Monthly Archives: July 2018

Confirmed that it is raising the prices of some US-manufactured models in China to partially recover recently announced tariff increases. (Reuters)

Reported financial results for Q2 2018. Revenue of €40.8 billion was (1)% lower than Q2 2017. EBIT of €2.6 billion dropped (30)% YoY. Daimler’s 2018 full year guidance was reduced with the challenges of WLTP singled out as a contributing factor as the company believes customers will switch to lower margin units than wait for the vehicle they wanted — the company wasn’t clear whether this was because they will order different vehicles or because it will have to pay incremental variable marketing to keep the sale. (Daimler)
Hopes to have completed the legal steps necessary for its previously announced plan to separate the car and truck businesses by late 2019. Daimler will also rename financial services as Daimler Mobility. (Daimler)
Obtained employee agreement to the separation of its businesses by giving an employment guarantee that lasts until 2029 and a profit sharing agreement in place until 2025. The extensions will only come into force if Daimler shareholders approve the final split once all the legal arrangements are completed. (Daimler)
Unveiled the European version of the A-Class sedan, saying it will be on sale by the end of the year. (Daimler)
Signed a new agreement with Baidu that deepens the autonomous technology partnership and will see Baidu’s services integrated into Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment system. (Daimler)
Announced a new five year €11 billion credit line, which can potentially be extended to 2025. This replaces Daimler’s previous €9 billion facility. (Daimler)
Adding battery production to vehicle plants in Sindelfingen and Untertuerkheim. (Reuters)

Reported financial results for Q2 2018. FCA sold 1.3 million vehicles with net revenue of €28.993 billion. Adjusted EBIT of €1.655 billion was down (11)% on a year-over-year basis. A highlight was FCA reaching a positive net cash position for the first time as a combined entity. The company reduced full year guidance. (FCA)
Following the death of Sergio Marchionne shortly after being relieved of duty, questions were raised over unspecified treatment he had been receiving in the past 12 months and who knew what about his condition. (Reuters)
Said that it had not noticed any anti-American sentiment from Chinese customers, but that “we’re going to have to see” whether it develops into a larger problem. (Seeking Alpha)

Reported financial results for Q2 2018. Revenue of $38.9 billion was down (3)% on a year-over-year basis, net income of $1.1 billion was down (58)% YoY. The company blamed conditions in Europe and China for a full year earnings downgrade. (Ford)
Ford’s earnings presentation contained several slides laying out what the company termed a comparison between the accretive (money making) and dilutive (money losing) parts of the business. After “filtering for value creation”, the company intends to undergo a major, yet unspecified, restructuring which will see a likely EBIT impact of $11 billion and cash impact of $7 billion over the next three to five years. (Ford)
- Implication: Whilst Ford executives expressed repeated confidence in their planning ability, with numerous references to the “Way Forward” restructuring in North America dating back to 2006 (including the CFO’s admission that he might not be following corporate document retention policies), they failed to give analysts sufficient detail to gain their confidence. Ford was heavily criticised by investment analysts for its repeated failure to explain its future strategy. Executives refused to answer questions about the payback (justification for) on the restructuring sums that had been declared, the likely size of the company following restructuring, or how well specified the plan was.
Postponed the investor day previously scheduled for September to an undetermined point in the future. (Ford)
CEO Hackett said there will be 16 BEVs by 2022, all of which are “additions to our portfolio”. (Ford)
- Implication: Given the dearth of available product (Focus and large Transit), this is more of a statement of fact than insightful forecast, however it is likely that portfolio should be interpreted in terms of powertrain and body type combinations rather than an expectation of 16 fully differentiated vehicles by 2022.
Said the European light commercial vehicle business had EBIT margins of 13% on a standalone basis and that Britain had been responsible for the majority of the $1.2 billion of profit from the region in 2016. (Ford)
Announced the creation of a standalone business unit to hold its autonomous vehicle assets, including the company’s stake in Argo AI. The CEO of the new company is the executive previously in charge of autonomous vehicle efforts. Ford pledged that $4 billion will be invested in the unit by 2023, since this includes money already announced for Argo AI, it isn’t clear how much of this is money already spent. (Ford)
- Implication: Not mentioned in the press release was the fate of Ford Smart Mobility LLC, the arms-length vehicle originally announced to coordinate Ford’s investment in all things futuristic (originally described as “complimenting” the Argo AI investment). Ford also has yet to explain or demonstrate how it believes it can execute an entrepreneurial structure with greater success that GM did during its ownership of EDS (and fobbed off analysts who asked about it on the earnings call).
Changed several executive reporting relationships, with product development reporting directly to the CEO again, having spent about a year reporting to the (then) newly created operations function. (Ford)

Released further technical specifications for the BMA platform, saying it can accommodate vehicles with wheelbases between 2550mm – 2700mm long and a width of 1500mm – 1600mm. The platform uses “nearly 100” modules to achieve commonality levels of up to 70% between vehicles. (Geely)
Initial investor feedback on Volvo’s IPO reportedly indicates a $12 billion – $18 billion range, rather than the $16 billion – $18 billion Geely had apparently been hoping for. Either would be a substantial return on the $1.8 billion Geely paid to Ford in 2010. (Deal Street Asia)

General Motors ^(history)

Reported financial results for Q2 2018. Revenue of $36.8 billion was slightly down versus Q2 2017, with deliveries of 2.1 million vehicles slightly up (excluding Opel / Vauxhall from the prior year number). Adjusted EBIT of $3.195 billion was down by (20)%, more than explained by weaker mix and cost pressures. The company revised its full year guidance downwards. (GM)
Announced a peer-to-peer scheme for Maven that will let owners of 2015 or later GM vehicles add their cars to the service. GM suggested that owners of Camaros could make $19,278 renting their car for 12 weeks of the year, and Cruze owners could make $6,400. (GM)
Started trials with robo gloves in US factories. (3D Printing)

Produced 2,681,341 vehicles globally in the first half of 2018, a 3.7% increased on a year-over-year basis. (Honda)

Mazda

Released global production figures for first half 2018 of 833,274 units, a 6.3% increase on a year earlier. (Mazda)

Nissan reported net revenue of 2,716 billion yen (about $24.5 billion) in Q2 2018 (Nissan’s fiscal first quarter), down (1.6)% on a year over year basis. Operating Income of 109 billion yen (about $1 billion) was down (28.8)%, which Nissan blamed on lower sales and unfavourable exchange. (Nissan)
Mitsubishi reported financial results for Q2 2018 (fiscal first quarter). Net sales of 560 billion yen (about $5 billion) were up 19% versus the same period a year earlier. Operating profit of 28.1 billion yen (about $250 million) was up 7.5%. (Mitsubishi)
Said it is on track for its Japanese electric car sharing venture to reach 500 sites by March 2019. (Nissan)
Dropped the slow-selling Juke in the US market. (Car Buzz)
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi collectively sold 5,538,530 vehicles in the first half of 2018, an increase of 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. (RNA Alliance)

