Ford values VW's scale, Mahindra's efficiency in tie-upsIn intensifying alliance talks with Germany's largest automaker, Ford Motor Co. is eyeing Volkswagen AG's available manufacturing capacity to help the Blue Oval revive its money-losing European business.
“We believe that if we can form this alliance with VW … it would give us the benefit of the increased scale of their business,” Steven Armstrong, president of Ford's operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Thursday. He added that an alliance with VW could “broaden” Ford's “product range.”
Details on the Volkswagen deal could come as soon as Tuesday at the Detroit auto show pending a scheduled meeting Friday of VW's governing supervisory board, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Under pressure to dramatically improve the financial performance of its regional businesses, Ford is seriously exploring sweeping automotive partnerships to help fix long-standing issues in Europe, South America and India, now on track to become one of the world's largest markets.
In Europe, Volkswagen would help Ford amplify its already-strong commercial vehicle business, and a successful partnership could bolster Ford's reputation and market share outside its U.S. stronghold, one sourcewith knowledge of the situation told The Detroit News.
Jim Farley, Ford president of global markets, said Wednesday evening in Detroit that ongoing discussions with the Mumbai-based Mahindra Group could unlock cost-savings for Ford as it attempts to get the proper products into the growing Indian auto market.
“Partnering, we explained about a year ago, was going to be a key part of Ford's future,” Farley said. “Boy, has it been eye-opening to work with Mahindra. The way they look at costs… It's an extremely fit company. They have real capabilities when it comes to reuse. We offer a lot. Emission certification, because emissions are getting real complicated in places like India.”
Negotiations with Mahindra to partner on SUVs and a small electric vehicle began in March following a series of memorandums of understanding and collaborations on other, smaller products. Details of the Mahindra partnership should become clear by the middle of this year,a source said Friday.
Partnering with largest SUV manufacturer in India could also help Ford sell a product that better fits the Indian market. Ford vehicles are currently too big and too expensive for the cost-focused Indian market.
Details on potential alliance with VW could come soon. Steven Armstrong, Ford president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Thursday Volkswagen's manufacturing scale in Europe could be a boon for the company. Ford is the leading commercial light vehicle seller in Europe, but has only the fourth-best manufacturing scale.
“Quantifying potential synergies for Ford from a partnership with VW is tricky,” Deutsche Bank wrote in a note Thursday. “But between the large combined spend on autonomous and electrification, and the potential for better capacity utilization in Europe or South America, we feel that Ford savings could ultimately amount to several billion dollars in case of a broad partnership.”
The automakers have for most of the past year been in broad-ranging discussions about partnering on everything from light commercial vehicles to electrification and autonomous vehicles. Both Ford and Volkswagen have repeatedly declined to comment about the nature of the partnership discussions, or when details might be announced.
Ford on Thursday announced it would cut thousands of jobs in Europe as part of an ongoing effort to turn the business around there. The Volkswagen partnership would be a vital part of Ford's future plans for Europe. Armstrong said Ford wouldn't have continued to sell in Europe if the strong commercial vehicles business — which it hopes to grow with Volkswagen's help — didn't have a future.
The companies have also discussed partnering on the more futuristic and expensive side of the business. The News reported in November that as part of the partnership talks, Volkswagen was considering a $1 billion-plus investment in Argo AI, the robotics and technology company majority-owned by Ford.
The potential investment in Argo was being considered as Ford and Volkswagen continue months-long talks on global partnerships, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Volkswagen also was considering a separate investment in Ford's in-house autonomous vehicle business, The News has previously reported.
The potential deals could result in both Ford and Volkswagen saving massive amounts of money as they invest in self-driving vehicles, aligning two of the world's largest automakers behind one of the biggest bets on the future of the auto industry. The companies could co-develop hardware and software for robotic vehicles, widen global market penetration and save money on software and licensing as a result of the partnership after the vehicles launch in 2021, the year Ford is targeting to put the vehicles on roads.
