Monthly Archives: November 2017

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 20^th November to 26^th November 2017. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories this week…?

• I Like To Move It, Move It — PSA are going to move production into Opel plants rather than building a new facility in Slovakia as previously planned. PSA are clearly moving fast but once they finish the nice bits (in-sourcing, re-direction of existing capacity expansions), they’ll have to take on the remaining surplus capacity across their European operations.
• It’s A Small World — After an inspiring but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring car ownership to a wider audience in its original guide as the low-cost car, the Tata Nano’s BEV alterego, the Jayem Neo looks set to use 48V rather than a high voltage set-up. If this works well, more people might look at 48V as a plausible route for low-cost electrification of small vehicles.
• Dare To Be Different — Divergent 3D have raised $65 million, with an option for $40 million more, providing serious firepower to develop more flexible manufacturing techniques (dare to dream of a batch size of one).

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• Selling its stake in carbon fibre joint venture SGL Automotive Carbon Fibre to partner SGL (in which BMW is a shareholder). (BMW)
• Will invest $200 million in a battery cell competence centre, employing 200 people, opening in 2019. (BMW)
• Published a vision for two-wheeled emission free transport in future cities involving elevated roads reserved for such vehicles. (BMW)
  • Implication: Although much is being made of the threat to cars of autonomy, the impact on motorcycles of emerging technologies is doubly bad: electrification means vehicles must either have very low range or heavy batteries that impair handing; and the safety case for travelling at high speed with only a millimetre of leather for protection may also appear dubious to many. BMW and others will have to work hard to find a way to re-position the motorcycle.
• Sensing an opportunity in a French regulation that says large companies and towns must provide comprehensive mobility plans; Alphabet, BMW’s wholly-owned leasing company and a select group of partners are offering an out-of-the-box multi-modal package that includes car-sharing, bicycle-sharing and asset financing. (Journal Auto)

Daimler

• Said that it will launch electric drive in all Mercedes-Benz products. The first product, eVito, launches in 2018 and further products will follow starting in 2019. The eVito will have a range of around 150km and a top speed of up to 120km/h. (Daimler)
• Has asked employees to submit ideas for new businesses with the aim of identifying 100 million of benefit from the best 15 ideas. It wasn’t clear if this is revenue or profit. (Daimler)

FCA

• Signed an MoU with fuel company Eni for further collaboration on fuel research. (Journal Auto)

Ford

• Denied it may exit some or all South American markets following a note to investors from JP Morgan implying knowledge of management plans for an “out-of-the-box transformation plan”. (Detroit News)
• Despite last week’s announcement of a new product in Valencia, local unions are unhappy with recent proposals from Ford to change holiday patterns and terminate the contracts of over 100 temporary employees. (Europa Press)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Volvo signed a non-excusive supply agreement to supply “tens of thousands” of vehicles (the number was quoted as up to 24,000) to Uber between 2019 and 2021 for Uber to install its autonomous driving suite. Volvo said that it wants to be the supplier of choice for robo taxi services. (Volvo)
• Started production of the XC40 small SUV in Belgium, saying it already has 13,000 orders. Reflecting Tesla’s contribution to automotive culture, the company was keen to emphasise its robot nicknamed “the Beast”. (Volvo)

General Motors

• GM Korea unions, concerned at the negative impact of Opel’s transformation plan (which will bring work in-house), are pressing the company to guarantee replacement products. (Wards)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Said that it will introduce a new internal combustion technology, variable compression, in the 2019 Infiniti QX50, claiming at least 30% improvement in fuel economy over the prior generation vehicle. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Said that it will no longer build a new engine plant in Slovakia and will build engines in an existing Opel plant instead. (Les Echos)
• Announced the appointment of a new importer for the Opel brand in South Africa. (PSA)
• Has launched an e-payment platform, administered by its finance arm in partnership with a bank and online payments company, to be used across the range of mobility services PSA will offer. (PSA)
• Said it had learned from the failure of its Berlin carsharing operation Multicity that in future it must provide more vehicles and suffered from having a 3^rd party (in this case DB) run the software platform. (Usine Nouvelle)

Renault

• Signed a joint venture agreement with Al-Futtaim to manufacture and sell vehicles in Pakistan. Construction will begin on a new plant in Karachi in Q1 2018 and car sales will commence in 2019, with locally built units becoming available in larger quantities from 2020. (Renault)

Suzuki

• May move production of the Swift and Baleno between plants in India in a bid to maximise output of the Suzuki and Maruti Suzuki footprint in the country. Suzuki is launching 3 plants between now and 2020 and has reportedly already purchased land for an additional three. (Economic Times of India)

Tata (includes JLR)

• Will reportedly supply glider Nanos to Jayem Automotive, who will add an all-electric powertrain and market the vehicle as the Jayem Neo. Tata NEO. The vehicle is said to be powered by a 48V system. (Autocar)

Toyota

• Is reportedly seeking to “heighten awareness” of US employees about their need to improve cost competitiveness by creating an internal video that says it is cheaper to import cars from Japan than make them in the US. Presumably the video doesn’t highlight the c.(30)% depreciation of yen to dollar over the past few years. (Bloomberg)
• Issued a new €600 million green bond which will be used exclusively to finance retail contracts on Toyota and Lexus vehicles that meet certain emissions criteria. (Daimler)

VW Group

• Union representatives from VW’s Works Council held meetings with investors in London and appeared to indicate a willingness to support an arms-length relationship, and even possibly a spin-off, provided that it was in the best interests of the company and the employees. (Bloomberg)

Other

• Mahindra & Mahindra’s chairman said that the company was looking to sell electric vehicles in the US but had not yet decided which brand to use from Mahindra, Pininfarina and Ssanyong. The company has just opened a new US factory — dedicated to production of off-highway vehicles for the time being. (Times of India)
• Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it was collaborating with Uber to put electric vehicles in the hands of Indian drivers. (Mahindra)
• Aston Martin revealed the new Vantage, saying “most” of the 2018 production is already sold out. (Auto Evolution).
• Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus unveiled the SCG 004S, a $400,000 all-carbon fibre supercar with a three-abreast seating layout. The company aspires to produce around 250 vehicles each year. Deliveries of the first 25 vehicles are set for 2018. (Car)
• Devel Motors announced pricing for its V16 12.3 litre supercar. Deliveries of the $1.8 million Sixteen, which has a claimed output of 5,000hp will hopefully start in the next 18 months. The company is also planning an SUV. (GT Spirit)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• European commercial vehicle sales in October were up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. (ACEA)
• The UK government announced more funding for all-electric vehicles and infrastructure development in addition to a reform of laws that will allow more extensive use of autonomous vehicles by 2021. (The Guardian). The industry body was disappointed that government support was aimed at BEVs to the detriment of PHEVs and that negative messages were being sent on diesel’s future. (SMMT)

