AD #4399 – Touchscreens Rated Most Distracting Feature; Good MPG = Good Sales; Home Energy Provides Electricity Record

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

GOOD MPG = GOOD SALES
High prices at the gas pump sure are affecting what people are buying. Or, at least that’s the case with used cars. Manheim, the big car auction house, is keeping a close eye on what’s selling right now. It says sales of used vehicles that are rated under 15 miles per gallon are down 15%. Big trucks and SUVs are hurting, especially diesel ones. The 15-to-19 MPG group is down almost 9%. The middle of the range is down roughly 4% to 7%. But then it flips: vehicles rated 35 to 39 MPG are up 3.7%, and those at 40 MPG and above are up almost 10%. And of course, those final two groups are pretty much all hybrids. Franchise and independent dealers are buying most of these auction cars, and they know exactly what will sell on their used lots.

MPG Ratings	Sales
15 MPG	-15%
15-19 MPG	-9%
20-35 MPG	-4-7%
35-39 MPG	+3.7%
40+ MPG	+10%

TOUCHSCREENS RATED MOST DISTRACTING
A study by the Crowson Law Group says touchscreens, driver-attention alerts and dashboard warnings are the features that people find the most distracting in their cars. Crowson analysed complaints to NHTSA that focus on distractions from specific car features. Touchscreens accounted for 47% of all the complaints, with the Honda Accord mentioned the most. 15% complained about driver-attention alerts, with the Hyundai Tucson mentioned most. And 13% complained about dashboard alerts, with the VW Tiguan topping the list. Head-up displays, seatbelt chimes and steering wheel buttons were some of the other things people found annoying enough to report to NHTSA.

PENSKE AUTOMOTIVE GOING PRIVATE
Penske Automotive, which is one of the largest car dealerships in the U.S., is going private. Motown Acquisition Corp, which is jointly owned by Penske Corp and Mitsui & Company, is acquiring the dealer group at a $16.4 billion valuation. Penske Corp and Mitsui are Penske Automotive’s two largest shareholders, collectively owning about 72% of its stock. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

          

HOME ENERGY PROVIDES RECORD TO CALIFORNIA’S GRID
Home energy storage systems can provide as much electricity to the grid as gas power plants. Sunrun, a company that pools its customer’s home energy storage systems together and then sells that electricity to the grid, says that during a heat wave on October 6th in California it sent 745 megawatts to the state’s energy providers. That’s enough to power every home in San Francisco and San Jose and it set the record for the largest dispatch of its kind in U.S. history. Sunrun has more than 120,000 residential batteries enrolled in California, but it was 85,000 Tesla powerwall owners that provided 600 of the 745 megawatts, or 80% of the total.

TESLA ROADSTER REVEAL TONIGHT
Speaking of Tesla, the 2nd-gen Roadster is supposed to be revealed tonight. It’s been roughly 9 years since the company first showed a prototype during the Semi truck unveiling, but it should finally make its debut at 8:55 EST today.

PONY.AI EXPANDS ROBOTAXI SERVICE IN ENGLAND
Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai is expanding in England. It’s already operating in London and now it’s testing its seventh-gen robotaxi in Manchester. In addition to Pony.ai, which is supplying the autonomous technology, Uber is providing ride services and the fleet is being managed by a company called Verne. Pony.ai is also operating in Zagreb, Croatia and it plans to expand to five European cities with a fleet of 2,000 robotaxis. It’s also looking into the UAE, Singapore and South Korea.

NEW ZEALAND BUYS MILITARY-SPEC UNIMOGS
Here’s yet another example of the growing collaboration between the auto and defense industries. The New Zealand Defense Force is ordering 61 Mercedes-Benz Unimog’s for its military. The vehicles will be used for day-to-day training, search and rescue operations, transporting personnel and military equipment and more. Mercedes will start delivering Unimog’s next year.

BMW NEUE KLASSE EVs IMPRESSIVELY EFFICIENT
Volkswagen recently revealed a one-off ultra-aerodynamic EV concept that got a very impressive 7.5 miles per kWh in a real-world test. But BMW is hot on its heels with a model that’s about to go on sale. The company drove a rear-drive long-wheelbase version of the i3 sedan, which was developed for the Chinese market, until the nearly 109 kWh battery was dead and it went 753 miles or just over 1,200 kilometers on highways, national roads and urban streets. That translates to an average efficiency of 7 miles per kWh or 8.8 kWh per 100 kilometers. We suspect the car didn’t drive very fast or see much elevation change, but there’s been a lot of reports on how impressively efficient BMW’s Neue Klasse EVs are.

BMW STARTS MAKING GEN6 BATTERIES IN CHINA
And the company’s new Gen6 cylindrical battery cells are a key reason for that. They’re 20% more energy dense and increase range and charging rate by 30% compared to its previous generation of cells. BMW says it just kicked off production of the Gen6 batteries in China, which is now the third site globally that makes the cells for its Neue Klasse EVs.

EV LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL BOOMING IN CHINA
There’s an interesting report by Chinese media outlet Gasgoo about how automakers are marketing their cars these days. They’re pitching them as mobile homes, with features like refrigerators and microwave ovens in the frunk, seats that fold down into beds and big screen TVs. Gasgoo says long distance travel in EVs is booming in China, and people like the idea of sleeping in their cars overnight. It found that running the heater in an EV all night long uses about 10% of the battery charge, even with temperatures just below freezing. And here’s the interesting thing. People are not driving their cars long distances because of these features. Automakers are adding these features because people are taking long-distance family trips.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.