Ford and Volkswagen have also focused, among other things, on globally co-developing light-commercial vehicles. The two automakers and Argo hope to have some part of the autonomous vehicle deals finalized before the end of 2018, sources told The News in November.
VW CEO Herbert Diess said after a White House meeting in December that he might used Ford plant capacity in the U.S. to build cars. Ford executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. said then that the discussions were progressing well.
“Although there's been a lot of news about Volkswagen and Ford, Mahindra and Ford is also a very important opportunity,” Farley said. “There's a lot of potential.”
ithibodeau@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Ian_Thibodeau
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Author: Detroit News Online
Ford recalls over 953K vehicles to replace inflators
Ford recalls over 953K vehicles to replace inflatorsFord is recalling more than 953,000 vehicles worldwide to replace Takata passenger air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel.
The move includes over 782,000 vehicles in the U.S. and is part of the largest series of recalls in U.S. history.
Included are the 2010 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, the 2010 and 2011 Ford Ranger, the 2010 to 2012 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, the 2010 and 2011 Mercury Milan, and the 2010 to 2014 Ford Mustang.
Some of the recalls may be limited to specific geographic areas of the U.S.
Takata used the chemical ammonium nitrate to create an explosion to inflate air bags. But it can deteriorate over time due to heat and humidity and explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister designed to contain the explosion. At least 23 people have been killed worldwide and hundreds injured by the inflators.
Ford says it doesn’t know of any injuries in vehicles included in this recall. Dealers will replace the inflators.
Ford will notify owners about the recall starting on Feb. 18, and the company has replacement parts available for dealers to order, said spokeswoman Monique Brentley. In previous Takata recalls, parts availability had been an issue.
Owners can go to owner.ford.com and key in their vehicle identification number to see if their cars and SUVs are being recalled. The same information will be available soon at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
More than three years after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took over management of recalls involving Takata inflators, one third of the recalled inflators still have not been replaced, according to an annual report from the government and a court-appointed monitor.
The report says 16.7 million faulty inflators out of 50 million under recall have yet to be replaced. And 10 million more inflators are scheduled to be recalled this month, including the Ford vehicles.
Safety advocates said the completion rate should be far higher given the danger associated with the inflators.
The recalls forced Takata of Japan to seek bankruptcy protection and sell most of its assets to pay for the fixes.
The inflators grow more dangerous as they get older because ammonium nitrate deteriorates due to high humidity and cycles from hot temperatures to cold. The most dangerous inflators are in areas of the South along the Gulf of Mexico that have high humidity.
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Musk: Singapore government unwelcoming to Tesla
Musk: Singapore government unwelcoming to TeslaElon Musk tweeted that Singapore has been unwelcoming to Tesla Inc., adding to his previous assertions that the government doesn’t support electric vehicles.
The chief executive officer was responding to a tweet inquiring why Tesla wasn’t in the city-state. Musk had said in May that Tesla tried to bring its cars to Singapore but was unsuccessful because the government was “not supportive” of electric vehicles.
In a response to another tweet that Singapore’s economy is reliant on fossil fuels and that it is against electric vehicles, Musk said the Southeast Asian country could switch to solar or battery power.
While Tesla contends a lack of support from Singapore and is establishing a factory in China, Dyson Ltd. said in October it will set up its first electric-car manufacturing facility in the city-state. The plant by the British manufacturer – known for its vacuum cleaners – is expected to be completed by 2020 with a goal of rolling out its first model by 2021 as part of a 2 billion-pound ($2.5 billion) effort to expand into automobiles.
Singapore has said it supports adoption of hybrid buses and electric vehicles, in response to Musk’s earlier statements, the Today newspaper said in June, citing the country’s Land Transport Authority. In 2016, Musk contacted Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong over the case of a Tesla sedan that was taxed with a carbon surcharge in the city, the Straits Times reported.
