AD #2298 – Geely Now Daimler’s Largest Shareholder, Nissan Introduces New SUV, FCA’s Ralph Gilles a Hero
February 26th, 2018 at 11:35am
Runtime: 8:01
0:31 Geely Now Daimler’s Largest Shareholder
1:08 Geely Facing Pushback from Daimler Stake
1:45 Daimler Suspected of Using Defeat Devices
2:58 Volvo Creates New Luxury Brand
3:35 Nissan Introduces New SUV
3:56 FCA’s Ralph Gilles a Hero
5:15 Why the Leaf’s Styling Is More Mainstream
Visit our sponsors to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone , Dow Automotive Systems and Lear Corporation.
On today’s show…Ralph Gilles is not only the head designer for FCA, he’s a superhero…Geely drops a bombshell on Daimler and everyone’s up in arms…and why Nissan realized the Leaf needed all-new styling. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
GEELY NOW DAIMLER’S LARGEST SHAREHOLDER
Never a dull moment in the automotive industry. Geely dropped a bomb by announcing it is now the largest shareholder in Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Li Shufu is the guy who started Geely and he’s amassing an amazing automotive empire. Geely’s portfolio now includes Volvo car, Volvo truck, the sports car manufacturer Lotus, the Malaysian automaker Proton, London EV which makes the London cabs and Terrafugia, the American company designing flying cars.
GEELY FACING PUSHBACK FROM DAIMLER STAKE
But buying 9.7% of Daimler is not going down well in Europe. Bloomberg reports that Daimler is trying to prevent him from getting a board seat because it competes against both Volvo Car and Volvo Truck. Also, Daimler has partnerships with Chinese automakers BAIC and BYD. Li Shufu is an amazing guy. The 54-year-old was born dirt poor, and still speaks like a country bumpkin, but he’s putting together a powerful automotive conglomerate. Keep an eye on this guy because we’re going to be hearing a lot more about him.
DAIMLER SUSPECTED OF USING DEFEAT DEVICES
Besides Geely, the people at Daimler sure have their hands full. The German newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, reports that some Mercedes-Benz models were equipped with defeat devices similar to what Volkswagen used. That’s based on a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, which alleges the automaker developed several software programs that allows the engine to run clean but only for a limited time before it would switch to a so called “Dirty Mode.” It says investigators found another software function that detects when the car is being tested on a rolling road and then increases the amount of AdBlue into the SCR system. This sure helps explain why Mercedes announced last year that it would stop selling diesels in the U.S.
Coming up next, yet another reason why Mercedes is going to be very concerned about Geely becoming its largest shareholder.
VOLVO CREATES NEW LUXURY BRAND
We’re learning more about Volvo’s plans with its Polestar brand. Just as Toyota created Lexus, Polestar is going to be Volvo’s luxury brand. It’s going to launch the brand with the Polestar 1, a high-performance, hybrid coupe with unmistakable Volvo design language. But after that all the vehicles will be battery electrics and will not be styled to look like Volvo’s at all. Moreover, the Polestar brand will be sold in separate dealerships. In fact, existing Volvo dealers will not necessarily get the new franchise, as Volvo seeks out the best of the best.
NISSAN INTRODUCES NEW SUV
And while most of the automotive world is moving away from body on frame vehicles, Nissan is showing off a new SUV called the Terra, which uses a body on frame. It’s part of a push to increase light commercial vehicles sales more than 40% by 2022 and become a global leader in pickups and frame-based SUVs.
FCA’S RALPH GILLES A HERO
Some are calling Ralph Gilles, the head of design at FCA, a hero. While he and his wife, Doris were coming home from an event late last Sunday, they were the first ones to come on the scene of an accident. No one else was there and they stopped to see what they could do. A drunk driver in a Ford Edge hit a Ford Fiesta head on and the people in the Fiesta were trapped inside. As that was going on, a Buick LeSabre came along and plowed right into the Fiesta, pushing it into the Edge, which caught on fire. Thinking quickly, Gilles jumped in his Jeep Wrangler, pushed the burning Edge away from the other cars. Unfortunately, the passenger of the Fiesta was later pronounced dead, but Gilles is credited with saving the life of the driver. Gilles said it was fortunate he was not driving his Dodge Challenger because he did not think it would have had the traction to push the burning car away. What a story.
Coming up next, we’ll take a look at why Nissan wanted to change the styling on the Leaf.
WHY THE LEAF’S STYLING IS MORE MAINSTREAM
The styling of the original Nissan Leaf is a bit quirky looking but the new model is more mainstream. On Autoline After Hours we were joined by Christopher Reed, the VP of Engineering of the Nissan Leaf and talked about why the company made that decision.
(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
For a deeper dive into the all-new Nissan Leaf, you can watch that entire discussion right now on Autoline.tv or on our YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Share
Permalink
Comments (18)
February 26th, 2018 at 11:55 am
Sean,
With the Chinese making all these investments auto manufacturers, where do you think all this is going? Are they wanting world domination of the Chinese auto industry and how worried should the be with this?
