AD #2377 – Domino’s Offers to Fix Potholes, New Manufacturing Technique, Is A 50-Mile EV Range Adequate?
June 18th, 2018 at 11:37am
Runtime: 7:31
0:31 GM Introduces New Small EV In China
1:13 Škoda Keeps Bombs and Bullets at Bay
1:59 Passenger Car Sales Continue to Slump
2:33 Passenger Car Drop Global Phenomenon
3:18 New Manufacturing Technique
4:20 Domino’s Launches Campaign to Fix Potholes
5:22 Is A 50-Mile EV Range Adequate?
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On today’s show…even as gas prices went up, passenger car sales continued to crater…Skoda, of all companies, introduces an armored vehicle…and Domino’s uses the power of pizza to repair America’s potholes. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
GM INTRODUCES NEW SMALL EV IN CHINA
General Motors along with its Chinese joint venture partners, SAIC and Wuling, just introduced the new Baojun E100 electric car. The tiny EV only sits two people and has a very similar appearance to a smart car. Its range has increased nearly 30% to 200 kilometers or 124 miles and it has a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, or 62 MPH. There are two different versions with one priced at $7,200 and the other $9,300, including government subsidies. And it is these kinds of cars that are propelling sales of electrics in China.
ŠKODA KEEPS BOMBS AND BULLETS AT BAY
For $158,000, Škoda will give you a station wagon fit for a warzone. That kind of money will get you a Škoda Superb Estate with armored plating to protect you from a rain of bullets or the wrath of bombs. The shielded Škoda, which was developed by a team in the UK, includes bulletproof glass, high strength steel, suspension and brake upgrades, along with run-flat tires. For armor enthusiasts, this three year-long Škoda project conforms to the PAS 300 standard for blast and bullet protection. Though this miniature tank may sound like a big tough military vehicle, you’d be hard-pressed to figure that out just by looking at it.
PASSENGER CAR SALES CONTINUE TO SLUMP
Will rising gasoline prices hurt sales of trucks? So far it hasn’t happened. Even though gas prices shot up in May in the U.S. market, passenger car sales fell 10%, as consumers continued to switch to crossovers, SUVs and pickups. In fact, sales of the most fuel efficient small cars are down the most, nearly 18%. But size doesn’t matter. Midsize, full-size and luxury cars are all down. In fact, they’re now falling by 50,000 to 60,000 units a month.
| U.S. PASSENGER CAR SALES, JAN-MAY 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Small | 969,251 | -17.7% |
| Midsize | 791,404 | -16.1% |
| Fullsize | 92,206 | -14.9% |
| Luxury | 399,798 | -4.0% |
| Source: WardsAuto | ||
PASSENGER CAR DROP GLOBAL PHENOMENON
By the way, the drop in passenger car sales is a global phenomenon. This chart from FCA shows that car sales are falling in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. In 2002 passenger cars accounted for 70% of all vehicles sold. By 2022 that will drop to only 48%.
Still to come…Domino’s launches a campaign to fix America’s potholes.
NEW MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUE
Here at Autoline we like to keep you up to speed on some of the latest manufacturing developments, and here’s one innovation that caught our attention. Automakers are turning to advanced high-strength steels to cut weight and improve safety, but these steels can be so strong they need new manufacturing techniques. Machine company Utica International just came up with a process called Thermal-Integrated Clinching to replace spot welds. It attaches a unit to a robot and uses a laser to heat the material before it’s clamped together. As you can see in this chart, the shear strength is not as good as a spot weld, but the cross-tension strength, which is an indication of good crash-worthiness, mostly outperforms spot welds, especially when it comes to the harder and thinner high-strength steels. And the same idea can be applied to other areas as well. Instead of cutting holes for bolts, they heat the steel so a self-piercing nut can be used, which eliminates several steps. Utica is also working on a way to join more than two layers of different materials.
FOR PIZZA’S SAKE
Domino’s is repairing potholes and it’s all for the love of pizza. The pizza company says it cares too much about its customers to let their pizza get roughed up by potholes. So it set up a website www.pavingforpizza.com, where customers fed up with potholes ruining their delivery can enter in their zip code for a chance to have their town’s potholes fixed. Domino’s has already paved roads from California to Delaware in its Paving for Pizza campaign, but what does it say about us when it takes a pizza company to fix our roads?
Is a 50-mile range large enough for an electric delivery van? One company says it sure is, and we’ll tell you why, right after this.
IS A 50-MILE EV RANGE ADEQUATE?
An electric delivery van that only gets about 50 miles of range would seem to be completely inadequate for the job. Quite the opposite, that kind of range is perfect for certain applications. Tim Reeser, the CEO of Lightning Systems which is converting Ford Transit vans into electrics was on Autoline After Hours last week. In the following clip, he explains why a 50-mile range is more than adequate.
(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
Have you heard of graphene? It’s an amazing material and on Autoline After Hours this coming Thursday we’ll have a company called Thermavance explaining how it uses graphene for automotive applications.
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
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Comments (21)
June 18th, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Hey Sean that Skoda looks like a BMW wagon.
June 18th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
That Skoda sure looks sharp (nice wagon), I believe BMW might have some words about that styling (and rightfully so). That Skoda wagon looks more like a BMW than that pickup truck (from China) that stole from Ford.