Singapore, a tiny and densely populated nation, restricts the number of vehicles on its roads partly by controlling the number of car-ownership permits, each costing tens of thousands of dollars to bid for.
As the industry moves toward autonomous and alternative-energy vehicles, the nation has focused its efforts on mass transportation. Singapore has built a mini town replicating its public roads that will be used as a trial circuit for driverless electric buses. More than 10 companies are testing vehicles at the facility, and buses from Volvo AB are among those expected to join this year.
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With assistance from Crystal Chui.
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Maven car-sharing creates 'side hustle' for Metro Detroit dad
Maven car-sharing creates 'side hustle' for Metro Detroit dadJan Lower of Troy is making upward of $800 a month on a car he doesn't drive.
The finance executive put his daughter's car up for rent on General Motors Co.'s Maven peer-to-peer sharing platform earlier this year in hopes of getting back the lease payment for the 2017 Chevrolet Equinox that sits unused in his driveway while the daughter is at Michigan State University.
“I just took a leap of faith that everything would work out,” said Lower, 59, who says he listed the car on Maven on a whim after he read about the pilot program in the newspaper. “I'm very pleased with the activity I've seen compared to my expectations going in.”
GM launched its Maven car-sharing service in January 2016 as a “personal mobility brand” for the 110-year-old automaker. The brand has grown in the last two years to include some 190,000 members who have access to traditional hourly sharing, daily or monthly sharing, university campus programs and Maven Gig for rideshare and delivery drivers.
Peer-to-peer, which works a bit like Airbnb for cars, launched in July as a pilot program in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Chicago. It has since expanded to seven other cities: Baltimore, Boston, Washington, Denver, Jersey City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where self-driving car developer GM Cruise LLC is headquartered.
Maven's peer-to-peer platform is currently only available for owners of newer GM vehicles, but by the end of 2019, it is expected to expand to non-GM vehicles.
Users who list their vehicles for rent on the platform collect 60 percent of the earnings from the trips, which can range from a few hours to several days, while the other 40 percent goes to Maven. The income earned from car sharing is subject to federal income tax, according to the FAQ section of Maven's website.
Kristen Alexander, Maven's marketing manager, says the use of peer-to-peer has helped Maven to essentially double its fleets and triple its Maven stations, where cars are parked and available for sharing.
“We've been really excited by the response,” Alexander said. “What we see a lot among Maven users, especially Maven Gig, are people looking to drive and earn. That side-hustler mentality bleeds over into the peer-to-peer platform.”
Lower says he's never had a “side hustle” before joining Maven's peer-to-peer sharing program. And, in fact, it was his children who taught him the term after he told them he was making money on the unused Equinox.
“They were teasing me a little, saying, 'I can't believe dad has a side hustle,'” Lower said. “I wasn't really searching for a side hustle, though. I just wanted to solve a problem.”
Offering a solution to that problem — losing money on an underutilized vehicle — was one of the goals Maven had when it set out to develop a peer-to-peer sharing program, Alexander said.
“We wanted car owners to open their minds to a new ownership experience,” she said. “Our focus is flexibility.”
Users who enroll in the program go through a short on-boarding process, which can be completed online. Once the car is registered on the app, renters can lock and unlock the car with their phones.
“It's a really low-touch, turnkey operation,” Lower said. “It works best for me because I have a day job, so it's great to know that Maven and OnStar handle everything, and I don't need to meet with customers or hand off keys.”
That hands-off mentality is an important asset for someone considering listing their vehicle for rent on Maven, Lower said.
Most of Lower's customers have used the car and brought it back without issue, but a few times, he says, he's had to deal with the car coming back messy or without enough gas to get home. And once it was even abandoned with an empty tank in Detroit, but GM's OnStar and Maven quickly located the vehicle and had it towed back to Lower's home unharmed before he even knew it had gone missing.
“If you're finicky about your vehicle, this probably isn't for you,” said Lower, a father of six and grandfather to five. “I just trust that GM and Maven will do their part if and when something happens.”
