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Runtime: 7:35
0:07 UAW Officials Turn on Their President
0:53 GM Posts Strong Q3 Sales. Ford and FCA Not
1:27 Silverado Closes Gap with Ram
2:03 NHTSA Concerned with Tesla Summon Feature
3:49 AAA Finds Problems with Safety Systems
4:42 Ford Gives Us Peek at Its Mobility Business
5:47 Corvette Shows Off Convertible C8
6:42 Racing Version of Corvette C8
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This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.
UAW OFFICIALS TURN ON THEIR PRESIDENT
The corruption scandal at the UAW just took an ominous turn for union president Gary Jones. The Detroit News reports that senior union leaders are helping the feds built a case against Jones. And that raises new questions on whether the UAW’s leadership can sell a new labor contract to rank and file members. Meanwhile, the strike against General Motors continues to bleed money from the company, inflict financial hardship on union workers, cause financial distress at supplier companies, force them to lay off thousands of employees and hurt the tax base of the communities and states where GM has plants. Let’s hope they get this settled soon.
GM POSTS STRONG Q3 SALES. FORD AND FCA NOT
GM, Ford and FCA finally reported their sales for the last quarter. General Motors had a good quarter, sales were up 6% while the entire market was up less than 1%. That helped GM gain nearly a full point of market share for the quarter, which is a huge gain. Meanwhile at Ford, the news wasn’t that good. Its sales dropped 5% and it barely outsold FCA which essentially held flat. In fact, FCA was only about 1,600 vehicles behind Ford.
| U.S. SALES, Q3 2019 | ||
|---|---|---|
| General Motors | 735,731 | +6% |
| Ford | 561,353 | -5% |
| FCA | 559,771 | -0.1% |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | ||
SILVERADO CLOSES GAP WITH RAM
And let’s dive into their most profitable products, their full-size pickup trucks. Ford continues to lead that sales race by a wide margin, but its sales were down nearly 6%. There’s a new F-150 coming next year, so Ford probably believes whatever it loses in the last year of production with the current truck, it will make back up with the new one. And the Ram pickup continued to outsell the Chevrolet Silverado, though Chevy is clearly closing the gap. Both Ram and Silverado posted healthy gains over the last three months.
| U.S. SALES, Q3 2019 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ford F-150 | 199,523 | -5.9% |
| Ram | 156,372 | +13.3% |
| Silverado | 153,849 | +15.4% |
| Source: Wards Intelligence | ||
NHTSA CONCERNED WITH TESLA SUMMON FEATURE
Last month Elon Musk sent an email to employees saying orders from customers were tracking at 110,000 cars for the quarter and that the company had a shot at selling more than 100,000. But it fell a bit short. It sold 97,000 cars, yet investors largely shrugged off the news. But with Tesla there’s always some sort of drama. NHTSA is now looking into growing complaints of Tesla’s Summons feature, which allows owners to summon their parked car with an app and have it drive to them in a parking lot. Owners have posted videos online of one Tesla scraping a garage wall as its being summoned and Tesla backing into another car.
AAH FEATURES KARMA, HELLA
Be sure to join us later today for Autoline After Hours. We’re going to take a deep dive into the Karma Revero. As you probably know this car started out life as the Fisker Karma, but after that company went bankrupt the new company completely revamped the car. We’ll show you all the changes they made on this $150,000 sedan. We’ll also be joined by Steve Lietaert, the president of Hella’s Corporate Center in the U.S. That company is doing some intriguing things with automotive lighting that are going to show up on cars in the near future. So join Gary Vasilash and me for some great insights on what’s going on in the automotive industry.
AAA FINDS PROBLEMS WITH SAFETY SYSTEMS
On average, nearly 6,000 pedestrians are killed in the US every year, which accounts for 16% of all traffic deaths. That’s why automakers added pedestrian detection technology to their automatic emergency braking systems. But a study from the AAA found that these systems are inconsistent and are completely ineffective at night. It evaluated four mid-size sedans with the technology on a closed course. Not only did they have trouble at night, the systems faltered in real-world situations, like a vehicle turning right into the path of an adult. AAA found that the systems did not react at all, colliding with the pedestrian every time. Because of this AAA says more needs to be done to improve the systems, especially at night.
FORD GIVES US PEEK AT ITS MOBILITY BUSINESS
Ford is letting us peek under the curtain a bit on what it’s doing with mobility services. It built a model of the city of Ann Arbor, using 3D printing to make plastic models of every building in the city. They even have a model of the University of Michigan’s gigantic football stadium. The model shows traffic flows, parking spots, pedestrian traffic and just about everything you can think of that relates to mobility. Using this model, Ford and the city can plan out how to improve traffic flow, reduce congestion and improve pedestrian safety. Ford sees a tremendous business opportunity in helping cities and other communities improve their mobility, and this helps explain why the company is getting into e-bikes and electric scooters. Ford wants to be a mobility company, not just a car company.
CORVETTE SHOWS OFF CONVERTIBLE C8
Just a few months after introducing the first-ever mid-engine Corvette, Chevy revealed the first hardtop convertible version of the iconic model. It maintains the same storage space as the coupe even with the top down and it shares the same powertrain. You can open or close the top at speeds up to 30 MPH and the top can retract in just 16 seconds. The chassis has been tweaked with the springs and dampers tuned to provide nearly the same ride as the coupe. Production of the convertible kicks off late in the first quarter of 2020, a right-hand drive version will also be made available at a later date, which is smart. That opens up the global market for Chevrolet to sell more Corvettes. The convertible is priced $7,500 more than the entry 1LT Stingray coupe.
RACING VERSION OF CORVETTE C8
Chevy also revealed the racing version of the new Corvette. Called the C8.R, it will make its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Unfortunately, the company did not reveal any technical specs but the Number 4 car will sport a new silver livery that’s inspired by Corvette concepts like the 1973 Chevrolet Aerovette and the 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer. The number 3 car will have the team’s traditional yellow paint job.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you 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.
