Monthly Archives: September 2017

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 18^th September to 24^th September 2017. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories this week…?

Three things caught my eye…

• I did it my way — Tesla are in the news again because they are rumoured to be working with AMD on their own chipset, having only recently moved from Mobileye to Nvidia (and not entirely seamlessly). At the risk of getting it all wrong, I’m going to take a different view on this to most… I don’t think that Tesla are planning to chuck Nvidia, I think that they are preparing for a situation where in order to meet automotive grade autonomy, you need more than one AI operating on independent hardware to be judged safe. If I’m at all correct then this could work out very nicely for Tesla. If they develop a primary and secondary AI, with a hardware set behind both, then they could sell the secondary set as an industry standard back-up. Let’s face it, there are so many people working on autonomy right now that loads of teams are going to get a workable solution. Part of why autonomy offers such great prospects for suppliers is because car makers may find themselves having to install several competing systems… everyone’s a winner and why shouldn’t Tesla join them? Of course, I could be completely wrong.
• Things can only get better — Volkswagen are taking whole pages out of Tesla’s book with their plans to make the MEB platform upgradeable so that used vehicle buyers can get a car with a specification and functionality that is better than when it came out of the factory gate. No word on whether they have any idea how to do this profitably, but it shows that they are really trying to think about how to disturb the conventions around depreciation and stop so much of the lifetime cost having to go into the first few years of ownership.
• Cooking on Gaz — Mitsubishi said that they are adding new model lines into their Russian plant (following on from recent news about Ford) and Kia say that market growth is outstripping their expectations, which at 5%-7% weren’t bad to begin with. No word from Renault but presumably they are having too much fun shifting cars to talk about it in the press.

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• Confirmed the production location of the new 8-series (from 2018) and the autonomous iNext (from 2021) as Dingolfing, Germany. (Economic Times of India)
• Rumoured to be planning an upgrade for the i3 BEV that will see a 42.5 kWh battery pack offered from late 2018 onwards — which would give about 250km of real-world range. (BMW Blog)

Daimler

• Said that it would invest $1 billion to launch an EQ-branded SUV at its Alabama, USA plant and build a battery facility nearby. The move will create 600 jobs and see production start at the “beginning of the next decade”. (Daimler)

FCA

• Said that it would recall almost 444,000 pick-up trucks for water pump faults. (FCA). The company will also recall almost 48,000 minivans with seat belt issues. (FCA)
• Has reportedly changed plans for the next generation Challenger and Charger models. Instead of being built on the platform from the Alfa Romeo Guilia, the vehicles will now be on the same platform as the Maserati Ghibli. This move will delay the introduction of the all-new models to 2021 and facelifts will not be added to the cycle plan for 2019. (Autofactil)
• Executives refused to be drawn on whether FCA is planning a plant in Morocco, saying only that the country was the most interesting place in the region. The company sees electric cars as unlikely to be profitable in the next ten years. (Les Echos)
• Saw rumours in the South Korean press that it was a takeover target for Hyundai. (Detroit Bureau)

Ford

• Announced a wide-ranging collaboration with Mahindra set to last for up to three years, at the end of which, further announcements could be made. The companies will set up joint groups to look at: mobility programs; connected vehicles; electrification; product development; sourcing and distribution. (Ford)
• Is planning shutdowns at five plants in the US and Mexico due to a downturn in sales. Flat Rock will idle for 2 weeks; Michigan for 1; Kansas City for 2; Cuautitlan for 3; and Hermosillo for 2. (Detroit News)
• The head of Ford’s smart mobility arm said that the company was working on a range of experiments to help it learn about a future state where there were fewer vehicles but more intensive use. (Economic Times of India)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Volvo said that its new XC40 crossover will be available with a “hassle free” subscription package that includes all costs, except fuel, into a single monthly payment and provides a new car every 24 months. The scheme, called “Care by Volvo” will be available in selected markets including USA, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain. (Volvo)
• Declined to comment on stories from unnamed sources that Volvo is planning to increase investment in the South Carolina plant it is still constructing. The new plan would reportedly see a second production line added and 2,500 new employees on top of the 2,000 that are currently being recruited. (Bloomberg)
• Reportedly in talks with Indian company JSW Group about a $1 billion joint venture that would produce electric vehicles. (Money Control)

General Motors

• Saw workers go on strike at its Ontario, Canada plant after the company refused to give the plant the assurances that unions has demanded. (Detroit News)
• Will end the night shift at its Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant due to slower industry — about 1,000 employees will be affected. (Detroit News)

Hyundai / Kia

• Believes that 1 in 10 cars sold in Europe by 2020 — about two million vehicles — will be a B-SUV. (Faconauto)
• Saw rumours in the South Korean press that it was interested in a takeover of FCA. (Detroit Bureau)
• Kia’s Russia chief says that against the company’s initiation expectation of 5%-7% growth this year, they now believe that the Russia market will grow by up to 12%. (Reuters)

Mazda

• Recalling 60,000 Mazda 6 vehicles in the USA and Canada because of wiring problems that affect steering and airbags. (International Business Times)
• The CEO of Mazda Europe gave an interview where he explained the company’s emphasis on fossil fuel vehicles over electrification. In particular, he made repeated references to well-to-wheel assessments of electric vehicle efficiency and environmental benefits compared with ICEs — pointing out that where electricity is generated with extensive use of coal (e.g. Germany once the nuclear plants are closed), all that has happened is a shift of emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant. (Manager Magazin)
  • Implication: Intellectual merits of the well-to-wheel debate notwithstanding, we believe that the battle has been comprehensively lost: in the eyes of the consumers, media and politicians, emissions that are out of sight are out of mind. The reality for Mazda is that other carmakers are ensuring that they have electric vehicles in their range because they know that an ICE-only portfolio is exposed to a move against tailpipe emissions. It remains to be seen whether Mazda has the last laugh by letting others take the technology risk and only following once costs have fallen (although in the same interview, Mazda denied having a fast follower strategy).

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Infiniti executives said that the brand will launch an all-electric vehicle — likely to be a sports car — in 2019. The car will use Leaf technology but will have its own platform. (Autocar)
• Mitsubishi is to add a vehicle to its Kaluga, Russia plant. The company will employ 440 people on 2 shifts to make the Pajero Sport. (Mitsubishi)
• Following an in-depth research project, Nissan has found that 86% of people are driving the wrong colour of car for their personality. Apparently, more than half of participants claiming that they chose their favourite colour — so the implications are, of course, enormous (from a philosophical standpoint). (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Held a Capital Markets Day on 20^th September that covered Peugeot, Citroën and DS brands (Opel to follow later in the year). PSA highlighted their electrification strategy, product plan and the expected positive mix effects. (No online materials currently)
• The head of aramisauto.com, the used car sales platform PSA acquired, gave an interview about the operations of the subsidiary. In particular he said that he thought PSA was not at risk of cannibalisation by launching multiple used vehicle channels (it has another call cardays.fr) and set the Group target of 800,000 used car sales by 2021 in context — in 2016, aramisauto sold 32,000 units. (Journal Auto)
• There was speculation in the German press that a lack of supply of Opel Ampera-e BEVs, blamed in part on Opel’s desire to direct stock towards the Norwegian market, might be because Opel intends to withdraw the car from sale due to its lack of profitability. (Golem)
• Will reportedly launch a next generation Citroën C5 in 2020, following on from a new Peugeot 508 and DS DS5 in 2018. (Autofactil)

