Autoline This Week - Audio

Automakers around the world are struggling with a shortage of computer chips that is bringing their assembly lines to a grinding halt.  How did the industry get caught with this shortage, how is it trying to cope, and how will the problem get resolved? Our panel of experts explains what’s going on, and what needs to happen.

Car dealers are creative and adaptive. They adjusted to lockdowns and social distancing caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and learned how to maintain sales with much lower levels of inventory. Auto analyst and retail expert Maryann Keller explains that they’re also going to outlast EV startups who try to sell direct to consumers.

The auto industry is transforming itself to make electric vehicles. But EVs need 30% fewer labor hours to manufacture and could eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. The UAW is keenly aware of this and is preparing for an all-electric future. Jeff Dokho, the director of the Research Department at the UAW, lays out the union’s plans to prepare for it.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are not going mainstream anytime soon. But they make a lot of sense in other parts of the transportation sector, such as with semi-trucks, trains and ships. Wall Street is also waking up to the possibilities and investors are sniffing out investment opportunities. Bryan Pivovar, a Senior Research Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Lab, talks about the progress being made in hydrogen production and fuel cell development.

When the auto industry shut down last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic it lost a lot of production. Even now, car dealers are running on bare-bone levels of inventory. But Chevrolet is using new digital tools to let customers peer into its pipeline and discover the delivery date for the exact vehicle they want. It’s also engaging customers online with experts who can answer their questions, including technical ones about electric cars. Steve Hill, the head of Chevrolet, talks about how they’re using these digital tools to boost market share.

Elaine Buckberg, the Chief Economist at General Motors, provides her economic outlook, the need for more stimulus, why the stock market is so strong, and why pickups are selling so well.

Ford and Nissan are going through the largest new product launches in the history of their respective companies. Mark LaNeve is the Head of Sales for Ford, and Allyson Witherspoon is the Chief Marketing Officer for Nissan U.S. They talk about the importance of bringing all of these new products to market and new ways they’re going to make the world aware of them.

Automakers are going through a historic transition on multiple fronts. They have to develop a lineup of electric cars. They have to learn all about mobility services and data monetization. And they have to learn how to deal with a changing retail infrastructure. This show is all about what the industry will look like at the end of the decade.

To develop connected and autonomous cars and provide smart mobility doesn’t require a lot of natural resources. It requires a lot of brain power. The right kind of brain power, organized and working in the proper direction. These trends play to Canada’s strengths, as we discuss in today’s show.

Today’s cars are the safest they’ve ever been, but they could be even safer. Part of the problem is the cost of new safety technology, part of it is because new regulations take too long to put in place. David Harkey, the president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, talks about ways to cut the cost of safety technology and how to get it to the market faster.

Toyota used the COVID-19 pandemic to learn what it was not doing well, what it is doing well and how it can do better coming out of this. Jack Hollis, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota, takes us through the company’s strategy.

Electric pickups are getting big headlines and a lot of media coverage. In just a couple of years there will be at last 9 of them hitting the market. But these pickups are priced and configured in a way that will only appeal to a small segment of truck buyers. Industry veteran Warren Browne explains that these EVs are going to face.

Dana is one of the leading automotive suppliers in the world for drivetrain systems. And it is powertrain agnostic. So whether automakers want to use internal combustion engines, hybrids, batteries or fuel cells, it doesn’t matter. Dana’s plan is to have whatever kind of powertrain they need. Bob Pyle, President of Light Vehicle Systems, takes us inside their strategy.

Canada has an excellent education system that is developing the talent needed to develop leading edge processes to recycle EV batteries, to provide smart mobility and play a leadership role in the auto industry’s transition to a new world of moving people and goods.

Hyundai is not just a car company. It’s a multi-industry conglomerate that plans to leverage its technology across all those industries. Jose Munoz, COO of Hyundai Motor Company, talks about where this technology will take it, including passenger drones.