+++ BMW ’s head of sales and marketing, Ian Robertson, is to retire at the start of 2018 and will be replaced by Pieter Nota, who moves to the company from electronics firm Philips. The moves are effective from 1 January 2018, after which the current Philips chief marketing officer and executive vice-president for personal health will take up the role. Robertson has served as BMW’s head of sales and Brand BMW since 2008. He has been praised by BMW boss Norbert Reithofer, who said: “Even through challenging economic times, he (Robertson) enabled the continuous growth of the company by achieving one sales record after the other. I would like to thank him for his accomplishments and am pleased that he will remain with the company as a BMW Group ambassador for the UK, one of our most important markets and production locations”. Robertson made headlines last year by speaking out about how far away ’true’ autonomy is, saying it is much farther away than many believe. Nota’s role at BMW will be his first in the car industry, having moved to Philips from skincare company Beiersdorf after a stint at Unilever in various executive roles. Harald Krüger, chairman of the board at BMW, said: “I am convinced that Pieter Nota’s proven track record in innovation and transformation will continue to lead our core Brand BMW and its products through the future of connected mobility”. +++
+++ The next-generation BUGATTI Chiron, still at least 7 years from production, will have to be electrified to enhance its performance beyond the current car’s record-breaking capabilities, CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer said. The Chiron can reach 100 km/h in less than 2.5 seconds, despite weighing 1.995kg, and has a top speed of 420 km/h. At its heart is a quad-turbocharged 8.0-litre W16 configured petrol engine that develops 1.500 hp at 6.750 rpm, giving the Chiron a power-to-weight ratio of 750 hp per tonne. Torque peaks at 1.500 Nm from 2000 rpm. “Electrification will happen”, said Dürheimer. “The next car is a long way from being developed, but the way battery and electric motor technology is moving on (as well as regulations) it seems certain that the next car will be electrified in some way. It will still be too soon for a full electric car, I think, but electrification will happen”. As such, Dürheimer has also declared that there “will probably never be a car with the pure mechanical capabilities of the Chiron” and, as a result, he is considering buying one. “The fact is that it may never be beaten in pure mechanical terms makes it incredibly desirable”, he said. In 2016, Dürheimer told that hybridisation was initially considered as a way of extracting the required power from the W16 to ensure the Chiron eclipsed the Veyron. In the end, though, the power increase was simply achieved by upgrading many of the engine’s components. Already, the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder have employed hybrid technology to deliver hypercar performance. For instance, the P1 is powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine and electric motors, together generating 910 hp. It accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. Dürheimer also hinted that ongoing plans to introduce a second Bugatti model to the firm’s line-up could delay production of the next generation Chiron, as the firm would possibly switch to a strategy of alternating between new car launches. If that happens, a new Bugatti model could be launched around 2024 and the next Chiron not until 2032. “We are looking at what customers want if we do something different, and we have some ideas”, said Dürheimer. “But we are not under pressure to decide: production of the Chiron is expected to last for around 8 years. We are at the predevelopment phase, preparing technically and asking clients what they expect”. Dürheimer declined to reference any bodystyles for such a vehicle. The Bugatti Galibier 5-door fastback concept was shown in 2009 but did not get the go-ahead for production. However, the concept of a more practical but still standard-setting high-performance vehicle remains a potential target for Bugatti. To date, 280 of the planned 500 Chirons have been sold. +++
+++ FORD delays the GT production after delivering around 50 units. The company blames the delays on adjustments required for cars heading to global markets. Jay Leno already has his new Ford GT, but some other customers will be forced to wait a bit longer than expected for their $450,000 supercar. The GT assembly line at Multimatic’s Markham, Ontario, factory has reportedly slowed after building and delivering just 50 units, a spokesperson told. “The craftsmanship required to build these vehicles for global markets has required that we adjust our original timing projections”, the company said. The delays are related to supplier constraints and setbacks with homologation testing for global markets. The assembly plant will eventually ramp up to an output target of one unit per day, providing a bit of breathing room with a production limit of 250 units annually through the 2020 model year. +++