Renault

• Unveiled the Indian-market Captur B-sized SUV and said that, as with the Russia market version, it would be built on the low cost B0 platform (Renault)

Tata (includes JLR)

• Tata Sons was reportedly behind an anonymous acquisition of about 1.7% of Tata Motors stock. This week also saw speculation that changes to voting rights for preference shares in Tata Sons could see the power of the Mistry family substantially reduced.. (Economic Times of India)

Tesla

• Ending sales of the entry-level Model S 75. Unless things change, Model S and Model X will only come in AWD in the future. The move also sets the new entry level price of a Model S at $74,500. (The Verge)
• Reportedly working with AMD to create a chipset for autonomous driving incorporating its own proprietary technology, which could allow the company to reduce its reliance on Nvidia. (CNBC)
  • Implication: This action by Tesla, if true, may not be for the reasons posited in various press articles — to help Tesla become more vertically integrated. A possible alternative explanation is for redundancy, which is to say that future Tesla autonomous vehicles could have both an Nvidia and a Tesla/AMD chipset (one of which would be, in effect, a backseat driving AI). True safety critical systems have multiple layers of redundancy. At present, the popular press is using different sensor sets as a byword for redundancy but if we were in a nuclear power plant (and it’s for regulators to say whether that is an apt analogy, depending on their risk profile), that simply wouldn’t be sufficient. You need redundancy in the processing algorithm and chipset too. If Tesla is working on this basis then it shows a maturity of thinking; that autonomy may not be a zero-sum game for suppliers; and that Tesla could potentially sell such a system to other manufacturers. Then again, this could be a complete misreading of the company’s intentions.

Toyota

• Said that it has no plans to launch fully electric vehicles in India and will wait for the infrastructure to be developed before it looks to launch any vehicles. (Economic Times of India)
• Toyota’s president said that it would continue to make a variety of powertrain options available to customers; spanning ICEs, hybrids, BEVs and fuel cell vehicles because Toyota believes that customers rather than manufacturers should make the technological choices. He also said that the company had been “a bit late to the game” on BEVs. (Reuters)
• Said that it was launching a Japan only sub-brand called GR (Gazoo Racing) for sporty versions of its products. The range could be sold outside Japan eventually. (Auto Express)

VW Group

• Confirmed that Bentley will offer a Level 3 capable vehicle from 2019 onwards, starting with either the Continental or the next generation of the Flying Spur. The technology suite will be a variant of that launched on the Audi A8. (More)
• Suffered production disruption at Audi and VW plants, including cancelled shifts, as a result of the earthquake in Mexico. (Manager Magazin)
• Said in an in-house magazine article that it was intending to build functionality into the MEB platform that would enable cars to be upgraded after the first ownership cycle. The company intends to apply the same thinking to MQB-based products “gradually”. (VW)

Other

• Mahindra unveiled the e2oPlus compact electric car. The vehicle has a claimed top speed of 85 kmh, range of 140km and a price tag of 7.46 lakh INR (about $11,500). (Economic Times of India)
• Aston Martin’s CEO said that the prospect of tariff barriers post-Brexit wasn’t “keeping [him] awake at night” because he expects any tariff increase to be more than offset by a decline in the value of Sterling. He is more concerned about non-tariff barriers because it could hold up movement of inventory. (Interview on Bloomberg). He also said that an IPO would probably not take place in 2018, if at all. (Bloomberg)
  • Implication: We don’t really agree on the impact of non-tariff barriers as a cost comparable to tariffs and Sterling decline (although of course it is a problem for companies to resolve and deal with as best possible). Border controls will quite likely lead to increased inventory, but of the order of single digit days (i.e. about 1% of all working days = 1% one-time increase in inventory) — which is in line with BMW’s assessment of a 12 to 24 hour delay at the ports — and increased man hours processing documentation. This compares to ongoing impacts of several % of revenue due to tariffs. Trapped cash considerations should encompass increased inventory but also timing of tax rebates. Brexit may affect the exact rules governing EU-UK trade but all countries already have customs controls in place for non-EU goods and post-Brexit this is the worst-case template that companies should follow. The end result is an increased value of goods flowing through these customs processes, not a Wild West end state where anything goes and we can only guess at the implications. Look at Mazda, Subaru et al. They are already working to these border processes today. Where Andy Palmer is certainly correct to be concerned is that non-tariff barriers are likely to be a permanent post-Brexit feature whereas tariffs may only be in place for a few years. (See our Brexit paper here)
• British firm Ineos launched a website calling for partners in its project to create a spiritual successor to the Land Rover Defender. (Autocar)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• Sky News said that it had obtained internal automotive industry memos on discussions with the UK government about Brexit planning in which various companies expressed their displeasure at the lack of detailed planning. (Sky News)
• France’s environment minister said that the country will introduce a range of new incentives to encourage people to use more environmentally friendly vehicles, including grants on nearly-new cars. It will also increase taxes on petrol and diesel. (Economic Times of India)

Suppliers

• Delphi announced that the autonomous driving system it was developing (for BMW amongst others) would run on Blackberry’s QNX platform in order to provide stability and security. (Delphi)
• French supplier Mecaplast has decided to change its name to Novares. (Les Echos)
• Plastic Omnium said that it was planning to sell its environmental division to allow it to fully concentrate on the automotive market. (Plastic Omnium)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Uber was told by London’s transport regulator that it would not have its licence renewed when it expires at the end of September. The company is appealing the decision (it can continue to operate until the appeals process is exhausted) and is calling for regulators to open a dialogue on what it can do to improve. (BBC)
  • Since London has been generally receptive to new models of ride-hailing introduced by various companies, it seems likely that the licence suspension is genuinely motivated by grievances specifically aimed at Uber, rather than an attempt to shut down competition. Given Uber’s often heavy-handed approach to city regulators, it remains to be seen whether the company will be allowed to make changes that satisfy the regulator or whether it has effectively used up all its lives and is being kicked out of the market (in which case it could presumably simply take over an existing operator and use their processes instead of the ones it currently has).
• Uber is facing a Californian lawsuit from drivers complaining about its pricing model. Uber appears to have been calculating driver revenue based on the shortest route to the passenger’s destination at the time of pick-up (i.e. at which time it becomes fixed). The Passenger is then charged for the actual trip (invariably longer) and Uber keeps the difference. (Ars Technica)
• Citymapper and Gett announced a trial in London where they will run taxis on a fixed route during commuting hours. The fare will be fixed and the taxis will be shared, with users able to get in and disembark at any point on the route. (Citymapper on Medium).

