AD #2334 – China to Lift Foreign Ownership Cap, VW Could Buy Navistar, Lidar Prices Dropping Fast

On today’s show… China will lift the cap on ownership for foreign automakers… European truck makers absolutely dominate the American market… and how paint affects the performance of autonomous cars. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

CHINA TO LIFT OWNERSHIP CAP
China is going to allow foreign car companies to own more than 50% of their joint ventures in China. It will lift the cap this year for automakers that have new energy vehicle joint ventures, and will lift it for other automakers by 2022. Even so, major automakers like Volkswagen and General Motors are so integrated with their Chinese partners that they will maintain those partnerships. China says this move and its recent announcement to lower tariffs on imported cars has nothing to do with its trade dispute with the United States. But some Chinese automakers are ready to move into the American market and China realized it could face the same kind of protectionism it practices back home unless it changed its policies.

TESLA PAUSES MODEL 3 PRODUCTION
Yesterday we reported that Elon Musk acknowledged that Tesla relied too much on automation to build the Model 3. Now Tesla is temporarily suspending production for four to five days to deal with production issues. It’s the second time since February the company has stopped production.Tesla says it will build 2,500 Model 3’s a week by the end June but it’s still running short of that goal.

Speaking of Tesla, you’re not going to want to miss this week’s Autoline After Hours. It’s going to be all about the Model 3 because our special guest is Sandy Munro, who will take us through his company’s complete teardown of the car. They ripped apart everything mechanical, everything electronic, and the batteries. They found some stupid design mistakes, but also found some brilliant engineering. So if you have questions about the Model 3, send them to viewermail@autoline.tv.

European truck makers absolutely dominate the American market for big semis and that’s coming up next.

VW COULD BUY NAVISTAR
Big news in the world of big trucks. Volkswagen could buy Navistar. VW already owns nearly 17% of the American truck manufacturer, and Bloomberg reports it could buy the whole company. Both of them are already developing an all-electric truck. VW’s truck operations are big in Europe, China and South America but have little presence in North America. Buying Navistar would plug that gap. European truck makers dominate the US market. Daimler owns Freightliner, Mitsubishi Fuso and Western Star, while Volvo Truck owns Mack Truck. If VW acquires Navistar, European truck makers will have 89% of Class 7 and 8 sales.

TOYOTA & LEXUS TO ADD DSRC SYSTEM
Yesterday we talked about how putting V2V connected technology into race cars could make them safer. Now Toyota and Lexus will start selling V2V connected vehicles in 2021. It will use Dedicated Short-Range Communication or DSRC systems with the goal of spreading it across most of its lineup by the mid-2020s. Some tech companies are promoting LTE technology instead of DSRC. But LTE is the same system that cell phones use, and would incur network charges. DSRC does not.

LIDAR PRICE DROPPING FAST
The price of Lidar, one of the most expensive and important sensors in autonomous cars, could be coming down drastically. Luminar Technologies, the self-driving sensor startup backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, says it can chop the cost tens of thousands of dollars to just $3. Lidar prices have been dropping fast. A decade ago they cost $70,000. Then it dropped to dropped to about $6,000 and it should go down to $250 next year. Luminar says it plans to boost production from 100 units in 2017 to 5,000 a quarter by the end of this year.

BMW TO OPEN 3D PRINTING CENTER
A number of automakers are experimenting with 3D printing but it’s mostly for prototypes and not production vehicles. But now BMW is looking to take the next step and is investing 10 million euros to create the Additive Manufacturing Campus in Germany. It will focus on developing 3D printed plastic and metal components for series production, prototypes, and custom parts. The new facility will be up and running early next year.

Autonomy will change a lot in the auto industry, including what colors are used for cars. We’ll tell you all about that, right after this.

PAINT PLAYS ROLE IN AUTONOMY
Autonomy could be the most transformative technology to hit the automotive industry. It’s going change a whole lot, even paint. Yeah, you heard me, even the paint. On Autoline This Week, we were joined by color experts from Axalta, BASF and PPG and they explained how color can play a role in autonomy.

(Clip from ATW #2212 can only be viewed in the video version of today’s show.)

You can watch that entire discussion right now on Atuoline.tv or just look for it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.