AD #2866 – Steel Import Tariffs Here to Stay; All-New Opel Mokka Debuts; Tesla Wants to Produce Its Own Batteries

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

DODGE & KIA TOP JD POWER’S QUALITY SURVEY
In a surprising development, the Dodge brand was at the top of the list for JD Power’s Initial Quality Survey. It tied for the top spot with Kia. And while Kia has been at or near the top for several years, this is the first time that Dodge was anywhere near the top of the list. JD Power says that American brands scored the best they ever have in the history of the survey. The Chevrolet Sonic was the single best model they surveyed. Surprisingly, Toyota and Honda, which used to dominate this ranking, came in well below the industry average, and Tesla came in dead last, way behind everyone else.

BE CAREFUL WITH JD POWER IQS
Here’s our Autoline Insight. While it’s a valuable tool, you have to be careful using the Initial Quality Survey to draw any deep conclusions about quality. The IQS measures customer experience for the first three months of ownership, and as I like to say, everything should work for at least three months. I think a more valuable report from JD Power is the Vehicle Dependability Study, which measures quality after three years of ownership. Also, the older a car line is, the better it generally does. Dodge has one of the oldest lineups in the industry. The Challenger and Charger, the Durango, Caravan and Journey have not had major redesigns in years. So they’ve had plenty of time to work out all the bugs.

STEEL IMPORT TARIFFS TO STAY
Steel importers to the U.S. were just dealt a big blow. The American Institute for International Steel, which represents 120 members, filed legal action to remove tariffs imposed on imported steel by the Trump Administration in 2018. Wards reports that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to even hear the case, which means the tariffs are here to stay, unless the President changes his mind on imported steel being a threat to national security. Those previously mentioned 120 members say the tariffs cost them more than $4.5 billion in 2018, which is getting passed down to automakers. Ford estimates its costs increased $2 billion.

LORDSTOWN ENDURANCE DEBUTS TODAY
Pickup trucks are in the news today. Lordstown Motors is livestreaming the reveal of its electric pickup, the Endurance. That may have already happened by the time you’re watching this. But we have a link in today’s transcript where you can still catch it.

UPDATED FORD F-150 DROPS TONIGHT
Then at 8 pm eastern time tonight, Ford is going to reveal the all new F-150. And we’ve got the link to that as well.

And don’t forget that this afternoon we’re going to have Jim Owens from Ford Performance on Autoline After Hours. We’re already getting a lot of questions from you viewers for him, and if you’d like to submit a question, send it via Twitter or send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv. We’ll get going at 3 pm eastern time today. Mike Martinez from Automotive News will also be joining us, and Gary and I look forward to doing a show dedicated to high performance cars.

OPEL REVEALS ALL-NEW MOKKA
When a new vehicle comes out that offers both ICE and electric powertrains, the ICE variants usually come out first. Not with Opel and the all-new Mokka. The crossover will first be available as an EV, which combines a 100 kW electric motor and 50 kWh battery pack that provides 322 kilometers of WLTP range. Gasoline and diesel engines will be offered as well. The new Mokka is attractive with modern styling. All models come standard with full LED lighting and note how the design of that lighting is similar from the front to rear. We also like the two-tone paint job on the model shown here. The interior is dominated by two large display screens of up to 10 and 12 inches and a limited number of buttons and knobs helps keep the look clean. Of course, no new vehicle would be complete without a host of driver assistance features, like the available Adaptive Cruise Control with lane centering. Sales open up later this summer, while the new Mokka will start hitting dealerships early next year.

CONVERTIBLES AS SAFE AS NON-CONVERTIBLES
Any time you cut the roof off a car it loses a lot of its rigidity. But when we drove the new Lexus LC 500 Convertible we were very impressed with how solid it felt. And crash statistics from the IIHS show that automakers are doing a better job at making their convertibles safer for drivers. It looked at death rates and reported crashes from 2014 to 2018 of one to five year old models that are offered as both convertible and hardtop. It found that convertibles don’t pose a safety risk. Both crash and death rates were actually lower for convertibles, but it wasn’t a big difference. And take into account this also includes instances where the driver was ejected from the car, which is obviously a higher likelihood in a convertible. But, as the IIHS notes, convertibles are probably used more in nice weather, not in snowy, icy or rainy conditions.

JAGUAR REMAKES CLASSIC ENGINE BLOCK
You know what continuation models are, right? That’s where an automaker starts making classic old models again. Jaguar’s Classic center has turned out a couple of continuation models and now it’s helping owners to restore their classic Jaguars with continuation engines. Jag is re-introducing the 3.8L inline 6-cylinder engine block that first sat under the bonnet of cars from the 50’s and 60’s. The cast-iron block is made to original specs, which makes it a direct replacement and even comes stamped with a new unique serial number. If a customer can prove proof of ownership, Jaguar will stamp the block with the same serial number, but including an asterisk to denote it’s a replacement. But here’s where you better get ready to cringe. The block alone costs over 14,000 pound sterling or nearly $18,000.

TESLA WANTS TO START PRODUCING BATTERIES
It looks like Tesla wants to start producing its own batteries without any other companies. Reuters reports that the EV maker plans to build a battery research and manufacturing facility in Fremont, California. It will employ 470 workers, and they want to run that plant so it can operate 24 hours a day, every day. It’s estimated the plant can be finished in around 3 months. Tesla currently builds batteries at its Gigafactory in Nevada with Panasonic. And it has contracts with LG Chem and CATL to supply it with batteries.

BMW OPENS NEW 3D PRINTING CENTER
BMW is one of the leaders in 3D printing automotive components. Last year, it produced over 300,000 parts using additive manufacturing. But the company wants to incorporate more 3D printing in its automotive production. That’s why it spent 15 million euros to build a new Additive Manufacturing Complex in Germany, which just celebrated its grand opening. The site will produce prototype and production parts under one roof, research new 3D printing technologies and provide training to rollout new additive manufacturing techniques to its global facilities. By doing this BMW hopes to speed up development of new components and shorten production times.

And just a reminder before I sign off. The Autoline crew is going to take a much needed break next week, and actually we’re going to start our vacation tomorrow. And then we’ll resume our normal production on July 6.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and we’ll see you after the break.