Category: Brands

The Bentley Batur debuted in August 2022, and the brand began on-road development a few months later. Now, that process is officially over, and the British brand can start building 18 examples for customers.

Bentley built two pre-production Baturs for over 18,641 miles of real-world testing and a combined 58 weeks of evaluation. Car Zero featured a vibrant Purple Sector body with a Gloss Dark Titanium grille with Black Crystal elements. Car Zero-Zero received a Marina Teal body, and the brand specifically used it for development in Europe and high-speed driving on closed circuits.

The Batur has over 800 unique components that no other Bentley uses. For example, the interior trim includes recycled, 3D-printed gold on the so-called Charisma Dial that surrounds the start/stop button.

The Batur is the final Bentley to use the brand’s twin-turbo 6.0-liter W12 engine, and the brand is sending it out with a bang. This version makes 740 horsepower rather than 710 hp in other iterations. The torque output remains at 737 pound-feet. The revisions to the engine include a tweaked air intake, modified turbochargers, and altered intercoolers. The software calibrations for the powerplant, transmission, and electronic stability control also differ from the usual setup.

This limited-run, grand-touring coupe gets around on an air suspension, active anti-roll bars, and four-wheel steering. The car has torque vectoring and an electronic limited-slip differential for managing the power.

All 18 Baturs already have reserved buyers, and the cars start at $2 million. These customers get to work with Bentley’s Mulliner personalization division to specify the colors and materials throughout the vehicle. The brand has an eye toward keeping the model green by offering leather that uses less water and aldehyde than traditional tanning. A textile that uses the byproducts of the coffee roasting process is available, and recycled yarn is available for the carpets.

Each customer-spec Batur takes around four months to produce because so much of the work happens by hand. Bentley expects to complete the last one in late 2024.

Check out the Batur:

The auto industry faces a new challenge as a shortage of railroad cars is causing delays in new vehicle deliveries. This shortage has led to at least 70,000 new vehicles being stranded across the country, unable to reach dealerships. The problem has prompted the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the auto industry’s lobbying group, to ask the US Surface Transportation Board to intervene.

The shortage of rail cars is particularly concerning because freight rail typically moves almost 75 percent of new vehicles and carries 1.8 million carloads of auto parts each year. The backlog of finished vehicles is disrupting the automotive supply chain, which is still recovering from the semiconductor chip shortage. The delays in delivering vehicles are having a significant impact on suppliers, employees, and the U.S. economy as a whole.

The problem is the shortage of autoracks, the specialized rail cars that carry vehicles. Rail is preferred over carrier trucks due to lower costs and faster delivery times. An autorack rail car can carry 12 to 18 vehicles, compared to a truck hauler that can carry a maximum of seven to eight vehicles.

The shortage of rail cars is a complex matter due to the vast network of rail in North America and the intricacies of rail shipping. Rail shipping involves multiple destinations and routes, making it a complex puzzle to coordinate. Autoracks are part of a shared pool administered by a company called TTX. Manufacturing new autoracks takes two to three years, which is not a quick fix.

The origin of the problem is a combination of factors. Most notably, the rebound in new-vehicle production after the semiconductor chip shortage has outpaced the forecasts of most railroads. Additional problems have come about due to changes in supply chain patterns, such as routing vehicles through west coast ports instead of the east coast, resulting in longer rail car journeys than anticipated.

Meanwhile, several automakers are still dealing with the fallout of the microchip shortage. Earlier this year, Volkswagen indicated that the chip shortage will continue to impact car sales in 2023 and automakers including Cadillac, Ford, and Genesis have indicated that the shortage has led them to limit or exclude popular features on some of their vehicles.   

As disruptive as the global supply shortages of microchips continue to be for auto production schedules, the outlook just brightened a notch.

AutoForecast Solutions, which has tracked lost vehicle production weekly since the chip shortage began in 2021, has lowered its estimate for total 2023 factory cuts. All year long, the firm has held to a forecast of 2.8 million lost vehicles globally for 2023. It has now reduced that estimate to 2.6 million.

However, automakers continue to experience production setbacks as a result of chip shortages. Chinese assembly plants will cut nearly 8,300 vehicles from their schedules this week, while North American factories will eliminate nearly 7,400 vehicles, AutoForecast Solutions estimates.