February 26th, 2018 at 12:07 pm
@Barry – I wouldn’t say world domination, but the Chinese do want to establish themselves in major markets, like the U.S. and Europe and I think it all has to do with profits. In China, profits are split among the companies that form a joint venture. You don’t have to do that in other major markets. And as a viewer of this show, you know that automakers can make boat loads of profit on trucks, luxury vehicles and SUVs. That’s why the Chinese are so eager to enter other markets.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:13 pm
German auto manufactures seem to be like Russian athletes, they just have to cheat.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:30 pm
Ralph Gilles is a smart guy with fast reflexes and can think clearly under pressure. I hope to see him one day as the President of FCA or any other Automotive OEM.
This builds my confidence in the fact that the Jeep Brand can handle just about anything.
Great Job Mr. Ralph Gilles!
February 26th, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Who are the Stock Portfolio managers over at Daimler? These guys must be sleeping at the wheel.
This is an example of how global competitors will use our own systems whether they are financial or legal to gain access and increase their sphere of influence throughout the world.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:29 pm
Li Shufu can take Daimler to court and force his way to the company’s Board of Directors especially as he continues to buy more of the company.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:38 pm
I always considered Volvo to be a luxury brand. So differentiating them from Polestar will be like Chevy vs Buick IMO. Oh and Polestar doesn’t convey luxury to me.
The Leaf did need restyled as pretty much all EV cars and most hubrid cars do. This is where manufacturers could learn something from Tesla. Why does electric and ugly (unique in their terms) have to go together? Just design a good looking car and offer huge EV decals and emblems for those self righteous folks that feel the need to let everyone know they are driving a EV. But they would probably sell more cars if they would design something appealing.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:58 pm
Quick thinking on Mr. Gilles part, but I’m not sure if he himself could have caught his Wrangler on fire and not because of the Fiesta in flames.
If his Wrangler is a new model and has the battery under the seat, it uses 1234yf refrigerant in the air conditioner. 1234yf is made of flammable butane and isobutane. If he cracked the charging port or refrigerant line while pushing the car out of the way, the fire could have ignited the butane. Things aren’t so simple any more!
February 26th, 2018 at 2:34 pm
@5: anybody can buy stocks of a stock listed company like Daimler, and company employees cannot forbid any investor to invest. So there is no “Daimler Portfolio Manager” to be blamed.
February 26th, 2018 at 2:58 pm
To me, Polestar doesn’t mean “luxury” at all. It means “performance.” The only Polestar product I have knowingly seen is the V60 wagon, which is Volvo’s version of an AMG or BMW ‘M’ product. It sounds like they plan to completely re-invent the Polestar “brand.”
I saw a Chevy Bolt “in person” for the first time a few days ago, and to me, it looks pretty much like another small crossover. Yeah, the outgoing Leaf looks kind of odd, but, to me, not ugly like an Aztec.
February 26th, 2018 at 3:08 pm
8 I suspect Gilles was prepared to make a quick exit from his Wrangler, given that he was pushing a burning car. Even without releasing flammable stuff from his car, things could get very exciting very quickly, regarding his own safety.
February 26th, 2018 at 4:10 pm
First the partnerships supply Chinese companies with capital and quality control processes. Next these companies are in a position to compete on the world market against these same companies. An onslaught of Chinese companies are expected to hit the world markets in the 2020 time frame. And the Chinese Communist party will obviously give preference to their own brands.
February 27th, 2018 at 7:59 am
#12 BINGO! Bob exactly what I been saying. These partnerships will provide short term returns at a huge cost in the long term. So automakers can jump in on the growing market they’ll sell their soul and in a couple years wonder why they lost majority sales to Chinese cars that are about to do what the Japanese did to the US market in the 80s and what the Koreans are doing currently and when Ford and GM are left with 10% of US sales they’ll scratch their head and wonder why and beg the UAW to lower wages to compete with the Chinese. Basically the US auto worker will have to work for minimum wage. Tariffs are about the only thing that may protect that from happening.
February 27th, 2018 at 8:22 am
#10 Kit; Yeah the Polestar name does sound more like a Chrysler sports division. Like Pole-position meshed with Pentastar.
Guess having an Volvo R series racing or L for luxury would not provide enough separation.
Also a Volvo “L” sounds too close to Volvulus which is a painful twist in the intestinal track. So I guess a new name is best. But when most models start in the 40′s up to 60 So the luxury brand cars will start mid 80s? I wonder if they are targeting more the likes of Bentley.
February 27th, 2018 at 8:51 am
The current Polestar V60 and S60 have one of the most boosted 2.0 liter fours out there, 362 hp. Somehow, using the same name for luxury EV’s seems odd. We’ll see how that goes.
February 27th, 2018 at 9:32 am
#15 Kit do you know how much boost they’re putting in those engines? I think most production cars are below 14PSI but race cars often run 50-60 and top fuel engines are around 80PSI and then Diesels used in tractor pulling can go as high as 250psi but none of those engines usually last very long.
February 27th, 2018 at 10:05 am
#16 It’s 42.7 psi, according to Wards. That’s a lot, for a street engine running on pump gas. I suspect it REALLY NEEDS PREMIUM, and the highest octane you can find.
http://m.wardsauto.com/2017/2017-winner-volvo-v60-polestar-20l-turbosupercharged-dohc-4-cyl
February 27th, 2018 at 2:02 pm
#9- There are restrictions on buying large amounts of share of US companies. The SEC enforces this. It is more about disclosures, but it does give companies the ability to react to hostile takeovers. I don’t know if Germany has similar restrictions.