AD #2825 – GM Eliminates Dividend & Share Buyback; Audi Drops DTM for Formula E; Sporty Elantra N-Line Teased
April 28th, 2020 at 11:44am
Listen to “AD #2825 – GM Eliminates Dividend and Share Buyback; Audi Drops DTM for Formula E; Sporty Elantra N-Line Teased” on Spreaker.
Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 10:07
0:07 FCA Following GM & Ford Plant Timeline
1:07 Tesla Forced to Postpone Reopening
1:39 GM Eliminates Dividend & Share Buyback
2:09 Mary Barra Makes Much Less Than Elon Musk
3:02 Audi Drops DTM to Focus on Formula E
3:47 Hyundai Teases Sporty Elantra N-Line
4:50 Rolls-Royce Making Exclusive Honey
5:32 Skoda’s All-Yellow Pickup from 1995
6:19 New Porsche 911 Carrera Features
7:15 Vehicles Under Development Most Likely to be Cut
Visit our sponsor to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
FCA FOLLOWS GM & FORD PLANT TIMELINE
Yesterday we reported that FCA would open its plants in the U.S. next week, but now it’s reconsidering that. The Wall Street Journal reports that GM and Ford will reopen their U.S. plants on May 18, and FCA will probably go along with that. The UAW is opposed to opening plants too early and the state of Michigan, where the Detroit Three have their headquarters and many plants, still has a stay at home order until May 15. Even so, the UAW told local union leaders to talk with local management to explore ways to safely resume production. We hear that behind the scenes, the Detroit Three are putting enormous pressure on their suppliers to get back to work next week so there are enough parts for assembly lines to resume production. Officially, however, the automakers say they have no date set to resume production and encourage everyone to stay home.
TESLA FORCED TO POSTPONE PLANT RE-OPENING
Tesla was planning to reopen parts of its plant in Fremont, California this week, but health authorities put a stop to that. They’re maintaining their stay at home orders until at least May 3. Tesla ran into problems with the same authorities back in March when it tried to keep its plant running. Those authorities in the San Francisco Bay area were the first in the United States to issue a stay at home order, and it’s been credited with greatly limiting the spread of Covid-19.
GM ELIMINATES DIVIDEND & SHARE BUYBACK
General Motors took early steps to slash spending and raise extra cash. But clearly that wasn’t enough. Yesterday it announced it is eliminating its dividend and will stop buying back its own shares. And it’s extending a $3.6 billion revolving credit agreement until April, 2021. Automakers and suppliers are desperate to resume production and get some revenue coming in, because they’re burning through cash at a dangerous rate.
MARY BARRA EARNS MUCH LESS THAN ELON MUSK
GM announced that Mary Barra earned $21 million in total compensation last year. Not bad. But it pales in comparison to what Elon Musk earned. In a 10-K filing, Tesla reported that Mr. Musk earned $2.2 billion as part of a CEO Performance Award applicable to 2018. But it’s all paid in stock and Elon Musk will not be fully invested in those shares until Tesla’s market cap hits $650 billion. Currently, it’s at $147 billion.
AUDI DROPS OUT OF DTM TO FOCUS ON FORMULA E
Audi is making a big commitment to electrification. By 2025, it’s aiming for electric cars and plug-in hybrids to make up 40% of its sales. And to reach that goal, Audi is scaling back on motorsport activities that use internal combustion engines. Audi announced it will not participate in the DTM touring car racing series beyond 2020. Instead, it will focus on Formula E, where it already participates. Part of the reason it’s leaving DTM is to save money during the coronavirus pandemic, but it also wants to cultivate a greener image and that’s why it will be more involved in Formula E and probably in similar series in the future.
HYUNDAI TEASES SPORTY ELANTRA N-LINE
Hyundai is boosting its performance image with its N models. But it also knows it can boost sales with cars that have some of the bits and pieces from the N, but sell at a lower price. So it just officially revealed details of Elantra N-line. This is not a full-blown performance N car, but the big news announced here is that the Elantra N-Line will get a turbocharged engine. Hyundai only previously revealed that the Elantra would have a standard 2.0L 4-cylinder with 147 horsepower and a hybrid with a 1.6L engine mated to a small electric motor. Also coming to the N-Line Elantra are unique design elements and chassis upgrades. Hyundai didn’t show us any interior shots and it did a good job of hiding those design details. We did notice a small change in the rear fascia for dual exhaust and would expect a different treatment around the front air curtain vents. We’ll share more details as they come along.
ROLLS-ROYCE NOW MAKES THE ROLLS-ROYCE OF HONEY
If we have any beekeepers in the audience, you know that the global population of bees is falling fast. So Rolls-Royce is doing its part to help honey bees. It installed six beehives at its factory in Goodwood in 2017 and is ramping that up. And here’s an interesting side fact: five of the six hives are named after Rolls-Royce cars, while the other is named after its logo ‘The Spirit of Ecstasy.’ A total of about 250,000 bees make honey, which is served to guests and customers of Rolls-Royce. Makes sense. Honey, like Rolls-Royce customers is rather rich.
