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Runtime: 8:22
0:07 China Approves Tesla Subsidies
0:32 Dongfeng To Sell Part of PSA Stake
1:01 Rory Gamble Named UAW President
1:33 Nissan To Close U.S. Operations for Two Days
2:24 Toyota Can’t Keep Hybrids in Stock
3:07 Chevy Suburban Awarded Hollywood Star
3:50 Waymo Up To 100,000 Rides
4:17 IIHS Calls for Rear Seat Belt Warnings
5:25 New Hyundai Sonata Design Highlights
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CHINA APPROVES TESLA SUBSIDIES
Good news for Tesla. The Chinese government just approved subsidies for Model 3’s produced in the country. Customers will receive a $3,500 subsidy for buying a Model 3, which will carry a price of about $50,000. Tesla plans to start delivering Model 3s built at its Shanghai factory starting in January. And the company needs to be successful in China, so it can start making a sustainable profit.
DONGFENG TO SELL PART OF PSA STAKE
And staying in China, PSA’s partner in the country, Dongfeng, is planning to sell part of its 12% stake in the French automaker. Reuters reports the move is to help with the PSA and FCA merger. Due to U.S. trade tensions with China, American regulators are more likely to approve the merger if Dongfeng owns a smaller share of PSA. FCA and PSA are hoping to sign an agreement to create the new company by the end of the year.
RORY GAMBLE NAMED UAW PRESIDENT
You can take the interim tag off of Rory Gamble’s title at the UAW. The union’s board officially named him president yesterday. He will serve the remainder of former president Gary Jones’ four-year term, which ends in June 2022. Gamble is the first African-American president in the union’s history. And he’s enacted a number of ethics reforms since he became leader of the union in early November. But it’s not known if those changes are enough for the UAW to avoid federal oversight.
NISSAN TO CLOSE U.S. OPERATIONS FOR TWO DAYS
It seems like every day there’s another automaker announcing cost cutting measures. And today is no different. Nissan will close its U.S. operations for two days in January to help save cash. It’s putting its employees on unpaid furlough for those days and is also cutting employee travel expenses in half. The closure affects employees at its headquarters near Nashville, as well as factory workers in Tennessee and Mississippi. As we keep saying, these cost cutting moves are just the tip of the iceberg and we expect more to come.
TOYOTA CAN’T KEEP HYBRIDS IN STOCK
Toyota has a problem with its hybrids. It can’t seem to make enough of them. Bloomberg reports, last month hybrids made up 13% of all Toyota and Lexus sales in the U.S. market. And it’s even higher for specific models like the RAV4. Nearly a quarter of its sales were hybrids in November. And Toyota says it could have sold twice as many RAV4 hybrids as it did, but it can’t get enough batteries. To help drive the point home, Toyota only has an 11-day supply of RAV4 hybrids compared to a 20-day supply of its gas-only models. But all this has come at the expense of some of its other hybrids, like the Prius, whose sales are down 21% so far this year.
CHEVY SUBURBAN AWARDED HOLLYWOOD STAR
When I think of iconic movie cars, my mind goes to James Bond Aston Martins or Steve McQueen’s Bullitt. But yesterday the Chevrolet Suburban was the first vehicle ever awarded its own Hollywood star. While that might seem crazy, the Suburban has some pretty good credentials. Since its first appearance in 1952, it has been in more than 1,750 films and TV series, it has appeared in at least one TV series every year since 1956 and one film every year since 1960. And as one person puts it, “When a convoy of black Suburban’s appears on screen, you know that’s not the time to leave your seat to buy popcorn.”
WAYMO UP TO 100,000 RIDES
A year after launching its pilot program, Waymo says it has given more than 100,000 trips in its self-driving vehicles. It currently has 1,500 monthly users and has tripled the number of weekly rides it’s given since January. And the service will expand and add more riders. Up till now, Waymo’s app has only been available for Android users, but now iPhone owners can get access as well.
IIHS CALLS FOR REAR SEAT BELT WARNINGS
We’re all familiar with seat belt warnings for front seat passengers but the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says it’s time to include the warning for those in the rear seats. It recommends a visual warning to drivers while the vehicle is parked. And when the vehicle is in motion, it says audible and visual warnings should be triggered if a rear seat passenger unbuckles their belt. At the same time, the IIHS would also like to see NHTSA extend audio warnings for unbuckled front seat passengers. Currently, a 4 to 8 second audible warning is required but the IIHS wants that to increase to 90 seconds. It’s done research that shows drivers who don’t regularly wear belts are a third more likely to use one with a 90 second warning. If it’s implemented the IIHS says it could save nearly 1,500 lives a year. So what do you think? Is this overkill or a necessary step to protect passengers?
NEW HYUNDAI SONATA DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
Back in 2011, Hyundai redesigned the Sonata with more expressive styling than it ever did before and sales took off. But the head honchos in Korea thought the styling was too expressive, and with the next redesign, they told the designers to tone it down. They did tone it down, and sales started falling the day it came out. But Hyundai learns from its mistakes and with the all-new 2020 Sonata, code named DN8, they went back to more expressive styling.
The new car is lower and longer. Moreover it has shorter overhangs which improves the stance. Thanks to its fastback design it has a short rear deck. They also moved the cowl further back and leaned the windshield back more, and all that automatically makes the hood look longer. Note how the cut lines on the hood go to the very leading edge of the front end, instead of terminating into a front fascia. That eliminates a horizontal cut line, which also makes the hood look longer. To make the car stand out even more they ran chrome strips on top of the front fenders from the DLO all the way to the headlamps. The chrome strips are made from two pieces, and the leading piece is actually made from acrylic which is laser etched with thousands of tiny holes to let light through. It actually becomes part of the Daytime Running Lights, and really stands out at night.
The front end is dominated by a big grille which is so much the rage these days, while the rear end is attractively finished with a bit of a Kammbach tail to it. Note how the taillights end with sharp edges to provide a good cutoff point for the airflow. And those bumps on the top of the taillights to generate vortexes to help the air separate from the car. Details like these helped get the coefficient of drag down to 0.27, which is quite respectable for a mass market sedan.
Hyundai says that going forward it will no longer design its vehicles so that they all have a family resemblance. Instead, it says it’s going for a “Hyundai look,” where every vehicle has an individual design, but you’ll still know they’re all Hyundai’s. It says it’s kind of like chess pieces. There are many different types, but you know they’re all chess pieces.
And with that, we wrap up this week’s reports, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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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.