Runtime: 6:19
0:32 De Nysschen Out as Head of Cadillac
1:17 FCA CEO to Be Announced Next Year
2:46 Diesel F-150 Fuel Economy Figures
3:29 New Ford Mustang Cobra Jet
4:28 Opel’s German Plants 2X More Expensive Than PSA’s
5:05 Tesla Accused of Using Misleading Autopilot Stat
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On today’s show…. we’ll tell you why GM felt it had to put a new leader in charge of Cadillac… Ford’s diesel F-150 puts up some impressive fuel economy numbers… and PSA is running into the same problems with Opel that General Motors did. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
DE NYSSCHEN OUT AT CADILLAC
The board of directors of General Motors voted to remove Johann de Nysschen as the head of Cadillac. He’ll be replaced by Steve Carlisle, who was running GM of Canada. There’s been a lot of speculation why de Nysschen was let go, but here’s our Autoline Insight. Cadillac has gone nowhere in the last four years in the American market. De Nysschen inherited a brand that was selling 182,000 vehicles a year. Last year it sold 156,000 even though the overall market grew by 1.5 million vehicles since he took the reins at Cadillac. And while Cadillac sales are going strong in China, the board must have felt the brand was not reaching its potential and that it was time for a change.
FCA CEO TO BE ANNOUNCED NEXT YEAR
Speaking of personnel changes, Sergio Marchionne says FCA will not announce his replacement until next year. That’s a surprise because analysts and company insiders were expecting to find out who that will be in June. Marchionne says his replacement will come from inside the company. Here’s our Autoline Insight. If FCA announced his replacement in June, Marchionne would become something of a lame duck. All the attention would immediately shift to his replacement, who would then be very distracted from doing his current job.
Ford just announced the fuel economy numbers for its diesel pickup and it’s pretty impressive. That’s coming up next.
Be sure to tune in later today for Autoline After Hours. We’ve got Sandy Munro coming in the studio, who’s company ripped a Tesla Model 3 down to its bones. They found some things they didn’t like, but other engineering they really did. So if you have questions, send them to viewermail@autoline.tv. Then tune in at 3PM Eastern time for some of the best discussions in the automotive industry.
DIESEL F-150 FUEL ECONOMY FIGURES
Ram was the first to put a small diesel in a full-size pickup truck, but GM and Ford are following suit and for now Ford has the fuel economy bragging rights. It just announced the 2018 F-150 with a 3.0-liter Power Stroke diesel engine will get 22 miles-per-gallon in the city, 30 MPG on the highway and 25 MPG combined. Those are impressive numbers for sure and the city and highway figures best the Ram by 1 MPG each. The difference is likely due to the fact that the F-150 uses a 10-speed transmission, while the Ram uses an 8-speed. The new diesel F-150 will start shipping to dealer showrooms in May.
NEW MUSTANG PUTS ON THE COBRA JETS
And speaking of Ford, it’s about to launch a new Mustang Cobra Jet drag car to celebrate the iconic model’s 50th anniversary. It comes with a 5.2L supercharged V8, four-link rear suspension and a Ford 9-inch solid rear axle. That will help make it the fastest Mustang ever with a quarter-mile time in the mid-8-second range at over 150 MPH. Only 68 of the drag-only car will be made and people can start ordering them this summer.
Coming up next, GM could not make Opel competitive, and now PSA is running into the same problems.
OPEL’S GERMAN PLANTS 2X MORE EXPENSIVE THAN PSA’S
Ever since it bought Opel from GM, PSA has been trying to cut high production costs. Now it’s going after Opel’s German factories, and it’s turning into a nasty fight. Opel’s new CEO says the German plants are twice as expensive as PSA factories and he wants wage concessions. But German union stewards at one plant rejected the offer, even though PSA would have committed to making a new model at the plant. It’s possible PSA could try to close the plant, but in Europe that’s a very expensive proposition, and one of the reasons why GM wanted to get rid of Opel.
TESLA ACCUSED OF USING MISLEADING AUTOPILOT STAT
Another day, another story about Tesla. This time it’s being accused of using a misleading stat about its Autopilot system. It’s citing a NHTSA study that says Autopilot reduces crash rates by 40%. But safety advocates question that number. Neither Tesla nor NHTSA will publicly release the underlying data used to make that claim. NHTSA looked at accidents between 2014 and 2016 that caused airbags to deploy on Model S and X vehicles equipped with Autopilot. It then used mileage data to calculate the crash rates. However, safety advocates say NHTSA didn’t provide those mileage figures to show the crash rates are statistically significant. So safety advocates are suing the agency to disclose all the data.
And with that we wrap up today’s report. Thanks for watching and we’ll be right back here 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.