AD #2573 – Corvette C8 To Debut in July, Trump EPA May Not Freeze CAFE, General Motors Says No to Rivian

This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.

GM SAYS NO TO RIVIAN
Bloomberg reports that talks between General Motors and Rivian have collapsed. GM was interested in the electric vehicle startup’s battery powered pickup truck and SUV. But apparently talks broke down because GM wanted exclusive use, while Rivian wants to license its technology to multiple automakers. Despite losing GM as a possible investor, Rivian is sitting on $1.5 billion, largely thanks to a $700 million investment from Amazon.

SF MOTORS CHANGES ITS NAME
Chinese EV startup SF Motors has changed its name to Seres and is showing off a production version of its SF5 crossover. The shapely CUV features two setups. A 90-kWh battery will provide 310 miles of range on the European NEDC test cycle, which is an easier test than the EPA’s FTP 75. It will have a combined 684 horsepower that will move the vehicle from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds. A range extended version offers the same horsepower, but it has a 33-kWh battery pack with 93 miles of range and a 0 to 100 km/h time of 4.8 seconds. The SF5 goes on sale in the third quarter of this year in China. SF, I mean Seres, also has an assembly plant in Indiana.

CORVETTE C8 TO DEBUT IN JULY
We had freelance journalist Don Sherman on Autoline After Hours last month talking about the mid-engine C8 Corvette. He said the car would probably be a 2020 model, in production by the end of the year, and could be shown sometime this summer, maybe at the 25th anniversary of the National Corvette Museum in August. Don did pretty good of figuring out what’s going to happen, and was only off by a month. We now know GM will officially reveal C8 July 18th, because GM CEO Mary Barra showed up at a charity fund raising event in a slightly camouflaged C8 with the date 07/18/19 emblazoned on the doors.

BOSE MAKES CABINS QUIETER
Automakers are using noise cancellation to make engines sound better and passenger cabins quieter. But they measure that noise inside the cabin. Now Bose is taking noise cancellation to a new level. They call it Quiet Comfort Road Noise Control. And it uses a new type of sensor located at the suspension pickup points to detect tire and road inputs to the body. Within milliseconds the system creates equal and opposite sound waves to the incoming road noise, effectively cancelling it out. Six microphones in the cabin also contribute to cancelling incoming noise, including wind noise. The result is a cabin that is made quieter exactly where people are sitting in the car. Bose says that this kind of technology can reduce the need for acoustic mats and glass, which can add a lot of mass. It says one un-named chief engineer told them he could not meet his weight reduction targets on a new car his company is developing without using this technology.

TRUMP’S TARIFFS MEET LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
The Trump Administration slapped tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, supposedly to save American jobs. But Don Walker, the CEO of the supplier Magna, says it’s not working out that way. He’s our guest on Autoline This Week and here’s what he had to say about those tariffs.

(The ATW preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

You can watch that entire show right now on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

TESLA PHASES OUT $35,000 MODEL 3
Tesla made a big deal about a $35,000 price tag for the Model 3 when it was first introduced. But it doesn’t look like the company has made any of them and now it’s going to phase it out. You can still order one but you have to call the company or visit one of its stores, you can’t order it online. Tesla is also making Autopilot standard on all of its models and raised prices by $2,000. But Tesla is making it easier to get behind the wheel of a Model 3 by offering leases for the vehicle. However, customers won’t have the option to buy the car at the end of the lease because the cars will be used for an upcoming ride hailing service.

TRUMP EPA MAY NOT FREEZE CAFE
The EPA and NHTSA have proposed to freeze fuel economy regulations at 37 MPG starting next year, instead of having them ramp up to 47 MPG by 2026 under rules imposed during the Obama Administration. But yesterday, the EPA announced it’s going to revise that proposal. Reuters reports that two officials familiar with matter said that instead of freezing the standards, they expect the agency to require smaller annual increases in efficiency gains. If this ends up happening it would be a big win for automakers, who oppose the freeze but would like to see standards rolled back a bit. We should see the final proposal with specific numbers in a couple of months.

And that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.