admin

Could you scale up to a million of these?

Alpine Cars' endurance racing unit in France has a precise way of forming a car seat. The vehicle's intended driver, fully dressed in racing attire, slips into the cockpit and sits on top of a plastic bag of liquid polyurethane foam. The ooze settles around the body contours, and over the course of about 15 minutes, hardens into a personalized foam seat capable of keeping the driver comfortable for three hours of speed, vibration, bumps, heat, noise and fatigue — all intended to improve focus on driving.

The latest numbers on the microchip shortage: Chinese, N.A. plants pinched

Microchip shortages have been felt heavily at auto plants in China, with several automakers trimming production schedules there.

Chinese plants reduced planned output by 355,000 vehicles in recent weeks, according to the most recent data from industry forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions.

Volkswagen’s operations in China felt the shortage particularly hard, according to AFS’ running tally. And separately, VW told shareholders last week that it cut several hundred thousand vehicles from its schedule worldwide as a result of the supply shortage.

Automakers in North America also felt an additional pinch. AFS estimates that plants there have cut another 106,000 cars and trucks from their production plans because of the chip shortage. AFS now estimates that the crisis has reduced worldwide production by 5.6 million vehicles so far, and it projects the number could climb to 6.9 million.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastso…

Henkel’s EV approach is a bit sticky

Batteries are adding weight to vehicles in the emerging electric vehicle era. Henkel Corp. is developing weight-saving concepts to offset the addition, by introducing adhesive products to battery structures.

The German chemical, electronics assembly and consumer goods supplier says its Loctite- branded adhesives for constructing battery packs offer a reduction in weight, in addition to dispensing faster, curing in less time and costing less than earlier iterations of industry adhesive-bonding applications.

It's a critical opportunity as automakers switch from using old-fashioned nuts and bolts and welds to other bonding materials.

"Fasteners and rivets are painful to work with," said Pradyumna Goli, Henkel's business development manager for eMobility. "With adhesives and sealants — anything material-based — you get more homogeneous and consistent performance, and you know exactly what to expect."

But that puts new pressure on the supplier.

Trust needs to start within dealerships

TO THE EDITOR:

In "3 ways dealers can break 'circle of distrust' " (autonews.com, July 20), Matt Weinberg talks about the distrust between the dealer and the customer. I believe he is inferring the lack of trust between the customer and the salesperson. While this distrust exists, it is really a symptom of the larger issue of dealership culture. Specifically, the relationship between the dealership management and staff.

I have been in the auto industry for the last 25 years. In that time, I have never had someone come to me and say, "It's been my dream to be a car salesperson." In fact, most people join the industry as a result of a negative life event or as a means to survive. The one thing they all have in common is that none of them chose to be there.

Most managers have a sink-or-swim management style because that's how they were treated. Therefore, the salesperson feels like they are a commodity, which leads to a lack of trust and a sense of being …

As new rivals enter EV segment, Tesla’s share of registrations drops

Tesla Inc. continues to dominate in the burgeoning electric vehicle market, but its share of the segment has slipped, as has its grip on the sales charts.

Through May last year, Tesla made four of the top five new EVs registered with state governments, according to data gathered by Experian. This year, it has two of the top 10.

On top of production slowdowns that have snarled Tesla's output of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, the brand faces increased competition from rivals' offerings, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Porsche Taycan. While Tesla's new-vehicle registrations through May rose 81 percent, the EV total jumped 116 percent.

"As this vehicle type becomes more mainstream and there's just more choices out there for consumers, I think that's why we do expect to see Tesla's share — not their volume, because that's going to grow as they add more products — but their share of the segment is going to fall," said Jeff Schuster, presiden…

EV tech is made easy on Pacifica Hybrid site

CHICAGO — In a world where shopping for electrified vehicles can be confusing, Chrysler has created a website to promote the benefits of its Pacifica Hybrid in simple ways.

The automaker uses everyday items to help people understand how long the lithium ion battery will last.

