This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.
What if your car could go from sounding like this… to sounding like this? And just that fast too. We’ll have a video posted to our YouTube channel later today explaining what that’s all about.
UAW STRIKE FORCES SUPPLIER LAYOFFS
Yesterday, GM temporarily laid off workers at its Oshawa plant in Canada due to a parts shortage caused by the UAW strike. And now the Detroit Free Press reports, several suppliers are following suit. Nexteer Automotive, Lear Seating and Universal Delivery have been forced to temporarily lay off workers because of the GM production shutdown. The UAW and GM are still negotiating a new contract and say some progress has been made but a deal is still a ways off.
RIVIAN GETS BIG ORDER FROM AMAZON
Just a week after getting a $350 million investment from Cox Automotive, electric vehicle startup Rivian is getting another big boost. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that its ordering 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian. As you may remember, Amazon is an investor in the EV company. Deliveries of the vans will begin in 2021 and Amazon hopes to deploy the full fleet by 2024. The vans will be built at Rivian’s plant in Normal, Illinois, a former a Mitsubishi factory, where it will also make its electric pickup and SUV.
BMW MAY CUT THOUSANDS OF JOBS
There may be some concern with BMW employees. Reuters reports that the company’s Chief Financial Officer wants to cut between 5,000 to 6,000 jobs by 2022, mostly at its German headquarters. We’ve seen a number of automakers restructuring their operations as a way to cut costs and it looks like BMW will be the next.
FCA AND NISSAN TEST SMART CHARGING
Smart charging solutions for electric cars is sometimes called vehicle-to-grid or V2G and it refers to technologies that optimize the charging or discharging of an EV battery. And now two major automakers are running V2G trials. FCA has teamed with a company called Terna to run V2G tests in Italy and Nissan is joining forces with the EDF Group to build V2G compatible vehicles and technology in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Italy. The companies believe that smart charging will help speed up the adoption of electric cars because it can help reduce the cost of ownership by paying owners to supply energy to the grid during peak demand.
LEXUS INTRODUCES FIRST EVER YACHT
Lexus is taking its luxury knowhow to the seas. The company introduced its first ever yacht, called the LY 650. It’s based on a concept the company showed in 2017 and was built in collaboration with Marquis Yachts, which is headquartered in Wisconsin. But despite being part of the Toyota MOTOR Corporation, Lexus’s yacht is powered by two Volvo engines, which are available in three outputs. While it’s a bit strange to see Lexus jump into the yacht market, Toyota President Akio Toyoda says he wants the company to venture beyond automobiles and become a true luxury lifestyle brand.
1990 VW CABRIOLET CONVERTED TO AN EV
Automakers and suppliers are having a hard time attracting young people to the auto industry but one shop teacher in New Jersey has come up with a great solution. About a decade ago, Ron Grosinger approached school administrators with a plan to revive his struggling shop program by teaching students how to convert an old gas powered car intro an electric vehicle. The school agreed and he chose a 1990 Volkswagen Cabriolet to convert. Students learned how to make mechanical parts in cardboard, then wood and then steel. They also learned wiring and how to weld. Within a year, the class was attracting advanced math, science, physics and engineering students and even more women. The program has been so successful the department has expanded to four teachers and added an after school automotive program. It’s also led to more grant money being awarded to the school which has helped pay for new equipment. And we need more ideas like this to attract more students to the auto industry.
FORD FALCON “BARN FIND”
One of our friends in Argentina sent us this video of two guys talking about a completely original Ford Falcon they found.
1st guy: Look how nice this car is, so original.
2nd guy: The guy I got it from never used it, he never drove it.
1st guy: Very original.
2nd guy: The old man who owned it never used it.
1st guy: Can I open the door?
2nd guy: I was lucky to get it. The old guy died years ago and the family never used it.
1st guy: Too bad it’s too small for me.
Well they sure had us fooled!
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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Comments (45)
September 20th, 2019 at 12:03 pm
If I wanted a Lexus Yacht, I would want it with a bulletproof-reliable Lexus or Toyota engine; do you really believe I would accept it with….. a Volvo engine????