Driverless / Autonomy

• Self -driving start-up JingChi raised $30 million and is reportedly already working on a $100 million Series A. (Deal Street Asia)
• Baidu launched a $1.5 billion fund called “Apollo Fund” to spend on driverless car projects over the next three years. (BBC)
• Information from the Uber/Waymo case showed that Waymo was seeking $2.6 billion in damages for one of the nine trade secrets it claims has been stolen. Given that Waymo’s entire spending on the project has been disclosed at just over $1 billion, it isn’t clear how this figure has been calculated. (TechCrunch)
• Self-driving trucking company Embark showed off its new headquarters and released a video showing two hours uninterrupted autonomous driving (it didn’t reveal at what point beyond the two hours the driver had to take over, or why). (TechCrunch)
• Google’s Waymo and Intel said that they were collaborating on self-driving car technology. Note that Intel is also a partner in BMW’s self-driving consortium as well as being a member of Baidu’s Project Apollo. (Intel)
• Tencent said that it will work on a strategic partnership with Guangzhou Automobile Group to investigate opportunities in e-commerce, insurance and electric vehicles. (China Money Network)

Electrification

• Electric scooter company Gogoro raised $300 million in a Series C round. The company has so far sold over 34,000 electric scooters. (TechCrunch)
• China is reportedly considering changing ownership rules to allow foreign carmakers to have majority in EV companies that are based in free trade zones. (Bloomberg)
• A group of ten large companies launched a project called EV100 to encourage carmakers to offer a wider range of electric vehicles. Several of the members, including Ikea and LeasePlan, have set a 2030 deadline to switch to all-electric fleets but the rest don’t yet feel that brave, (Inside Climate News)
• Mahindra unveiled the e2oPlus compact electric car. The vehicle has a claimed top speed of 85 kmh, range of 140km and a price tag of 7.46 lakh INR (about $11,500). (Economic Times of India)
• Rimac said that it will create a new high performance electric sports car, to cost around £1 million, with an intended production run of 100 units starting in 2018. (Autocar)
• Proterra announced that they had created a bus with a range of over 1,100 miles. It wasn’t totally clear how the test advanced the electric cause however since the journey was reportedly at a speed of 15mph — to the visible disgust of Keanu Reeves (probably). (Green Car)

Connectivity

• A Bloomberg story about vehicle-to-vehicle deployment put the price for a secure system at $350 per vehicle, the source of the estimate was seemingly either Ford or Delphi (or both). (Bloomberg)

Other

• Mapping company Ushr raised $10 million from companies including GM (Autonomes Fahren)
• The founder of flying car start-up Kitty Hawk said that, “three years from now flying cars will be very hot”. (Business Insider)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 11^th September to 17^th September 2017. A PDF version can be found here. If you’re happy with just the text version then please read on…

Favourite stories this week…?

It was always going to be a week of big announcements due to the Frankfurt show and there was plenty of interest going on.

• Pure electric is ready for the big time — Jaguar said that they have 25,000 pre-orders for I-Pace (that’s 6 months’ worth of Model S); VAG are now saying that they will have 50 full BEVs in 2025 (up from a commitment to 30 earlier this year); BMW will have 12 by 2025; Daimler will have ten by 2022; and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi are gunning for 12 by 2022. By far the coolest news though was Honda’s EV city car set for 2019… no technical information was given but if the old adage “if it looks right, it goes right” holds true, we could be in for a treat.
• Electrification for all (whatever that means now), thanks Volvo — As suspected, Volvo’s announcement of full electrification (which was true only in the loosest sense of the word) has inspired everyone else to jump in. The word “electrified” has overnight become nearly as meaningless as “green”, an all-things-to-all-people buzzword. Honda, Daimler and VW were the latest to react this week with carefully worded promises.
• Let’s talk about Brexit — Am I just paranoid or does it seem odd that in a single week BMW, PSA and Toyota would all be openly critical of the progress made by the UK government (plus a mild rebuke from JLR’s CEO)? Perhaps journalists were just better at asking questions or maybe the car industry thinks this is a good time to ratchet up the pressure.
• Robo Taxis A Go-Go — The World could look very different by 2022… Ford and BMW had already set plans for autonomous vehicles on the streets by 2021. This week, VW joined them, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi said that they will do so from 2022 and GM said that they are ready right now. Daimler didn’t show their hand quite as much but have said that they will operate a similar service and their presentation did have an awfully big red thunderbolt above 2022 on the timeline.

Perhaps by now this is all old news, so here’s one other thing that was less-remarked upon… fuel cell company NanoFlowCell showed off a demonstration prototype with a new type of fuel cell. More interesting to me was that the whole thing was 48V — when contemporary cars are at 400V-800V. We may just have seen the missing link in the ICE to EV transition….

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• Showed an all-electric 4 door grand touring coupe with a 600km range, promising that it would go into production. (BMW)
• BMW’s head of purchasing said that company was “extremely concerned that the Brexit talks have been so piecemeal and slow so far”. (Bloomberg)
• Under a court ruling, BMW’s Leipzig plant will receive less state aid than it had been hoping for, €17 million instead of €45 million. The case had been pending since 2014. BMW can appeal to the ECJ for a final ruling. (Der Speigel)

Daimler

• Held a capital markets day where it said that the future outlook was a tougher business environment and that it would be challenged to meet mid-term margin targets, but that it would increase cost saving efforts in an attempt to do so. (Daimler) (CFO presentation here)
• Daimler’s CEO said that by 2022, electrified versions will be available for all the company’s models. (Reuters)
• Said it would invest in StoreDot, taking a seat on the board. Daimler hopes to be able to use StoreDot’s fast -charging battery technology in future vans. (Daimler)
• Said that it by the end of 2017 it would have converted 1,350 workers at its Vitoria, Spain plant to permanent contracts due to the success of the small commercial vehicles produced there. (Europa Press)

Ford

• Will add a second shift at its Russia joint venture plant in Elabuga, Tartastan due to increasing demand, creating 700 jobs. (Detroit News)
• Revealed that it was behind the scheme to test responses to driverless schemes by having a human driver disguised as a seat. The project wasn’t a total success as a journalist spotted the driver’s hands in August and their reporting became an internet sensation. Ford revealed that the unfortunate driver had to sit through 150 hours of tests. (Ford)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Proton’s CEO will step down at the end of September and Geely will choose their replacement. (The Star)

General Motors

• The CEO of GM subsidiary Cruise Automation said that the company’s 3^rd generation product was ready for mass-production. (Medium)
• Labour negotiations in South Korea are reportedly not going well (again), leading to speculation of strikes around the end of the year affecting Hyundai/Kia. Workers are asking for pay rises and a substantial bonus. (Wards Auto)

Honda

• Showed a compact EV concept at the Frankfurt show and said that a production version would be on sale in Europe by 2019. Honda said that it will offer an electrified version of all models launched in Europe from now on and that by 2025 it expects two thirds of its European sales to be electrified vehicles. By 2030, it expects to reach the same percentage globally. (Honda)

Hyundai / Kia

• Labour negotiations in South Korea are reportedly not going well (again), leading to speculation of strikes around the end of the year affecting Hyundai/Kia. Workers are asking for pay rises and a substantial bonus. (Wards Auto)

Mazda

• Is reportedly planning that all its vehicles will be electrified (including the use of hybrids) by the early 2030s — although the company wouldn’t confirm this officially. (Times of India)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Announced an updated set of targets for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance to achieve by 2022: annual sales of 14 million vehicles; €240 billion turnover; €10 billion of synergies (an artificial figure — €5 billion claimed currently). The group intend to have 12 purely electric vehicles on sale by 2022 and will launch various levels of driverless systems across 40 vehicles, culminating in a fully autonomous vehicle on sale in 2022. The alliance aims to become an operator of robo taxis, without providing further details. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Senior executives expressed frustration with the pace of Brexit talks saying that if they had to wait 2-3 years for clarity on the business environment, there was “a big question mark about our future investment” in the UK (i.e. Vauxhall). (Bloomberg)
• Announced an employee-only share sale aiming to raise €25 million. (PSA)

Renault

• Announced an updated set of targets for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance to achieve by 2022: annual sales of 14 million vehicles; €240 billion turnover; €10 billion of synergies (an artificial figure — €5 billion claimed currently). The group intend to have 12 purely electric vehicles on sale by 2022 and will launch various levels of driverless systems across 40 vehicles, culminating in a fully autonomous vehicle on sale in 2022. The alliance aims to become an operator of robo taxis, without providing further details. (Nissan)

Tata (includes JLR)

