Automotive News Digest; Week Ending December 15, 2018; Executive Producer Larry Nutson

AUTO CENTRAL, CHICAGO - December 16, 2018; Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editor Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you The Auto Channel's "take" on this past week's automotive news, in easy to "catch up" with news nuggets.

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The Auto Channel Automotive News In Digest Format - Week Ending December 16, 2018;
Executive Producer Larry Nutson

* Prosecutors in Japan have charged Nissan Motor Co.’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, executive Greg Kelly and Nissan itself for allegedly violating financial laws by under-reporting income. The charges involve allegations Ghosn’s pay was underreported by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) in 2011-2015.

* CarMD has published its 2018 Vehicle Health Index Make and Model Reliability Rankings. Published annually since 2011, it measures the frequency of repairs and repair costs this year for vehicles starting with model year 1996 to new vehicles. The report does not include tire and brake issues or maintenance such as oil changes. The top five most reliable brands are: Toyota, Acura, Hyundai, Honda and Mitsubishi. The top five lowest repair cost brands are: Mazda, Kia, Dodge, Hyundai and Chrysler.

* Investors reacting to China lowering its tariffs on imported vehicles are pushing up shares of automakers GM, Ford, FCA, Volkswagen, BMW and others. China said that it is lowering tariffs from 40%, instituted last summer amidst a trade battle with the Trump White House, to 15%, according to media reports. Presidents Trump and Chinese President Xi agreed to a “truce” in the trade war when they met at the recent Group 20 Summit in Argentina

* Enthusiasts will be disappointed to learn the long-awaited C8 mid-engine Corvette will not be revealed at the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit as was expected, says an anonymous source within Chevrolet. Apparently, the electrical system is not robust enough. The C8 will be a hybrid, after all, and will probably use a 48-volt electrical system. The problem is expected to delay the into at least six months. However, GM's Cadillac brand is going to show a new 3-row Cadillac XT6 SUV that will fit in between the XT5 and the Escalade.

* Toyota Motor Corp. said it is advancing by a year plans to replace Takata airbags in about 65,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the United States it had previously replaced. The recall is being announced a year ahead of the December 2019 timeline and would involve replacing Takata airbags that it previously recalled and replaced, with non-Takata airbags at no cost. The recall affects certain Toyota Corolla, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus vehicles which were made between 2002 and 2005.

* For the first time ever, three pickup-truck engines appear on the Wards 10 Best Engines list, while four electrified powertrains make the cut for the second consecutive year as well. Rounding out the field is a muscle-car V-8, a German luxury turbocharged inline 6-cyl. and a groundbreaking turbocharged 4-cyl. with variable compression ratio. This year’s winners (in alphabetical order by brand): 3.0L (B58) DOHC Turbocharged I-6 (BMW X5), 6.2L OHV V-8 with DFM (Chevrolet Silverado), 5.0L DOHC V-8 (Ford Mustang GT/Bullitt), 3.0L DOHC TurboDiesel V-6 (Ford F-150), 2.0L DOHC Atkinson i-VTEC 4-Cyl./HEV (Honda Accord Hybrid), 120-kW Fuel Cell/Electric Propulsion System (Hyundai Nexo), 150-kW Propulsion System (Hyundai Kona EV), 2.0L DOHC VC-Turbo 4-Cyl. (Infiniti QX50), 2.0L DOHC Atkinson 4-Cyl./HEV (Lexus UX 250h) and 3.6L DOHC Pentastar eTorque V-6 (Ram 1500).

* Big Oil Funds Dirty Air and More Oil Sales.From the New York Times: "When the Trump administration laid out a plan this year that would eventually allow cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them. But it turns out that there was a hidden beneficiary of the plan that was pushing for the changes all along: the nation’s oil industry. In Congress, on Facebook and in statehouses nationwide, Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest refiner, worked with powerful oil-industry groups and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch to run a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards, a New York Times investigation has found."

* One of the biggest challenges in the acceptance of fully-electric vehicles is the time it takes to recharge the batteries. BMW and Porsche unveiled this week a charging station that can charge batteries with enough electrons to run the vehicle for 100 km (62 miles) in less than three minutes, besting Tesla’s thirty minutes for the same capability. In order to accomplish the feat the batteries and cable must be cooled.

* As the U.S. finishes another strong year in auto sales, Europe is seeing a slump of 8% in November sales with little optimism for improvement. Analysts indicate the new worldwide harmonized light vehicle test procedures (WLTP) are partly to blame. The WLTP forced some manufacturers to restrict deliveries of vehicles that were not certified to the new standards. Bucking the trend were Jaguar, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz - all showing good increases.

* President Trump weighed in again with his view of the automobile business. In an interview on Fox News Thursday he predicted that GM's move toward more electric vehicles “is not going to work.” GM CEO Mary Barra was at the Capitol explaining the company strategy to skeptical legislators in the wake of the announcement of five North American plant closures. GM stock rose at the announcement of the closures but lost 1.4% Thursday.

* 51 years young! Kathleen Brooks bought her first Beetle in December 1966 in Riverside, Calif.—a red 1967 model she quickly named “Annie.” Ever since, Annie has been Kathleen’s daily transportation, racking up more than 350,000 miles over 51 years, or enough to circle the globe 14 times, and Kathleen, now 73, still drives Annie to work. After hearing about Kathleen and Annie’s special relationship last year, Volkswagen’s North American Region undertook a unusual project—offering to restore Annie at the North American home of the Beetle at the Puebla, Mexico, factory. Over the past 11 months, a team of some 60 Volkswagen employees and trainees reworked Annie back to factory-quality specs, with several custom touches that celebrate Kathleen’s dedication. Last week, Kathleen and Annie were reunited, and Kathleen met key members of the Volkswagen team that led the restoration.

* We learned this week the pace car for the 2019 Daytona 500 won’t be a car at all. Rather, it will be a truck - a new Chevy Silverado with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the wheel. This will be the first time a truck has paced the race. The Silverado is powered by a 420-hp, 6.2-liter V8. Earnhardt, Jr. is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 and had years of driving Chevrolet products at home and on the race track.