This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.
WOMEN TAKING MAJORITY OF GM BOARD
Later this year, General Motors will have a majority of women on its board of directors. GM will be only one of two S&P 500 companies that have both a female CEO and a majority of women on its board. Bloomberg reports that the only other company that can claim that is Best Buy. GM is about to have two of its male board members retire and it’s not going to replace them. That’s how it’s going to end up with a majority of women. Even so, GM is setting a standard for the rest of the auto industry to follow
TESLA’S AUTOPILOT MORE AUTO
Tesla made big news yesterday, with Elon Musk showing off the latest technology for its Autopilot system. It has a new computer, what they call the FSD, or full self-driving computer. It’s 40x more powerful than the one it replaces, and will fit into Teslas that are already on the road, if you cough up an extra $5,000. It’s impressive. You can now summon your car to come to you, get in and tell it where to go, the car will keep up with traffic, stay in its lane, automatically change lanes if the car in front is going slower or the lane is blocked, transition from one freeway to another, exit the freeway, and go park itself. Maybe that’s not really true Level 4 or 5 autonomy, but it sure is better than any other system a car company offers by a country mile.
TESLA LAUNCHING AV RIDE-HAILING SERVICE
Thanks to these capabilities, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will start its own autonomous ride-hailing service next year. It’s also going to allow Tesla owners to put their cars into that fleet so they can earn money with them. Musk says the service will instantly be cash flow positive.
TESLA ANNOUNCING Q1 RESULTS TOMORROW
All this is really impressive. But remember, on Wednesday Tesla is scheduled to report its first quarter financial results. So its seems that Tesla could be using yesterday’s announcements to soften the blow in case the numbers look really ugly.
PORSCHE EASES YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL SOUL
If you’re a Porsche owner who’s environmental soul is being ripped to shreds while you drive around in your fossil fuel burning car, the automaker has a way to help ease your guilty conscience. It’s offering a carbon offset program. Customers use a tool to roughly calculate how much emissions their car produces in a year and then they buy into environmentally friendly projects that will help offset those emissions. For example, a person that drives a 2019 Cayenne S 10,000 miles a year would pay between $67 and $152 to offset its emissions, depending on the project chosen. That’s a lot less than going out and buying an all-electric Taycan.
AS THE DIESEL TURNS
There’s more twists and turns in the Volkswagen diesel saga than a soap opera. Reuters reports that German prosecutors are investigating improper payments made to a manager linked to the diesel cheating. The manager, who is not being named, received nearly a million dollars in bonus payments despite being suspended from the company for his role in the cheating. At this point, with everything that’s happened, it would be hard for me to believe that this was something as simple as a clerical error.
We’ve got a fascinating Autoline After Hours coming up this Thursday when our special guest will be Robert Bollinger, the CEO and founder of Bollinger Motors. We’ll be talking all about his all-aluminum, all-wheel-drive, all-electric, off-road truck.
PSA CONTINUES TO TURN OPEL AROUND
PSA CEO Carlos Tavares is working miracles with Opel. The company announced it sold nearly 33,000 light commercial vehicles in the first quarter of the year, which is a 35% increase compared to a year ago. Opel credited its Movano, Vivaro and Combo vans for fueling the growth. GM sold Opel to PSA about two years ago because GM couldn’t turn a profit with the German automaker but it looks like Carlos Tavares is pushing the right buttons to resurrect Opel.
UMICORE HURT BY SLOW EV DEMAND
China’s decision to scale back subsidies for EVs is having an impact on at least one business. Umicore, a Belgian based company that supplies cathodes, lowered its 2019 earnings forecast because EV demand in China is expected to slow after the government cut subsidies. And that caused its stock to tumble 17% on the news. Cathodes help determine the performance of a battery in an electric vehicle. Umicore says cathode sales are being delayed 12 to 18 months because of China and slow demand in other key markets.
FORD TRADEMARKS THE NAME “SCOUT”
Do you remember the Scout from International Harvester? No? Do you even remember International Harvester? The remnants of that historic company are now called Navistar. Anyway, Harvester made the Scout from roughly 1960 to 1980. And now it turns out that Ford trademarked the Scout name and could use it with the upcoming Bronco or on what’s being called the baby Bronco. It’s a great name and surprising that no one else scooped it up years ago.
And that’s it for today’s report. Thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
Share
Permalink
Comments (36)
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:47 am
I remember the International Scout, but not in a good way. The only people I’ve personally known who were killed in a car crash were in one. That said, it’s a good car name, which would be good for a Jeep Wrangler competition, if anyone ever builds such a vehicle.
