AD #2517 – Ghosn Resigns from Renault, Lights Could Help Build Trust w/ AVs, Ford’s 4th Quarter Disappointing
January 24th, 2019 at 11:55am
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Runtime: 7:24
0:26 Carlos Ghosn Resigns from Renault
1:03 Bugatti Says “No” to SUVs
1:41 Lights Could Help Build Trust with AVs
2:49 McLaren Gives Vision of F1 in the Future
3:56 Mazda3 Pricing Goes Up
4:37 Lincoln Reveals Aviator Pricing
5:28 Ford’s 4th Quarter Results Disappoint
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On today’s show… Carlos Ghosn resigns from Renault… Wall Street isn’t going to be happy about Ford’s 2018 earnings… and McLaren shows off its vision of what Formula 1 could like in the future. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
GHOSN RESIGNS FROM RENAULT
Poor Carlos Ghosn. He’s languishing in a Japanese jail, his future looks bleak, and he knows it. Now he just resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault. The automaker announced it’s splitting up the roles of chairman and CEO. Jean-Dominique Senard, who comes from Michelin has been named the new chairman. That’s where Ghosn used to work before he moved to Renault. And Thierry Bollore has taken over as CEO. No doubt Ghosn negotiated with Renault before stepping down and we don’t know what he got. But he must feel like the captain of a ship whose crew left him marooned on an island.
BUGATTI GIVES SUVs THE MIDDLE FINGER
The utility craze is a global phenomenon. And automakers you never would have expected are jumping on board. Porsche, Jaguar, Bentley, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Lotus all have or will have utilities in their lineup. But there’s at least one sports car maker that is turning its nose up at SUVs. In a company report, Bugatti’s president says, “There will be no SUV from Bugatti. An SUV would not do justice to the brand or its history.” I wonder if any of those other previously mentioned automakers wished they had done the same?
LIGHTS COULD HELP BUILD TRUST WITH AVs
Jaguar Land Rover is testing out an intelligent lighting system to see if it could be used to build trust between humans and autonomous vehicles. Studies have shown that 41% of drivers and pedestrians are worried about sharing the road with autonomous vehicles and JLR hopes that by displaying an AVs intent it will help reduce people’s fears. The test pod is fixed with a lighting system that projects lines or bars on to the ground to show what it’s about to do, like stop or turn. The lines move closer together as the vehicle comes to a stop and spread out as it accelerates. They also fan out to indicate direction. In the future the lights could be used for other things as well, like sharing obstacle detection.
Car racing could look wild in the future, and we’ll have more about that, right after this.
THE FUTURE OF F1 LOOKS WILD
McLaren Applied Technologies, a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, is showing off its vision of what a Formula 1 car could look like in the year 2050. Called the MCLExtreme, it still has the look of an F1 car, but as you can imagine, there’s a lot technology in this concept that you won’t find in today’s vehicles. Some of its features include body sides that suck in and balloon out to reduce or increase drag and an electric powertrain, which rockets the racecar up to 500 km/h or about 310 MPH. But the wildest part of the concept is the artificial intelligence, which will act as the driver’s co-pilot. Instead of relying on the pit crew for information, the driver will be connected to the AI through their helmet and race suit, which will provide real-time strategy and info displayed in a holographic head-up display. While we may never see any of these ideas get implemented, it’s still cool to think about what racing will look like in the future.
MAZDA3 PRICING GOES UP
Mazda has revealed pricing for the all-new Mazda3 sedan and hatchback and it’s going up. A base sedan with an automatic transmission is now $21,895, which is nearly 3-grand more than the outgoing model. We should note, that outgoing model comes with a manual, which is now only available on the hatchback in the Premium trim level. The new car also comes standard with a larger, more powerful 4-cylinder engine. As for the hatchback, it’s $1,000 more than the sedan in most cases. And all-wheel drive will tack on another $1,400.