Reported financial results for first half of 2018 that markedly beat expectations. Automotive revenue of €32.1 billion was substantially up on a year-over-year basis, even accounting for the boost from Opel Vauxhall. Operating income in the Peugeot, Citroën and DS brands was €1,873 million, an increase of almost 30% on a year-over-year basis and a margin of 8.5% (excluding restructuring costs). For Opel and Vauxhall, a 5% margin (excluding restructuring costs) was reported, reversing many years of poor performance under GM, seemingly overnight. (PSA)
- Implication: The performance of both the core brands — achieving margins normally received for well-honed premium brands — and Opel / Vauxhall — left analysts struggling to be anything other than effusive. Given that PSA complained about its own performance in several regions, the obvious insinuation is that the European business is performing even better.
Said Opel / Vauxhall’s 7.5% margin turnaround on a half-over-half basis was: 1.7% pricing; 4.6% cost reduction; 2.1% of lower D&A (post write-downs), partially offset by (0.9)% of unfavourable exchange. Although, on a half-over-half basis, volumes seem to be up by around 17%, this was absent from the explanation. (Seeking Alpha)
Said that average revenue for the DS7 Crossback in Europe is €45,000 and more than 53% of customers were specifying the driver assistance system. (Seeking Alpha)
Will make an announcement on the future portfolio for the Indian market “very soon”. (Seeking Alpha)
Opel’s CEO said the announcement that the brand’s line-up would have electrified versions of all models by 2024 should be a “strong clue” that there will be no more GM-sourced products by that time. (Autocar)
Faurecia invested in stereo company Subpac. (Faurecia)

Reported financial results for first half 2018. Revenue of €29.957 billion was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis but EBIT was down (3)%. Net income of €2.040 billion was strongly down, reflecting lower profits at Nissan. (Renault)
Said that it expects to be able to price for around 2/3 of the currency devaluation it has experienced in emerging markets but, due to the scale of the drop and the market’s inability to absorb rapid price increases, it has so far only recovered around 50% of the effect. (Yahoo Finance)
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi collectively sold 5,538,530 vehicles in the first half of 2018, an increase of 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. (RNA Alliance)
Said it was “likely” to leave Iran due to US sanctions, reversing earlier confidence in finding a way to continue operations in the country. (Radio Farda)

Experiencing delivery delays with I-Pace, depending on who you ask it is because of “manufacturing issues” (the dealers) or “prioritisation” to best meet market demand (Jaguar). (Electrek)

Saw widespread interest in a request by Tesla for retrospective rebates from some of its suppliers. (WSJ)
- Implication: Media interest appears to have been piqued by two things: an explicit mention in emails Tesla sent to suppliers to supporting the company’s profits and; the requests being retroactive. Seeking price adjustments that date back to the start of negotiations over any saving is standard practice throughout the industry and completely unremarkable. Although it is rarer for savings to be applied to earlier points in time, this is not unheard of if the OEM believes that there are pricing elements, for instance capital recovery, that now look artificially high and the supplier is taking excess profits on an item that was negotiated based on cost-plus pricing.
CEO Musk said the company was “trying” to get rid of contracts and enable customers to return a vehicle “for any reason”, but with no comment forthcoming on timing, it wasn’t clear how hard they were trying. (Business Insider)

Announced 2018 first half sales of 5,209,000 units, a (1.6)% reduction from the same period in 2017. Production of 5,249,052 vehicles was (0.7)% lower. (Toyota)
Reportedly planning a wider portfolio of fuel cell vehicles in the mid-2020s, covering cars, SUVs and pick-ups, with ranges of up to 1,000km. (Reuters)

Announced the recruitment of BMW’s head of purchasing; he is expected to become the new CEO of Audi. (VW)
Reportedly hired thousands of car parking spaces to park cars that will be held for sale until WLTP certification is completed. (Reuters)
Showed the new Audi Q3, saying the car will be in European dealers by November 2018. The vehicle boasts a removable parcel shelf that can be stowed in the boot floor rather than having to be taken out of the car. (Audi)
Started production of SEAT Arona and Leon in Algeria. (SEAT)
Audi’s new electric motor plant in Hungary has a capacity of 400 electric axle motors per day on a one shift pattern and will soon move to three shifts. (Audi)
- Implication: The production rate suggests that Audi expects production in excess of 50,000 upa for the new etron, and possibly up to 140,000. Audi also suggest (unsurprisingly) far greater productivity for employees making electric motors than for internal combustion engines, even at relatively low volumes.

Other

Gyon announced itself as a new luxury car company. The first cars from the Chinese-backed, US-designed range will be unveiled in August. (Gyon)
McLaren’s much-hyped new grand tourer, thus far dubbed BP-23, will be called the Speedtail. (Autocar)
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus will make 25 road-going examples of its SCG 007 LMP1 sports car. (SCG)
BAIC said it was on track to open its new South African plant in Q4 2018, with production equipment for semi-knocked-down kits already operational. (Wheels24)
Scooter maker Micro said the Microlino EV was on track to start sales in September. (Micro)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

EU researchers have allegedly found evidence of carmakers declaring WLTP emissions greater than the tested results, by an average of 4.5% in the vehicles tested. Their suspicion is this is a bid to overinflate the 2020 levels that will be used to set 2030 objectives. (Handelsblatt)

Suppliers

Magna’s new Chinese joint venture with BAIC is reportedly in talks with Didi and Singulato to provide bespoke electric vehicles for both companies. (Deal Street Asia)
Ningbo Jifeng said it had won a takeover battle for Grammer against Prevent. (Deal Street Asia)
Goodyear reported Q2 2018 financial results; sales were $3.8 billion and net income was $157 million. (Goodyerar)
Veoneer’s Q2 2018 financial results were net sales of $572 million and a $(48) million operating loss. (Veoneer)
Autoliv released financial results for Q2 2018; sales were $2.2 billion; operating income was $230 million. (Autoliv)
Lear reported sales of $5.6 billion and net income of $331 million for Q2 2018. (Lear)
Borg Warner’s net sales were $2.7 billion in Q2 2018, with operating income of $313 million. As a result, the company increased its full year earnings guidance. (Borg Warner)
Dana announced Q2 2018 sales of $2.1 billion and net income of $124 million. (Dana)
Michelin reported net sales of €10.6 billion in H1 2018, with €1.35 billion of operating income. (Michelin)
Adient reported financial results for Q2 2018 (Q3 in Adient’s fiscal year). Revenue was $4.494 billion and EBIT was $99 million. (Adient)
Valeo reported sales of €9.9 billion and net income of €453 million in the first half of 2018. The company revised its earnings guidance downwards, citing raw material headwinds and production disruption from WLTP. (Valeo)

Uber said it completed its 10 billionth trip in mid-June. (Uber)
Careem said it had completed 300 million trips, covering 3.019 billion km. (Careem)
Ola’s CEO is hoping for an IPO in the next 3-4 years, saying the business is nearly cashflow positive. (TechCrunch)
Uber users have been warned to be aware of vomit fraud, an unseemly racket by drivers to charge passengers cleaning charges for being sick during the journey when they weren’t. (Gizmodo)
- Implication: As Uber implicitly admits in its reply to the article, with a massive user base, nearly any and every cautionary tale is likely to be true in a few cases. If well organised trolls and bots can supposedly undermine democratic processes, how long before we see them being used against company reputations?

