Coming soon: 'Puncture-proof’ airless tyres that never go flat

COLMAR-BERG, Luxembourg - Airless tyres that never go flat or need to be inflated: It's a decades-long dream that manufacturers hope to turn into a reality soon, but for truck drivers first.

The challenges that the technology faces were put on display at a Goodyear test track in Luxembourg, where a group of journalists put a Tesla equipped with airless tyres through its paces.

Instead of being filled with air, the tyres have a web of spokes that keep the wheels firm and give them a see-through look.

The thin layer of rubber gripping the asphalt has a gargantuan physical challenge to meet: supporting the weight of the car and absorbing shocks as well as standard pneumatic tyres for thousands and thousands of kilometers.

That challenge is being overcome: the tyre's rubber and plastic structure resisted the huge stress as the car banked into the track's tight turns.

The ride is smooth but the grip is not as good as on conventional tyres -- and they are noisier.

The tyres were tested for 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) at speeds of up to 160 kph in both scorching temperatures as well as snow, said Michael Rachita, who heads up Goodyear's efforts to develop airless tyres.

"The most obvious advantage is that it's puncture proof," said Rachita.

"It will never run flat, you could drive over any nail and expect not to lose performance," he added.

Rachita said airless tyres will also be maintenance free for drivers as they will never need to check and adjust air pressure.

He said a second generation of airless tyres that are lighter, quieter and roll better are in the works.

GRADUAL TRANSITION SEEN

Michelin has released the Tweel, but it is for construction vehicles rather than cars where the demands in terms of driving performance are much greater.

The French firm has also unveiled the Uptis which it is developing with US car manufacturer General Motors, and which it hopes can make the jump from auto shows to showrooms next year.

Its researchers are working on a cocktail of fiberglass and resin to hold the rubber onto the honeycomb structure of the new tyre. 

But Michelin's CEO Florent Menegaux doesn't expect airless tyres to squeeze out regular tyres anytime soon.

"We're going continue to have air tyres for several decades," he said.

Goodyear, which submitted its first patent on airless tyre technology in 1982, has recently put its food down on the accelerator in terms of research and development.

The US firm aims to have a maintenance-free and long-lasting airless tyre for cars by the end of the decade.

It already has an early version for shuttle buses and automated delivery vehicles on university campuses.

Bridgestone also hopes to have an airless tyre ready within a decade, having already tested early versions on utility vehicles.

Other manufacturers are more skeptical that airless tyres will ever offer comparable shock absorption as traditional tyres and the noise can be reduced sufficiently.

"They aren't a viable solution and I don't expect they will become one," a Continental researcher, Gerrit Bolz, said at a tyre convention in 2017.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS, ECONOMIC CONCERNS

But independent researcher Ulf Sandberg at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, which is working on an airless tyre for trucks, believes they will eventually become a viable alternative.

"I believe that sooner or later airless tyres could take over," he told AFP.

"If rolling resistance is reduced by 50 percent, it would increase the range of vehicles by 25 percent, and could be extremely valuable" for car manufacturers, particularly for electric vehicles where range is a key concern.

Airless tyres could prove to be environmentally beneficial as they could last the entire lifetime of most vehicles and could then be recycled or retreaded for a second life.

But manufacturers may not be burning rubber to bring airless tyres to market because they also pose threats to their business model, said Sandberg.

A switch to airless tyres would strand the manufacturing equipment used for pneumatic tyres, a heavy cost for the companies to bear.

Given the longevity of the airless tyres, companies would be making less of them.

Goodyear's vice president for product development in Europe, Xavier Fraipont, acknowledged that airless tyres requires a "rethinking our business model, of rethinking our manufacturing".

Yet the possibility of gaining a lead on competitors or being left behind by an affordable and high-performing airless tyre for the consumer market keeps their research rolling forward.

