with German Chancellor Angela Merkel by upholding the sales targets, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it ignore this plea as well.
Coming up next, the idea of using a Hyperloop for travelling just took a step closer to reality.
Be sure to join us later this afternoon for Autoline After Hours. Our guest will be Sandy Munro, who always brings in a bag full of high-tech goodies. And he’ll also be talking about the tear down his company did on the Chevrolet Bolt, with some amazing discoveries, especially on what it costs to make. So join John and Gary for some of the best insights into the automotive industry.
HYPERLOOP ONE PASSES ITS FIRST TEST
Sending a pod full of passengers through a vacuum at 750 MPH using electromagnetic propulsion and “magnetic levitation” sounds like science fiction, but it isn’t. Not anymore. Hyperloop One, an idea proposed by Elon Musk in 2013, had its first successful test on May 12th, 2017. The passenger pod, made of aluminum and carbon fiber, pulled 2 g’s of acceleration and reached 70 MPH. Now keep in mind, compared to the 750 MPH end-goal, 70 MPH is a humble beginning. But Hyperloop calls this a Kitty Hawk moment, equivalent to the Wright brothers flying their first airplane. The next step is testing a larger passenger pod at 250 MPH.
And with that we come to the end of today’s show, thanks for watching.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
July 13th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
If any country could pull-off an electric mandate, I would put my money on China; after-all, they can strong arm their people like few others. Communism/Socialism can be a powerful thing.
July 13th, 2017 at 12:55 pm
1) I agree. Makes you wonder why OEMs are demanding a country change what they want to do to what the manufacturers want them to do. Doubt it works anywhere where a government has a backbone. Classic way to look stupid and burn bridges.
July 13th, 2017 at 12:56 pm
I’m happy to hear that Ram and Jeep are going back into the diesel bidness. Sometimes I think it’s a kind of witch hunt on diesels. I know VW screwed the pooch for a lot of years,but I have my doubts about FCA having done the same thing.
July 13th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
I guess Touaregs sell better, when you add $30K to the price, and call them Audi or Porsche.
July 13th, 2017 at 1:13 pm
Tesla news.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-skid-is-coming-at-the-worst-time-1499446957?mod=e2tw
July 13th, 2017 at 1:16 pm
5 limited access. I tried opening the article again, and I’ve exceeded my limit.
July 13th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
I wonder if the common denominator in the diesel-gate scenarios is Bosch? Did they supply some of the software coding to Mercedes like VW?
July 13th, 2017 at 4:01 pm
@ Lisk:
Did they supply the same to VM Motori? Or does VM use their own in house stuff? Hmmm
July 13th, 2017 at 6:03 pm
Wow, Toyota’s Hydrogen forklift project takes 3 steps backwards to go one step forward! It would be much more efficient to just install the Prius batteries in the forklifts and charge them directly from the wind turbines. They could even make quick swap battery packs which would eliminate the recharge time and the no wind issues. But no, they have to waste renewable energy on the very inefficient process of making hydrogen. Compressing hydrogen to 10,000psi takes an additional 15% of the energy you had to start with. Using “excess electricity” to charge batteries would waste about 20% of the energy you had to start with. If you are going to all the effort to make hydrogen, then use the “excess electricity” to make more hydrogen and store it, so you can use it when there is no wind and skip the whole battery step. But as I pointed out in the beginning, it is must better and efficient to use renewable energy directly in lighting, running equipment, charging batteries, etc, than wasting it on an inefficient process of making hydrogen.
July 13th, 2017 at 7:24 pm
The fork lift probably wouldn’t be able to carry enough smallish, 1.4 kWh Prius batteries to have much run time, but yeah, this whole hydrogen-to-run-vehicles idea makes little sense to me.
July 14th, 2017 at 7:50 am
Off topic, I don’t know if it is just me or not but for this whole week when I type autolinedaily.com into my browser as I have always done, the computer goes to Igadea Web Design of Ann Arbor. I have tried it on my phone too with the same results. Autoline.com brings me to a bad site, too. I would think I just had a virus, except it happens on more than one device, so just a heads-up that you may want your IT folks to look into it.
July 14th, 2017 at 8:22 am
I just tried autoline.com on my phone, and what came up looked pretry bad. Autoline.tv has been what I’ve used, I think for years.
July 14th, 2017 at 8:43 am
Thanks, Kit, that worked for me. I guess I’ll start using “.tv” instead.
I think John has patented everything “autoline” except the old motor oil, so they ought to clamp down on those that jumped in on their e-property while they were on vacation!
July 17th, 2017 at 7:33 am
FWIW, the web address looks good; back to normal this week.