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Runtime: 6:14
0:59 NACTOY Winners Revealed
1:38 Geely Wants Stake in Aston Martin
2:15 Car Sales Plunge in India
2:51 Ford’s Local Hazard Warning
3:54 Nissan Has Contingency Plan for Split with Renault
4:22 Switch to EVs To Cause Job Cuts
4:58 GM to Revive Hummer
5:16 GMC Introduces First-Ever Canyon AT4
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This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.
As you can see we made some changes to the set. We’ve received a lot of feedback, which we really appreciate. One of the big complaints was that things looked a little too busy and that I blended into the background. Well, we hope this more minimalistic approach addresses that and we’d really like to thank Vicente and Omar at Studio VO for taking the time to render out their take on our new set. We took inspiration from them and we’ll likely continue to make updates. Please continue to let us know what you think, we’re listening.
NACTOY WINNERS REVEALED
The winners of the North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year Award were revealed this morning. In the car category, no surprise here, the Chevy Corvette beat out the Toyota Supra and Hyundai Sonata. The Jeep Gladiator won the Truck category by beating the Ram Heavy Duty and Ford Ranger. And last but not least, the Kia Telluride won Utility of the Year over the Hyundai Palisade and Lincoln Aviator. If you’d like to learn more about the finalists, check out our two most recent Autoline This Week’s (Part 1, Part 2), where John and several of his NACTOY jurors discuss the pros and cons of all the vehicles. You can watch that on our website or on our YouTube channel.
GEELY WANTS STAKE IN ASTON MARTIN
Chinese automaker Geely is building quite the automotive empire and it could add another brand to its stable. The Financial Times reports that the automaker is in talks with Aston Martin to take a stake in the company. Aston’s profits are down and its outstanding debt is approaching 1 billion pounds, so it needs to raise cash. But if Geely does take a stake in Aston, it would add to an impressive list of brands that are part of the Group. It owns Volvo, Lotus, Proton and the London EV company, and it has a nearly 10% stake in Daimler.
CAR SALES PLUNGE IN INDIA
Car sales in India plunged in 2019. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, automakers sold 1.8 million passenger vehicles last year, which is a drop of nearly 20%. Truck sales were down 15% and sales of two-wheelers, which are popular in the country, were down 14%. And car sales are expected to remain flat this year due to weak demand and stricter emission rules that go into effect in April, which are expected to boost the price of vehicles by as much as 10%.
FORD’S LOCAL HAZARD WARNING
Ford ls using technology to improve the safety of its vehicles in Europe. It’s starting to equip its vehicles with Local Hazard Information which provides drivers warnings of what’s coming ahead via the display in the instrument cluster. The system monitors everything from airbag deployment, to emergency braking events and automatically provides information to a central, cloud-based platform. Then, only if the incident or road hazard will impact the vehicle’s journey, will a warning be sent. The system will only work on connected vehicles. The new Ford Puma comes standard with the feature, which is free for the first year. Ford will continue to roll out Local Hazard Information to 80% of its European passenger vehicle lineup this year. And information and warnings can be sent across different brands of vehicles as well.
NISSAN HAS CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR SPLIT WITH RENAULT
The relationship between Nissan and Renault may be worse than people realized. Reuters reports that Nissan is working on a contingency plan for a potential split with the French automaker. That includes a total split in engineering and manufacturing and changes to Nissan’s board. That planning has ramped up since Carlos Ghosn’s escape from Japan and the news pushed Renault’s shares down 3.7%.
SWITCH TO EVs TO CAUSE JOB CUTS
We know that due to fewer parts and the automated nature of manufacturing that the switch to electric vehicles will cost a lot of people their jobs. Now a German newspaper is reporting the switch could cut as many as 410,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. Many of jobs at risk come from the production of combustion engines and transmissions. Many of the job cuts announced up until this point have been white collar jobs, but as we’ve said and as this story shows, blue collar jobs are at significant risk as well.
GM TO REVIVE HUMMER
A little more information is coming out on GM’s revival of the Hummer brand. It will only make electric versions of pickups and SUVs, which will be sold under the GMC brand. GM will also promote the return in a new Super Bowl ad featuring NBA star LeBron James.
GMC INTRODUCES FIRST-EVER CANYON AT4
And speaking of GMC, it introduced the AT4 version of the Canyon for the first time. The mid-size pickup features dark chrome finishes on the exterior and a new larger grille. It also comes standard with an off-road tuned suspension with hill descent control and a four-wheel drive system with rear automatic locking differential. The new Canyon AT4, as well as the Denali version, are powered by a 3.6L V6 engine or a 2.8L diesel is also available. The new Canyon goes on sale later this year and pricing will be revealed later.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.