This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.
CHINA SALES CONTINUE TO TUMBLE
New car sales in China are falling so fast that last month they fell to a level that’s about the same as in the U.S. market. Chinese consumers bought 1.58 million new passenger vehicles in May, compared to 1.57 million in the U.S. Moreover, Merrill Lynch reports that Chinese domestic brands lost 5 percentage points of market share to foreign brands, and it says the growth of New Energy Vehicles slowed considerably. Sales of electric and plug-in hybrids were only up 2%. This will put enormous pressure on automakers who are required to meet a 10% market share goal for New Energy Vehicles.
DAVID WOODHOUSE JOINS NISSAN
We were surprised when David Woodhouse abruptly resigned as head of design for Lincoln, but we predicted he would pop up again at another automaker. Well he did that a whole lot sooner than we thought he would. Yesterday Nissan announced that Woodhouse will be the head of Nissan Design America for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands.
TESLA DELAYS SEMI-TRUCK
Tesla’s latest shareholder meeting included some interesting comments from Elon Musk. The pickup truck, which Elon claims “looks like it came out of a sci-fi movie” will “hopefully” be unveiled this summer. The all-electric semi-truck is being pushed back a year to 2020 because Tesla may not be able to get all the batteries it needs. In fact, Musk said Tesla may even have to get into mining to get all the materials that it needs. And the Model 3 and Y will have the option to go “totally vegan.” Synthetic replacements will be available to replace the leather on the seats and steering wheel. We think it’d be cool if Tesla offered cloth seats.
From the company that revealed the secrets of the Tesla Model 3, Munro & Associates will host an Electric Vehicle Conference on Friday, June 21st at its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Munro will provide a deep dive into the Motors, Batteries, and Electronics of the Tesla Model 3, BMW i3, Chevy Bolt and Jaguar I-PACE. Purchase tickets on Eventbrite or at leandesign.com. Hurry, only 100 spots are available.
VOLVO & UBER SHOW OFF PRODUCTION READY AV
Automakers keep making impressive progress with self-driving technology. Volvo and Uber are showing off a fully autonomous production XC90 equipped with safety features including back-up systems for the steering and braking as well as the battery. If any of them fail, the backups automatically kick in and bring the vehicle to a stop. The cameras are also fitted with individual washer nozzles to clean the cameras. Volvo plans to introduce AVs in the early 2020s.
HYUNDAI PARTNERS WITH AURORA
The Hyundai Group is expanding its partnership with Aurora, the self-driving startup, to help the group design a dedicated autonomous vehicle platform. Aurora also just signed an agreement with FCA for self-driving commercial vehicles. But Volkswagen just dumped Aurora to sign a deal with Argo, which its reported to be investing $1.7 billion in. Remember, Ford invested $1 billion in Argo in 2017, so the two automakers seem closer to collaborating on autonomous vehicles.
FORD TESTING AVs IN DETROIT
And Ford is now testing self-driving cars in the Motor City. The third-generation Ford Fusion Hybrids have new radar and cameras with higher resolution and higher dynamic range. They have upgraded software and a new computing system. And the vehicles are now equipped with redundant braking and steering systems in case of a failure. In addition to Detroit, Ford and Argo are operating AVs in Pittsburgh, Miami, Palo Alto and Washington DC.
FCA SUED OVER JEEP WRANGLER “DEATH WOBBLE”
Last year, NHTSA began investigating complaints over what they call the “death wobble” in Jeep Wranglers. Owners say the vehicle starts to shake, sometimes violently, after hitting a small bump at highway speeds, and it won’t stop until the vehicle is slowed to about 50 MPH. Now the company is being sued over the issue. The lawsuit alleges the company knew about the problem and hasn’t done enough to fix it. FCA claims the wobble can happen to any vehicle with a solid front axle. Owners want FCA to pay them for the defective vehicles and to compensate them for the loss of value to the Wrangler’s.
The structure of cars and trucks used to be made mostly from steel. Now we’re seeing a mix of all kinds of materials and that’s making it a lot more challenging to repair them. That’s why we invited, Stacey Wesselink from I-CAR, the collision repair association, to join us on Autoline After Hours this afternoon. She’ll be talking about how I-CAR can help you make sure your car gets repaired the right way if you ever get in an accident. Also joining us this afternoon are Joe McCabe from Autoforecast Solutions, Steve Finlay from Wards, and Eric Trytko from IM@CS.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (14)
June 13th, 2019 at 12:30 pm
I wonder if David Woodhouse’s move to Nissan at this time is a step forward in his career. So much energy will be spent over the next year getting the alliance working again.