Agence France-Presse

New Zealand to boost electric car sales

WELLINGTON — New Zealanders who trade in their gas-guzzling car will get financial aid towards buying a cleaner alternative, in one of a raft of climate change initiatives announced by Jacinda Ardern's government Monday.

The country's first Emissions Reduction Plan, costing nearly 3 billion NZ dollars (1.88 billion US dollars), outlined spending for the next 4 years to help meet its goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero by 2050.

A "scrap and replace" pilot scheme will initially give 2,500 low-income families financial support towards an electric or hybrid vehicle if they replace their petrol- or diesel-powered car.

Transport Minister Michael Wood said the scheme's details were yet to be finalized but he envisaged it would expand rapidly to include "tens of thousands" of New Zealanders.

He said the government's ultimate goal was for less reliance on all cars by 2035 by getting people to switch to public transport or other alternatives.

The government also allocated 650 million NZ dollars to help cut fossil fuel use in the industrial sector over the next 4 years.

There will also be an investment in developing agricultural technology -- regarded as critical in an economy heavily reliant on farming exports.

Conservationists noted the timing of the investment, coming on the same day scientists announced they had recorded a mass bleaching of sea sponges in New Zealand waters for the first time ever.

An ocean heatwave damaged the sponges in the normally cold waters off Fiordland, in the country's southwest, raising concern about the impact climate change is having on marine ecosystems in the region.

Agence France-Presse

Ford, struggling in a changing industry, replaces its CEO

Three years ago, Ford Motor brought in a new chief executive, Jim Hackett, to streamline the company’s inner workings and raise profits.

Now, after he achieved mixed results, the company is again turning to a new boss, hoping he can accelerate the process and finish the job.

On Tuesday, Ford said Hackett will retire Oct. 1 and will be succeeded by James D. Farley Jr., whose promotion to chief operating officer in February had fueled speculation that Hackett’s tenure was nearing an end.

“I am very grateful to Jim Hackett for all he has done to modernize Ford and prepare us to compete and win in the future,” said William Clay Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman.

Farley will take the titles of president and CEO, and join Ford’s board of directors, the company said.

Hackett, a former chief executive of Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer, was named to the top job at Ford in May 2017. Hackett promised to revitalize Ford’s operations and steer the company toward vehicles that would generate profits — pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles — and invest in emerging technologies like electric and self-driving vehicles.

The company is starting to introduce some of the models developed under Hackett, including a redesigned F-150 pickup truck and a new series of SUVs under its dormant Bronco brand. The Mustang Mach E, an electric SUV styled to resemble the storied sports car, has generated lots of buzz and is set to go into production later this year.

“We have lots of work ahead of us to complete our mission, but thanks to Jim, we are a very different company today than we were three years ago,” Ford said in a conference call to discuss the leadership change.

Ford’s profits fell in 2018 and 2019, dropping to $47 million last year. This year, the pandemic has hammered its business, and the company lost $876 million in the first half of the year.

Farley, 58, joined Ford in 2007 from Toyota Motor, where he played a key role in launching the company’s Lexus luxury brand. Since arriving at Ford, he has held a variety of jobs, including running the company’s marketing, its European operations and a new business strategy group.


-2020 The New York Times Company-

Nissan ordered to pay 2.4 billion yen fine over Ghosn pay scandal

Japan's financial regulators said Friday they ordered Nissan Motor Co. to pay 2.42 billion yen ($22 million) in fines for underreporting remuneration of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and other executives for years.

The fine is the second highest imposed by the Financial Services Agency, only behind that of 7.37 billion yen in 2015 on Toshiba Corp. for falsifying financial reports.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended in December that the FSA fine Nissan the amount after filing a criminal complaint against the automaker and Ghosn in 2018.

The securities watchdog alleged they violated the financial instruments law by underreporting Ghosn's pay package by around 9.1 billion yen in the eight years through March 2018.

