AD #2360 – Dana Develops Electric Axles for China, Workhorse Tests Drone Package Delivery, Toyota Puts Its History Online
May 23rd, 2018 at 11:58am
Runtime: 6:55
0:29 U.S. Sales Forecast to Drop in May
1:05 Price of Raw Materials Going Up
1:45 JLR’s Earnings Drop
2:53 Dana Develops E-Axle for Chinese Market
3:48 Daimler Highlights Factory of the Future
5:22 Workhorse Tests Drone Package Delivery
6:09 Toyota Puts Its History Online
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On today’s show… yet another company is starting to deliver packages by drone… Toyota puts its entire history online for you to look at… and Dana unveils a couple of electric axles for big trucks. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
U.S. MARKET DROPPING
Looks like higher gas prices and rising interest rates are taking a toll on new car sales in the American market. Wards is forecasting that sales will drop nearly 7% in May on a daily selling rate basis. That would put the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, or the SAAR, at only 16.6 million vehicles. Up to now the SAAR had been running at over 17 million. Also, inventory levels for trucks and SUVs are higher than normal so we could start seeing more incentives to move the metal.
RAW MATERIALS RISING
Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch reports that raw material prices are rising, especially for metals and plastics. Back in 2011 all the raw materials needed to make a car in the U.S. cost about $4,500. But then prices started dropping, to only $2,000 per car by 2016. That’s when raw materials as a percentage of the MSRP represented only 6% of the cost of a car. But right now Merrill Lynch says they represent 10%. And it says we’re going to see this impact the bottom line of car companies and suppliers.
| Raw Material Costs | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | $4,500/car | |
| 2016 | $2,000/car | 6% of MSRP |
| Today | 10% of MSRP | |
JLR EARNINGS DROP
Along those lines, Jaguar Land Rover reported its latest financial earnings and it reported a big percentage drop. JLR sold over 154,000 vehicles worldwide in the last three months of 2017, up 3.5%. And it brought in £6.3 billion in revenue, up 4.3%. But on an EBIT basis, it’s earnings dropped 33%. And its pre-tax profit dropped almost 25%, due to higher structural costs and more incentives.
| Jaguar Land Rover Earnings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 154,500 | +3.5% |
| Revenue | £6.3 Billion | +4.3% |
| EBIT | £164 Million | -33% |
| Pre-Tax Profit | £192 Million | -24.7% |
Have you ever heard about Industry 4.0? Well if you haven’t you’re going to because that’s coming up next.
DANA E-AXLE FOR TRUCKS
China is pushing buyers into electric cars and that includes commercial trucks. That’s why Dana, along with its Chinese partner Dongfeng, are launching a pair of electric axles in China for class 3 to 6 commercial trucks. One axle weighs a little over 670-pounds and has a motor that produces 174-horsepower. The larger axle covers class 4-6 trucks and features a water-glycol-cooled electric motor with 318-horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque. It weighs 816-pounds. By mounting the electric motor directly to the axle, Dana says it got rid of 100 kilos, or about 220 pounds, because it gets rid of the drive shaft and its couplings. The first application will be a Dongfeng battery-electric truck.
DAIMLER’S FACTORY OF THE FUTURE
Industry 4.0 is the term manufacturing people are using for bringing of the Internet of Things to the factory floor. It’s about connecting every piece of equipment in a factory to the cloud. And that can produce some amazing productivity improvements. Daimler calls its factory of the future “Factory 56.” AGVs, or automated guided vehicles, will deliver parts right to workers on the line. Radio frequency IDs, or RFID technology, allows parts and vehicles to be digitally tracked and linked together throughout the manufacturing process. By using artificial intelligence, Daimler will analyze data to predict when it has to do any machine maintenance, or detect any potential faults before they can spread. Factory 56 will open in 2020 and will build the newest S-class as well as the first electric vehicle for the EQ brand. You’re going to start hearing a lot more about Industry 4.0 and we’ll be devoting an entire Autoline This Week to it coming up this summer.
Coming up next, drones delivering packages to your house just took another step towards reality.
PACKAGE DELIVERY BY DRONE
Workhorse, a company that makes electric delivery trucks, is now testing out delivering packages with drones in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once an order is made through the company’s delivery app, which links with online retailers, a truck is sent out. The delivery drone, called Horsefly, is integrated into the top of an electric truck and gets loaded by a worker from inside the truck. The drone then autonomously launches and delivers the package to the drop off zone, which is determined by the customer tapping a spot on a map. The customer can even watch a video feed from the drone of the package being delivered. As of now the driver still has to be within the line of sight of the drone, but in the future it would just meet the truck at its next planned stop.
TOYOTA PUTS ITS HISTORY ONLINE
Toyota wants you to learn more about the company and is digging into its archives to upload a treasure trove of photos documenting its history. You’ll be able to find out about its founders, origins, classic cars, and more. And when it’s available, we’ll provide a link to the website where you can check it all out.
But that’s it for today. Thank you for making Autoline Daily a part of your day and we hope to see you again tomorrow.
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Comments (8)
May 23rd, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Drone delivery systems continue to evolve. I wonder if the Workhorse drone poses any danger to the driver loading the package? Snap!
May 23rd, 2018 at 12:29 pm
I’m guessing that Workhorse is just taking baby steps towards a more fully autonomous mode of delivery sometime in the future.
Because the only benefit I can see of what was shown here (package droned 50 feet from delivery truck to front door) is that Workforce can now hire partially disabled delivery truck drivers (seeing as how they’d not need to exit the vehicle to make package drops). Otherwise, this seems like it’d take longer than just running the package to the door.
May 23rd, 2018 at 12:31 pm
Lawyers will like the drone deliveries, when people start getting hit in the face by the machines.
May 23rd, 2018 at 12:33 pm
John,
Concerning the increase of raw materials costs, would it be even higher for EV’s?
May 23rd, 2018 at 2:38 pm
Forget drones and just make an Autonomus vehicle that has a robotic arm that can deliver packages. More practice and closer to becoming a reality than drones. Besides EVs are much quieter than flying drones and their buzzing sound which would become annoying very quickly.
May 23rd, 2018 at 2:57 pm
What kind of agenda is Merrill Lynch after? Trying to sway the public against the stronger growing economy? Cause seems like it would have been very easy to show in their chart everything in dollars or everything in percentages. So they are either trying to send a message or just too lazy to complete all the data. Cause if $2000 was 6% in 2016 $4500 would be 13.5% and 10% would be about $3,333 which is less than it was in 2011. Assuming the same car price. But that could have easily been figured in. Just sounds worse the way they present it.
May 23rd, 2018 at 5:56 pm
To me, the interesting thing Merrill Lynch had to say, is that raw materials are a very small part of the cost of a car.
As Barry said, raw material costs would be much higher for EV’s. Most of what I’ve heard is that raw materials are 1/4 to 1/3 of the cost of batteries.
May 24th, 2018 at 11:16 am
Here I finished the chart for ML
Year Avg car price Matl cost. Percent
2011. 30,660. $4500. 14.7%
2016. 34,450. $2000. 6%
2018. 36,270. $3627. 10%
So raw material costs may be up but still not to what it was 7 years ago. There is the whole picture.