+++ ASTON MARTIN has posted production and sales volumes at a 9-year high, spurred by demand for the new DB11. A growth in sales of 58 percent over 2016 takes Aston Martin’s revenue to in excess of 840 million pound, with 5.117 cars delivered across 2017. This revenue equates to pre-tax profits of more than 180 million pound. The profits are also bolstered by low-volume projects such as a DB4 GT continuation and the limited-run Zagato range, deliveries of which conclude in 2018 with the Speedster and Shooting Brake. Growth in key markets, including China, the UK and the US, bolstered the bumper year for the Gaydon-based brand. This will be good news for Aston Martin’s owners, who are reportedly considering a flotation of the company on the stock market. CEO Andy Palmer said: “We continue to perform ahead of expectations, both in terms of financial performance and in meeting our targets for the DB11 and special vehicles. This strong sales performance shows that our Second Century transformation plan is building momentum”. First deliveries of the new Vantage, which is expected to become the brand’s best-seller, are due in early 2018. A raft of new products is scheduled subsequently, including a revival of the Lagonda brand and the launch of Aston Martin’s first SUV and a new mid-engined supercar. +++
+++ CADILLAC has just reported the second-highest sales year in its history, thanks largely to skyrocketing demand in China. A total of 356,467 vehicles were delivered by Cadillac in 2017, a 15.5 percent sales increase over the previous year. Despite this increase, sales of the brand’s vehicles actually fell by 8 percent in the United States from 170,006 in 2016 to 156,440 last year. However, China more than made up for this. In fact, Cadillac reports a 50.8 percent increase in sales in China, soaring from 116,406 in 2016 to 175,489 deliveries by the time the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2017. In a timespan much quicker than Cadillac predicted, China has become the brand’s largest market. The most popular Cadillac currently on sale is the XT5 crossover with 143,905 examples delivered to customers throughout 2017. Additionally, ATS sales rose 17.2 per cent and the average sales price of a Cadillac in the United States continues to increase, currently sitting at “well above 54,000 dollar”. “The resurgence of the brand is underscored by our attaining the second-highest total sales figure in Cadillac’s 115-year history”, said Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen. “Our objective of rapidly establishing a second volume hub for the brand to complement our U.S. operations has been attained, as our Chinese business grew exponentially, leaving us well-positioned for sustained growth going forward”. +++
+++ CHINA wants to introduce artificial intelligence technology to at least 50 percent of all its new cars by 2020. According to the country’s top state planner, China intends on becoming a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2025 and believes smart cars will be an important part of this project. In fact, the country also wants to cover 90 percent of its big cities and highways with a wireless network that can support smart vehicles by 2020 as well. In a statement, the National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) said it wants to seek public feedback on its artificial intelligence goals. The NRDC also revealed that it wants to build a national team with officials from the State Council to guide smart car innovation, hoping that China will gain a global reputation for producing quality smart cars by 2035. +++
+++ A new universal charging technology is set allow future ELECTRIC car drivers to use any cable-based charging station to recharge the batteries in their car. Tech and tyre company Continental has launched 2 new charging systems for electric cars at this years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Continental AllCharge system is said to serve as a “universal pass key” that will allow future EV drivers to use any cable-based charging station. The AllCharge system would be supplied by Continental to vehicle manufacturers who would incorporate the tech into their models. Continental is planning to start production of the AllCharge in 2022. Current charging technology involves converting alternating current (AC) from the grid into direct current (DC) to charge the battery. The conversion from AC to DC currently takes place in either the charging station (DC charging) or on-board the vehicle (AC charging), with fast DC charging stations more expensive to build. This has resulted in a number of different charging standards across different vehicles. To allow future electric cars to recharge from any station, Continental’s engineers have adapted the electric motor and the inverter to enable them to support the task of charging by adding a DC/DC converter that ensures power flows to the battery at the optimal voltage level. This allows the system to use both AC and DC charging stations without issue. This means cars equipped with Continental’s All Charge tech can use both AC and DC chargers. With AC chargers, charging rates of 43kW can be reached, providing a range of 80 kilometers in just 10 minutes, while use of 800-volt fast-charging stations boosts range to 500 kilometers in 10 minutes. Brian McKay, director of powertrain technology and innovation at Continental North America said the system can also support cars sending electricity back, to power things like home appliances. McKay also said the tech is “future proof” to meet a changing charging infrastructure by meeting charging rates of 350 kW in the future. Continental also announced details of its wireless charging system that enables electric cars to charge without a cable. Charging pads placed under ground would communicate with the car and give a quick charge once the car has come to a halt. Continental says a 20-minute stop can be used to increase range by 12.5 miles thanks to the 11kW charging rate. +++
