More – and Older – Vehicles Now Traveling on U.S. Roads
There were 276 million light duty vehicles cruising U.S. roads and highways at the end of the first quarter of 2019, reports 24/7 Wall St. That’s up about 1.7% compared with the first quarter of last year when 271.4 million vehicles were counted in the U.S. fleet. The fleet added 17.1 million new vehicles over the 12 months to March 31, 2019, while 12.5 million vehicles were junked and 42.1 million used vehicles changed hands. A light duty vehicle is a passenger car, pickup truck, crossover utility vehicle (CUV), sport utility vehicle (SUV), or a minivan. The data was reported Tuesday by Experian Automotive in its Quarterly Briefing on automotive market share, trends, and registrations. The average age of all light vehicles on the road is rising, up from 11.29 years in the first quarter of 2015 to 11.61 years in 2019. On a rolling average basis for vehicles built in the last 25 years, the average age is 10.59 years, up from 10.48 years in 2015. More than 95% of all cars on U.S. roads were first sold in the past 25 years. Read more here.
GM Pushes for More Temp Workers as UAW Talks Loom
General Motors wants to hire more temporary workers at U.S. plants and trim its health care costs, said people familiar with the automaker’s thinking. Its union – still steaming over the carmaker’s plans to close four U.S. factories – has little interest in obliging. According to Automotive News, that sets up a hot summer of negotiations with the UAW as the two try to hash out a new labor deal in the coming months. The last contract was bargained over in better times, when auto sales were growing from financial crisis lows to all-time highs and GM was marching toward record profits. This year will be much different. The U.S. auto market may still be healthy but is widely expected to shrink for the second time in three years. GM has slated four U.S. plants with 2,800 employees for closure, forcing some workers to decide between transferring to out-of-state factories or leaving the company. Read more here.
Charging Stations Play Catch-Up with Automakers' Electric Ambitions
More electric vehicles are expected to be sold in the United States over the next few years, but the infrastructure to charge those cars is just starting to take shape, reports The Detroit News. Most major automakers are betting big on electrification, with some promising to do away with internal combustion engines altogether. The push to electrify is driven largely by stricter emissions regulations in the U.S., Europe and China as they address pollution and climate change. Tesla Inc. and its Supercharger network notwithstanding, a handful of start-ups have led the effort in the last half-decade to build fast-charging infrastructure for the masses — and that's key to reducing range-anxiety, considered one of the biggest barriers to EV ownership. That has required collaboration with property owners, regulators, and automakers to rethink the way drivers refuel. Read more here.
Nissan and Renault Near a Deal to Resolve Corporate Governance Dispute
Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA are moving closer to resolving a standoff over corporate governance at the Japanese car maker, according to people familiar with their talks—nearing a compromise that could help ease one point of contention between the two alliance partners, reports The Wall Street Journal. Tensions between them have escalated in the wake of busted merger talks between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Renault. Those discussions foundered after Nissan withheld its support for a tie-up, and the French government asked for a delay until Nissan was onboard. Instead, Fiat pulled its offer. The corporate governance issue has been a highly technical, but high-profile, standoff between Nissan and Renault. It revolves around whether Renault Chief Executive Thierry Bolloré should be given a post on a proposed audit committee on Nissan’s board. Renault threatened to abstain in a vote on governance changes at Nissan, effectively scotching them, unless it got its way. That prompted Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa to issue an uncharacteristic rebuke calling Renault’s stance “most regrettable.” Read more here.
A New Era Brings New Challenges to Automaker Supplier Relations
Electronics are creating new tensions in automaker-supplier relations, reports Automotive News. The key problem, according to a new survey: Automakers are pressing their usual desire to whittle new-vehicle parts costs, while suppliers of advanced electronics are not eager to oblige. That spells potential trouble ahead, said Dave Andrea, principal of Plante Moran, the consulting firm that produced the 2019 North American Automotive OEM-Supplier Working Relations Index Study. The industry is speeding into a future in which new and more advanced electronics — sometimes supplied by companies new to the auto world — will hold powerful sway. "One of the biggest red flags was a downgrade in the area of electronics," Andrea told Automotive News about the annual report card on automotive purchasing and relationships. Plante Moran took over the study this year from industry researcher John Henke's firm, Planning Perspectives Inc. Read more about the study here.
Around the Web
Why Safer Cars Don't Lead to Cheaper Car Insurance . . . Yet [NPR]
Flying Car Startups Aim to Begin Test Flights as Early as Next Year [USA Today]
All the Electric Flying Machines Come Home to Roost at the Paris Auto Show [Autoblog]
Italian Airport Gets Its Second Lamborghini Huracan [The Detroit Bureau]
