AD #2858 – EV Charging Stations Blooming; Mahindra Loses Copyright Lawsuit; Ford Moves Just Bargaining Chips?

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

U.K. TO UNVIEL EV BUYING INCENTIVE
To help kickstart the economy after COVID lockdowns and give the auto industry a boost, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to unveil that car buyers will get up to 6,000 pound Sterling for buying an electric car. That’s $7,600. The Telegraph newspaper reports that the cash-for-clunker like program will be unveiled in a July speech by Johnson. The U.K. government also plans to spend one billion pounds to build more public EV chargers in the country.

WORLDWIDE EV CHARGING STATIONS SAW BIG JUMP IN 2019
And speaking of EV chargers, the number of stations around the world grew by 60% in 2019. According to the International Energy Agency, there are now over 860,000 charging points globally with 60% of them in China. And fast-chargers account for about a third of the total. This could help spur the adoption of EVs since one of the things holding back some car buyers from purchasing an EV is concerns over the lack of public charging locations.

LOTUS MOVING UPSCALE WITH SWITCH TO EVs
British sports car maker Lotus is going through one of the biggest transformations in its 72-year history with plans to become an all-electric brand. AutoExpress reports the company will introduce a new gasoline powered model next year but after that everything will be electric. It’s next-gen EVs are expected to arrive in 2022 and they’re going to cost a lot more. Lotus currently charges between 45,000 and 85,000 pounds for its cars, but the EVs will cost more to boost profits and move the brand more upscale. The company’s CEO also said that once its EV lineup is established, it could expand its product range to include crossovers.

NIKOLA HITS STOCK EXCHANGE THANKS TO REVERSE MERGER
Nikola went public a little over a week ago and now the company is worth $23 billion, even though it’s never made anything. It’s worth almost as much as the Ford Motor Company. So how do you get your company listed on a stock exchange even though you have no income? Nikola used a neat financial and legal trick called a reverse merger. Listen to what Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola, said on Autoline After Hours last week.

Trevor Milton, Founder, Nikola
“So we decided ‘you know what,’ everyone’s going to know about it anyway. We need the capital, we need the money, let’s make sure people know we’re not a glass house. And VectorIq let us go public in about five months.

John McElroy
“So Vector was already public?”

Milton
“Yes they were.”

McElroy
“And they were already on the NASDAQ?”

Milton
“Yes.”

McElroy
“So you were able to get on the NASDAQ even though you haven’t built or sold anything yet?”

Milton
“Yes, it’s called a reverse merger.”

A reverse merger, ever hear of that? Here’s how it works. A company that is already listed on a stock exchange goes bankrupt. So it sells off all its assets but keeps its legal standing, its legal shell. Then another company that wants to go public, in this case Nikola, merges with that shell and bada boom bada bing, it’s publicly traded. And investors who hope that Nikola is the next Tesla, drove up the share prices to the point that Nikola has a market cap of $23 billion, even though it’s never made anything. There’s a ton of great information about Nikola in that show and you can watch the entire thing on our website or YouTube channel.

MAHINDRA LOSES COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT WITH FCA
Mahindra lost its fight against FCA but it’s going down swinging. The International Trade Commission ruled that Mahindra’s Roxor looks too much like a Jeep Wrangler and issued the company a cease and desist order. Mahindra must stop importing, building and selling any infringing vehicles or parts. There’s a short review period during which Mahindra plans to appeal and it says that the violating vehicles are no longer in production. It refreshed the Roxor for 2020, so it looks less like a Wrangler. While it did significantly change the front end design, the problem for Mahindra is that the ITC ruled it infringed upon the Wrangler’s “trade dress,” or the things that make a Wrangler look like a Wrangler. That includes the overall boxy shape and flat front fenders, and not just the grille.

MAHINDRA WANTS TO GIVE UP SSANGYONG
In more Mahindra news, it wants to give up control of South Korean automaker SsangYong Motor. Mahindra says it’s looking to exit operations that are losing money and hopes to find another company to lessen its stake or buy it out completely. Mahindra owns 75% of SsangYong, which it bought in 2010.

VEHICLE TEASES FROM FORD & NISSAN
Ford finally put an official reveal date on the all-new Bronco. The SUV will make its debut on July 9th, according to a post on its Instagram page. Nissan also teased the new Rogue, which will be unveiled today and is said to be “more than a redesign.”

FORD PRODUCTION MOVES JUST BARGAINING CHIPS?
The Covid-19 pandemic has really hurt the auto industry and automakers are looking for areas to cut cost, in some cases by delaying redesigning vehicles. AutoForecast Solutions is reporting that Ford just cancelled the next generation Edge, code named CDX777, which is made at Ford’s plant in Oakville in Canada. Moreover, AutoForecast says that production of the Lincoln Nautilus, code named U540, will move from Oakville to China in early 2022. Oakville also used to make the Lincoln MKT and Ford Flex, and all these moves put the future of that plant in peril. But here’s our Autoline Insight. Ford is about to start labor negotiations with Unifor, the Canadian union. And all these announcements really give the company some great bargaining chips. So the timing of this information could not be better for Ford, and we have to wonder if that was part of its negotiating strategy. It seems unlikely that Ford would walk away from that plant. Last year it made 200,000 SUVs and that’s not the kind of operation you walk away from.

DESIGNING CARS FOR VIRUS PROTECTION
The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way humans around the world think about transportation. More people are turning away from mass transit and into personal mobility. But they still want to be safe there too. We’ve already seen several solutions that use ultraviolet light, which kills germs, but Mark Phelan, the car critic for the Detroit Free Press, found out that automakers and suppliers are working on much more.

Mark Phelan, Car Critic, Detroit Free Press
“Yes, another thing you would want to do when the vehicle is empty (like using UV-C light). But there was some talk about having a mist of hydrogen peroxide that just gets wafted throughout the car. And these are all things you would need to leave accessories running for power and stuff like that. But these are all things that could be programmed into a car so that if the vehicle is empty and locked and the motion detector says that there are no living creatures in it, that the fan just kicks up and there’s a little reservoir of hydrogen peroxide, you know maybe in the glovebox, that gets squirted into the HVAC system and you refill it every once and awhile. It’s a twist on what some luxury companies do with the designer scents in their cars now.”

John McElroy
“Yeah, both you and I have driven those luxury cars that have got, they look like little printer cartridges, in the glovebox and you can choose the smell you want in your car. And you’re right, why not choose something that kills all the bacteria as well?”

Mark Phelan
“Right. There definitely seems to be interest in that and one of the things that the suppliers all said they’re studying right now because they want to figure out, is this a concern that people will still have a couple of years from now or is it short-lived? And that is the un-answerable question right now. But there’s a lot of interest and investigation going into all these things.”

And with that we wrap up today’s report, thanks for watching.