September 20th, 2019 at 12:16 pm
I WAS REALLY IMPRESSED WITH THE FALCON. HOOK LINE AND SINKER AS THEY SAY.
September 20th, 2019 at 12:24 pm
I like the front fascia design of the Amazon delivery van much more than that of the Rivian pickup and SUV. I wonder if they would consider a last minute design change . . .
Not surprised that the yacht maker contracted by Lexus to build their design decided to use a Volvo Penta powertrain. Not only do they have a long and enviable record for marine installations and reliability, but they also have a large service and parts network set up. For the handful of yachts Lexus will sell, they would be foolish to attempt to use their own engine, controls and outdrives.
September 20th, 2019 at 12:25 pm
The Falcon had me for about half of the presentation then I got suspicious and started looking for appearances that looked like a model. (my first hint was the intensity of the close ups; a real showing would probably had a scan backing for a view of the whole car)
September 20th, 2019 at 12:26 pm
A bit surprised that some suppliers are just now being affected. We ran production 1st shift only on Monday and have been down since. With just in time delivery not sure why its taken a week for other suppliers to feel the affect.
The Lexus Yacht looks nice but lets be serious. They did not build this thing other than allow the licensing for some boat manufacturer to use the Lexus name, hence the use of Volvo engines. Toyota has been making Marine motors over 25 years so if they built it they certainly would have used their engines. Very nice all the same!
Congrats to Ron Grosinger for a very cool idea that is typically reserved for college and universities. That would certainly be a fun project and show kids how math and science apply to the industry. It can be very difficult to explain what some of the very technical jobs entail and allowing kids exposure to this is so valuable.
September 20th, 2019 at 12:35 pm
1 “do you really believe I would accept it with….. a Volvo engine????”
Yea you would have to, cause that’s the only engines available. I’m guessing Toyota doesn’t have a large enough Marine motor for the yacht and went with a tried a true marine application Volvo. Not saying Toyota couldn’t do it better but why bother for the what? 100 boats it might sell.
September 20th, 2019 at 12:37 pm
In case anyone isn’t aware, the Volvo boat motors are from the truck company, not Geely who has Volvo cars.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:04 pm
https://www.volvopenta.us/marineleisure/en-us/products/motor-boats/ranges/volvo-penta-ips/ips1200/ips1200.html
September 20th, 2019 at 1:06 pm
3 I agree. I have no idea why RIvian bothered with the stupid pickup anyway, they should have introduced the van instead, and other segments where EVs make sense.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
7 Volvo reliability was abysmal 35 years before it made cars in CHina.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:22 pm
#10 I realize you know much more than I do, however, very satisfied with our 2004 V70R. No need to reply with your all capitals shouting response. Have a good weekend.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:26 pm
I am glad that the Yacht has no signs of the hideous Lexus grill.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Real Yachts are Sailboats. Those motorboats are just noisy nuisances.
September 20th, 2019 at 1:45 pm
Did Rivian enter the USPS next mail truck competition and did not make it to the finals, or didn’t it bother to waste its time with it?
September 20th, 2019 at 1:58 pm
13 I had a Laser racing yacht for a few years.
https://www.sailing.org/classesandequipment/LSR.php
September 20th, 2019 at 2:22 pm
Here in the Wash DC area we used to see Falcons like those in the eighties just with euro headlights as they still made them new in Argentina long after they moved on here but the Embassy got them sent up here for many years for staff to use
September 20th, 2019 at 2:30 pm
16 I first learned to sail in a “Tech Dingy (sp)” in the summers of 78-79, which included three capsizings in the Charles, or rather two, the third was me losing my balance as I took the little boat to the dock and fell in the water head first, I believe (lucky I did not hit any structure under the surface). In 78 I was rail-thin (169 lbs or less at 6 1″) and was dizzy for having skipped lunch to go sailing
September 20th, 2019 at 2:34 pm
16 this is more like what I had in mind. The first (and probably current too) owner of this one was also in the area and did his UG in the same dept. where I did most of my grad studies.
