0:21 BMW Will Close U.S. Plant in a Week
0:42 GM Partners to Make Virus Equipment
1:25 How GM & FCA Are Keeping Operations Going
1:53 Detroit 3 to Keep Parts Centers Open
2:50 Toyota & Hino Developing HD Fuel Cell Truck
3:18 Bentley Bacalar to Inspire Future Models
4:01 Petersen Museum Opens Its Virtual Doors
4:41 Pass the Time with Ian Callum Design
5:08 What Are Your Thoughts on eRacing?
5:38 Keep the Powerslides Alive!
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
We were hoping we could make Autoline Daily an oasis from all the coronavirus coverage, but we can’t. The situation is too serious, and it’s turning out that the automotive industry has a major role to play in fighting it.
BMW TO CLOSE U.S. PLANT IN A WEEK
As we reported last week, BMW said it would announce today what it’s going to do with its plant in South Carolina which employs 11,000 people. Not surprisingly, it decided to close it, but not for at least another week. BMW already closed all its plants in Europe.
GM PARTNERS TO HELP MAKE VIRUS EQUIPMENT
President Trump urged automakers to start making masks, ventilators and respirators. But they were actually well ahead of him. General Motors announced its partnering with a company called Ventec that makes ventilators, because that would be the fastest way to boost production. GM is contributing logistics, purchasing and manufacturing expertise. We contacted GM to see if we could interview someone to get more details. GM declined, saying everything is moving too fast, but they have a major announcement coming soon.
HOW GM & FCA ARE KEEPING OPERATIONS GOING
Crain’s Detroit business reports GM is working with one of its suppliers Meridian Lightweight Industries to make magnesium castings. And Meridian put GM in touch with Twin Cities Die Castings of Minneapolis. Another GM supplier in Michigan, the Creative Foam Corporation, is making foam parts for ventilators. FCA is going to convert one of its plants in China to make masks and export them to the U.S.
DETROIT 3 TO KEEP PARTS CENTERS OPEN
Meanwhile, GM, Ford and FCA reached an agreement with the UAW to keep their parts distribution centers open, but only using paid workers who volunteer to stay on the job. Auto parts for vehicle repairs and maintenance are considered critical not just for the public, but especially for police, fire, ambulance and postal vehicles.
It’s really encouraging to see the auto industry rolling up its sleeves and getting involved in fighting the coronavirus. What we’ve reported here is just the beginning and we’ll continue to bring you the latest coverage of how the industry is responding.
TOYOTA & HINO DEVELOPING HD FUEL CELL TRUCK
Toyota is one of leaders in fuel cells and now it’s helping one of its subsidiaries develop the technology. Toyota and Hino agreed to jointly make a heavy-duty fuel cell truck. It will be based on a Hino Profia truck, feature two fuel cell stacks and have a range of around 600 kilometers or over 370 miles. Toyota says it will work toward practical uses through tests and other means.
BENTLEY BACALAR TO INSPIRE FUTURE MODELS
Last week we reported about the limited edition Bentley Bacalar and it looks like that vehicle will inspire future Bentley’s. Autoblog spoke with the company’s lead designer who says the Bacalar was received well by customers and “I feel encouraged to really push the subject of rejuvenating and modernizing Bentley’s design language.” He also said the process of refreshing Bentley’s design will accelerate in the coming years. The company’s CEO Adrian Hallmark has strongly hinted at a bigger and more luxurious version of the Bentayga and its first all-electric model. It’s possible one of those could get the new look.
PETERSEN MUSEUM OPENS ITS VIRTUAL DOORS
The iconic Petersen Automotive Museum in California is closed because of coronavirus. But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience what it has to offer. It’s begun streaming lectures and hands-on activities, twice a day for free. It’s aimed at students 12 and under but anyone can join. The first lecture starts at 10AM pacific time and there’s another at 1PM. Each session comes with downloadable worksheets and coloring sheets. Some of the lessons will include the physics of making a car move, the history of the automobile, propulsion, aerodynamics and racing. This is a great idea and fantastic way to kill time during the shutdown.
PASS YOUR TIME WITH IAN CALLUM DESIGN
We’re seeing a lot of people take unique paths to pass the time while under quarantine. Ian Callum, the former head of design at Jaguar Land Rover, released coloring book pages. The pictures are free to download and feature the Aston Martin Vanquish 25. Coloring is a great activity for any age and if you’re so inclined, you can tag your coloring on social media with #colorwithcallum and Callum Designs will pick its favorites to earn prizes.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON E-RACING?
