AD #2495 – AAA Urges Drivers to Check Headlights, Ranger MPG Numbers, Dealers Less Optimistic About Car Market

On today’s show…Ford reveals fuel economy numbers for the Ranger…clouded headlights dramatically reduce the amount of light they produce…and Magna shares its vision of a flexible interior. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

HYUNDAI REVEALS FUEL CELL ROADMAP
Fuel cell vehicles hold a lot of promise but their widespread adoption is being held back because there aren’t many stations around to refuel them. But Hyundai wants to change that and just revealed its roadmap for creating a more robust market for fuel cell vehicles. Called FCEV Vision 2030, it includes plans to build 700,000 fuel cell systems annually by 2030, 500,000 of which will be used for fuel cell electric vehicles. It wants to supply fuel cell systems to other automakers and manufacturers of drones, forklifts and power generators. But a bold plan like this isn’t cheap. Hyundai and its suppliers plan to invest about $6.7 billion in R&D and facility expansions by 2030, to help reach its goals.

AAA URGES DRIVERS TO CHECK HEADLIGHTS
We’ve all seen, or perhaps driven, vehicles with clouded or yellow headlight lense covers. This obviously cuts down on their effectiveness and a new study from AAA shows how dangerous they can be. It tested two 11-year-old vehicles and found that they produce about 80% less light, on low beams, compared to new vehicles. It says replacing old headlight assemblies with OEM parts is the most effective way to bring them back to 100%. Aftermarket parts brought output back to 90%. And restoring the headlights, which is the most cost effective, only returned light output back to 70% and also produced more glare. So with half of all accidents occurring at night, AAA is urging drivers to check their headlights.

Still to come…Ford reveals fuel economy numbers for the new Ranger.

MAGNA REVEALS FLEXIBLE SEATING SYSTEM
Most of the reconfigurable seating concepts we’ve seen are centered around autonomous vehicles, but the supplier Magna shared its vision for a flexible vehicle interior, which expands into other areas, like personal mobility. The seats slide on a rail system and are able to swivel into a number of positions, including what’s called Campfire seating. This is where all the rear seats are facing one another, which could be a great way to keep the family entertained on a long road trip. There’s also a car sharing cargo mode for package delivery. The seats can move to provide the maximum amount of space possible or the seat bottoms are able to fold up to give the user segmented areas to place packages. And let’s say you wanted to prepare for a business meeting, the seats shift into what’s called Conference seating, so everybody in the vehicle can see and talk to one another. But what we find interesting, is if this is the way seating will be used in the future, the current process for designing a vehicle will have to change. Seating suppliers will have to be involved in the process much earlier. And just imagine that a vehicle’s seating setup could have an impact on the way it looks.

RANGER FUEL ECONOMY NUMBERS REVEALED
Ford released the fuel economy figures for the new Ranger pickup with the 2.3L EcoBoost gasoline engine and it just ekes out the competition. In 2-wheel drive setup it gets 21 MPG in the city, 26 on the highway and 23 combined. 4-wheel drive knocks the city and combined number down by 1 MPG and the highway by 2. The engine is rated at 270-horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque, which helps return a towing capacity of 7,500-pounds and 1,860-pounds of payload. The new Ranger will start hitting dealers in January.

FORD APPOINTS NEW VP
And speaking of Ford, it announced that Trevor Worthington has been named vice president, Global Product Development Operations & Vehicle Programs. He had previously served as vice president of Product Development for the Asia Pacific region and also led the development of the global Ranger pickup and Everest SUV. Worthington will report to Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s executive vice president of Product Development and Purchasing.

Dealers have a more negative opinion about the car market than earlier this year. And that’s coming up next.

DEALERS LESS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT CAR MARKET
Car dealers are less optimistic about the market than they were earlier in the year. That’s according to Cox Automotive, which just released its Dealer Sentiment Index. The quarterly online survey features responses from over 1,100 franchised and independent dealers in the U.S. The researchers found that dealers were more negative than positive about the fourth quarter and expectations for the next quarter also declined. But it’s not just new vehicles, dealers are becoming more negative about the used car market as well. Even though the market is still pretty strong, automakers are on pace to sell about the same number of new vehicles as they did last year, this survey suggests we could see more declines next year.

And speaking of dealers, be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this week. Our special guest is Ryan LaFontaine from the LaFontaine Automotive Group, to talk about the future of auto dealerships. If you have any questions, send them our way to viewermail@autoline.tv or just contact us on social media.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and we’ll see you right back here again tomorrow.