• Said I-Pace has reached 25,000 orders in a TV interview. Asked about customer reaction to I-Pace he said it was “just another car with a different propulsion system”. Explaining the concept shared steering wheel displayed last week he said that he was “convinced” customers would want to own cars but that they might want to share them with friends. (Bloomberg)

Tesla

• CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company’s semi-truck will be unveiled on 26^th (Business Insider)
• Has created a smaller and lower-powered (and cheaper) supercharger for urban areas. With a rating of 72 kW, the units are still more powerful than most other contemporary installations. (Tesla)
• New patents for battery swapping stations have recently been filed by Tesla. These appear to show a battery station that can be moved to different areas. (Inside EVs)

Toyota

• A senior executive said that the company was becoming increasingly concerned over Brexit. He called the company’s future in the UK “a big question mark” and said that although a few months ago the UK government had expressed complete confidence in a tariff-free UK-EU trade deal, “they are not saying that any more”. (The Guardian)
• Said that it will add a second style of hybrid to its European line-up, moving beyond fuel economy considerations (the traditional preserve of the hybrid) by offering a version that will increase power. (Toyota)
• Said that it was already close to its 2020 goal of a 50% sales mix of hybrid vehicles in Western Europe. Yaris is at 45%, RAV4 at 52%, Auris at 65% and C-HR at 77%. (Toyota)

VW Group

• Announced a plan to bring 80 new electrified (not full electric = 50 BEV, 30 PHEV) vehicles to market by 2025 and that by 2030 the entire VW Group product portfolio (~300 nameplates) would be electrified. The company said that this would require €20 billion in investment and that it would need suppliers to provide 150 GWh of battery capacity by 2025 — forecasting its first phase procurement bill at €50 billion (the figure looks too high for an annual bill). (VW)
  • Implication: Given that earlier this year, VAG were talking about “more than 30” electric vehicles by 2025 (here), this recent announcement suggests that the company is becoming more bullish on full-electrification as it does further research.
• Said that of the 50 new fully electric vehicles by 2025, 23 of them will be for the VW brand. At Frankfurt, the company showed the ID Crozz, a small crossover/SUV that it said will be launched in 2020, around the same time as the ID C-Car (mini-bus to follow in 2022). The performance specifications for the I.D. Crozz are: 225 kW motor, 180 kmh top speed and 500 km range. VW mentioned that fast charging would get the battery to 80% of capacity in 30 minutes, implying that it is a lower-rated onboard charger than will debut in the Mission E from Porsche. (VW)
• Said that it would be putting autonomous cars on the streets in 2021. (VW)
• Audi’s Aicon autonomous vehicle concept pointed towards long-distance driverless travel, with a claimed ability to travel at high speeds and a range of over 700km. Audi majored on the contrast with robo taxis which are “reduced to pure functionality” — an interesting statement of fact, given that no robo taxis exist! (Audi)
• A spokesman for the Porsche and Piech families waded into the debate about selling off parts of the group saying he saw “no need” for the separation and that the topic had not been discussed at the supervisory board. (Der Spiegel)
• Bentley executives said that they are planning an all-electric, possibly launching in 2019. (Autocar)
• Porsche’s Chairman said that the Mission E all-electric sports car would be priced at about the same level as a Panamera, although since it will be offered in different power levels this might only be true for the entry level. (Car)
• Lamborghini executives said that they aren’t yet planning all-electric vehicles, although they are working on hybrid electric powertrain. Note that Lamborghini have previously been rumoured to be working on an all-electric product and Bentley and Audi both seem set to release electric sports cars based on the Mission E platform, so Lamborghini would be the only stablemate not to follow suit. (Reuters)

Other

• The CEO of Great Wall suggested that it was investigating whether to create a joint venture factory in the USA with two other unnamed Chinese automakers. (Les Echos)
• European OEM group ACEA published a proposal for future EU emissions rules. The group wants 2030 fleet average targets to be 20% lower than the 2021 limits. Since 2021 levels are 95g/km, this suggests 76g/km but the ACEA paper seems at pains to mention no specific figure. The proposal is for a check on progress in 2025 at which point the target could be revised up or down. (ACEA)
  • Implication: OEMs are desperate not to have a 2025 target set. Their proposal appears calculated to offer a substantive looking target for 2030, whilst leaving some theoretical wriggle-room if this looks too difficult by 2025.
• Storied UK sports car brand TVR unveiled its first new product post resurrection. The Griffith comes with 500hp and a £90,000 price tag for the first run of 500 units. (Auto Express)
• Vehicle manufacturing resumed in South Africa after a 17-day strike by employees at parts suppliers had deprived car plants of the parts they needed. (Business Report)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• European passenger car sales for August were up 5.6% to 865,047 units. Italy, Germany, Spain and France all increased, more than offsetting reductions in the UK. (ACEA)

Suppliers

• Autoliv held a capital markets day and said it was looking at splitting into two businesses: passive safety and electronics. The businesses would have 2020 revenue targets of €10 billion and €3 billion respectively. (Autoliv)
• Autoliv and Adient are teaming up to develop seats and safety systems for autonomous vehicles that can move around and protect passengers regardless of their position. (Autoliv)
• Delphi announced it had made a major step towards the spin-off of its powertrain division by issuing debt for the subsidiary. (Delphi)
• Continental purchased German parking app parkingpocket. (Munich Startup)
• Samsung is launching a $300 million fund with subsidiary Harman to focus on the development of connected and autonomous technologies. (Samsung).

Dealers

• Research by Santander Consumer Finance showed that UK dealers are becoming concerned about the rise of “click to buy” websites from manufacturers — with 1/3 citing it as a substantial future threat. Dealers appeared slightly confused about what to do next though: 55% of them believe the competition are doing a better job. (Automotive Management)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• French car rental start-up Virtuo said that it had raised €7.5 million to fund expansion into European cities outside France. (Journal Auto)
• Alphabet (Google) is reportedly looking at making a $1 billion investment in Lyft. (TechCrunch)
• Dutch car sharing company SnappCar has taken over German rival Tamyca. (Fleet Europe)

Driverless / Autonomy

• Audi and Samsung’s new fund made an investment in TTTech, a connected car company. (Samsung)
• A consortium involving 13 OEMs will run a 4 year research project called L3Pilot to investigate autonomous driving technologies and consumer behaviour in European cities and on highways. The project has a budget of €68 million (with nearly half of this coming from an EU grant). (VW)
• Court documents released as a part of the Waymo-Uber court case say that Google/Alphabet spent $1.1 billion on its driverless program between 2009 and 2015. (IEEE)
• European not-for-profit safety tester NCAP issued an outline of a 2025 safety testing regime that calls for standard fitment of autonomous technologies that can reduce accidents, including vehicle-to-vehicle communication and emergency steering. (Autocar)
  • Implication: Although it isn’t the official safety body, NCAP’s ratings have become the de facto standard of safety. When they make technologies mandatory for a 5 star (top) rating, as they have in the past, manufacturers follow (good news for suppliers).
• Waymo’s CEO said that he thinks self-driving trucks are vying with robot taxis for the first widespread implementation and that the company is still trying to get OEMs to sign up to its platform. (Bloomberg)
• Self-driving start-up Zoox is reportedly in talks with SoftBank about a sizeable investment (TechCrunch)
• The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance intends to have a fully autonomous vehicle on sale in 2022 and to become an operator of robo taxis, without providing further details. (Nissan)
• VW said that it would be putting autonomous cars on the streets in 2021. (VW)
• Audi’s Aicon autonomous vehicle concept pointed towards long-distance driverless travel, with a claimed ability to travel at high speeds and a range of over 700km. Audi majored on the contrast with robo taxis which are “reduced to pure functionality” — an interesting statement of fact, given that no robo taxis exist! (Audi)

