On today’s show…in an unexpected twist, Nissan’s CEO says he’s going to retire…VW wants to reduce the number of parts it makes in-house to fund EV development…and Boeing successfully tests an autonomous passenger drone. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
NISSAN CEO SAIKAWA TO STEP DOWN
We’ve got another twist in the plot of the Renault-Nissan soap opera. Now, Nissan’s CEO Hiroto Saikawa, says he will step down and retire after the two companies reset their relationship. This could be a good move to reduce tensions between the two companies since Saikawa played the lead role in getting his predecessor arrested on charges of allegedly hiding tens of millions of dollars in undeclared compensation.
VW WANTS TO REDUCE PARTS MADE IN-HOUSE
Volkswagen is more vertically integrated than most automakers, but it may be taking the first steps to reduce how many parts and components it makes in-house. Bloomberg reports that VW is consolidating its parts-making companies into one business unit. The idea is to reduce headcount and cut costs, then take those savings and invest them into making electric cars. VW’s parts unit has 80,000 workers in 61 factories worldwide and earns 22 billion euros a year in revenue. VW wants to eliminate 6,000 of those jobs by 2023. Here’s our Autoline Insight: vertical integration can make a company more profitable. But it is very capital intensive. And since automakers have to invest heavily in electrification and autonomy, that’s squeezing out investment for traditional parts and components.
AMAZON TESTS AUTONOMOUS DELIVERY
Amazon is trying out small autonomous pods for delivering packages to customer’s homes. Six of these robots, called Scout will be roaming around a Seattle, Washington suburb dropping off packages, which are retrieved from under a lid on top of the pod. A worker will still follow the robots around at first, but we wonder if the end game is to eliminate humans from the package delivery process?
Still to come…a look at the top automakers in Mexico.
TOP AUTOMAKERS IN MEXICO
It was a rough year for automakers in Mexico in 2018. According to WardsAuto, car sales totaled 1.4 million units which is a drop of 7% compared to the prior year. Nissan is the top automaker in the country by a fairly wide margin but its sales tumbled 14% in 2018. GM is the number two automaker, and its sales fell nearly 9%. Volkswagen saw its sales plunge 17%, while Toyota posted a modest 3% gain. And rounding out the top five automakers in Mexico in 2018 is Kia, which posted a strong gain of nearly 9%.
| 2018 MEXICO CAR SALES |
| Light Vehicle Total |
1.42 M |
-7.1% |
| Top Automakers |
| Nissan |
314,123 |
-14.3% |
| General Motors |
236,069 |
-8.7% |
| Volkswagen |
180,131 |
-17.1% |
| Toyota |
108,761 |
+3.1% |
| Kia |
94,234 |
+8.7% |
| Source: WardsAuto |
CA POLICE DEPARTMENT TO TEST TESLA MODEL S
In an effort to help reach a goal of reducing municipal greenhouse gas emissions by 25%, the Fremont Police Department is testing out a used Tesla Model S. It will monitor performance, durability, range, costs and any other issues to see if EVs would make good replacements for traditional vehicles. The department says the pilot test could reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by 10%. I think it will be an interesting test to keep track of.
TOYOTA WON’T MAKE 2019 YARIS HATCHBACK
We’ve seen a number of slow selling vehicles get the axe recently and the hatchback version of the Toyota Yaris could join that list. The automaker sold less than 2,000 examples last year in the U.S. market, which was a drop of close to 80%. And Toyota has confirmed it will not make a 2019 version and instead sell off the remaining 2018 models. There is a glimmer of hope. Toyota will have an announcement about a 2020 Yaris at the New York Auto Show.
Boeing is now testing autonomous passenger drones. And we’ll have more about that, right after this.
LEAVE A MESSAGE ON A CAR WITH AUGMENTED REALITY
Sometimes companies develop new technology that they don’t see any market for. Even so, it’s worth throwing it out there to see if somebody else does. Mitsubishi Electric exhibited new technology at CES this year, even though it didn’t see any market for it. The technology allows a car owner to leave a message on their car for somebody that can only be seen by that person using augmented reality. So if they hold up a smartphone or tablet, and point it at the car, the message appears on the fender. Well, Uber just happened to see it and instantly saw how to use it. When people come out of the airport, a concert and there’s a whole bunch of Uber cars, they can point their phone and find which one is for them. And that’s why it’s valuable to exhibit new technology even if you’re not exactly sure if there’s a market for it.
