On today’s show…Ford’s new CEO brooms out a number of executives to make way for the people he wants…Lexus comes up with a paint job that takes 8 months to make…and we’ll explain the importance of this compact Chevy pickup that Egyptians have nicknamed The Tank. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

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

FORD MANAGEMENT SHAKE-UP
He’s been CEO for Ford for 5 months and we still don’t exactly know Jim Hackett’s strategy for the company. But we’re getting closer. Yesterday he broomed out a number of executives and promoted a number of others. Perhaps the most significant promotion involves Kumar Galhotra, who had been running Lincoln. He keeps that job but also gets all global marketing. Linda Cash is now in charge of all quality and new model launches, and had been running all manufacturing in Europe. Birgit Behrendt, who ran powertrain purchasing, is named to a newly created position leading Joint Ventures, Alliances and Commercial Affairs at Ford of Europe. Joy Falotico, the chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Credit now will report directly to Hackett. John Casesa, the Wall Street analyst who was running Ford’s strategy group, Steve O’Dell who was running Global Marketing, Bennie Fowler who was the head of quality and Felicia Fields who ran HR have all elected to retire from the company. Here’s our Autoline Insight. By shaking up the management ranks Hackett is getting closer to giving us a lot more detail about how he plans to move the company forward. Wall Street loves what General Motors is doing but is not very impressed by Ford. Hackett has to turn that around. But he couldn’t announce his plans until he had the people he wants in place. I think we’re going to hear a lot more details about his strategy coming up very soon.

DELPHI ACQUIRES NUTONOMY
Last year, the start-up company nuTonomy became the first to offer autonomous rides to the public in Singapore. And now it’s been acquired by the supplier Delphi for $450 million. This is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Delphi to bolster its self-driving technology. It wants to sell automakers a turn-key solution or what it calls “autonomy in a box.” With this acquisition, Delphi will be operating 60 autonomous vehicles on public roads on three continents.

And don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours this Thursday. The show’s going to be all about the new Honda Accord. Joining Gary and I, will be Ray Mikiciuk, who heads up sales and Don Marnock to talk about its manufacturing story. So if you have any questions you’d like us to ask them, send them our way to viewermail@autoline.tv.

Honda just rolled out another sporty EV and we’ll tell you more about it after this.

LEXUS DEVELOPS UNIQUE PAINT FOR LC
Lexus is getting set to introduce a limited run of its LC sports car, called the Inspiration Series. It has a bespoke white interior, unique 21-inch wheels and even comes with its own set of wine glasses. But the real highlight of this car is its paint. The color is called Structural Blue even though it actually has no blue pigment. The flakes in the paint are like little nanostructures and when laid in right pattern, only reflect blue light. This is not something you have done at your local Maaco. The paint is developed through an eight-month process. The Lexus LC Inspiration Series will be available in Spring of 2018.

HONDA REVEALS SPORTS EV CONCEPT
To follow up on a teaser shot we showed you about a month ago, Honda introduced its Sports EV Concept. The little car combines EV performance with artificial intelligence and rides on the same platform as the Urban EV Concept, which debuted at the Frankfurt motor show. Honda says it will start selling compact EVs in its home market in 2020 and we hope the cars look a lot like these two concepts.

Have you seen this pickup before? It’s the Chevrolet TFR and in Egypt they’ve nicknamed it The Tank. And we’ll tell you more about that right after this.

BEST SELLING VEHICLES AROUND THE WORLD
No doubt most of you are aware that the Ford F-150 is the best selling vehicle in the American market. And the Canadian market too, by the way. But do you know what the best selling vehicle in China is? It’s the Wuling Hongguang. No doubt you already know that Wuling is partly owned by General Motors. In Germany the best selling car is the Volkswagen Golf. In Japan, it’s the Toyota Aqua, better known in other markets as the Prius C. In Brazil the Chevrolet Onix, which is only sold in South America, tops the sales charts. In Indonesia, the Toyota Avanza, which was actually designed by Daihatsu, outsells everyone else. And in Egypt the Chevrolet TFR is the best selling vehicle in the country. In fact the little pickup is so popular it’s been nicknamed “El Dabbabah” which means “The Tank.” We got this information from a company in the UK called Aira, which is dedicated to helping people who are visually impaired. We don’t know why in the world it would create a graphic of the top selling vehicles in the world, but it sure is interesting to look at. If you’d like to see the entire global map, click on the headline to this story in the transcript to this show, which you can find on our website www.Autoline.tv.

And that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.