Waymo is running a pilot scheme with Walmart where shoppers order goods online and then collect them from a local store in an autonomous vehicle. It isn’t fully clear why the service isn’t offering to simply transport the goods directly. Waymo also announced an increased series of tie-ups in Phoenix, USA aimed at funnelling easy to service customers from major corporate partners such as dealers, rental companies and hotels. (Waymo)
Uber restarted operations of its autonomous test fleet in Pittsburgh, USA but the cars will remain in manual mode, gathering data for simulation and mapping, for an unspecified period of time. (Uber)

After earlier announcing trials in four regions, China said 17 cities will have trial EV battery recycling schemes and will work on a set of attractive policies to encourage uptake. (Reuters)
Charging network Volta, which uses advertising to fund electricity costs, raised $35 million. (TechCrunch)

Connectivity

Bosch estimates that 20 million connected cars will be required be become self-sufficient in local weather data on European highways and therefore believes V2V infrastructure needs to be augmented with fixed sensors. (Bosch)

Other

SpotAngels, an app that helps people find parking, raised $2.3 million. (TechCrunch)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 22nd July 2018

July 23, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

A new CEO at FCA, e-scooters score first blood over taxis and a forgetful CEO at Tesla. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 16^th July to 22^nd July. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

Goodbye My Friend — Sergio Marchionne stepped down from his post as CEO of FCA unexpectedly early. Many are still marvelling at how he managed to take a company in such a ghastly state that GM paid billions to avoid buying it and make it respectable enough that he got close enough to touch the dandruff on Donald Trump’s shoulders. Timing and luck? Partly, but it was mainly down to persistence and disciplined capital allocation. The result has been a hollowing out of the Fiat portfolio and a reliance on SUVs and trucks but could anyone else have done better with the same cards?
Jump (For My Love) — Uber indicated that adding Jump e-scooters to its app was a net positive but led to a fall in bookings for ride hailing, unless it was raining. Unlike car makers, electric scooter manufacturers seem happy to adapt their designs for the needs of the companies using them. Might they become even more popular as designs improve?
Man In The Mirror — Elon Musk has raged at suggestions that orders for the Model 3 are declining and is demanding to know the source of the information. Umm… how about himself and his company’s PR department? He said in Q2 2017’s earnings call that there were 455,000 orders and a recent Tesla press release said there were 420,000 orders remaining after delivering 28,386 cars. Quick maths shows a shortfall of about 6,600..?

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

Launched a new version of the ReachNow service in Seattle which offers both car rental and ride hailing. (Wired)
Showed off a new non-destructive structural analysis system using X Ray scanners mounted on robots. (BMW)

Announced that CEO Marchionne was stepping down early for health reasons and will be replaced by head of the Jeep and Ram brands Mike Manley. (FCA)
FCA’s EMEA head resigned after being passed over for the CEO role. (CNBC)
Production of the Punto model will end in August. (FAZ)
Has reportedly begun setting up the legal entities that will be used for the spin-off of Magneti Marelli. (Reuters)
Announced a €420 million four year, low interest loan from the European Investment Bank. (FCA)

Ferrari

Announced that CEO and Chairman Marchionne was stepping down early for health reasons and will be replaced as Chairman by John Elkann and CEO by Louis Camilleri. (Ferrari)

Reached a settlement that gives Ford $299 million from Takata as partial compensation for recall costs. (Reuters)
Launching a chatbot, from Botnik.ai, to answer questions from French customers on social networks. (Journal Auto)
Set a sales target of 2,800 all-electric Transit van sales in Europe for 2018. (Automotive News)
Confirmed that it was still intending to build 1,000 examples of the GT, despite production being behind schedule, indicating a production run of longer than the initially planned four years. (Motor Authority)
Announced two safety recalls for around 550,000 vehicles in the US. One corrects potential gearchange issues that could allow the vehicle to roll away. The second is a much smaller recall of heavy trucks. (Ford)

Volvo reported Q2 2018 revenues of 66 billion SEK (about $7.5 billion), up 27% on the same period a year ago. EBIT of 4.2 billion SEK (about $470 million) was up 29% YoY. The company has reduced its R&D as a % of revenue to 4.1%. (Volvo)
Will export XC60 SUVs to the USA from Europe rather than China in a bid to avoid tariffs. (Reuters)
Geely-owned Terrafugia said it was on track to launch its first flying car in 2019. (Terrafugia)
The Polestar 2 SUV will have a UK price of between £30,000 – £50,000 and range of up to 350 miles. Volvo has taken 600 orders for the Polestar 1, the company previously set a 500 units per year production target. (Autocar)
Announced a series of asset purchases in China between affiliates. (Gasgoo)

Honda and Panasonic are planning a trial involving battery swapping for motorcycles. There will be several sites with chargers where customers can drop off depleted battery packs and put in a fully charged one. (Business Leader)

Launched a digital showroom on Amazon that will let buyers browse Hyundai products and then directs them to a dealer for a final purchase. (Hyundai)
Reached a wage agreement with South Korean unions. (Reuters)
Will develop a standalone halo model for the N sports sub-brand, but hasn’t yet finalised the design. (Auto Express)

Mazda

Will resume full production at plants disrupted by flooding on Monday 23^rd (NHK)

Faurecia reported financial results for the first half 2018. Sales of €9.0 billion were up 10.9% versus a year earlier when excluding currency effects. Operating income of €647 million was up 11% YoY. The company saw growth in revenue across segments and regions. Faurecia increased its full year guidance. (Faurecia)
Developed a shortlist of 15 US states and four Canadian provinces for a base of operations supporting PSA’s re-entry into the US market. (Motor1)

Tata Motors has reportedly restarted talks to sell a share in its engineering arm. (Hindustan Times)

CEO Musk and Tesla PR said reports that Model 3 net orders were falling were false. They probably need to pay more careful attention to their own statements. In the Q2 2017 earnings call, he said there were roughly 455,000 orders, the other week Tesla said there were roughly 420,000 outstanding orders, having delivered 28,386 cars. 455,000 – 420,000 – 28,386 = 6,614 missing, or cancelled, orders. Perhaps Tesla choose to measure net orders by their own definition? (Business Insider)
Panasonic suspending its relationship with a supplier over cobalt supplies that may be in breach of sanctions against Cuba. Batteries containing the affected material have been installed in Teslas since the beginning of the year but it is unclear whether there is any legal issue. (Reuters)