Maven provides insurance for your vehicle when it is under reservation — $1 million liability coverage that includes comprehensive collision, theft and rental car insurance. Maven says that the car owner's personal insurance premiums should not be affected because the vehicle is insured through the personal mobility company's plan while in use as a shared vehicle.
Users need to maintain their personal auto insurance, as the vehicle is only covered by Maven's insurance when the car is in a reservation. The car owner is not required to pay for anything — including a deductible — if the vehicle is damaged while under reservation.
Once Lower learned he could easily make back his lease payments on his daughter's under-used Equinox, he says he started learning the best locations to leave the car and how to tweak the pricing or to maximize his profits. Lower has found the best place to leave the car is in a parking lot near Somerset Mall, particularly during the holiday shopping season.
Now that he's perfected his Maven peer-to-peer technique, Lower says he's already started putting his daily driver up for rent on the weekends.
“Once you see how much you can make on one car,” he said, “it starts to beg the question why you wouldn't do more?”
nnaughton@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @NoraNaughton
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Tesla adds Larry Ellison, Walgreens exec to board
Tesla adds Larry Ellison, Walgreens exec to boardTesla Inc. added Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson to its board, fulfilling the terms of the settlement reached with U.S. securities regulators over its CEO’s problematic posts about taking the company private.
Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle Corp., and Wilson-Thompson, the global chief human resources officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., join a board the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered to step up its governance and oversight measures after Elon Musk claimed in August to have had the funding and investor support for a buyout. The chief executive officer relinquished the role of chairman in November, and both he and the company agreed to pay $20 million penalties.
The new additions to the board put a bookend on a months-long distraction that at one point looked like it may cost Musk his future with the company. While reining him in may prove challenging, they’ll help steer a carmaker that’s made significant strides in profitably making and delivering electric vehicles.
Tesla’s shares rose 1.3 percent to $320.26 at 10:11 a.m. in New York after earlier gaining as much as 6 percent. The stock was up 1.5 percent this year through the close Thursday.
Ellison, 74, went off-script during an Oracle meeting with analysts in October to announce that he had been building a personal stake in Tesla and that it was his second-largest holding. He criticized how the media had covered Musk, 47, whom he called a close friend.
“This guy is landing rockets,” Ellison said in October of Musk, who also runs Space Exploration Technologies Corp. “You know, he’s landing rockets on robot drone rafts in the ocean. And you’re saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Well, who else is landing rockets? You ever land a rocket on a robot drone? Who are you?”
Tesla said in its statement announcing Ellison would be joining the board that he purchased 3 million shares of the electric-car maker earlier this year.
Tesla’s board now has 11 members, including three women. This fall, California became the first U.S. state to mandate that publicly traded companies have women on their boards. Those with at least seven directors need to have at least three women by 2021.
The SEC moved to punish Tesla and Musk because it alleged he committed fraud by tweeting that he had the “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share. The agency said this and other claims the CEO made on Aug. 7 were false and misleading and impacted Tesla’s stock.
Musk and Tesla reached the settlement with the SEC on Sept. 29 that gave the company 90 days to add directors and take other actions. Since then, the CEO has publicly lampooned the agency and bristled at the notion that he’ll change his Twitter habits.
Tesla’s legal department also has been going through shakeups since Musk’s run-in with the SEC.
The company tapped Dane Butswinkas, the Washington trial lawyer who represented the CEO in his legal battle with the agency, earlier this month to become general counsel. He’ll replace Todd Maron, who’s leaving Tesla in January after five years. Before he joined the company, he represented Musk through two divorces.
In November, Phil Rothenberg, a vice president on Tesla’s legal staff, left to became general counsel at Sonder, a hospitality startup. Rothenberg previously worked at the SEC.
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Musk lets one rip in Tesla software update
Musk lets one rip in Tesla software updateFor those of you consumed with curiosity about how Elon Musk spends his spare time — and isn’t that everybody? — here’s a clue. He just rolled out an update to the software in Tesla cars allowing them to make farting noises on demand.