Not to say that Nissan doesn’t need him. They must have just run the Rogue through a hot wash & dry cycle to shrink it and then market it as a Qashqai or Rogue Sport. Zero originality there.
June 13th, 2019 at 1:03 pm
I actually had a class A motorhome built on the Ford F53 Chassis which uses the solid front axle. I once had it go into a death wobble after it had been sitting a while and the LH front brake caliper was stuck. It is quite an experience when it happens and has rightfully been given the name death wobble.
June 13th, 2019 at 1:20 pm
Yep, my wife and I actually came across one of Ford’s Fusion AV’s while Downtown last week. And when I say “came across”, I mean literally we were clearing a crosswalk in front of one at Campus Martius.
June 13th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
#2 – While I believe the tendency for the wobble is greater on solid front axle, I don’t believe it is characteristic on all solid front axle vehicles. Last time I experienced this was on our 1965 International crew cab pickup which would frequently wobble after hitting a bump. Later on we had 1979 CJ7 (with large 12.00 x 15 tires) & a 1984 Cherokee XJ that never demonstrated the condition.
June 13th, 2019 at 1:58 pm
What’s going on with the Jeep wobble? Do they need a steering damper, or is there an oscillation going on in the suspension itself?
June 13th, 2019 at 2:28 pm
My JK experienced this at 45K. New tires replacing stock fixed it. Shook the front so hard it threw power steering fluid out of the reservoir. Up and down 4-6” at the front.
One dealer tried to fix with the upgraded stabilizer the second changed the tires (which had plenty of tread).
June 13th, 2019 at 3:12 pm
I experienced the “death wobble” on a bicycle flying down a steep hill as a child. I got pitched off and scraped up before i knew what had happened.
June 13th, 2019 at 3:59 pm
Steering wobble can be experienced on motorcycles too. One of the remedial actions is to replace the triple tree bearing with roller bearings (from the mostly used ball bearing); perhaps a more robust ball joint (or other suspension pieces need to be studied) to rectify this situation. Could this be another time where correction is a little more expensive than the manufacturer wishes to spend when the problem isn’t universal. You know the expression: penny wise, dollar foolish; this one may come back and bite FCA in the butt.
June 13th, 2019 at 4:07 pm
8 I had a very scary wobble with a Yamaha RD400 years ago, and I consider myself very lucky that I didn’t crash. The “air head” BMWs I’ve had all had steering dampers to help prevent such things. The BMWs also had roller steering head bearings.
June 13th, 2019 at 4:08 pm
8 Ahe yes I have experienced it on a motorcycle as well. Back when I had a sports bike GSXR. I was passing another vehicle got on it a little too much front wheel came off the ground slightly. When I completed my pass and was leaning to get back in the right lane front wheel came down but was not parallel with the direction of the bike. Death wobble started at about 75mph. First reaction is to brake which will make it worse so I just twisted on the throttle pulled the front wheel off the ground again and set it down strait. Then pulled over to catch my breath. Not a experience I ever want to have again.
June 13th, 2019 at 4:32 pm
I was just accelerating hard with the front end light, going straight, when I had my wobble. I had low, narrow bars on the bike, which probably contributed.
June 13th, 2019 at 7:36 pm
If you believe Elon Musk, he will tell you more stories.
June 14th, 2019 at 8:19 am
My 1971 F100 with twin I-beam would also get the death wobble occasionally, especially after it had about 50K miles on it. Slowing down would stop it.
June 14th, 2019 at 8:47 am
If it is inherent in a steerable beam axle front as FCA claims, then they need to state as such in the owners manual. They also need to give a recommended maximum travel speed and mitigation strategy if the wobble occurs. The lack of the statement means that it is not something the customer is expected to experience.
They will lose this argument as the customer can simply state that they were not informed by FCA that steerable beam axles will produce a “death wobble”. Had they known this at the time of purchase, they may not have purchased the vehicle. Thusly, I would argue that FCA would be buying my vehicle back since there was an undisclosed design flaw. These are consumers, not engineers.
Since most FCA engineers live around the Detroit area, there is no shortage of large bumps on the highway systems around them. They would have experienced this situation during development. Since most executives get to evaluate the first non-saleable pilot vehicles, they would have experienced this situation. It would be hard for FCA to claim otherwise while also claiming that it is inherent in the steerable beam axle design. They knew about it and released the vehicle with a known issue that was not disclosed to the consumer. Sorry about your luck FCA, but you will lose this argument.