The microsite, whypacificahybrid.com, says the plug-in minivan's battery could outlive a couch, laptop computer, microwave, pool liner or clothes dryer. The same page informs consumers that the Pacifica's battery can be recharged thousands of times and has a 10-year/150,000-mile battery warranty.

The site, launched this month, aims to dispel myths around EVs while making the pitch for the Pacifica Hybrid as Stellantis moves to electrify 98 percent of its lineup by 2025.

"There's a lot of different technology, so it's good to be able to have the site that answers questions," Josh Culbert, a product manager for Stellantis, told Automotive News at the Chicago Auto Show. "One of…

Trade issues with China proved too big for HAAH

LOS ANGELES — HAAH Automotive Holdings' decision to give up trying to import Chinese cars to U.S. showrooms is the latest in a history of would-be distributors that have underestimated the difficulty of such an endeavor.

But HAAH's failure also is likely to dampen future attempts by others — at least in the current political climate.

HAAH CEO Duke Hale told Automotive News that his seven-year labor proved impossible, given rocky U.S.-China relations. In addition to growing political and economic skirmishes between the two nations, Chinese vehicles now bear a 27.5 percent tariff to enter the U.S.

"All of our big investors, all of them, have moved away from the deal because of U.S.-China relations," Hale said. "They do not see it as the right place to invest."

Hale told dealers early last week that HAAH would be liquidated through bankruptcy after failing to raise about $200 million needed to move ahead with his plan to …

GM, Cruise demand Ford drop ‘BlueCruise’ name for hands-free driving

DETROIT -- General Motors and its Cruise automated driving subsidiary said early Saturday they have asked a U.S. federal court to stop Ford Motor Co. from using the name "BlueCruise" to market its hands-free driving technology.

In a statement and documents released shortly after midnight, GM said Ford's use of the BlueCruise name infringed on GM's Super Cruise and other GM trademarks for automated driving, such as Hyper Cruise, as well as Cruise's trademarks.

"While GM had hoped to resolve the trademark infringement matter with Ford amicably, we were left with no choice but to vigorously defend our brands and protect the equity our products and technology have earned over several years in the market," GM said in its statement.

Ford, in a statement, called GM and Cruise's claim "meritless and frivolous." GM filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which is based in San Francisco.

"Drivers for decades have unde…

Ford dealership targets 48 hours to get used vehicles ready to sell

When Nick Anderson isn't working as general manager of Chuck Anderson Ford, he's often at a nearby track racing his Dodge Viper Competition Coupe.

In both roles, he's learned speed is key.

Anderson knew he could squeeze more profit out of the Excelsior Springs, Mo., store's used-vehicle operations if he could quicken the pace at which the cars move from acquisition to customer purchase. That meant convincing his service, sales and marketing teams to move faster.

"Our sales were strong, but the bottleneck in the whole operation was the time it took to get our used cars front-line ready," he told Automotive News. "It's not that [employees] don't care; it's just not necessarily their job to think about the big picture. Incentivizing them to buy into the big picture makes everybody more money."

He started paying service techs at the retail rates used for customer repairs if they could move used vehicles through the syst…

Cool idea … but will they buy?

Not all the hot new technical innovations these days are about advanced autonomous driving and futuristic artificial intelligence-infused components.

There also are windshield wipers.

"You still have to change your wiper blades, right?" reasons Jean Marie Thrower, an industry business development adviser who works with auto suppliers in different segments. "Maybe it's not as sexy as autonomous driving, but automakers still want to hear about it."

Thrower, a former Army Airborne logistics officer and former Visteon steering operations manager, represents the other side of the industry's innovation wave. It's one thing to dream up and perfect a technological breakthrough — it's another to sell it.

For the past three and a half years, Thrower has been assisting ClearBlade Inc., a Denver startup that is standing by to produce original equipment double-bladed wiper systems for automakers.

ClearBlade claims that its twin-blade design — with outl…