AutoComplete: Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is in hot water in the US, and more
Cars
Welcome to Road Show's Auto Complete, your weekly roundup of the biggest news in the automotive world.
This week we have news on Toyota's second generation Mirai and VW's CEO getting indicted for dirty diesel.
But first, let's start with Carlos Ghosn.
If you're thinking that things in your life are tough lately, just remember that someone almost always has it worse and that person is typically Carlos Ghosn.
Former head of the renewed Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance this time around this trouble isn't coming from Japan.
Instead it's coming from the USA and its Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that going committed fraud rather than valiantly fighting the charges.
He He opted to just pay the million bucks that the FCC was demanding as a fine but wait there's more.
The government also hit Nissan with a penalty of 15 million dollars and that's definitely not the kind of thing that Nissan needs right now.
Former Cadillac boss, Johan de Nysschen has been floating around for a bit since leaving GM luxury brand, leaving many in the automotive industry wondering where he'd end up.
And now we know, he's gonna be working for Volkswagen USA under current boss Scott Keo, as it Brand new as an new position, Chief Operating Officer.
This will be the nation's first trip around the dance floor with the Volkswagen Group either having spent several decades as a bigwig at Audi helping to propel the brand to its current luxury car Titan status.
Listen, people are gonna be people and we know they're gonna do some scandalous stuff when left unsupervised in an autonomous car.
I mean, deep down in our hearts.
We've always known this is the case.
But BMW is coming right out and embracing a future where having sexual relations and a self driving car is just a normal thing.
Is it weird that BMW is the first company to make this kind of ad?
Absolutely are we secretly a little glad that it was BMW and not a company like beyond?
You bet your **** we are Toyota's Mariah is a rare bird outside of Southern California where hydrogen stations are relatively plentiful.
That's not stopping the brand from offering up confirmation that there will be a second generation sooner rather than later.
The mirror was the first mass market produced consumer focused hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and even though it is weird looking, and it is, we like it for what it represents fingers crossed that the second generation is a little more Sleek, and Toyota continues to invest in hydrogen infrastructure.
It's no secret here that we at Road Show love the Volvo XC40.
We like it so much that we've had one in our long-term fleet for almost a year now and are already dreading giving it back.
But you know what we like giving better?
An electric version, so we could all enjoy, the fun little quirks and conveniences that it has to offer, but without the relatively drony, and lack luster sound, of this 4 cylinder gasling engine, and wouldn't you know it?
Volvo's gonna make our wishes come true.
Yeah, There is an electric XC40 on the way, and word around the camp fire is that it's due out next month.
We cannot wait to drive it.
Ford is doing lots of autonomous vehicle development, and for some reason, it's choosing some awesome places to do its on road testing.
I mean, first it had Miami, now it's going to Austin, Texas.
Ford says that it's testing in Austin because it's the fastest growing metropolitan area in the US.
But we're betting it has more to do with Ford engineers trying to get free passes to South by Southwest.
Of course, Texas has other benefits for AV testing like being gigantic, relatively flat and mostly sunny most of the time.
The Nissan Patrol has long been the brands attempt at outline crews during the Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan is getting ready to debut a slightly more Butch looking new one for the 2020 model year.
Now, we don't get the Patrol here in the US, but we bet that the next generation Armada will bear no small resemblance to the Nissan Patrol and that's a good thing because the Armada is old as hell.
And the new patrol updates Nissan's big SUV design language nicely, except for the chrome Fender events.
Nissan, my dudes, you have to get rid of that cheap looking auto parts store stuff.
You're better than that.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the German car industry, diesel gate strikes again.
This time current VW CEO Herbert Dice and a couple other execs, including Martin Winterkorn are being indicted by German officials over claims that they delayed telling investors about diesel defeat devices.
Thereby manipulating the stock market.
Dice has already lawyered up and is planning on fighting the charges, but he won't be stepping down as CEO just yet.
Hyundai is getting together with self-driving vehicle developer Aptiv, a company which if it sounds familiar it's probably because it's been running it's self driving BMW's around Las Vegas for the last couple of years together they're going to try and help kick-start Hyundai's autonomous vehicle development program.
Specifically, that means that Hyundai Motor Group, parent company of both Hyundai and Kia, is forming a joint venture with Aptiv, which will have a valuation of $4 billion.
The joint venture plans to have its vehicles ready for testing as early as next year, with commercially viable applications coming in 2022.
Chinese startup bite and recently shut off the production version of its invite SUV to relatively general acclaim at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but nobody was really sure where that thing was going to get built.
Now we know Brighton is making a smart move and having its first model built in South Korea by an experienced builder called Nyang' Shian, at a factory that was somewhat recently used by General Motors.
This is a smart move because it circumvents the crazy us trying to tear of situation that's going on.
Now, it's not totally clear if any of the cars built in the XGM facility will be destined for the US but you know what?
But we wouldn't be surprised if they were.
That's it for Auto Complete this week don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell icon to stay notified of all new videos on road show.
And we will see you again next week.
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