Suppliers

• An investment firm is buying a 40% stake in Carglass, control will remain with the existing owners. (Journal Auto)
• Echoing the scandal surrounding Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi Materials said that the company had shipped material that failed to meet internal quality standards — although the company stressed that the materials are safe. (Seattle Times)
• Divergent 3D said that it had raised $65 million, with a potential further $40 million available, to fund development of flexible manufacturing processes for automobiles and aircraft. (Press Release)

Dealers

• Parisian used car peer-to-peer marketplace Kyump raised €2.4 million to fund expansion. The company says that it is already self-sustaining. (Journal Auto)
• A possible sign of things to come due to weakness in the UK: Marshall Motor Holdings announced the closure of five franchised dealerships (Honda, Nissan, Vauxhall, Citroën and Maserati) and a used vehicle centre. (Motor Trader)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Uber suffered a data breach in 2016, losing control of data for 57 million drivers and customers. The company, apparently with the knowledge of the then-CEO, paid for the data to be deleted and stayed silent on the matter until the new CEO decided it needed to be transparent. (Uber)
• Chinese ride-hailing company Shouqi said that it had secured new investment of around $195 million from companies including NIO and Baidu. (Press Release)
• Sixt intends to expand the MyDriver ride hailing service from its existing 16 US cities, including launching the service in Europe. (Bloomberg)
• HopSkipDrive, the ride hailing service dedicated to transporting children, said it had raised a further $7.5 million, bringing total funding to over $21.5 million. (TechCrunch)
• Lyft is looking to raise an additional $500 million. (Axios)
• Messaging service LINE acquired Indonesian carpooling platform TemanJalan, citing the company’s local language chatbot expertise, rather than business model, as the primary reason for the purchase. (Deal Street Asia)

Driverless / Autonomy

• Singapore is planning to put driverless buses onto the streets in three locations from 2022. The idea is for the vehicles to operate on-demand during off-peak times. (Straits Times)
• Volvo signed a non-excusive supply agreement to supply “tens of thousands” of vehicles (the number was quoted as up to 24,000) to Uber between 2019 and 2021 for Uber to install its autonomous driving suite. Volvo said that it wants to be the supplier of choice for robo taxi services. (Volvo)

Electrification

• Utilising some of the technology contained in their fuel cell trucks, Nikola unveiled the Zero off-road vehicle. It is offered with a range of battery packs, the largest being 125 kWh. (Futurism)
• Taiwanese start-up Xing Mobility said that it would launch an all-electric supercar named Miss R, with the equivalent of over 1,300 hp and capable of 0-60mph in 1.8 seconds, in 2018. The primary purpose of the vehicle is as a technology demonstrator for the company’s electric drivertrain technology. (Xing Mobility)
• Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it was collaborating with Uber to put electric vehicles in the hands of Indian drivers. (Mahindra)

Other

• Chinese bike-sharing firm Mingbike is reportedly close to failure. (Deal Street Asia). Bluegogo and Coolqi appear to be falling into the arms of Biker — it isn’t yet clear what the implications are for existing customers of either firms. (Tech In Asia)
• Indian bike-sharing start-up Yulu will soon launch in Bangalore. (TechCrunch)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 13^th November to 19^th November 2017. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories this week…?

• I Don’t Wanna Be A Player No More — GM’s presentation at a conference hosted by Barclays made it sound like the company can’t get out of the traditional car business quickly enough, ranking the company alongside Aptiv / Delphi as amongst the most bearish on the outlook for the car market as we know it. The upside of this approach is that you can offload the legacy assets while there is still a market for them… given VW’s strong product announcements in South America over the past fortnight, one can’t help wonder if we’ll soon be hearing more about those markets. They sound increasingly in the wrong part of GM’s Highly Profitable / Forward-Looking Boston matrix.
• I Want More, More, More — Volkswagen has met the target of 9,200 voluntary redundancies three years early and says that it will keep on going. It sounds as though the unions are happy to participate. Could the company quietly raise its productivity beyond expectations?
• Greased Lightning — the Roadster reveal was interesting because of its top speed aspiration. Thus far, electric sports cars have come with ever-more impressive 0-60 times but top speeds well below those of ICE-engined GTs (around 155mph vs 200+mph). If the Roadster can deliver on its claims then petrol power is going to start looking like an odd choice rather quickly for highway-focused sports cars (the weight of a 200 kWh pack makes it unlikely that the Roadster will shine in handling tests). There is also a heavy dose of thunder stealing from the forthcoming all-electric sports cars from mainstream brands, in particular the Mission E. Porsche is now going to have to choose between increasing its specifications or patiently explaining to buyers that they haven’t got a second-rate product (price will surely be part of the explanation).

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News about the major automakers

BMW

• Pledged that as of 2020, all its global electricity needs will be met from renewable energy, up from 63% today. (BMW)

Daimler

• Opened a new R&D centre in Tel Aviv, Israel, to work on digital technologies, initially with a staff of 25. (Daimler)
• Opened a new R&D lab in Seattle that will eventually have 150 employees. (Daimler)

Ford

• Said it would build the next generation Kuga at its Valencia, Spain plant, investing €750 million in the factory. (Ford)
• Ended production of C-MAX Energi PHEV and will soon stop HEV as well. (Plug In Cars)
  • Implication: The C-MAX was Ford’s sole hybrid-only nameplate in the US. Its demise (whilst the European model is still in production) indicates the technology is perhaps mature enough to no longer require differentiated bodystyles. Could this have a bearing on the future of the Prius?