+++ GENERAL MOTORS Chief Executive Mary Barra has made a bold promise to investors that the Detroit automaker will make money selling electric cars by 2021. What Barra has not explained in detail is how GM intends to do what, so far, no major automaker has done. The answer is a big bet on combining proprietary battery technology, a low-cost, flexible vehicle design and high-volume production mainly in China, according to 6 current and former GM and supplier executives and 6 industry experts. If GM can meet Barra’s ambitious profitability target, then it will house 2 different businesses by the mid-2020s: A traditional focus in North America on pick-ups, SUVs and cars fueled with petroleum, and a global electric car company centered in China, branching into pay-per-use services such as robotaxis. Barra’s promise to turn a profit is a bold claim in a market segment that has been driven more by government policy than consumer demand, and where Tesla (the world’s largest electric-vehicle manufacturer) is burning through more than $1 billion in cash each quarter selling premium-priced vehicles. Barra and GM have invested heavily in the electrification strategy, and worked during the past year to persuade investors that GM can compete with Tesla by building on the success of the automaker’s latest electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt (Opel Ampera-e), and cutting costs along the way. A key element of the plan, according to 2 people familiar with the company’s strategy, is slashing the amount of cobalt in GM’s new EMC 1.0 battery system. The price of cobalt (the single most costly ingredient in current lithium/ion battery cells) has soared in the past 2 years in expectation of a surge in demand from automakers. Cobalt prices hit a record high this month on the London Metal Exchange. GM’s new battery design increases the amount of nickel, which enables batteries to store and produce more energy, these people told. GM engineers are also working on other design and technological advances, according to executives and company patent filings, including more efficient packaging of batteries in vehicles and improved systems for managing energy flow and cooling the battery cells. Without providing details, GM has said it expects these changes to cut the cost of battery cells by more than 30 percent, from $145 per kilowatt-hour to less than $100 by 2021. Battery experts said the full cost of a GM battery pack, such as the one used now in the Bolt, is $10,000-$12,000, or nearly one-third of the car’s sticker price. By 2021, however, that price could drop to $6,000, according to consultant Jon Bereisa, a former GM engineering director who helped develop the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and spearheaded much of the automaker’s early lithium-ion battery development. With improvements in battery chemistry and packaging, Bereisa said, the next-generation Bolt “could deliver a 45-percent increase in range for about the same batterypack cost, or the same range at 45 percent less pack cost”. Pam Fletcher, vice president in charge of GM’s global electric vehicle programs, and other GM executives would not comment on specifics of the new battery system, which is slated to be introduced in 2020-2021. To be sure, electric vehicles account for only a small fraction of global auto sales. Like other manufacturers, GM is banking not only on reducing its own costs and improving vehicle performance, but also on increased demand driven by higher government-mandated electric vehicle quotas in China that are intended to help reduce pollution and the country’s dependence on petroleum. In addition to improving battery and vehicle design and performance, GM is working with Chinese partner SAIC to reduce the cost of assembling electric cars. Sources said GM and SAIC are designing dedicated electric vehicle factories in China that are far smaller, less complex and more efficient than a conventional car plant. GM has more capital for electric vehicle development because of Barra’s decisions to sell money-losing European operations, exit other unprofitable markets and invest in a new generation of highly profitable, petroleum-fueled large pickup trucks, launching later in 2018. The automaker now has more than 1,700 engineers, designers and researchers working on batteries and electric vehicles, many of them at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, where the company opened a dedicated battery research center in 2009, a week after it filed for bankruptcy reorganization. Automotive experts say GM’s battery and EV group is one of the largest in the world, rivaled only by Toyota in Japan and Daimler in Germany. Toyota has patented more battery technology in recent years than GM, although its focus has been mainly the Prius family of hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles, rather than on pure battery-powered cars like GM’s Bolt. General Motors was issued 661 U.S. patents on battery technology from 2010 through 2015, the latest that such data is available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, trailing only Toyota’s 762 battery patents among global automakers. In addition to the battery work, GM engineers are developing a new dedicated “plug and play” structure for its next-generation electric vehicles that is flexible and modular, meaning it will be able to accommodate battery systems of different sizes, as well as hydrogen fuel cells, one of the sources said. In an interview, Mark Reuss, head of global product development, said GM’s strategy to reduce battery cost is not tied to a single improvement such as a change in battery chemistry, but rather a series of continuous enhancements in battery technology and packaging. “There are no silver bullets here”, Reuss said. GM also has not solved all the problems required to achieve its goal, he said. “It’s called ‘product development’ for a reason”, he said. The most recent developments and enhancements in battery technology have not been made public, according to GM’s Fletcher. “There’s a lot of stuff that we choose not to patent because we don’t want to make it visible” before the new technology goes into production, Fletcher told. GM’s patent history since 2010 shows a focus on improvements in battery technology, packaging and processing, some of them designed to help boost the battery’s energy and extend vehicle range between charges, according to company filings. GM jointly developed its current battery knowhow with Korea’s LG Group, which makes batteries and electronic components for the Bolt. Introduced in October 2016, Bolt was the first mass-produced electric vehicle to go more than 320 kilometers between charges, and sell at a sticker price of under 40,000 dollar. GM sold 23,297 Bolts in 2017. Tesla reported producing just 1,770 of its Model 3 sedans in 2017, well short of the company’s original targets. The launch of the Bolt and its warm reception by reviewers, customers and investors was a watershed event for Barra and GM’s top management. “It was a ‘holy shit’ moment that made us rethink what might be possible”, said one GM insider. +++