But the former chairman fled to Lebanon in late December from Japan, where he was on bail awaiting trial on charges of underreporting of remuneration at Nissan and misuse of funds. He has denied all the charges.

The latest fine targets the company's underreported remuneration of its executives for four years through March 2018, for which the statute of limitations has not expired.

Nissan said the same day it will "take the decision sincerely."

The penalty for Nissan was initially expected to reach 4 billion yen, based on the amount of pay left out of submitted documents, but the company asked the watchdog for a reduction in the fine since it reported the matter before an investigation got fully under way. The SESC accepted Nissan's request.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Volkswagen strikes 'dieselgate' compensation deal with German consumers

FRANKFURT, Germany - German giant Volkswagen has struck a compensation deal with domestic consumer groups representing owners of cars caught up in its "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal, a court said Friday.

"The consumer federation and Volkswagen have come to a comprehensive agreement," in a first-of-its-kind collective lawsuit brought by around 400,000 diesel car drivers, the Brunswick higher state court said, weeks after talks between the two sides broke down in acrimony.

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Tesla shifts gears with plans to issue more shares

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla shifted gears Thursday and said it would issue new shares to raise fresh cash, as the electric carmaker responded to the coronavirus epidemic impact on its Shanghai factory and the China car market.

Tesla plans to raise slightly more than $2 billion by issuing 2.65 million shares of common stock, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk plans to buy $10 million worth of the newly minted shares, and board member Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, is interested in buying $1 million worth of the shares, according to the filing.

The electric carmaker said it would use the net proceeds from this offering to strengthen its balance sheet and for company operations.

The move came after Tesla's Shanghai facility was temporarily closed as part of efforts to battle a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The factory is the company's first outside the United States and a key step forward in Musk's strategy of going global.

Tesla shares rose 5 percent on the news in the wake of volatile trading in recent weeks that has seen the company's market value more than double in the past two months.

"The bulls -- which we agree with -- will say this essentially rips the Band-Aid off and takes the doomsday cash crunch scenario some predicted down the road now off the table," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note to investors.

"We believe it's a smart move."

On a recent earnings call, Tesla executives told analysts the company didn't see a need to raise capital.

Tesla warned in the filing that its shares have gone as high as $968.99 per share to as a low of $176.99 during the past 52 weeks.

The document noted that Tesla shares may still be subject to "short sellers" betting that shares decline.

Musk presented the first batch of made-in-China cars to consumers last month in a milestone for the company's new Shanghai "giga-factory" but which came as sales decelerated in the world's largest electric-vehicle market.

Agence France-Presse

Moody's downgrades Ford to 'junk' status on weak outlook

NEW YORK - Moody's downgraded Ford's credit rating to speculative or "junk" status on Monday, citing the company's weak financial outlook as it embarks on an ambitious restructuring.

Characterizing the auto giant's current overhaul as "unprecedentedly large and challenging," the ratings agency slashed Ford's debt to the non-investment-grade "Ba1" -- saying prospects for its cash flow and profit margins through the 2020-2021 period were poor.

Ford's performance has eroded "during a period in which global automotive conditions have been fairly healthy," Moody's said. 

"Ford now faces the challenges of addressing these operational problems as demand in major markets is softening and as the auto industry is contending with an unprecedented pace of change relating to vehicle electrification, autonomous driving, ride sharing and increasingly burdensome emission regulations."

However, Ford "does have a sound balance sheet and liquidity position from which to operate," said Moody's senior vice president Bruce Clark.

The US automaker faces operational inefficiencies in all key regional markets, as well as a much-diminished outlook in China, which has seen profits sink from more than $1 billion in 2016 to a major loss, according to Moody's.

Ford has made progress in lowering costs in China but the outlook is still uncertain because of an "increasingly competitive" auto market and the country's weaker near-term growth rates, Moody's said.

Considerably better is the outlook in North America, where revamps of the lucrative F-series pickup trucks should boost operating projects.