Yes, you read that, or heard that, right.
Tesla, the company, didn’t issue an announcement of the technological improvement, but Musk himself did, via his preferred medium for making important corporate announcements, Twitter.
Underscoring his stature as CEO who enjoys a rude joke as much as the 8-year-old sitting a couple of desks over, Musk pointed out that one of the six noises from which drivers can choose is labeled “short shorts ripper,” which he called “a thank you to Tesla short sellers … haha.”
The new rollout fits nicely within Musk’s apparent attention deficit disorder. Tesla still faces multiple questions about its ability to sustain profitability, especially by selling cars (the profit it declared in its latest quarterly report was heavily dependent on the trading of government air pollution credits and other maneuvers not directly related to sales of vehicles); about the level of demand for its cars; and about its ability to meet demand on the production line.
There are also questions about Musk’s devotion to Job One at Tesla, which is rolling out a mass-market version of its Model 3 sedan. Keeping Musk focused plainly is a chore that the Tesla board has failed to master. Just Tuesday, Musk took time out for a press event focused on a 1.14-mile underground tunnel designed as a prototype of a subway-like system to beat surface traffic in Los Angeles.
The tunnel was widely panned, including by my colleague Laura Nelson, who wrote that the tunnel surface was so uneven that a ride in a specially outfitted Tesla inside the tunnel “felt like riding on a dirt road.” And hers was one of the kinder judgments. (An amusing take by Albert Burneko of Deadspin is here, but be warned: profanity.
More to the point, the tunnel was not even a Tesla project, but the product of the Boring Co., a privately owned enterprise backed by Musk.
Also an open question is how Musk is complying with a settlement he reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September, after the agency sued him for a misleading, if not flagrantly inaccurate, tweet in August stating that he had “secured funding” to take Tesla private at $420 per share, a huge premium to its price at the time. (And still — the stock closed at $315.38 Thursday.)
Among other things, the settlement requires Tesla to oversee Musk’s tweeting, er, “put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications.” There’s no evidence as yet that any such arrangement has been made, and Musk hinted in a recent interview with “60 Minutes” that he considered control over his tweets to be an infringement of his 1st Amendment rights.
One of Tesla’s technological selling points is the company’s ability to upgrade the cars’ functionality via over-the-air software revisions. In the past, these have been used to refine their self-driving capabilities and to improve their braking functionality (after Consumer Reports found that the Model 3’s braking distances were much worse than “any other contemporary car”).
The latest update is nothing like that. As TechCrunch reported this week, the so-called Emissions Testing Mode (get it?) allows the driver to opt for any of five different fart noises in addition to the “short shorts ripper.” The sounds are activated by the turn signal, or by pressing a scroll wheel on the steering column.
The latter is another dig at Tesla short sellers, whom Musk often blames for downdrafts in Tesla’s share price, despite the counsel of experienced market experts that movements in the stock, especially movements down, reflect legitimate skepticism about the company’s performance or prospects.
In any event, as a colleague observes, it should go without saying that “the best way to blow off short sellers is to build a strong business. And hold your farts until you do.”
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GM laying off 50 workers at Brownstown plant
GM laying off 50 workers at Brownstown plantThe loss of General Motors Co.'s plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt will affect nearly half of the employees at the automaker's battery assembly plant in Brownstown Township.
GM filed a notice with the State of Michigan this week stating it will lay off 50 at Brownstown Battery, including 37 hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers. A total of 116 workers are currently employed at the plant.
The layoffs at Brownstown, slated for Feb. 18, are expected to be permanent, GM said in its filing. Union represented workers will have the opportunity to transfer to other UAW-GM plants, but a GM spokeswoman said plans for those transfers have not been made yet.
On the Monday after Thanksgiving, GM announced a sweeping workforce and manufacturing restructuring for 2019 that will include idling five plants in the U.S. and Canada and cutting some 8,000 white collar jobs.
