AD #2425 – Ford Gets Downgraded, Hyundai Goes Back to the Drawing Board, Roechling Develops Active Air Blinds

On today’s show… more bad news at Ford, it’s getting downgraded… Hyundai goes back to the drawing board to get a better safety rating… and we’ll tell you why blinds are better than shutters to make cars more aerodynamic. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

FORD GETS DOWNGRADED
The business outlook at Ford doesn’t look so good. Moody’s just downgraded the company’s credit to one notch above junk. The reason is that Ford’s sales and profits are plummeting in China, and it’s losing money in Europe and South America. Moody’s says Ford is several years away from turning that around. If Ford gets further downgraded to a junk rating, many financial institutions will be forced to sell their Ford bonds because they can’t have junk bonds in their portfolio

CHARIOT EXPANDS IN LONDON
Maybe the one thing that could turn Ford’s fortunes around is getting into mobility services. It launched its Chariot ride-sharing service for commuters in London this year. And now it’s expanding that to serve companies and business campuses outside of London that don’t have good public transportation. It’s kind of ironic that a service that gets people out of their cars could end up helping a car company.

HYUNDAI GOES BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
The Insurance Institute for Highway safety is criticizing automakers for equipping their cars with headlamps that are not bright enough, or that blind oncoming drivers. It’s so serious about this that car models cannot earn a Top Safety Pick+ safety rating unless they have good headlamps. Hyundai was recently denied that top safety rating for the Kona because the Institute did not like its headlamps. So Hyundai went back to the drawing board and starting equipping the car with LED lamps that minimize glare for oncoming drivers, and that automatically dim the high beams for oncoming traffic. That earned it the Top Safety Pick+ and that shows you how important that rating is to automakers as part of the marketing of their cars.

Still to come, we’ll tell you how Honda shoehorned a third row into the CR-V.

HONDA CR-V HEADED BACK TO JAPAN WITH UPDATES
Honda will start selling the CR-V in Japan after a 2-year hiatus and it’s getting some significant updates. For the first time, it will come with a 2-motor hybrid system. The hybrid is also available with all-wheel drive, which is another first for Honda. The non-hybrid version is powered by a 1.5L turbo 4-cylinder. By flattening out the fuel tank and reworking the floor and roof area, Honda can now offer a 3-row, 7-seat variant of the non-hybrid version, with no body changes. Honda’s suite of driver assist technologies is standard across all types and grades. The new CR-V goes on sale in Japan tomorrow and we hope it doesn’t take too long for some of these new features to spread around the world.

LEXUS RC COUPE GETS LC INSPIRATION
Speaking of refreshes, Lexus is showing off a reworked version of the RC Coupe. The most noticeable changes are new headlights and taillights as well as reshaped air curtains at the rear. The interior is largely unchanged. But the aerodynamics have been improved, there’s new shock absorbers and stiffer suspension bushings and a new set of 19-inch wheels. The engine has also been re-tuned for better throttle response. The new RC coupe will first go on sale in Japan later this fall.

LEGO MAKES FULL-SIZE CHIRON
Lego makes a scale-size model of the Bugatti Chiron, but it must have felt life-size would be better. It just created a version of the supercar using more than a million Lego Technic pieces. And it’s not just for show. The doors open and close. The rear wing pops up. The brakes work. And can even travel up to 12 miles-per-hour by means of 2,300 Lego Power Functions motors. It took nearly 13,500 hours to develop and put together and the replica weighs 1,500-kilograms, which is more than 3,300-pounds.

Coming up next, tweaking the design of active grille shutters so they improve the aerodynamics of a car.

ROECHLING DEVELOPS ACTIVE AIR BLINDS
Active grille shutters are showing up on all kinds of new vehicles. Closing off the radiator opening when it’s not needed can dramatically improve the aerodynamics of a car, which boosts fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. But there can be a lot of leakage around the shutters, so the supplier company Roechling is working on a better design. They call it the active air blinds, not shutters. and it provides an 80% improvement in air blockage and an 80% improvement in packaging efficiency over its current design. Amazingly, the new design is only 16 mm deep, which allows it to fit into the tight front end of cars that previously could not accommodate active grille shutters.

Be sure to join us later this afternoon for Autoline After Hours. We’ll have David Schutt, the president of the SAE, joining us. He’ll be talking about the SAE’s public demonstration of autonomous cars and how the public reacted to getting a ride in one. The results were dramatic. Remember, you can always send us your questions for our guest via Twitter or shoot an email to viewermail@autoline.tv

And with that we wrap up today’s report. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.