BOEING TESTS AUTONOMOUS PASSENGER DRONE
Passenger drones could be the next major disruptor in mobility services, that’s why we’re seeing so much activity in this field. Porsche, Audi, Daimler, Geely, Uber and probably several more I’m forgetting about, are testing or investing in vertical takeoff and landing aircraft or VTOLs for short. And now we can add Boeing to the list, as it just successfully tested an autonomous passenger drone. The prototype completed a controlled takeoff, hover and landing. It’s powered by an electric propulsion system and has a range of 50 miles. Boeing says the next step is to test forward, wing borne flight, as well as the transition between vertical and forward flights.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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Comments (45)
January 25th, 2019 at 11:56 am
Cool drone from Boeing, but other than maybe replacing some helicopter services that are primarily for rich people transport, i.e. luxury hotel to the airport transport, etc., I don’t see drones helping with traffic (on the ground) as some purport that they do. Even thousands of drones won’t do too much in a major city scenario.
January 25th, 2019 at 12:25 pm
Boeing has a way to replace a $20 Uber ride with a $1000 drone ride. Does the world really need that?
As far as the “augmented reality,” I can see how that would be useful for Uber. I’ve only used Uber a few times, but once at an airport, and I can see how it would be useful. For a start, though, Uber could give the color, and the complete make and model of the car. One of my Uber rides was a Prius V, and the app not only didn’t give the color, but it just said “Toyota Prius,” so i was looking for the wrong car.
January 25th, 2019 at 12:39 pm
The only item today I bothered to check was the Fremont Police dept Tesla S. I googled it and found a CBS news article, the model S will be customized for patrol operations.
Long before Pure EVs, a decade ago or more, I kept asking why aren’t many Government fleets Hybrids, because they were IDEAL for hybridization. Vehicles such as Parking meter maid vehicles that idle all the time, Police cruisers waiting to catch a violation, and especially the half a million or more US Post office Trucks, which ALSO constantly do stop go and idling.
Very few of these were ever hybridized.
Now because of the stupid emissions reduction, not because of the far superior efficiency and performance, CA goes to pure EVs.
The model S is overkill if you just use it for.. patrol. It would be an IDEAL PURSUIT Vehicle, it can catch up with the clowns in no time, it can sure OUTHANDLE them with its low CG etc. Far better than the Dinosaurs they use now, even if emissions was not an issue.
For less demanding duties, they could use Model 3s, and if they want to save $ (I saw they went used), they should buy a fleet of $5k used LEAFS for most of their work!
Anyway, I’m glad they are doing the efficient thing, even though for other reasons.
January 25th, 2019 at 12:44 pm
Actually you can see the Fremont Police dept original announcement of the pilot progeam if you click on the title of the segment in today;s show, many more details there. They bought a 5-6 year old 2014 Tesla S, but they expect it to live far more than the 5 years they get off their Dodge Chargers, due to less repair and replacement issues etc. plus they save $32,000 per Ford Explorer Patrol caer in fuel over the 5 years it lives.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
Tesla police cars would have many issues in the field. Battery life at a crash scene with all of the lights on, radio, PCs, and more. In cold weather, idling at the roadside with heat or A/C. How about a shift change when you have to allow for a recharge time. Yes undercover work and high speed pursuit work might be doable but at what cost.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:16 pm
3 Yep, police leave their cars idling for hours, just to keep the a/c going, and maybe keep all of the electrical gadgetry from running the battery down. With a serious hybrid, the engine would only run about 10% of the time with the a/c running, and almost never, when just needing to keep lights flashing and radios working.
Now, I expect to see more and more gas hog non-hybrid SUVs used as police vehicles. Already, and lot of Explorers, or whatever they are, are being used as cop cars here.