Moody's said the company's alliance with Volkswagen held promise but that it will have only "minimal impact" on Ford's earnings and cash flow before 2022.

Shares of Ford fell 2.9 percent to $9.27 in after-hours trading.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Lee Iacocca, auto executive who saved Chrysler from bankruptcy, dies at 94

LOS ANGELES - Lee Iacocca, a charismatic US auto industry executive and visionary, who gave America the Ford Mustang and Chrysler minivan, and was celebrated for saving Chrysler from going out of business, died at the age of 94, the Washington Post reported.

He died Tuesday at his home in Bel-Air, California of complications from Parkinson's disease, his daughter Lia Iacocca Assad told the Post.

During a nearly five-decade career in Detroit that began in 1946 at Ford Motor Co, the proud son of Italian immigrants made the covers of Time, Newsweek and the New York Times Sunday Magazine in stories portraying him as the avatar of the American Auto Age. One of the first celebrity US chief executives, his autobiography made best-seller lists in the mid-1980s.

Iacocca was a cracker-jack salesman. He encouraged his design teams to be bold, and they responded with sports cars that appealed to baby boomers in the 1960s, fuel-efficient models when gasoline prices soared in the 1970s, and the first-ever, family-oriented minivan in the 1980s that led its segment in sales for 25 years.

"I don't know an auto executive that I've ever met who has a feel for the American consumer the way he does," late United Auto Workers Union President Douglas Fraser had said. "He's the greatest communicator who's ever come down the pike in the history of the industry."

Iacocca also had some duds, such as the Ford Pinto, an economy car that became notorious for exploding fuel tanks. "You don't win 'em all," he said of the Pinto.

Iacocca won a place in business history when he pulled Chrysler, now part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, from the brink of collapse in 1980, rallying support in US Congress for $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans and persuading suppliers, dealers and union workers to make sacrifices. He cut his salary to $1 a year.

Iacocca was often described as a demanding and volatile boss who sometimes clashed with fellow executives.

"He could get mad as hell at you, and once it was done he let it go. He wouldn't stay mad," said Bud Liebler, vice president of communications at Chrysler during the 1980s and 1990s. "He liked to bring an issue to its head, get it resolved. You always knew where you stood with him."

Iacocca often spoke of his immigrant roots and how America rewards hard work. When he was tapped by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 to be chairman of a campaign to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, he said he accepted the job as a way of honoring his parents.

The campaign raised more than $350 million, more than double the initial $150 million goal.

MARKETING SUCCESSES

Iacocca began his career just as post-war prosperity kicked the Auto Age into high gear. By the 1970s, many new suburban homes came with a two-car garage.

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca was born in the Pennsylvania steel town of Allentown on Oct. 24, 1924. His father, Nicola, owned a hot dog stand he called The Orpheum Wiener House - a foretaste of his son's later marketing creativity.

In high school he was freshman class president, "a big shot," he had thought. But when he stopped shaking his classmates' hands, he lost re-election. "It was an important lesson about leadership," Iacocca wrote.

He was a diligent student, made the debating team and was a star in Latin class. Sophomore year he survived rheumatic fever, an illness that later kept him out of the military during World War Two, and graduated 12th in a class of more than 900.

Iacocca enrolled in Lehigh University, earning his engineering degree in fewer than four years and received a fellowship at Princeton for his master's degree.

After joining Ford, he realized right away he was better at marketing than engineering. Ten years later, when his district had the worst sales in the country, he came up with a marketing campaign, "56 for '56" - buyers could get a 1956 Ford with 20% down and three years of monthly installments of $56.

The plan took off like a rocket and Ford executive Robert McNamara, who would become secretary of defense in the Kennedy administration, made it part of Ford's national sales strategy.

Iacocca's relationship with the Mustang was cemented when both Time and Newsweek featured him and the car on their covers in April 1964. By 2013, about 9 million Mustangs had been sold.

