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Runtime: 9:22
0:07 Hyundai Rejects Nikola’s Bid to Collaborate
0:33 New Trading Platform for Low Carbon Aluminum Proposed
1:21 U.S. Production Recovery at Risk
2:12 Coronavirus Impacts GM in Brazil
3:18 GM to Hand Off Ventilator Production
3:59 Challenger Gets Another Performance Variant
5:49 Ford Reveals Bronco Customer Lifestyle Concepts
7:47 Farout Concept is a Gladiator Geared for Overlanding
8:31 Ram Going After Raptor with 1500 TRX
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HYUNDAI REJECTED NIKOLA’S BID TO COLLABORATE
Trevor Milton, who started Nikola, can’t say enough good things about Hyundai. But Hyundai is not returning the love. Reuters reports that Milton made two proposals to Hyundai to collaborate on hydrogen trucks, but Hyundai rejected both of them. Even though Hyundai is a major proponent of fuel cell cars and trucks, it sees Nikola as a potential competitor to its heavy truck business.
NEW TRADING PLATFORM FOR LOW CARBON ALUMINUM PROPOSED
Aluminum can help make cars lighter so they use less fuel or battery power. But making aluminum is more energy intensive than making steel. It’s also more energy intensive to recycle. In fact, steel makers claim that on a life-cycle basis, steel has a lower carbon footprint than aluminum. Maybe that’s why the London Metal Exchange, the world’s largest metal market, is proposing a selling mechanism for low carbon aluminum. Producers would log in the carbon content of their aluminum for customers who want to buy sustainable materials. The London Metal Exchange wants to expand this market to other metals including lithium, and it will launch this trading platform by the middle of next year.
U.S. PRODUCTION RECOVERY AT RISK
The auto industry in the U.S. has made an impressive comeback since COVID lockdowns forced them to stop production earlier in the year. Plants are now up and running again. But Bloomberg reports the recovery is at risk because of absenteeism, distancing protocols, quarantines and parts shortages. According to Orbital Insight, foot traffic at plants hasn’t rebounded to pre-lockdown levels. While some automakers are downplaying the challenges, others say it’s been difficult to keep them running. Toyota, for example, has had mixed results with its plants and says it doesn’t anticipate production returning to normal for some time. Another reason output likely won’t return to normal this year is due to weak demand from rental companies and government agencies.
IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS HITS GM IN BRAZIL
But it’s not just a U.S. problem. Reuters reports GM is offering buyouts to workers in Brazil, because its struggling with the impact of the coronavirus. GM also plans to extend furloughs, which were scheduled to end in September, by another two months.
GM TO HAND OVER VENTILATOR PRODUCTION TO VENTEC
At the outset of the COVID outbreak in the U.S., the country was facing a shortage of ventilators. So to help out, GM partnered with Ventec to produce ventilators at the automaker’s plant in Kokomo, Indiana. The two companies received nearly $490 million from the U.S. government to build 30,000 ventilators by the end of August. So far, they’ve delivered more than 20,000 and are on track to complete the order. But once that order is fulfilled, GM will hand off control to Ventec to continue manufacturing ventilators at the Kokomo plant, as well as at Ventec’s headquarters in Washington state.
CHALLENGER GETS ANOTHER PERFORMANCE VARIANT
Say is Dodge selling cars, or selling horsepower? As you know, it has priced out its performance cars in terms of dollars per horses. And now it has even more horses for sale. Meet the 2020 Challenger SRT Super Stock, which Dodge claims is the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car. It’s powered by the same supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V-8 in the SRT Hellcat Redeye, but it’s been tuned to crank out 807 horsepower. The Hellcat Redeye “only” has 797 horses. Dodge says the Super Stock will go from 0 to 60 in 3.25 seconds and turns the quarter-mile in 10.5. It costs over $80,000 including destination charges and goes on sale later this year.
Don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon. John and Gary will be talking with SEMA on how to recalibrate ADAS sensors after a vehicle has been modified. Todd Lassa from Automobile Magazine will also be on the show and it all goes live at 3 pm eastern time.
FORD SHOWS BRONCO CUSTOMER LIFESTYLE CONCEPTS
As we teased at the beginning of Tuesday’s show, I was at an off-road event for the new Ford Bronco and now I’m able to talk about a few of the things that were shown there. The big display was a number of customer lifestyle concept vehicles. Essentially, these are vehicles with aftermarket parts and pieces that show how a customer might upgrade their Bronco or Bronco Sport. This being an off-road event and an off-road focused vehicle, bumpers, lights and winches were obvious accessories. But some of our favorites include this Bronco 4-door with a fishing platform concept that bolts across the hood handles. It’s able to hold 4 fishing poles and even a human’s weight if someone wanted to fish right from the hood of their Bronco. Ford must also think mountain bikers will be on its shopping list because it took every chance it got at the event to tell us that the Bronco Sport can fit two mountain bikes in the back with their front tires off. This Bronco Sport comes with some aftermarket upgrades I think will be popular choices; a 1-inch suspension lift and more aggressive tires. Another popular choice is likely to be tube doors, shown here on a two-door Bronco. I think the door handles on these would be a perfect application for 3D printing and a nice spot for customers to add a little personalization. It’s important to note that some of these accessories are concepts and not locked into the parts catalog yet, but it does give you an idea of what’s possible. Plus many of them are likely to be added anyway because Ford says from the moment the first one rolls off the assembly line there will be over 200 accessories available for the Bronco 2- and 4-door and over 100 for the Bronco Sport. We’ll have more to report on the new Jeep-killer… I mean Bronco in the coming days.
JEEP REVEALS GLADIATOR FAROUT CONCEPT
And I make fun of Jeep a little bit because it seems to be drowning in all this Bronco news. It tried to steal headlines before the Bronco reveal by debuting the Wrangler 392 concept; a Wrangler with 450 horsepower V8 shoved under the hood. Now it looks to be doing the same with the Jeep Gladiator Farout Concept. It’s an EcoDiesel-powered Gladiator that geared toward the overlanding space. Highlights include a two-inch lift kit with Fox shocks, 37-inch tires to fill the extra space in the wheel wells, modified bumper with winch and custom rock rails. While this is still a concept, the Gladiator diesel will go on sale soon.
RAM LIKELY GOING AFTER RAPTOR WITH NEW 1500 TRX
And not to be outdone, Jeep’s stablemate, Ram, teased the new Ram 1500 TRX. It’s a performance off-road truck and in this teaser video you can hear what sure sounds like the whine of a supercharger, which likely means a Hellcat engine under the hood. And look, another FCA brand is going after Ford. It sure seems to us the TRX is aimed directly at the Raptor.
But that bit of performance news wraps up today’s show. Thanks for watching and we hope to see you again tomorrow.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.