In Cocoa Beach Florida, they not only don’t use hybrids for meter enforcement, they use pickup trucks. At least they are older Colorados, and maybe an older Ranger. Why pickup trucks, though? They don’t haul anything except one person and an electronic gadget to look up license plates.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:18 pm
5 really? You must think that the 85-100 kwh Tesla batteries are like the tiny, puny batteries on the dinosaurs Crown Vic and Chargers police use now. Laughable. Study the precise specs of the EVs before you make up your mind.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:21 pm
6 using… stupid pickup trucks as… meter maids is the height of inefficiency and downright stupidity.
if police chiefs really knew how far superior the capabilities of any Tesla S (let alone the monumental performance of the top of the line models in “ludicrous mode”, they would be standing in line to get them for pursuit vehicles. In fact that Top Gear drag race was between a Tesla S and a $200k Merc E 65 AMG with the 600++ HP and the 730++ torgue. AND the S beat it easily!
January 25th, 2019 at 1:47 pm
5,7 A lot of police cars are in use almost 24/7 by multiple shifts, so a pure EV wouldn’t work for that. If they’d have some “time off” periodically, EVs should work well.
8 A Tesla S is very capable, but expensive. The biggest problem with using a Tesla for highway patrol use, would be keeping them going. A Charger has ~400 miles of range, and can be refueled in about 5 minutes at any exit along the interstate. An S has about 250 mile range, and best case, you could get ~200 miles worth of charge at a “supercharger” in a half hour, but there isn’t a supercharger at every exit. If a department needed a pursuit car for occasional movie-style chases, an S could be great for that.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:04 pm
9 i don’t know the distribution, what % of police cruisers are used as intensively as taxis and worse, but I would sure bet they do but a tiny fraction of the miles a regular taxicab does (about 100k a year, or at least 50k). So I would bet that the vast majority of them are excellent candidates for hybridization and even the Pure EV choice Fremont made in its pilot program. Not just the pursuit vehicles. I have not seen stats on how many miles a police car does a day, but every time i see them they are idle waiting to catch a violation, or giving a ticket, etc. some also patrol the highways, they would not be as good an EV choice as urban cruisers.
The cost for the EVs, if they are appropriate, is far less than the cost of buying dodge chargers, it is all explained in the article, click on the link. Their 2014 tesla s should not have cost more than $35k to buy, it is at the low end of the prices. before the modifications, which are the same for that and the gas cruisers, it should be about the same price or less than a new Charger. And then the operatijng costs would be much less, savings of $32,000 over 5 yrs for the fuel of an Explorer cruiser, and much less maintenance due to the simplicity of the EV motor etc.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:41 pm
I found a couple articles/discussions groups about average miles/year, and replacement frequency of police cars. The miles/year mentioned most frequently was about 25K, and police use must be even harder on cars than I realized. From what I saw, !00K miles seems to still be considered high mileage, for police cars.
One discussion group I ran across was from Chicago, but in 2007. At that time, nearly all of the retired police cars in the city became taxis. Of course, at that time, most of both police cars and taxis were Crown Vics.
Hybrids would seem to be perfect police cars for most applications, given the amount of time they stand still, and they would be quick enough for most police use. A Camry and Accord hybrid do 0-60 in around 8 seconds, about the same as a Crown Vic, some of which are still in use as cop cars.
It will be interesting to see how the Teslas do in Fremont. If they have a good system for keeping them charged as needed, they should work well as police cars, as long as the range/charge time availability works out.
January 25th, 2019 at 5:20 pm
Big cops, big belts, lots of stuff and I’m just thinking that other than pursuit, Teslas are not going to go over big with police officers. In and out all day long in a low slung vehicle and mayby you’re gonna see disgruntlement. A lot of police cruisers are/were full size sedans, and when they got scarse, they switched to SUV’s (slow or not).
January 25th, 2019 at 5:46 pm
Is part of the switch to SUVs for police cars to do with the militarization of the police?
January 25th, 2019 at 8:15 pm
What law Enforcement wants/needs —EV-SUV w/ICE Gen
January 25th, 2019 at 10:12 pm
I finally found some actual fuel economy data on the Nissan Note e-power. From Automotive News:
“In Japan, the Prius still tops the e-Power hybrid in fuel economy ratings. Under Japan’s fuel economy testing standards, the Note e-Power achieves 32.7 kilometers per liter (77 mpg), while the Prius hybrid achieves 96 mpg and the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid is rated at 87.5 mpg.”