Gene Bordinat, Ford's design executive at the time, said of Iacocca's contribution to the Mustang's popularity: "We conceived the car and he pimped it after it was born."

It was cheap to produce and generated big profits. For years, it was Iacocca's signature achievement.

The low moment in Iacocca's career though came in 1978, when Henry Ford II fired him. He asked why, reminding his boss that the company had earned record profits of $1.8 billion two straight years. Ford replied: "Well, sometimes you just don't like somebody."

The firing made national news. Iacocca never forgave Ford, and he described his former boss as a spendthrift and dictator.

CHRYSLER FACED TWO HEADWINDS

Iacocca's exile from Detroit board rooms was brief. Within weeks he accepted the presidency of Chrysler, even though its market share was shrinking and losses were deepening.

In 1979 Chrysler was facing twin blows of spiking interest rates and a second oil shock that doubled the price of gasoline. When the US economy plunged into recession, sales at every automaker plummeted.

Iacocca searched for a merger partner but when no takers emerged, he turned to the government for up to $1.5 billion in loan guarantees. He pounded on the doors in Washington, assisted by dealers and union officials who knew their brethren would be out of work if Chrysler folded.

Asking for federal help was controversial, and one editorial cartoon depicted a child asking what the US Capitol was called. "The Chrysler Building" came the answer.

Iacocca won the loan guarantees but they required broad sacrifices, of plant closures, pay cuts for factory workers and layoffs of white-collar staff.

He put his personal reputation on the line, and in the end, it was a tour de force of leadership. Factoring in positions at Chrysler, its dealerships and suppliers, he saved more than 500,000 jobs. "People saw him in the trenches," Liebler said. "When we needed the loan guarantees and he was pounding the halls of Congress, the dealers were with him ... he worked his head off day and night, and everyone who was involved in any way with Chrysler knew it."

About that time, Chrysler's introduction of the smaller, fuel-efficient "K Cars" gave it a boost. In a series of no-nonsense television commercials, Iacocca barked, "If you can find a better car, buy it!"

He paid the loans back seven years early, and in 1983, a cartoon showed frantic executives of the troubled US airline industry shouting into a phone, "Get me Lee Iacocca!"

But Iacocca's star faded in the late 1980s as Chrysler floundered again. Chrysler struggled through the 1990-1991 economic downturn, losing $800 million in 1991. Iacocca refused to cut new product spending, and by 1992, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee and LH sedans led to a $732 million profit, while Ford and General Motors Co were in the red.

With Chrysler profitable again, Iacocca stepped down at the end of 1992. He lived out his latter years in stylish Bel-Air, California.

In retirement, Iacocca invested in the casino business and a line of imported olive oil, and he joined corporate boards.

He penned "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?," a 2007 book critical of American leadership, especially President George W. Bush.

Iacocca had two daughters with his first wife, Mary, who died of diabetes in 1983, prompting him to start a family foundation to fight the disease.

After Mary's death he married twice more. His second was brief and ended in annulment, while his third ended in divorce.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ford to cut 7,000 jobs, 10 pct of global salaried staff

NEW YORK -- Ford plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global salaried workforce, as part of a reorganization as it revamps its vehicle offerings, the company said Monday.

The downsizing will involve some layoffs and reassignments of white-collar staff and should be complete by the end of August, a Ford spokeswoman said. Ford has been phasing out most sedan models in the United States as more consumers have opted for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The move, which began last year and follows some job cuts announced earlier in other regions, will lead to 800 layoffs in North America in total, including about 500 this week, said Ford spokeswoman Marisa Bradley. 

The company has yet to determine all of the specifics in other regions, she said.

The actions, expected to save about $600 million a year, come as Ford ramps up investment in electric cars and autonomous driving technology, eyeing future growth in those businesses even as current profitability is tied closely to sales of conventional vehicles in North America, including its best-selling F-150 pickup trucks.