Worldwide, assembly plants will cut approximately 22,000 cars and trucks from factory plans this week, the firm says.

With the ongoing transformation to electric mobility, aerodynamics are playing an increasingly important role in the automotive industry. As a general rule, a lower drag coefficient means a more efficient vehicle, which in turn means more range at a single charge of the battery. But aerodynamics are also important for performance vehicles – be they electric or combustion – and Ford proudly presents its new aerodynamic wind tunnel.

The so-called Rolling Road Wind Tunnel isn’t just a classic wind tunnel where large amounts of air are accelerated toward a vehicle. Ford’s new facility also features a vehicle-sized treadmill, which is capable of simulating wind and road surface speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. According to the automaker, this setup provides more accurate data for both wind drag and downforce compared to standard wind tunnels.

While air resistance is obviously important for all types of vehicles – Ford says it will use the tunnel during the development of its next-generation electric, hybrid, and gas models – downforce is a key aerodynamic component for performance vehicles. The latest generation Mustang in Dark Horse specification was among the first products of the brand to be tested in the new facility. As a result, the pony car gained an available Gurney flap (as well as other aero elements), which is attached to the rear spoiler and helps generate additional downforce at high speeds.

“We spent approximately 250 hours in the wind tunnel developing the 2024 Ford Mustang which includes Dark Horse,” program aerodynamicists for Mustang and Bronco, Jonathan Gesek, comments. “The aerodynamics of Mustang Dark Horse along with several other factors have created the most track- and street-capable 5.0-liter Mustang to date.”

Ford says the new aerodynamic testing facility will help the automaker accelerate the process of designing vehicles as it can simulate road tests in-house. The rig uses a new five-belt rolling road system, which makes it easier for the automaker to simulate real-world driving scenarios without actually taking the vehicle to the road.

HONG KONG — Chinese automaker BYD has restarted operations at two showrooms and a service center in Hong Kong after they were vandalized earlier this week, BYD’s sole agent said in a notice on its website.

Restoration work on another showroom in the outlying district of Yuen Long in the New Territories was expected to be completed by the end of the week, BYD’s Hong Kong sole agent JC Motor said.

“The incidents have been reported to the police and we will cooperate with the investigation and will await the conclusion from the police,” JC Motor said in the notice.

BYD’s showrooms in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island and Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, as well as its service center in Tin Shui Wai in the New Territories, had resumed normal operations, the agent added.

JC Motor did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the vandalism’s cause and impact.

Two BYD showrooms and a service center in Hong Kong were daubed with red paint, while a car also rammed into the roller shutter at its Yuen Long showroom in the early hours of Monday, causing damage, police told Reuters.

The incident was still under investigation, police added.

The vehicles that did not illuminate their brake lights appropriately during aggressive regenerative braking in tests were the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL AWD, 2023 Genesis GV60 Advanced, 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70, 2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD and 2023 Kia Niro EV Wind.

Other EVs from Hyundai tested by Consumer Reports did illuminate their brake lights, including the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 SEL AWD.

Regenerative braking slows an EV when it’s coasting or braking, recouping energy and sending it back to recharge the vehicle battery.

Many EVs can be set to an aggressive level of regenerative braking, so the vehicle will rapidly slow or come to a full stop without the driver stepping on the physical brake pedal. Easing off the accelerator pedal can start slowing the vehicle rapidly, so that it is similar to stepping on the brake pedal in a conventional vehicle. Many drivers who utilize the one-pedal-driving feature maintain light pressure on the accelerator pedal even when they are slowing the vehicle down. This creates smoother transitions between accelerating and decelerating.

“This issue clearly increases the risk of rear-end crashes and people getting hurt on our roads,” said William Wallace, Consumer Reports’ associate director of safety policy.

While a sweeping, industry-specific deadline to meet emissions standards does not exist, automakers have a little time to build environmental, social and governance, or ESG, standards into the cost of doing business — but not much.

In the global Race to Zero efforts, the United Nations calls for emissions to be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Volvo and other automakers were among more than 90 companies who have joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge to reduce portfoliowide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent within 10 years.

As automakers prioritize ESG, it increases pressure on manufacturers and suppliers to document, codify and comply with new standards to remain competitive. Downstream suppliers are facing a stream of requests from customers for disclosures and data that may be new and not readily available. However, this evolution within the industry also presents opportunities for differentiation by implementing sustainable practices and demonstrating a real, impactful commitment to ESG.