The Japanese ratings are obviously VERY optimistic, relative to real world mileage, but it could be expected that the larger Prius would do substantially better than the Note e-Power if tested by the EPA, and in most real world driving.
January 26th, 2019 at 8:45 am
13 It may have to do with the usual reasons everybody buys SUVs, the high seating position and the ease of entry and exit. For Police enforcers the visibility may be even more important. Also with the expansion of suburbs and other -burbs many roads are not paved in many states and a high clearance vehicle is a must. Finally sheer weight, if they want to execute these maneuvers to stop some perpetrator, it is nice to both have a weight advantage and the higher position of the SUV means lighter injuries for the officers.
January 26th, 2019 at 8:47 am
15 Euro MPG rules are equally ridiculous, and even more due to the use in the UK of the imperial gallon (4.6 lt) vs our 3.875 lt US gallon. Many top gear reviews cite official stats for MPG of 4,000 lb 250 HP diesel vehicles as 60 MPG or more, due to the above, and when they test them the actual MPG is half that.
January 26th, 2019 at 8:54 am
MI has a new governor, a Dem woman (surprise surprise). The last time we had one it was a disaster, former Atty Gen Granholm, despite her cute Monroeish looks, the economy was decimated.
An article I read this morning, co-authored by an English woman who is an economist in our energy institute (of which I am a Fellow since 08) encourages the new gov to take measures to promote EVs in MI, without any numbers but arguments like MI is a center of automotive etc. This is probably the reason it will not work, in addition to the cold winters which reduce range. But there is a densely populated SE Mi where EVs may be operated more conveniently.
As it is now, CA is the mostr EV friendly state, and Hawaii should be too, with its short distances and warm climate. Then the south, east and west, would be the best place to expand EVs, esp Florida with its big population and very warm climate. Northern States should be the last, except the tiny New England states where range is much less of an issue.
Overseas, CHina is the 800 lb EV gorilla. In Europe, aside from Norway, there is no such EV champion. Maybe Germany will become one. They did take action after the Nuke disaster in japan, closed down their nuke plants and invested massively in Solar and wind, not because they had any risk of earthquakes or Tsunamis in Germany, but to force the price of solar panels made in china way down, due to the larger volume etc. which actually happened!
January 26th, 2019 at 9:39 am
16 Yeah, probably mostly true. With 2/3 of the vehicles on the rod being “tall,” the police would like a tall vehicle too, to see things better.
As far as needing trucks because of all of the unpaved roads in the -burbs, I sure don’t see that, and cars work just fine on unpaved roads anyway.
January 26th, 2019 at 9:43 am
Washington seems to be the “Norway” of U.S. states, regarding EV acceptance, a northern state that is 4th in the number of Teala 3s, the states with more model 3s having much higher population.
January 26th, 2019 at 9:49 am
Here are the top 10 states in Tesla 3 registrations:
https://www.autonews.com/sales/teslas-home-state-grabs-almost-half-model-3-registrations
If anyone has rankings of the states in Tesla, or total EV registrions all the way down, that would be interesting. More interesting, would be data by market share of EVs in the individual states.
January 26th, 2019 at 10:18 am
The Tesla Model 3 by state top ten is based on data until oct 2018, but includes only half the model 3s sold to date. If we get up to date stats, I expect CA’s huge 50% share to drop to 40% or below.
Still, my reading of these data is quite different.
Washington is not a Snowbelt but a Pacific state where the large population centers have mild weather. Its share is shamefully low for such a state. Similar for AZ and for NV which did not even make the top 10. IL and NJ sold almost as many as … AZ. And today’s AZ has much larger population than it used to.
I don’t know if the Model 3 is available in all states yet. I know many states do not even have a Tesla store.
all this makes the future look very optimistic for Model 3 gains outside Saturated CA.
January 26th, 2019 at 10:31 am
Washington has mild weather, for being far north, but also, “new tech” would tend to be popular in the home of some well know companies there. The population of WA and AZ are very close.