THE SKODA FELICIA FUN WAS AN ALL-YELLOW, LITTLE PICKUP
We’ve been enjoying these lesser-known models from Skoda’s history and here’s a newer one you may have actually heard of. In 1995 the automaker introduced a version of its small pickup, called the Felicia Fun. It was powered by a range of gasoline and diesel engines, but the real highlight of the truck – other than its bright yellow paintwork – was the rear wall of the cabin could fold and slide towards the rear, revealing two more seats. A little more than 4,000 Felicia Funs were made between 1995 and 2000 and Skoda says they’ve become sought-after collectables.
NEW PORSCHE 911 CARRERA FEATURES
The Carrera series of the Porsche 911 is getting a few new features. A 7-speed manual transmission is now offered in place of the standard 8-speed automatic. It’s only available with the Sport Chrono package, which includes things like torque vectoring, tire temperature monitor, dynamic engine mounts, Sport mode and a track app. There is no extra charge for the manual, but Porsche has not announced what the price of the package is. Another new feature is what they call InnoDrive, which improves the adaptive cruise control. Navigation data is used to calculate the proper speed to travel looking up to 3 kilometers or nearly 2 miles ahead. And lastly, Smartlift will raise the front of the vehicle about 40 mm wherever it might scrape the ground. Data is in the GPS and the vehicle will automatically raise when it comes to those spots again.
VEHICLES UNDER DEVELOPMENT MOST LIKELY TO BE CUT
IHS Markit conducted a survey of automakers and suppliers that showed R&D budgets will be cut significantly because of the coronavirus. That makes us wonder, what will happen to the vehicles that are already under development? Matteo Fini, the Executive Director of Supply & Technology at IHS Markit explains it all depends on the stage the vehicle is at in the development process.
Matteo Fini, Executive Director of Supply & Technology, IHS Markit
“Think of it this way. You have a big phase that starts from minus 60 months, from when the vehicle is actually launched from Job One let’s say, and so minus 60 months to minus 24 (months) is essentially when the whole development of that vehicle happens. So, when they’re are going to first define which sort of vehicle they want to develop at a high level, initial styling, then moving on to define that vehicle more from a technical and engineering standpoint, up to minus 24 months. Of course, each OEM is different, but minus 24 months is when they freeze the design. Now, if a vehicle is in that phase, from minus 60 to minus 24, it’s more likely to be cut. It’s more likely that if that vehicle is perhaps in the passenger car segment still at the early stage or perhaps it was a halo vehicle that they really didn’t need, it’s more likely to be cut. Anything that tends to be from that design freeze, so from that famous minus 24 months that I was mentioning to you before, to Job One is more committed because that investment has been put together, has been deployed. And obviously in that phase from minus 24 to Job One you have all of the sourcing activities. So, allocating the business to suppliers, making sure that the manufacturing capacity is there and the tooling is there. So, again it’s quite… there’s already been a certain level of capital deployment and it’s much more difficult to pull out of that.”
Matteo also discusses how future technology, like EVs and EVs will be delayed and so will the regulations that govern those technologies. You can watch that interview right now on our YouTube channel.
And with that we wrap up today’s show. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Share
Permalink
Comments (32)
April 28th, 2020 at 11:59 am
“MARY BARRA EARNS MUCH LESS THAN ELON MUSK”!!!
Seriously, John? Did Barra’s PR BS VP suggested this horribly wrong and biased title?
First of all, Barra Earned NOTHING. While she punished GM shareholders as you detail today above, her 21 million PLUS salary remained largely intact.
On the contrary, Elon Musk earned every penny, and ALL the salary he got was NOT a salary but only stock. You live by the sword, you die by the Sword. Ask incompetent Barra if she would DARE be paid like that. Ask her what, if anything, she ever actually DID, which would MERIT her undeserved $21 million A YEAR.
April 28th, 2020 at 12:01 pm
CEO pay just highlights what is terribly wrong with our society. I respect Mary Barra but I think all of these CEOs should spend all the time they need to understand that a paycheck (with all the dividends, etc. included) is too much and recognize what that money can do for workers and people who live paycheck to paycheck. I’m sure someone has figured out how to put that money back into society. I’ll give Mary one example: fix Flint.
April 28th, 2020 at 12:05 pm
VEHICLES UNDER DEVELOPMENT MOST LIKELY TO BE CUT
That is actually one of the few pieces of good news these days. I hope the dire straits of the automakers FORCE them to abandon their LOSERS and only develop the most PROMISING models, with the aim to go to an industry of NOT 1,000 different models in the US market, but to 500 or LESS better, better VALUE models for the consumer.
