AD #2900 – Trump Calls for Goodyear Tire Boycott; Lucid Claims Fastest Charging EV; London Black Cab Co. Expanding

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TRUMP CALLS FOR GOODYEAR TIRE BOYCOTT
President Trump says he wants to take Goodyear tires off the presidential limousine and all Secret Service vehicles. In fact he wants everyone to boycott Goodyear. That’s because of an uproar on social media over an internal Goodyear training presentation that included, amongst other things, a ban on employees wearing hats printed with Make America Great Again. Goodyear was quick to say the presentation was not created by or distributed by the company. But it didn’t explain why the presentation was made or who did it. Here’s our Autoline Insight. Will the president really go through with this? Remember, Goodyear is the last American-owned tire maker with a significant OEM business. Cooper Tire is also an American company, but mainly sells to the aftermarket. So if President Trump goes through with his ban on Goodyears, the presidential limousine and Secret Service vehicles will probably be riding on tires made by a Japanese, or a Korean, or French, or Chinese owned company.

FORD TAPS CONNECTED CARS TO MAKE ROADS SAFER
Ford wants to make roads safer by using data from connected vehicles and road-side sensors. The automaker is leading a consortium that will launch an 18-month trial in England this summer. Data from 700 connected cars and commercial vehicles will be combined with information from 100 smart sensors located between Oxfordshire and London. Driving patterns, such as brake and gas pedal usage as well as steering wheel angles will be recorded from the vehicles, while the sensors will detect near misses on the road and analyze movement patterns of pedestrians and cyclists. The goal will be to develop a digital tool that can predict accident hot spots and provide that tool to cities so they can make changes to improve safety. And the solutions could be as simple as cutting back vegetation to make road signs more visible.

LUCID CLAIMS FASTEST CHARGING EV
Lucid claims its Air sedan will be the fastest charging EV ever. It will be able to charge at a rate of up to 20 miles per minute, which means in just 20 minutes the Air could have 300 miles of range. Lucid says it was able to achieve this with a 900+ volt electrical system, custom battery cells and a sophisticated thermal management system. The Air also has an onboard charging unit, dubbed the Wunderbox, that automatically boosts voltage to charge at the fastest possible rate. More information about the Air will be revealed during its official debut on September 9th.

EV STARTUP CONVERTS LAND ROVERS WITH TELSA DRIVETRAINS
Another day, another EV startup. This startup is called ECD Automotive Design, which is converting Land Rover Defenders and Range Rovers to use Tesla drivetrains. The company says it will offer a 450 horsepower version that will power an electric Defender from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds. An optional 600 horsepower version will do it in 3 seconds. They call the electric Defender an E-lander. ECD puts 100 kilowatt hour batteries in its vehicles which it says will deliver between 125 and 250 miles of range depending on the vehicle and how it’s driven. The company is based in Kissimmee, Florida and says its vehicles can be sold in all 50 states and they’ll go on sale later this year.

NIO LAUNCHES BATTERY LEASING SERVICE
In other EV news, Chinese automaker Nio is launching a battery leasing service. Those who decide to opt in will not own the battery pack but will rather pay a monthly rental fee. We did not find what that fee will be, but the service knocks more than $10,000 from the price of Nio’s ES6 SUV. If there ever is a problem with one of those packs, all of Nio’s vehicles have identically sized and swappable battery packs. The EV maker currently operates 143 battery swapping stations around China and plans to build 300 more next year. Here’s our Autoline Insight. Nio should be able to get more people to consider an EV with this service, but it also puts the automaker at a competitive disadvantage because it wouldn’t be able to adopt new technologies, like CATL integrating cell right into the frame of a vehicle.

LONDON BLACK CAB COMPANY EXPANDING
The London Electric Vehicle Company, or LEVC for short, which builds the iconic black London cabs, is expanding its business. It’s TX electric taxi, which is already available in Europe, will be introduced in Japan, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. It also wants to build up a sales and service network throughout Europe. It currently exports 10% of its vehicles but it wants to boost that to 60% by 2022. LEVC is also launching a second vehicle, an electric van called the VN5. It has a range of 480 kilometers, or about 300 miles and it only takes 30 minutes to fully charge. LEVC is owned by Chinese automaker Geely.

NEW AV SHUTTLES HELP DETROITERS GET TO APPOINTMENTS
A new autonomous shuttle service just launched in the city of Detroit to help get people to and from hospital appointments. While it’s not open to the public and is only available to residents in two communities in the city, it’s a complimentary service. It’s available to senior citizens, the disabled and those who don’t own or can’t afford a vehicle. The shuttle travels along a 1.3-mile pre-programmed route with a safety operator on board. A number of partners are involved but the main ones are self-driving company Navya, which operates the shuttle and the state of Michigan. The service recently kicked off and will run until mid-October.

MAHLE DEVELOPS FUEL FILTER FOR FUEL CELLS
There are all kinds of filters in your car that need to be changed as part of its regular maintenance. But did you know that fuel cells need fuel filters too? That’s why the supplier Mahle developed two different fuel filter sizes for hydrogen powered vehicles. While fuel cells are still in their infancy for commercial applications, Mahle says it’s putting these filters on the shelf so that automakers can have ready access to them as they bring fuel cells to the market. The filters prevent ammonia, unwanted hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen oxides from reaching the cell. That makes the fuel cell more efficient and last longer.

Want to learn a lot more about that Ram TRX? Then join us later this afternoon for Autoline After Hours when Jeff Roselli from the TRX program comes on the show. And if you have questions you’d like to ask Jeff, send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv or tweet us @Autoline. Then join John and Gary for some of the best insights as to what’s going on in the automotive industry.

And that’s it, we’re out of news for now. But don’t worry, we’ll have plenty more tomorrow.