January 26th, 2019 at 10:46 am
23 In Silicon Valley (San Jose esp) they had so many local tax credits for EVs, incl Fed, CA, County, and even companies like Sony added theirs for their employees, and you could get a new Leaf for $10k back then!
The son of a close friend works in Seattle for Facebook. So far he does not even have a driver’s license. Even though he had top grades as an undergrad, he could not find a sponsor for his PhD so he did a Masters and took the FB job.
Oregon was also not on the list and EVs should be popular there too.
January 26th, 2019 at 10:55 am
Oregon has less than half the population of NJ, and less than 2/3 the population of WA and NJ. Yeah, I’d expect EVs to be popular there.
I found some info on EV market share by state.
http://evadoption.com/ev-market-share/ev-market-share-state/
January 26th, 2019 at 1:45 pm
25 At first I was impressed by the amount of data. They are as of Aug 2018, only 6 months ago, but the segment changes too fast to be able to extrapolate to today accurately.
Then I looked at the numbers more carefully and I am not sure if they are correct.
Starting with the top row. How come CA sales increased less than 30%, but its market share doubled?
California 73,854 94,873 28.50% 5.02% 9.96%
January 26th, 2019 at 2:53 pm
The 9.96% market share is for August 2018, but there aren’t any raw numbers for EVs and non-EVs for August 2018. Tesla 3 went from almost no deliveries during 2017, to a lot by August 2018, which would explain the much higher EV market share for August 2018, not only in CA, but in most other states. Raw sales data would be interesting, though.
January 26th, 2019 at 5:12 pm
Why does Ford not sell in Mexico yet GM does. Ford employs alot of Mexicans. It not reliability as GM is 2nd on the list. Ford is also a key light truck builder which I presume GM sells well into unlike Kia and Toyota/Nissan.
No explanation of why the fall in sales which would have been useful.
As for EV cop cars maybe the RAM 1500 mild hybrid would be a better choice as the engine would be off when idle and there is plenty electric juice to power everything else.
January 26th, 2019 at 5:31 pm
Ford sells in Mexico:
https://www.ford.mx/
January 26th, 2019 at 9:47 pm
28, 29 Ford had only 4.2% market share in Mexico in 2018, vs GM’s 20.5%. I don’t know why Ford does so poorly there.
https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/salesfig_mexico_2018
January 27th, 2019 at 9:27 am
Especially week in Mexico, and unexpectedly so, given its stellar success in the US market, is Subaru, with pitiful sales there.
Besides good and modestly priced product, Subaru easily has the best commercials on TV than any automaker. The ads featuring cute dogs bringing items to the cars are far superior to the usually retarded slogans like “zoom zoom” from Mazda and the like.
Over here, while we are just an hours drive from Detroit, I see a ton of Subarus, many priuses and even Prius Vs, quite a few Volts and a few Bolts, and surprisingly, given its meager nation-wide sales, quite a few Licolns. Tesla has no store in MI yet, but I do see some of them every day, mostly S and X and the occasional Model 3.
January 27th, 2019 at 9:33 am
I meant WEAK not week, above. Geez!
I was looking for the date when Tesla announces Q4 profits (if any) and the accurate Q4 sales units numbers, GM too (both report quarterly). I found this that is dated as early as Jan 2:
http://ir.tesla.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tesla-q4-2018-vehicle-production-deliveries-also-announcing-2000
In Q4, they made 61,394 model 3s and 25,161 model S and Xs
and DELIVERED 90,700 vehicles, including 63,150 model 3s, 13,500 Model Ss and 14,050 Model Xs. The deliveries numbers seem rounded off.
For 2018 as a whole they claim they delivered 245,240 vehicles, 145,846 model 3s, and 99.394 Models S and X.
To understand the numbers, they delivered in 2018 as many as in ALL prior years COMBINED.
