AD #3129 – Bentley Reveals Special Edition Flying Spur; Sales of Counterfeit Parts Soar; Ferrari Working on A BEV

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

MILTON FREED ON $100 MILLION BAIL
Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola who was booted out of the company and who turned himself in on charges of fraud, was freed on bail yesterday. But get this. Bloomberg reports that his bail was set at $100 million, which is a staggering amount of money. Milton, who is 39 years old, had to put up 10% of that bail money, or $10 million. He had to use two properties he owns to secure the bail payment. Courts usually set bail so high when they consider the accused to be a flight risk. Even most rich people would be reluctant to skip bail of $10 million. Trevor Milton is pleading innocent to all the charges.

BIDEN WANTS AUTOMAKERS TO COMMIT TO EV SALES TARGET
The Biden Administration wants automakers to pledge that 40% of new car sales by 2030 will be electric. According to Bloomberg, the talks are still in an early stage and no agreement has been made. Automakers say they’ll need government assistance to reach that target but it’s going to be difficult getting that help. President Biden proposed investing $15 billion to install half a million charging outlets across the country. But the Senate chopped that in half.

FERRARI WORKING ON A BEV
When Sergio Marchionne ran Ferrari, he told Autoline they would never make an electric car as long as he was CEO. Well guess what? Sergio is gone and it looks like Ferrari is working on a BEV. AutoForecast Solutions reports that Ferrari will start making an eSUV at Maranello starting in November of 2026. That’s when the next generation of the Ferrari Purosangue SUV also goes into production, and AutoForecast says it looks like the BEV will be built off that platform. Purists will cringe at the thought of a whisper quiet Ferrari, but with Europe getting ready to ban most ICE cars by the end of the decade, Ferrari doesn’t have much of a choice.

NISSAN SHAKES UP SALES STRATEGY
When Carlos Ghosn was CEO of Nissan he set a goal of achieving 10% market share. And he put enormous pressure on Nissan’s dealers to get there. Nissan used what they call a stair step sales strategy. Dealers could get a lot of money from the factory if they hit specific sales targets. But if they missed the target by even one car they would barely get anything. Now that Carlos Ghosn is gone, Nissan has a new strategy. Judy Wheeler, the division VP of dealer relations says Nissan is basing dealer incentives on customer loyalty. If customers are loyal to a dealer it gets big payments from the factory. So dealers are incentivized for treating customers really well so they keep coming back. It will take several years to yield results, but we think the payoff could last for decades.

NISSAN PLEDGES TO PROMOTE MORE WOMEN TO MANAGEMENT
Japanese companies do a poor job of promoting women to management and that’s especially true of the Japanese auto industry. So Nissan is pledging to increase the percentage of women in management in Japan to 13% by 2023. That’s up from 10% today. Globally, the company wants women to make up 16% of management in two years. That’s pretty low, but Nissan is doing a much better job than its Japanese rivals. As of 2018, women accounted for less than 2% of managerial jobs at Toyota and Honda.

BENTLEY INTRODUCES SPECIAL EDITION FLYING SPUR
Bentley is celebrating the launch of the Flying Spur Hybrid with a special edition version. They call it the Flying Spur Hybrid Odyssean Edition. It features unique exterior accents that almost look gold or bronze, 21-inch wheels, tweed accents on the interior and a special diamond stitching in the seats. As for the hybrid system, it pairs a 2.9L V6 engine and an electric motor, which combine for about 535 horsepower and helps propel the big sedan to 60 MPH in 4.1 seconds. 

BENTLEY SETS SALES RECORD
And it’s vehicles like these that helped Bentley achieve record sales and profits. It sold nearly 7,200 vehicles in the first half of the year, which is a 50% increase over its pre-COVID figures. As with other high-end brands, an SUV led the way. Bentley sold 2,767 Bentayga’s in the first half of the year. The strong performance pushed revenue to 1.3 billion euros and resulted in an operating profit of 178 million euros, the highest ever for the company. Even so, Bentley says it remains cautious of the continued spread of the coronavirus, which could impact production. 

OEMs COULD TURN BACK TO SUPPLIERS FOR ELECTRIC MOTORS
With the shift to electrification, automakers need to find alternatives for plants that produce components for ICE vehicles. That’s why Daimler Trucks just reached a deal with its Works Council union to convert three plants in Germany that make parts for combustion engines to make electric drive components, both for battery electric and fuel cell powered trucks. However, not all automakers may choose to go this route. Wards Intelligence reports that electric motor producer, Nidec believes most OEMs will turn back to suppliers to meet demand for electric motors. By 2030, the company says most automakers will outsource the motors to cut costs.

SALES OF COUNTERFEIT PARTS SOAR
Here’s an interesting side effect of the pandemic. The sale of counterfeit automotive parts online nearly tripled. And that’s because there’s money to be made. In some cases, fake parts have better profit margins than drugs. Here’s a warning for the counterfeiters. Don’t go after Daimler’s parts network. It’s got a whole team looking out for these unscrupulous products. Last year Daimler helped confiscate more than 1.7 million counterfeit parts and says low prices and dubious sources are common indicators of fakes. It especially focuses on safety related parts, like wheels and brake pads.

HYUNDAI TO BEGIN FUEL CELL SEMI TESTS IN U.S.
Big trucks seem like one of the best applications for fuel cells, due to the shorter refueling times and longer ranges. And now Hyundai is getting ready to launch a fleet of fuel cell powered class 8 semis. It’s working with both public and private partners to operate 30 of its XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks in California starting in 2023. The trucks are fitted with a 6X4 drive axle configuration and will have a maximum range of 500 miles or about 800 kilometers. It plans to use the knowledge gained from the project to develop a zero-emission commercial fleet business in the U.S.

VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL GRILLES?
Vertical or horizontal? One of the great things about being an automotive designer is that you can play around with all kinds of different shapes and lines. These two cars really caught our eye at the Concours d’Elegance at St. Johns. The one with the vertical grille is a 1936 Hudson Custom Eight. It’s powered by an inline 8-cylinder engine with 254 cubic inches that makes 113 horsepower. Only six of these cars are known to exist. The one with the horizontal lines is a 1941 Graham Model 108. Officially this styling theme was called “Spirit of Motion.” But the public quickly nicknamed it the Sharknose Graham, and that’s the name that stuck from that point on.

But that brings us to the end of today and this week. Thanks for watching and have a great weekend.