Domino’s has got a great marketing tool in their offering some pot-hole relief. And since they add that logo (painted in white), it shows what they are doing to the general public (and maybe even putting some pressure on the local authorities to get them pot-holes fixed)>
June 18th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
The Skoda Superb Estate is, basically, a not-for-America VW Passat wagon.
June 18th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
Sean, you didn’t mention the 24H of LeMans where Toyota finally got an overall victory and my beloved Corvettes were never really in contention this year. Fernando Alonso got all the buzz this year and was finally reward by being part of the winning team.
June 18th, 2018 at 12:54 pm
Potholes are ridiculous and the cost in tires and repair bills are astronomical. And of course you can’t sue city hall to get your money back.
If I were King, I’d withold every penny of Federal Highway money until states could certify that Interstates within their borders are pothole free.
I’d even go a step further and say that no money for NEW construction would come unless they could certify that STATE numbered roads are pothole free. You get nothing new until you prove you can maintain what you got.
The problem isn’t just confined to county roads and city streets. Just this past May on the way to Indy I hit a pothole on I-465 that destroyed the tire on my rental. Absolutely unacceptable.
June 18th, 2018 at 4:00 pm
You keep bemoaning the decline of the passenger car segment BUT you never qualify why the consumer is buying a larger, more expensive, and less fuel efficient vehicle. You mean no one can understand how this is happening and why? You are the smart guys!!
June 18th, 2018 at 4:04 pm
Good luck with AVs trying to navigate roads with half painted lines now they can tryAnd figure out what all the domino emblems me
June 18th, 2018 at 4:09 pm
#6 It’s easy to understand why And it’s for a couple reasons one easier access in and out of the vehicle 2 the fuel economy difference between a car and SUV really isn’t that much plus more room and better view of the road.
June 18th, 2018 at 4:13 pm
Has to be easy to be a designer in China take a really popular car change it a little bit boom done
June 18th, 2018 at 4:17 pm
I’m one of the outliers who buys cars, my last three being a Mini, a Prius, and a Corvette.
Obviously, the people who buy SUV’s and trucks don’t care much about gas mileage, but the reasons people give me for buying them are “easier to get in and out of,” and “command of the road.” I guess that means that they can see over peons like myself in cars, (while blocking my view when in front of me). Also people mention the “utility” of CUV’s, SUV’s, and pickups, even though a Prius will easily transport anything I ever see in the SUV’s and trucks at my condo.
The thing that really baffles me is that so many people buy big, “crew cab” pickups, that are so long that they are hard to get around city intersections, hard to park, and won’t even fit in the garages at my condo. I’m sure they are good for towing, but there are several of them around here, none of which tow anything, haul anything, and very rarely carry more than two people.
June 18th, 2018 at 4:24 pm
#8 In city driving, there isn’t much fuel economy difference between, say, a CR-V and Accord with the same powertrain, but at 75-80 on the interstate, the Accord would do substantially better. Still, at today’s fuel prices, many, or most Americans don’t care much about mpg.
June 18th, 2018 at 5:54 pm
Hooray for the Indiana State police!!!!!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/18/indiana-state-trooper-lauded-as-hero-for-pulling-over-slowpoke-driver.html
June 18th, 2018 at 5:56 pm
More more more!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTbdkX2Mq0
June 18th, 2018 at 6:09 pm
#10 is spot on which I would add “Supply and Demand.”
As the fleet mileage average goes down, the demand for gasoline increases and the price goes up. Kit is ready with a Prius and we have two, plug-in hybrids. But for those who wait . . . weep the rewards and pay the piper at the pump.
June 18th, 2018 at 6:43 pm
13 I feel that way about people who block passing, but in that video, there is no traffic bunched up behind the culprit.
June 18th, 2018 at 6:59 pm
…and the perpetrator signaled, and started to move over before the lights on the police car came on. Still, the perp should have been in the right lane the whole time.
June 18th, 2018 at 8:54 pm
15 I hate to see people get a traffic ticket but there is, in almost all of these left lane cruisers a massive amount of ignorance…if it takes a monetary penalty to wake them up and obey the traffic laws, so be it.
June 18th, 2018 at 9:25 pm
17 Even if the driver only got a warning, it might be a “learning experience,” being pulled over. One would hope so.
June 19th, 2018 at 9:54 am
In addition to the left lane cruisers I would like to see large trucks banned from the left lane specifically when there are three or more lanes. So many times when traffic gets backed up the trucks fill all lanes and when traffic clears everyone waits while they slowly roll up to speed side by side and make their way back into the right lanes.
June 19th, 2018 at 10:54 am
19 From the web site of a Florida newspaper:
“Florida law states no vehicle — car or truck — is allowed to drive continuously in the left lane unless there is some obstruction in other lanes, such as a crash scene, construction or traffic jam.”
Unfortunately, this is not enforced.
Also, there are some signs on I-95 saying “trucks use right two lanes only,” or something similar. That apparently is enforced, because it is very rare to see big trucks in the left lane when there are three lanes.
June 19th, 2018 at 10:55 am
19 I deal with this every time I drive I80 in ohio,Indiana,Illinois,Iowa and Nebraska. If the police enforced this much more it would start to end and they would probably catch many more dangerous and under the influence drivers.