BMW says its Super Sim Saturday was a success and NASCAR’s eRace came down to a door-banging finish. Both series have quotes from racers that say how interesting they thought it was and how much fun they had. But we’re wondering if any of you took the time to check these eRaces out and what you thought of them?
KEEP THE POWERSLIDES ALIVE!
Last week, we showed you a new electronic parking brake for small, front-wheel drive cars from the supplier ZF. The technology gets rid of the need for a handbrake and cable, in order to free up more room in the interior. But a lot of you weren’t happy about not having a handbrake because that means no more powerslides. That prompted Robert Stewart from Magna Seating to send us this video of a young girl enjoying some powerslides in her toy car. Check it out.
Thanks for sending that Robert and if you have any fun automotive related videos that you think our viewers would enjoy, please send them our way.
That’s it for today’s show. We’ll be right back here again tomorrow.
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Comments (25)
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:55 am
The web link is to an article about Tesla donating their mask and face shield inventory.
“. . . Tesla has already donated 50,000 3M N95 masks and multiple PAPR helmets. According to CEO Elon Musk, they have another 200,000 masks heading out to hospitals. It’s important to be very clear here that Tesla did not “make” these masks, but instead quickly donated its own supply.”
Do the other manufacturers have ready inventory?
The reason I ask is protecting healthcare professionals should be a very high priority. Then test kits to survey the population to narrow on ‘hot spots’ and reduce transmission. Finally patients.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:04 pm
Do any new cars still even have hand brakes? Even serious sports cars, like Corvette and Porsche Cayman/Boxter, have electric parking brakes that wouldn’t be very good for playing with power slides. As far as putting the parking brake on the front wheels, I don’t like the idea of adding the extra unsprung weight on the front end, but the weight is probably small enough that it doesn’t make much difference.
I watched a few minutes of the Nascar video game thing, and wasn’t very entertained, but they showed a little of the “drivers,” and they seemed to be having fun. I don’t watch regular Nascar races any more either.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:09 pm
Is BMW the only US assembly plant still running? It seems that most, both “Detroit 3″ and transplants were closed by company, or union decisions, and Tesla by the local sheriff, but BMW kept going. BMW must have wanted to build up a stockpile of those CUVs, and may move the plant to Mexico to avoid trades wars, and not re-open in SC.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:13 pm
I watched the whole sim race on Sunday. I used to race the Papyrus sims “Grand Prix Legends” and their NASCAR offerings. Those formed the technological basis for iRacing.com’s platform.
It all felt quite familiar. Graphics were not appreciably finer than when I raced. They don’t was CPU power modeling crash debris or pit crew. Smoke seems about as lame as ever, but that’s not important anyhow.
I found it easy enough to “suspend disbelief” after watching for a couple minutes and just enjoy the race.
To show that it costs money to win, Denny Hamlin’s cockpit rig purportedly cost $40 grand. Has all sort of exotic stuff like motion sensors and such.
All in all, an entertaining 90 minutes.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:20 pm
4 Interesting. I suspect I would have “gotten into it” more, if I’d done sim racing myself.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:29 pm
Whoops! I just found out that Hamlin’s sim racing rig was $124,000 + $5,000 delivery and setup.
https://www.simcraft.com/full-motion-racing-simulator-race-engineering/
Yowza! I’ve still got my 20 year-old original cable drive Logitech Wingman Formula Force wheel! I’ll let it go for half that!
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:44 pm
I really can’t see BMW moving their plant to Mexico. With 11,000 workers and at least three expansions, they have so much invested in that plant that they would have a hard time making a financial case to move it. Plus, the blowback from Washington would be huge! Its BMW’s largest and most profitable plant in the entire world. I think they have other uses for the capital it would take to make the run for the border.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:46 pm
That young lady has bright future in stunt driving.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:53 pm
7 I wasn’t too serious about them moving the SC plants to Mexico, at least not during the life cycle of current, or similar products.
March 23rd, 2020 at 12:56 pm
6 Only $124K, and it’s very good in a crash.
March 23rd, 2020 at 1:21 pm
I watched the NASCAR race and it was more interesting than I expected. I have to admit it beats the heck out of watching races you’ve already seen. It will however, never replace the real thing. Drivers make totally different decisions when they know they can walk away!
