Toyota’s Beautiful Autonomous Tech Powerhouse
Toyota wants to improve the aesthetics of autonomous vehicles in conjunction with the technology.
Toyota Research Institute is crafting the fourth-generation “TRI-P4” prototype - a modified Lexus LS 500h hybrid vehicle with thermal imaging, high-definition cameras, multiple forms of lidar sensors and radar housed in a sleek rooftop unit resembling a police car from the future.
Ryan Eustice, TRI’s senior vice president of automated driving, said, “I think this has to be one of the world’s most beautiful automated driving platforms.”
Read the article at Forbes.
A Call to Action: Last, But Not Least – A Customer-Centric Budget
The real value of customer-centric sales and marketing comes from establishing more meaningful and profitable relationships with your customers
By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer
More often than not, sales budgets are built the old-fashioned way: by either incremental percentages or a number agreed upon with the sales team. Or, at most, it is the aggregate of a company’s product lines and the territories it covers.
While the second approach is probably more accurate than the first, neither is as realistic as a customer-centric sales budget. In both of the traditional cases, the sales team often struggles with the planning part. It’s just too hard to understand what has to be done to achieve the numbers -- especially if there are new team members.
The strength of a customer-centric sales budget and plan comes from a foundation based on three solid components:
Challenges and Opportunities
We always look forward to publishing Dr. Jörg Löffler’s annual treatise on the state of the global fleet industry. CEO of Europe-based Fleet Logistics, Dr. Löffler offers his unique perspective on key issues concerning European and multi-national fleets. In his latest article, he adroitly lays out the current challenges and opportunities international fleets are facing.
We love the title of e-Driving’s new ebook: When the Telematics Honeymoon is Over. Download it for free.
Last Chance: Early bird pricing for NAFA I & E has been extended until Friday, February 8th. FLEXY Award nominations close Thursday, February 7th.
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
Understanding a Client’s Needs Reduces Net Spend by 40%
By simply getting in tight with a client and understanding their needs, you can drive real savings - like this example where Enterprise Fleet Management reduced a medical client’s net spend by 40% in a year.
GM Hits 200,000 U.S. Electric Vehicle Sales, Limiting Buyer Rebates
Customers have until the end of March to buy a Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle and some other EVs models to receive a full tax credit.
That's because General Motors has surpassed 200,000 cumulative electric vehicle sales, the ceiling set per manufacturer by the federal government to offer buyers a $7,500 tax rebate. A GM spokesman confirmed that the company hit 200,000 EV sales in the fourth quarter. By law, in April the rebate drops to $3,750. That will be sliced in half again in October and the buyer-rebate will be eliminated in April 2020.
Read the article at Detroit Free Press.
