AD #2939 – Defender Is Impressive Off-Road; Global Sales Showing Signs of Life; Fisker Taps Magna to Build Ocean

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

GLOBAL SALES SHOWING SIGNS OF LIFE
Global car sales are showing signs of life after being clobbered by the pandemic. Last month, sales in the U.S. were down slightly but stronger than expected. Sales in China were up nearly 13% in September. And now the European Automobile Manufacturers Association reports that sales in the EU were up a little over 1% last month. The results were a bit mixed amongst the five largest markets. Spain, the UK and France saw sales drop, while Germany and Italy posted gains. But Europe still has a way to go before it fully recovers. Through the first nine months of the year, sales are down 30% compared to a year ago.

MAHLE NOT GIVING UP ON COMBUSTION ENGINES
Mahle, the German powertrain supplier, says it is fully committed to CO2 neutral mobility. But it’s not giving up on the internal combustion engine. Mahle forecasts that electrified powertrains will hit 30% global market share by 2030. But that includes PHEVs. It says battery electrics will achieve 18% market share by the end of the decade. And that means 82% of new vehicles will still use piston engines. Mahle says ICEs are not the problem, instead, it’s the carbon in the fuel they burn. So it’s working on using renewably-produced hydrogen as a fuel for ICEs, especially for long-haul trucks. And it’s also working on BEVs. It developed a new way to cool batteries called Immersion cooling in which the cells are immersed in a di-electric fluid. That can increase the range of BEVs in winter by 20%, and allow batteries to be charged much faster. Mahle says no one powertrain will dominate the industry for the next 20 years, so it’s working on all of them.

EMBRAER JUMPS INTO VTOL SEGMENT
Some people think that passenger drones are never going to happen, But Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, says it’s been working on them for four years and is getting into the business. Proponents of aerial mobility don’t like the term passenger drone or flying car. They call them VTOLs–vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. And when they’re electric they call them eVTOLs. Embraer is working on an electric and autonomous VTOL and has joined the Uber Elevate consortium. Interestingly, even though Embraer is based in Brazil, its VTOL work is being done in Florida, not far from Cape Canaveral where NASA launches most of its rockets. 

FISKER TAPS MAGNA TO BUILD OCEAN SUV
You may not know it but the giant supplier Magna also contract manufactures a lot of vehicles for a number of automakers. In fact, its produced over 3.7 million vehicles. And that number is going to grow as Magna announced it will make the all-electric Ocean for Fisker in Europe. Production is slated to start in 2022 and the vehicles will be made on Magna’s EV architecture, which is said to be an aluminum intensive platform. That last part threw us a bit. There were reports that the Fisker Ocean was going to be made on VW’s MEB platform, but it’s unclear if that’s still the case. Volkswagen has said it would supply the architecture to other companies, so it’s possible the Ocean will be made on that platform. But we also found a press release from two years ago that Magna was jointly developing a next generation EV platform with Chinese automaker BAIC for the Chinese market. Could the Ocean be using that? We’re not sure, but we’re looking into it and we’ll report back when we have an answer. 

CADILLAC UPDATES MAGNERIDE TECHNOLOGY
Riding in a Cadillac is about to become even smoother. The company is rolling out the next-gen version of its MagneRide technology. If you didn’t know, the system uses electromagnets paired with a special magnetic fluid in the shock absorbers to continually vary the damping rate. Or in other words it helps make the ride smoother and handling more precise. And Cadillac says the damping response in the new system is up to 45% faster than before. The technology is available in the V versions of the CT4 and CT5, the CT5 Sport and the all-new Escalade.

CRUISE RECEIVES OK TO TEST AVs WITH NO ONE ON BOARD
As we keep saying, autonomous vehicles continue to make progress. Last week, Waymo announced it’s offering autonomous rides to the public in Phoenix, Arizona. Earlier this week, Chinese tech company Baidu started giving rides in self-driving cars to the public in Beijing. And yesterday, Cruise, GM’s autonomous unit, received permission to test cars on the streets of San Francisco with no one in the vehicle. Cruise is the fifth company in California to receive this permit but it says it will be the first to use it in a major city. The other four companies are operating AVs in smaller cities, which are said to be easier to get around. With the permit, Cruise can operate five vehicles without a driver that can go anywhere in San Francisco both day and night but they can’t travel faster than 30 MPH. While this seems like a baby step, instead of a giant leap, AVs are getting closer to becoming a reality.

RENAULT SHOWS OFF MEGANE eVISION CONCEPT
Now let’s move over to Renault, who unveiled the Megane eVision yesterday. The hatchback rides on the automaker’s all-new modular electric vehicle platform, which is said to house one of the thinnest battery packs on the market and a new, ultra-compact powertrain. That setup consists of a 217-horsepower electric motor that drives the front wheels and a 60-kWh battery pack. While this is just a concept car, it should foreshadow nicely to the production version, which will be introduced sometime next year. Renault plans to build a number of vehicles off of the same platform, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see styling elements from the Megane eVision show up on those as well. 

JAPANESE OEMs EMBRACE BOLDER STYLING
You may have seen that the new Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Acura MDX prototype made their debuts and we were just struck like, “wow, Japanese styling has really evolved.” Once upon a time, Japanese cars were no more stylish than a loaf of bread, but today we’ve got massive spindle grilles and TRD versions of the Avalon. So, what changed? Japanese vehicles quickly gained popularity as being well made machines that got excellent fuel economy. But that advantage has largely disappeared, especially in the passenger car segment. With the rise of SUVs, automakers that still make sedans are pouring way more effort into making those vehicles as good as possible. So, one of the few things that Japanese automakers had left to separate themselves from the competition was styling. And now when you read press releases about new models coming out you’ll find that automakers are turning to their design studios in the U.S., most notably from California, to give them that new look. But that is requiring some sacrifices. Before Japanese automakers were sacrificing styling for manufacturing efficiency. That’s not the case today, it’s the other way around, as we highlighted in the sound clip from Acura manufacturing leader, Ken Sheridan yesterday. As he put it, “we really got to try to make an impression.”

LAND ROVER DEFENDER IS IMPRESSIVE OFF-ROAD
We had the new Land Rover Defender in the Autoline Garage this week. And thankfully we got the chance to put it through its paces at the Holly Oaks Off Road Vehicle Park north of Detroit, which offers off-road driving situations that are more challenging than most OEM proving grounds. The Defender has impressive climbing capabilities. It was able to walk up the steepest hills thanks to its locking center and rear differentials, which are made by Magna. And with its very short front and rear overhangs, it has impressive approach and departure angles. That allows you to climb up and over logs and large rocks or drop into deep holes without scraping the front or rear fascias. Serious off-roaders will love the fact that there are different settings that allow you to choose the throttle and steering response and traction control that you prefer. But the Defender’s capabilities are limited by the mud and snow tires it comes equipped with. It could not climb the steepest slick-rock hills. It just sat there, half-way up, with its tires turning, going nowhere. So if you’re going deep into the boondocks make sure you have the proper tires. In many off-road situations, it’s hard to see what’s in front of the vehicle, unless you have a spotter. So Land Rover has a display on the center screen that gives an x-ray view of the front end. Video cameras let you see what’s in front of the front wheels. We found this to be helpful, but you have to look down at the screen on the center console. It would be more useful to have the display in the gauge cluster behind the steering wheel so it’s right in your line of sight. Hopefully the people who buy a Defender will get the chance to experience what it can really do. The reality is that most customers will be attracted to the way it looks and the upscale image that it conveys. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if every owner could go through the severe off-road situations the way we did, we think they would bond with the brand even more.  

But with that we wrap up another week of shows. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again on Monday.