Listen to “AD #3253 – Why GM Sees a Profitable 2022; UAW Cleared for Direct Elections; Gladiator Hits #3 in Mid-Size Sales” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 9:52
0:07 Highlights of GM’s Letter to Shareholders
1:38 UAW Cleared for Direct Elections
2:17 Jeep Gladiator Reaches #3 in Mid-Size Pickup Sales
3:29 Ford F-150 Lightning Can Power an Owner’s Home
3:59 Opel Reveals New Astra Station Wagon
4:49 JLR Expands Alexa Across Its Lineup
6:25 Renault Helps Financially Strapped Customers Get Cars
7:13 Polestar Creates One-Off Winter Performer
8:13 Toyota Pushes Its AVs to the Limit
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GM EXPECTS PROFITABLE 2022
As we reported yesterday, despite selling half a million fewer cars and trucks last year, GM significantly boosted profits and revenue. In a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra laid out what she sees happening in 2022. Here are the highlights:
– Strong demand is pushing GM to accelerate EV manufacturing. Current reservations for the Silverado EV top 110,000, including reservations from more than 240 fleet operators, and there’s over 25,000 production reservations for the BrightDrop electric vans.
– And as scale builds up that will drive down the cost of GM’s other Ultium-based EVs, like the Equinox EV, which will have a price tag around $30,000.
– GM’s autonomous unit, Cruise, just started offering rides to the public in San Francisco. Right now those rides are for free because GM still needs one more permit to start charging customers.
– Even so, those public rides triggered another investment of $1.35 billion from the SoftBank Vision Fund, which is a partner in Cruise.
– And the money could soon be rolling in. GM expects Cruise to generate $50 billion in annual revenue by 2030.
– Despite the chip shortage and how it’s crimping sales, GM expects its EBIT earnings to hit $13 to $15 billion for 2022.
UAW CLEARED FOR DIRECT ELECTIONS
Back in December, UAW members overwhelmingly voted to change the way they elect officials. Instead of electing delegates who would then select the leaders, UAW workers voted to directly elect the people who will run the union. But because the union is under federal oversight due to its corruption scandal, those results needed to be approved by a federal judge to make sure the election was held fairly. And the UAW just got that approval. So now it can move forward to amend its constitution to directly elect leaders, which is a historic change for the union.
JEEP GLADIATOR REACHES #3 IN MID-SIZE PICKUP SALES
Jeep made a smart move by coming out with a pickup version of the Wrangler. Last year the Jeep Gladiator outsold the Chevrolet Colorado, Nissan Frontier, Honda Ridgeline and GMC Canyon. In fact, the Gladiator wasn’t that far behind the Ford Ranger, which was in second place in the mid-size pickup segment. General Motors may argue it’s in second place, since if you add the Colorado and Canyon sales together, they’re ahead of Ford. Even so, the mid-size pickup segment continues to be dominated by the Toyota Tacoma — and by a ton.
| U.S. Mid-Size Pickup Sales, 2021 | |
|---|---|
| Toyota Tacoma | 252,520 |
| Ford Ranger | 94,755 |
| Jeep Gladiator | 89,712 |
| Chevrolet Colorado | 73,008 |
| Nissan Frontier | 60,693 |
| Honda Ridgeline | 41,355 |
| GMC Canyon | 24,125 |
F-150 LIGHTNING OWNERS CAN POWER HOME WITH THE TRUCK
Ford is making it real easy for F-150 Lightning owners to power their homes with their truck. Ford is partnering with Sunrun, a solar energy company, as its preferred partner to install EV home chargers and storage batteries. Sunrun will also offer owners home solar options where available. Based on the average home in the U.S. the Lightning can provide full power to a house for up to three days, or as much as 10 days if the truck is used in conjunction with solar power.
