AD #2845 – Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi Not Merging; BMW 5 Series Refreshed; Kia Looking Into Small Urban EV
May 27th, 2020 at 11:42am
Listen to “AD #2845 – Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Not Merging; BMW 5 Series Refreshed; Kia Looking Into Small Urban EV” on Spreaker.
Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 10:02
0:07 France Spending €8 Billion to Help Auto Industry
0:34 Renault, Nissan & Mitsubishi Not Merging
1:18 Tesla Discounts Its Vehicles in North America
2:03 Amazon in Talks to Buy AV Startup Zoox
2:46 Mercedes E-Class Coupe, Convertible & AMG Models Debut
4:18 BMW Reveals Refreshed 5 Series
5:30 Kia Wants Citroen Ami-Like Urban EV
6:18 Wireless Charging Could Boost EV Adoption
8:18 More E-Racing Drama
9:27 Mother Wrench Feeding Her Hatchlings
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.
FRANCE SPENDING €8 BILLION TO HELP AUTO INDUSTRY
Yesterday we reported that France was about to step up in a big way to help out its auto industry. Today we have a number. The French government is going to spend €8 billion to help automakers, suppliers and car buyers. Consumers will get €12,000 if they buy an electric car, with a goal of manufacturing 1 million BEVs in France by 2025.
RENAULT & NISSAN SKIP MERGER PLANS
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, revealed more details about their alliance strategy. The automakers no longer plan to merge, and will instead focus on working more closely on vehicle development. They will adopt a “follow the leader” approach for its products, where one company will lead for a particular type of vehicle and region and the others will follow. They hope to build half of their vehicles under this approach by 2025 and aim to cut investment per model by 40%. The range of vehicles they build is expected to be cut by one-fifth by 2025. But they did not say where the job cuts would be coming from due to producing fewer vehicles. The companies will also use more common parts and designs.
TESLA DISCOUNTS ITS MODELS IN NORTH AMERICA
If you’re thinking of buying a Tesla, now might be the time. The EV maker cut the price of its vehicles by as much as 6% in North America. The starting price of the Model S is now $75,000, down from about $80,000. The Model X now starts at $80,000, down from 85-grand. And the lowest priced Model 3 is $2,000 cheaper with a price of $38,000. While the price cut is nice, the company is no longer offering free charging at its Supercharger network for new Model S and X customers. Tesla also said it would cut prices in China for the Model S and X by about 4%.
AMAZON IN TALKS TO BUY AV STARTUP ZOOX
Is interest in autonomous vehicles waning? Apparently not. Amazon is about to buy another AV startup. The Wall Street Journal reports that it’s in advanced talks to buy Zoox, which is valued just under $3 billion. This acquisition would add to Amazon’s autonomous vehicle portfolio, last year it invested in the self-driving startup Aurora Innovation.
MERCEDES E-CLASS COUPE, CONVERTIBLE & AMG MODELS DEBUT
Mercedes revealed the updated E-Class sedan in January, now comes the coupe, convertible and AMG versions. On top of the body styling changes, the front headlights have gone full-LED and the taillights feature a new internal design. Four new paint colors are available as are aerodynamic wheels. With the AMG model, the grille is unique with vertical slots and the lower front air vents have additional flaring. Have you noticed how similar all of Mercedes’ new interiors are? The new E-Class follows right along with a layered dash, round air vents and two big display screens that seem to blend into one. The convertible also gets an electric wind-deflector and in-seat heating system that blows warm air on your neck. Unique touches on the interior of the AMG include a special design in the seat material, red stitching, the option for red seat belts, AMG badging, carbon fiber trim and a performance steering wheel. In the U.S. the new E-Class is powered by an in-line 6-cylinder engine mated to a 48-volt starter/generator and a 9-speed automatic. All-wheel drive is also available. The AMG has a similar setup, but the engine is boosted to 429 horsepower and AWD is standard. It will do 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds.
BMW REVEALS REFRESHED 5 SERIES
Well you just knew BMW had to respond to what Mercedes did. So here’s the refreshed 5 Series. One thing we can be thankful for is that the twin kidney grilles haven’t ballooned to gargantuan proportions, though the lower front air vents are massive. You’ll notice there’s no rounded element in the front headlights anymore, it’s more of a hockey stick shape now. The taillight housing didn’t change over from the old model, but the internal design is new. The rear bumper is new as well and the exhaust tips are larger. The display screens are also bigger, 12.3 inches, up from 10.25. Under the hood, 6-cylinder models will now be paired with a 48-volt starter/generator. A plug-in hybrid, which combines a 2.0L engine, electric motor and 12 kWh battery, is still offered, but a new feature BMW calls XtraBoost adds 40 horsepower for up to 10 seconds. Pricing in the U.S. starts from just over $55,000 and goes to about $78,000.
