* NPS says Elliott’s dividend proposals “excessive” * NPS says Elliott nominees may lead to “conflicts of interest” * Hyundai shares lose ground (Add analyst, Hyundai comments, share prices) By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL, March 14 (Reuters) – Elliott Management received a potentially fatal blow in its proxy fight to shake up South Korea’s Hyundai Motor… Continue reading S.Korean pension fund deals blow to Elliott in Hyundai fight
Tag: Strategy
FoamPartner partners with Rinspeed for development of high-quality automotive interiors – Plastics Insight
FoamPartner has collaborated with Rinspeed for development of high-quality automotive interiors based on polyurethane foam. This strategic partnership between the two aims at developing advanced concepts for the mobility of tomorrow. Rinspeed developed this concept car called microSNAP which illustrates the immense potential of innovative foam technology for automotive interiors as well as acoustic and… Continue reading FoamPartner partners with Rinspeed for development of high-quality automotive interiors – Plastics Insight
Lear Invests in Israel-Based Maniv Mobility Venture Capital Fund
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, today announced it has invested in an Israel-based venture capital fund managed by Maniv Mobility that is focused on advancing mobility technology. The investment, which is being made through Lear Innovation Ventures (LIV), enables future collaboration… Continue reading Lear Invests in Israel-Based Maniv Mobility Venture Capital Fund
VW budgets $9 billion for electric vehicles with luxury brand Audi taking lead with 30 new EVs
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The Audi Q4 e-tron concept is presented at the Geneva Motor Show on the first press day. The 89th Geneva Motor Show starts on 7 March and lasts until 17 March.
The luxury arm of Volkswagen plans to accelerate its push into battery electric vehicles with 30 BEVs expected to reach the market by 2025, company officials announced during their annual meeting on Thursday morning.
But the move is expected to ding the brand's bottom line. Volkswagen expects to spend about $9 billion on electrification by 2023 — much of that through Audi, which is taking a leading role in the corporate effort. Audi is developing a new battery-vehicle “architecture,” dubbed premium platform electric, or PPE, that will be shared by other brands, including Porsche.
That is one of the key reasons why Audi's operating return on sales will run between 7 and 8.5 percent in the near-term, officials said during a meeting at brand headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, compared to a long-term Audi goal of between 9 and 11 percent.
Audi officials said they are taking steps to trim costs, even as they hope to counter a worldwide decline in sales last year.
“The transformation plan is making a significant contribution towards safeguarding our future,” Alexander Seitz, Audi's member of the board of management for finance, China, compliance and integrity, said in Ingolstadt. “Because only in this way is it possible for us to transfer enormous resources into future areas and generate the cash flow to finance electric mobility.”
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Audi e-tron GT Concept car unveiled in Los Angeles on November 28, 2018.
Like its parent, Audi is a relative latecomer to the push into battery propulsion, but it found religion after it was revealed that the German automaker had cheated on emissions tests involving the diesels that were a centerpiece of the corporate powertrain strategy. The scandal that erupted has already cost it around $30 billion in fines and settlements in the U.S. and costs continue to mount in Europe. While VW and Audi aren't abandoning diesels entirely, they are planning to steadily shift emphasis to electrified powertrains.
The Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the emissions scandal in January 2017 and told the company it may take its own action against the automaker, the company disclosed in a securities filing Thursday.
For its part, Audi is taking a multi-pronged approach to its plans to go electric. It has four new plug-in, hybrid or electric vehicles, or PHEVs, making their debut at the Geneva Motor Show, which runs through Sunday. But, longer-term, the luxury brand is putting the emphasis on pure battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs.
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A monitor displays wing-mirror video camera footage inside an Audi e-Tron.
