AD #2991 – NIO Unveils eT7 Electric Sedan; Tesla Seeks China Design Chief; GM Reveals New Logo
January 11th, 2021 at 11:54am
Listen to “AD #2991 – NIO Unveils eT7 Electric Sedan; Tesla Seeks China Design Chief; GM Reveals New Logo” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:34
0:08 Tesla Looking For China Design Chief
0:54 Chip Shortage Forces Production Cuts
1:27 More Hyundai & Apple Partnership Details
3:10 NIO Unveils eT7 Electric Sedan
4:33 NHTSA Clears Tesla of Sudden Unintended Acceleration
5:22 Pandemic Ripped Huge Hole In U.S. Auto Industry
6:46 GM Reveals New Logo
7:27 Barra To Give CES Keynote Speech
7:49 BMW Introduces New iDrive System
8:38 Magna Shows Off Electric Truck
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
TESLA LOOKING FOR CHINA DESIGN CHIEF
Tesla is searching for a design director for China, who will be the head of a design studio in Shanghai or Beijing that will create cars for Chinese customers. Reuters reports the company has been looking for a candidate for the last four months and wants to hire someone that’s “bi-cultural” and has at least 20 years’ experience and is familiar with Chinese tastes. Some candidates have already been interviewed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen. One vehicle the studio is likely to work on is the $25,000 EV Elon Musk referred to during the company’s Battery Day in September. The plan for the studio isn’t finalized and the company plans to wait to make a decision due to tensions between the U.S. and China.
CHIP SHORTAGE FORCE PRODUCTION CUTS
Last month, we reported that there’s a global chip shortage, which will cause manufacturing delays for the auto industry. And now, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and FCA are cutting production as the shortage really hits home. The problem started when production shut down during the pandemic, which led chip manufacturers to look to other markets, like consumer electronics. But now that auto production is up and running again, the semiconductor industry can’t keep up with demand.
MORE HYUNDAI & APPLE PARTNERSHIP DETAILS
Last week, Hyundai confirmed it’s in talks with Apple about an electric vehicle partnership and now there’s more details about the deal. Korea IT News reports that the two companies will sign a deal in March to make autonomous electric cars and will start production in the U.S. around 2024. This is a stunning development. With $90 billion in cash and securities, Apple has far deeper pockets than any automaker. It is going to be a formidable competitor and Hyundai must have decided, if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.
NIO UNVEILS ET7 ELECTRIC SEDAN
Chinese EV startup NIO revealed a new sedan, called the eT7. It’s similar in size to a Tesla Model S, although a bit longer overall and slightly wider. NIO boasts a range of 1,000 kilometers or roughly 621 miles, which is really good, but that’s based on the NEDC test. The eT7 would likely get around 435 EPA miles. And that’s from a 150 kWh battery pack. Do some quick math and that’s not even quite 3 miles per kWh, which is not as efficient as other EVs. But with a 0 to 100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds, some customers will likely say ‘efficiency be darned.’ It also offers the benefit of automated driving. NIO doesn’t say what level it’s capable of, but with a lidar unit, 11 cameras, 5 radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors, it should be able to handle at least Level 2. And note how NIO has tried to integrate the technology with its design. Speaking of design, there’s not much going on in the interior, which is by design, but we do like how the air vents are hidden between the gap in the two-tone dash. The eT7 is expected to go on sale in China sometime next year.
NHTSA CLEARS TESLA OF SUDDEN UNINTENDED ACCELERATION
Back in January of last year, Tesla was accused that some of its vehicles would accelerate out of control all on their own. As we pointed out then, it was a short seller who accused Tesla. We said it was obvious that drivers were hitting the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. And now NHTSA is backing that up. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will not seek a formal review because the incidents were caused by pedal misapplication. Here’s our Autoline Insight. Problems with sudden unintended acceleration first started appearing in the 1950’s when automatic transmissions started becoming popular. To this day, NHTSA has never found any cases related to cars with manual transmissions.