The affected workers at Brownstown worked on batteries for the Chevrolet Volt, which will stop production when GM idles the Detroit-Hamtramck plant next year. Brownstown was not part of the November plant announcements because the facility will continue operations despite losing workers.
nnaughton@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @NoraNaughton
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Tesla rival looks like its German alter ego
Tesla rival looks like its German alter egoTesla Inc.’s latest German rival is a fast-moving startup with global ambitions, no combustion-car baggage and a lofty valuation. And its hard-charging founder aims to challenge Elon Musk’s company with a bargain electric car for the masses.
Set up by an engineering professor with a track record of successfully developing and selling electric vehicles, e.GO Mobile AG is ramping up production of a battery-powered compact that will cost about half as much as the Tesla Model 3. But unlike the California pioneer, the German manufacturer expects to generate cash out of the gate.
“I’ve needed Tesla as a role model,” Guenther Schuh, e.GO’s founder and the mastermind behind Europe’s best-selling electric van, said inside his factory built on the site a former television-tube plantin Aachen, near the French border. “For so long, no startup or individual entered this shark tank alone, so it was great to get a demonstration of how that might work.”
Initial funding for e.Go came from Schuh’s sale of StreetScooter, a no-frills electric van, to Deutsche Post AG in 2014. Germany’s mail carrier was looking for an affordable electric vehicle for urban deliveries, and Schuh the chair of production engineering at RWTH Aachen University, one of Germany’s top technical schools developed a bare-bones model with no air conditioning or radio and a top speed of less than 50 miles per hour. The model was a surprise hit, and Deutsche Post has doubled StreetScooter capacity to 20,000 a year and is considering listing the unit.
In addition to StreetScooter proceeds, German auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG invested 135 million euros ($154million) in e.GO as part of a project to jointly develop a self-driving minibus. The startup has now enlisted HSBC Holdings Plc to raise as much as 300 million euros for its plans to expand to four models a deal that could lift its value above $1 billion, making it a rare German “unicorn.”
While Tesla is focusing on upscale buyers and offering sports car-like performance, e.GO is taking a utilitarian tack. Its first model, the Life, is a simple urban runabout that looks like a boxy version of the Fiat 500. The four-seater boasts a cheap price for an electric car, but not much else. So far, e.GO has 3,200 pre-orders and isn’t taking more. Deliveries will begin in April, and the plan is to produce100,000 vehicles annually by 2022 on par with Tesla’s output last year.
“It’s going to be tough’’for e.GO to compete with entry-level conventional cars unless pollution-related driving restrictions force thrifty buyers to switch to electrics,saidWolfgang Bernhart, a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Munich. “In time, there’ll also be competition from used electric cars.”
Regulatory support may be on the way after the European Union mandated an additional 37.5 percent reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions from cars by 2030. The new limit comes on top of tighter 2021 restrictions, and the decision prompted Volkswagen AG to say it’ll need to overhaul a 30-billion-euro investment plan to prepare for battery vehicles accounting for more than 40 percent of European deliveries.
The transition to the electric-car era has increasingly strained traditional carmakers, prompting partnerships that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG are in talks to join forces on batteries, vehicle platforms and autonomous-driving technology to stem rising expenses, according to people familiar with the matter.
The no-nonsense specifications of the Life stem from e.GO’s response to offsetting high battery costsand steeper procurement prices than larger rivals. The German manufacturer uses as many off-the-shelf parts as possible including the drive train, which comes from Robert Bosch GmbH, and rear lights that were initially developed for trucks. That saves time and money. Schuh expects the company to generate positive cash flow already next year and be profitable in 2021, in stark contrast to Tesla’s cash-burn issues.
The e.GO Werk 1 plant spans some 16,000 square meters more than the size of two soccer fields and cost 26 million euros to build, a fraction of the price tag of an ordinary auto factory.