Audi has unveiled a number of all-electric concept vehicles over the last several years, including the Q4 e-tron that debuted at the Geneva show. And more are coming, starting with the Q2 L e-tron scheduled for the upcoming Shanghai auto show. Another is in the works for the big Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
The Q4 Concept will be tweaked only slightly when it goes into production late in 2020 or early 2021, Audi's global design chief Marc Lichte told reporters in Ingolstadt. He told CNBC last November, that's the same story for the e-tron GT Concept that was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show, with the production model due out in 2020.
The Q2 coming to Shanghai, meanwhile, is expected to translate into a production model specifically earmarked for China that will roll into showrooms within the year.
All told, Audi has announced specific production plans for five battery-electric vehicles so far, a list that includes its first model, the e-tron that started rolling down its assembly line in Brussels last September. The SUV will be followed this year by the e-tron Sportback model.
Both of those models will offer more than 200 miles of range per charge, a figure that industry planners and analysts widely agree is the minimum consumers now expect. There may be some exceptions for so-called “city cars” that would be targeted at urban dwellers whose travel needs are limited.
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Robert Downey Jr. (L) and Head of Design of Audi AG, Marc Lichte attend the global reveal of the Audi e-tron GT concept on November 26, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Like its competitors, Audi is counting on driving down battery costs, company officials told CNBC at the Los Angeles Auto Show, though most studies anticipate that the price of battery electric vehicles won't be on par with conventionally powered models until around the middle of the coming decade.
The industry, as a whole, faces a variety of challenges increasing the appeal of battery-cars just as manufacturers begin rolling out a tidal wave of new models. The risk, warned a 2018 study by Detroit-based AlixPartners, is that there could be “a pile-up of epic proportions” coming that would lead to billions of dollars in losses across the industry.
One of the key consumer concerns is charging – both the availability of charging stations and the time it takes to replenish drained batteries.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The new Audi AG E-Tron all-electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) stands during a launch event in Richmond, California, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018.
Audi and its parent are pushing to set up public charging networks in both Europe and the U.S. Volkswagen is partnering with erstwhile rivals BMW and Daimler in Europe and, in the States, VW is funding a charging infrastructure through Electrify America. That subsidiary was created with $2 billion set aside from the automaker's diesel emissions settlement.
Many of those chargers will be Level 3, capable of delivering 800 volts of direct current at upwards of 350 kilowatts — about seven times more power than can be delivered by the first generation of DC “fast chargers.” For vehicles capable of taking on that much power, that would allow them to boost range by as much as 20 miles a minute, narrowing the gap with the time it takes to fill up a gas tank.
Audi's electrification plans will rely on the use of two specially designed, skateboard-like architectures that place their batteries and motors below the floorboards. Some low-end models will rely on the MEB platform being developed primarily for the mainstream Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda brands. But most future Audi products will be based on the more advanced PPE architecture the brand is co-developing with Porsche – which has already announced plans for three production models of its own starting with the Taycan sports car going on sale later this year.
The PPE platform boasts advanced capabilities, such as torque vectoring, which allows a vehicle to power through a corner more aggressively. It also allows higher levels of horsepower and torque, a basic requirement for luxury brands like Audi and Porsche.
Audi
The shift to battery electric vehicles is expected to put some of Audi's familiar lineup at risk, notably some performance products like the TT roadster.
“It's part of our DNA,” Audi board member Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler said during a meeting with reporters in Ingolstadt, reported CNET. But while he added that product planners are “fighting for it,” the question is how to make both a technical and a business case for switching it to electric drive.
Other models, such as the R8 supercar, could also be at risk if Audi were to eventually go all-electric. But company officials are hoping to replace such gas-powered products with new performance alternatives, such as the e-tron GT that was introduced in Los Angeles in November.