March 23rd, 2020 at 1:26 pm
3,7 — There is no way that BMW can move that much production to any other plant they have. They already work 6.5 days/week in two plants to make all of the SUV’s they pump out of that facility. Their issue is that it is the ONLY plant in the world to make the X3-X7 series vehicles. With China finally coming back to life, they need as much inventory as they can get before a shutdown with a now unknown restart date. I know that the Big 3 have a date of April 6, and Honda March 30, but that will all move out with the “Stay at Home” orders for Michigan and Ohio.
Take care and don’t go crazy all cooped up at home.
I’m just glad that John had six minutes of material. Hope that is able to continue.
March 23rd, 2020 at 1:26 pm
John, many thanks for keeping us going during this bleak time! I just read that Tesla has been caught stripping out software features on their second hand cars via over the air software audit updates. Only the first owner gets the benefits of Co-pilot and then it is taken away on resale. Of course you can repurchase this and other features when you buy used. Not a good trend!
March 23rd, 2020 at 2:47 pm
Just want to add my thanks to you guys for continuing with Autoline Daily even in the middle of a crisis. This is something i watch every day and it helps to keep things “normal” in my neck of the woods. Also, I loved that slide between the trash cans….now where have i seen that before?
March 23rd, 2020 at 3:27 pm
One wonders if the ventilators with be made in a timely manner. One also has to wonder who will operate the ventilators. According to the medical experts there won’t be enough trained operators once they start arriving. We are behind the power curve on this one. I guess cutting the CDC pandemic team in 2018 wasn’t such a good move.
March 23rd, 2020 at 5:16 pm
great show as always,thanks
March 23rd, 2020 at 6:18 pm
13 There should be a market for the skill of “cutting the wires” for Tesla updates, so the the capability can’t be used to downgrade used cars. When/if we recover from the depession we’re entering, there will probably be a lot of Model 3s on the market, that have been replaced with Model Ys.
March 23rd, 2020 at 7:17 pm
BMW will move their plant eventually if they keep getting threatened with tariffs…
March 24th, 2020 at 7:54 am
A. As I already said once (but in this forum the same things are said again and again 100 times), Bentley should wise up, IF it is in the $ making business, AND give TOP priority in making a REALLY Flagship SUV that can take on the very successful (but still plain looking) Rolls Royce Cullinan, which accounted half of all the units RR sold last year.
The Bentyaga is really small for a Rolls-Bentley SUV, and basically a clone of the Porsche Cayenne and the VW Touareg.
B. Why is BMW allowed to keep producing for another whole week while Tesla, with all its RED HOT selling Model Y and 3, is not? Probably a state-by-state thing.
Thanks for keeping this program going, John, and take care.
March 24th, 2020 at 7:56 am
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
And don’t forget the detailed and frequently updated CV site. Italy now with more than 6,000 deaths, the US, five times as populous, with probably less than 600.
More important is the yellow curve at the lower right, total cases worldwide continues its steep uphill climb, hoping to flatten some day.
March 24th, 2020 at 8:08 am
19.B. BMW is in the “3rd world” state of South Carolina, while Tesla is in the highly developed state of California. That’s the reason for the difference. Even Indiana’s state government has told people to stay home, but not SC.
March 24th, 2020 at 8:12 am
21 Ι already guessed it was a state by state thing, but it is CA that is the third world state. Tesla is only there because of nearby SIlicon Valley and the bargain priced TOyota plant it bought.
Operating a highly AUTOMATED plant with all the distancing, antiseptic, and state of the art precautions is NOT the same as morons playing BASKETBALL GAMES in New York and thinking they are immune and then dying like FLIES and also infecting their parents and grandparents.
March 24th, 2020 at 8:22 am
22 California is the tech capitol of the world. In SC, it is legal to beat your spouse on the court house steps. Yeah, I’m using generalities. Sorry, to the South Carolinians out there, but allowing the car plants to operate right now seems irresponsible.
March 24th, 2020 at 8:47 am
For those who are interested, another site with CV data. The third graph doesn’t look too good for us in the US.
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
March 24th, 2020 at 10:59 am
My son works in HVAC and plumbing. Besides the owners, only my son and another are taking only priority calls. All the other were laid off. He is totally covered and used all safety precautions for each job. When completed, garments are bagged and washes thoroughly.