AD #2379 – Porsche Acquires Stake in Rimac, Ford & VW Explore Partnership, Honda Insight Driving Impressions

On today’s show…Ford and Volkswagen explore making commercial vehicles together…Canadian supplier Magna partners to make EVs in China…and we share our impressions of the all-new Honda Insight hybrid. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

FORD & VW EXPLORE PARTNERSHIP
Ford and Volkswagen are exploring a partnership to jointly develop commercial vehicles and other projects. The two companies didn’t reveal many details but the alliance won’t involve equity arrangements, including cross ownership stakes. As of now, there’s no timetable as to when they’ll make the alliance official but the two companies will provide updates as they go along. It will be costly for automakers to meet future environmental and safety regulations, and that’s why we’re seeing two of the largest automakers in the world partnering up to share the costs.

HYUNDAI & AUDI PARTNER TO DEVELOP FUEL CELL EVs
Hydrogen fuel cells provide longer range and shorter refueling times for electric vehicles. But fuel cell EVs are still in their infant stages. Because of this, Hyundai and Audi have partnered to advance this technology more quickly. Audi will also have access to Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell components, which will lower production costs. In the end, Audi and Hyundai believe this partnership will cut R&D costs and development time, bringing FCEVs to the mainstream sooner.

PORSCHE ACQUIRES STAKE IN RIMAC
Porsche just acquired a 10 percent stake in electric hypercar-maker Rimac to develop electric powertrains. And it’s easy to see why Porsche wanted to partner with Rimac. Its latest hypercar, the “C Two”, has a reported 2,000 horsepower, around 403 miles of range, a top speed of 256 miles per hour and a 250-kilowatt fast charging system that can charge the battery to 80 percent in 30 minutes.

Still to come…Volvo celebrates opening its first plant in the U.S.

VOLVO OPENS 1ST U.S. PLANT
Volvo opened its first plant in the U.S. today in Charleston, South Carolina. The facility will build the S60 starting this fall and in 2021 it will make the next-generation XC90. The plant can build up to 150,000 vehicles a year and is expected to create 4,000 jobs over the coming years.

MAGNA TO BUILD CARS IN CHINA
Canadian auto supplier Magna is partnering with BAIC subsidiary Beijing Electric Vehicle Company, to build you guessed it, electric vehicles. Production of the EVs starts in 2020 in China. For Magna, it’s their first time building and engineering cars outside of Austria. The two companies will use an existing BAIC facility to make the EVs, which is expected to make up to 180,000 a year.

NISSAN DEVELOPS NEW HIGH STRENGTH STEEL
Nissan has developed a new type of high-strength steel that it claims is lighter, stronger, and easier to form than traditional high-strength steels. And best of all, it can be cold-stamped, which is more efficient for manufacturing than heat stamping. The current Infiniti QX50 has front and sides beams made from the steel, which helped reduce weight and improve its fuel efficiency. In the future, Nissan hopes the high-tensile steel will make up 25% of its vehicle’s parts-by-weight.

Have you heard of graphene? It’s an amazing material and on Autoline After Hours tomorrow afternoon we’ll have a company called Promethient explaining how its Thermavance technology uses graphene for automotive applications. It should be an interesting show, so be sure to tune in.

Honda’s new Insight hybrid goes on sale soon and we’ll share our thoughts on the car, coming up next.

HONDA INSIGHT DRIVING IMPRESSIONS
The all-new Honda Insight goes on sale June 29th and here are our thoughts on the hybrid. First off, I like that a number of automakers are getting away from goofy designs for their hybrids. It’s a welcome change in my book. It was also nice to feel how neutral the Insight is on the road. Not too sporty and easy to maneuver. If I had any complaints about this, which I make the same observation about most vehicles, is that the wheels on the Touring model we drove were too large for my taste. The ride would be better with smaller wheels and I think it also contributes to a bit of tire noise coming into the cabin. They’re certainly not deal breakers, you can get 16-inch wheels on lower trims, but it’s something I took note of. And speaking of notes, the sounds the engine made were a bit weird. Since this uses Honda’s two motor hybrid system, the engine only directly drives the wheels above 65 miles-per-hour, otherwise it’s used to charge the battery. During acceleration, I felt like the engine was spinning faster than it would be in a traditional setup. In other words, the engine sound didn’t match the seat-of-your-pants feel and it was a bit weird to me. But for a different perspective, I talked with After Hours co-host, Gary Vasilash, who also drove the car, and he said the buzz of the engine didn’t bother him at all. But the real selling point for the new Insight is impressive fuel economy. The Civic, from which the Insight is based, is rated at up to 42 miles-per-gallon on the highway and up to 36 MPG combined. The insight comes in at 52 MPG combined and we were able to get over 51 miles-to-the-gallon in mixed driving with the AC blasting. Not too shabby. When it goes on sale at the end of the month, the Insight will start at nearly $24,000 and a top-of-the-line Touring model comes in at just under $29,000, both including destination charges.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.