AD #2718 – Ford Calls New EV Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Confirms Santa Cruz Pickup, Toyota Adds AWD Camry & Avalon

This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.

MUSTANG-INSPIRED SUV GETS MUSTANG-INSPIRED NAME
Well, the social media rumors were right. Ford is going to call its battery electric the Mustang Mach-E. The electric crossover will offer seating for four, offer 300 miles of range and provide blistering performance. While Ford had been saying that the styling was inspired by the Mustang, now it’s saying that the Mach-E is thoroughly a Mustang. And we wouldn’t be surprised to see Ford start to extend the Mustang lineup with other model variants. The Mustang Mach-E will go on sale about a year from now, but Ford will start taking $500 deposits this Sunday.

AUTOMAKERS BACKPEDAL ON AUTONOMOUS TAXIS
Automakers are starting to backpedal when it comes to autonomous ride hailing. General Motors indefinitely postponed the launch of Cruze Automation’s robotaxi business. Ford gave up on its ride hailing service called Chariot, though it did not use autonomous vehicles. And now Ola Kallenius, the CEO of Daimler, says they’re giving up on trying to develop autonomous taxis. He says it’s a lot harder to do than Daimler’s engineers expected. But he does expect the technology to be used in long-haul trucks.

UAW HOPES ETHICS REFORM HELPS AVOID TAKEOVER
In response to its corruption scandal, acting UAW president Rory Gamble rolled out a number of ethics reforms. They include the establishment of an Ethics Ombudsman to receive, review and respond to ethics complaints and allegations. The creation of an Ethics Officer that will not be an employee of the union but will have the power to investigate complaints or allegations. Increased financial oversight of its Accounting Department and the creation of a hotline to report possible ethics violations. The UAW is trying to avoid a possible takeover by the U.S. government. But other labor experts say these reforms don’t go far enough.

We have a great Autoline After Hours coming up this afternoon. Caresoft is the name of a company that uses a giant MRI machine to scan a car from top to bottom. That information is then digitized so you can see everything in the car wearing virtual reality goggles. It allows for very fast competitive analysis without having to tear the car down. To get all the details join John and Gary at 3 pm eastern time at Autoline.tv or on our YouTube channel.

AUDI REVEALS NEW S8 PERFORMANCE SEDAN
Audi is showing off the new version of its flagship luxury performance sedan, the S8. You’ll notice small styling differences both inside and out that help separate it from the A8, but most of the changes are under the skin. It’s powered by a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 that makes roughly 570 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to push this large sedan from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds. And to help get around select European towns a little faster it’s equipped with Vehicle-to-Infrastructure technology that provides a traffic light coach to tell the driver what speed to drive so they won’t have to stop between lights. Other technologies include a 48-volt mild-hybrid system, all-wheel steering and an active suspension. That system uses cameras on the front of the car to look at the road ahead and will adjust the suspension accordingly. It will even lean the body of the S8 up to 3-degrees in turns to help reduce lateral forces acting on the passengers. When the S8 goes on sale in China, the U.S., Canada and South Korea it will only be offered in the long-wheelbase version.

HYUNDAI CONFIRMS SANTA CRUZ PICKUP
Hyundai finally made it official. It announced its jumping into the pickup truck market with the Santa Cruz, which is a concept that debuted at the 2015 Detroit auto show. The pickup will be built at the company’s plant in Alabama alongside the Santa Fe, Sonata and Elantra starting in 2021, which strongly suggests it will be a unit-body pickup like the Honda Ridgeline. Hyundai will spend $410 million to upgrade the plant and will add 1,200 new direct and indirect jobs.

VW EXPANDS U.S. FACTORY FOR EVs
And speaking of factory upgrades, Volkswagen just broke ground to expand its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, which will build an all-electric ID. SUV model starting in 2022. The company is spending $800 million to upgrade the facility, which also includes a new battery pack assembly plant. The Chattanooga plant will be the company’s North American hub for EV production.

AUTOMAKERS BRAG ABOUT U.S. INVESTMENTS
One of the reasons you’re seeing non-U.S. automakers bragging about their investments in the U.S. is that they’re desperate to convince President Trump not to raise import tariffs on passenger cars. Yesterday Trump said he will announce his decision very soon. And we take that to mean before this Sunday. That’s when the President faces a deadline on making his decision.

HEAD OF GM DESIGN SEES 26-INCH WHEELS IN OUR FUTURE
A decade ago, it was hard to find a vehicle with 18-inch wheels, unless it was a luxury vehicle. But In an interview on the Brembo Red podcast, GM’s head of design says 18-inch wheels are small by today’s standards. And he even went on to predict that vehicles will be rolling on 24 or 26-inch wheels in the not so distant future. Some vehicles like the Cadillac Escalade and Audi A7 already offer 22-inch wheels, so while 26-inch wheels seem crazy, it’s not that far fetched.

TOYOTA MAKES AWD CAMRY & AVALON
Toyota is making all-wheel-drive available for the Camry and Avalon. This is the first time since 1991 that AWD has been offered on the Camry and the first time ever for the Avalon. Neither car was originally planned to have AWD, so the engineering team at Toyota’s R&D center in Michigan had to modify the vehicles to add the system. Both models are powered by a 2.5L four-cylinder that’s mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. The AWD Camry cranks out 202 horsepower while the AWD Avalon creates 205 horses. The Camry AWD arrives at dealerships next spring while the Avalon AWD goes on sale next fall.

RAM SMART TO KEEP OLD TRUCK AROUND
Ford and Chevrolet are not going to want to hear this. FCA is holding onto its old Ram pickup indefinitely. Mike Manly, the CEO of FCA, told analysts there is no end of life scheduled. By keeping the old model in production Ram could offer low prices, yet charge more for the new model for customers who want the latest and greatest. So far the strategy is paying off handsomely. While sales of the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado are down by a couple of percent, sales of the Ram are up by double digits. More impressively, the average transaction prices for Ram pickups overall are up 5% this year while incentives are down 2%. So no wonder they’ve decided to keep the old Ram in production.

FERRARI DEBUTS STYLISH NEW COUPE
Check out Ferrari’s newest car, called the Roma. It’s a mid-front-engine coupe with sharp, tiger-nose styling in the front and a rounded rear end. Under the hood is a turbocharged V8 that produces 456 kW or over 610 horsepower and is mated to an 8-speed DCT. At roughly 1470 kilograms or about 3250 pounds the Roma is able to do 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. And check out that interior. The driver and passenger have their own little cockpit area.

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