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:51 am
Are the not selling Opel vans rebadged versions of other PSA products? That would make sense, especially for that market segment.
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:55 am
2 Never mind my question. I found that the current ones are Renault products, but the next Vivaro will probably be a PSA design.
April 23rd, 2019 at 12:16 pm
International Harvester became Navistar DECADES ago, and its stock was always in trouble. I even had a project with them, took the trouble to visit them in their (was it IN or IL?) location, and they were the only one of 22 major companies I had similar projects, that did not offer us even a lousy cup of coffee! They were in bad financial shape when we visited, but they did sponsor the team and agreed to pay them substantial salaries for their 4 month summer stay (2 or 3 people), so it’s not that they could not afford the $0.25 it cost them for a cup of coffee. Lousy. And then they go on and on about how friendly are the people in the Midwest.
April 23rd, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Companies that are tightening their belts often adopt tone-setting policies to eliminate costs that are not core to the business…. stationary supplies, marginal business travel, and, yes, meeting refreshments. Good to know the employees of IH/Navistar had the smarts to eschew over-priced Starbucks Coffee.
April 23rd, 2019 at 12:53 pm
Navistar has held and maintained the Scout trademark up until now in hopes of perhaps using it in an updated or badge-engineered vehicle from a partnered automaker (remember they used to supply diesel truck engines to Ford before the EGR/SCR emissions fiasco). My guess is that Ford paid them for it.
April 23rd, 2019 at 12:54 pm
FYI I had Scouts for my fist vehicles beginning in the seventies and have always loved the things – way before the SUV onslaught. Vintage ones in decent shape are fetching similar prices as old Broncos.
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:21 pm
#4, people in the Midwest are friendly, maybe you pissed someone off and NO COFFEE for you said the coffee nazi.
Remember the episode of Steinfield about the soup nazi?
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:25 pm
4 IH/Navistar had their headquarters in Fort Wayne, IN for many years, and also had manufacturing there. Now, it is all gone.
https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/navistar-finalizing-its-move-from-city-this-week/1071600338
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:31 pm
I also remember International Harvester. Back in 1972, my dad was looking to buy an International Travelall (the full size SUV). After test driving and mulling it over, he ended up buying a Buick Estate wagon. Not sure why he did’nt buy the Travelall, as I remember it was cool at the time.
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:47 pm
5 I am the first to expose Starbucks for the ridiculous fraud it is, and have done so on these pages, ridiculing those who whine about gas costing $3 or $4 per Gallon, when they at the same time pay $4 for a worthless 20 oz cup of Starebucks coffee.
I also clearly stated in 4 that they did not even bother offering a TWENTY FIVE CENT cup of dirt-cheap home-made Maxwell House or Folgers. Not even Water, I believe we had to go to the pathetic vending machines.
This is NOT cost cutting, it is GOD-AWFUL public relations, zero hospitality, and zero appreciation of us driving 2 or 3 hours each way under whatever traffic and bad weather to help them. BTW, I just found the project title etc:
“7. (of 22) “Part Number Level Program Management,” Navistar Corp., Ft. Wayne, IN, (with Prof. J.E., U.. School of Business Admin.), April 1, 1999-September 15, 1999.”
You would expect this maybe in MA or CT or some similar “jerk state”, but NOT in the Midwest. Why do you make me repeat the obvious, Mr. Drew?
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:49 pm
10 The Buick wagon would have driven better, gotten better gas mileage, and been much quieter, but wouldn’t have been as good off-road.
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:51 pm
8 keep your day job, JERK. Gambling is not for you. And how, Dr Weisenheimer, would *I* had pissed any of these people who I had no contact until my arrival, that they would be so PETTY and vindictive so to deny the most elementary good manners NOT just to Myself but ALSO to the Entire TEAM? My colleague and the 3 engineers and MBAs who would work there for 4 months to do the project? Really? Keep your day job, as I said.
In fact, the exact opposite happened, their savage and unhospitable behavior made me do only the bare minimum for them, just fulfilled the bare letter of our agreement and to hell with them. Obviously YOU have a lot to learn.
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:53 pm
8 You can’t even SPElL Seinfeld!!!! You are a real piece of work… Fred Flintstone…
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:53 pm
9 Poetic Justice, I guess..
April 23rd, 2019 at 1:55 pm
15 PS I also remember asking the jerks at the Navistar place to recommend a place to have a late lunch after we left the unhospitable shack they were working in. Bad mistake. I knew I should not have asked savages with no manners and no taste and not even the most elementary hospitality. We foolishly took their advice, and it was some of the worst, blandest, unhealthiest, and least memorable food I ever had in any restaurant or even fast food crappy joint.