Electrification

• Borgward executives talking at Frankfurt said that the brand is making progress towards launching its first vehicle and stated lofty ambitions: aims for 800k in 2020, 1.6 million in 2025. (Car)
• Porsche’s Chairman said that the Mission E all-electric sports car would be priced at about the same level as a Panamera, although since it will be offered in different power levels this might only be true for the entry level. (Car)
• Media were agog at the Aspark Owl unveiling, with the company making claims about a sub 2 second 0-60 time. (Top Gear)
• NanoFlowCell demonstrated their Quant fuel cell car. Of more interest that the fuel cell technology is perhaps that the entire electric system (including batteries and drivetrain) is a 48V system — the same level being installed as ICE augmentation now. (NanoFlowTech)
  • Implication: The concept shows that there is plenty of scope within a 48V system — assuming further development — to achieve capabilities that are currently forecast as being the exclusive reserve of higher voltage systems.
• Chinese state-owned energy supplier State Grid Corporation of China is reportedly finalising plans for a network of 167,000 charging points throughout the country. (Faconauto)
• Daimler said it would invest in StoreDot, taking a seat on the board. Daimler hopes to be able to use StoreDot’s fast -charging battery technology in future vans. (Daimler)
• The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is targeting 12 purely electric vehicles on sale by 2022. (Nissan)
• Honda showed a compact EV concept at the Frankfurt show and said that a production version would be on sale in Europe by 2019. Honda said that it will offer an electrified version of all models launched in Europe from now on and that by 2025 it expects two thirds of its European sales to be electrified vehicles. By 2030, it expects to reach the same percentage globally. (Honda)
• BMW showed an all-electric 4 door grand touring coupe at Frankfurt with a 600km range, promising that it would go into production. (BMW)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 4^th September to 10^th September 2017. A PDF version can be found here. If you’re happy with just the text version then please read on…

Favourite stories this week…?

It’s all about hedging your bets… four companies (one newby and three established) showed this week that they see a path to success through picking trends first and companies second.

• Let’s do LIDAR — Delphi has invested in two LIDAR companies — Leddartech and Innoviz.
• No car for me — Daimler announced stakes in car sharing firm Turo (which operates in the peer-to-peer space that Croove operated in, rather than B2C where Car2Go is positioned) and on-demand bus company Via, with which it has established a joint venture that will launch services in Europe (but using minbuses rather than conventional taxis like myTaxi).
• Baby you can drive my car — PSA said that it has been working with self-driving start-up AImotive, even though it already has projects underway with nuTonomy as well as a hand in the driverless car research of Vedecom and an in-house development team.
• Look Ma, no hands — Lyft said that it was going to undertake trials of self-driving vehicles with drive.ai, adding to a roster than includes Waymo, nuTonomy, Cruise and its own recently started in-house teams.

This all makes great business sense and it’s a shame that too few others are following the same path. With countless examples of ideas that were before their time and “best” technical solutions that didn’t become the industry standard, why back winners so early on?

Find our archive here.

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• BMW’s CEO said in his pre-IAA show remarks that the company intended to have 12 all-electric vehicles by 2025 (in addition to 13 other “electrified”, thought to mean PHEV, products) and that in future the company would be able to equip every model with any type of drivetrain. At the Frankfurt show, BMW will unveil an all-electric 4 door product that could sit between i3 and i8. (BMW)
• Unveiled a series of nearly production-ready concepts for its new car family with the X7 large SUV (BMW) and 8-series large coupe joining the 7-series saloon in the line-up. In addition to showing off the cars, BMW mentioned a mobility “add-on” that would allow owners of one of the vehicles to easy rent one of the others. (BMW)

Daimler

• Announced that it had been the lead investor in a financing round for US peer to peer carsharing service Turo and that as a part of the deal, Daimler’s own peer to peer carsharing service Croove would be folded into Turo’s operations and Turo would enter the German market in 2018. (Daimler)
• Created a joint venture with on-demand shuttle bus company Via that will see Daimler invest $50 million and licence Via’s technology to launch services in Europe, starting with London, where an on-demand bus service will begin in late 2017. The companies will also work together to develop an optimised Mercedes van for the service. (Via)
• Will show a concept called EQA at the Frankfurt show that will be Mercedes’s vision of how a shared car might look. (The Verge)

Ford

• The UAW’s chief representative for Ford said that Ford CEO has told him that the strategic review to be presented on 3^rd October will not call for additional job reductions in the US. (Bloomberg)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Volvo said that it was buying Luxe, a premium valet and concierge service. The acquisition will bring key staff and the Luxe’s existing technology into Volvo, the company appears to have no interest in continuing to offer the service. (Volvo)

General Motors

• At an investment bank conference, the head of the mobility program said that Maven Gig vehicles had an average utilisation rate of 60% on hourly leases and 40% on daily leases. She also said that she believes the company currently has no competition in terms of the breadth of activities it is undertaking around mobility services. She sees Maven’s fleet as being 2/3 electric “going forward”. (GM — Audio only)

Honda

• Said that the previously announced all-electric, China-only, vehicle it is planning for introduction in 2018 will be sold under the brands of both its joint ventures (with GAC and Dongfeng). Honda also said that it will “proactively” explore car sharing opportunities in China. (Honda)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• At the launch of the new Leaf, Nissan said that the new generation would have a 40 kWh battery and 378km (European drive cycle) range (150 miles on US EPA rating) as well as a number of driver assistance technologies. Nissan executives said they hoped to sell 90,000 vehicles per year and that the company believed electric technology alone was “not enough” to change travel and buying behaviour and therefore they had combined the all-electric vehicle with new technologies in order to present a more compelling prospect to customers. Nissan will be progressively offering features of a service called Nissan Intelligent Integration which aims to help customer’s manage their overall energy supply. (Nissan)
• During the media reveal of the new Leaf, Nissan executives said that a higher performance derivative to launch in 2018 would have a 60 kWh battery and that “we might have a crossover [SUV] EV shortly in the future”> (Economic Times of India)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• The French fraud prevention office reportedly believes PSA may have calibrated diesel engines to perform only during homolgation tests, affecting two million vehicles. PSA said it was “outraged” by the claims and pointed to a earlier French government report which said the company done nothing wrong. (Les Echos) & (PSA)
• Has been working with self-driving start-up AIMotive since May on self-driving technologies. AImotive say that their self-driving solution can be applied to any vehicle. (TechCrunch)
• CEO Tavares gave a joint interview with the new Opel CEO in which he said that PSA would provide electrification technologies to Opel but that the company must use them profitably. (Reuters)

Renault

• Launched a digital development centre in Russia to create technologies for global markets. (CCFA)
• Creating an immersive simulator to test the behaviour and response of drivers and passengers to autonomous vehicles, investing €25 million in the project. (Renault)
• Said it was working towards a localisation target of 80% for the Indian derivative of the Captur (Economic Times of India)
• Will show a concept car called Symbioz at Frankfurt that shows how Renault sees autonomous, electric and connected trends coming together in a single product. (Renault)

Tata (includes JLR)