Tesla has new competitor from Audi
3:22 PM ET Fri, 30 Nov 2018 | 01:35
Truck subsidiary of VW: Traton boss Renschler holds on to expansion plans
Andreas Renschler The head of the truck subsidiary Traton wants to drive forward the international expansion and bring the division on the stock market in the future. (Photo: Bloomberg) MunichAndreas Renschler is more of a relaxed person. He has been working in the automotive industry for decades, initially Daimler and now at Volkswagen, As the… Continue reading Truck subsidiary of VW: Traton boss Renschler holds on to expansion plans
2018: RCI BANK AND SERVICES POSTS ITS BEST PERFORMANCE EVER WITH NEW FINANCINGS OF €20.9 BILLION AND PRE-TAX INCOME OF €1,215 MILLION
• 1,798,900 new financing contracts, up 1.6% from 2017 for a total of €20.9 billion in new financings• Record penetration rate[1] of 42.9% of registrations• 355,274 new financing contracts for used vehicles, up 11.1% from 2017• Average performing assets (APA)[2] of €44.4 billion, up 12.0% from 2017• Net banking income of €1.93 billion, up 18.6%… Continue reading 2018: RCI BANK AND SERVICES POSTS ITS BEST PERFORMANCE EVER WITH NEW FINANCINGS OF €20.9 BILLION AND PRE-TAX INCOME OF €1,215 MILLION
Mazda range-extended electric car may help the rotary live on
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Mazda RX-Vision Fast and Furious livery
The Wankel rotary, the peculiar pistonless internal combustion engine design that Mazda built so much of its heritage around, may see a resurgence after all.
Earlier reports and remarks from Mazda executives have suggested that while the rotary will make a comeback, it will be relegated to what’s essentially an emergency generator—a range extender for a plug-in electric vehicle that’s expected for the U.S., among other markets. But a report from last week puts the rotary potentially on a higher stage in some versions or vehicles.
DON'T MISS: Mazda announces electric lineup, rotary range extender
Ichiro Hirose, Mazda’s managing executive officer for powertrain development, recently told Australia’s Drive that the project is no longer a single powertrain layout for one vehicle but a flexible platform that could be used to configure various levels of electrification around the globe for the smaller automaker, which has limited development resources compared to other big global automakers.
“What we intend to do is that with this combination you can vary the amount of battery and also the amount of fuel tank supply,” Hirose told Drive. “What that allows us to do is, depending on the ratio between the two, is that we can have a derivative that can work more like a plug-in hybrid.”
CHECK OUT: Will EV Range Extenders Give Rise to a Rotary Renaissance?
The executive said that Mazda has made a breakthrough with its rotary engine that may allow it to be used as more than just a range extender in the future. That includes new ways to curb the emissions involved in this challenging engine design’s startup conditions, and there’s a hint that the strategy could involve spinning the rotary up ahead of time, perhaps only operating it in a certain rev range.
Rotary engine
Hirose used the term XEV to refer to some combination of the rotary range extender and electric drive system. With flexibility built into the platform, some versions could have only a series-hybrid setup, perhaps with the rotary used solely as the range extender, somewhat like the BMW i3 REx. Others, he hinted, could be more like the system used in Toyota hybrids, mixing in parallel-hybrid operation and making the motor supplemental to the internal-combustion engine at higher speeds.
READ MORE: Mazda rotary engine may find new life in self-driving Toyota e-Palette project
In either case, the U.S. is almost certain to get a vehicle that places perhaps more emphasis on its charging port than its fuel tank. Masashi Otsuka, Mazda’s North American VP of R&D and design, confirmed to Green Car Reports recently that a significant amount of research and development work has been done in the U.S. on what he termed a range-extended drive system with the rotary.
Otsuka said that we’re likely to see the technology in a prototype vehicle, positioned for the U.S., before the end of the year. So we may not have to wait long before we can hear a new rotary run again—if only once in a while.
Love It Or Hate It, Tesla Online Sales Strategy Creates Plenty Of Controversy
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Cars Published on March 7th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
Love It Or Hate It, Tesla Online Sales Strategy Creates Plenty Of ControversyTwitterLinkedInFacebookMarch 7th, 2019 by Steve Hanley
Tesla’s sudden announcement last week that it is closing most of its stores and transitioning to a 100% online sales model has created a firestorm of criticism and pushed the company’s stock price to a 5 month low. In the media, Forbes and Fortune have run stories this week decrying the move as wrongheaded and possibly dangerous to the company’s very existence.
