AD #2459 – Auto Industry Headed for Downturn? More Porsche Taycan Details, Honda Adds Performance to Its Jet
October 18th, 2018 at 12:07pm
Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 7:10
0:26 Merrill Lynch Predicts Global Auto Downturn
1:07 Did Chevy Chicken Out of Texas Truck Rodeo?
1:59 Ford & Mahindra to Develop Engines & Telematics
2:59 More Details on Porsche’s First EV
5:25 Google Maps Now Shows EV Charging Stations
6:08 Honda Adds Performance Package to Its Jet
Visit our sponsors to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone , Dow Automotive Systems , Lear Corporation , and ExxonMobil.
On today’s show… looks like the auto industry could be headed for a global downturn… we’ve got more details on the Porsche Taycan… and Honda comes out with a new performance brand, but not the kind you’re thinking about. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
MERRILL LYNCH PREDICTS AUTO DOWNTURN
Uh-oh, has the downcycle already started for the global automotive industry? That’s what Merrill Lynch says. In fact it says it started in the second quarter of this year when a number of automakers, like Ford, GM, BMW and Mercedes began lowering their profit forecasts. And now it looks like car sales are starting to drop all over the world. On top of that prices of raw materials are going up, and trade tensions are slowing economic growth. Merrill Lynch says, “a significant negative earnings revision cycle is imminent.” Translation? Automotive stock prices are about to take a tumble.
DID CHEVY TURN TAIL AND RUN?
Last year Chevrolet took the automotive press to Texas to introduce the all-new Silverado pick-up truck. In fact, it flew the truck into the Texas Motor Speedway dangling from a helicopter. But when it came time for the Texas Truck Rodeo, where 60 Texas journalists test all the trucks on the market and give the best on the prestigious Texas Truck Of The Year award, Chevy did not even show up. And so the all-new Ram swept the awards. A Chevy spokesperson told the Detroit Free Press that they were concentrating on other events. Ford skipped the event too, but it does not have an all-new truck. So why was Chevy really a no-show? One member of the Texas Auto Writers Association said, “The sense was, they knew they wouldn’t win and tucked their tails between their legs and ran.”
FORD & MAHINDRA WORKING CLOSER TOGETHER
We know that something big is brewing at Ford. It’s going to announce some kind of partnership with Volkswagen. But it’s also working on plans with the Indian automaker Mahindra. Now we’re getting a few more details. They already announced a partnership to develop vehicles, powertrains and connected car solutions. And now we’re learnings that Mahindra will develop and supply a small-displacement gasoline engine for Ford India, which it will start using in 2020. And the two companies will create a telematics control unit, which will be used in both Ford and Mahindra vehicles.
We’ve got more details on how Porsche is developing the Taycan and that’s coming up next.
MORE DETAILS ON PORSCHE TAYCAN
Porsche’s first full electric vehicle, the Taycan just hit the second phase of prototype production and we’re getting more details about the EV. It will ride on an all-new dedicated EV platform that is made from a combination of high-strength steel, aluminum and carbon fiber. The sedan version will be close to 8-inches shorter, but over 2-inches wider than a Panamera. WardsAuto also confirms there will be high-riding CUV, similar to the recent Mission E Cross Turismo concept as well as a possible coupe and cabriolet. By spinning several models off one platform Porsche can save a boatload of money and really boost profit margins. Several power outputs are being tested, ranging from about 400-horsepower to just over 600-horsepower. Zero to 100 kilometers an hour is expected to come in around 3.5-seconds, a number Tesla fans are sure to make fun of. Starting price is said to fit between the $66,000 Cayenne and $85,000 Panamera, and Porsche has initially set production capacity between 20,000 and 25,000 units a year. There’s a lot more detail about the Taycan in that Wards article, so if you’d like to get more just look for the link in the transcript on our website or in the description box below.
Gearheads rejoice! We’re going to take a deep dive into the Ford flathead V8 on Autoline After Hours later this afternoon. Craig Cole with Autoguide and a flathead fanatic himself is going to drag an engine into the studio with him. Also joining us for the show is another gearhead, Steve Purdy of the Shunpiker Journal. My co-host Gary Vasilash and I will also offer up our own insights and opinions on what’s going on in the world of automotive. So join us for Autoline After Hours today, or catch it at your leisure on our website or Youtube channel.
Coming up next, Honda has a new performance brand and it might kind of surprise you.
GOOGLE MAPS NOW FEATURES EV CHARGING STATIONS
Anyone who uses Google maps in their car knows that it can be a god-send in getting you around traffic jams. And now they’re adding a valuable feature if you drive an EV or plug-in hybrid. Google Maps will now show you where the closest charging stations are. You’ll also see information about the station from drivers, including photos, ratings, reviews and questions. It supports all Tesla and Chargepoint stations around the world. In the U.S. it will show you where SemaConnect, EVgo and Blink chargers are located. In the UK it will show Chargemaster, Pod Point and in Australia and New Zealand it will show Chargefox.