KIA WANTS CITROEN AMI-LIKE SMALL EV
After the coronavirus clears up people will probably not use public transportation as much. A survey in China shows that the number of people going back to private vehicles has nearly doubled. So Kia is planning to build a small, affordable electric vehicle for urban areas, according to Auto Express. Kia is looking at something similar to the Citroen Ami, which can be purchased for $6,600 or rented for as little as $22 a day. Kia says the project will hinge on if it can offer the vehicle at a similar cost to public transportation. (Pictured: Kia Pop Concept from 2010)
WIRELESS CHARGING COULD BOOST EV ADOPTION
Electric vehicle sales are picking up but still represent a small portion of the overall market. Charging is still one of the roadblocks, but WiTricity thinks that wireless charging could actually boost the adoption of EVs. Here David Schatz, the company’s VP of Business Development and Sales, explains how.
David Schatz, VP of Business Development and Sales, WiTricity
“What we’re told by the OEMs is that the car buying public love they the electric cars that they buy. They’re quiet, they’re high performance, they’re very reliable, they’re green and they don’t cost much to operate. The one aspect of electric vehicle ownership that is the, let’s say, the least favorable is the charging experience. They used to talk about range anxiety, well that’s kind of going away as the battery packs get bigger and there’s more charging locations available. But the charging experience is one that you have to plan for. You have to remember to (it) do when you park the car and then you have to make sure to unplug it before you pull out of the garage. You have to be willing to handle a cord that might be sitting down on the ground getting dirty and in this particular time now that means if you’re going to use a public charger you’re going to have to handle this thing that’s been sitting out there that who knows touched it. So, the issue of health and safety, now we’re taking to calling it no-touch wireless charging. So, you don’t really have to grab a handle, you don’t have to a gas pump, you just park the car and you’re good to go.”
For more information about wireless charging you can watch that entire interview right now on our YouTube channel.
MORE E-RACING DRAMA
All this e-racing seems to bring out the worst of some drivers. Kyle Larson lost his sponsors and his ride for using the N-word during a virtual NASCAR race. Bubba Wallace, another NASCAR driver, lost one of his sponsors when he quit an e-race in a rage after Clint Bowyer seemed to deliberately crash into him. In IndyCar Simon Pagenaud deliberately crashed out F1 Driver Lando Norris in an e-race because he thought Norris had taken him out. Maybe the programmers can figure out how to have a virtual fist fight between the drivers after these incidents. And now Daniel Abt was fired from the Audi Formula E team after he secretly invited a professional 18-year old sim racer to take his place in a virtual Formula E race. That guy finished third. Daniel Abt said it was a joke and he was going to reveal everything after the race but maybe he didn’t do it fast enough. He was fired from the Audi team and fined 10,000 euros.
MOTHER WRENCH FEEDING HER HATCHLINGS
And before we go we wanted to share this very clever photo and caption that we saw posted on Facebook by a guy named Jon Lydell. The caption reads: “Rare photo of mother Wrench feeding her new hatchlings.”
And that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Share
Permalink
Comments (29)
May 27th, 2020 at 12:07 pm
I wonder if the French EV incentive has caveats that you must buy a French made EV to get the full discount. The linked article did not say. I would assume so though. Otherwise they are just transferring French tax dollars to another country. Most likely Germany or the USA and not helping their countrymen at all with the French tax payer subsidized EV incentive.
May 27th, 2020 at 12:15 pm
1, I was thinking similar; why give away Euros to other companies not benefiting France.
May 27th, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Just another example proving that EVs struggle to sell, on their own merits. Throwing more money to subsidize their existence.
On the e-racing drama; I would expect a lot more aggressive driving and willingness to deliberately take out a driver. When the danger of damaging ones self or their expensive equipment is gone why not?
They should institute a damage meter that either costs the race team money or adds lap time to provide an incentive for the drivers to race clean.
May 27th, 2020 at 1:04 pm
3 cont- Daniel Abt’s stunt shows that their could be a lot of really good drivers out there that didn’t have the $$ to work their way up the ranks. Virtual racing could be the new way to discover talent. Like what American Idol did for singers that struggled to be discovered. EV racing could really raise the bar with undiscovered talent.
May 27th, 2020 at 1:06 pm
Sorry e-racing not EV racing.
May 27th, 2020 at 1:23 pm
The BMW interior cannot compare to Mercedes from what I saw.