LINCOLN REVEALS AVIATOR PRICING
And speaking of pricing, the new Lincoln Aviator will start a little over $52,000, including destination charges. The hybrid model with that 450-horsepower twin-turbo V6 starts at nearly $70,000. And if you move up to the Black Label hybrid it’s about $90,000. It always seems crazy to me when a vehicle like the Aviator has nearly $40,000 in options.
Coming up next, Ford posts disappointing 4th quarter results, but did ok for the full year.
FORD DISAPPOINTS IN THE 4TH QUARTER
Ford posted its 4th quarter earnings and the numbers are disappointing. It actually lost $100 million compared to a year ago when it made a $2.7 billion profit. While Ford did make a $2 billion profit in North America it lost money everywhere else in the world. North American UAW workers will get a $7,600 profit sharing bonus. For the full year, Ford did better. It posted a $3.6 billion profit, but that’s half of what it earned the year before. No doubt Wall Street will go on the warpath over these numbers. Ford got rid of its former CEO Mark Fields when it felt the stock price and financial earnings were going nowhere. But under new CEO Jim Hackett the numbers are far worse. 2019 should be much better for Ford, which will introduce the new Ranger, Escape, Explorer, and Lincoln Aviator along with the new Mustang GT500. And it has that Mustang-inspired, battery-electric crossover coming that is said to have blistering performance.
| Ford 2018 Earnings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 5.98 Million | -9.4% |
| Revenue | $160 Billion | +2.2% |
| EBIT | $4.3 Billion | -46% |
| Net Profit | $3.6 billion | -52% |
And speaking of Ford, be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon. That’s because we’ll be talking about the new Mustang Shelby GT500 with our special guest, Jim Owens, the Performance Marketing Manager at Ford. So if you have any questions about that muscle car, send them our way to viewermail@autoline.tv or message us on social media. That’s this afternoon at 3PM eastern time.
But that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (15)
January 24th, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Good move on Bugatti of not producing a ‘ute’ but their position in selling cars is more unique than just about all the other car manufacturers’. With such a low production number, and all cars allocated until the end of 2021, I doubt they have the capacity to produce something else (or the inclination to produce).
I see Ford going for an upscale vehicle, in the Aviator, but just charging astronomical prices for a vehicle with no legacy, I find risky.
January 24th, 2019 at 12:32 pm
I hear this morning a true compact truck under the Ranger is coming soon, as is the Ranger redesign. Ford is adding to the Truck lineup none too soon. It seems to me that synergies will grow in the smaller pickup + SUV lines.
January 24th, 2019 at 12:33 pm
Interesting concept with AV’s using lights to communicate intent. Right now we often use eye contact to make sure other drivers or pedestrians see us, the lights can do a similar thing.
January 24th, 2019 at 12:39 pm
Good show today, Sean
A. Going, going, Ghosn! Not just gone, but if he is convicted of what he is accused of, I read that he may get DECADES of Jail time. Hard times for CEOS.. my heart goes out to them.. NOT! But it is obvious that Japan hates Ghosn’s guts.
B. Bugatti is NOT an independent company, but part of the huge VW GROUP. So it is very easy for them to preach to the converted, while not only VW, AUDI and PORSCHE have a TON of SUVs of all sizes, but even LAMBORGHINI, also a VW Group member, came up with the ugly and unimpressive SUV the URUS recently. So, we are not impressed, VW Group!
C.Mazdas, the poor man’s BMWs, always get good reviews but their sales have gone nowhere recently, despite a ton of car and suv models. They are in a coma around 1.5-1.7% market share in the US, when Subaru during the same years went from 1 to 4 %!
D. Lincoln Hippopotamus pricing. Spot on, Sean. It is actually worse than I thought, this Black Label fraud STARTS at 89k. So with a few more options and the accursed TAX, you will pay $100,000+ for an.. Explorer? Give me a break, Ford apologists, no matter what you say, with a straight face or not, how can I take you seriously? No wonder Lincoln sells only a PITTANCE of units, while 50 years ago Lincoln and esp Caddy had 90% of the luxury market!