PANDEMIC RIPPED HUGE HOLE IN U.S. AUTO INDUSTRY
While new car sales in the U.S. market are running far stronger than anyone expected, make no mistake about it: the pandemic ripped a gaping hole in the auto industry last year. Total sales came in at 14.4 million vehicles. That’s nearly two and a half million less than in 2019. It’s about a 15% drop, which doesn’t sound that bad. But let’s put that in perspective. That means tire makers made 10 million fewer tires. It means steel producers sold 6 billion fewer pounds of steel. Piston companies made 12 million fewer pistons, and the list goes on and on. In the next couple of weeks, as automakers and suppliers report their earnings, we’re going to see the impact of this and it’s going to be ugly.
| U.S. 2020 SALES | ||
|---|---|---|
| 14,463,935 | -2,488,977 | -14.7% |
| Source: Ward’s Intelligence | ||
None other than Sandy Munro will be in the house this Thursday on Autoline After Hours. Well, he’ll be in the virtual house since we’re still doing all our shows virtually. Do you have a question you’d like to ask Sandy? Then send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv or you can contact us via Twitter or Facebook.
GM REVEALS NEW LOGO
General Motors redesigned its corporate logo and judging by the public reaction, most people hate it. Some say it looks like an elephant, others say it throws the company’s heritage right out the window. Here’s our Autoline Insight. The logo, which reportedly was done in-house by GM’s design staff, is clearly designed to provide a break with the past. The sans serif, lower case script, looks simple, fresh and modern. It signals that this is a new GM, and part of that signal is clearly directed at Wall Street. GM released the new look just in time for CES, which is taking place virtually this week.
BARRA TO GIVE CES KEYNOTE SPEECH
In fact, GM CEO Mary Barra, is giving a keynote speech at CES tomorrow, including a virtual tour of GM’s future EV technology, in what they’re calling Exhibit Zero. That speech takes place at 9 am eastern time and you can click on the link in today’s transcript or the description box below if you’d like to watch it yourself.
BMW INTRODUCES NEW iDRIVE SYSTEM
BMW is revealing its next-generation iDrive system at this year’s virtual CES show. But that’s not the news we’re going to focus on here. In what surprised us, BMW used swear words in a video promoting the new system. It features an old BMW 7 Series, the first vehicle to use iDrive and the all-new, upcoming iX, the first vehicle to use the all-new iDrive. While the iX is exclaiming the virtues of the new system, smarter, better and more emotional connection, the 7 Series calls BS and marketing BS on the claims. However, it doesn’t mince words in the video. It’s not that we’re offended to hear the language, it’s just shocking to see an automaker not censor it.
MAGNA SHOWS OFF ELECTRIC TRUCK
Magna is also making big news at CES. It’s unveiling a virtual electric pickup truck which shows off the company’s capabilities at doing entire vehicle programs, including assembly. Electric pickups are one of the hottest commodities in the industry right now, and maybe Magna is sending a signal to any startup that it’s ready for action. If you’d like to learn more details, check out the interview we have with Sherif Marakby, the head of R&D at Magna which we have posted on our YouTube channel and in the Autoline On The Road section of the Autoline website.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching.
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Comments (29)
January 11th, 2021 at 12:26 pm
I give a thumbs down on the new GM logo.
January 11th, 2021 at 12:31 pm
As one could say, the new GM logo (or should a say gm logo)looks simple, fresh and modern, the current GM logo looks Bold and exudes a strong confidence, even aggressiveness with its all cap letters. The lower case doesn’t at all give me the feeling of fresh and modern but that they are apologizing for their past and seem submissive and quiet. I don’t like it all and predict this will be a flash in the pan and quickly shelved about as quick as its rolled out.. Too bad a bunch of money will be spent to make this change no matter how long it lasts.
January 11th, 2021 at 12:39 pm
The NIO is a nice looking vehicle and as they add more batteries to get more range I would expect less efficiency as that also adds more weight. So yeah bigger battery = longer range, Bigger batter is also heavier = less efficiency.
Either way it will be interesting & scary to see how the build quality of these Chinese cars will be. If typical of many Chinese products I would expect sub-par materials and paints to be used and maybe not the attention to detail as other manufacturers. The scary part will be if they actually do produce a good quality product they could dominate the EV market even in the US and Elon should be concerned.
January 11th, 2021 at 12:39 pm
So Toyota Sudden Acceleration from 2009 has rear it’s head in 2021?