During a visit last month, employees gathered around a vehicle chassis sitting on an autonomous platform, gradually moving down a production line spanning one length of the building. Testing booths were located on the other side, with plenty of space in between for more capacity.
The facility located on an industrial estate near Aachen’s city center was strewn with computer screens and bins of components in preparation for series production starting in March, five months later than planned. To head off Musk’s “production hell” on the Model 3, Schuh is using the unexpected delays caused by supplier tests to fine-tune assembly. For instance, he tweaked a hoisting platform to eliminate the risk of it crushing cars.
Expansion beyond Aachen is already in the works, with discussions underway to set up assembly joint ventures in China and Mexico and make battery cells in Germany. Schuh is also in talks with Chinese cities to collaborate on areas for autonomous vehicles, like its 15-person Mover minibus.
Despite the grand ambitions, e.GO’s success ultimately depends on making money on an electric car cheap enough to offset the drawbacks of limited driving ranges and long charging times (as much as 9.8 hours for the Life). Schuh is aware that he’s entering uncharted waters.
“I don’t know any carmaker that makes money in this vehicle category,” the lanky, bespectacled professor said. “Especially not if they’re electric.”
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Audi's electric e-tron mimics its conventional SUV stablemates
Audi's electric e-tron mimics its conventional SUV stablematesIf consumers expect the coming wave of electric cars to be quirky and different to drive, then Audi is going to surprise with the e-tron.
Driving this battery-powered Audi is almost exactly like experiencing a conventional vehicle, except that you won’t have to pull into a gas station, at least not for fuel.
What’s more, the e-tron looks normal. Its crossover design closely mimics that of its Audi SUV stablemates, sized just a little larger than the popular Q5. Inside, the five-passenger e-tron shares the same multi-screen dash layout as the latest versions of the Audi A8, A7 and A6 sedans, which means it’s state of the art, but recognizable.
The familiar design philosophy is no accident. Audi wants buyers to feel comfortable switching to an electric car. More adventurous Audi EV designs can and will come later: Witness the striking e-tron GT sedan recently unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show and due in showrooms in 2020.
My first drive of the e-tron happened in of all places, Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. An ironic location for an EV program, you might think, given the wealthy region’s oil-based economy. But the UAE is busy prepping for the era of renewable energy with massive solar power projects and energy efficient urban building designs, so there is a rationale for launching an electric car there.
Heading for the desert roads outside Abu Dhabi in 90-degree temperatures, the e-tron didn’t break a sweat. With its big 95-kWh battery pack, the e-tron is heavy at 5,600 pounds, but the standard air suspension system makes it feel relatively light and agile.
Performance is fairly strong, with the 0-60 mph dash taking 5.5 seconds and top speed limited to 124 mph. Compared to the high acceleration rates available in some Teslas, the e-tron is on the tame side, but it is not intended to be a drag strip contender. (On the other hand, I predict the sporty e-tron GT will tick the box for ‘blistering’ performance when it arrives.) Meanwhile, this Audi’s performance is all about smooth and refined progress, with a level of quietness that you would normally associate with flagship luxury sedans.
Only now and again, when decelerating to a stop for instance, can your ears detect the telltale whine of the electric motors. There are two, one in front and a larger one at the rear. Combined, they deliver 400 horsepower.
Our drive route took us to a dramatic 4,000-foot mountain peak called Jebel Hafeet. Rising up out of the sand dunes, Jebel Hafeet is notable for its stark beauty and a fantastic seven-mile road that snakes it way to the summit and is regarded by enthusiasts as one of the best drives in the world.
We pushed the e-tron hard through the 60 or so corners on the way up the mountain and found it handled surprisingly well, with crisp steering and good suspension control. The car’s heft could be felt as understeer in the tightest turns, but with the battery’s weight concentrated so low in the structure, body roll is modest.
Such an aggressive pace on the mountain ascent did suck a fair amount of energy – about 10 kWs – out of the battery, but we made around four kWs back on the drive down as the regenerative brakes recouped electrical energy.