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Bought flying car maker Terrafugia and plans to launch the first product in 2019. (Ars Technica)
• Released details of Lynk&Co intended product line-up. The brand is working towards three crossovers, an SUV, a sedan and an electric scooter. (Gasgoo)

General Motors

• CEO Mary Barra said at an investor conference that the next two all-electric vehicles will be Bolt-based crossovers, one of which will be a Buick. The company will then launch an all-new EV platform in 2021 that it expects to reduce costs by over 30% — at which stage the company expects EVs to be profitable. (GM)
• Said that its sales of new energy vehicles in China by 2019 would be high enough that it could avoid purchasing credits. (Reuters)
• Issued a recall for fuel leaks in almost 49,000 Sierra and Silverado pick-up trucks. (USA Today)
• The “Book by Cadillac” monthly leasing scheme is expanding to two additional markets (beyond the New York pilot): Dallas and Los Angeles. (GM)

Honda

• Issued a recall for about 900,000 minivans (almost all in North America) to fix problems with second row seat latches not engaging correctly. (Reuters)
• Announced a cooperation with SoftBank to research applications for 5G connectivity in vehicles. (Honda)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Issued its report into the final inspection scandal. Following the incidents, Nissan’s CEO will forego some of his pay. (Nissan)
• Said that it might need a new factory in the US because existing plants are “maxed out”. (Bloomberg)
• Installed a solar roof on its Netherlands distribution centre that has been funded in part by selling long-term claims on the electricity produced to local households. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Reportedly planning to create work for Opel’s Rüsselsheim engineering centre through a massive cull of engineering agency resource (around 1,200 people) that PSA has traditionally used. (Les Echos)
• Said that it has 450,000 users of its Free2Move app and that it is developing a secure internet-of-things platform with Huawei. (PSA)

Renault

• Rated the worst OEM for ethical cobalt purchasing in a report by Amnesty International. Page 78 is the key summary. (Amnesty International)

Suzuki

• Announced a cooperation with Toyota to sell electric cars in India. The current working assumption (at MoU stage) is that Suzuki will make the vehicles and Toyota will sell a badge-engineered version. (Toyota)

Tata (includes JLR)

• JLR announced that it had started testing autonomous vehicles on public roads (with safety drivers). (JLR)
• Was forced to deny that it had taken a stake in Faraday Future. (Green Car Reports)

Tesla

• Unveiled the Semi truck. Tesla will offer a “Mega Charger” network that adds 400 miles of range in 30 minutes, leading to speculation about the charger’s power output being well in excess of 1,000 MWh. Truck production begins in 2019. Tesla say that they will guarantee a wholesale electricity price of $0.07 per kW and the truck will have cheaper per mile economics than diesel trucks — and even trains if a convoy of autonomous vehicles headed by a single human driver is used. The truck was hailed as having a drag coefficient of 0.36, comparing favourably to a Bugatti Chiron. Tesla were silent on why they didn’t choose the Toyota Prius’s 0.30 cd as the benchmark. (Tesla)
• At the same event as the truck, Tesla also showed off the next generation Roadster. The 2+2 vehicle has a claimed 0-60mph time of 1.9 seconds and top speed above 250mph “for the base model”, thanks in part to 10,000Nm of torque and power from a 200kWh battery with a claimed 620-mile range. It costs $250,000 to reserve one of the first 1,000 Founders Series models. Production begins in 2020. (Tesla)
  • Implication: The roadster performance figures, if true, will send some electric sports car manufacturers back to the drawing boards. Following the example of Tesla Model S, many had been planning vehicles with quick 0-60 times but top speeds below the 200mph level that is the de-facto standard for luxury grand tourers. Ad Punctum’s volume assessment? Less than 4,000 units per year. If that sounds too harsh then just remember that would be double the volume of competing products from Aston Martin and McLaren. By the way, how much will this thing weigh?
• Almost lost in the aftermath of the Roadster and Semi-truck reveals, Tesla is now selling mobile phone top-up chargers. At $45 each, it’s probably the cheapest way to tear down a Tesla 18650 cell. (Tesla)

Toyota

• Announced a cooperation with Suzuki to sell electric cars in India. The current working assumption (at MoU stage) is that Suzuki will make the vehicles and Toyota will sell a badge-engineered version. (Toyota)
• Recalling around 29,000 C-HR and 40,000 Prius in the US for problems with the parking brake and fuse system respectively. (Toyota)
• Launched a scheme in partnership with Launch Mobility aimed at ride-hailing drivers to offer used vehicles for short term rentals. (Toyota)
• A senior executive predicted that internal combustion engines would power only 10% of new vehicles by 2040 and have been phased out of production entirely by 2050. (Autocar)

VW Group

• Will add a new model in South American markets called the Virtus, a small sedan. Between investments in Argentina and Brazil, the company says it is spending around €2.4 billion on new products that will launch before 2020. (VW)
• German officials raided the offices of several VW executives. The issue under investigation is reportedly the nature of payments made to works council head Bernd Osterloh. (Der Spiegel)
• Announced VAG spending targets for the period 2018 to 2022. The company will spend more than 34 billion on new technologies and is aiming for capex and R&D each to be 6.0% of revenue from 2020 onwards — an amount that the company calls “competitive” (they might want to check Carlos Tavares’s opinion). (VW)
• Will move production of Golf from Zwickau to Wolfsburg and Passat production from Zwickau to Emden. Zwickau will then become a “pure e-mobility facility”, building the ID and other derivative products. (VW)
• Issued an update on the Future Pact saying that 94% of the 2020 voluntary redundancy target (9,200 positions) had been met. The company will continue to reduce jobs in “working areas which are not viable for the future”. (VW)

Other

• Aston Martin will make a track-only version of the Valkyrie hypercar called the AMR Pro. Only 25 examples will be produced. (Auto Express)
• Executives at Great Wall said that the company was intending to launch the Haval and Wey brands in Europe at the beginning of the 2020s. (Autocar)
• A Subaru executive said that the company’s boxer-engine “can simply not exist in the future”. (Autocar)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• European passenger car sales of 1.169 million units were 5.9% higher on a year-over-year basis. (ACEA)
• Daimler and Toyota championed a study by McKinsey saying that hydrogen was indispensable to 2030 energy mix, powering 10 to 15 million cars and 500,000 trucks. (Toyota)

Suppliers

• Delphi announced it will spin off the powertrain division to 4^th December 2017 — earlier than expected. (Delphi)
• Aptiv (Delphi as will be) gave a presentation about autonomous and connected vehicle technologies. Probably the most interesting slide was number 12. Despite the example of Tesla, Aptiv is not planning to have many over the air updates in service until 2019. (Aptiv)
• Federal Mogul acquired powertrain engineering company Controlled Power Technologies. (Federal Mogul)
• Michelin signed an agreement with Hyundai to develop all-weather tyres for EVs. (Yonhap)
• Battery supplier CATL said that it was planning for an IPO by June 2018 that would raise $2 billion. (Reuters)
• ClearMotion has purchased Bose’s suspension technology. (Xconomy)
• Lear said that their CEO would retire at the end of February 2018. (Press Release)
• GKN said that their CEO-designate would leave the company with immediate effect and appointed an interim-CEO instead. (The Guardian)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Lyft bought streaming start-up Kamcord to hire its engineering staff. (Kamcord)
• Lyft saw some of its financial details published (after a leak), including medium-term growth targets. (Bloomberg)
• Lyft has chosen Canada Toronto for its first international location. (Lyft)
• Softbank completed its much-anticipated investment in Uber. (TechCrunch)
• It looks like Uber is safe in London for a while yet. The mayor said that the appeals process could “go on for a number of years”. (BBC)
• Media reports questioned the popularity of Autolib, the car sharing scheme in Paris run by Bolloré, saying that subscribers have fallen 5% since the start of the year and only 17 new vehicles have been registered to the scheme this year, compared to 941 last year. (Journal Auto)
• French carpooling start-up LESS said that it had raised €16 million. (Journal Auto)
• Toyota Financial Services launched a scheme in partnership with Launch Mobility aimed at ride-hailing drivers to offer used vehicles for short term rentals. (Toyota)