OPEL REVEALS NEW ASTRA STATION WAGON
Station wagons are still a thing in Europe. So Opel is coming out with a wagon version of the Astra, which is called the Sports Tourer. Styling is pretty much the same as the hatch, but with the body stretched over the additional 70mm or 2.7-inches of wheelbase. One of the most notable differences is the placement of the license plate holder. On other models it’s integrated into the rear bumper, but the Sports Tourer features it in the tailgate. Opel says this helped keep sill height low, so loading stuff into the back is easier. And like other Astra models the Sports Tourer’s interior is highlighted by a large curved screen, which is actually two 10-inch displays put together in one unit. Interested customers will soon be able to place their order for a new Astra wagon.
JLR PUTS ALEXA INTO ENTIRE LINEUP
Automakers keep adding consumer electronics into their cars. Jaguar and Land Rover are now offering Amazon Alexa across their entire vehicle lineup. It’s only available to customers who have the Pivi Pro infotainment system but so far that includes about 200,000 owners. Alexa will be made available through an over-the-air update, which will allow drivers to control navigation and music, manage calendars, hear the news, check the weather and control home devices all through voice activation, no buttons are needed.
Cars and trucks are probably the most recycled consumer products out there. Over 90% of every vehicle gets recycled. Or most of it does. Especially all the metals. But almost none of the plastic gets recycled. It gets dumped in landfills. There’s no market demand for it because recycled plastic costs more than virgin plastic. But Justin Fishkin from a startup called By Fusion is taking waste plastic and turning it into construction materials. Justin will be on Autoline After Hours this afternoon, and we expect to learn a lot from him. Chris Paukert from Roadshow by CNET will also be on, so join John and Gary for some of the best insights into the automotive industry.
RENAULT HELPS FINANCIALLY STRAPPED CUSTOMERS GET CARS
New car prices are going through the roof. So Renault is launching a program in France to help financially strapped customers, especially for those who need a car to get a job or keep it. The French government is involved too. The program offers low-cost, long-term rentals with the option to purchase. For example, a Dacia Spring is available for only 48 euros a month, a Dacia Sandero is available for 32 euros a month. For commercial customers, a Renault Express van is available for 230 euros a month. Customers can also get their cars maintained at cost from 320 Renault and Dacia garages. Renault thinks it can increase the number of the participants tenfold by 2025.
POLESTAR ENGINEER CREATES ONE-OFF WINTER PERFORMANCE CAR
The Polestar 2 all-electric vehicle is already a good performing car with available AWD and up to 300 kW or over 400 horsepower. But one Polestar engineer said, “I wanted to have more fun than usual with this car.” So, he created a one-off version of the Polestar 2 that’s great for hooning around the Arctic Circle. It’s got the right look with a raised suspension height, white wheels with custom studded snow tires, accessory lighting and a big ‘ol racing #2 on the side. But it’s more than just a looker. Power has been increased by 50 kW or nearly 70 horsepower, it has 30% softer springs, specially tuned dampers with auxiliary adjustment chambers, front and rear strut braces and a new launch control system. But as sweet as this car sounds, unfortunately, Polestar won’t put it into production.
TOYOTA PUSHES ITS AVs TO THE LIMIT
The only way to develop a car is to push it to its limits. The same goes for autonomous cars. Toyota converted one of its Supra race cars into an autonomous car and taught it how to drift. Jonathan Goh, a scientist at the Toyota Research Institute, explains why.
“We develop algorithms that can autonomously control the vehicle in critical limit -handling situations. We want cars to have the skills of an expert driver and be able to correctly react to critical situations like spinning when you hit a patch of ice. When you’re drifting there’s a lot of forces at play and you’ve got to understand how every degree of steering angle slows the car down, or every application of throttle rotates the car. Being able to handle a drift requires being able to balance all of these objectives up to the very limits of its capabilities.”
The car does a great job of whipping the steering wheel around, of stomping on the gas to get the rear wheels spinning, and jabbing the brakes to kick the rear end out. That takes really good programming to do and Toyota sees this as a great way to hone the skills of its coders as it gets ready for an autonomous world.
And that brings us to the end of today’s report. Thanks for watching.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.