Will close a plant in Shizuoka, Japan due to low production volumes — around 50,000 units per year. All workers are being transferred to other nearby plants. (Mainichi)

New CEO Diess is reportedly setting elevated internal profit objectives. Audi has been told to achieve a return on sales of 12% and Porsche needs to maintain a level of 15%, with Diess pushing back on complaints that the brand cannot contain the costs of electrification in its business plan. (Manager Magazin)
VW Group delivered 2,839,200 vehicles in Q2 2018, an increase of 6.7% over the same period in 2017. (VW)
Reducing production in Brazil for a month, affecting around 1,000 factory workers. (Reuters)
Executives said a fourth Lamborghini model was unlikely before 2024. (Autocar)
Will localise production of the ID Buzz and ID Crozz in the USA. (Autocar)
Škoda invested in app-based AI developer Anagog. Porsche already has a stake in the company. (VW)

Other

Several OEMs including FCA, Ford, GM, Toyota, VW and Tesla were exposed to a data breach after it emerged a sub supplier had stored sensitive manufacturing technology documents on an unprotected server. (Detroit News)
Pininfarina revealed some of the intended performance specifications for the forthcoming PFO electric supercar. The top speed is expected to be 250 mph and the car will accelerate from 0 – 60 in under two seconds. The range of 300 miles and charging time of around 15 minutes is like Porsche’s claims about the Mission e / Taycan, although the top speed and acceleration suggest a significantly larger battery pack could be required. (The Verge)
Mahindra sold 140,101 vehicles in Q2 2018, a 20% increase on the prior year. (Mahindra)
Aston Martin showed off a virtual concept for a small flying vehicle dubbed the Volante Vision. (Aston Martin)
- Implication: Although at this stage, the concept doesn’t appear sufficiently developed to take seriously, it merits further thought as to the type of combined mobility offerings brands might need to offer to ensure private ownership remains compelling in a world of autonomous vehicles. Then again, the super-rich have never insisted on buying boats from the same place as their cars. Perhaps Aston Martin executives have simply spent a lot of time watching Elysium, the 2013 action romp starring Matt Damon and featuring a Bugatti rocket pod?

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

Germany’s chancellor hopes the government will make a final decision on whether to require diesel retrofits by the end of September. (Reuters)
US automakers complained that the Trump administration had asked for an unnecessarily large amount of commercially sensitive data in its probe into automotive tariffs. (Detroit Free Press)

Suppliers

Continental said it would split into three groups: rubber; automotive and powertrain. The powertrain operations will then have an IPO in mid-2019 but Continental said it does not intend to “relinquish control of the Powertrain business in the medium or long term”. Part of the logic appears to be to attract external investment in new technologies, such as batteries. (Continental)
Asahi Kasei has agreed a takeover of interiors maker Sage Automotive for $700 million. (Asahi Kasei)
Engineering services company Segula acquired plastics specialist Activetech. (Segula)
UNO Minda will acquire German automotive software supplier iSYS RTS. (Autocar)
Faurecia reported financial results for the first half 2018. Sales of €9.0 billion were up 10.9% versus a year earlier when excluding currency effects. Operating income of €647 million was up 11% YoY. The company saw growth in revenue across segments and regions. Faurecia increased its full year guidance. (Faurecia)

Dealers

US dealer group Sonic Automotive said Q2 results had been negatively affected by OEMs reducing the incentives they were offering dealers. (Sonic)
US short term leasing company Mobiliti acquired start-up rival Condor. (Mobiliti)

Didi saw the owner of com take a $500 million stake. (Fortune)
Didi is reportedly looking to spin off its car services unit that provides cars, servicing and fuel, and raise around $1.5 billion in the process. (Economic Times of India)
French car sharing operator Totem says that it can break even with monthly revenue of €450 per vehicle and believes this will help it expand through offering franchises. (Journal Auto)
HyreCar and DriveItAway, two companies that provide access to vehicles for ride sharing drivers said they were forming a strategic partnership. (HyreCar)
Link Motion sold a 58% stake in itself to a Chinese investment vehicle. (Link Motion)
Lyft executives said the reported $250 million purchase price for bicycle rental firm Motivate was inaccurate, without providing further information. (Fortune)
Uber researchers said that after launching services that integrated the recently acquired Jump e-scooter rental offering, overall trip bookings increased but ride hailing’s share fell, in preference to scooter rental. (Uber)
Uber lost the closest thing it had to a CFO when the finance leader left for another start-up. (Fortune)
BMW launched a new version of ReachNow in Seattle which offers both car rental and ride hailing. (Wired)

ZF executives said they expect take-up of private autonomous vehicles to lag commercial vehicles due to cost and reliability concerns. (Journal Auto)
Waymo has now reached 8 million miles driven on public roads in autonomous mode. (The Verge)
Rinspeed is putting a product based on the Snap Motion, an autonomous vehicle built on a flexible skateboard-type chassis into limited production for proof of concept applications. (Rinspeed)
Zoox is reportedly raising $500 million in a round that will value the company at $3.2 billion. (TechCrunch)
Self-driving truck start-up Embark raised $30 million. (Fortune)
Apple’s testing program has grown, with 66 self-driving cars registered for testing in California. (9to5Mac)
Coast Automotive unveiled its P-1 autonomous minibus. (Venturebeat)
The deputy head of US highways regulator NHTSA said it was too early to put rules in place for driverless vehicles but that the agency is continually trying to assess when it would be “appropriate” to do so. (Automotive News)

A recent article said there are 487 prospective electric vehicle makers in China. (WSJ)
Panasonic suspending its relationship with a supplier over cobalt supplies that may be in breach of sanctions against Cuba. Batteries containing the affected material have been installed in Teslas since the beginning of the year but it is unclear whether there is any legal issue. (Reuters)
Honda and Panasonic are planning a trial involving battery swapping for motorcycles. There will be several sites with chargers where customers can drop off depleted battery packs and put in a fully charged one. (Business Leader)

Other

Geely-owned Terrafugia said it was on track to launch its first flying car in 2019. (Terrafugia)
Light, a maker of sophisticated camera sensors, said it had raised $121 million in a round led by SoftBank and that it was looking at automotive applications for the technology. (Light)
On-demand car care company Spiffy raised $9 million. (Spiffy)
Bird said it will start a discounted scheme for customers who receive federal assistance. (Bird)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 15th July 2018

July 16, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

The demise of cheap motoring, a Brexit that pleases the automotive industry and parking spaces for autonomous vehicles. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 9^th July to 15^th July. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