Driverless / Autonomy

• Renovo announced that it would work with Velodyne and use the latter’s lidar as the reference sensor for the bolt-on driverless vehicle solution it is developing. (Press Release)
• Israeli vision company Newsight Imaging and Chinese laser maker LeiShen Intelligent will partner to create solid-state lidar for automotive application. (Press Release)

Electrification

• WiTricity and Texas Instruments will collaborate on wireless charging products with improved vehicle to infrastructure communication. WiTricity says that microcontrollers supplied by Texas Instruments will be able to overcome some of the practical problems of first generation wireless charging such as misalignment and inefficient transfer rates. (WiTricity)
• Fisker announced that it was applying for patents on breakthrough solid state battery technology that it believes can be commercialised by 2023. Fisker says that the new battery could charge in one minute. (Green Car Congress)
• eMotorWerks has created a partnership with ca to make a sell an electric vehicle charging platform aimed at the Canadian market. (Press Release)
• A report by Amnesty International into ethical sourcing of cobalt in batteries ranked Renault lowest of a (non-exhaustive) group of automotive OEMs. BMW and Tesla were joint first, but still only merited half marks. Page 78 is the key summary. (Amnesty International)
• Toyota and Suzuki announced a cooperation to sell electric cars in India. The current working assumption (at MoU stage) is that Suzuki will make the vehicles and Toyota will sell a badge-engineered version. (Toyota)
• GM CEO Mary Barra said at an investor conference that the next two all-electric vehicles will be Bolt-based crossovers, one of which will be a Buick. The company will then launch an all-new EV platform in 2021 that it expects to reduce costs by over 30% — at which stage the company expects EVs to be profitable. (GM)

Connectivity

• Honda announced a cooperation with SoftBank to research applications for 5G connectivity in vehicles. (Honda)
• Huawei have won the contract to supply connected vehicle hardware and software to PSA ahead of several more established names. (Les Echos)

Other

• Bluegogo, operator of around 700,000 bicycles seems to be shutting down operations. (TechCrunch)
• Varhana, Airbus’s in-house flying car effort, said it was intending to carry out its first test flight this year. (The Verge)
• Geely bought flying car maker Terrafugia and plans to launch the first product in 2019. (Ars Technica)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 6^th November to 12^th November 2017. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories this week…?

• If You Change Your Mind — Audi is experimenting with making diesel fuel from renewable energy sources. Will they succeed in turning common wisdom about environmental responsibility on its head or is it a last throw of the dice for the diesel cycle?
• Open Your Mind — Shock, horror… OPEC made the headlines this week by acknowledging a scenario in which electric vehicle demand could result in demand for oil plateauing (admittedly not the most probable outcome in their eyes). Thus far, the oil industry have viewed the impact of electrification as negligible, even in the long term. Could this be a turning point? And if so, what will they do?
• Stop Telephonin’ Me — Deutsche Telekom have realised that the same infrastructure used to run telephone exchanges sets it up rather nicely to provide electric vehicle charging. It has surprised me for a while that telecoms and other companies haven’t recognised charging as an adjacency. Perhaps that will now change.
• Look Where You’re Going — Autonomous vehicle safety has been in the spotlight again with someone crashing into a Navya vehicle in Las Vegas and Waymo announcing that they will release driverless vehicles into the wild (or make it appear that way). I have something of my own to contribute: Autonomous vehicles will drive below the speed limit because their sensor set doesn’t enable them to see far enough into the distance to brake safely if they go any faster. You can see why here.

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Our latest research

How fast can autonomous vehicles travel safely? With current state of the art technology, autonomous vehicles are likely to have maximum speeds below those human drivers are held to. The reason is simply the range limitations of the sensor set (in the medium term) and a higher standard of safety than humans apply to themselves. The flip side is that this could reduce the cost, weight and environmental impact of the vehicles.

• Read a summary presentation here (18 slides)

News about the major automakers

BMW

• Reported financial results for Q3 2017. Automotive revenue of €21.04 billion was down (2.4)% on a year-over-year basis, despite a 1.2% increase in volume to 590,415 vehicles sold. Group PBT of €2.4billion was down (5.9)% YoY. (BMW)
• Despite Q3 earnings being lower than the prior year, BMW said it was in good shape on a year to date basis and increased its forecast for full year results. (BMW)

Daimler

• Daimler said it was acquiring CINTEO, a German digital services company with around 100 employees, to accelerate digitisation of its marketing, sales and media functions. (Business Review Europe)
• Daimler’s car sharing service Car2Go published a white paper covering essential conditions for successful fleet operation of autonomous vehicles. (Car2Go)
• Is working on a pilot project to use automotive fuel cells for stationary power generation. (Daimler)

Ford

• Signed a $765 million deal with Zotye to produce electric cars in China under a new brand. The two companies had previously signed an MoU. (Ford)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• Proton suppliers have reportedly been told to cut prices by 20%. Several are saying that they cannot compete with prices from Geely’s Chinese suppliers that they are now in competition with. (Free Malaysia Today)
• The CEO of Lotus said that the company has a ten-year plan for new products and electrification, to be unveiled next year. Lotus will stay at its current sales level of around 1,500 cars per year for the next “two to three” years and then sales will rise. (Top Gear)
• Geely Automobile Holdings will acquire several automotive components plants from its parent. (The Standard)

General Motors

• Will host an investor event on November 30^th to “share our vision for an autonomous future”. (GM)
• A review of the Super Cruise system being fitted to Cadillacs found that the vehicle’s facial recognition (intended to ensure that the driver is concentrating on the road) cannot recognise some beverage type and still has problems in difficult lighting conditions. (Detroit Free Press)

