Runtime: 7:53
0:29 August Sales Strong, But Flat
1:18 Luxury Brands Hit Headwinds
1:54 Passenger Cars Continue to Plummet
3:04 Mercedes-Benz’s First Serious EV
4:44 Volvo’s Vision for Mobility Services
5:58 eTorque Boosts MPG’s
6:50 Piston Coatings Improve Efficiency
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On today’s show…Volvo shares its vision for a fully autonomous car…the piston engine gets a couple of tweaks to make it more efficient…and Mercedes finally gives us all the juicy details on its fully electric SUV. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
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AUGUST SALES STRONG, BUT FLAT
Sales continue to hum along in the U.S. market. Automakers sold 1.4 million new vehicles in August, almost exactly the same number that they sold a year ago. The SAAR came to 16.6 million vehicles, up slightly from last year. The full-line automakers reported mixed results. General Motors saw its sales drop almost 13%. Although GM does not report monthly sales anymore, WardsAuto provides a good estimate. Toyota saw its sales drop 2% but it still outsold Ford, which saw its sales go up 4.5%. FCA had a terrific month, up a strong 10%, thanks to Jeep and Ram. In fact, the Ram pickup outsold the Chevrolet Silverado. Both Honda and Nissan also posted gains.
| U.S. SALES AUGUST 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total Sales | 1,473,888 | —- |
| SAAR | 16.6 M | |
| General Motors | 239,767 | -12.9% |
| Toyota | 223,055 | -2.0% |
| Ford | 212,393 | +4.5% |
| FCA | 192,188 | +10.0% |
| Honda | 147,903 | +1.3% |
| Nissan | 112,376 | +3.7% |
| Source: WardsAuto | ||
LUXURY BRANDS HIT HEADWINDS
The luxury brands also posted mixed results. Lexus topped the sales charts even though sales dropped 7%. Mercedes dropped a whopping 17% while BMW eked out a small gain, and Audi continued its strong climb. In fact, Audi is now nearly selling as many cars a month as Mercedes and BMW. Cadillac saw its sales slip while JLR posted a nice gain, but that all came from Land Rover, since sales dropped at Jaguar. Porsche also posted a double digit drop.
| U.S. SALES AUGUST 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lexus | 28,622 | -7.1% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 24,084 | -16.8% |
| BMW | 23,789 | +1.0% |
| Audi | 20,907 | +5.5% |
| Cadillac | 13,653 | -9.1% |
| JLR | 9,648 | +2.4% |
| Porsche | 4,083 | -13.3% |
| Source: WardsAuto | ||
PASS CARS CONTINUE TO PLUMMET
And now let’s bore into sales of passenger cars. Sales plummeted by 90,000 units, probably the worst drop we’ve ever seen as consumers continue to abandon passenger cars and switch over to CUVs, SUVs and pickups. Passenger cars only accounted for 29% of all vehicles sold. And the drop is across the board, while GM, Ford and FCA posted the biggest drops amongst the full-line manufacturers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan also posted double digit drops. We’ve been speculating that the drop in passenger cars sales would have to bottom out at some point, but it’s actually getting worse.
| U.S. PASSENGER CAR SALES AUGUST 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| General Motors | 49,887 | -27% |
| Ford | 37,522 | -21% |
| FCA | 15,002 | -36% |
| Toyota | 78,410 | -15.6% |
| Honda | 63,876 | -15.2% |
| Nissan | 39,298 | -15.1% |
| Source: WardsAuto | ||
Still to come…Mercedes takes the wraps off its EQC electric and Volvo unveils its vision of an autonomous car.
M-B’S FIRST SERIOUS EV
No more teasers! Mercedes finally revealed the EQC in its totality. The first thing we noticed is the grille is not as radical as some of the first EQ concepts. But we still think it will be polarizing to some. An otherwise Mercedes-looking grille is wrapped by a thick chrome bar and a large black panel surface that connects the two headlights. They are further connected at night time by a light bar that runs along the top of the grille. There’s also a more upscale version where the chrome bar has been blacked-out and the tri-star logo is attached to the grille by two horizontal bars. The lower fascia is different as well and we actually think it looks like a handlebar mustache. The rear is highlighted by LED tail lights linked together by a long light bar. Mercedes says the interior has an “electro-look,” reflected in the ribbed edge of the instrument panel, which resembles the cooling ribs of a amplifier. We say look how minimalistic the interior is and how the center cluster and infotainment screen look similar to the new A-Class sedan and Sprinter van. Power will come from two electric motors, one at the front and one at the rear, which combine for over 400-horsepower. An 80-kWh battery pack is estimated to yield 450-kilometers or about 280-miles of range based on the European NEDC test cycle. The EQC should go on sale in Europe in the middle of 2019 and it will be interesting to see how much it costs.
VOLVO’S VISION FOR MOBILITY SERVICES
Volvo wants to expand its business beyond being a traditional car maker. And it’s looking at autonomy as a way to achieve that. The company just introduced an electric, autonomous concept called the 360c. But instead of being a technology showcase, it’s meant to highlight the potential business case around self-driving cars. The company believes that AVs will give people the freedom to live further from cities and that travel time can be more productive or fun. So, it designed the interior for four potential uses, sleeping, a mobile office, a living room or an entertainment space. Volvo says this could allow it to compete with air, bus or train travel, with customers who want to travel in privacy.
The piston engine is far from dead, coming up next, we’ll show you how it continues to get more efficient.
eTORQUE BOOSTS MPG’S
The EPA tested the new Ram 1500 with the mild-hybrid system, called eTorque and here are the results. The 3.6L V6 with eTorque, which is the only way you can get the V6, gets 20 miles to the gallon in the city, 25 MPG on the highway and 22 MPG combined. That’s 3 MPG better in the city and 2 more MPG combined compared to the previous-gen V6 truck without eTorque. The V8 with the mild-hybrid system gets 17 in the city, 23 highway and 19 combined, which is a 2 MPG improvement in the city and one on the highway over the non-eTorque V8. On top of the fuel economy boost, eTorque also adds 90 lb-ft of torque to the V6 engine and 130 lb-ft to the V8.
PISTON COATINGS IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
The diesel is still the engine of choice in the commercial vehicle segment and suppliers like MAHLE continue to make the diesel more efficient. It just came out with a new kind of piston coating that reduces the heat absorbed by the pistons. This reduces the demand for piston cooling, which allows for higher exhaust gas temperatures and enables the waste heat recovery system to extract more power. The coatings also heat up the exhaust gas after treatment system faster after a cold start. That reduces NOx emissions and makes it easier for OEMs to meet current and future regulations. Not bad for something that simply coats the pistons.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us 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.