On Feb 1 we will know January sales (for Tesla and GM they will be estimates, and I believe also for Ford now)
January 27th, 2019 at 10:07 am
31 Maybe Subaru doesn’t do well in Mexico, because of the mandatory awd that almost no one needs.
January 27th, 2019 at 10:21 am
32 Reading the Tesla report, I see that more than 3/4 of Model 3 sales in Q4 were to “new customers” rather than reservation holders. It looks like those who made the deposits are waiting for the cheaper cars.
January 27th, 2019 at 10:47 am
34 Good catch. it is just for Q4. Probably in Q3 and before most sales were to the reservation holders who were OK w the pricier versions.
Should be interested if any other maker significantly benefits from reservation holders who quit waiting and buy somebody else’s plug-in or EV. GM cancelled the Volt, and I doubt the Bolt will attract many transfers, maybe the new leaf will get a few, and the Prius and the bigger hybrids (Accord Camry) who are within the 35k price range
January 27th, 2019 at 11:02 am
I went to that webpage again and registered to get reports (quarterly and annual) right when they are announced, and also their weekly summary. The numbers in this report are preliminary estimates, the accurate deliveries may be 0.5% higher, were conservatively estimated.
January 27th, 2019 at 11:49 am
Tesla needs to post a profit this quarter; ‘one in a row’ is kind of wearing thin. They are moving vehicles now, which is a good thing, so it’s time dig in and establish profitability.
January 27th, 2019 at 11:59 am
37 Amazon was losing money for more than 12 years in a row, and its CEO is the richest person in the world.
Tesla has said already that it will make profits in the quarters it does not have loan repayments.
It is the height of myopia to value a company by such short-term measures as quarterly profits. it is the major reason many US companies are not doing as well as they should be, by wasting enormous amounts of time and $ to satisfy such myopic goals, and have no long-term strategy,.
Tesla is here to stay, EVs are the future, not only in the US but especially in China and later in Europe. Worry about Ford, it may be the third of the one-time big 3 to go bankrupt soon.
Tesla’s trial was in 2018. It succeeded, after a hellish ramp up of the Model 3 production. We have 2019 now.
Musk is the 21st century version of both Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. His model names do not ape the Ford models of the time by chance. (Model S and X as in Ford Model T and A, an the “model 3″ sounds almost like the “model T” phonetically, and may be even more important than the model T. (Unless VW beats them to it)
January 27th, 2019 at 12:58 pm
Tesla is already preparing for the time when the sales of “loaded” Model 3s taper off in the US, by starting sales in Europe, and planning to build RHD Model 3s. When the Chinese plant comes on-line, it will probably supply most markets, other than the US.
Ford sure seems to be putting all of their eggs in the US truck/SUV basket. They are weak in China, and their biggest market in Europe, the UK, could be in turmoil with the Brexit mess.
January 27th, 2019 at 1:44 pm
The commodities that make batteries are increasing at alarming rates according to my quick internet search; this will keep electric cars expensive and also keep purchases from many mainstream buyers at bay. How long will it be supported and legislated by governments that we will subjugated to this hidden tax. Play on an even field and let the market decide. With the hidden ‘pollutions’ of electric vehicles swept out of the equation, this moves electric propulsion to an unfair advantage. Tesla is riding this wave; good on them (using the system), happens all the time in other industries; just dont glorify Tesla as an unaided visionary. With all this help, all I’m saying is they better show a profit to earn my respect.
January 27th, 2019 at 2:15 pm
I had thought about going to 24 hours at Daytona. I’m glad I didn’t, given the rain. It wouldn’t be much fun to be there, with thr heavy rain and parked race cars.
January 27th, 2019 at 3:47 pm
Kit, saw that on the tube; not an epic 24 hour Daytona this year.
January 28th, 2019 at 9:35 am
42 Not a good weekend for Corvette Racing.
January 28th, 2019 at 10:08 am
Yeah, I noticed; one of the Corvettes got caught up in the rain ponding, spun and hit a barrier. I wonder how the rules effect Corvette. Since the move , from class, the other cars seem to now have an advantage.
On the other hand Cadillac did well.
January 28th, 2019 at 10:36 am
I read that the DPi Cadillacs are powered by, essentially, Chevy NASCAR engines. I suspect they are tuned differently, and run at lower rpm, since they need to last a lot longer than 2-3 hours.