Runtime: 7:31
0:31 GM Introduces New Small EV In China
1:13 Škoda Keeps Bombs and Bullets at Bay
1:59 Passenger Car Sales Continue to Slump
2:33 Passenger Car Drop Global Phenomenon
3:18 New Manufacturing Technique
4:20 Domino’s Launches Campaign to Fix Potholes
5:22 Is A 50-Mile EV Range Adequate?
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On today’s show…even as gas prices went up, passenger car sales continued to crater…Skoda, of all companies, introduces an armored vehicle…and Domino’s uses the power of pizza to repair America’s potholes. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
GM INTRODUCES NEW SMALL EV IN CHINA
General Motors along with its Chinese joint venture partners, SAIC and Wuling, just introduced the new Baojun E100 electric car. The tiny EV only sits two people and has a very similar appearance to a smart car. Its range has increased nearly 30% to 200 kilometers or 124 miles and it has a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, or 62 MPH. There are two different versions with one priced at $7,200 and the other $9,300, including government subsidies. And it is these kinds of cars that are propelling sales of electrics in China.
ŠKODA KEEPS BOMBS AND BULLETS AT BAY
For $158,000, Škoda will give you a station wagon fit for a warzone. That kind of money will get you a Škoda Superb Estate with armored plating to protect you from a rain of bullets or the wrath of bombs. The shielded Škoda, which was developed by a team in the UK, includes bulletproof glass, high strength steel, suspension and brake upgrades, along with run-flat tires. For armor enthusiasts, this three year-long Škoda project conforms to the PAS 300 standard for blast and bullet protection. Though this miniature tank may sound like a big tough military vehicle, you’d be hard-pressed to figure that out just by looking at it.
PASSENGER CAR SALES CONTINUE TO SLUMP
Will rising gasoline prices hurt sales of trucks? So far it hasn’t happened. Even though gas prices shot up in May in the U.S. market, passenger car sales fell 10%, as consumers continued to switch to crossovers, SUVs and pickups. In fact, sales of the most fuel efficient small cars are down the most, nearly 18%. But size doesn’t matter. Midsize, full-size and luxury cars are all down. In fact, they’re now falling by 50,000 to 60,000 units a month.
| U.S. PASSENGER CAR SALES, JAN-MAY 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Small | 969,251 | -17.7% |
| Midsize | 791,404 | -16.1% |
| Fullsize | 92,206 | -14.9% |
| Luxury | 399,798 | -4.0% |
| Source: WardsAuto | ||
PASSENGER CAR DROP GLOBAL PHENOMENON
By the way, the drop in passenger car sales is a global phenomenon. This chart from FCA shows that car sales are falling in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. In 2002 passenger cars accounted for 70% of all vehicles sold. By 2022 that will drop to only 48%.
Still to come…Domino’s launches a campaign to fix America’s potholes.
NEW MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUE
Here at Autoline we like to keep you up to speed on some of the latest manufacturing developments, and here’s one innovation that caught our attention. Automakers are turning to advanced high-strength steels to cut weight and improve safety, but these steels can be so strong they need new manufacturing techniques. Machine company Utica International just came up with a process called Thermal-Integrated Clinching to replace spot welds. It attaches a unit to a robot and uses a laser to heat the material before it’s clamped together. As you can see in this chart, the shear strength is not as good as a spot weld, but the cross-tension strength, which is an indication of good crash-worthiness, mostly outperforms spot welds, especially when it comes to the harder and thinner high-strength steels. And the same idea can be applied to other areas as well. Instead of cutting holes for bolts, they heat the steel so a self-piercing nut can be used, which eliminates several steps. Utica is also working on a way to join more than two layers of different materials.
FOR PIZZA’S SAKE
Domino’s is repairing potholes and it’s all for the love of pizza. The pizza company says it cares too much about its customers to let their pizza get roughed up by potholes. So it set up a website www.pavingforpizza.com, where customers fed up with potholes ruining their delivery can enter in their zip code for a chance to have their town’s potholes fixed. Domino’s has already paved roads from California to Delaware in its Paving for Pizza campaign, but what does it say about us when it takes a pizza company to fix our roads?
Is a 50-mile range large enough for an electric delivery van? One company says it sure is, and we’ll tell you why, right after this.
IS A 50-MILE EV RANGE ADEQUATE?
An electric delivery van that only gets about 50 miles of range would seem to be completely inadequate for the job. Quite the opposite, that kind of range is perfect for certain applications. Tim Reeser, the CEO of Lightning Systems which is converting Ford Transit vans into electrics was on Autoline After Hours last week. In the following clip, he explains why a 50-mile range is more than adequate.
(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
Have you heard of graphene? It’s an amazing material and on Autoline After Hours this coming Thursday we’ll have a company called Thermavance explaining how it uses graphene for automotive applications.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.