+++ KIA has pledged to begin testing level 4 autonomous vehicles in cities in 2021, along with offering 16 electrified cars by 2025, as part of a new future strategy. The Korean firm’s new ACE strategy is built around 3 pillars: Autonomous, Connected and Eco/Electric. Kia’s autonomous vehicle plans include a pledge to begin to commercialise level four autonomous driving technology in 2021, by beginning tests in smart cities, which will have the infrastructure needed to support such machines. As a step towards that, Kia says it will have a large-scale test fleet of autonomous cars operating on public roads from 2019. Under the Connected pillar, Kia will offer connected technology in every market segment by 2025, with every single model featuring such systems by 2030. Kia will showcase an ultra-fast 5G mobile connection system. The Eco/Electric plans include a pledge to offer 16 new advanced powertrain vehicles by 2021, comprised of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs and a new fuel-cell electric vehicle, due to go on sale in 2020. That range will include the Niro EV due to go on sale later this year, which Kia will preview with a Concept machine at CES. The ACE strategy is part of Kia’s broader future mobility concept, titled ‘Boundless for all’. Dr Woong-chul Yung, the head of Kia’s R&D centre, called it a manifesto “where everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the infinite value that future mobility will bring”. Kia also announced that it will expand its WiBLE car sharing service (which was launched in Korea last year) to select European cities in 2018. The service allows users access to a range of Kia vehicles through a smartphone app on a pay-per-journey basis. The firm says it will announce the first European markets later this year. +++
+++ Distracted driving is a growing problem, but a new MAZDA patent may provide a novel solution by putting drivers on interesting roads. In an age when a crushing tsunami of automotive technology seems to have the express purpose of making drivers less engaged with the road, Mazda is taking the opposite tack. The January 2 patent filing shows an in-car system that monitors the driver’s engagement with the act of driving, by measuring things such as how much they are looking away from the road, fiddling with accessories, and the delay in response to pedal switching. Such sensors aren’t necessarily new per se, but it’s Mazda’s use of them that’s innovative. The car will log the road’s features along with the driver’s engagement level, and in the future guide them to roads that have more engaging features. In addition, the car will actually change its operation to reward drivers when they are engaged, like increasing the throttle response. As motoring enthusiasts we are often looked upon with blank stares from the larger populace when we speak of driving and cars as fun. It’s something that usually has to be experienced to be understood. That’s why this system is so deviously ingenious. Increasing road safety while subtilely coaxing drivers to enjoy their cars more? That’s a win-win. +++
+++ As the year 2017 comes to an end, the race for luxury sales has also reached a remarkable finish. This has always been a highly contended segment in the United States with each automaker making various daring attempts to elbow each other out. Well, we’re here to report that it seems like MERCEDES will be taking the crown home for the second year in a row. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Mercedes has delivered a total number of 302,043 units in 2017. And that number is mostly comprised of their strong sellers including the C-Class, GLC, and the GLE. That’s not all, because the Mercedes-AMG alone was doing so well too. In fact, sales were up by 49.6 percent in 2017, adding up to a total of 30,116 units. There is also the entry-level 43 lineup that is a lot cheaper than the pure AMG models. According to reports, Mercedes has been doing very well with their SUVs. This could be because their offerings have become more practical. Final numbers are not here yet so the identity of the second place finisher is still up in the air. There’s a very narrow gap between the 2 automakers, BMW and Lexus. There’s a difference of a few thousand units between them. However, it is currently BMW that is leading with 271,432 units sold, whereas Lexus has 269,671 sales. Speaking of sales, both automakers have suffered a decrease in sales in 2017 compared to last year. BMW is down by 3.2 percent, while Lexus sales have gone down by 7 percent. BMW’s response to their loss last year had been the launch of revamped models such as the larger SUVs like the X7. In 4th place is Audi, which is in an unfortunate rank but is still not that bad, considering that it has outdone itself in several ways. The said automaker has performed really well this year too, as November marked the 83rd straight month of record sales. Unlike Lexus and BMW, Audi sales have increased by 6.7 percent in 2017, with a total of 199,534 units this year. Big thanks to the huge success of their Q5 and Q7, both of which are popular with customers. With a day left before sales are completed for the year, it is safe to send our congratulations to Mercedes for taking home the crown for the second year in a row. Do you think it has enough momentum to once again claim the title next year? +++
+++ It may not seem that long ago that MINI rolled out the current core of its range. But it’s been 4 years now, which means it’s about time for a refresh. And that’s just what the British marque has in store for this year’s Detroit Auto Show. BMW’s little retro brand will showcase updated versions of the 3- and 5-door Hatchbacks along with a similarly revised version of the Convertible next week at the Cobo Center in the heart of the Michigan metropolis. I am not expecting much cosmetic deviation from the brand’s signature retro style, however changes to the engines are anticipated to deliver better fuel economy. Don’t be surprised to see some interior enhancements in store. +++