AD #2855 – Tesla’s Shares Near $1,000; Nikola Has More Value Than Ford; Updated Crosstrek Adds New Sport Trim

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

INFIGHTING LEADS TO VW CEO’S REPLACEMENT
Yesterday we reported that the CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess, had to give up control of the Volkswagen brand, and today we’re getting more information of the infighting that’s going on at the company. Bloomberg reports that Diess actually came close to getting fired. The VW board of supervisors even forced him to apologize to them. He had accused board members of leaking sensitive information that would hurt VW with U.S. officials who are monitoring the company over its diesel emissions cheating scandal. VW is going through tough times. It’s had problems launching the new Golf and ID.3 electric car. And it’s never a good situation at any company when the board and CEO are fighting against each other.

TESLA CLOSING IN ON $1,000 A SHARE
Wedbush Securities raised its price target for Tesla stock yesterday, which closed at $949 a share. Wedbush expects it to hit $1,000 with a bull case scenario where it could hit $1,500. It says Tesla’s strong growth in China is worth at least $300 a share. So far this year Tesla stock has more than doubled.

NIKOLA HAS MORE VALUE THAN FORD
Talk about crazy stock prices, shares of Nikola shot up after the company went public last week. It now has a market valuation over $30 billion even though it has zero revenue and has never sold anything. That gives it a market valuation bigger than the Ford Motor Company, which was at $28 billion as of yesterday. If you’d like to learn more about Nikola and what this company plans to do be sure to tune in to Autoline After Hours tomorrow, when we’ll have Trevor Milton the founder of the company on the show. We’ll get going at 3 pm eastern time and if you have questions for him, Tweet them our way or send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv. Then join me and Gary Vasilash for some of the best insights into the automotive industry.

NASCAR NEEDS TO GET RID OF CONFEDERATE FLAGS
Anyone who’s been to a NASCAR race knows that a number of fans in the infield fly the Confederate flag. But with massive protests against racism across the United States and even around the world, NASCAR is coming under a lot of pressure to ban those flags. During an interview with CNN, Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only black driver, was asked how NASCAR could make races a safe space for people of any background. He said, “My next step would be to get rid of all Confederate flags.” Here’s my Autoline Insight. This is an issue that NASCAR has to deal with. Things have changed. Statues of Confederate heroes from the Civil War are being pulled down all across the south. And there is no place for Confederate flags at NASCAR races. Some will say they have a right to fly that flag. And they do, but at their own house, not at a televised public sporting event. This is going to be a sticky situation for NASCAR. The fans who fly those flags will revolt if someone tells them to pull it down at a race. But if NASCAR doesn’t do it, its corporate sponsors will walk away from the sport.

SKODA OCTAVIA GET MORE OFF-ROAD FLARE
Skoda is giving the station wagon version of the Octavia a little more off-road flare. The Octavia Scout comes standard with what they call the Rough-Road package, which includes underbody protection, 15mm suspension lift, unique front and rear bumpers and black plastic trim on the fenders, side sills and door bottoms. A silver finish around the front and rear diffusers, roof rails and window frames is also Scout-specific. And the interior features unique decorative trim on the dashboard, seats and seat logos as well. Under the hood is a wide range of gasoline and diesel engines, one even has mild-hybrid technology, and all are paired with either a 6-speed manual or 7-speed automatic. All-wheel drive is also available as is front-wheel drive, which is a first for the Scout variant.

UPDATED SUBARU CROSSTREK ADDS NEW SPORT TRIM
Subaru is refreshing the Crosstrek, with the big news here being that you can get what they call Sport trim. It features a 2.5L 4-cylinder engine that produces 182 horsepower and first debuted in the 2019 Forester. The engine is also offered on the Limited trim and has 30 more horsepower than the 2.0L that’s standard on the Base and Premium models. All 2021 Crosstreks get a redesigned front bumper with new fog lights and new grille design with details specific to each trim. The Crosstrek Sport also features unique fender flares, 17-inch wheels, different seat material, yellow stitching, fake carbon fiber accents and a gunmetal finish on the grille, side mirrors, badges and interior components. Lastly, Subaru’s driver assistance system now comes standard with Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centering. The 2021 Crosstrek arrives in the U.S. this summer.

FORD ADDS ORANGE PAINT COLOR TO MUSTANG MACH-E GT
Orange has always been a popular color for the Mustang and the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E will be no different. Ford’s color and materials experts developed a new paint color, called Cyber Orange for GT versions of the EV. People will not be looking to blend in with this color. Ford’s color & materials design manager says, “Cyber Orange says ‘look at me’,” and was designed for those that want to turn heads.

LORDSTOWN WILL REVEAL PRODUCTION ENDURANCE THIS MONTH
Speaking of EVs, the reveal of Lordstown’s Endurance pickup was delayed due to coronavirus and the canceling of the Detroit auto show. But the company announced the electric truck will debut before the month is out. These pictures from the company’s website are less concept-looking than some of the ones we’ve shown in the past and are likely more closely related to what we’ll see before June is over. Lordstown also says it’s continuing progress on its production plant in Ohio and has a goal to start pre-production models later this year.

ROLLS-ROYCE CREATES CLEAN ROOM FOR ASSEMBLY
Rolls-Royce is all about exclusivity and it takes assembly very seriously. That’s why it built a clean room at its Goodwood manufacturing plant in England. It’s similar to ones at microchip manufacturing plants or pharmaceutical and medical production facilities. Rolls-Royce built the room for its Phantom sedan, which has an interior feature called the Gallery. It’s a piece of uninterrupted glass that runs along the entire width of the dashboard, which features customized art underneath it that can be illuminated. A sensor in the room is able to detect particles measuring 0.001 microns and above. And if a contamination is detected, workers can identify where and when it occurred. Only five employees are trained to work in the Clean Room and only two can be in it at the same time. And they’re not allowed to use cosmetics, hair products or deodorant.

BMW INVESTS IN PROMETHEUS FUELS
While electric vehicles will help reduce pollution, if the whole world switched to buying 100% EVs tomorrow, it would still take nearly a decade before internal combustion engines were off the roads. So in the meantime, other solutions are needed to reduce CO2 emissions. That’s why BMW i Ventures, a subsidiary of the German automaker that invests in startup companies, invested in Prometheus Fuels, an energy company that removes CO2 from the air and turns it into zero-net carbon gasoline. The fuel will be sold at gas stations starting this year, for a price that is competitive with fossil fuels. The companies say if all fuels made from oil and gas were replaced with carbon-neutral fuels, it would reduce global carbon emissions by 25%.

But that wraps up today’s show, thank you for watching.