Great to see Tesla prices coming down for older models and not a big surprise as the Model-Y will be in super-demand. But I wonder without the Virus Recession if that would be the case now.
How long before the Amazon Rivian vans are driving themselves?
May 27th, 2020 at 1:55 pm
@John, his concern about the size of the new BMW 5 series grill: there are funny forecasts on line: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/853572935608686821/
May 27th, 2020 at 2:06 pm
I know the editors are proponents of electric drive, you can tell by how much they say good about them. But having a charging pad in the garage may be helpful, but isn’t going to solve range anxiety, when you want to take a long trip. With an I/C engine, you can reasonably drive 500 miles per day, and more if you want to do push it. And that allows for a couple of 10 minute gasoline stops.
But even with a Tesla supercharger (and that’s difficult to find outside of California), it takes an hour to charge the car. And with standard chargers, it’s something in between, and closer to 12 hours than to 1 hour.
If you have an electric car for commuting, and you want to also take trips, you either need another vehicle, or you’ll rent one.
May 27th, 2020 at 2:50 pm
8. Cordless charging would be a good way for lazy people to burn millions of tons of additional coal to charge their cars.
Using the Tesla site, for a Model 3 long range, it would take 8 “supercharger” stops, for a total of 4 hours of charging, to make a trip I do twice a year between Indiana and Florida. If I stopped at the mid point of the trip, I could do the trip in my Camry with one 5 minute fuel stop. I don’t do that, though, normally doing two fuel stops.
I don’t know if this link will work, but if so, it shows Tesla’s recommended route, and charge stations for my trip.
https://www.tesla.com/trips#/?v=M3_2015_74&o=Kokomo,%20IN,%20USA_Kokomo%20Center%20Township%20Howard%20County@40.486427,-86.13360329999999&s=&d=Cocoa%20Beach,%20FL%2032931,%20USA_Cocoa%20Beach%20Brevard%20County%20FL@28.3200067,-80.6075513
May 27th, 2020 at 3:11 pm
@7. What!?! You don’t like the grille on wheels?
May 27th, 2020 at 3:21 pm
@9. I pointed this out years ago (here on the forum), but wireless car charging will some day be as ubiquitous as wireless phone charging.
I vividly recall back when my (favorite cell phone of all time) Palm Pre came out with built-in wireless charging. It was the first phone on the planet with it. There were article after article talking about how needless it was to have wireless charging… That is until enough people finally got a chance to experience the absolute convenience of it themselves.
It’ll be the same with wireless car charging – I guarantee it.
May 27th, 2020 at 3:30 pm
Tesla owners in my part of the world,tend to buy the most expensive models,and for the most part, look freshly detailed.
May 27th, 2020 at 3:33 pm
11. “Ubiquitous” phone charging is horribly inefficient, making the phone get far hotter than connecting the cable, so I don’t use it, even though my GS-8 has it, and my Camry has a charge pad (and I have one at home). Wireless car charging would just scale that up a few thousand fold.
Maybe, at some point, wireless car charging could become reasonably efficient, if you always park the car within a quarter inch of the same place, but do people really need to be that lazy, that they can’t plug in a cord? I guess so.
May 27th, 2020 at 3:35 pm
@10:
May 27th, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Is the Mercedes an inline as you stated or a V6?
May 27th, 2020 at 4:27 pm
15 It’s an inline.
May 27th, 2020 at 4:37 pm
13 Anything that makes it effortless or can eliminate an extra step like remembering to plug in will go a long way towards making EVs more convenient/acceptable.
As far as the phones go I’m pretty careful and have never even cracked a screen on my phones. However plugging and unplugging them does lend them to bent or broken pins on the phone or the cord. The teenagers in the house constantly go through charging cords. So wireless charging for them could be worth while. Yea your probably not going to wear out the connections on an EV or break/lose any cords but it sure would make it simple to just pull into the garage and go about your business always charging the car if it needs any.
Otherwise you might come home with 70% battery figure its enough for tomorrows run, not plug it in and not have enough to do any extra running. The pad would help insure its fully charged every time you leave home. Just my 2 cents.
May 27th, 2020 at 5:03 pm
@13. I don’t know what to tell you, Kit, but my phone (Galaxy S10e) doesn’t get hot from wireless charging. And charge time is a dead heat between wireless and plug-in.
In fact, I’m looking at it right now as I type this sitting on the cradle, and it’s got 26 minutes to go to reach 100% from 86%. I just switched to plugging it straight into a wall adapter and got the exact same estimate of 26min.
Maybe it’s been a while since you last tried wireless charging, but I honestly think most (if not all) of those concerns about lost energy have been engineered out (for cell phones anyway).