January 11th, 2021 at 12:52 pm
Sean; If it indeed was just a disgruntled short seller that started the acceleration fiasco then it seems Tesla would have a legal case to sue for damages. Any word on whether Tesla is pursuing such action? If not I hope they do, as false accusations like that do irreversible damage to not only Tesla but all EVs and should have some recourse.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:01 pm
So production cuts caused chip reduction and chip reduction caused production cuts; vicious spiral or merely a short term correction. Yep, just a blip.
Gm’s new logo is similar enough that I don’t think it matters much either way.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:08 pm
3 We’ll see how the NIO vehicles turn out, but things other than country of origin generally determine quality. A friend has a Chinese Buick Envision which has been reliable, and he is happy with the fit and finish, etc.
Is this chip shortage for commodity ICs, or for proprietary devices that makers have removed from production?
January 11th, 2021 at 1:12 pm
Regarding the gm logo, I don’t particularly like it, but will get used to it. Logos come and go. Even the Coca Cola script has changed over the years.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:16 pm
The new GM logo (or should we say gm) looks almost cartoonish. Some might interpret that it projects a market follower image compared to a market leader one.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:32 pm
Maybe gm should redo the brand logos as well. I’ve often wondered why the GMC logo doesn’t look more like a “branding iron” (pun intended) for a little more Texas vibe. Maybe connect the letters with a bar or add a bar above or below.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:35 pm
@6 Agree with you. I am not aware of any GM product with the logo on it. Have never seen the logo in commercials, either. To me the logo seems irrelevant, past, current and future.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:39 pm
Sean, it’s hard to believe that the ‘chip shortage’ has anything to do with production processes since chip production is highly automated. It seems much more likely that consumer goods markets are just more willing to pay higher prices, whereas car companies will not. A LOT of people I know used the pandemic as a excuse to upgrade to bigger, faster phones and laptops, without much regard to price.
January 11th, 2021 at 1:45 pm
7 A Buick that is just built in China is far different than a Chinese company producing their own products. Buick has a long developed history and expectations/requirements that components have to meet or exceed in order to be used. Will NIO and others copy such requirements or establish their own lesser demanding specifications? Lots of cost can be cut out of a vehicle if the requirements for components to achieve long term testing and durability requirements. Meeting just the government required stuff is only part of the picture. GM, Ford, Toyota, FCA and others have developed specifications over many years for many reasons. Typically because they encountered failures and discovered where they needed to beef up a component. So I don’t expect new manufacturers like NIO to necessarily have the same build quality as a Buick that is just assembled in China.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:05 pm
13 I agree that Buick and NIO are different, but as I said, time will tell. Initially, Tesla might be NIO’s target for build quality, and work their way up to Buick build quality. As far as tech, though, it looks like they are far behind Tesla, at least with the powertrain.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:13 pm
12 I might have contributed to the chip shortage, buying a new laptop that I probably wouldn’t have bought, except that I am spending more time at home using such items. Also, schools are buying and subsidizing simple laptops, many of them Chromebooks, for remote schooling.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:17 pm
The new General Motors logo reminds me of what you would shorten “got milk”? to if you were so inclined to not write it out, seems like the same font, but maybe it’s just me…..
January 11th, 2021 at 2:19 pm
That sudden acceleration reminds me of our experience with my company Taurus Wagon. Can’t remember the year now but it was from the first year of the first generation Taurus. Had a fairly weak 3 litre V6 with automatic. My wife was driving it back from Toronto one early afternoon while I was working out of my home office. The car suddenly went to top revs and was suprisingly strong. She has to use both feet on the brake pedal to slow it down and get over from one of the far lanes of the six lane highway to the shoulder to stop. Had to put her foot under the accelerator to stop the revs. Pretty scary. Being a Canadian National Champion Slalom Driver she was able to think quickly and control the beast. Anyone else might have panicked and caused a serious accident on the crowded road. When she got home and had relaxed we looked over the car as best we could. I did spray some WD40 on what ever parts of the throttle cable that I could see. Next day I had to drive to our plant in Sarnia and tried everything along the way to duplicate the problem with and without the Cruise Control (that she had not been using). Could not replicate. Called our dealer and he said he had not heard of any problems. Funny thing though, a couple of months later, I got a letter from Ford of Canada asking me to bring the car in for a engine acceleration recall. All that was done was to lubricate the same throttle cable.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:26 pm
For several years, GM was putting little square logos near the back of the front fenders. I had some cars with them, but they were so inconspicuous that I don’t even know what years they used them. Where do you even see a GM logo now? Do they have them somewhere on the front of dealerships? The logo must not matter much, it no one notices it anyway.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:26 pm
Suffice to say that BMW owners won’t be saying “efficiency be darned” , well probably most people wouldn’t either.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:27 pm
The new GM logo suggests a Republican elephant. Since I buy cars based on mandatory and optional requirements, a logo/badge can be cute but has no other effect.
