AD #2173 – China’s Great Wall Wants Jeep, Mass. Tax on Autonomous Vehicles, Mercedes Unveils Stunning Concept
August 21st, 2017 at 11:50am
Runtime: 7:35
To watch this episode on YouTube click here.
- China’s Great Wall Confirms Interest in Jeep
- Home Depot Signs Deal with Tesla
- Delphi Backs Solid-State LiDAR
- Massachusetts Taxes Autonomous Vehicles
- Acura Reveals New Prototype Race Car
- Mercedes-Maybach’s Stunning Pebble Beach Concept
- Mercedes to Sponsor Video Game Tournaments
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On today’s show… Chinese automaker Great Wall wants to buy Jeep… Acura reveals a new prototype racecar… and legislators in Massachusetts introduce a bill to tax autonomous cars. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
FCA COULD PUT GREAT WALL AROUND JEEP
Big news today involving Jeep. Chinese automaker Great Wall publicly stated this morning that it is interested in buying Jeep. The question is, would FCA sell Jeep? Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of FCA, has indicated an interest in spinning off Jeep, Ram, and Alfa Romeo with Maserati. But what do you do with what’s left over? Here’s what Marchionne told analysts last month.
“We do need to worry about the stump that’s left behind. I mean there is a piece of business that needs to be looked after, which is relatively large and if we start picking away all the things that appear to be interesting to people, then I think we’re going to end up with a suboptimal business that cannot run.”
Here’s our Autoline Insight. Based on what Marchionne said, it’s seems unlikely FCA would spin off Jeep 100%. But perhaps it could restructure the company so that Jeep, Ram, Alfa and Maserati become stand alone companies with their own stock. This would be similar to Audi, where Volkswagen owns most the stock, but Audi shares trade freely on the market. By the way, they’re up 30% over the last 5 years.
HOME DEPOT SIGNS DEAL WITH TESLA
Tesla’s stock continues to defy gravity and one of the reasons why is that Tesla is more than just an EV company. It’s also a solar energy company. Home Depot, along with GE, just signed a deal to install solar panels made by Tesla on the roofs of 50 Home Depot stores, and store the electricity in Tesla battery packs. Home Depot will not pay for the solar panels or batteries, but will buy the electricity they generate. The financial details were not disclosed, but it’s another example of how Tesla is generating more revenue, which keeps pushing up the price of its stock.
Autonomous cars are not even for sale yet, but legislators are already getting ready to tax them. That’s coming up next.
DELPHI BACKS SOLID-STATE LIDAR
Delphi, the giant supplier company, is positioning itself to be a major player with autonomous technology. It wants to sell automakers a turn-key solution, what it’s calling “autonomy in a box.” That’s why Delphi just formed a partnership with a company called Innoviz. The Israeli start-up has developed a solid-state LIDAR system that provides better long-range scanning, object detection and is more accurate. And compared to an electro-mechanical LIDAR sensor, AKA those spinning do-hickey’s on top of the car, it’s faster, cheaper and smaller. Delphi says this technology is critical to enabling Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous vehicles to travel at high speeds. It’s targeting 2020 for Level 3 autonomy using this technology.
MASS TAX ON AVs
Autonomous cars are not anywhere close to being on sale, but the state of Massachusetts just introduced legislation to tax them to the tune of 2.5-cents for every mile driven. State legislators say that most autonomous cars will be electric and will not pay any gasoline taxes, so they need a way to have these cars pay their fair share of road maintenance. They want to introduce a tax right now, before these cars go on sale, so there is no public backlash. A think tank in Washington DC called the Eno Center for Transportation is floating the idea of having car companies pay the tax. The idea is that when you put your car in autonomous mode the manufacturer would pay the tax and charge you for the autonomous service. Don’t be surprised to see taxing miles-driven spread to other vehicles. As cars get more efficient they’re using less gasoline and paying less gasoline taxes. And states are trying to figure out new ways to replace that revenue.
Coming up next, Mercedes unveils a beautiful concept car.
ACURA’S UNVEILS NEW PROTOTYPE
In July we reported that Acura would be teaming up with Penske Racing to field a new prototype in the IMSA WeatherTech racing series and now we’re getting our first look at the finished car. Called the ARX-05, which stands for Acura Racing eXperimental, generation 5, the car is based on the ORECA 07 chassis and will be powered by a 3.5L twin-turbo V6. Two cars will be fielded, one of which will be piloted by Juan Pablo Montoya along with sports car champion Dane Cameron. The second pairing will be announced closer to the first race at the Rolex 24 in January.
MERCEDES KNOWS CLASSIC DESIGN
Infiniti and BMW just unveiled Pebble Beach concepts and now it’s Mercedes’ and Maybach’s turn. I know better than to get too excited over a concept, but the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is just beautiful. It’s long and low slung, a modern take on classic styling. I would add there’s a very nautical look to the car and at nearly 20-feet long it’s more boat-like than just its design. And while so many convertibles look odd with their tops up, this concept is as good looking covered as it is uncovered. It’s also an EV with 750-horsepower and over 200-miles of driving range.
I’LL TAKE MADDEN 18 AND A MERCEDES
And speaking of Mercedes, it’s taking a unique approach to advertising during sporting events. The automaker will now be sponsoring video game tournaments. It’s partnering with ESL, the world’s largest eSports company and its first sponsored event will be the ESL One in October. eSports have yearly prize pools of over 100 million euros and almost 500 Million streaming hours watched per month, which should help you understand Mercedes’ interest.