• JLR said that from 2020, every new product launched will be electrified. The company says that it will have a portfolio that includes mild hybrid (48V), plug-in and fully electric vehicles. JLR’s wording implied that in some instances, “electrification” could mean no more than a 48V system being offered alongside ICE-only powertrains. (JLR)
• Showed off its vision of travel in 2040 called the Jaguar Future Type. JLR has joined Daimler and BMW by adopting the Connected, Electric, Autonomous, Shared breakdown of future vehicle attributes. Much of JLR’s presentation was around a new in-car assistant technology called Sayer which will exist in the cloud and can thereore be downloaded into different vehicles. (JLR)
• JLR’s CEO gave a speech in which he declared that the company was leading the mobility “revolution” but said that the UK government needed to do more to support technological change. Amongst other things he said that the government had “no detailed plans” for the implementation of an ICE ban by 2040. (JLR)
• Reportedly suffering from industrial relations problems at the Jamshedpur factory. A mistake in employee pay cheques is being used as leverage by unions to demand increased permanent (as opposed to temporary) hiring. (Economic Times of India)

Toyota

• Toyota’s chairman said in a television interview that he thinks two or three more technological breakthroughs are needed in order for fully electric vehicles to become competitive with ICE vehicles. He said that he was unable to say when a vehicle powered by a battery would be economically viable. He also said that major carmakers would have to partner with start-ups on new mobility technologies and those that didn’t “would not survive”. (InsideEVs)

VW Group

• VAG’s CEO said that the company was working on the sale of businesses accounting for 20% of the group’s revenue. (Manager Magazin)
• The leader of the CDU in Lower Saxony (the German region where VW are based, that also has seats on the board) called for next VW Group CEO to be from outside the automotive industry. The CDU is currently ahead in polls with the state election due in October. (Reuters)
• Will develop mobility services with IBM under a five year cooperation agreement. (VW)
• Audi is reportedly having problems getting its L3 Traffic Jam Pilot system approved by European regulators (CCFA)
• Audi will display two concepts at Frankfurt: the first will be a “highly automated” L4 car featuring technologies that will allow the driver to sometimes give control to the vehicle in fully automatic mode; the second will be a L5 car designed primarily for long journeys. (Audi)
  • Implication: Here’s hoping that the Audi L5 concept is something more than a version of the Mercedes F-105 (because that concept is two years old now)

Other

• Mahindra announced an all-electric rickshaw called the e-Alfa Mini with a range of up to 85km. The vehicle will carry 4 passengers and retail at 1.12 lakh rupees (about $1,800). (Mahindra)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• China is looking to set a deadline for the end of sales of new ICE powered cars according to the vice minister of industry and information technology. (Bloomberg)
• Scottish politicians said that they intended to phase out new sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by eliminating the “need” for them by 2032. (Scottish Government)
• UK new car registrations of 76,433 vehicles in August fell (6.4)% on a year-over-year basis. (SMMT). Light commercial vehicles saw a 1.5% YoY increase to 15,619 units. (SMMT)
• German passenger car registrations in August of 253,679 units were 3.5% up on a year-over-year basis. Electric cars were up 143%, albeit from a low base. Diesel engine sales were down (13.8)% and took a 37.7% share of the market. (KBA)

Dealers

• UK dealer Lookers has created a 3D virtual showroom on Facebook in order to increase its interaction with customers. (Motor Trader)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Daimler announced that it had been the lead investor in a financing round for US peer to peer carsharing service Turo and that as a part of the deal, Daimler’s own peer to peer carsharing service Croove would be folded into Turo’s operations and Turo would enter the German market in 2018. (Daimler)
• Daimler created a joint venture with on-demand shuttle bus company Via that will see Daimler invest $50 million and licence Via’s technology to launch services in Europe, starting with London, where an on-demand bus service will begin in late 2017. The companies will also work together to develop an optimised Mercedes van for the service. (Via)
• Lyft said that it would introduce self-driving vehicles in collaboration with ai. Memo: Lyft is already working with GM’s Cruise operation and has recently begun its own in-house autonomous effort. (Lyft)
• Estonian ride-hailing start-up Taxify saw the launch of services in London run into problems when the city’s transport regulator told it to suspend services because they were dissatisfied with the way in which Taxify circumvented licencing application requirements by partnering with an existing firm. (Telegraph)
• GM’s mobility chief said that Maven Gig vehicles had an average utilisation rate of 60% on hourly leases and 40% on daily leases. She sees Maven’s fleet as being 2/3 electric “going forward”. (GM — Audio only)

Driverless / Autonomy

• UK start-up FiveAI said that it had raised £35 million from a combination of public and private sources to fund development of an autonomous on-demand transport service. Similar to Uber, the company is developing its own self-driving solution as well as intending to run the server. (TechCrunch)
• Waymo (Google) gave an overview of how they use simulation to increase the rate of AI learning for autonomous vehicles (Waymo on Medium)
• LIDAR company LeddarTech announced that it had raised $101 million from investors including Osram, Delphi and Magneti Marelli. (Leddartech)
• LIDAR company Innoviz announced it had raised $65 million from a variety of investors including Delphi and Magna. (Innoviz)
• Lyft said that it would introduce self-driving vehicles in collaboration with ai. Memo: Lyft is already working with GM’s Cruise operation and has recently begun its own in-house autonomous effort. (Lyft)
• Uber to said that it will electrify its entire London fleet UberX fleet by 2019, with all Uber vehicles to follow by 2025. The company will offer financial incentives for drivers to buy new vehicles, funded by a £0.35 levy on all London trips. (TechCrunch)

Electrification

• Future Mobility, the Chinese all-electric start-up led by a group that includes a number of executives from BMW’s electric car program said that the brand name for its cars would be Byton and that sales would begin in China in Q4 2019. (Economic Times of India)
• Detroit Electric said that it would launch three vehicles within the next three years, putting to use some of the £1.8 billion funding it previously announced following a joint venture agreement with Chinese compay Far East Smarter Energy Group. The company plans to recruit around 200 engineers in the UK to work on the project. (Detroit Electric)
• British start-up Alcraft Motor Company unveiled a prototype all-electric sports car and launched a crowdfunding campaign to raiase £600,000 in order to make a prototype. The car is intended to have a 200-250 mile range. (Electrek)
• LG Chem and SK Innovation said that they would begin production in 2018 of EV batteries with an NCM 811 chemistry that improves energy density and reduces cost. (Push EVs)
• Consulting firm AlixPartners published an electrification index to track progress of electric vehicle take-up by country and manufacturer. (AlixPartners)

Other

• Consulting firm Roland Berger published the second edition of their automotive disruption tracker, saying that in general, Asian countries were doing more to prepare their citizens and infrastructure for emerging automotive and travel technologies than European countries or the USA. (Roland Berger)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy the round-up for the week commencing 28th August 2017. Stories are arranged by company and topic, there are duplicates in case are only interested in some sections.  A PDF version can be found here. If you’re happy with just the text version then please read on…

Favourite story this week…?

I’m wondering about GM’s approach to pricing their “hands-off” Supercruise feature. The initial guidance was that it would be $2,500 as an option. Now, it’s $5,000 as an option on lower series models but free on higher series versions. By not including the hardware as standard, GM is limiting the rollout of (and consequent data collection from) the system — indicating that either they don’t see the same benefit of fleet learning that Tesla do, or that they’ve taken a bit of a traditionalist approach to pricing, and impaired themselves in the long term as a result.

I took a look at some Google Trends data around attitudes to diesel in Germany. Since other studies show that buyer sentiment appears to be moving away from diesel in a big way, I wanted to find out (in a not entirely serious manner) whether longer term issues, especially bans, were much on their minds… take a look here.

Find our archive here.