If I am in the market for a compact car, I used to have dozens of choices. Civic, Golf, COrolla, Elantra, the kia clone of the Elantra whatever its name, Sentra, Cruze, FOcus, Didge Dart (good riddance to that turkey!), Subaru something, even a Mitsu probably!
Do I REALLY NEED all these choices, if I will only buy an OUTSTANDING model? Such as the Civic, if I want some fun in driving, or a Corolla, if I am not an enthusiast and want a reliable APPLIANCE?
April 28th, 2020 at 12:07 pm
why would the UAW want to go back to work as they get 70% of their pay plus the feds(taxpayers) are giving them $600 extra a week
April 28th, 2020 at 12:22 pm
More bad news for we Americans who like wagons. M-B is taking what was a very nice wagon, except for the mandatory 4WD, and adding black plastic and a lift kit for the U.S. market, turning it into a $70-80K Subaru Outback.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31195862/2021-mercedes-benz-e-class-all-terrain-wagon-photos-info/
April 28th, 2020 at 12:27 pm
GM is NOT paying any sub-pay unemployment.
April 28th, 2020 at 12:30 pm
5 The E-wagon is an excellent car, but its price has become truly ridiculous, with the usual options. I recently mentioned a MT trend where everybody was in love (literally) with it, but the base price was $65k and the AS TESTED, REAL price was $90k!
This makes it affordable to VERY few buyers, so it is no great loss if it is discontinued.
After all, it is NOT fair for the losses of the E wagon to be passed to the buyers of the SUCCESSFUL variants of the E or S class or especially the M-B SUVs which buyers vastly prefer over the wagon.
Now if there is something really divine about wagons, and you are deprived of them in the US market, fortunately you can still sell your FL condo and move to the old country, where wagons are still popular enough to enable makers to offer them and NOT lose $.
Speaking of Wagons, I saw at least two Golf (or Jetta) small wagon-like vehicles in my walk around my 360 condo complex. But there were three dozen minivans of all makes vs the two (and a lone Volvo wagon).
There, we still have Volvo Wagons on sale in the US. In what ways are they so much worse than the E class wagon? (price wise they are not much better).
April 28th, 2020 at 12:48 pm
7 The Volvo wagons are transverse engine, FWD-based powertrain cars with powertrains similar to much cheaper mainstream cars, but yeah, they do still sell wagons. To me, and I suspect to you, the E-Class is a much different car.
The VW Golf Sportwagon, formerly Jetta wagon, is the only “mainstream” actual wagon still sold in the U.S. The only engine is a 1.4 turbo. The heyday of those wagons in the U.S. was in the 2000s, before the TDI disaster. I think the diesel take rate approached 40% some years for the wagons.
April 28th, 2020 at 12:55 pm
@1, 2: GM share price in one year from $40 to 23, meaning market capitalization from $56 billion down to $32 billion. So GM’s CEO led the destruction of $24 billion of value and gets paid $21 million. Absurd.
TESLA: shares up in one year from $220 to $777, market capitalization up from $40 billion to $143 billion. In other words, Elon Musk led the creation of $103 billion of shareholder value, three times the total worth of a mega company like GM.
April 28th, 2020 at 1:00 pm
7,8 The cheapest Volvo wagon, the V60, is ~$40K base price, and most would have at least $5K of options.
April 28th, 2020 at 1:45 pm
CEO compensation in the U.S. – I know that years ago in Japan the compensation ratio from the lowest paid to the highest was about 20 times. Current ratio in the U.S. is about 200 to 300 times. Is anyone really worth that much more?
April 28th, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Years ago, I remember arguments about “how are company CEOs overpaid, when sports figures are also paid millions of dollars a year”? An argument in favor of sports figures that made sense to me, was that not many people can play basketball as well as Michael Jordon, but there would have been hundreds, or thousands of people who could have done a better job leading GM than Roger Smith, who oversaw huge losses in market share during his reign, while playing games with buying Hughes and EDS. Roger Smith would have been much easier to replace than Michael Jordan.
April 28th, 2020 at 4:30 pm
CEO pay is outrageous. Why would any board approved that kind of salary for anyone. No one can make any decisions that are worth that. Pay them all $1 Million max – take it or leave it. You will find qualified people at that rate. As far as GM – their quality keeps getting worse and worse – who’s decision was that?
April 28th, 2020 at 4:32 pm
And if CEO’s are worth that, then they should be held accountable for legal issues. Company screws up – CEO goes to jail. I believe Japan operates that way.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:34 pm
Elon Musk is nothing more than a con-man so I’m not surprise about anything negative I hear of him. He has many cult followers including Larry who always comes to his defense.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:39 pm
14: yeah, just ask Carlos Ghosn!
