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Runtime: 6:55
0:07 Ghosn Charged Once Again
0:39 Jose Munoz Joins Hyundai
1:01 Tesla to Unveil New Version of Autopilot
1:27 Tesla Investor Day
2:05 Lincoln Corsair Details
3:40 Hyundai EV Performance Control Technology
5:07 BYD Creates Electric Supercar
5:46 Automakers Cut Production in North America
6:11 Honda Cuts Accord Production
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This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.
GHOSN CHARGED ONCE AGAIN
Man, those Japanese prosecutors are tough! They just arrested former Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, once again. This is the fourth time he’s been arrested. He’s accused of causing $5 million in losses for Nissan between July 2017 and July 2018. Nissan is suing him. Ghosn denies all the charges and says he’s been backstabbed by former Nissan executives, who wanted to prevent a closer partnership with Renault.
JOSE MUNOZ JOINS HYUNDAI
Meanwhile, one of Ghosn’s top lieutenants, Jose Munoz, who saw the writing on the wall and quit his job at Nissan, was just named the Chief Operating Officer of Hyundai. He was also named the head of the company’s operations in North, Central and South America. Munoz joins Hyundai on May 1st and will be based in California.
TESLA TO UNVEIL NEW VERSION OF AUTOPILOT
Tesla is going to unveil its latest version of Autopilot later today. Presumably it uses the Artificial Intelligence chips that the company is making in-house. Elon Musk claims AI chips will increase the framerate of video cameras 100x over chips the company gets from NVIDIA. He says AI chips eliminate the need for LIDAR in autonomous cars.
TESLA INVESTOR DAY
This is investor day for Tesla, when it brings in stock analysts for a presentation on the company. Tesla shareholders will be praying the analysts love what they see. In January, Tesla stock was at $347 a share. Now it’s trading at $273.
LINCOLN CORSAIR DETAILS
Did you see our coverage of the new Lincoln Corsair on Autoline After Hours? It’s so different from the outgoing Lincoln MKC that Lincoln does not even consider it a replacement. Lincoln calls it an all-new entry. The Corsair sits on a new architecture that is lower and wider and offers more interior room than the MKC, especially for back seat passengers. The interior is defined by long horizontal lines, especially on the instrument panel, to make it look even wider. One especially notable feature is the animations that appear on the gauge cluster to indicate the 5 different driving modes that that can be selected. Lincoln’s suite of safety systems, called Co-Pilot 360, which includes automated braking, is standard equipment. But if you want adaptive cruise control and automated parking, you have to choose the optional 360-plus. Power comes from a 2-liter turbo that puts out 250 horsepower and 275 pound feet or torque, or an optional 2.3-liter turbo with 280 horses and 310 pound feet. A plug-in hybrid will launch at a later date and all-wheel drive is optional. No word on pricing yet, but Lincoln is targeting the Acura RDX, the Lexus NX and the Cadillac XT4, which would put it in the $36,000 range for a base price, or about $2,000 more than a MKC.
HYUNDAI EV PERFORMANCE CONTROL TECHNOLOGY
Most smartphone apps for your car allow you to remote start it, lock and unlock the doors and use it as a vehicle locator. But Hyundai and Kia are going much further. Owners of future electric vehicles will be able to customize primary settings, like maximum torque output of the motor, acceleration and regenerative braking rates, maximum speed limit, responsiveness, and energy use of the climate control. You can then share this information online with other users, so they can use your settings or you can use theirs and Hyundai/Kia will have recommended settings as well. The automakers also see this being useful for car/ride-sharing. Users just have to download their personal settings from the server into the next vehicle they’re using, which is kept secure through blockchain technology.
Speaking of electrics, we have a great Autoline After Hours coming up this Thursday, when our special guest will be Robert Bollinger, the CEO and founder of Bollinger Motors. We’ll be talking all about his all-aluminum, all-wheel-drive, all-electric, off-road truck.
BYD CREATES ELECTRIC SUPERCAR
Chinese company BYD is the world’s biggest producer of electric vehicles, known for making electric buses and everyday passenger vehicles. But it stepped out of its shell at the Shanghai auto show. The E-SEED GT concept is an electric supercar that brings you into the interior through gullwing doors. And it has perhaps the coolest name for its design language, Dragon Face. It’s said to get inspiration from elements of a Chinese dragon. Unfortunately, BYD did not provide any more details on the shapely E-SEED GT.
AUTOMAKERS CUT PRODUCTION IN NORTH AMERICA
Automakers are cutting back on production in North America. Wards reports that they built 102,000 fewer cars and trucks in the first quarter, down 2.3%. Sales for the quarter were down 2%, so they’re cutting production slightly faster than sales are dropping. And that gives them some breathing room to avoid adding more incentives to move the metal.
HONDA CUTS ACCORD PRODUCTION
Along those lines, Honda is eliminating the second shift at its giant assembly plant in Marysville, Ohio. That will reduce production of the Honda Accord by 55,000 cars a year, even though sales of the Accord are up 6% so far this year. But Honda must have been worried that it would have to prop up sales with more discounts.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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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.