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• Issued a press release detailing some of the ways in which new technology has been incorporated into the company’s production process. Although some of the techniques described, such as a feedback loop between blanks and press tools, news that BMW conducts analysis of bolt rundown measurements and installs vibration sensors on machinery won’t be troubling competitor analysis teams at other OEMs. (BMW)
• Showed the design of the Mini E electric car ahead of the full unveiling at Frankfurt. (BBC)

Daimler

• Showed a new concept vehicle called Smart Vision EQ fortwo. The vehicle shows how Smart’s cars could evolve into driverless pods in future and is similar in many details to the Mini concept unveiled in 2016 (except that the Mini was a mixed-mode manually-driven and autonomous concept). (Daimler)
• Announced the creation of a division called Lab1886 that will operate four sites globally. The company will invite employees to pitch their ideas to an internal VC-like board that will then select projects for internal incubation. The organisation will also provide support to external companies, such as (flying car start-up) Volocopter. (Daimler)

FCA

• Reinforcing off-the-record comments from FCA executives in the prior week, CEO Marchionne said that the company was working on its business plan rather than a big deal to sell the group. He forecast that by the time of his intended departure (April 2019), the company would “ideally” have spun off its components division (including Magneti Marelli) but that Alfa-Romeo and Maserati would likely be “too immature” to be a standalone company. (Bloomberg)
• Saw S&P raise the outlook on its long term debt to positive from stable. The current rating is BB. (FCA)
• Suffered production stoppages on the Pacifica and Grand Caravan assembly lines due to flooding. (Auto Guide)

Ford

• Reported US sales for August of 209,897 units, down (2.1)% on a year-over-year basis. The decline was more than explained by drops in SUVs and Cars. (Ford). Ford’s sales in India were also down considerably YoY, a drop of (40)%. (Economic Times of India)
• Said it will recall approximately 1.2 million vehicles in North America for two separate issues — airbags and steering problems. (Ford)
• Ford’s VP of manufacturing in Asia gave an interview in which he said that energy costs for production are currently higher than personnel costs in the region and then gave some examples of how Ford is trying to reduce energy usage. (AMS)

General Motors

• Said that Super Cruise (GM’s L2/L3 highway driving solution) would be a $5,000 option on base models of the Cadillac CT6, although it will come as standard on higher end vehicles (Automotive News).
  • Implication: This pricing is a considerable change from the earlier forecast $2,500 level (Detroit News). It seems that GM have chosen the new positioning to drive customers to the higher trim models rather than encourage take-up. The degree to which this will affect how many buyers purchase the system is unclear and also shows that GM either doesn’t value or doesn’t understand, the additional knowledge gained through higher fleet mileage (in stark contrast to Tesla, who won’t stop going on about it).

Honda

• Announced July production results. Global production of 397,138 units was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. (Honda)
• Said that at the Frankfurt motor show it will release details on the next steps of its plan to produce more electrified vehicles (for Honda, this includes Hybrids) for Europe. (Honda)

Hyundai / Kia

• Lost a legal case with South Korean trade unions that means overtime pay in future will be higher. (Reuters)
• Suffered production disruption in China due to a payment dispute with a fuel tank supplier. (Bloomberg)

Mazda

• Announced July production results. Global production of 132,920 units was up 0.2% on a year-over-year basis. (Mazda)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Announced that the Renault-Nissan Alliance would create a new joint venture with Dongfeng, to be called eGT New Energy Automotive, to produce electric vehicles in China. Ownership will be 25% Nissan, 25% Renault and 50% Dongfeng. The initial product will be an A-sized SUV with a sales target of 120,000 units per year, to be launched in 2019. (Nissan)
• Announced July sales and production results. Global sales of 448,906 units was up 4% on a year-over-year basis. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Completed the move from its central Paris Grand Armée headquarters. (Les Echos)
• Is recruiting more workers in Mulhouse to satisfy demand for Peugeot 2008 vehicles. Sources reported that up to 800 new temporary positions were being created. (France Info)
• The head of Faurecia said that the company was ready to make a major acquisition to give it a fourth “leg” beyond seats, interiors and exhaust treatment. He told French media that he is preparing options ahead of an October board meeting but currently no contact has been made with potential targets. (Les Echos)

Renault

• Renault has collaborated with charging company Connected Energy to integrate used electric car batteries into high power chargers. The idea is that the battery can be charged from the local grid and then discharge at a high rate to a waiting electric vehicle. This allows higher charging rates than many local grids can provide (without an expensive infrastructure upgrade). (Inside EVs)
• Announced that the Renault-Nissan Alliance would create a new joint venture with Dongfeng, to be called eGT New Energy Automotive, to produce electric vehicles in China. Ownership will be 25% Nissan, 25% Renault and 50% Dongfeng. The initial product will be an A-sized SUV with a sales target of 120,000 units per year, to be launched in 2019. (Nissan)

Suzuki

• Announced July production results. Global production of 282,603 units was up 8% on a year-over-year basis. (Suzuki)

Tata (includes JLR)

• Tata’s chairman was forced to defend JLR chief Ralf Speth’s pay, saying that his circa £7 million annual remuneration was “not high at all” and “slightly on the low side”. (Economic Times of India)

Tesla

• Saw some instance of high discounts and generous financing terms being offered on Model S and X models in the USA (up to $30,000 per vehicle & 0.99% APR) to improve sales figures ahead of the Q3 close. The deals appeared to only relate to vehicles in inventory (which Tesla famously tries to keep to a minimum). (Inside EVs)
• Said that mass production of solar roof tiles at its Buffalo plant had now begun. (Economic Times of India)
• Following a growing number of grievances aired by employees in the media, the NLRB (US labour relations board) said it had filed an official complaint against the company. Tesla accused unions of agitation. (Business Insider)
• CEO Elon Musk said that the company was preparing a software update that would allow owners to use download images and video from their Autopilot system without having to use a dashcam from a 3^rd (Electrek)

Toyota

• Announced five companies it had decided to work with on solving future mobility and ownership challenges: Caulis (risk assessment and security); giftee (e-gifts); Sharenori (car sharing); Nightley (customer data collection) and Ateam (services for used car owners). (Toyota)
• Participated in ride hailing service Grab’s latest fund-raising round and announced a collaboration to install Toyota-developed data recording devices in Grab vehicles. (Toyota)
• Announced July production results. Global production of 824,943 units was down (0.2)% on a year-over-year basis. (Toyota)
• Said it was creating a new group called Connected Technologies to develop in-car user experiences. The team will be made up of around 100 people and combine existing IT and product development employees. (Toyota)

VW Group

• Unveiled the new Polo — the sixth generation of the B-size vehicle to go on sale. The MQB-based car will feature safety technologies such as adaptive cruise control (as an option). Petrol engines now feature cylinder deactivation and diesel engines will be fitted with urea exhaust treatment. (VW)
• Porsche said that it would begin equipping cars with InnoDrive, a system that uses mapping and weather data to adjust vehicle settings such as suspension and engine mapping in order to optimise it for local road conditions in real time. (USA Today)
• Will recall over 280,000 Passat and CC vehicles in the USA due to problems with the fuel pump. (CCFA)
• As widely predicted in the German press, Audi announced a raft of new appointments to its managing board to make changes to “finance, IT and integrity, marketing and sales, human resources and production and logistics” (i.e. everything operational except product development and the CEO). (Audi)