HONDA ADDS PERFORMANCE PACKAGE TO JET
You’ve heard of Mercedes AMG, but have you heard of Honda’s APMG? It stands for Advanced Performance Modification Group. Every automaker seems to have a performance brand these days, but we didn’t see this one coming from Honda. APMG is the performance arm of Honda’s jet manufacturing division. The performance package offers shorter takeoffs and landings, increased payload at takeoff and more mission capabilities. The avionics also get upgraded. The base jet costs about $5 million, and the performance package adds about $250,000 to the price.
And that wraps up today’s report. 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 (34)
October 18th, 2018 at 12:29 pm
Well, Chevy skipped the event last year as well (siting efforts in other Truck of the Year challenges). Whether they turned tail and ran, maybe a case can be made, but I’m also thinking maybe the Texas Truck Rodeo felt slighted and threw a cheap shot at Chevy (they should have heaved a ‘sling’ at Ford too). Maybe much ado about little. And perhaps too many best of this and best of that going around in the first place.
October 18th, 2018 at 12:33 pm
I’ll be watching AAH today. A friend has a ’51 Mercury with a flathead V8, and I always found that engine interesting, especially its history. In 1932, that engine was “affordable performance,” at a time when most cars with similar performance would have cost more than twice as much as a Ford.
October 18th, 2018 at 12:37 pm
It will be interesting to see how these other truck “awards” turn out. If the Ram’s mild hybrid system actually delivers, in real world mpg and performance, it deserves awards for that. Also, I think the Ram is the best looking of the big pickups. That may be a bad thing, though, for the manufactures, since I am about as far from a “truck person” as exists.
October 18th, 2018 at 12:38 pm
The dodge or ram or .. whatever does look like the slightly better truck, that said if I was about to buy one I would choose the Silverado. They are all quite capable, sort of like fighting over the best supercar, does matter anymore.
October 18th, 2018 at 12:53 pm
I suppose it would be disappointing to hold an event and not have participation. Seems like a cheap shot at GM when Ford didn’t show up either. Maybe its more reflection of their Texas event. I think truck buyers would be more interested in CR than who wins the Texas Rodeo.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:16 pm
To pickup buyers, brand loyalty is still a big thing, at least between Ford and Chevy.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:25 pm
@ Kit: Brand loyalty for my pickups over the decades never existed. I have had new trucks from the big 3. Some were good,some were great,and some were definitely ‘Monday’ trucks.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:30 pm
#7 – Pickup brand loyalty may not be high on your list, however as Kit Gerhard stated, I know from the past brand loyalty was very high among pickup purchasers to the point where some states were Ford, some were GM, & possibly today some are Dodge/Ram.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:33 pm
Honda needs to worry more about fuel diluting the oil in their 1.5t auto engines.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:40 pm
7 G.A., I suspect brand loyalty with pickups is less prevalent than it once was, but is still greater than with cars.
Most of the Dodge/Ram sales are “conquest,” and especially were in the 90s, when Dodge more than tripled sales overnight with ’94 redesign. Also, pickup buyers have not latched onto the Japanese brand big pickups, though the “Detroit three” trucks are better in many ways, and offer more variants, contributing to that.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:52 pm
-Another day, another horribly misguided decision by Clueless Hatchet at Ford. As if all these dealers did not lose enough $100,000s each to the promises of the Crooks of Mahindra, now Ford was to lose its shirt too, by partnering with these crooks!
-I doubt you will be able to get a Porsche Taycan for even the $85,000 upper value cited at Ward’s. Porsche wants to sell variants for up to $200,000, and if the base price is $85k, do not expect to get one for five figures, with the minimum of options. Tesla 3 has nothing to fear from the Taycan. maybe some Tesla S versions may lose a few sales to it.
October 18th, 2018 at 1:57 pm
Porsche, M-B, and Audi are preparing to compete with Tesla S, but Tesla will still have a huge advantage, for those who want to take their expensive EVs very far from home, the supercharger network.
October 18th, 2018 at 2:10 pm
12 I expect M-B and BMW to offer lower-priced EVs than Porsche, but another issue is that EV buyers do not want to be associated with brands that also make dirty gas and diesel vehicles. They are willing to wait in line for a Tesla for four years, but not for anybody else.
I still suspect that none of the German EVs will be able to compete with the base Tesla 3, but mostly with the S and X. You can see it in their own goals about numbers of units they set as a goal.
October 18th, 2018 at 3:27 pm
To follow up from yesterday’s comments.
US fatalities and injuries in road accidents are not worse than most other developed nations, and developing nations are much worse than developed, if measured in death per 100 million miles driven.
