AD #3324 – Cute as A Button $13,000 EV; Mercedes Issues “Stop Driving!” Warning; Renault To Spin Off EV Ops

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

RENAULT TO SPIN OFF EV OPS
Renault made it official. It’s going to split off its EV operations. Officially, Renault is “studying” the idea, but it’s unlikely it would be announcing so much information about it, if it wasn’t going to do it.  The EV side of the business would handle everything related to electrical and software technologies, including engineering and manufacturing. Renault says it could have more than 10,000 employees by next year. The ICE business would be dedicated to development of internal combustion and hybrid engines as well as transmissions. A formal announcement should come this fall.

NISSAN UNDECIDED ON EV SPLIT
Meanwhile, Renault’s alliance partner, Nissan, says it’s too early for it to consider splitting off its EV operations. Why? Because it says its market and product portfolios are too diversified right now. And maybe that’s true. But it’s also true that Japanese companies are very conservative and reluctant to make drastic changes. But Nissan may want to speed up its decision-making process. There’s growing speculation that Renault could sell off a chunk of the shares it owns in Nissan. Right now, Renault owns over 43% of Nissan, while Nissan owns 15% of Renault.

INDIA DREAMS AND DRAGS ITS FEET
India dreams of becoming an economic powerhouse like China. In fact, India has almost caught up to China in population. China has 1.4 billion people, India has 1.38 billion. India also wants to become a major manufacturing hub for electric cars. But the Indian government is dragging its feet on changing regulations that will attract automakers. Just a few months ago, Ford said it was going to build EVs in India for export, but then it abruptly scrapped those plans without any explanation. Tesla also wants to sell and build EVs in India. But it wants the government to lower import tariffs before committing to build a plant. But the government wants Tesla to make the commitment before it lowers the tariffs. So, Tesla put its plans on hold and is no longer looking for showroom locations in India.

VW COMMITS €3.4 BILLION TO DIVIDENDS
You might have thought that the Dieselgate scandal would have financially crippled Volkswagen. The bill came to at least $35 billion. Yet, VW has a rock-solid balance sheet, and it just committed €3.4 billion to renew its dividend to shareholders. They’re going to get 7 euros and 50 cents for every share they own. At the current share price, that’s a yield of about 3.8%, which will help a little bit, but not much. Just two months ago, VW shares hit a 5 year high of €309, but along with everything else they’re down to €190 a share, a 38% drop. 

GM MEXICAN WORKERS GET BIG RAISE
General Motors workers in Mexico are getting a wage boost. The automaker and the new, independent union SINTTIA reached a deal to increase worker wages by 8.5%, give them bigger bonuses, plus a 14% increase in grocery vouchers and a mandatory day off on Christmas Eve. The deal also mandates that GM and the union form work groups to negotiate schedules, protocols for dealing with sexual harassment and a program to push back against inflation in the future. Workers will vote to approve the deal later this month.

CUTE AS A BUTTON $13,000 EV
Regular viewers will likely remember this little electric car we first saw at the Munich auto show last year. It’s called the Microlino from Swiss-based company Micro and it’s like a modern-day version of the Isetta. Well, we’re happy to report the first ones are rolling off the production line in Italy. The Pioneer Series will be limited to only 999 examples. They feature one of two colors; Atlantis Blue or Torino Aluminum. They get a 10.5 kWh battery pack that returns up to 177 kilometers or 109 miles of range. The base price is €12,500, or $13,000. No word yet when they’ll reach customer hands, but we should find out in a week and a half on May 24th at the Microlino’s virtual launch event. And we expect this thing to sell out almost immediately.

LEXUS UX UPDATES
Refreshes. Special Edition packages. They’re all about keeping a vehicle relevant and hopefully bringing in a little extra money for the company. And we’re seeing a number of those today. Let’s start with the refreshed Lexus UX. Styling is still the same, but interestingly, the structural rigidity of the crossover was improved by adding 20 more spot welds to the body. This also required a re-calibration of the shock absorbers and electronic power steering. A new, larger display screen with Lexus’ latest multimedia system is available and a safety system with more features is standard as well. Going forward, the UX will only be sold as a hybrid in the U.S. when it goes on sale this summer.

TOYOTA VENZA UPGRADES
Staying under the Toyota umbrella, the Venza will now be offered in a new Nightshade Edition. Toyota has used this on several other vehicles and it’s all about black accents, like on the wheels, mirror caps, door handles and interior as well. But no word on pricing yet. 

AUDI OFFERS NEW PACKAGE FOR S6 & S7
However, we do know the pricing for Audi’s new Design Edition package for the S6 and S7. Only available in the U.S. and for the 2023 model year, it will add $2,500 in price to the performance sedans. It includes a special gray body color that’s set off with dark accents, unique 21-inch wheels, upgraded materials on the interior and red stitching. Orders for the S6 and 7 with the Design Edition package kick off in June.

MERCEDES ISSUES “STOP DRIVING!” WARNING
Mercedes is telling more than 290,000 owners in the U.S. to not drive their car because the brake boosters can rust, which could cause the brakes to fail. It affects ML, GL and R-Class models built between 2006 and 2012. Owners can take their vehicles to the dealer for inspection, if it fails the test, the company will replace the brake booster for free. Mercedes is taking this pre-emptive action even though it says there are no known accidents, injuries or deaths related to the problem. 

CFD MODELS TURBULENCE AROUND WHEELS
Automakers have known about the benefits of aerodynamics or streamlining for over a century. The first car to go over 60 miles an hour was this torpedo-shaped car from Belgium called the Jamais Contente, which means “never satisfied.” By the way, it was electric and it set that speed record way back in 1899! Early aero development involved coast down tests. Engineers would get a car up to a given speed, put the car in neutral, and see how far it coasted. Later, they started attaching little pieces of yarn to a car so they could observe how the wind behaved over the body surface. And then came wind tunnels. In the 1990s-computer simulation came into the picture. It’s called CFD or computational fluid dynamics. And those computer simulations keep getting more and more sophisticated. Now, Rice University in Houston, and Waseda University in Tokyo have collaborated to use CFD to simulate airflow around moving wheels and tires. The researchers say their model is far more accurate and uses far less computational power than other methods. Automakers will continue to use wind tunnels, but CFD simulations like this will allow engineers to try out many different design iterations before they go in the tunnel. And that saves a ton of time and money.

MAGNA INTEGRATES CAMERA INTO MIRROR
Automakers keep adding more equipment onto cars, like driver monitoring cameras for hands-free driving. One way to try and keep costs down is to integrate that new equipment into existing components. So Magna came up with this clever design that integrates the camera into the rear view mirror. It’s amazing how sophisticated rear view mirrors are becoming. They used to be just a piece of reflective glass. Now they often incorporate automatic dimming, console lights and video displays, and some even have Homelink or OnStar buttons on them. Magna says that integrating components can also cut down on the number of computer chips that are needed. It’s pitching the idea to automakers to use the chips in its mirror to also control things like powered seats, electric pedal adjusters, and window lifts. 

Well, that’s a wrap for today and this week. I hope you have a great weekend.