Honda

• Will expand the Honda Xceletrator program to work with start-ups in more locations. (Autocar)
• Said that it would be unable to afford a 10% tariff on UK-built cars if post-Brexit trading conditions used WTO tariffs. (Reuters)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Reported Q3 2017 / 1H fiscal year financial results. Although revenues were up, profits were down, in part due to market mix. Nissan reduced full year profit outlook, partly due to the final inspection issues in Japan. (Nissan)
• Mitsubishi reported Q3 2017 / 1H fiscal year results. Revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis and the business has a YTD operating margin of 4.7%, up from a negative (3.7)% margin the previous year. (Mitsubishi)
• Carlos Ghosn said in an interview that car ownership would continue and the growth of ride-hailing did not affect negatively affect sales volumes “a lot of people think this is substitution, it’s not — it’s addition”. (Bloomberg)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• Released details of its turnaround strategy for Opel and Vauxhall, named PACE! (as in speed, not an olive branch to anxious unions). The plan relies on cost cuts in external material purchasing, manufacturing and engineering; improved brand position and revenue; and an expansion of products and markets — particularly LCV where Opel / Vauxhall aim to increase sales by 25% by 2020. Although PSA was keen to stress that there was no need for job cuts (recent Ellesmere Port announcements notwithstanding), it isn’t clear how financial targets will be achieved without them, especially since there is an explicit target of lowering the breakeven point from an unknown level today to 800,000 units per annum. (PSA)
• Finalised a joint venture to manufacture cars in Algeria with three local partners. Operations will start in 2018 and reach full production in 2019. (PSA)
• Has recently increased the price of the all-electric Opel Ampera-e (Chevrolet Bolt) by $5,000 in some European markets, blaming GM for the price hike. (Electrek)
• Opel’s integration into PSA has begun in earnest, with the Opel France sales team moving into shared premises with the other PSA brands. (Journal Auto)

Renault

• Renault declared that its autonomous vehicles have industry-leading obstacle avoidance capabilities. This claim is solely in relation to the way the vehicle executes emergency manoeuvres, not how well it detects obstacles. (Renault)

Suzuki

• Would like to cooperate on electric vehicles and batteries with other companies and is open to joining the Toyota-Mazda-Denso electric joint venture. (Reuters)

Tata (includes JLR)

• Reported Q3 2017 / Q2 fiscal year financial results. Revenue and profits increased on a year-over-year basis but the Tata Motors brand is still lossmaking. (Tata)

Tesla

• Bought automation supplier Perbix to help it improve manufacturing efficiency. (Bloomberg)
• Had reportedly only assembled 440 Model 3 to the end of October. (Electrek)

Toyota

• Reported Financial results for Q3 2017 / Q2 fiscal year. Sales of 2,174,324 were down (0.8%) on a year-over-year basis, although revenue of 7.14 trillion yen (about $64.4 billion) was up 10.2% YoY. Operating income of 522 billion yen / $4.0 billion was up 10.0% YoY. (Toyota)
• Now offers behaviour and usage based insurance in Japan using telematics data received from the car. (Toyota)

VW Group

• Seat and Telefonica will collaborate on the application of 5G in connected cars and are working on pilot projects to use blockchain in Seat’s operations. (Telecom paper)
• Lamborghini unveiled a concept for an all-electric supercar and said that it was working on super capacitors to overcome weight problems with batteries. (Autocar)
• Audi is working with two partners on a trial to produce diesel using hydropower. The result is being branded as an “e-fuel” with a view to convincing consumers that it is an environmentally friendly alternative to electric vehicles. (Autocar)
• Said that VW’s IT department will collaborate with Google to apply quantum computing in the company’s processes, with a view to reducing calculation times. (VW)
• Will produce a new SUV at its Pacheco, Argentina plant starting in 2020. The €560 million investment is forecast to create 2,500 jobs. (VW)
• VW’s CEO mused that making an all-electric vehicle would allow a product that was close to the philosophical routes of the original. (Autocar)

Other

• Brazilian company Grupo Caoa has purchased 50% of Chery’s operations in Brazil as part of an expansion plan for the Chinese brand. The company is Hyundai’s local partner in Brazil. (Economic Times of India)
• James Dyson said that his company had not yet chosen a production location for its new electric car. (City AM)
• Hennessey unveiled the Venom F5, a supercar that the company says will have a top speed greater than 300mph. The engine has a claimed power output of 1,600 hp. (New Atlas) The car will have to beat the benchmark set by the Koenigsegg Agera RS which recently claimed to have set a new record of 277.9 mph (Autocar)
• Subaru released Q3 2017 / 1H fiscal year financial results. Although sales increased, Subaru reduced their full year forecast for both sales and profit, citing weaker than expected growth and adverse exchange. (Subaru)
• OSVehicle unveiled their modular self-driving electric car called EDIT. (Medium)
• British sports car maker Westfield said it won’t abandon its roots just because its autonomous pod business is growing. The company plans to release a new mid-engined car in 2018 called the GTM. Hybrid and fully electric versions are on the cards. (Autocar)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• The EU released its proposal for 2025 and 2030 vehicle emissions. 2025 emissions targets are 15% below 2021 fleet average levels and 2030 targets are 30% below 2021. (EU)
  • Implication: At face value, this is a bit harder than the vehicle industry wanted, since ACEA’s earlier paper had proposed no new target for 2025. ACEA’s response called the proposal “challenging” (ACEA). In the detail of the proposals however is a bit of a softening of the blow. Although the EU wants to measure vehicle emissions by the WLTP standard from 2021 onwards, it will rebase the 95 g/km CO₂ measured on NEDC basis — hence why the proposals are expressed in percentages rather than absolutes. If the targets had simply continued from 95g, including the move to the new test, then the gradient would have been steeper.
• UK car sales in October were 158,192 units, down (12.2)% on a year-over-year basis. Diesel sales were down by (30)%. The trade body urged the government to “restore confidence in new cleaner diesels”, saying that there was “confusion over government policy”. (SMMT) Light commercial vehicle registrations fell (7.4)% YoY to 24,968 units. (SMMT)
• The US EPA appeared set to relax rules that would have banned putting remanufactured engines in new build trucks. The older engines tend to pollute more heavily but reduce the vehicle cost (partly because they use cheaper technologies that pollute more heavily!). (Economic Times of India)
• Paris is expected to confirm in its new climate plan that it will ban diesel cars by 2024 and petrol by 2030. (Journal Auto)
• Opec issued a new forecast for oil demand to 2040. Although the group’s most likely scenario sees demand continuing to rise through the period, in the faster EV growth scenario, demand plateaus after 2034. (Bloomberg)
• South Korea’s environment ministry has threatened BMW, Mercedes and Porsche with a combined €55 million of fines because it says that they have violated emissions test procedures. (Der Spiegel)