Ford's downsizing also comes as car sales cool in key markets, including the United States and China.

"To succeed in our competitive industry, and position Ford to win in a fast-changing future, we must reduce bureaucracy, empower managers, speed decision making, focus on the most valuable work and cut costs," Chief Executive Jim Hackett said in an email to employees.

Ford had 199,000 employees, including its unionized workforce, at the end of 2018, down from 202,000 a year earlier, according to securities filings.

EARLIER MOVES 

Ford in March announced it would eliminate more than 5,000 jobs in Germany. Bradley said Monday's figures included salaried staff in Germany affected by that move but that some of the figures in the German announcement related to hourly staff.

Ford also previously announced moves to exit the commercial heavy truck business in Brazil, restructure its Russia operations and cease production at two plants in that country while ending production at a plant in Bordeaux, France.

Ford had signaled it expected significant job cuts in April 2018 when it announced it would phase out several small models in North America. 

"As we have said, Ford is undergoing an organizational redesign process helping us create a more dynamic, agile and empowered workforce, while becoming more fit as a business," Bradley said.

"We understand this is a challenging time for our team but these steps are necessary to position Ford for success today and yet preparing to thrive in the future."

General Motors has also undertaken job cuts over the last year for similar reasons, announcing plans to shutter seven plants worldwide, including five in North America.

The GM announcement drew heavy criticism from US and Canadian politicians, including US President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, GM said it was in talks to sell an Ohio plant to Workhorse, a Cincinnati-based company that focuses on producing electric delivery vehicles.

Shares of Ford ended down 0.1 percent at $10.28.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump considering 25 pct tariffs on car imports: report

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is considering a plan to impose steep tariffs on auto imports justified by national security concerns, the same reason used for duties on steel and aluminum, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The White House is considering launching a so-called Section 232 investigation on auto trade, according to the report, which would provide the legal basis to impose tariffs if the Commerce Department finds imports threaten US national security.

Trump may have previewed the move in two vague tweets early Tuesday.

"There will be big news coming soon for our great American autoworkers," he said on Twitter. "After many decades of losing your jobs to other countries, you have waited long enough!"

In another tweet referring to trade talks with China, he said that, while the discussions were moving along nicely, "in the end we will probably have to use a different structure."

Trump has frequently railed against China's high import duties on foreign cars and in the course of the recent negotiations President Xi Jinping offered to cut the rate to 15 percent from 25 percent.

The Journal, citing sources in the auto industry, said the plan to retaliate likely would face significant opposition from trading partners and auto dealers that sell imports.

It also is unlikely to pass muster with the World Trade Organization.

China has filed a WTO complaint against the national security rationale behind the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed in March.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Scandal-hit Volkswagen names new CEO

BERLIN - German auto giant Volkswagen on Thursday named Herbert Diess as its new chief executive, replacing Matthias Mueller, as the one-time paragon of German industry seeks to turn the page on the "dieselgate" emissions scandal that has dogged it since 2015.

Originally contracted to serve until 2020, Mueller was stepping down "by mutual agreement, effective immediately," VW said in a statement released after a meeting of its supervisory board.

The change in CEO was part of a wider management shake-up, the carmaker said.

The executive and supervisory boards "have resolved to extensively revise the group's management structure," VW said.

"Volkswagen is thus systematically continuing to transform its business and establishing even more efficient group management in a phase of highly dynamic change in the company and the entire automotive industry.

"In order to sustainably implement the new structure, there will be a number of changes on the board of management. Matthias Mueller steps down as chairman of the board of management by mutual agreement, effective immediately. At its meeting on Thursday, the supervisory board appointed Herbert Diess as his successor."

VW also said works council executive Gunnar Kilian would replace Karlheinz Blessing as human resources chief.

And the CEO of subsidiary Porsche, Oliver Blume, will join the VW board.

More details are expected to be revealed at a press conference at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters Friday at 10:30 am (0830 GMT).

