Listen to “AD #3043 – Dacia Drops Center Screen for Smartphone; Apple CarPlay Issues; Why Moving Upscale is a Mistake” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 10:06
0:07 Japanese Government Helping Chip Maker Renesas
0:46 GM Expanding Design Center to Speed Up EV Development
1:25 Dacia Drops Center Screen for Smartphone
3:22 Audi Turning to Low Emission Aluminum
4:09 Triumph Teams for Electric Motorcycle Prototype
4:45 Bridgestone Testing Mobile Service
5:32 Apple CarPlay Issues
7:18 Why Moving Upscale is a Mistake
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HELPING CHIP MAKER RENESAS
On Monday, we reported about a fire that broke out at one of Japanese chip maker Renesas’s plants. The company said it would take at least a month to get production restarted. But now Reuters reports that the Japanese government is doing what it can to get Renesas’s plant back online. It’s reaching out to companies, both in Japan and overseas, to provide parts and machinery to the chip maker. Renesas controls about 30% of the automotive semiconductor market, so this fire is going to have a big impact on the industry, which is already facing a chip shortage that’s disrupting production.
GM EXPANDING DESIGN CENTER TO SPEED UP EV DELOPMENT
Late last year GM CEO Mary Barra announced it’s fast-tracking its EV development and one way it’s doing that is by expanding its Global Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. GM’s investing $1 billion to expand the buildings around its iconic Design Dome with an additional 360,000 square feet of floor space. The area will be wide open with no walls, which makes collaboration easier between designers and when combined with new working efficiencies, GM says it will cut development time. The expansion is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023.
DACIA DROPS CENTER SCREEN FOR SMARTPHONE
Lots of people use their phone instead of their vehicle’s infotainment system, but for the new Dacia Sandero the owner’s phone literally becomes the center display. That’s because the car doesn’t have an infotainment screen, just a glove-box-like door where one would go. Instead owners download an app, which gives you navigation, radio, music, telephone and even vehicle information. They’re able to access those functions by pairing the phone to the car via Bluetooth. Sound is not going to be great because there’s only two speakers in the Sandero but at least you don’t have to rely solely on your phone. And you don’t have to worry as much about the system becoming out of date. But we’d like to know what you think of this idea? Would you use your phone in place of an infotainment screen?
Volkswagen is betting the farm on electric cars. And it has a lot riding on the ID.4. We want to learn more about it, so we invited Hein Schafer, the Senior Vice President for Product Marketing and Strategy at Volkswagen of America to come on Autoline After Hours tomorrow. If you’ve got questions you’d like us to ask him, send it to viewermail@autoline.tv or tweet it to @Autoline. Then join me and Gary as we get the answers.
AUDI TURNS TO LOW-C02 ALUMINUM
Earlier this month, we reported on how BMW is investing in a way to make CO2-free steel. And now its German rival Audi is using wheels made from sustainable aluminum. The e-Tron GT’s optional 20-inch wheels are made from low-CO2 emission aluminum supplied by Alcoa to the Ronal Group, which manufactures the wheels. The sustainable aluminum is produced with a new process that gets rid of all direct CO2 emissions from the traditional smelting process. And it’s not just the German automakers that are investing in sustainable materials. The Detroit automakers are forcing their suppliers to pledge they will be carbon neutral by 2039, if not they won’t get new contracts.
TRIUMPH TEAMS UP TO BUILD EV MOTORCYCLE PROTOTYPE
Historic British motorcycle maker Triumph is dipping its toes into electric mobility. It’s kicked off a two year project with a number of other companies to test an electric motorcycle, called the TE-1 that it hopes to gain insight from for future EVs from the brand. The main players in the collaboration are Triumph, who is supplying the chassis, safety systems and manufacturing; Williams Advanced Engineering provides the battery; and Integral Powertrain developed the motors and inverter. The next phase of the project will be to build a prototype for more testing.
BRIDGESTONE TESTING MOBILE SERVICE
You’ve probably heard the saying, “If the mountain can’t go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.” Well Bridgestone is applying that idea to car service. It’s called Firestone Direct and it’s a mobile car service. You book an appointment and they send a certified tech with a van full of equipment to your home or workplace. They’ll do brake jobs, change tires, oil changes and more. And they vacuum the oil out of your engine to eliminate oil spills. Right now it’s a pilot program, but if it catches on it could be huge. Mobile repair is certainly nothing new but the advantage Bridgestone has is its 2,200 brick and mortar stores across the U.S., so it could service almost every major community.
PROBLEMS WITH APPLE CARPLAY
We received an email from viewer Abe Perez who bought a new Hyundai Palisade. He and his family love it. Especially wireless Apple CarPlay. But he’s having issues with that. He says “Unfortunately, this feature keeps malfunctioning, disconnecting as I’m driving… After investigating, this is a problem MANY Hyundai owners have, not only on the Palisade but in other 2021 models. I wonder if this is an issue they’re aware of and need to recall.” So Abe asked us to reach out to Hyundai. We did and it’s aware of the “defect.” But it’s an Apple problem. Hyundai says that Apple hasn’t notified any automaker that it fixed the issue, and no one knows when a fix will be rolled out. Hyundai did release a field fix, a software patch. Hyundai is working with Abe to get the patch updated at his dealership. So Abe there you go, maybe it’s not the answer you were looking for but we hope this helps.
Coming up next, John explains why automakers are making a mistake by moving more upscale.
WHY MOVING UPSCALE IS A MISTAKE
The auto industry is asking for trouble. Automakers keep moving further upscale to chase higher profits. And they’re leaving millions of customers behind. They’re leaving the door wide open for someone to take over the bottom of the market.
Car prices are going up faster than household income. A decade ago the average new car in the US cost $30,000. Now it’s over $40,000. And here’s an easy prediction. By the end of this decade, it will be $50,000.
As a result, a smaller percentage of the American population can afford a new car. The all-time record was set in 1978, when 6.9% of Americans bought a new car. In 2019, it was down to 5.1%. If the same percentage of people bought a new car in 2019 as they did in 1978, the SAAR would not have been 17 million. It would have been over 22 million.
Automakers say that the solution is cheaper used cars. But the average used car is now $22,000. And used prices are going up faster than new ones.
Maybe the solution is something like Wuling’s little EV, the Hong Guang. I’m intrigued by this little 4-seat electric car with a base price of only $4,500. It’s a masterpiece of low-cost engineering that’s taking the Chinese EV segment by storm. No, it will never get a 5-star crash rating and by all accounts it rides rather rough. But it’s outselling every other EV in China by a wide margin because just about anyone can afford it.
By the way, on an inflation adjusted basis, the Hong Guang costs about the same as a 1921 Model T.
No doubt other entrepreneurs will figure out how to bring low-cost personal transportation to the masses. There is a massive global market for it. Someone will crack the code. And then they’re going to set their sights upstream and figure out how to steal more of the market from traditional automakers.
But that’s the end of today’s show, thanks for watching.
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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.