Top Car Trends To Watch In 2020
Without much doubt, the automotive story of 2020 will be the avalanche of new full electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles coming to showrooms.
With lower electric incentives, 2020 will put car buyers in the awkward position of finding one electric car much more attractive than its competitor due to regulation timing rather than just the vehicles' attributes and MSRP.
Tesla buyers no longer have IRS tax credits available, and GM is approaching that situation as well. California just reduced its plug-in incentives across the board, lowering rebate amounts, limiting them to cars that cost no more than $60,000, and excluding plug-in hybrids that can't do at least 35 miles on a charge.
Read the article at CNET.
Sofico Celebrates a Year of Global Success
Global automotive finance, leasing, fleet and mobility management software provider, Sofico, can look back on a year of global success.
In terms of key market trends, Sofico sees the provision of a wider choice of mobility options through a managed mobility budget becoming more commonplace throughout Europe, a trend which it believes could gather pace throughout key EU markets in 2020.
“This doesn’t mean the company car is dead,” said Gémar Hompes, Managing Director. “Far from it, with cars becoming ever more sophisticated and low emission with each new generation. But there is a growth in multi-modal means of corporate transport that are more about getting the employee from A to B in the most cost-effective way, rather than providing them with a car as a matter of course.
Remarketers Forecast the 2020 Used Market
The outlook for the 2020 used market is positive, at least according to three remarketers from three fleet management companies.
Brian Garner, manager, ARI Remarketing Solutions; Jeff Krogen, assistant vice president of fleet strategy for Enterprise Fleet Management; and John Wuich, vice president strategic consulting services at Donlen provided their insight.
Garner said that he and his team expect the used market to continue to be mostly healthy in 2020, but he does predict a slight downturn compared to 2019.
Read the article at Merchants Fleet.
Inside Documents Show How Amazon Chose Speed Over Safety in Building Its Delivery Network
In just a few years, Amazon has built a delivery system that has disrupted a decades-old business dominated by FedEx and United Parcel Service.
Time after time, internal documents and interviews with company insiders show, Amazon officials have ignored or overlooked signs that the company was overloading its fast-growing delivery network while eschewing the expansive sort of training and oversight provided by a legacy carrier like UPS.
One such incident hit particularly close to home. Just as the company began to build its delivery network six years ago, a delivery van carrying Amazon packages struck a cyclist in a San Francisco suburb. The cyclist was Joy Covey, Amazon’s first chief financial officer. She was killed, leaving behind a young son.
Read the article at ProPublica.
VW’s Robots and ‘Battery Wagons’ Could Turn Every Garage Parking Space Into An EV Charging Station
Photo credit: Volkswagen
Volkswagen is working on an electric vehicle charging solution that uses autonomous robots and portable batteries that bring the charging equipment to the vehicle instead of depending on dedicated parking spaces.
The process begins with the driver starting the service using an app that communicates to the robot the position of the vehicle.
The robot hitches itself to one of the multiple available “battery wagons,” and navigates autonomously to the vehicle’s parking space. Using V2X communication, the robot can open the vehicle’s charging port, and connect the battery to the socket. The robot can return to its station while the vehicle is being charged and position batteries to other autos in the garage.
Read the article at Forbes.