Volkswagen surprised markets earlier this week when it revealed it was considering reshuffling its board and replacing Mueller.

Mueller had "signalled he was open to play a part in the changes" in conversations with supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Poetsch, the company said.

German business newspaper Handelsblatt and national news agency DPA had all tipped Diess, head of the VW brand, as Mueller's successor.

DIESELGATE FALLOUT

Mueller, a former chief executive of sportscar-building VW subsidiary Porsche AG, was brought in to replace Martin Winterkorn in 2015 and was contracted to serve until 2020.

Longtime CEO Winterkorn quit days after the firm admitted to installing software in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide designed to cheat regulatory emissions tests in a scandal that became known as "dieselgate".

Mueller, 64, has steered the mammoth carmaker into a massive restructuring, aiming to offer electric versions of many of its models and slim down its operations over the coming decade.

But he has himself landed in prosecutors' sights over suspicions he may have known about the cheating before it became public and failed in his duty to inform investors.

And while he brought VW's share price and profits back up to pre-crisis levels, observers say he made little progress in shaking up the firm's famously hierarchical corporate culture, which some critics believe discouraged employees from speaking up about the diesel scam.

"It's right for VW to look in a new direction," judged analyst Juergen Pieper of Metzler bank.

Diess, known as a "very good cost manager", would be "the best solution as a successor for the next five years," he said.

Shares in Volkswagen closed nearly two percent higher to 176.60 euros ahead of the closely-watched board meeting, outperforming the Dax index of leading shares that was up nearly one percent.

AMBITIOUS COST CUTTER

Dieselgate has so far cost VW more than 25 billion euros ($31 billion) in buybacks, fines and compensation, and the carmaker remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

Suspicions of emissions cheating have also spread to other carmakers, shattering diesel's image as a clean engine and prompting several smog-clogged German cities to mull diesel driving bans.

Having joined from BMW just a few months before the cheating became public knowledge, Diess has the advantage of being largely untainted by dieselgate -- giving VW a chance at a fresh start.

In addition to taking on the top job, the 59-year-old Austrian will stay on as VW brand chief and also be head of research and development.

Described as highly ambitious, Diess has earned a reputation as a fierce cost cutter unafraid of pushing through big changes.

"Diess has no problem making enemies," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily wrote, recounting how the "tough-as-nails" executive drove a hard bargain with suppliers as head of purchasing at BMW.

One of Diess's biggest challenges as he takes the helm at VW will be to clarify the group's vision for the future as the auto giant navigates between a pivot towards electric vehicles and clinging to the diesel technology it has invested so heavily in over the years.

Just last month, Diess said: "We need diesel, diesel has a future."

bur/spm/har

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hyundai, Kia aim to grow 2017 sales to 8.25 million vehicles globally

SEOUL - Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Motors said on Monday they aim to increase their combined sales to 8.25 million vehicles globally in 2017, despite rising competition.

The 2017 target is slightly higher than their 2016 goal of 8.13 million vehicles. The South Korean automakers' final sales figures for 2016 are due out later on Monday, with analysts expecting a miss due to weak demand in emerging markets.

"The 2017 goal is slightly higher than my projection," said Ko Tae-bong, an auto analyst at Hi Investment & Securities, adding that the performance of new models would be the key to success after some disappointments in recent years.

With emerging markets such as Russia stabilizing, and with Hyundai and Kia Motors gearing up to boost vehicle supply to the United States and China, sales could get a lift this year.

But Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors - which together rank fifth in global sales - plan to add capacity in China and Mexico this year, just as those markets and the United States are seen slowing, likely pressuring margins.

"With the global economy continuing its low growth, trade protectionism spreading and competition intensifying in the automobile industry, uncertainty is growing more than ever," Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo said in his New Year message to employees.