Mixed Emotions — The Tata Nano is no more. What did we all learn from the experience? Was the instinct that people wanted cheap cars wrong? Initial reservations suggested Tata was onto something but the problem was with the execution. That isn’t a criticism of Tata, who took on a challenge so hard no one else has tried anything similar. Perhaps the way forward is cheaply refurbishing existing vehicles? If the industry can’t work out the answer, it runs the risk that the middle class in emerging markets may never opt for car ownership, preferring per mile payments instead (take an Ola cab in India if you aren’t sure of why that might make economic sense from their point of view).
You Can’t Always Get What You Want — The UK Government unveiled its white paper for detailed post-Brexit negotiations. If you are an automotive OEM or Tier 1 it pretty much ticks all the boxes: zero tariffs; no border checks; a mysterious “common rulebook”; trusted trader status; a sort of free movement for key talent and even diagonal cumulation of local content. So far so good, but will the EU agree? The Achilles heel of the UK’s plan could be the EU not wanting to give concessions it knows could cause a whole load of other agreements (e.g. EFTA, EEA, Turkey) to be revisited.
Fortune Teller — Although we’ve yet to see autonomous cars on the roads, companies are offering parking spaces tailored to their requirements. Although some of this is headline grabbing, it shows that infrastructure providers are starting to think about the opportunities for them. That can only help…

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

Sold 1,242,507 vehicles in the first six months, up 1.8% on the same period in 2017. (BMW)
Working towards majority ownership of its Chinese joint venture with Brilliance. (Der Spiegel)
Re-affirmed plans to increase production in South Carolina, USA, despite capacity increases in China. (KVEO)
Joined Baidu’s Project Apollo, securing a board seat. The two companies had dissolved an earlier partnership. (BMW)

Daimler’s autonomous vehicle program will be underpinned by Nvidia electronics. (Daimler)
The IG Metall union announced an agreement to improve the terms for temporary Daimler employees sourced from the Dekra agency at the Rastatt plant that creates a path to guaranteed employment. (IG Metall)
Will run a pilot autonomous ride hailing service in San Francisco, starting in 2019, in partnership with Bosch. The scheme will also integrate car sharing and multi-modal services. (Daimler)

A much-hyped strike by Fiat workers in Turin protesting the extravagant signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by Agnelli family-owned Juventus football club turned out to be a non-event. (Bloomberg)

Reportedly using the Fusion nameplate for a new high roofed hatchback to replace the current model. (Detroit News)

Announced a new modular platform for smaller Geely branded vehicles (sitting beneath the CMA platform led by Volvo) called BMA. Powertrain offerings include ICE, 48V and PHEV. (Geely)

Stopped production of the Fit and HR-V in Celaya, Mexico until the end of July, due to flooding. (Honda)

Hyundai’s CRADLE fund announced an investment in solid state battery developer Ionic Materials. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is already an investor. (Hyundai)
Hyundai and Baidu signed a far-reaching agreement on connectivity and voice recognition, like the one Baidu agreed with Ford. (Hyundai)

If demand is sufficient, Nissan will build 50 GT-R50 supercars, with a likely price tag of €900,000 each. (Top Gear)

Sold 2,181,800 vehicles in the first half of 2018, an increase in 1.9% on a like-for-like basis (PSA’s headline figure YoY of 38.1% includes inorganic growth from the purchase of Opel / Vauxhall. (PSA)
Opel vehicles are reportedly the subject of investigation by the German regulator, the KBA, with up to 60,000 vehicles under suspicion of failing to meet emissions standards. (Bild)

Renault sold 2,067,695 vehicles in the first six months of 2018, an increase of 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Although the news was mostly good, sales declined markedly at Renault Samsung. (Renault)
Increasing production of Zoe to 440 units per day. (Automotive News)
Will increase production of Alpine models from 15 per day to 20 per day. (Auto Evolution)

Stopped production of the Nano after a dramatic fall in sales. (Autocar)
An Indian court rejected the case brought by the ex-Chairman against his dismissal after it concluded he tried to concentrate too much power. (Economic Times of India)
Tata Motors took a 26% stake in freight aggregator TruckEasy. (Tata Motors)
Moody’s downgraded Tata Motors to Ba2. (News 18)

Agreed the terms for a new factory in Shanghai, China, with annual capacity of 500,000 units. (BBC)
Reached a milestone of 200,000 sales in the US, meaning that buyers no longer receive a federal subsidy. (Reuters)
Saw an employee branded a “saboteur” by CEO Musk report the company to the SEC, alleging misstatements on production figures for Model 3. (Bloomberg)
Raised prices in China by around 20%. (Reuters)
CEO Musk gave an in-depth interview where he acknowledged the company didn’t listen to doubters about the Model 3 production process because he had been told Tesla was doing it wrong for the last 15 years. He appeared to set a target for the Model Y unveil to be in March 2019. (Bloomberg)

Announced a new car sharing program called Hui, operating in Hawaii. (Toyota)

Appointed the head of strategy to lead the VW commercial vehicle brand. (VW)

Other

McLaren announced an updated business plan that takes the company to 2025. The company is aiming for 6,000 units per year in sales and all mainstream models will feature 100% hybrid electric powertrains. Through their localisation program McLaren are aiming for 57% UK content by value. McLaren confirmed a successor to the P1, with powertrain options reportedly under review. (McLaren)
Vazirani Automotive unveiled the Shul, a supercar powered by turbines feeding electric motors in the wheels. (Autocar)
Noble Automotive will sell a fibreglass-bodied entry-level model called the M500. (Autocar)
Electra Meccanica announced the start of production of the Solo electric vehicle. (Electra)
Dendrobium will manufacture the D-1 electric supercar in the UK. (Dendrobium)
Xiaopeng Motors denied that the employee at the centre of a case over stolen Apple autonomous vehicle secrets had passed anything on to them. (Reuters)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

The UK Government set out more detail on its “Road to Zero” strategy (not yet law). The government wants 50% of cars and 40% of vans sold in 2030 to have significant zero emissions capability; to end sales of vehicles without any zero emissions capability by 2040 and for “almost every car and van” on sale to be zero emissions by 2050. By 2030 the target is for all government vehicles to be zero emission capable, in a bid top spur supply. (UK Govt)
The UK Government set out its detailed aims for post-Brexit trade with the EU. True to its word, the government has steered clear of any existing mechanism, instead proposing an EFTA-like relationship with a series of new buzzwords to explain slight differences to existing mechanisms: for instance, there is no customs union, there is a “facilitated customs arrangement”. There is no participation in the single market, but there is “free trade area for goods” where a sufficiently detailed “common rulebook” ensures frictionless trade are maintained. (UK Govt)
- Implication: Within days of publishing the white paper, the government was already conceding amendments from its own side, so the final aims of the negotiation with the EU is unclear. Automotive businesses will have been pleased by the inclusion of the following: (1) zero tariffs, (2) regulatory alignment (3) zero border controls (4) trusted trader status for tariff declarations (5) something approximating free movement of key staff (6) an effort to gain diagonal cumulation of local content through the EU’s existing free trade agreements with 3^rd parties (this won’t be easy) (7) Although passporting for financial services is explicitly excluded, and would have been welcome, this only affected some OEMs, who in any case have made alternative arrangements whilst the government decided how to approach the matter. The white paper also implied the UK would uphold, or be more stringent than, EU rules on CO₂ from vehicles.
Two European Parliament committees voted in favour of a 30% reduction in CO₂ from cars between 2021 and 2030, a key step in putting the new rules before the full parliament. (Autovista)