Suppliers

• Continental and Osram will create a 50:50 joint venture for automotive lighting. Both companies will contribute existing business units to the new enterprise. (Continental)
• International Automotive Components has started production at its new Opole, Poland plant dedicated to tailored interiors. (Economic Times of India)
• Plastic Omnium announced it had participated in a $240 million fund run by VC company Aster. (Press Release)
• 3D Systems said that it had won a 3 year contract from BMW to produce prototype parts on-demand. (3D Systems)
• Magna announced financial results for Q3 2017. Revenue of $9.5 billion was up 7% on a year-over-year basis but income from operations of $670 million was slightly down on the prior year. (Magna)
• Continental reported Q3 2017 financial results. Revenue in the first nine months was €32.7 billion and adjusted EBIT margin was 10.6%. (Continental)
• Bridgestone reported financial results for Q3 2017. In the first nine months, sales increase 8.9% versus a year earlier but operating income was down (9.0)%. (Bridgestone)

Dealers

• UK online used car start-up Hellocar ceased operations saying that its model had proved difficult to scale. (TechCrunch)
• UK dealer group Lookers said that although new car sales were weak, profit per unit was holding up well and used cars were “buoyant”. The company believes that there are “significant consolidation opportunities”. (Automotive Manager)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Uber said that it will trial flying taxis in Los Angeles from 2020 (Dubai was already on the cards) and sees “heavy use” of Uber Air by 2028. It is collaborating with NASA to develop the necessary control systems. (Business Insider)
• Hertz’s CEO said the company does not view ride hailing as “the enemy” and that it is a likely area of growth, suggesting that it may be a way for vehicles to be retained for longer periods. (Bloomberg)
• Daimler’s Car2Go said that Madrid was one of its top 3 busiest cities globally, with 180,000 users sharing the 500 vehicles it has in the city. (Europa Press)
• Uber has created a new service option called “Express Pool” to reduce fares. Rather than being collected and dropped off at the exact spot they want, passengers begin and end their journeys at nearby “smart spots” which are easy for the cars to reach. (TechCrunch)
  • Implication: with this service, Uber is getting close to how a dynamic bus might look-and-feel.

Driverless / Autonomy

• Waymo said that it had begun trials of self-driving vehicles on public roads without safety drivers. Subject to further tests, the company plans to offer rides to members of the public within a few months. (Waymo)
  • Implication: Waymo have yet to explain how they intend to supervise the vehicles and what actions they would take in the event of the vehicle find its route is blocked or otherwise undrivable. Likely the company is planning to either “shadow” the cars, enabling fast reaction to incidents or to manage them from a remote command station where operators can drive via video. The former seems more likely.
• Navya launched a self-driving bus service in Las Vegas, the assembled media were more captivated by the truck that crashed into the demonstration vehicle within minutes of the service starting. (The Verge)
  • Implication: The more stories that appear in the media about self-driving vehicle crashes where the other driver is to blame, the better from our point of view. Although at first they appear wrong-headed, if they build up a picture in the minds of everyday consumers that self-driving vehicle crashes are (a) normally minor shunts and (b) caused by bone-headed humans, people will be less wary of using the technology.
• Velodyne launched the VLS-128, a 128-line lidar sensor with a range of nearly 250m. Pricing is still near-prohibitive for production applications. (Press Release)
• Embark has begun testing driverless trucks on a 650 mile stretch of highway in the USA. (Wired)
  • Implication: Although the company talks about “end to end” driving, the test does not perform the start and end legs of the delivery, leaving the trick navigation of small roads and distribution centres to human drivers. Instead, it shows how driverless vehicles, in concert with human-driven ones can fractionally reduce the human cost of transportation, saving money and getting to market more quickly than relying on a complete solution.
• Apple has acquired InVisage, an imaging sensor company that has short-range lidar amongst its product range. (Electronics Weekly)
• A review of GM’s Super Cruise system being fitted to Cadillacs found that the vehicle’s facial recognition (intended to ensure that the driver is concentrating on the road) cannot recognise some beverage type and still has problems in difficult lighting conditions. (Detroit Free Press)
• The RAND Corporation issued a study saying that autonomous vehicles should be deployed quickly, once their standard of driving was beyond that of the average driver, arguing that cumulative lives saved by implementing early outweighed the benefits of waiting until vehicles were substantively safer than humans (and avoiding retrospective moral quandaries about how a vehicle should have perhaps acted in a situation that caused a fatality. (RAND)
• A recent trial of commercially available L1/L2 vehicles by Danish authorities found significant deterioration in sensor performance in wet roads, with only one vehicle on test demonstrating the same obstacle detection ability in both wet and dry conditions. (Autonomes Fahren)

Electrification

• Chinese EV start-up NIO has reportedly raised $1 billion from investors including Tencent, giving the firm a $5 billion valuation. (Reuters)
• EON and Clever are planning to build a 180 station charging network between Norway and Italy with a maximum highway distance of 180km between stations. (Bloomberg)
• Continental’s CEO said that the company was interested in making battery cells, but with solid state rather than lithium ion chemistry. He said that the company would prefer to do this in partnership with others. (Reuters)
• Faraday Future has recently suffered from several executive departures, including the CFO (with whom the company is now engaged in a war of words / lawsuits) and CTO. (Digital Trends)
• LeEco founder Jia Yueting said he plans to sell his stake in Lucid Motors, indicating he will focus on Faraday Future. (Global Times)
• Researchers in the Netherlands showed off a Tesla Model S that they have converted to use a hydrogen fuel cell as a secondary power source. (Futurism)
  • Implication: The early-2000s saw a flood of aftermarket natural gas conversions for European petrol cars. Could aftermarket fuel cells be a significant trend in future (this particular vehicle cost over $500,000, so a bit of work left to do).
• Lamborghini unveiled a concept for an all-electric supercar and said that it was working on super capacitors to overcome weight problems with batteries. They appear to have thought of everything except how the car will go over speed bumps. (Autocar)
• OSVehicle unveiled their modular self-driving electric car called EDIT. (Medium)
• Baidu is reportedly leading a new round of investment in Chinese electric car maker WMMotor. Tencent may also be involved in the funding. (China Money Network)
• Deutsche Telekom is looking to integrate electric car charging into local telephone exchanges in Germany. The company has over 330,000 locations in the country and has earmarked 12,000 for potential conversion to charging stations. (Golem)
• US company Workhorse have unveiled their next range-extended product: the N-Gen van. The vehicle has an electric only range of around 100 miles and has a novel optional extra: a drone that docks on the roof to increase the number of delivery drops the vehicle can make. Patent attorneys at Daimler and Amazon: pay close attention… (Green Car Reports)