As for NIO and other “PowerPoint” EVs but no hardware in the USA, there have been too many abuses like the legendary Nikola “Badger.” Having missed the TSLA stock increase by 10x, many non-engineering analysts are suckered in by these cute videos and presentations. A retired engineer, I have no sympathy for their losses.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:34 pm
17 With that car, turning off the key or putting it in neutral should have stopped the “runaway,” but with today’s cars, with everything being electronic, a problem that could cause unintended acceleration would most likely be with electronics, and the same glitch might make it impossible to turn off the engine or take it out of gear.
January 11th, 2021 at 3:38 pm
About the new GM logo, until you mentioned that it looked like an elephant, I didn’t see it that way. Now it’s all I see.
January 11th, 2021 at 5:14 pm
I read somewhere when the US auto manufacturer’s sales plummeted, they told the chip makers to cut back without much notice. So the chip manufactures did the natural thing, and that is find new buyers and they did! So now, auto manufactures are in need of more chips. Don’t feel sorry for them one bit!
January 11th, 2021 at 5:29 pm
I don’t get it! What is the importance of reporting on a Chinese car that is only sold in China? Most likely, these people stole or copied most of their technology and now there are sights like this that seems to encourage the thought of owning a goverment backed Chinese vehicle is acceptable. It’s one thing to inform us of what is transpiring in the EV world, it’s another to give Chinese products more print and sense of acceptance than is deserved.
January 11th, 2021 at 6:14 pm
24 From the start of the show, “This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.” I find it interesting to know some of what’s going on in the world’s largest car market, though I wouldn’t buy a NIO, even if they were sold in the U.S.
They must not have done a very good job of copying, given the poor efficiency compared to most other BEVs.
January 11th, 2021 at 6:14 pm
The GM logo is uuuugly
January 12th, 2021 at 9:10 am
17-21 I too experienced a stuck throttle cable back in the late 80s which was remedied with a quick slap of the gas pedal. It was on a manual transmission car so that 1st to 2nd shift included a redline and some screeching tires and almost a donut. After slapping the pedal the car returned to idle and I also had to use a little WD40.
Todays cars with electronic gas pedals send a signal to a throttle control valve and actually have quite a few fail safe features to prevent unintended acceleration. 1)The gas pedal typically has at least (3) potentiometers which all have to match signal insuring the proper pedal position is being detected. (2)The throttle is returned to idle or at least a position that cannot over-power the brakes when the brake is depressed. (3)many systems take input from wheel position sensors and will also reduce input if tire slippage/traction is detected. (4) Most systems use a smart throttle motor. If the throttle motor detects voltage or signals that didn’t come from the engine control module, it’s designed to shut the engine down. (5)If the ECM sees any signal that does not correlate from the multiple sensors it returns the engine to idle.
So there are a good number of fail safe features with electronic throttles but that’s an electronic system controlling a mechanical device. How that will transfer to EVs I’m not familiar with those systems. Also as you mentioned Kit of just turning the car off would seem simple but with push button start systems if you really have an electronic system failure that may not work.
January 12th, 2021 at 9:44 am
27 With my 2010 MINI, holding the start/stop button for three seconds would shut off the engine when the car is moving. I don’t know about the Corvette. I’m guessing that a short press would not stop the engine when moving.
January 12th, 2021 at 2:09 pm
I’m still pining for the ducks in Cadillac’s logo. Enough said.
24 & 25 – The Chinese market and its participants are worth examining closely.
With upwards of 20 million vehicles sold and a clear intent to leap ahead in the transition of motive forces, ignorance really just isn’t advised. The big German manufacturers have made oodles of money in China, after all, and gm isn’t faring so badly either.
Also, from what I’ve heard, domestic makes have fallen further behind in perceived attractiveness.