May 27th, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Another shameless plug for my old Palm Pre: That inductive charger for it was also magnetic (a fantastic feature I still have yet to see replicated on any other phone since then). I kept an extra one mounted on the console in my car because it worked great for keeping my phone not just charged, but held onto it like gorilla glue from slipping off the charging pad even through hard turns and braking.
That right there was not laziness, just SUPER convenience.
May 27th, 2020 at 5:37 pm
@9,Kit,
I am very surprised at the number of charging stations that could potentially be available on your trip to and from FL back to Indiana.
I’m not going to comment on the amount of time necessary to recharge at these points along your trip route.
But, prior to looking at the link, I thought the route you would have to take would be more Zig-Zag than what the map shows.
Thanks for posting that Link. It was most informative to someone that has never seen a charging station.
May 27th, 2020 at 5:50 pm
18. Maybe something is different with the newer phones. If my S8 dies, or the battery loses enough capacity that it matters, I’ll probably get then-current GSx, and will find out if it gets hot with wireless charging. I occasionally use the wireless charging with my S8 in the car, but always plug it in at home.
17. I’ve never cracked a screen, or damaged a connector or cable, but I’m, admittedly, easier on things than most people.
19. The charging place in my Toyota is just a flat thing, and the phone moves around easily in cornering, etc. It could definitely use something to keep it from moving around. Since I normally just charge the phone at home, it is usually in a cup holder, where it stays put very well.
May 27th, 2020 at 5:56 pm
20. I usually take a different route than that, a little longer, but more pleasant to me. I don’t know if Tesla chargers would cover it or not. They seem to have enough superchargers, though, to do most trips that are on the interstates. You can’t be in too much of a hurry, though.
May 28th, 2020 at 8:18 am
12 This was the case where I live only before the Model 3 was available. After it was, all the new Teslas I was seeing were Model 3s, also well detailed and some may have been the top of the line versions, but plenty regular ones, and I saw less and less Ss and Xs.
The French incentives do not prove what you think, they are an obvious reminder that over in Europe, they don’t care about the MPG as much as they care about reducing emissions, and they have made an 180 degree turn from obviously favoring dirty diesels, by keeping diesel fuel MUCH cheaper than gas (a fact I exploit by my E diesel there), but now there is an EU policy to favor EVs for the above reasons (EMissions).
Tesla model 3 and Y, both important, huge volume sellers and NOT niche vehicles, are obviously priced the SAME as their gas competitors, but other EVs are almost twice that.
One can check the link in case Teslas are excluded, if they are, I am sure the US govt will complain and retaliate.
May 28th, 2020 at 8:34 am
I checked the link in the title of the French $13k BEV incentive, and it does not specify if it is just for French or EU Cars or it includes all BEVS, but it did say it will start as fast as next WEEK, which, for Eurobureaucracy, is lightning fast.
May 28th, 2020 at 8:37 am
That 5 series interior was indeed VASTLY invferior to my sinilar sized E class. It looks like a damned Hyundai at twice the price. Granted, BMW always emphasized performance and handling over luxury, BUT previous 5 and 7 and even 3 series, esp from 1995 to 2003, had BOTH in spades. Pitiful.
May 28th, 2020 at 8:58 am
France announced in 2018 it would cease all energy production from coal fired plants by 2021. Upping the target from the original 2023 date. By April 2019 that new date was moved to 2022 and stipulated only if demand remained flat and the new EPR nuclear reactor in Flamanville; and a high-voltage power interconnector between Britain and France, were operational by then.
Plus they are saying the plant closures will start in 2022 so sounds like they are back to the original 2023 date to be complete. So with a million new EVs will that push the date out further?
May 28th, 2020 at 10:05 am
26. If they have strong incentives to charge the EVs during off-peak hours, by varying rates by time of day, a major increase in the number of EVs might not affect the plans.
May 28th, 2020 at 10:16 am
If the Euros have (for the short term) as high unemployment (probably more) than we have, this is their golden opportunity to provide jobs at moderate or low wages to develop the much needed EV infrastructure, namely more fast charging stations (and plugs per station) on the roads, and a solution to the problem of overnight charging for those who live in apartments there (quite a few) and don’t have the typical US Single Family house with garage and driveway.
IF they fix those two, then at least for the two price competitive mass market BEVs (the model 3 and the Y, and maybe some low-priced, low-performance econobox BEV from VW and its Skoda and Seat subs, will do very well, and without any subsidy.
May 28th, 2020 at 4:12 pm
One of the basic tenets of EU law (aka “acquis communautaire) is that no products or services will be singled out for preferment. That’s a complete no-no.