April 23rd, 2019 at 2:48 pm
Can we get someone from IH to give their side of 13’s story?
April 23rd, 2019 at 2:57 pm
Do you think they can teach the AI in the Tesla computer to not pass other vehicles on the right?
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:07 pm
This is sort of related to Tesla, but SpaceX has had a really bad last few days. First, they lost the successfully landed center core booster from the recent Falcon Heavy, when if fell over due to rough seas experienced by the landing barge.
Then, much more significantly, the “Crew Dragon” capsule exploded violently during some ground testing at Cape Canaveral. That will likely set the program back for many months, very disappointing, because the program appeared to have been going well.
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:17 pm
18 Does it pass vehicles on the right? This is a serious question. I have only seen a few Tesla cars appearing to be driven using “autopilot,” and they have been in the right lane (on I-95), and going slower than the general flow of traffic, and being passed, but not passing other vehicles. Have you seen a Tesla pass on the right, while appearing to be using “autopilot”?
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:00 pm
Remember riding to scout camp in a brand new 4 cylinder International Scout in the late 60′s also working in a provincial park with several International pick-ups, also knowing several teens getting killed in a Scout flipping over in the winter
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:31 pm
As a teen in the late 60″s, we used a scout to haul an ice boat with an airplane engine onto Lake Erie. The scout was loud, “plain Jane”, and was lucky to do 65mph, but, I swear, that thing could climb damn near vertical it seemed and tow anything you put behind it.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:57 pm
Most Scouts, at least earlier ones, had four cyl. engines with under 100 hp. They were probably derived from the engine in a Farmall H. Well, probably not, but they were pretty low tech, even for the time.
April 23rd, 2019 at 5:01 pm
Well, maybe the Scout engine was derived from the one in a Farmall H. They are the same displacement, 152 cubic inches.
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:04 pm
Actually the original Scout 152 4-cylinder was one-half of the IH medium truck (SV) gas 304-V8. Used the same heads, crank bearings, timing gears (yes – no chains) waterpump, etc. By the late 60s they made a 196 four that was half the 392-V8, one of the largest 4-cylinders ever. That stayed in production up through 1980.
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:18 pm
I you don’t understand the appeal of the Scout, this 74 model Scout II ad sums it up well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Csn_DBE-Q
April 23rd, 2019 at 6:34 pm
25, 26. Thanks for info.
April 23rd, 2019 at 8:35 pm
25 Did it use part of the V8 block with the cylinders 45 degrees from vertical, like the Pontiac Tempest engine?
April 23rd, 2019 at 9:42 pm
https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/23/2020-tesla-model-s-and-x-get-range-power-boosts-thanks-to-a-new/
same 100 KWH battery, better motor design, 370 Mile Range.
April 24th, 2019 at 8:35 am
28 – Yes but originally they canted it ~15 degrees up to package it behind the front axle with a special-designed firewall for that purpose. IH did this because dealers already had parts on the shelf, not to mention obvious production efficiencies. They even turbocharged the 152-4 c.1966 (only for a couple of years) to better compete with the 6-cylinder Bronco.
April 24th, 2019 at 8:51 am
I remember seeing some Scouts (International Harvester) when growing up. I really don’t have any experience with the vehicles other than seeing them, though the name Scout was kind of cool, so for that name to carry-on, should be a positive for Ford.
April 24th, 2019 at 9:29 am
20
I am pretty sure I saw the Tesla in the video of this installment passing more than one vehicle on the right, hence my comment.
April 24th, 2019 at 9:49 am
“A fool and his money are soon parted”, what I call the “separation theorem”
While GM, on second thought, wised up and took its substantial investment in ugly Rivian trucks away, there are plenty of fools besides Amazon who have billions burning their pockets and trying to find the silliest way to waste them, and FORD emerged from the huge pack of said fools, to give the same Rivian $500 mill in exchange for some worthless pie in the sky failure.
Live and don’t learn…
April 24th, 2019 at 10:22 am
32 Brett,I saw that too, but not knowing the complete context of those passes I wouldn’t know the legality of them; though they did appear a bit ‘hairy’ in and around the on/off ramp scenario. I’ll just leave it at that.
April 24th, 2019 at 10:27 am
32, 34 I’ll try to find the video. If it does pass on the right, they need different algorithms, based on where the car will be used. That could be changed automatically using GPS.
May 6th, 2019 at 4:37 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMZmuZ2fYBc&fbclid=IwAR3fkwKWafRnGAGmZF5Wa2ANjn1ovyk-gmxx8-WX2ZZNhkb210L1Nu5zP0o