Automotive News Canada - August 2019 - 10

OPINION

08.19

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In a disruptive future, automakers
Why watch the
Canadians to Watch? will need retailers as partners
JEFF MELNYCHUK

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

OUR ANNUAL CANADIANS TO WATCH SPECIAL FEATURE IS
intended to put eyes on the up-and-comers who are shaping the
Canadian auto industry, by drawing attention to their special talents
and accomplishments.
The feature, on pages 14 to
20 of this edition, has the added
benefit of providing a window
into the future of the industry. As
such, there are, of course, a
number of takeaways.
The most significant is that
it's a big world out there. Literally
and figuratively. Suppliers, traditionally tied to serving U.S. companies, are being nudged to look
for business in other countries
and on other continents.
Jonathon Azzopardi (Page 15),
head of Laval International just
outside Windsor, Ont. - and the
head of the Canadian
PAGES 14-20
Association of Mold Makers -
has spearheaded trade missions
Canadians are innovators,
to nontraditional markets, such
pushing into new technical
as India, to diversify Canadian
fields as well as new
suppliers' customer base. Laval
countries with the desire
makes composite parts, protoof forming nontraditional
types and moulds. Azzopardi
alliances.
shows the direction that
Canadian industry needs to grow to be competitive on an increasingly global playing field.
It's a big world out there in other ways, too, with opportunities
for Canadians to push the boundaries into new technical fields.
Greta Cutulenco (Page 15), the co-founder and CEO of Acerta
Analytics Solutions, is into computers and robotics. "[But] nowadays, a car almost feels like a big computer on wheels."
Her company uses artificial intelligence
to identify anomalies in the data generated
The Canadians to
during vehicle production. This allows her
Watch share one
clients to make fixes early and avoid highthing: They point the er costs later. The idea might seem
out of science fiction, but
way to the future of straight
Cutulenco says the increasing complexity
the auto industry.
of cars makes AI a necessity. "It's becoming overwhelming to continue either using
existing diagnostic tools or to manually solve these issues."
Canadians are also inserting themselves into the technical fields
that shape production.
Shelley Fellows (Page 17) of AIS Technologies Group Inc., specializes in advanced manufacturing technologies for automotive.
She also steers Automate Canada, an industry association
launched by the Canadian Association of Mold Makers, to represent
the growing industrial-automation sector, which is transforming
manufacturing. "The Canadian industrial automation industry is
smart, innovative and capable . . . we are part of the foundational
ecosystem for the Canadian automotive manufacturing sector."
Certainly we congratulate all those featured as Canadians to
Watch, but the reality is that it's more than just a pat on the back:
It's a look at the future, right now. - ANC

EST. 1925.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
KEITH E. CRAIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
K.C. CRAIN, GROUP PUBLISHER
JASON STEIN, PUBLISHER

DAVE VERSICAL, CHIEF OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GROUP

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

NEWS DEPARTMENT

JEFF MELNYCHUK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 506.854.5024, JMelnychuk@autonews.com
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEALERS AND
at ... designing and assembling great vehicles and
automakers has often been fraught with friction,
building strong brands.
with the latter essentially occupying the driver's
"Focus on brand-to-consumer initiatives is a
seat.
complete distraction. ... Dealers collectively can be
But a true partnership might emerge in a notan integral part of the solution instead of being tartoo-distant future shaped by the disruptive forces
geted as the problem."
of technology, consumers' online
The report urges dealers to
shopping habits and growing
diversify their revenue streams
competition from Asia and
and forge partnerships with other
MANAGING EDITOR
Europe.
players, including rivals, to develA report commissioned by the
op services that respond to evolvGRACE
Canadian Automobile Dealers
ing customer needs and wants.
MACALUSO
Association (CADA) offers a pic"No longer can dealers go it
ture of what automotive retailing
alone, only to stand by and witcould look like by 2030.
ness their penetration levels slide
COMMENT
The study, titled Driving the
in key business units," the report
Road Ahead, says key trends -
says.
such as the emergence of electric vehicles, virtual
Continuing dealership consolidation means auto
car-shopping and financing, and the rise of
groups will expand - a trend that will facilitate the
ride-hailing and other alternatives to individual car
ability to launch new businesses.
ownership - will accelerate.
Despite coming changes, franchised dealers are
Automakers, meanwhile, will be "in for the fight in the best position to build and maintain relationof their lives." They will be more preoccupied than
ships with customers. And automakers, which have
ever with the capital-intensive demands of strindictated everything from image programs to terms
gent fuel-economy stangoverning vehicle allocation and incentives, will
dards; electric, connected
depend more on dealers to reshape the customInnovative
and self-driving technoloer-service model.
dealers will level gies; as well as China's
The future, said CADA President John White, will
the playing field and India's entry into the see dealers continuing to play an important yet
American new-vehichanging role in the new automotive retailing ecowith carmakers. North
cle market.
system.
This creates an oppor"At the end of the day, don't have all your eggs
tunity for dealers to come up with new ways to do
in one basket with one business, one [automaker],
what they do best: Sell vehicles and services to
one market, one of everything," White told
customers.
Automotive News Canada's Toronto Bureau report"A fully engaged dealer network can ensure
er, John Irwin. "You've got to diversify in some way,
that some of the responsive pressure experienced
shape or form."
by brands might be shared," the report says,
And, as the report says, "It's time for dealers to
"allowing brands to focus on what they are good
switch the narrative." - ANC