He later had a company where, if you invested $55 million, you’d end up with $5. (not thousands, just five bucks). Some haircut.
https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-22910/baracuda-valletta.htm
September 20th, 2019 at 2:44 pm
I meant 15, not 16 the last two posts.
My first cousin’s (the one in Amsterdam with same first and last name as me but 17 years younger) father in law, who helped me last Aug 18 with the summer home E320 (had to write a guarantee letter for me to the Govt there) was the secretary of the sailing (Yacht) club of the old country, located in a spectacular high location with a great view of the sea, and died suddenly last Nov (aneurysm) and left a “Dragon” type boat, worth only $10k but needing a crew of 2 plus him to sail, plus a small Merc C 180 Compressor from 2004 or so, worth less than $4k today. His widow does not want to sell the car, and they are trying to sell the boat, I think.
September 20th, 2019 at 2:51 pm
18 I assume the charters include a crew. You’d need some really good credentials to rent it w/o crew.
September 20th, 2019 at 2:57 pm
20 Have not tried it so I wouldn’t know. My ex-navy friend and wife, a few years ago took 3 other couples from their Arlington VA neighborhood and chartered a sailboat in the old country for a week or two, with its crew, and toured the coast and islands. It’s a hard life, but it was soon over.
September 20th, 2019 at 3:04 pm
20 As well as $200,000 per week.
September 20th, 2019 at 3:28 pm
22 Yeah, that would be a major deterent to most of us.
September 20th, 2019 at 5:50 pm
#1. Volvo Penta engines are the standard fare in the motor yachting industry. They were the first with joystick controls that essentially make docking (and un-docking) a 70′ yacht so easy a novice could do it with no more than an hour of practice.
September 20th, 2019 at 5:56 pm
I could tell it was a model the moment I could see how the light was bending through the plastic windows. So in other words, about 9 or 10 seconds in.
September 20th, 2019 at 9:05 pm
24 The Volvo Penta gas stern drives use Chevy engines, but does Volvo make the big diesels used in that “Lexus” boat, or would the engines themselves be Cummins, Cat, or something?
September 21st, 2019 at 9:33 am
22, 23 I am 100% sure that my friends from Arlington VA and the other 3 couples who chartered a yacht for a week or two did not pay $20,000 a couple, let alone $200,000. The boat may have been half the size of the one in my link, but was still very enjoyable.
Many of my colleagues here OWN sailboats, small to medium, really nice, and one of them who passed away this year used to take me on cruises on weekends, he had a 32 footer and the other guests were from the sierra club
September 21st, 2019 at 10:44 am
The main sailing I’ve done was racing on a inland reservoir. I raced my laser a few times, but not enough to get very good at it. I’ve crewed on some larger boats that race with 2-4 people, which is fun.
September 21st, 2019 at 3:35 pm
More Tesla, Porsche, and the ‘Ring. It’s a fairly long article, but good.
https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-happened-with-teslas-ambitious-first-attempt-1838221405
September 21st, 2019 at 5:13 pm
I was very surprised when I first sailed in the Great Lakes, and even before we went out in the big ones, on lake Charlevoix, with less than one foot waves, where Jack W and his family had a summer home and he docked his boat there, north in MI, I got seasick for the first time in my life at 36 or so, while I never got seasick in large boats and decent waves. So I attributed it to the beer I had with lunch, it went away in a couple mins, and the next time we sailed, I only ate solids for lunch, and still, I was seasick in the little lake again! It went away very fast, but it puzzled me, I thought I must be allergic to the higher frequencies of the smaller boats. Every time, once we got out on the big lakes, no seasickness at all. He had a book in the boat that claimed 90% of all people get seasick.
September 21st, 2019 at 5:18 pm
29 I took a quick look. I am not much of a racing fan, but marketing wise this helps Porsche probably more than Tesla, since far more people know the 8 year old Tesla S and practically nobody knows what a Taycan is.
But the 7 seater large sedan S is not the gun to bring to a serious racing fight, when the time for serious competition comes, Tesla should bring the new Roadster. And with 620 miles of range advertised, it can do several 13 mile Ring laps.