E.4th Quarter Ford Earnings. I read elsewhere that Ford lost about a billion overseas and made two billion here. (4th Q probably). It would be interesting to separate the F 150 from all the rest of it (which is really meager despite all the SUVs). I bet the F 150 made Ford $4 billion and the other divisions in the US lost $2 billion, for a net of $2 bill profit in Q4.
F. As usual, I will watch the second half of AAH, the discussion, after the Shelby infomercial and larry king like soft interview is over.
January 24th, 2019 at 1:01 pm
The base Aviator will be RWD with the 3.0 turbo. If you’d lower it about 3 inches, and tune the suspension right, it might be a pretty decent sporty wagon.
To me, the “loaded” version of any vehicle where almost half the price is options cannot be a good deal. What do you get for your extra $40K with the black flag edition of the Aviator?
January 24th, 2019 at 3:35 pm
No to that space cadet Formula racer unless it still has a driver, no electronics driving aids, and an engine and transmission controlled by the driver. Can’t watch the electric formula races and lets get rid of the other cheats now F1 thinks levels the field. The Indy Car series has one vehicle with two spec. engines and bodywork. Much more interesting to follow and watch. Or, maybe just use Mercedes and Ferrari engines. I still laugh at the hybrid F1 racers. What percentage of a Mercedes sale goes to the Formula one team. Note that Dieter loves to see himself on TV in the pits.
January 24th, 2019 at 3:47 pm
6 I find F1 interesting BECAUSE it is not a “one design” series like Indy Car has become. F1 has 10 different chassis and 4 different hybrid systems. If F1 has tried to “level the field,” they have failed miserably. Last year, only 3 teams won even one race, unless I’m forgetting something.
There are two aspects of using the hybrid powertrains that I don’t like. It un-levels the field, and it increases the cost. There will be a somewhat different formula for the hybrid system next year, and it will be interesting how that works out. Will Mercedes continue to dominate? Maybe not, since everyone is partly starting from scratch with the engines. Honda could be good, given that Red Bull’s deep pockets are helping fund their effort.
January 24th, 2019 at 6:17 pm
Options costing $40K and a Lincoln that costs over $100K. I think that’s asking—what can I say, too much?—of a Lincoln customer. And with their advertising as it is—I’m just not a fan. I won’t say anymore.
January 25th, 2019 at 8:55 am
I don’t think that those autonomous lights are as intuitive as the article seems to imply. For all that see them for the first time, and until that person can be instructed on their purpose, I can’t see much benefit.
January 25th, 2019 at 9:38 am
It should easy to make autonomous cars better at once aspect of indicating intent than many human drivers, using turn signals.
January 25th, 2019 at 11:24 am
If you did not see AAH yesterday, especially the second half, you missed a ton of very interesting discussions.
Ford’s loss in the 4th quarter is really bad, most makers make their best profits in the 4th quarter. Still, they have a lot of models in 2019 so it may better (it could not possibly be worse)
VW is going to MAKE its own Superchargers, and, (VERY smart!) they will be MOBILE. This will address my concerns over redundant chargers in one area and no chargers in another, as makers make each their own and don’t let the others use theirs and all that inefficient stupidity.
January 25th, 2019 at 11:25 am
11 some typos, most obvious. John M. mentioned that a Ford person told him, if Hackett gives Ford’s F-150 tech/knowhow to VW, he would have “had it” with Hackett. I hope that person is Bill Ford… for Ford’s sake.
January 25th, 2019 at 11:34 am
Yeah, AAH was pretty good (even the Mustang segment); but agreed, the second half was more entertaining to me too.
January 25th, 2019 at 11:51 am
12 Does Ford really have any F-150 tech that VW doesn’t have? Mainly, Ford has an F-150 buyer base who will buy the trucks “no matter what,” and would be bashing GDI turbo engines and aluminum bodies if Chevy had used them instead of Ford. As far as F-150 tech, VW was using GDI turbos and aluminum bodies years before Ford.
January 25th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
In the future, F1 drivers will be cyborgs… with boobs… apparently.