Autoline This Week

The U.S. EPA just released the TAR, better known as its Technical Assessment Report. This is sort of a scorecard on where the auto industry is with regard to Emission Standards and the 2025 mandate. John McElroy caught up with three experts involved in the emissions process at the Center for Automotive Research’s annual August conference. Joining him on this edition of Autoline THIS WEEK is Mike McCarthy from the California Air Resources Board, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturer’s Mitch Bainwol and Christopher Grundler, the Director of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

If there’s an auto company getting more publicity these days than Tesla and its electric powertrain, we’d be surprised. That’s why Autoline has brought together three Tier One Suppliers who have specialized in the good old Internal Combustion Engine (I.C.E.) to talk about what’s going on with that franchise and put the rumors of its demise to rest. Joining host John McElroy will be representatives from AVL, FEV and Ricardo.

Everywhere you turn these days, when the topic of automotive comes up mobility is not far behind. There’s so much expansion in that area alone, OEMs are taking it very seriously. In fact, General Motors has put Julia Steyn as the VP in charge of what it calls Urban Mobility. She joins us on Autoline THIS WEEK along with host John McElroy, Rebecca Lindland of Kelley Blue Book and John Voelcker of Green Car Reports to see what direction GM is going in the field.

You’ve been drinking from its cans for years. More recently, you’ve probably sent an email or answered a phone from one of the computing/telematics companies it supplies. And soon, if not already, you may be driving an aluminum-bodied car or truck brought to you, in part, by Novelis. On this week’s show, John McElroy welcomes Novelis president of North America Marco Palmieri to the Autoline studios to talk about its expansion into automotive and where the company goes from here. Also on the panel are Alisa Priddle of Motor Trend and Richard Truett from Automotive News.

In the past, whenever the initials IP came up in conversations about cars, you were sure to be talking about the instrument panel. But nowadays with the global software explosion in auto technology, the new IP talk focuses on Intellectual Properties. On this week’s Autoline John McElroy is joined by Dr. Christal Sheppard, the Director of the Midwest Region for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as Pete Bigelow from Car and Driver and I.P. lawyer Jennifer Dukarski from Butzel Long to discuss Intellectual Properties in today’s auto industry.

John McElroy and GM Global Design Chief Ed Welburn discuss his career in cars and corporate America as he prepares to retire after 44 years at General Motors.

The General Motors Design Dome is 51 this year, just 12 months after celebrating a long-awaited makeover. On this week’s Autoline, John McElroy and GM Global Design Chief Ed Welburn broadcast from this historic architecture surrounded by some of the classics that had their start in that very building. Joining John and Mr. Welburn to discuss the arc of GM design over the years are John Cafaro, the Executive Director, Global Chevrolet Design and Helen Emsley, Executive Director, Global GMC Design and User Experience.

Three Asian automotive experts including Michael Dunne of Dunne Automotive, James Chao of IHS Automotive Asia-Pacific and Bill Russo from GaoFeng Greater China, join John McElroy on the floor of the Beijing Auto Show to discuss the, up to now, booming Chinese automotive market and where it goes from here.

Three top automotive designers including Peter Horbury from Geely, Ken Parkinson of GM Shanghai and Chery Automobile’s James Hope, join John McElroy on the floor of the Beijing Auto Show to discuss the challenges of creating cars for the Chinese automotive market.

Every great ride has to end sometime: whether it’s at the amusement park or the retail world. For instance, most auto analysts predict the U.S. car market will soon slow down; everyone, seemingly, other than John Murphy of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In fact, Mr. Murphy is so stoked he’s doubling down per his data which says the good times for the auto industry will continue to roll into the 2020s. Joining host John McElroy to discuss John Murphy’s antithetical view of the auto economy is Joann Muller from Forbes.com and Greg Gardner from the Detroit Free Press.

From now to April 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency is engaged in a Midterm Evaluation of the CAFE standards announced a few years ago. Those Greenhouse Gas Emission rules are set to go into effect by 2025. Joining John McElroy to discuss if those standards will be adopted or changed is Margo Oge, the former EPA director of the office of Transportation and Air Quality along with Joe White from Reuters and Todd Lassa of Automobile.

Factory work in 2016 is a new universe compared to just 20 years ago. Today’s manufacturing has more in common with Google than it does heavy duty grease. But despite its clean environment and use of computers, the under 30 crowd just doesn’t seem interested in these jobs and that’s troubling for manufacturers of all types. So some companies have joined together with states, municipalities and schools to try to attract workers from both Millennials and Generation Z. On this week’s Autoline, John McElroy looks at what one area of South Carolina is doing to bring a younger work force into manufacturing. His panel includes: Dirk Pieper, President and CEO of Sage Automotive Interiors; Lewis Gossett, Executive Director SCMA (South Carolina Manufacturing Alliance); Matt Critell, Program Director, Fisher Middle School.

Steve Kiefer has a big checkbook. As head of Purchasing for General Motors he awards billions of dollars of contracts to suppliers across the globe. But he doesn’t just hand out money. He has to make sure that he’s giving it to the right partners and they deliver high quality products for GM vehicles. Easier said than done. On this week’s show John McElroy’s special guest is Steve Kiefer, the Global VP of GM Purchasing and Supply Chain. Joining John on his panel are David Welch of Bloomberg and Doron Levin from Fortune.

Steve Miller is an automotive turnaround specialist. His bona fides date back to the bankruptcies of Chrysler and Delphi with stops at Federal Mogul and Ford for good measure. Now he presides over the International Automotive Components Group as it moves from a private Wilbur Ross company to a publically traded firm. Mr. Miller joins John McElroy as his special guest for this week’s Autoline discussing the consolidation of the automotive interior business and where he sees it going. Joining the panel are Jeff Bennett of the Wall Street Journal and Tom Murphy from Wards Auto.

When experts are asked what will be powering our cars now and into the future, you hear any number of options ranging from electric to plug-in to hydrogen just to name a few. In reality, there are a number of companies around the world working on just that: three who join us today on Autoline THIS WEEK. Joining John McElroy’s Advanced Propulsion panel to discuss the products they’re working on are Dave Johnson from Achates Power, Matthew Riley from Nautilus Engineering and Isak Lofgren from KASI Technologies of Sweden.