The UpsideOne investment professional who is not concerned about Tesla’s new online sales strategy is ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood. According to Fortune, she told Bloomberg on March 4 that, even though the decision to close stores and go fully online was “abrupt,” she wasn’t as surprised as other investors. “We got the sense something was up because he is still competing against other auto manufacturers who have their costs screwed down, but at some point, his pricing is going to drop below theirs.” At 9%, Tesla represents the largest investment in the ARK Invest portfolio.
Wood tells CNBC she believes Tesla stock will soar to stunning new heights in the years ahead. The least favorable scenario will see the stock rise 146%. But the most favorable scenario sees it powering up a stunning 1,306% to more than $4,000 per share. “This is a five-year time horizon. Four thousand dollars is the bull case, $700 is the bear case. It’s rare for us to a have a stock that meets our minimum hurdle rate of return in the bear case, so it’s north of 15 percent compound annual rate of return to get to our bear case target.”
Wood added that Tesla is “scaling the electric vehicle market. We think the electric vehicle sales in 2023 will be in total globally 26 million units, up from 1.3 million last year, so that’s a 20-fold increase. We’re talking about exponential growth.”
What Wood is relying on is not Tesla selling bunches of cars but rather Tesla emerging as a significant force in autonomous driving and ride hailing. “The big story [for Tesla] is autonomous taxi platforms. We’re moving from a hardware-centric, low gross margin model which is 25, 30 percent to a transportation-as-a-service model. They’ll get a piece of every ride taken because they’ll own the platform that these fleet operators will be riding on, and that’s more of an 80 percent gross margin business,” she said.
Through the first two months of 2019, ARK Invest’s valuation is up 25% even after taking into account the recent slide in Tesla’s share price.
The DownsideOn the other side of the ledger, several recent articles in Forbes and Fortune question the wisdom of Tesla’s 100% online sales model. Let’s start with Jeremy Alicandri, writing for Forbes. He claims buyers are simply not ready or willing to give up the traditional car-buying experience. They want to be able to sit in the car they are about to purchase and take it for a test drive. Then there is the issue of correctly evaluating trade-ins, which he claims has to be done in person. Add to that the myriad of financing options and Alicandri says the online model just won’t work for many people. (Elon Musk has noted on Twitter some of this stuff will be done via delivery centers.)
Alicandri thinks Elon Musk’s assurances that people can simply return their new car for a full refund is naive. “As someone who oversaw an extended test drive program with the BMW 7 Series only a few years back, I can attest that these programs often cost more than they achieve, while also attracting chronic abuse from non-buyers,” Alicandri writes. “While Tesla will likely initiate safeguards to prevent abuse, such as requiring full payment upfront, it remains unclear how Model 3 customers can ‘test drive’ vehicles without undergoing major inconveniences if they wish to return them.
“Being responsible for sales tax (which is likely not refundable by state law) as well as the vehicle depreciation (as the vehicle is considered used once registered) are just two issues. It’s also uncertain how these customers will be able to purchase a different vehicle as their credit will be weakened before/during the refund process and likely weeks after.”
Alicandri also says that, while eliminating stores will save money in one area, it will increase costs in others. “There are obvious expenses, like extra call centers, shipping and logistics costs, and IT infrastructure. But there are also less obvious costs, like those related to providing support for vehicles damaged or having mechanical malfunctions at delivery, as well as educating new owners on their vehicles. Advertising and marketing efforts may need to be enhanced to counter the lack of physical presence.”
The Legal IssuesDuring his conference call with journalists last week, Elon Musk rather blithely swatted away any concern that franchise dealer groups and individual states could thwart the new online sales model. “I’m sure the franchise dealers will try to oppose us in some way, but to do so would be a fundamental restraint on interstate commerce and violate the Constitution. So, good luck with that,” he said.