Connectivity

• Seat and Telefonica will collaborate on the application of 5G in connected cars and are working on pilot projects to use blockchain in Seat’s operations. (Telecom paper)
• Ola and Microsoft have formed a partnership to develop connected vehicle services. The aim is to offer car manufacturers a platform that combines diagnostics, condition monitoring and navigation. (Reuters)
• Tata Elxsi and Blackberry announced a partnership to create secure communications applications. Blackberry will provide the QNX platform and Tata Elxsi will undertake integration and customisation. (Press Release)
• Toyota now offers behaviour and usage based insurance in Japan using telematics data received from the car. (Toyota)
• Fujitsu and Here formed a partnership to provide combined location and analytics solutions, initially aimed at Japanese carmakers. (Fujitsu)
• LexisNexis said that it had created a telematics exchange that would allow insurers and OEMs to share data and give a consistent view of risk and driver scoring, regardless of vehicle type. (LexisNexis)

Other

• Bicycle sharing service Mobike’s cofounder said that the company was investigating ways to provide transport solutions beyond the “one to five kilometres” of range people normally cover on bikes. He said that in the next three months the company would offering services in the Chinese market aimed at between 3km and 25km trips. (Wired)
• Deliveroo said that it would offer its Deliveroo Plus food delivery service (a flat monthly rate for all delivery costs akin to Amazon Prime) for £7.99 per month across the UK. Deliveroo’s claimed savings for users in a trial scheme imply that subscribers use the service around 12 times each month. (Business Insider)
• Mahindra’s GenZe division unveiled its latest e-bike, retailing at $1,899. The battery has a 30-50 mile range. (Press Release)

What happened in the automotive industry last week? Please enjoy our digest of industry news for the week of 30^th October to 5^th November 2017. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories this week…?

• The heat is on — Tesla would probably have wanted better news to share during the Q3 earnings call. Without repeating the endless column inches already written, the explanations were troubling. Take it from a manufacturing engineer, a “burst run” of 500 or 1,000 units doesn’t tell you much about high volumes. It means we haven’t seen many (any?) of the myriad problems with supplier parts failing to meet run-at-rate and quality (e.g. Falcon doors). 5,000 per week by the end of Q1 looks optimistic given the progress so far. Also, a quick re-read of masterplan part deux reminded me that Tesla’s Model X-based minibus was going to be ready for unveiling this year. When will we hear more about this exciting event?
• So Solid Crew — If media reports are correct, Lamborghini is working on a solid-state battery for introduction in the next generation Huracán. I know that a PHEV battery isn’t the same thing as a BEV unit, but this could bode well for adoption by the rest of VAG.

Find our archive here.

SIGN UP FOR THE WEEKLY UPDATED TO BE EMAILED TO YOU HERE

News about the major automakers

BMW

• Recalling about 1 million vehicles in the US to correct problems with the wiring. (BBC)

Ford

• Bill Ford says in the past the company had “said too much” about its plans for autonomous driving and in response to criticism that the company wasn’t giving sufficient information for investors to have confidence in its future he said that clarity would be provided “when we’re ready”. (Detroit News)
• Ford’s Chariot on-demand bus service confirmed that it is working towards a launch of operations in London. (City AM) and its subscription car service Canvas will launch in a second city, LA. (Tech Crunch)
• French unions won a tribunal case against Ford saying that the company was violating the terms of a 2013 labour agreement where it committed to maintain 1,000 jobs at its Bordeaux site until May 2018. The union says that currently Ford only has 879 workers at the site. Workers are lobbying for the plant to be given a new transmission to produce. (Usine Nouvelle)

Geely (includes Volvo)

• According to a Malaysian government minister, Proton’s new factory in Tanjung Malam will have a capacity of 400,000 vehicles by 2022 and produce Volvo and Geely badged products alongside Proton vehicles. He said that the company plans to export 200,000 Protons cars to China and ASEAN markets. (New Straits Times)
• The London Electric Vehicle company lost a case to prevent Metrocab selling an electric taxi in London. LEV claimed that the vehicle’s exterior was too similar to its own design. (Cab Trade News)

General Motors

• Cruise invited media to an event on 28^th November, expected to be a Waymo-like demonstration. (TechCrunch)

Honda

• Announced Financial results for Q3 2017 / Fiscal Q2. Revenue of 3,776 billion yen was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis but profit was down (33)% YoY. Honda revised its year-end guidance upwards. (Honda)
• Working on a new battery technology ahead of a car launching in 2022 with a 15 minute charging time. (Nikkei)

Mazda

• Reported Q3 2017 / Fiscal Q2 results. Revenue of 854.5 billion yen was up 11% on a year-over-year basis. Operating profit of 36.6 billion yen was up 2% YoY. (Mazda)

Nissan (includes Mitsubishi)

• Reported Q3 2017 global sales of 1,414,864 units, an increase of 6% on a year-over-year basis. Sales were down (3)% in North America, but up in all other regions — by 26% in Japan. (Nissan)
• Said that it had decided fixes for the problems with its final inspection routines in Japan and would be soon implementing them across plants. (Nissan)

PSA (includes Opel/Vauxhall)

• The future plan for Opel / Vauxhall will be presented on 9^th (Opel)
• Announced the completion of the captive finance operations for Vauxhall and Opel and the appointment of a new management team. (PSA)
• Reportedly planning to add workers to the night shift in Mulhouse for production of 2008 and DS7. No new hiring will take place as the additional labour will come from the C4 / DS4 line. (Journal Auto)
• Suffered production stoppages in Rennes as temporary workers protested over wage slip irregularities. (France 3)

Renault

• The French government announced that it had reduced its stake in Renault to 15%. (Bloomberg)
• Dongfeng Renault outlined its strategy to 2022. The company aims to increase sales to 400,000 units annually. There will be nine local models, including three EVs, sold through 400 dealers. (Economic Times of India)

Suzuki

• Announced financial results for Q3 2017 / Q2 fiscal year. Revenue of 1,831 billion yen was up 22% year-over-year. Operating income of 173 billion yen was up 49.7% YoY. (Suzuki)

Tesla

• Announced Q3 2017 financial results. Automotive revenue of $2.362 billion was up 10% on a year-over-year basis. Total revenue of $2.985 billion was up 30% YoY. Net income from operations was a loss of $(535) million, compared with a profit of $86 million a year earlier. (Tesla)
  • Implication, although it isn’t attracting much attention, Tesla’s “Services and Other” line is running at a gross loss (i.e. excluding fixed cost) of around $(200) million per annum. The explanation that automotive gross margins were reduced due to Model 3 launch costs didn’t seem to fit the actual YoY drop very well since only a handful of units were produced.
• Tesla said that its Model 3 ramp-up was going more slowly than expected, meaning that it would reach 5,000 units per week at the end of Q1 2018, rather than Q4 2017 as previously guided. The company wouldn’t give firm guidance on when it might achieve 10,000 units per week. (Tesla)
  • Implication: despite having previously given the figures freely, Tesla said that it didn’t comment on vehicle-line specific orders. Ad Punctum’s analysis of Tesla financials indicates that the figure is probably between 410,000 – 465,000 units.
• The Daily Kanban published a story saying that Tesla’s production problems were of its own making, citing a source at a manufacturing equipment supplier who contrasted Tesla’s rushed approach with that of a conventional OEM (Daily Kanban)