Other

• Aston Martin said that all its vehicles will be powered by either hybrid or fully electric drivetrain by the mid 2020s. (TechCrunch)
  • Implication: This is in line with market expectation. High power engines are already featuring extensive use of electric motors to provide an overboost facility (e.g. McLaren P1) and Ferrari has already made a similar announcement. Since Aston Martin’s V8 engines are supplied by Daimler, it is likely only the V12 engine would need to be developed independently for electric drive — which could leverage many of the same components as the V8 anyway.
• Qoros unveiled the Model Young SUV and gave some details of its platform sharing strategy with Chery models. The vehicle will come with 5G connectivity supplied through a collaboration with China Mobile. (Qoros)
• As an influx of latecomers to the UK scrappage incentive trough arrived, observers couldn’t help but remark on the “commercial” nature of the discounting. (The Guardian)
• Subaru announced July production results. Global production of 73,361 units was down (5)% on a year-over-year basis. (Subaru)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• US light vehicle SAAR for August was reported as 16.03 million units. (Wards)
• Italian sales for August of 84,104 vehicles were up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. (UNRAE)
• Spanish sales for August of 72,470 vehicles represented a 13.1% year-over-year improvement. (Faconauto)

Suppliers

• The CEO of Samsung-owned Harman said that the business aims to triple revenues by 2025. The company intends to grow its non-automotive products considerably through smart-speaker products, which will likely have widespread automotive application too. (Reuters)
• Siemens will buy self-driving simulation company Tass. (Economic Times of India)
• Magna showed off its MAX4 self-driving system and said that it expected vehicles to be present in geo-fenced areas “quite soon”. Magna’s forecast for overall sales of autonomous vehicles is that in 2025, 4% of sales will be Level 4 vehicles. (Bloomberg)
• ZF announced that it would be selling its body control systems business to Chinese firm Luxshare. (ZF) Separately, ZF announced a strategic relationship with the University of California, Berkley to work on automotive applications of machine vision and deep learning. (ZF)
• Autoliv said that it had won a contract to supply high resolution radar for use in autonomous vehicles from a “global automaker”. Although the OEM in question wasn’t specified, Autoliv have recently been collaborating with Volvo… (Autoliv)
• Continental, not wanting to be outdone by rival Bosch, unveiled a keyless entry solution using a smartphone that the company says will work even when the battery is flat. (Continental)
• The head of Faurecia said that the company was ready to make a major acquisition to give it a fourth “leg” beyond seats, interiors and exhaust treatment. He told French media that he is preparing options ahead of an October board meeting but currently no contact has been made with potential targets. (Les Echos)

Dealers

• Span’s automotive trade body showed concern about the impact of electric vehicles on dealers — specifically the level of additional training needed to safely work on and around high voltage systems. (Faconauto)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Lyft announced that it had now achieved full coverage in 40 of the 50 US states. (Lyft)
• Uber’s new CEO said that the company would likely have its IPO in the next 18 to 36 months. (TechCrunch). The company also published highlights of his opening comments to staff. (Uber)
• Uber’s Movement trip data website went on general release, providing trip data for some of the cities that the company operates in. (TechCrunch)
• Toyota participated in ride hailing service Grab’s latest fund-raising round and announced a collaboration to install Toyota-developed data recording devices in Grab vehicles. (Toyota)
• Ride hailing firm Zūm, who organise rides for children with specially trained drivers, raised $5.5 million in a Series A round. (TechCrunch)
  • Implication: Although it remains to be seen whether this particular company will go the distance, the primary groups underserved by private car ownership today are the very old and very young. Although robo taxis will solve part of the problem by providing lower cost travel, providing in-transit care for these passengers is likely something that a robot alone will not be capable of.
• White label car sharing platform provider Vulog announced a €17.5 million fund raising. (Journal Auto)
  • Lookahead: In our forthcoming report on the mobility industry, one of the things we will be explaining in more detail is just how much of the backend of car sharing and ride hailing schemes are being run by Vulog and its competitors (such as Ridecell).

Driverless / Autonomy

• GM said that Super Cruise (their L2/L3 highway driving solution) would be a $5,000 option on base models of the Cadillac CT6, although it will come as standard on higher end vehicles (Automotive News).
  • Implication: This pricing is a considerable change from the earlier forecast $2,500 level (Detroit News). It seems that GM have chosen the new positioning to drive customers to the higher trim models rather than encourage take-up. The degree to which this will affect how many buyers purchase the system is unclear and also shows that GM either doesn’t value or doesn’t understand, the additional knowledge gained through higher fleet mileage (in stark contrast to Tesla, who won’t stop going on about it).
• Siemens will buy self-driving simulation company Tass. (Economic Times of India)
• Magna showed off its MAX4 self-driving system and said that it expected vehicles to be present in geo-fenced areas “quite soon”. Magna’s forecast for overall sales of autonomous vehicles is that in 2025, 4% of sales will be Level 4 vehicles. (Bloomberg)
  • Implication: Magna are generally on the more pessimistic end of technology growth (they are also bearish on electric vehicle sales), however 4% of the market in 2025 could actually be quite a respectable sales level if the vehicles are in robo-taxi fleets since, on a miles travelled basis, they would be much more heavily utilised than most other vehicles sold.
• Semi-conductor company NXP and self-driving company Torc Robotics have established a consortium to develop radars for self-driving cars (TechCrunch)
• ZF announced a strategic relationship with the University of California, Berkley to work on automotive applications of machine vision and deep learning. (ZF)
• Daimler showed a new concept vehicle called Smart Vision EQ fortwo. The vehicle shows how Smart’s cars could evolve into driverless pods in future and is similar in many details to the Mini concept unveiled in 2016 (except that the Mini was a mixed-mode manually-driven and autonomous concept). (Daimler)

Electrification

• The Renault-Nissan Alliance is creating a new joint venture with Dongfeng, to be called eGT New Energy Automotive, to produce electric vehicles in China. Ownership will be 25% Nissan, 25% Renault and 50% Dongfeng. The initial product will be an A-sized SUV with a sales target of 120,000 units per year, to be launched in 2019. (Nissan)
• Truck engine manufacturer Cummins unveiled an all-electric concept truck called the Aeos, intended to display its battery pack design prowess. (Cummins)
  • Implication: The heavy truck business is markedly different from light vehicles insofar as there are often separate chassis and engine manufacturers (more closely matching the aeroplane market). It remains to be seen whether this relationship will continue with all-electric vehicles or whether companies like Cummins will find that powertrain becomes commoditised.
• South Korean researchers say that they have successfully developed a new electrode technology that will allow energy densities to increase six fold from today’s levels. However, since the new electrode is part of a lithium-sulphur battery chemistry design, don’t expect any changes overnight. (Electronic Times)
• Renault has collaborated with charging company Connected Energy to integrate used electric car batteries into high power chargers. The idea is that the battery can be charged from the local grid and then discharge at a high rate to a waiting electric vehicle. This allows higher charging rates than many local grids can provide (without an expensive infrastructure upgrade). (Inside EVs)
• Aston Martin said that all its vehicles will be powered by either hybrid or fully electric drivetrain by the mid 2020s. (TechCrunch)
  • Implication: This is in line with market expectation. High power engines are already featuring extensive use of electric motors to provide an overboost facility (e.g. McLaren P1) and Ferrari has already made a similar announcement. Since Aston Martin’s V8 engines are supplied by Daimler, it is likely only the V12 engine would need to be developed independently for electric drive — which could leverage many of the same components as the V8 anyway.

Other

• A consortium called 3iprint that includes a subsidiary of Airbus used 3D printing and proprietary metal materials to create the front end (non Class A) structure of a classic car rebuild. (3iprint)