Autoline This Week

Africa’s population is almost as large as China’s and will double in the next 20 years, which means the demand for cars and mobility will be massive. On Autoline This Week, our special guest is Edward Hightower, an auto industry veteran, who’s written a book that identifies six countries on the continent that are ripe for industrialization.

With more and more technology being added to cars, automakers can no longer design vehicles that delight customers, they now have to design vehicles that build trust. Input is needed from many different disciplines, so design can encompass a customer’s entire experience. On Autoline This Week, John McElroy is joined by three design experts who explain why “designers have to become stewards of morality.”

The market for ride sharing is growing fast. At the same time, customers are ditching cars and snapping up trucks, CUVs and SUVs instead. So how will dealers play a role in the new world of mobility? We’ve invited three experts from the dealer world to Autoline This Week to find out.

Cyber security is a growing concern in the auto industry. There are all kinds of cyber-attacks that aren’t getting talked about publically. But it’s not enough to just protect cars from hackers, automakers must look at their entire operation. However, the auto industry can’t do it alone, it must seek out the help of experts. There are lessons for the industry to learn from the military and vice versa. On Autoline This Week, John McElroy is joined by members of the auto industry, military and the tech world for a dive into cyber security.

Automotive suppliers are critically important to developing new technology, they account for 70 percent of the value of a car. But they face a number of important issues, like possibly losing NAFTA and the impact of aluminum and steel tariffs. Joining us on this edition of Autoline This Week is Julie Fream, the President and CEO of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, to discuss the issues facing suppliers.

Automakers spend a great deal of time and money developing a new vehicle and surprisingly one of the most time-consuming parts of the process is choosing its colors. It takes two to three years to get a color certified for a car. On this edition of Autoline This Week, we’re joined by color experts from Axalta, BASF and PPG, to discuss everything from how color will play a role with autonomous cars, to how it can affect the way people feel about a vehicle they’re in.

Is corporate America too focused on the short term? That’s what author and former President of JCI’s North American Automotive operations, Rande Somma says. On Autoline This Week he shares why he thinks Boards of Directors aren’t properly incentivizing management and why executives are paid too much.

It’s an exciting time to be an automotive designer but creating a new style for a brand isn’t an easy task. Designers must be able to predict the future and identify styling trends years before a new car is launched. On this edition of Autoline This Week, John McElroy sits down with designers from Jeep, Buick and Ford to discuss how they go about creating a new car design.

The auto industry is going through enormous technological change right now, with the development of electric vehicles, autonomous cars and mobility services. But there’s a lot of fights developing behind the scenes over the patents, the trade secrets and the intellectual property that backs up that technology. On this edition of Autoline This Week, our panel of experts discuss the best way to protect those industrial secrets.

Ten years ago analysts were advising Ford to bury its luxury brand Lincoln; the Germans and Japanese had too much of the market they said, plus its U.S. competition, Cadillac, was already in the midst of making a comeback. However, Ford ignored the naysayers and resurrected the brand with new product, new leadership and even reviving some of its historic nameplates to boot. This week on Autoline, we talk with our special guest Kumar Galhotra the head of Lincoln about where the brand is today and where it will be going as we move into the 2020s.