Toyota

• Reported Q3 group production of 2,553,144 units, down (1)% on a year-over-year basis. (Toyota)
• Toyota AI Ventures said that it would be making further investments in Israeli companies. (Reuters)

VW Group

• The head of Volkswagen’s UK finance arm said that the company was working towards a full banking licence in the UK, which would help it raise funding in the same place as it issued loans. (Economic Times of India)
  • Implication: VW has two finance companies in the UK, one is a subsidiary of the main bank (passporting not required) but the other is a branch (Volkswagen Bank UK — would be affected by loss of passporting).
• Audi said that it would recall about 5,000 A8 vehicles to update their emissions software. (VW)
• Lamborghini will reportedly use a solid-state battery to create a plug-in hybrid version of the successor to the Huracán, to be introduced in 2022. (Autocar)

Other

• Ferrari issued financial results for Q3 2017. Revenues of €836 million were up 7% year-over-year, EBIT of €202 million was up 17% YoY. Ferrari raised its year end guidance. (Ferrari)
• The FBI’s investigation into corruption by UAW officials appears to have expanded beyond Fiat Chrysler, with union officials at GM reportedly under suspicion. (Detroit News)
• Gordon Murray Automotive announced that it would use the IGM brand for its in-house products. The company is opening a new manufacturing centre in Dunsfold, UK. (Gordon Murray Designs)
• Isuzu said that it had confirmed that some suppliers had used materials supplied by Kobe Steel that were affected by the company’s quality scandal, and it was working to establish the impact. Isuzu has not directly purchased any suspect material. (Isuzu)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

• US light vehicle industry for October was 17.98 million SAAR. (Wards)
• Registrations in Italy were 159,835 units in October, up 7% on a year-over-year basis. (UNRAE)
• Passenger car registrations in Spain were 94,676 units in October, up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. (Faconauto)
• French passenger car registrations for October of 176,496 units was an increase of 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Commercial vehicle registrations of 39,372 units were up 18.9% YoY. (CCFA)

Suppliers

• Delphi reported Q3 2017 financial results. Revenue of $4.3 billion was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis, excluding exchange, raw materials and the effect of M&A. Net income from continuing operations was $395 million. (Delphi)
• Continental announced that it would build a plant in Lithuania to supply electronics. The company will invest $95 million and expects to create 1,000 jobs. (Continental)
• Continental has acquired Argus Cyber Security to improve its offerings for secure connected vehicle communications. (Continental)
• Denso reported first half financial results. Revenue of 2,366 billion yen was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Operating profit of 204 billion yen was up 43.4% YoY. The company will increase its dividend. (Denso)
• Denso announced its operating targets for 2025. It is aiming for a 10% operating profit, partly through growth in mobility, electrification and automated driving. (Denso). Denso has also completed a previously announced share purchase in Fujitsu Ten and now that it is the majority shareholder, the name has changed to Denso Ten. (Denso)
• AAM reported Q3 financial results. Revenu of $1.72 billion was up over 70% on a year-over-year basis. Net income of $86 million was up 40% YoY. (AAM)
• Adient reported Q3 2017 / Fiscal Q4 results. Adjusted EBIT rose 3% on a year-over-year basis. (Adient)
• Paint specialist Akzo Nobel is reportedly considering a merger with Axalta. (Bloomberg)
• Bridgestone is reportedly increasing European capacity by 20% over the next five years. (Journal Auto)
  • Implication: famous last words and all that but regardless of exactly how everyone travels around in future the thing that seems most certain is that the vehicles are on tyres and the amount of miles travelled will go up rather than down. This means that whilst tyre makers almost certainly face challenges from low cost, commoditised brands, they can probably work on the basis of an ever-expanding market.
• Faurecia continued its Chinese expansion, this time creating a JV with BYD, which will be 70% controlled by Faurecia. (Faurecia)

Dealers

• German dealers have never been so happy. According to a survey, satisfaction with OEMs is at record levels and return on sales is improving, although still short of previous highs. (Autohaus)

Ride-Hailing, Car Sharing & Rental

• Grab said that it had reached one billion rides at the end of October. (Grab)
• Didi has entered into a strategic partnership with NEVS to create a charging network that Didi’s drivers and members of the public can use. Didi expects to have 1 million electric vehicles in its fleet by 2020. (Climate Action Programme)
• Ford’s Chariot on-demand bus service confirmed that it is working towards a launch of operations in London. (City AM)

Driverless / Autonomy

• Waymo gave a closed course demonstration to selected members of the media. (TechCrunch)
• Baidu has created a partnership with ride-hailing company Shoqi. The deal should help accelerate development of high resolution maps by increasing the fleet size. (Xinhua)
• High resolution radar supplier Arbe Robotics raised $9 million. Note that the company explicitly talks about Level 3 capability in its press releases. (Globes)
• Researchers have developed a new method for testing self-driving neural networks called DeepXplore. The idea is to run identical tests on several neural networks at once and spot bugs by identifying major differences in output. (IEEE)
• Waymo said that it would use US dealer AutoNation to service its autonomous test fleet. (International Business Times)
• Low-cost lidar developer Blickfeld raised $4.25 million in seed funding. (TechCrunch)

Electrification

• US draft tax legislation proposes to eliminate the tax credit for electric cars (up to $7,500 depending on how many vehicles the OEM has produced). (Detroit News)
• The European charging network set-up by BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW has been named Ionity. It aims to create 20 charging stations in 2017, with 400 sites planned by 2020. (Ford)
• The CEO of Workhorse said that it has $300 million worth of pre-orders for its W-15 plug-in hybrid pick-up truck. (autoblog)
• SF Motors has purchased a former military Humvee plant and intends to create 430 jobs when it reopens. (LA Times)

Connectivity

• Continental has acquired Argus Cyber Security to improve its offerings for secure connected vehicle communications. (Continental)

Other

• Mapbox has acquired Belarusian Mapdata. (TechCrunch)
• Porsche SE was amongst the investors in metal 3D printing company Markforged. (3D Printing Industry)