Hyundai Motor likely clocked its fourth straight annual profit decline last year, hurt by its higher exposure to weak emerging markets, and a product line-up that features more sedans than sport utility vehicles, just as SUVs have become more popular across many global markets.

Hyundai Motor is targeting 2017 global sales of 5.08 million vehicles, while Kia Motors set its goal at 3.17 million vehicles.

Kia Motors Vice Chairman Hank Lee told employees on Monday that the automaker hoped to revive growth this year, after falling short of its 2016 sales target.

Hyundai Motor shares were flat in a wider market .KS11 that was down 0.4 percent in early morning trade, while Kia Motors shares were down 0.3 percent

Hyundai Motor shares fell for a third straight year in 2016, down 2 percent versus the wider market's 3 percent gain. Kia Motors shares slumped 25 percent last year, making them the worst-performing stock among major car makers in the world.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tesla to build self-driving tech into all cars

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla will build self-driving technology into all the electric cars it makes, running it in "shadow" mode to gather data on whether it is safer than having people in control.

"Every car that Tesla produces from here on out will have the full autonomy capability," said Tesla co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk.

A new onboard computer with 40 times the processing power of the previous generation will run a new "neural net" for vision, sonar and radar sensors, he said.

During a conference call with reporters, Musk referred to the hardware as "basically a super-computer in a car," different from auto-pilot technology to date.

It will be up to regulators and the public as to when the self-driving capabilities will actually be put to use on roads, according to Musk.

Meanwhile, the system will run in "shadow mode" to gather data regarding when it might have avoided or caused accidents if it was in command.

Musk hoped that Tesla would one day be able to impress regulators with a statistically significant amount of data showing the autonomous driving technology would avoid crashes and save lives.

"Then we are at a point where we can allow it to take action," Musk said of amassing data showing the system's merits.

Upgrading existing cars with the autonomous driving hardware was not practical, according to Tesla.

"It would be like giving someone a spinal cord transplant; not advisable," Musk said on the call.

MILLIONS OF MILES

Tesla planned to calibrate the system using feedback from millions of miles of real-world driving before enabling the new hardware.

In the meantime, Teslas with the first-generation Autopilot technology will lack some standard safety features such as automatic breaking and collision warnings.

As features are validated, they will be enabled with over-the-air software updated.

The United States last month unveiled a sweeping new regulatory framework for the unexpectedly rapid rise of self-driving automobile technology, just days after Uber broke ground with its first driverless taxis.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the federal government intends to set the safety standards for cars of the future where no human is involved in the driving, even while individual states still regulate cars with humans behind the wheel.

Announcing a 15-point safety assessment for driverless car systems, Foxx stressed that the government wants to work with developers -- which include most large automakers as well as tech giants such as Uber and Alphabet (Google) -- without stifling their efforts.

A Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets boasts founding members including Ford, Google, Lyft, Uber and Volvo.

The coalition supports guidelines that standardize self-driving regulations across the country, avoiding confusion and lost industry momentum.

EXPECTATIONS

Meanwhile, Germany wants Tesla to stop advertising the "autopilot" function on its cars because it leads to false customer expectations, as the system comes under scrutiny following two fatal crashes.

Transport regulator KBA has written to the company, telling it: "In order to prevent misunderstandings and false expectations from clients, we are asking that the misleading term 'Autopilot' no longer be used in advertisements for the system."

The KBA letter cited in Bild am Sonntag was confirmed to AFP by the transport ministry.

Germany has been conducting an investigation into the autopilot system in vehicles made by electric carmaker Tesla, which has been available with its Model S series since October 2015.

Questions have been raised over the system after two fatal crashes, one in northern China in January and another in the US state of Florida in May.

In September, a Tesla electric car crashed into a tourist bus on a motorway in northern Germany, lightly injuring the driver who said he had activated the vehicle's autopilot system.

At the time, Tesla said the driver had confirmed the autopilot was "functioning properly and... was unrelated to the accident."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com