An electric pickup, with power?
REMEMBER IN THE JULY ISSUE
when farmers on the Prairies
scoffed at the thought of an
electric pickup's being able to
replace the torque and towing
capabilities of one powered by
an internal-combustion engine?
"I probably have just a handful of customers asking
A video
about electric
posted by
cars, never
trucks,"
Ford shows mind
Kurtis Hicks,
the awesome general mantowing power ager of
of an electric Sherwood
Ford in
F-150. It
Sherwood
Alta.,
won't silence Park,
said in July.
the skeptics. "It's going to
take a lot
more convincing with the buyers
of F-150 trucks."
Well, not long after that story
appeared, Ford posted a video
- which you can see on our
Facebook page - aimed at the
naysayers.
The clip shows an electric
Ford F-150 towing 10 double-decker rail cars loaded with
42 F-150s. That's about
544,000 kilograms, making the
truck tough enough to haul grain
augers from bin to bin or a
dozen cattle to market.
Linda Zhang, Ford Motor's
F-150 chief engineer, spoke
about the demonstration with
Automotive News Special

DIGITAL AND
MOBILE EDITOR
AUTOMOTIVE
NEWS CANADA

GREG
LAYSON

COMMENT
Correspondent Nick Dombi -
and insisted that the video is
authentic.
"It was a prototype for our
future all-electric F-150," Zhang
said. "We even invited five of our
customers to come and witness
it, so no smoke and mirrors."
So even U.S. farmers are
skeptical.
Zhang said the hybrid F-150
will be available in 2020 and
the all-electric version in a few
years.
That means that when it
arrives, it might be eligible for
some rich electric-vehicle incen-

A Ford video shows an
electric F-150 towing 10 rail
cars carrying 42 F-150s.
There was no comparison
with a standard F-150,
however. P H O TO : F O R D

tives in Alberta.
Yes, you read that right. I
said, "EV incentives" and
"Alberta" in the same sentence.
That's because the province's
Municipal Climate Change
Action Centre (MCCAC)
launched its $4.6-million Electric
Vehicles for Municipalities
Program in March. It helps
Alberta municipalities transition
their fleet vehicles to more
fuel-efficient ones, such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
(PHEVs).
In July, the city of Leduc
became the first municipality in
Alberta to cash in on the program, receiving an $8,000
rebate on the purchase of a new
Chevrolet Volt.
But rebates on larger vehicles
are even bigger. Electric and
plug-in-hybrid medium- or
heavy-duty vehicles priced up to
$50,000 qualify for a 25-percent rebate of the pre-GST purchase costs. At the moment,
only the BYD 8R refuse truck
and Fuso eCanter truck qualify.
That's not to say more trucks
won't qualify in the near future.
That includes Ford, should the
automaker find a way to electrify
its heavy-duty lineup above the
F-150.
So, maybe electric pickups
will find a home on the
Canadian range after all. And
Ford might just be the first to
move in. - ANC

Automotive News Canada - August 2019

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