Suppliers

Michelin will acquire off road tyre maker Camso for $1.45 billion. (Michelin)
German employees of casting supplier Neue Halberg Guss continued to try to apply pressure on new owners Prevent Group for job security. (IG Metall)
Aptiv is acquiring connected equipment specialist Winchester Interconnect for $650 million. (Aptiv)
Faurecia is opening a new factory in Michigan, USA. The $11 million plant will employ 100 people. (Faurecia)
Continental is acquiring tool supplier VÚK spol. (Continental)

Chinese carmakers FAW Group, Dongfeng and Changan have set up their ride hailing concern, the catchily named T3 Mobile Travel Services. (Deal Street Asia)
Toyota announced a new car sharing program called Hui, operating in Hawaii. (Toyota)
Coach trip charter and sharing service Skedaddle is reportedly a target for both Lyft and Uber. (TechCrunch)
Gett is reportedly considering exiting the US market and selling Juno. (Bloomberg)
Uber invested in electric scooter rental firm Lime. (Lime)
Malaysia’s competition regulator said it was taking a closer look at the Uber / Grab (Reuters).
Didi signed Continental as a partner for its program to make a purpose-built ride hailing vehicle, ready for launch by 2020. (Brinkwire)

Parking aggregator SpotHero says it has 500 AV-ready parking spots in Chicago. (Venture Beat)
Autonomous vehicle developer ai raised $102 million. (Deal Street Asia)
High resolution radar developer Arbe Robotics announced $10 million in fund raising. (Arbe)
Baraja is ready to start shipping units of its new Spectrum-Scan modular lidar system, the specification of the units in terms of range, resolution and wavelength is unclear. (Baraja)
The Vietnamese government granted a licence for autonomous vehicle trials to local firm FPT Software. (Xinhua)
Daimler’s autonomous vehicle program will be underpinned by Nvidia electronics. (Daimler)
Daimler will run a pilot autonomous ride hailing service in San Francisco, starting in 2019, in partnership with Bosch. The scheme will also integrate car sharing and multi-modal services. (Daimler)
BMW joined Baidu’s Project Apollo, securing a board seat. (BMW)

Panasonic executives said the company has prototype batteries with 50% the cobalt content of current units and will have them on sale in two to three years. (Reuters)
Electric commercial vehicle maker Workhorse raised $6.1 million in debt. (Workhorse)
Hyundai’s CRADLE fund announced an investment in solid state battery developer Ionic Materials. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is already an investor. (Hyundai)

Connectivity

Several carmakers signed a letter to the EU arguing for the C-V2X connectivity standard to be adopted in preference to C-ITS. (Reuters)
Voxx Automotive and UniKey formed a strategic partnership to develop secure smartphone-based keys. (VOXX)

Other

Electric scooter rental firm Lime is raising $335 million. (Lime)
Indian bicycle rental firm Mobycy is reportedly close to $3 million in funding. (Economic Times of India)
Google says its drone delivery service, Wing, is mature enough to become an independent business unit. (Google)
Rolls-Royce (the engine maker, not the BMW brand) said it was working on a flying taxi. (Reuters)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 8th July 2018

July 9, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

A drop in demand for Model 3, high resolution lidar and PSA downsizing by stealth. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 2^nd July to 8^th July. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

I’ll Be Missing You — Tesla has 420,000 Model 3 orders on the books, after delivering 28,000 of them to happy customers. That’s brilliant news, but hold on a second, Elon Musk said at Q2 last year they had 455,000. Where have the missing orders gone? Tired of waiting for Tesla to deliver? Wanted the bragging rights that come with a refundable deposit but can’t afford the whole car? Hopefully Tesla have some idea because the former is (sort of) better news than the latter.
Lights, Camera, Action! — Neuvition unveiled a snazzy new lidar with 480 lines and a claimed 200 metre range, plus an inbuilt sensor fusion with a camera so that it can make those great looking photo-on-point-cloud animations that normally require lots of post-processing. Question is… does the product deliver on the implied promises of the specs, and how much of a difference does it make to object recognition?
Come With Me — PSA seem interested in a sale of Opel’s engineering centre and all who sail in her. Unbelievable that this comes so soon after Opel became PSA’s centre of excellence for all-important kit such as: internal combustion engines; manual transmissions; seats… erm… restraint systems. It reminds me of that story from Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy where all the really important citizens of Golgafrincham were sent away on a spaceship to find a new place to live but the others never followed…

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

Sold 594,528 vehicles in Q2 2018, the strongest ever quarterly performance and an increase of 1.9% on the same period a year earlier. (Daimler)
Halted production of a diesel engine for heavy trucks (only on sale outside Europe) because real world emissions could exceed certified test results. (Bloomberg)
Reportedly ended a joint project with Nissan’s Infiniti brand to produce a luxury compact car. (Automotive News)

CEO Marchionne said there is nothing brand-specific about electrified technology and the components can be “easily shared”. (Autocar)
Said it had developed a new type of aluminium alloy that would allow engines to run hotter. (FCA)

Volvo sold 317,639 cars in the first half of 2018, a 14.4% increase on the same period in 2017, with improvements across regions. (Volvo)
Volvo launched a new mobility brand called M, initially it will offer car sharing services. (Volvo)
Selling its stake in ChinaHybrid System Co. (Gasgoo)

Hyundai sold 1,194,217 cars in Q2 2018, an increase of 10.8% on a year earlier. (Hyundai)
Invested in Autotalks, a creator of chips that facilitate communication between cars and the internet of things. The two companies also agreed a strategic collaboration. (Hyundai)
South Korean unions voted to strike in a disagreement over the annual wage increase. (Reuters)

Mazda

Halted weekend shifts in Hiroshima due to flooding. (LiveMint)

Disclosed that end of line emissions tests had been falsified at some Japanese factories. The implications remain unclear without knowing to what extent measured values deviated from homologation. (BBC)
Daimler reportedly ended a joint project with Infiniti to produce a luxury compact car. (Automotive News)

Exploring a full or partial sale of Opel’s R&D facilities, according to leaked internal documents from May, with four engineering service providers having been approached. The targeted areas, affecting 3,980 employees, could reportedly create a business worth €500 million. German unions pushed back against the idea. (Reuters)
Faurecia said it had finalised terms for the long-planned takeover of Parrot. (Faurecia)
Created an artificial intelligence lab based in France. (PSA)
Starting Free2Move branded car sharing in Paris, potentially in competition with Bolloré (and now Renault). (PSA)
Reportedly working on an all-electric Peugeot 208 GTi hot hatchback. It is already clear that the 208 range will feature a BEV in some form. (Evo)