That wraps up today’s report. Thanks for watching and tune in again tomorrow.
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Comments (21)
August 21st, 2017 at 12:29 pm
The M-B PB Maybach Concept is absolutely stunning.
August 21st, 2017 at 12:31 pm
In as far as styling is highly subjective, let me say that I think that the Maybach is not that appealing to me; in fact, front view is just about 100% Buick (to my eye).
Massachusetts needs to further define their tax on autonomy; surely all autonomy vehicles will NOT be electric.
August 21st, 2017 at 12:33 pm
John,
If Great Wall would purchase Jeep, do you feel there could be a back lash from US buyers that the iconic nameplate is a Chinese company? I sure do.
August 21st, 2017 at 12:41 pm
If the profits from Jeep and Ram weren’t used to prop up fiat,alfa,and maserati,there would be no need for as sale or partnership.It seems like the red headed step child is supporting the whole family.
August 21st, 2017 at 12:42 pm
How does Massachusetts justify a 2.5 cent per mile charge for AVs? Based on that formula, a 40mpg car would be paying 90 cents a gallon in taxes, not the 26.5 taxed per gallon currently. It looks like vehicles getting just 15 mpg would have the same “road usage” to gas tax ratio.
The Maybach 6- nothing but stunning. It looks like M-B is giving their convertible concepts a similar nautical theme that Rolls has done recently.
August 21st, 2017 at 12:53 pm
@ Barry R: Yes,absolutely.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:05 pm
All of those free loading Teslas need to start paying up for the roads they wear out just like all of us with gas and diesel. Add to that the Gov’t EV incentives and you have a great deal if you can afford the entry price.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:22 pm
Taxassachusetts, I am so happy I do not live there.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:23 pm
My Suggestion to the State of Massachusetts is to add a flat $300.00 a year registration / road tax onto EV’s calculated in this way(12,0000 miles times 2.5 cents per mile). This is a very simple way to recapture those lost gasoline tax revenue.
Option # 2 is that upon the annual Safety Inspection the vehicle’s mileage is recorded and at the next annual safety inspection the new mileage is recorded and the actual miles that were drive is determined and taxed at that time using the same 2.5 cents per mile.
That rate can always be adjusted as determine by State Government.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:46 pm
The legislators of Massachusetts are just looking for an excuse to generate revenue. Reasonably taxing EVs to equate to a similar non-EV car is fine, but autonomy has nothing to do with it, and to claim most cars in the future will be EVs is just an excuse to capitalize on an upcoming trend. And how do you even define autonomy. Does Cadillac Super-Cruise start costing the owner every time they push the cruise button? To take this to the extreme, I can see some state starting to charge for autonomy because the accidents go down, and the taxes are needed to compensate insurance companies and unemployed emergency workers/ first responders.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:46 pm
If FCA sells Jeep and Ram, there is no chance of the remainder surviving, unless someone else wants to buy other parts of the company. If GM wants to get back into the van business, they might want Chrysler.
I’d think there would be backlash if a Chinese company owned Jeep, but maybe not. People don’t care where products are made, as with iPhones, so maybe they wouldn’t care who owns the company.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:53 pm
I’m probably in a minority here, but I like gas tax, but it encourages conservation of a fuel that has multiple detrimental effects on the planet. EV’s should be taxed on miles driven, but I don’t see why autonomous cars should be treated differently. It doesn’t really matter what Mass is talking about anyway, since it will be decades before autonomous cars exist.
August 21st, 2017 at 1:57 pm
It’s getting a lot darker here in central Indiana, even though the sun is out.
August 21st, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Let’s face it Jeep IS FCA; selling it will cripple the rest (maybe even be the end of some of the remnants.
August 21st, 2017 at 3:12 pm
Eclipse came and went, went from clouds to a few great views; Charleston, full eclipse for about 1:45 minutes, truly some wonderful sights and memories.
August 21st, 2017 at 3:29 pm
15 On TV, it looked like they had nice lightning at Charleston, to go with the eclipse.
August 21st, 2017 at 3:31 pm
16, yes northwest of my location there was a thunderstorm; my daughter was in the storm (and missed the eclipse because of it).
August 21st, 2017 at 4:34 pm
Mass tax. No surprise there. My neighbor to the south lives up to their name, Taxachusetts. But those nitwits move up here to NH and try to pull the same taxing tricks. And to say they are doing this now to avoid backlash is appalling. Just part of the taxing slide of hand. Thank god im retired now and do not have to give those idiots my hard earned money. When will their cousins out west pull the same trick? They have always wanted to tax mileage and forcing EVs sets them up. “It’s only fair”.
August 21st, 2017 at 4:41 pm
@ Tuck&roll: They have been trying the same thing here in whoregon for at least the last 3 or 4 years.We don’t need,or want no steekin’ mileage tax.
August 21st, 2017 at 5:40 pm
17, On TV, they were at the navy base, and you could see the eclipse, and the lightning in the distance. It sounds like your daughter wasn’t so lucky.
August 22nd, 2017 at 2:20 pm
That MB Vision looks like a 1960′s concept car, and time has passed it by.