AD #2736 – UAW Workers Approve FCA Contract; Taycan EPA Range Surprisingly Low; Importance of GM’s Big SUVs

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

UAW WORKERS APPROVE CONTRACT WITH FCA
The UAW approved a new labor contract with FCA. The four-year pact includes $9 billion in investments and the creation of 7,900 new or secured jobs. Some analysts believed that the negotiations between the two sides would be contentious, since FCA is at the center of the union corruption scandal. But that didn’t turn out to be the case and FCA avoided a costly strike unlike GM.

IIHS MAKES IT HARDER TO EARN TOP SAFETY AWARD
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is toughening up the rules to earn a Top Safety Pick Plus award. Starting next year, all vehicles must come standard with headlights that earn a Good or acceptable rating. On top of that, vehicles must have an advanced rating in front crash ratings for the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian tests. Previously, only vehicle-to-vehicle was required. Vehicles also must earn good crashworthiness ratings across the board.

DAN AMMANN BITES THE HAND THAT FEEDS HIM
GM’s former president Dan Ammann, who is now in charge of the automaker’s Cruise self-driving unit, is blasting car ownership. In a blog post he wrote that drivers of gasoline powered cars are “the fundamental problem” behind pollution, congestion and car crashes. He said if we were inventing a new transportation system today, we would be crazy to set it up and run it as we currently do. But his comments are pretty ironic considering GM owns a majority stake in Cruise and invests $1 billion annually in the startup. And that money mostly comes from the sale of vehicles he is railing against.

TOYOTA NORTH AMERICA CEO RETIRES
The CEO of Toyota North America, Jim Lentz, is retiring after 38 years with the company. Effective April 1, 2020, Lentz will be replaced by Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Toyota North America. While at Toyota, Lentz helped launch the Scion brand in 2003 and guide the company through its unintended acceleration crisis. But one of his most important accomplishments was consolidating and restructuring the company’s North American operations.

Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon, when we’ll have Tadge Juechter, the executive chief engineer of Corvette, on the show along with a C8 in the studio. If you would like to ask him a question, send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv or tweet it to us. Then join John, Gary and Greg Migliore from Autoblog, as they take a deep dive into what may be the most interesting Corvette in over half a century.

AUDI UNLOCKS MORE RANGE FOR E-TRON
When range for Audi’s first all-electric SUV the e-Tron was announced at 204 EPA miles, despite having a 95 kWh battery pack, we were a bit disappointed. Part of the reason for that is Audi limited its usable space to 83.6 kWh because it claims that “ensures battery longevity, repeatable performance and peak charging power for longer amounts of time.” Audi may have been a little too conservative because it’s going to unlock more of the pack’s capacity. It’s increasing it from 83.6 kWh to 86.5. Audi also reduced drag by allowing the front motor to disconnect in normal operating conditions and it redesigned the brakes, drivers can now dial in more aggressive regenerative braking and Audi modified the battery’s thermal management system. With all the changes, the e-tron gets 15.5 miles of additional range on the WLTP test, which would be close to 14 EPA miles. The updates have already been made to the European-spec model and should come to the U.S. in 2020 model year vehicles.

PORSCHE TAYCAN RANGE SURPRISINGLY LOW
Speaking of disappointing EV ranges, the EPA rated the Porsche Taycan Turbo at only 201 miles. With a fairly large battery pack that has a total capacity of 93.4 kWh, the Taycan was expected to get more range. Maybe it’s holding some back, only to unlock more range later when it knows it’s safe, like Audi with the e-tron. But 201 miles is way behind other EVs, like Tesla’s Model S, and the Taycan Turbo has a higher starting price than everyone else at nearly $151,000. The only thing that really matters though, is will customers even care?

FERRARI BACKTRACKS STANCE ON EVs
While we’re on the subject of performance EVs, the late former CEO of FCA, Sergio Marchionne once said that there would NEVER be a Ferrari BEV because the sound of its engines are so much a part of its DNA. But Sergio is gone and current chief executive Louis Camilleri says the sports car maker will have an EV after 2025. If you’re wondering why it’s waiting so long, Camilleri doesn’t think battery technology is where it needs to be in terms of recharge time.

BAOJUN SHOWS NAMELESS NEV
Now let’s go over to China, where Baojun is showing off its latest New Energy Vehicle. There’s not much information to go on, it doesn’t even have a name yet, but the futuristically-styled vehicle is said to appeal to younger consumers. We’ll keep our eyes peeled and update you when more details come out.

WHY GM’S FULL-SIZE SUVs ARE SO IMPORTANT
General Motors dominates the market for full-size SUVs, and has an impressive line-up. The Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and the Cadillac Escalade account for 50% of all large SUV sales in the US. GM makes 340,000 of them every year and exports about 80,000 to 31 countries. They’re made in GM’s plant in Arlington, Texas, which is said to be the most profitable assembly plant in the world. We estimate they generate $20 billion in revenue for GM and about $4 billion in profits. That’s why the all-new versions of these vehicles are so important to GM. One reason why it took GM so long to redesign them is that coming out of the bankruptcy, when oil prices were soaring, it concentrated on re-doing its lineup of passenger cars. Besides, GM didn’t face much competition, until Ford got serious about developing the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator into true competitors.

ACTIVE AERO TO BECOME MORE COMMON
Automakers have understood the benefits of aerodynamics for over 100 years, and of active aero for over half a century. But due to cost and packaging considerations they never did much with it. Until now that is. With stricter fuel efficiency regulations and the need for longer range with EVs, active aero is a hot topic now. Magna is showing automakers its latest technology, including grille shutters, which are already quite common on pickup trucks. But it also has deflectors for SUVs which deploy ahead of the front wheels, a rear spoiler that extends out away from the roof, and a rear diffuser which drops down to reduce drag at highway speeds. We predict that in the coming decade active aerodynamic devices will become quite commonplace on most cars.

And that brings us to the end of today’s report. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget about Autoline After Hours later today.