A typical year has 40,000 to 42,000 fatalities in the US. A few years ago, before the texting and distracted driving, of these 40k fatalities, more than 2/3rds were easily avoidable, without spending any money, because 1/3rd was due to drunk driving and the other 1/3rd was idiots that did not wear their seat belts.
If one analyzes this year’s fatalities I would guess a little more than 2/3rds would be avoidable without spending any extra $, because you have to add all the irresponsible clowns that text and drive.
To blame large SUVs for traffic fatalities is a totally unconvincing scapegoating.
First of all there is an even larger number of vehicles, that are even less safe to drive and control than SUVs, and which their owners need even less than SUV owners, and these are all the G – D Pickups that every secretary drives, many single people with no farms or workshops, peoplw who do not need the pickup in their daily lives. Ford, GM and Ram alone sell more than 2 million of these every year, I bet this is 5 times the number of the (safer to handle) Big SUVs of all makers.
October 18th, 2018 at 3:32 pm
To follow up from yesterday’s comments.
US fatalities and injuries in road accidents are not worse than most other developed nations, and developing nations are much worse than developed, typically measured in deaths per 100 million miles driven.
A typical year has 40,000 to 42,000 fatalities in the US. A few years ago, before the texting and distracted driving, of these 40k fatalities, more than 2/3rds were easily avoidable, without spending any money, because 1/3rd were due to drunk driving and the other 1/3rd were due to idiots that did not wear their seat belts.
If one analyzes this year’s fatalities I would guess a little more than 2/3rds would be avoidable without spending any extra $, because you have to add all the irresponsible clowns that text and drive and other serious distracted driving causes.
To blame large SUVs for traffic fatalities is a totally unconvincing scapegoating.
First of all there is an even larger number of vehicles, that are even less safe to drive and control than SUVs, and which their owners need even less than SUV owners, and these are all the G – D Pickups that every secretary drives, many single people with no farms or workshops, people who do not need the pickup in their daily lives. Ford, GM and Ram alone sell more than 2 million of these every year, I bet this is 5 times the number of the (safer to handle) Big SUVs of all makers.
October 18th, 2018 at 3:37 pm
#12 Yeah I’m going to start selling adapters from the Tesla superchargers that fit the SAE J1772 connectors. Okay I’m not but someone will.
October 18th, 2018 at 4:00 pm
#14 I’m not sure I follow your reasoning, You defend SUVs by saying 2/3 of accidents are avoidable due to reasons that have nothing to do with vehicle size yet say that trucks are less safe. Yet if I was rear-ended by a 80k lb tractor trailer I would much rather have my kids in the back seat of a 4 door pick up than in the third row of a large SUV.
But either way I would not want the option to drive what I want taken away or from the secretary from 1960s. For many people who people complain about driving a truck alone what they may not know is they own a boat or camper or tow smowmobiles, motorcycles or haul wood cause they own a wood stove. Whatever reason most new trucks start in the 40k price range so that also means it becomes your daily driver. So yep most of the time you may go to work in your big SUV or pickup alone. But during the weekend you need a truck or room for 5 to 7. Due to seatbelt laws if you have more than 3 kids you need a 3rd row. And if you have a family of 6 and a camper its probably too big to pull with a minivan. There is a place and need for the large trucks and SUVs and they cost too much to buy just for the weekends.
October 18th, 2018 at 4:20 pm
14 I recently read that traffic fatality rates are higher in the U.S. than in a number of other developed countries, and while there are multiple reasons, like lower seat belt usage rates and crappy driver training in the U.S., the disparity in vehicle size also contributes. I’ll try to find a link to the article.
Yeah, fatality rates are much higher in developing countries where regular traffic is total chaos, and the average vehicle has little more crashworthiness than an air cooled VW Beetle.
October 18th, 2018 at 4:27 pm
16 None of the 4 people in my condo building with big “crew cab” pickups ever tow anything, haul more than what would easily fit in a Focus or Cruze hatchback, and never drive them where they would need extra ground clearance, etc. Yeah, as long as people have spare money, people think it is “cool” to drive big trucks, they will continue to sell at the current 2M/year rate.
October 18th, 2018 at 4:30 pm
14 Pickups, at least RWD pickups, must be less prone to rollover than most SUVs, because SCCA allows autocrossing of the pickups, but not SUVs, except a few “specialty,” lowered ones, like the GMC Typhoon of the ’90s.
October 18th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
Elon sees the competition as complimentary. His goal is sustainable, renewable, efficient cars and Tesla does not have to make every one.
The Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf are fine electric cars as well as others whose specs and styles appeal to non-Tesla buyers. If those EVs are bought instead of another fossil fueled vehicle, GREAT!
Think about it, Tesla has a 3 day supply of Model 3. Tesla really doesn’t have a threatening competitor … except for those who can’t count sales numbers.