April 28th, 2020 at 10:54 pm
14,16. But they let him skip the country in a Yamaha piano box, or that is the story, or was it a tuba box.
April 29th, 2020 at 5:54 am
Maybe some sort of formula could be devised and then implemented in which top pay could be enforced, but on the other hand you have to look at what you propose, as these decisions can easily stifle creativity and risk/reward. This is a dangerous slope and reeks of socialism. Maybe a more pragmatic way to deal with these stupendous salaries is a more progressive tax on the rich (but you certainly shouldn’t take more than the effort of the individual to achieve that number that detracts from the incentive to earn it). This is not an easy thing to do; what of sports figures, book authors, music and let’s not even to the Hollywood crowd, who’s the all empowering “Oz” that will decree these absolutes?
April 29th, 2020 at 9:15 am
#8 – Kit – Having a 2004 V70R since new, happy with Volvo wagon that drives like a car. Purchased it as the only vehicle we had at the time that would pull enclosed bike trailer was a garden tractor. Still keep the Volvo to pull trailer & for winter driving in South East Michigan.
April 29th, 2020 at 9:50 am
Volvo cutting 1,300 Swedish jobs
(and becoming even more of a Chinese company, like its owners.)
April 29th, 2020 at 9:51 am
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/vws-diess-envies-teslas-software-lead?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200429&utm_content=hero-image
Self Explanatory. I can’t read the full article, but maybe you can.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:07 am
18 Top pay is OK with me IF it is PERFORMANCE based and justified, even if it means that somebody like Mary Barra in reality would take credit for the achievements of all kinds of OTHER GM workers and managers. But the reality is that CEOS make OBSCENE money REGARDLESS if they have MONUMENTAL SUCCESS for their shareholders, like ELon Musk, OR they FAILED, like Hackett, Barra, Nasser, Roger Smith, and all kinds of others since ancient antiquity.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:42 am
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/04/hyundai-genesis-design-boss-hits-the-road/
As “Murphy’s Laws of Work” postulate,
“At the end of each failed project, the punishment of the innocent”…
April 29th, 2020 at 10:42 am
19 I guess the V70 was more-or-less replaced by the V90. From what I find, they are similar size, but the powertrains are much different. Doesn’t yours have the transverse mounted inline six?
April 29th, 2020 at 10:43 am
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/04/lincoln-rivian-ev-project-cancelled/
I wonder what % of Ford’s $500 mill investment in Rivian this project was supposed to use.
April 29th, 2020 at 10:49 am
24 Two years ago I drove two hours from my summer home (most of it on a fast autobahn) to visit a retired MD friend who has a great summer place near an old spa resort, and just as I arrived I had a flat tire (front passenger side). My host called a friend of his who arrived in a small VOlvo ‘wagon’, probably a 60 series.
I sat in the small rear seat, trying to find leg room (could not) and my head was similarly squeezed by the roof. There was NOTHING in the distinctly NON-Luxury vehicle that would let me guess it is a VOLVO and not a damn Hyundai, Kia, or Renault-Nissan for that matter.
April 29th, 2020 at 11:23 am
https://drivetribe.com/p/tesla-owners-cover-more-miles-than-BVQsbO_HRYmtWmlJm1c_jA?fbclid=IwAR2Atp2lRv2OoynQSDYTO7JhUcyl9p09QsUs1Zz1n9jdpBZ9C64ARQIHX4I&iid=PRR6z9_YTsGDyXgI6ZYIrw
Despite range anxiety, if any, and the still not well developed supercharger nationwide network, Tesla drivers actually drive MORE miles than ICE drivers.
Bob Wilson here is an example that verifies the above.
April 29th, 2020 at 11:33 am
An upgraded battery keeps the 2020 Bolt in the hunt with other big-range compact EVs, but it still lacks any sort of emotional pull.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a32294199/2020-chevy-bolt-ev-drive/
And that is the least of its problems, being priced two times the similar sized Sonic gas, while the Model 3 is same priced as a 3 series, and still has more range than the Bolt.
April 29th, 2020 at 11:38 am
27. These “high mileage” Tesla drivers are driving an average of 34 miles a day. Most of them probably charge at home, or maybe at work, so don’t need superchargers much. Even for that occasional very long road trip, like the 568 miles from London to Inverness, you should need only 2 or 3 charging stops with a long range Model 3.
April 29th, 2020 at 1:38 pm
#24 – It’s a 5 cyl 2.5L rated at 300hp which in 2004 was fairly high.
April 29th, 2020 at 2:41 pm
30. Turbo, I assume. Yeah, that is good power for 2.5 liter at that time.
April 29th, 2020 at 3:46 pm
#31 – Sorry I meant to add Turbo after 2.5L.