ESG’s ubiquity

Initially, many businesses focused on the environmental aspect of ESG, but now they are analyzing the social, economic and data-driven impacts they have on the world and the people around them.

For the automotive industry, the impact on the environment is still a primary focus. The EPA reports transportation accounts for about 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and governments, consumers and automakers want to cap and minimize those numbers to combat climate change.

Auto manufacturers and zero-emission vehicle states are making commitments to change production, vehicle emissions and other standards to achieve carbon neutrality. Due to issues with capacity, infrastructure, and access to raw materials like lithium, the target date range is broad for now but narrows every day.

Assembly plants in each auto-building region of the world cut vehicles from their production schedules because of microchip shortages last week, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

Plants in China were the most impacted, with 14,013 vehicles lost due to a lack of semiconductors. 

Still, the total number of vehicles expected to be cut by year’s end stayed steady at about 2.82 million — a sign that the chip situation is slowly improving, if “sometimes painfully so,” said Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast Solutions vice president of global vehicle forecasting.

Organizers are promising that the 2023 North American International Detroit Auto Show will feature more brand participation and vehicle reveals than last year, although it’s unclear which companies plan to return to the mid-September event.

The Detroit Auto Dealers Association, which runs the show, said the 2023 version will include a new indoor track for electric vehicles, more outdoor ride-and-drives and a new mobility forum featuring executives and politicians such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. They vowed “multiple vehicle debuts” and “double” the brands that participated last year, which was the first Detroit show to attempt an indoor-outdoor format.

Brand representatives for VW, Audi, Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia, Hyundai, Genesis, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Volvo, Subaru, Lexus, Polestar and Lucid told Automotive News they would not have a stand at this year’s show, while Honda has previously said it would delegate future show duties to local dealers. The loss of Subaru is notable, as it was among the few non-Detroit automakers to attend last year.

The dealers association said last week that hometown companies General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Co. will participate with their full brand portfolios, which each of the automakers confirmed. A Stellantis spokesperson said the automaker will hold two press conferences, while GM and Ford did not specify.

A Toyota brand spokesperson also confirmed it would have a presence at the show, as it did last year, but does not plan a press conference.

The media preview will take place Sept. 13-14, with the annual charity preview happening Sept. 15. The show will be open to the public Sept. 16-24.

“This year’s show represents the next step in its evolution and in the evolution of the industry itself,” auto show Chairman Thad Szott said in a statement. “Automotive technology is changing so rapidly; how do we make people comfortable with it? We’re planning for a show that not only embraces and educates about this new technology but offers an immersion into it. And with twice the number of brands participating, there’ll be no shortage of engaging with it.”

Automakers also are expected to benefit from 45X, though it remains to be seen whether the credits are used to lower EV prices for consumers.

In a third-quarter earnings call in October, Ford CEO Jim Farley estimated that a combined available tax credit for Ford and its battery partners in 2023-26 could total more than $7 billion, with a “large step up in annual credits” starting in 2027 as battery plants ramp up to full production.

However, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation is seeking clarity from Treasury to ensure that companies making or assembling the final battery component installed on the vehicle — whether a pack or module — are eligible for the $10 credit.

Giving the module credit to the manufacturer that installs the battery in the vehicle will “increase the likelihood that the 45X credit will be passed along to consumers,” the group, which represents Ford and other major automakers, said in recent comments to Treasury.

An analysis by Energy Innovation and the International Council on Clean Transportation found that on average over the 2023-32 period, the 45X tax credit could reduce light-duty EV purchase costs by up to $2,900 depending on how much of it is passed on to consumers in the form of reduced upfront prices.

Conrad Layson, senior alternative propulsion analyst at AutoForecast Solutions, is not so optimistic.

“Part of me says that prices will rise and adjust simply because of the ways the laws of demand work,” he said. If a company has battery components or critical minerals that are compliant with Inflation Reduction Act rules, “that’s worth something at a premium.”

It also depends on supply chain resilience, said Nathan Niese, associate director of electrification and climate change at Boston Consulting Group.

“With a whole new set of demand coming in — faster than otherwise might have been naturally expected — can the supply chains keep up?” he said. “If they can’t, then you have a supply shortage, and it only takes one or a subset of materials to drive prices up on batteries again.”