AD #2779 – Chevy Launches Menlo EV In China; Japan Forms Coronavirus Task Force; Lucid Partners with LG Chem

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

JAPAN FORMS CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE
The coronavirus outbreak that started in China increasingly looks like it’s going to develop into a global pandemic. In Japan, the government and auto industry formed a task force to plan how they are going to deal with production disruptions. The group will share information and offer any financial and policy support if the situation worsens. And the two sides will work to make sure the supply chain isn’t disrupted. Toyota, Honda and Nissan have been forced to halt some operations in China due to parts shortages but they haven’t had to do so yet in Japan. And they want to keep it that way.

LUCID TO USE LG CHEM BATTERIES
Last week, EV startup Lucid Motors revealed its making good progress on its factory in Arizona and that it’s on pace to begin production at the facility by the end of the year. And now Lucid has secured the batteries that will power those vehicles. It signed a deal with LG Chem to supply it with battery cells through 2023, which will be used for the standard version of its Air sedan. And additional agreements with LG Chem will be announced in the future for special versions of the EV. The Lucid Air makes its debut at the New York Auto Show in April.

CHEVY LAUNCHES MENLO EV IN CHINA
Chevrolet launched its first EV in China, called the Menlo. Its styling is heavily influenced by the Chevy FNR-X concept vehicle and is meant to blend the look of a crossover and sporty coupe. The interior features a multi-layered dash with a floating 10.1-inch center touchscreen and 8-inch instrument cluster display. While battery size is not mentioned in the press release, the EV can travel up to 410 kilometers. That figure is based on the older NEDC test cycle, which converts to about 287 EPA miles. The Menlo is initially being offered in Beijing and prices range from a little under $23,000 to about $25,500, but that includes national subsidies. 

AUDI, JAGUAR & MERCEDES CUT EV PRODUCTION
Last month, Mercedes announced its delaying production of the EQC for a year because it said it faced a shortage of batteries. Two weeks ago, Jaguar announced its temporarily suspending production of the I-Pace due to a battery shortage. Last week, Audi said it was temporarily suspending production of the e-tron, and the speculation quickly centered on a shortage of batteries. Let’s just say that we are highly skeptical of these claims. We think a much more logical reason for these production delays is dismally slow sales of the I-Pace and e-tron. And we think Mercedes saw the writing on the wall and pushed production back a year. After all, no one else is complaining about a battery shortage and it’s easier to blame that, than admit their EVs are sales flops.  

LYFT TO USE DIGITAL ADS
Lyft vehicles are about to look more like taxis. The ride hailing company bought Halo Cars, a company that allows ads to be displayed on LED screens mounted on top of vehicles. Halo says it shows hyper-targeted ads based on location, time, weather and consumer profiles. Installation of the screen is free, it can also help with customer pickup by displaying the vehicle’s license plate number and drivers can earn up to $400 a month. Currently, Halo Cars operates in New York and Chicago.

PUT YOUR FINGERPRINT ON YOUR PORSCHE 
Porsche 911 customers can now make their car as unique as their fingerprint, literally. Once the car rolls off the assembly line, the hood is removed and a graphic based on the customer’s fingerprint is painted onto the hood. The painting process is similar to an inkjet printer, where a printer head mounted to a robotic arm sprays the paint in a very precise manner. After painting, a clear coat is applied, which is then polished to a shine. Customers shouldn’t be worried. The fingerprint is processed so it can’t be used for unauthorized purposes. It will be made available in March and more customer-specific designs are coming, but it’s not a cheap process. It costs 7,500 euros or a little over $8,100.

LORDSTOWN MOTORS TO USE HUB MOTORS
Lordstown Motors released a video about how it’s getting ready to build its electric truck at the old General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. But what caught our eye is that it’s going to use four hub motors. The video barely mentions this, but when we stop-frame the video you see (0:10) a schematic of a hub motor taped to a wall, (0:19) and another schematic as someone flips through pages in a presentation (0:31-37). A quick video shot under the truck shows orange power wires running to the hub motor, which gives you a bit of an idea how the motor packages into the hub, (0;50-52) while a two-second shot of a rolling chassis clearly shows the orange wires going to the hub. Hub motors open up tremendous packaging opportunities with EVs. They’re kind of a Holy Grail. They eliminate the drive shaft, axle shafts, and gear reduction units, which helps offset the mass of the hub motors. They can even get rid of the steering column and rack, though Lordstown Motors didn’t go that far. While others have talked about using hub motors, it looks like Lordstown could be the first to use them in high production.     

NEW ESCALADE BORROWS ESCALA DESIGN ELEMENTS
Back in 2016, Cadillac unveiled a stunning concept called the Escala. While that sedan never made it into production, its interior design was used as inspiration for the all-new Escalade. On last week’s Autoline After Hours, Phil Kucera, the Interior Design Manager at Cadillac, shared what design elements from the Escala made its way into the Escalade.

Phil Kucera, Interior Design Manager, Cadillac
“Well the Escala show car, if you can remember that and the screens that were in that. That was an assignment to Cadillac, basically what would you do without much restriction. So, they do the Escala and then that was basically, okay, do that. And that interior, when you look at it side-by-side, compared with what’s in the Escalade, a lot of the similarities. First and foremost being the OLED screen. But also some thematic stuff, like the instrument panel, the main kind of design theme line, we’ll call it the wave sometimes, the way the surfaces roll over each other. And even some of the color and trim materials and some of the patterns that show up in there (Escalade), started life in the Escala.”

If you’d like to learn more about the interior design of the Cadillac Escalade, you can watch that entire show right now on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

That’s it for today. But we got a chance to get some real seat time in the new mid-engine Corvette, we’ll have reports on that this week and will send you off with this little teaser.