+++ JAGUAR LAND ROVER has opened its first overseas engine plant, picking China for the investment a week after saying it would build a global model entirely outside Britain for the first time. Britain’s biggest carmaker, which already operates a plant in China as part of a partnership with Chery, said the new facility was part of a 10.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) investment with the Chinese automaker. “The new engine plant demonstrates Jaguar Land Rover’s long-term commitment to the Chinese market, providing customers with an exciting range of vehicles and powertrain options, as well as to its joint venture”, JLR said in a statement. The site will make the new Ingenium 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. China was JLR’s fastest growing market in 2016, accounting for 20 percent of global sales. JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, is rapidly expanding its production levels and model line-up and decided in 2015 to build a major new plant in Slovakia, rather than expand its operations in Britain. Earlier this month, the automaker said it would build its new E-Pace in Austria and China, the first car made for global sale to be built outside of Britain. Like much of the British car industry, JLR is worried that Brexit could leave its car exports facing lengthy customs delays and tariffs of up to 10 percent, jeopardising the viability of production in Britain. +++
+++ JEEP is worth more than Fiat Chrysler. Morgan Stanley’s analyst Adam Jonas values the Jeep brand alone at 120 percent of FCA’s current market cap. That means Jeep alone could be worth more than parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Riding the surge in SUV demand, Jeep’s annual sales have quadrupled to 1.4 million units since the industry crisis of 2008 and Fiat’s 2009 buyout of parent Chrysler, as highlighted in the research note cited by CNBC. Citing Jeep’s stellar performance, Jonas suggests the brand could be worth 120 percent of FCA’s current market capitalization as a combined entity that also includes Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Maserati and Ram. FCA chief executive Sergio Marchionne has not ruled out spinning off either Jeep or Ram into standalone businesses, possibly taking inspiration from the apparently successful Ferrari IPO orchestrated under his watch. Jonas suggests Marchionne could be seriously considering the same strategy for Jeep as he approaches a planned retirement in 2018. +++
+++ BMW’s Oxford factory in England is currently the favored location for building an electric version of the MINI despite Britain’s planned departure from the European Union, 2 sources familiar with the company’s thinking told. Any decision by the German carmaker to commit to further spending at Oxford would be a boost to the British government, which has been warned by businesses at home and abroad that Brexit will hit investment. Mini makes around 60 percent of its approximately 360,000 compact cars a year at Oxford, but BMW has built up an alternative manufacturing base in the Netherlands amid concerns about Britain’s suitability as an export hub after Brexit. Asked whether the electric Mini would be built in Britain, a BMW spokeswoman said: “A final decision has not been taken”. BMW has said it has several options about where to build the vehicle, including at a plant operated by VDL Nedcar in Born, Netherlands, where a plug-in hybrid version of the Mini is already being built, or a plant in Regensburg, Germany. BMW has about 4,600 staff working in Oxford, while VDL currently employs around 4,500. That is set to rise to more than 5,000 after production of the BMW X1 model is added to the Dutch plant in August, a sharp rise from only 1,500 in 2012. Carmakers have been among the most vocal critics of Brexit, warning their global supply chains will be hit hard by any resulting introduction of tariffs. But they are also keen to have a strong position in Europe’s second-biggest car market behind Germany, particularly if they can secure government guarantees. Japan’s Nissan said in October it would build 2 new models in Britain after a government pledge to counter any adverse Brexit effects. The electric Mini will use an electric motor, components and a battery delivered from BMW’s Dingolfing and Landshut plants in Bavaria, Germany. BMW executives are seeking assurances from Britain that any import duties on electric motors and batteries sent from Bavaria to Oxford could be reclaimed in full for vehicles that are then sold in the EU, one of the sources said. BMW executives believe a deal on tariffs can be struck, the source said. Britain’s department for business, energy and industrial strategy declined to comment. The source added a formal decision about where to build the vehicle would be taken in September, with an announcement expected at the Frankfurt car show in mid-September. Since BMW bought Mini in 1994, it has invested billions in the brand, UK production sites and developing a small car platform. Between 2012 and 2015 alone, BMW Group invested 750 million pounds ($977 million) to upgrade manufacturing sites in Oxford, Hams Hall and Swindon. “If Mini became a fully electric brand in the long run, and Oxford only knew how to build combustion engined variants, the plant would lose its relevance”, another source said. A UK manufacturing base is important for the brand, the second source said. The first Minis were built by the British Motor Corporation, with early models featuring in one of most famous car chases in cinema history in the 1969 film “The Italian Job”. Demand for a fully electric Mini may not be huge to begin with, so the financial impact of tariffs and duties is seen as manageable, given the scale of investments already made in the Oxford plant, the second source said. If production volumes increase significantly, a production location outside of Britain could be added, the first source said. +++