Karhoo said that it now has a fleet equivalent to 51,000 vehicles in the UK. (Fleet Europe)
Starting a new car sharing scheme in Paris, potentially in competition with Bolloré (and now PSA). (Renault)

Suzuki

Suzuki’s chairman said the company aims to control 50% of the Indian market, even as the industry grows to 10 million units per annum, which Suzuki believes will be around 2030. (Nikkei)

JLR sold 318,219 units in the first half of 2018, about flat from the same period in 2017. (JLR)
Publicly called on the UK government to do a better job on delivering a stable business environment post Brexit saying that the company would lose £1.2 billion in profits through a “bad Brexit deal”. The company said £80 billion of spending over five years would be at risk, a figure which includes vehicle bill of material spending. (JLR)
Confirmed that the financial plans for JLR shared at a recent analyst’s briefing did not include assumptions for a “worst case Brexit scenario”. (Tata)

Delivered 40,740 units in Q2 2018, 18,440 of which were Model 3, falling drastically short of most analyst’s estimates. Tesla produced 53,339 cars, of which 28,578 were Model 3. Both figures were records for the company. (Tesla)
Said reservations for the Model 3 stood at “roughly” 420,000 units with 28,386 cars delivered since the start of production. (Tesla)
- Implication: The combined figure is some way short of the 455,000 reservations that Elon Musk claimed in the Q2 2017 conference call — at the time, Musk claimed net new reservations were clocking up at a rate of “over 1,800 per day”. Are customers losing faith in the company’s ability to deliver or are there a large number of flaky depositors who could afford the refundable $1,000 but not the final vehicle?
Said the production rate of the new assembly line in a tent, dubbed GA4, was around 1,000 units per week, as opposed to around 5,000 per week expected from the original assembly line. (Tesla)
Tesla’s internal target for Model 3 production in Q2 was reportedly 36,020 units. (Business Insider)
Luxembourg’s testing body held a media event where the emergency braking of a Tesla Model S compared unfavourably with a Volvo. Tesla implied the event was a non-scientific publicity stunt. (Engadget)

Starting an all-electric car sharing service called WE from 2019 in Germany and internationally in 2020. The press release implied that scooters will become a part of the service offering. (VW)
Announced a series of moves aimed at making the components business more arms-length from the vehicle making parts of the group. (VW)
Scania stopped production of V8 engines due to a strike at a castings supplier. (Scania)
Lost a case preventing German prosecutors from reading the previously withheld investigation into the diesel scandal performed by law firm Jones Day. (Reuters)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

The British government failed to satisfy many industrialists over its Brexit The head of Airbus said ministers “had no clue” on how to execute Brexit without “severe harm”. (BBC). UK Brexit secretary David Davis resigned (BBC), although he said it was because of dissatisfaction with the government’s preferred deal, it could just be force of habit. (BBC)
US light vehicle sales in June of 1.54 million units represented a SAAR of 17.4 million, up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. (Wards)
Germany had 341,308 new passenger car registrations in June, an increase of 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. (KBA)
June passenger car registrations in the UK of 234,945 units were down (3.5)% on a year-over-year basis. (SMMT)
Passenger car registrations in France for June 2018 were up 9.2% on the same month a year earlier. (CCFA)

Suppliers

Autoliv completed the spin-off of its electronics division, now named Veoneer. (Autoliv)
Hyundai Mobis will increase R&D spend as a % of revenue from 7% to 10% by 2021. (Yonhap)
Varroc announced the acquisition of Sa-ba, as rumoured in June. (Varroc)
Magna’s CEO refused to directly answer questions about the firm developing and manufacturing bespoke vehicles for companies such as Lyft, but noted that Magna is “the largest independent company that can engineer and build vehicles”. (Automotive News)

Cabify denied that Lyft was interested in taking a stake. (TechCrunch)
Uber reported passed up on the chance to buy bicycle rental firm Motivate before Lyft snapped them up but was put off by the company’s unionized workforce. (CNBC)
Singapore’s competition commission said the merger of Uber and Grab had been unhealthy for competition and may force a separation unless its concerns can be allayed. (CNBC)
Karhoo said that it now has a fleet equivalent to 51,000 vehicles in the UK. (Fleet Europe)
VW is starting an all-electric car sharing service called WE from 2019 in Germany and internationally in 2020. The press release implied that scooters will become a part of the service offering. (VW)
Volvo launched a new mobility brand called M, initially it will offer car sharing services. (Volvo)
PSA and Renault both announced new all-electric car sharing schemes in Paris. (PSA) / (Renault)

Anthony Levandowski, formerly of Waymo and Uber, seems to have formed a new company called ai, but since the firm is still in stealth mode, no one knows for certain. (TechCrunch)
Neuvition announced a new lidar with 480 lines of resolution and a claimed range of 200 metres. (Neuvition)
- Implication: If the claims made for the hardware in terms of range and resolution are correct and the price is right, Neuvition may have just moved themselves to the front of the pack, especially as their solution boasts an integrated camera. Ground truth recognition in a box?
Civil servants running the UK road network expressed scepticism that autonomous vehicles would be widespread on city streets by 2021, but wouldn’t be surprised to see them operating on motorways. (New Civil Engineer)
Valeo joined the Project Apollo autonomous car collective led by Baidu. (Valeo)

Magna’s CEO reiterated his company’s relatively bearish forecast for electric vehicle market share — 5% by 2025, but has become more open minded on the very long term saying that 2030 is “anybody’s guess”. (Automotive News)
The Chinese government is reportedly planning a reduction in electric vehicle incentives in future, with range requirement increasing and per unit incentives going down. (Times of India)

Connectivity

Fleet security provider Trillium Secure raised $11 million. (CSO)

Find our archive here.

Auto Industry Briefing — week ending 1st July 2018

July 2, 2018 Ad Punctum TeamAd Punctum, Automotive0

A rosy forecast for dealerships, GM discounting and comparing what companies say about their driverless vehicles. Please enjoy our auto industry and mobility briefing for 25^th June to 1^st July. A PDF version can be found here.

Favourite stories of the past week…?

Stuck On You — In JLR’s latest briefing they are forecasting a global dealership network of 1,800 locations by 2023, a 15% increase from today. It will require, by JLR’s own maths, an investment of £6 billion by dealers (including the cost of renovating existing stores). How does all this tally with a trend for greater online transactions and, gasp, the end of retail?
Penny Lover — GM announced a special discount scheme aimed at members of the emergency services in the US. It comes of the back of a recent move to expand eligibility for its military discount program. Are these the first tremors of trouble in the US market, or just GM being patriotic?
Say You, Say Me — BMW said that their autonomous vehicles go around 330 km before a manual intervention. That makes Waymo’s disengagement figures almost 30 times better, yet BMW are working with FCA, who consider them good value despite having an inside track at… Waymo. It all points to an area where regulators could show some useful leadership… start offering virtual and real-world sites where driverless vehicles can be compared in the same circumstances.