September 21st, 2019 at 8:22 pm
31 If serious high performance tires are available big enough for the Model S and Taycan, bigger cars might not be at much disadvantage compared to smaller ones, on that course. Narrower is certainly better in general, but with a mostly high speed course 6 to 8 meters wide, that shouldn’t be a big factor.
If there are records to be set for multiple laps, probably neither the current Taycan nor S would be too good. From an article I read a while back about the highest performance Model 3, it got 1/6 or less the range going fast on a track, than it would get in normal driving. The Roadster with 620 mile range, if that’s real, would do a lot better than either an S or Taycan for 8 laps on the ‘Ring. I find this stuff interesting, but as a buyer of cars for road use, WTF difference does any of it make?
September 21st, 2019 at 8:39 pm
30 I’ve sailed small boats, as mentioned in #28, and took a few Windjammer Barefoot Cruises before they went out of business, but the closest I ever got to sea sick was on a fast deep sea fishing boat from Daytona, with fairly high frequency motion on semi-rough water. In 1998, I took a cruise on a soon-to-be-retired ~600 passenger ship built in the 1950′s, from Ft. Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil, and a number of passengers on the semi-rough water got queazy, but I was ok.
September 22nd, 2019 at 12:19 pm
32 Musk always likes to tease the established automakers. Most buyers would not care about these races.
33 My father knew a lawyer working for a cruise line and he took a 7 day free cruise in a similar ship to the above, and later (in 77) they gave me a freebie too, but not the 7 day I wanted, but two smaller 3 and 4 day cruises instead (Mediterranean). Don’t remember any rough seas, I’m sure if they were many of the passengers would get sick.
September 22nd, 2019 at 4:58 pm
I don’t know how many people here watched the Singapore GP, but is it just me, or is Charles LeClerc quite the spoiled brat to be so angry about finishing only 2nd because of a pit decision, and Vettel really hauling on that lap after leaving the pit? Maybe Charles should quit Ferrari, and get a ride with Williams.
September 23rd, 2019 at 6:17 am
https://www.autonews.com/sales/civic-just-fire-helping-drive-honda-sales-surge?utm_source=weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190923&utm_content=article10-headline
“people don’t want sedans”? No, they don’t want LAME sedans!
September 23rd, 2019 at 7:42 am
36 Neither would add a lot to the sales numbers, but you can still get manual transmissions, and actual two door coupes with the Civic.
September 23rd, 2019 at 8:00 am
36, 37 And most importantly, they do it with 100% retail sales, no discount rental fleet sales like everybody else.
September 23rd, 2019 at 9:04 am
26 I was thinking the same thing based on the size of the yacht pictured I would expect it to be twin diesels. But a quick google search I found an article on it. Had this to say about the engines.
“The Yacht’s various electronic systems have the ability to be controlled via smartphone, and propulsion comes from a pair of marine-spec Volvo Penta IPS 12.8-liter engines that can produce up to 1,350 horsepower each. Sorry Lexus fans, no Toyota-spec power this time.
September 23rd, 2019 at 9:05 am
Link to the article on the Lexus yacht.
https://www.motor1.com/news/371884/lexus-ly-650-yacht-debuts/
September 23rd, 2019 at 10:09 am
40 It looks like Volvo, (not the Geely car group) makes the engines used in the boat. This is a similar engine, in basic inboard form.
http://inboardenginesale.com/volvo-penta-d13-900-900-hp-marine-engine-inboard
September 23rd, 2019 at 11:06 am
https://www.autonews.com/executives/nissan-and-ghosn-fined-16-million-sec-failing-disclose-pay?utm_source=breaking-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190923&utm_content=hero-headline
“Nobody Loves Carlos”
September 23rd, 2019 at 11:08 am
41 whadda u mean? Volvo IS part of the Geely Group. Some Volvo cars are even built in China.
September 23rd, 2019 at 11:26 am
43 Volvo cars is part of Geely. Volvo trucks, Volvo Penta marine, and more are Volvo Group, and NOT part of Geely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo
September 23rd, 2019 at 11:35 am
Volvo cars and Volvo AB have been separate, since Ford bought the car business in 1999.