October 19th, 2018 at 1:31 am
Tesla introduced a mid-range, Model 3, cutting $4000 off the price to $45,000. Just another step towards the $35,000 version. Web link is to Jalopnik.
October 19th, 2018 at 8:19 am
22. The Tesla site now also shows a black and white interior, in addition to the “nothing but black,” which was the only thing shown a few weeks ago.
October 19th, 2018 at 9:38 am
23 That’s for Model 3.
October 19th, 2018 at 10:15 am
I don’t know if I’d call it scapegoating, but the facts are a larger vehicle will always prevail over a smaller one. With so many people in large SUVs those of us that still do drive cars are at a major safety disadvantage. It is never the vehicles fault for it’s improper use and operation, but physics will say in a crash bigger will be better. People need to take their driving more seriously. Maybe it’s making it harder to get a license that is the answer . Maybe extremely steep fines will get their attention .
October 19th, 2018 at 10:26 am
Traffic fatalities, U.S. vs other developed countries.
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/30/13784520/roads-deaths-increase-safety-traffic-us
October 19th, 2018 at 11:04 am
22 I saw my first Tesla 3 on the road here a week ago or so, a grayish color, and it sure did not impress me. I saw it from the front, where the car has no grille, and it looks like a face with no mouth, nose etc. THIS is a problem for EVs that other manufacturers address by a fake grille (which i also do not like) or some other trademark feature so you can recognize the car from a distance. A big Tesla Logo up front would break the monotony of bare panel.
I still do not see the attraction of a $45k Tesla 3 vs a far bigger, better in every way, young (2013 or later) slightly used Tesla S.
As far as the also rans, wake me up when I can get a NEW (Not the old one with the ridiculous range) Leaf or a Bolt for $10k and I may buy one, to use around town. AND when I paid also $10k ($10.5 and $11.0 respectively) 2 years ago for my 07 and 08 E 320 Bluetecs, I sure do not consider $10k for a Leaf or a Bolt such a huge bargain.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:14 am
17 My reasoning was crystal clear. I am no defender of SUVs, I hate them, but I do not blame them, and specifically the rare BIG SUVs (Expedition-Navigator, Escalade-Suburban, GL class and now the X7, Range Rovers etc), these are a SMALL segment of all SUV sales, and the others are not much heavier than my 4,000 lbs midsize E class, and many times they are lighter.
I compared this small segment vs the HUGE full size pickup sales, most of which are bought by our SECRETARIES and other POSEURS who own neither a farm nor a business that requires a Pickup.
Pickups are NOT safer than Big SUVs. Kit said that they may be less rollover prone. Maybe when they are EMPTY, but fully loaded they can be FAR MORE prone to rollover. AND rollover is just ONE safety criterion, not the only one.
US fatalities should be measured PER 100 million miles driven. It is an utterly unfair comparison to compare fatalities per POPULATION, then INDIA would be the safest place on earth, because it has 5 times the US population and 10% of our cars, and we drive 100 times as many miles as they do!!!!
25 You found the CORRECT causes of the poor driving habits in the US, one is careless drivers, and more important, POOR driver’s ed. I got my license here in 79 after only FIVE one-hour lessons, in the Boston area, with a simple automatic car, while over in Germany you need to take 100 lessons! And while many fuddy daddies go on and on about how “speed kills”, if this was the only thing, Autobahns would have a horrible fatality rate, where in reality they are very, very safe, because drivers there are WELL TRAINED and PAY ATTENTION and do not drive 250 KPH while texting or eating junk food.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:27 am
Bloomberg revealed most of the Sandy Munro report (see link.) I hope Autoline Daily cites Bloomberg as there is a lot of meat to discuss. Otherwise, the weekend would be so boring.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:31 am
27 – Tesla has to be careful that their trademark “T” is not confused with “Trump” until after he leaves office.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:31 am
28 When I got my license in Indiana in 1962, I didn’t need training at all. I needed to pass a simple written test to get a beginner’s permit. Then, I needed to drive for 6 months with a licensed driver over 21. Then, I took a not-very-difficult driving test in a sparsely traveled area to get an operator’s licence.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:34 am
27 I’ve see Model 3s in most of the few colors, and I like red the best. Yeah, the front doesn’t look right. I don’t like fake things, but a fake grill might make it look better.
October 19th, 2018 at 11:37 am
29 Bob
Nice link to Bloomberg; interesting video, thanks.
October 19th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
28 Pickups are a little safer to share the road with than big SUVs, because they are a little lighter. They are usually empty, so “fully loaded” is rarely the situation. As you say, though, there are many more pickups on the road than monster SUVs, so overall, they are a much bigger “hazard” to those of us in cars.
Here is some info on deaths/vehicle mile. The U.S. does not come out very well compared to a number of European countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate#List
You can sort the column of “road fatalities per 1 million vehicle-km.”