News is arranged by company and topic. Stories that apply to more than one company or topic are duplicated.

Find our archive here.

News about the major automakers

Rolls-Royce’s CEO says its line-up is now complete and there will not be a smaller SUV below Cullinan. (Autocar)
Said it was committed to its UK sites and workforce, whatever the outcome of Brexit. (Business Insider)
Executives said that BMW currently had a disengagement rate in testing of approximately three times every 1,000 kilometres. This can potentially be compared with Waymo’s publicly recorded rate of around once per 9,000 km in California but it is unclear whether the testing conditions are similar. (Auto Express)
Signed a contract worth €1 billion with CATL to provide batteries from a new European plant. (Reuters)

Investing €600 million in South Africa to produce the next generation C Class and increase capacity. (Daimler)
Collaborating with Xilinx on in-car artificial intelligence. (Xilinx)

Rumours resurfaced (and were refuted) that Hyundai was interested in acquiring FCA re-surfaced. Supposedly, Hyundai executives have decided to buy FCA and are simply waiting for a drop in the share price. (CNET)
The FCA salesforce in the UK doesn’t seem to have been reading the company’s latest sales pronouncements, telling an industry publication that the fuel “still has a future” (maybe just not beyond 2022?). (Fleet News)

Agreed a partnership with Baidu to work on connectivity, digital marketing and artificial intelligence. The collaboration includes developing in-car infotainment based on Baidu’s existing AI toolset. (Ford)
Ford executives got drawn into an uncharacteristic spat with Tesla’s CEO. (CNBC)

General Motors ^(history)

Transferred ownership of its Vietnamese manufacturing operations to VinFast, who will also gain the local Chevrolet import concession. (VinFast)
Created a special pricing offer for emergency service workers in the US. This is the second move in recent months by GM to expand discounts to select groups — it previously expanded eligibility for former service personnel. (GM)
- Implication: The continued rollout of targeted high cost variable marketing by GM looks like a sign of nervousness about the US market, rather than a burst of patriotic pride.

Estimated that imposition of customs controls after Brexit would increase time for parts to pass through customs by between two and nine days. Honda says it currently keeps 36 hours of stock on hand and if there were delays of nine days it would need 300,000 square metres of warehousing. (CNBC)

Rumours resurfaced (and were refuted) that Hyundai was interested in acquiring FCA re-surfaced. Supposedly, Hyundai executives have decided to buy FCA and are simply waiting for a drop in the share price. (CNET)
Partnering with Finnish group Wärtsilä on stationary storage that utilises used electric car batteries. (Wärtsilä)
KIA sold 739,866 vehicles in Q2 2018, an increase of 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. (KIA)
Launched an all-inclusive payment option in the US called Hyundai PLUS. (Hyundai)

CEO Ghosn said the company was “in the dark” about what form Brexit would take and was therefore struggling to plan an appropriate response. (City AM)
Cancelling the sale of its battery business to GSR Capital because the buyer has not provided the funds it promised. The company will now consider its options. (Bloomberg)

Started production of the latest generation of light commercial vehicles (Peugeot Partner, Citroën Berlingo and Opel / Vauxhall Combo). (PSA)

Previewed a Russia market unique medium sized crossover that will likely relate to Kadjar in the same way as Kaptur does to Captur. (Autocar)

JLR’s expected powertrain mix in the medium term is 20% PHEV / BEV, 50% Gasoline and 30% diesel. (JLR)
Planning to increase its global dealer body from around 1,570 today to around 1,800 by 2023. (JLR)
Said electrification now accounts for 60% of its powertrain investment. (JLR)
Opened a new development centre in Manchester, UK to work on connected car technologies. (JLR)
Executives said JLR intends to build an EV in China and will release details within the next year. (Bloomberg)

Produced 5,000 Model 3 in 7 days, saying it was on track to reach 6,000 units per week in July. (CNBC)
Invited all Model 3 reservation holders in the USA and Canada to confirm their orders; in return they will have to hand over an additional $2,500. The $35,000 base specification vehicle is still available. (Detroit News)
Granted plant tours to selected journalists, who returned with stories of reactions that assembly line problems that sounded suspiciously like things that should have been identified in pre-Job#1 runs, rather than when the vehicle had already entered serial production. (New York Times)

Recalling around 115,000 units to correct potential fuel leaks. (Toyota)

Saw a final judgement in a case brought by minority shareholders in MAN over the company’s acquisition by VW Group. They will be offered a choice of a higher purchase price than originally offered or a dividend. (VW)
Completed the transition of the truck division into a distinct legal entity. (VW)
Audi partnered with Cognata to work on simulation of autonomous vehicles. (TechCrunch)
The launch event for the Audi e-tron SUV has been delayed, it isn’t clear whether this will affect the timing for production and sales. (Autocar)
Launched production in Rwanda. (VW)

Other

Chinese investor Evergrande took a 45% stake in Faraday Future. (Deal Street Asia)
VinFast announced that their forthcoming new vehicle will be a design licenced from General Motors. (VinFast)

News about other companies and trends

Economic / Political News

Carmakers mounted a resistance to Donald Trump’s proposed import tariffs. GM said the move had the potential to make them smaller whilst Toyota tried to ally national security concerns. (The Guardian)
Europe’s trade body for automakers called for more relaxed CO₂ targets for vans than passenger cars, arguing that whilst much of the technology behind the vehicles is the same, market conditions do not allow the same degree of efficiency that is being targeted for cars. (ACEA)
- Implication: ACEA’s arguments are put forward as absolute statements but there are notable holes: vans don’t have sufficient economies of scale, yet van nameplates outsell many passenger car models; vans use different technology, yet several OEMs trumpet their ability to build cars and vans from common platforms; the market hasn’t taken to the current PHEV and BEV van offerings, yet its hard to point to any compelling PHEV or BEV product that has been out in the market — the rise of projects like StreetScooter is testament to this.

Suppliers

Magna is to acquire lighting supplier OSLA in a €230 million deal. (Magna)
Lear held an investor day to talk about the outlook for its seating and electrical components business. (Lear)
Steelmaker Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board approved the proposed terms of its merger with Tata. (BBC)
ZF formed a joint venture with Go, called e.Go Moove, to produce autonomous buses and delivery vehicles, starting in 2019. ZF will supply many of the systems and forecasts production of “five digit volumes”. (ZF)

Uber’s London licence was reinstated after a court hearing. Both sides claimed victory; Uber is now operating under a 15 month probationary period rather than the five year licence it previously had. (BBC)

Waymo’s CEO said all the announcements around vehicle purchases so far (JLR I-Pace and Chrysler Pacifica) have been for intended services in the USA and that a “large number” would be needed for services in Europe. (Reuters)
US supermarket chain Kroger will run a driverless delivery pilot scheme in partnership with Nuro. (The Verge)