This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

CHIP SHORTAGE IS GETTING WORSE
The chip shortage is getting worse. The Korea Economic Daily reports that Hyundai will halt production at one of its plants in Korea for a week in April. Up until now, Hyundai hadn’t been affected by the shortage because it had a better stockpile of chips than other automakers. And on Friday, Stellantis, Nissan, Volkswagen and Nio all announced production cuts due to the chip shortage. AutoForecast Solutions estimates that the industry has produced 130,000 fewer vehicles globally as a result.

NEW CAR INVENTORY LEVELS ARE PLUNGING
Even though Ward’s Intelligence forecasts that new car sales in the U.S. market will be up 43% in March, we see trouble ahead. That’s because new car inventory levels are plunging. There are 2.5 million vehicles sitting at car dealers, which sounds like a lot. But that’s 1.2 million less than a year ago. Even worse, it’s down 12% from February. There are 44 days’ worth of inventory now, compared to 54 in February. In other words, the situation is getting worse. With more buyers chasing less inventory, only one thing can happen. Prices are going to go up.

STELLANTIS PLANS TO GO VERTICALLY INTEGRATED WITH EVs
FCA was considered one of the dinosaurs when it comes to electric vehicles. But now that it’s merged with PSA to become Stellantis, that’s all changing. Stellantis plans to go vertically integrated with electric cars. PSA has two dedicated EV platforms that will be used globally by Stellantis, which will likely include small Fiat cars and smaller Jeeps. It also has three joint ventures to produce electric motors, battery cells and transmissions for mild and plug-in hybrids. CEO Carlos Tavares says that capability gives them control over cost and quality. Stellantis still hasn’t announced when it will transition to EV-only but by the end of the year it will have 39 electrified models. And it’s number two in electrified vehicle market share in Europe this year behind Volkswagen.

PEUGEOT 208 #1 CAR IN EUROPE
And Peugeot, which is part of Stellantis, has the best-selling car in Europe. The new 208 topped the sales charts in the first two months of the year. It’s the first time a Peugeot vehicle has been number one in sales in Europe since March of 2008.

MERCEDES REVEALS NEW EQS INTERIOR
While its massive Hyperscreen is the highlight of the EQS, we’re getting a look at the rest of the EV’s interior. It’s a nice evolution of the brand’s style with lots of leather, real wood and since there’s no transmission tunnel, what looks like a huge storage area in the center console. Mercedes said it played around with sounds because an EV makes less noise and one aspect we find interesting is that the car will greet passengers acoustically when approaching and a corresponding sound when exiting. The EQS has over-the-air update capabilities, which will even include the ability to add new sounds to the car. This helps keep the vehicle up to date over its lifetime, while artificial intelligence will learn from the driver’s habits and use that information to provide recommendations or proactively display useful functions or information. The EQS makes its world premiere on April 15th.

JEEP LAUNCHES OFF-ROAD CHARGING NETWORK
Speaking of EVs, Jeep has teamed up with Electrify America to install charging stations at or near off-road trailheads across the U.S. The Level 2 chargers are either connected to the grid or use solar power and are first headed to Moab in Utah and the Rubicon Trail and Big Bear in California. Jeep is doing this because, as you likely know, it launched a plug-in hybrid version of the Wrangler, called the 4xe and recently showed off an all-electric prototype, so customers are going to need a place to charge before doing some electric off-roading. You may have also seen EV startup Rivian is rolling out its own charging network, including at popular off-road spots, so this looks like it will become more common. Jeep says the Wrangler 4xe’s 17-kWh battery pack, which provides 21 miles of range, can be fully recharged in two hours.

THE HISTORY OF THE CAR AIR FRESHENER
Most people have probably had an air freshener in their vehicle at some point in their lifetime. But did you ever wonder how those little suckers came about? It’s actually one of the items on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which is where we found the answer to the question. Turns out farmers in North America got tired of smelling the smells of the animals and goods they were transporting and in the early 1950’s turned to a Canadian chemist for help. He’s the one that came up with the idea of soaking cardboard in pine needle oil, which slowly releases its scent over time. Playing off the design principle “form follows function,” the “Little Tree” was born and the rest is history. 

Our guest on Autoline After Hours this week will be Karl Ludvigsen, one of the most interesting experts in the industry. He’s written a dizzying number of books, including one titled Excellence Was Expected, which is considered the definitive history of Porsche. Also joining us is Jim Hall, who long time viewers will remember, and who is also an expert on the industry. The topic for the show will be automotive design–where it’s been and where it’s going. And we invite you to watch it all this Thursday at 3 pm eastern time.

WHY TOYOTA SENDS PRODUCT PLANNERS TO PEOPLE’S HOMES
When Mike O’Brien, the former head of product planning for Hyundai and Toyota in the U.S., was on After Hours, he talked about how automakers determine what kinds of vehicles to develop. Toyota, for example, actually sends product planners into people’s homes. 

“So what motor companies generally do is first look at buyers and how they use personal mobility. So they study the market, not the cars. They study buyers. And one car company I worked for a long time, they had a term called Genchi Genbutsu, which is ‘go and see.’ And so they actually wanted to go into people’s homes. They wanted to see how their kitchens were remodeled, the kinds of things they put in their closets, the kinds of clothes they bought, the things they did every day. So they’d follow the customers around to see what they did, if they went to Costco, if they went to Sam’s Club, if they went to Home Depot. They wanted to see how they actually used their cars. I’ll give you one example. A car company that I worked for noticed that one of the biggest problems with SUVs, I’m sorry, with passenger cars, was that for older buyers, when they put groceries in the trunk they had to bend way over. And they had to put the groceries way down in the hole in the trunk. And so that inspired them to think about lift-over height and platform height and focus more on making small SUVs suitable for older buyers. So the H-point on a small SUV when you swing your hips and fall into that seat, it’s about the right height. You don’t have to go up, you don’t have to go down. It’s great for older buyers. The same with the tailgate. When you have a lift up tailgate instead of a two-piece one, you lift it up and that height is just perfect for putting in groceries. You don’t have to bend over or bend down, you just set them in there. So it’s all about knowing the customer.”

It’s very interesting to hear Mike O’Brien talk about lift-over heights and H-points. Maybe some car company could revive sales of passenger cars by addressing those issues. H-point, by the way, refers to how high your hip sits above the ground. And give or take an inch, most crossovers have an H-point of around 30-inches which is about 76 centimeters.

And that wraps up this show, we’ll see you tomorrow.