Leonard Bellavia, an attorney and franchise law expert, disagrees with Musk’s legal opinion. He tells Forbes, “The statement by Musk that state dealer franchise laws prohibiting factory direct sales are unconstitutional is an overly simplistic and rather bald-faced generalization.” Expanding its service network is also fraught with legal issues, says Bellavia. “An online sale only model would require both a sales and service facility to satisfy state licensing authorities, which defeats the purpose of online sales.”
There are other legal concerns, including how so-called lemon laws, which vary from state to state, will apply to online sales. In some parts of the country, digital signatures are not enough to satisfy local laws, which often require a “wet signature” on all vehicle delivery paperwork. The devil is in the details and Musk’s rather casual insistence that the commerce clause will sweep aside all opposition to online sales seems rather simplistic. If nothing else, years of litigation will ensue before Elon gets his wish.
The Sudden Change In CourseForbes is focusing this week on the abruptness of the announcement and suggests Elon may not have thought the new strategy through. It reports on one stock analyst, Alex Chalekian, who heads Lake Avenue Financial in Pasadena, California. It manages more than $150 million in client assets but sold all its shares in Tesla for its advisory clients last Friday.
“This was a total 180-degree turn,” Chalekian says. “Tesla had been talking about expanding stores, and all of a sudden they are closing them. To me, this signals a huge financial concern and a possible cash-flow issue for Tesla.” In the fourth quarter of 2018, Tesla opened 27 new retail and service centers, the most in any quarter since the middle of 2017.
In its most recent 10-K filing with the SEC just a few weeks ago, it touted its brick and mortar strategy. “Our Tesla stores and galleries are highly visible, premium outlets in major metropolitan markets, some of which combine retail sales and service. Opening a service center in a new geographic area can increase demand. As a result, we have complemented our store strategy with sales facilities and personnel in service centers to more rapidly expand our retail footprint.”
Is Tesla Being Managed By Adults?For Alex Chelakian, the suddenness of Tesla’s reversal hints at a company that operates on the whims of its leader, rather than on sound business practices. Such erratic and — to an outsider — irrational changes in course are red flashing lights warning of danger ahead for investors. There has been dark muttering this week that it’s time for Elon Musk to step into a new role, one in which he continues to be chief engineer for the company while a professional management team takes over supervision of the company.
Musk’s treatment of employees is another concern. Despite impassioned emails extolling them for their hard work and dedication, Musk seems ready at a moment’s notice to toss them overboard when it suits his convenience. At the start of the year, he announced that 7% of Tesla’s workforce would be let go right after the company achieved its production goals for the Model 3. This latest announcement came via a private conference call with journalist (disclosure: CleanTechnica reporters were on the call) and it blindsided many of those working in the stores that will now be closed.
The message to employees is that you are all expendable on short notice, so keep your resume up to date and don’t make any life decisions based on the assumption you will have a job with Tesla tomorrow. If online sales are the wave of the future, job security is clearly a thing of the past.
Elon always has been and remains an enigma. To some, he is a real life Tony Stark. To others, he is given to wild mood swings that may or may not be associated with the use of Ambien, a drug that helps people deal with insomnia but has worrisome side effects, including impairment of judgement. People who use it are advised not to operate heavy machinery.
Musk is a polarizing person. His single-minded determination has already upended the global auto industry and is rapidly bringing sweeping changes to the energy storage market. On the other hand, his insistence on buying SolarCity is seen by many as a straight up bailout for his cousins. The heavily touted Solar Roof is missing in action and Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, is hardly ever mentioned in Tesla’s corporate communications. Closing Tesla’s stores will likely deal another blow to an already underperforming aspect of the company.
The Volvo ConnectionCredit: Polestar
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New Management Structure at Continental
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