+++ With a tweet and very little else by way of detail, TESLA chairman Elon Musk has raised the prospect of building the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington. Musk said that he had been given “verbal” government “approval for his digging enterprise, The Boring Company, to build the underground train, known as hyperloop, that would make the 350 kilometre connection in the unheard-of time of 29 minutes”. It takes New Yorkers longer than that just to cross Manhattan by subway. Musk’s tweet was enticing enough, but he provided few details, and a spokesperson for the Boring Company declined to comment on the project. It prompted a bombardment of follow-up questions and a great deal of skepticism. Who would pay for it? How long would it take to build? How would it be built? There were no answers. Nor was there any indication of just who in the government had given the plan the “verbal” green light. It’s not clear what Musk is doing with these Twitter announcements. Such an ambitious project would require billions of dollars in funding and extensive approvals from federal, state, and local authorities. The tunnel would be more than twice as long as the current record holder: the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a rail line that runs through the Swiss Alps. For some urban context: a recently opened stretch of subway in New York cost $US4.5 billion for some 3 kilometres of rails. It was first proposed in 1919 and opened to the public in January 2017. These things take time. The US Department of Transportation referred a query about the project to the White House, which said in an e mailed reply through a spokesman: “We have had promising conversations to date, are committed to transformative infrastructure projects and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector”. Even if the Boring Co. did receive some kind of approval to start digging a tunnel, it’s not clear how quickly the company will be able to move. Musk began digging in May on a small test tunnel using a second-hand boring machine, called Godot, which he acquired for his speculative new enterprise. Here’s how Musk described the Boring Co. at a Ted Talk in April: “This is basically interns and people doing it part time. We bought some second-hand machinery. It’s kind of puttering along, but it’s making good progress”. In his Twitter replies, Musk let slip a few more thoughts on his new mega project. Musk’s planned 29-minute trip is considerably shorter than the current options. A drive from Washington to New York can take about 5 hours. Amtrak’s Acela, its high-speed counterpart to regional train service, cuts the time down to about 2 hours and 45 minutes. A nonstop flight from Kennedy Airport in New York to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington is currently the fastest option, at one hour and 15 minutes. Musk-watchers have heard this before. Musk, a serial entrepreneur who was a co-founder of PayPal and the electric car company Tesla Motors, first unveiled his idea for a similar plan in 2013 when he unveiled a project for a high-speed system that would take people to San Francisco from Los Angeles in 30 minutes. That would take a speed of more than 1.000 kilometres per hour. On Instagram earlier this year, he posted a tunnel test run at just 200 kilometres per hour. Reuters reported that engineers in the next few weeks will conduct a crucial test of the Hyperloop concept, an idea that would have passengers and cargo packed into pods and sent through an intercity system of vacuum tubes. Hyperloop One, the Los-Angeles-based company developing the technology, is gearing up to send a 8.5 metre long pod gliding across a set of tracks. Musk launched the Boring Co. in December with a series of Twitter posts, tapping veteran SpaceX engineer Steve Davis to oversee the project. In January, the company began digging in a parking lot as part of a planned network that Musk says will eventually cover all of Los Angeles. Musk said the East Coast tunnel will progress “in parallel” with the West Coast project. +++
+++ VOLVO ’s moving full steam ahead with the renewal of its lineup. The next new model to arrive will be an XC40 compact SUV, which Volvo says is coming shortly. The XC40 was first hinted at in May 2016 with the unveiling of the 40.1 concept car. Since then, prototypes for the production model have been spotted, and now Volvo has detailed some of the customization options buyers can look forward to. The automaker says the XC40 will be offered with a much broader color palette than its other models, with dozens of possible exterior and interior color combinations to be made available. For example, Volvo will be offering up a range of solid colors in addition to a range of monochromatic shades. Buyers will also be able to select two-tone options, most likely with a different hue for the roof and body. Some new interior options will be Lava Orange carpet, Oxide Red seat trim and various material options for the headliner and door inserts. Inspiration, Volvo says, came from street fashion, city architecture, high-end designer goods, and pop culture. The XC40 is an urban runabout, after all. The vehicle will be just one of a handful of next-generation compact cars from Volvo. They will be based on the CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform developed by Volvo in partnership with parent company Geely, which is using the platform for the Lynk & Co brand. The XC40 will be revealed later this year. It should go on sale in 2018, as a 2019 model. Rivals will include the Audi Q3, BMW X1, Cadillac XT4, Infiniti QX30, Lexus UX and Mercedes-Benz GLA. Beyond the XC40, we will also see a related S40 sedan and V40 hatchback. The S40 was also previewed last year in concept form, while the V40 will simply be a replacement for the current V40 sold overseas. +++