The braking system is an element that separates the e-tron from other EVs already on the market. “We are the only ones who do it right,” claims Carter Balkom, the e-tron sales and marketing chief. “The one-pedal regenerative braking effect was a crutch for early EVs.” Balkom explains that the e-tron can be configured to slow quickly by simply lifting off the accelerator – the so-called one pedal driving method used by most other EVs. But the Audi is designed to be most efficient at recovering energy when the brake pedal is used in normal fashion. As such, the e-tron also delivers a familiar coasting sensation that feels more natural when slowing for a traffic light or stop sign.
The battery itself is being warrantied by Audi for 100,000 miles or eight years, which the company feels should allay one of the biggest consumer concerns about EVs. As for range, an official US government figure has yet to be determined, but it’s expected the e-tron will cover around 220 miles between charges. The car comes with a 9.6-kW charger, which will replenish the battery in about eight hours. However the e-tron is designed to work with a nationwide network of 150-kW fast chargers being established by Electrify America that cut the charging time to 25 minutes. “If we can get the time down to about 15 minutes, then we are approaching a gasoline car refueling experience,” says Balkom.
Audi’s pricing for the e-tron starts at $74,800 for the premium-plus model. The loaded Prestige version costs $81,800. These prices put the e-tron is same ballpark as Jaguar’s I-Pace, but significantly undercut the Tesla Model X.
At this price level the e-tron is obviously not going to be a mainstream EV, but the car’s conventional driving character and refined demeanor should go a long way to smooth its path towards consumer acceptance.
John McCormick is a columnist for Autos Consumer and can be reached at jmccor@aol.com
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Japan prosecutors file new allegation against Nissan’s Ghosn
Japan prosecutors file new allegation against Nissan’s GhosnTokyo – Japanese prosecutors added a new allegation of breach of trust against Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn on Friday, dashing his hopes for posting bail.
Ghosn, along with another executive Greg Kelly, was arrested Nov. 19 and charged with underreporting his income by nearly 10 billion yen ($80 million).
The fresh allegations were filed a day after a court rejected prosecutors’ request for a longer detention of Ghosn and Kelly. Their lawyers were hoping they could get them released on bail as early as Friday.
So far, the new allegation only applies to Ghosn and Kelly could still be bailed out.
Kyodo News service and other Japanese media reported that prosecutors alleged that Ghosn caused Nissan a loss of 1.8 billion yen ($16 million) in 2008. Prosecutors alleged that Ghosn put his personal investment loss during the Lehman crisis on to Nissan, according to Japanese reports.
Ghosn and Kelly are also facing allegations that they underreported Ghosn’s pay by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) in 2011-2015, and another 4 billion yen ($36 million) for 2016-2018, for which their first 10-day detention was to expire Thursday.
The maximum penalty for violating the financial law is up to 10 years in prison, a 10 million yen ($89,000) fine, or both. The conviction rate in Japan is more than 99 percent for any crime.
The arrest of an industry icon has triggered international attention. Prosecutors have been criticized for separating the same allegation into two periods as a tactic to detain Ghosn and Kelly longer. They say Ghosn and Kelly are flight risks. No trial date has been set.
The scandal also raised concerns over the Japanese automaker and the future of its alliance with Renault SA of France.
Ghosn’s downfall is seen by some as a maneuver by others at Nissan to gain power in the alliance.
Kelly’s wife, Donna Kelly, said in a video message carried by TV Asahi and other networks that her husband was “wrongly accused as part of a power grab” at Nissan. “Greg and Mr. Ghosn fully believe that they did not break the law,” she said.
Renault in 1999 sent Ghosn to turn around Nissan, then on the verge of bankruptcy, and he led its rise to the world’s second-largest automaker.
Nissan has dismissed Ghosn as chairman and Kelly as a representative director since the allegations were made. Nissan has put off a decision on Ghosn’s replacement.
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