Runtime: 7:57
0:28 Fiat Stops Building Most Passenger Cars In Italy
1:12 Nissan Wants Bigger Voice in Alliance
1:47 Toyota’s Shocking EV Move
2:53 Ford’s “Weather Factory”
3:45 Volvo Goes to War on Plastic Cups
4:16 Shell’s Hyper Fuel Efficient Semi-Truck
5:31 Is Africa the Next Auto Powerhouse?
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On today’s show…Fiat will stop making most passenger cars in Italy…Volvo goes to war on plastic cups…and we’ll tell you why Africa could emerge as the next automotive powerhouse. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
ARRIVEDERCI ITALIA
Bloomberg reports that Fiat is going to stop building mass market passenger cars in Italy. It will move production of the Fiat Panda and Alfa Romeo Mito out of Italy and into Poland, where wage rates are a lot lower. Fiat already makes the 500 in Poland. The Italian plants that make those cars will be retooled to make Maserati SUVs and Jeeps. Here’s our Autoline Insight. We’re going to see more moves like this as automakers are no longer willing to lose money on cars. They’ll either stop making them, or move them to low-cost countries. But it sure is the end of an era when Fiat moves most of its car production out of Italy where it started building cars in 1899.
NISSAN WANTS BIGGER VOICE IN ALLIANCE
Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi want to merge to become the world’s largest automaker. They already have an alliance where they share platforms and components. But merging them into one company would be more efficient. Nissan doesn’t like the current ownership arrangement, which gives Renault more control of the alliance. Renault owns 43% of Nissan, but Nissan only owns 15% of Renault. Here’s why the merger hasn’t happened already. The French government owns 15% of Renault and it likes things just the way they are.
TOYOTA’S SHOCKING EV MOVE
Toyota has been late to the party when it comes to selling battery electric cars. And in China that’s a problem because the government is mandating that 10% of all car sales next year have to be electrics. So Toyota will start selling electric cars in its Chinese showrooms that are made by GAC, Guangzhou Automotive. The car is based on the Trumpchi GS4. And because EV quotas will continue to ramp up, Reuters reports that Toyota is in talks with FAW to make yet another EV together. Toyota’s own EV will not be ready until 2020.
Coming up next, Volvo is going to war on plastic cups, plates and forks.
FORD’S “WEATHER FACTORY”
Every automaker has environmental chambers to test for different climate conditions, but Ford has a new test facility that can do things we’ve never seen before. It just spent 70 million euros at what it calls its “Weather Factory” in Germany. It can simulate nearly every kind of weather condition. One room can produce heavy snow fall with temperatures down to negative 40-degrees. Another pressurized room can simulate altitudes of up to 5,200 meters, which is like being high up on Mount Everest. Other rooms can generate heat of 55-degrees C or 131-degrees F and produce winds of 250 km/h, which is 155 MPH. But at the end of the day it’s all about developing vehicles that can stand up to all types of weather conditions.
VOLVO GOES TO WAR ON PLASTIC CUPS
Volvo has ambitious plans to reduce its environmental impact. By 2025, it’s aiming for half of its global sales to be fully electric vehicles. And now it just launched a new initiative to remove all single-use plastics in its offices, cafeterias and events by the end of 2019. It will replace plastic cups, food containers and cutlery with biodegradable ones. That equates to removing over 500 plastic items per employee per year.
SHELL’S HYPER FUEL EFFICIENT SEMI-TRUCK
Shell and the Airflow Truck Company developed a hyper fuel efficient Class 8 semi-truck, called the Starship. As you can see, the cab has been optimized for aerodynamics and is made out of carbon fiber. Other aero features include active grille shutters and an elongated boat tail at the rear. The truck is powered by a 15 liter, 6-cylinder diesel engine along with a 48V battery. It’s also equipped with a 5,000-watt solar array on top of the trailer. Testing of the Starship kicks off today in San Diego, California and it will travel along the Southern portion of the U.S. for the next week and end its journey in Jacksonville, Florida. The truck will be fully loaded with a total gross vehicle weight of 80,000 pounds. But they won’t say what kind of fuel economy they expect to get.
Coming up next, one auto industry veteran says Africa is poised to become the next automotive powerhouse.
IS AFRICA THE NEXT AUTO POWERHOUSE?
Edward Hightower is an auto industry veteran, who’s worked for GM, Ford and BMW. He just wrote a book, called “Motoring Africa,” which details why the continent could become a automotive powerhouse in just a couple of decades. He’s our guest on Autoline This Week and in the following clip, he shares why he’s so bullish on Africa.
(The ATW preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
For more about why Africa could become the next automotive powerhouse you can watch that entire discussion right now on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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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.