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55 AutoData | February 2019 Disclosure/Jac Motors By Marcos Rozen Suggestions of issues for this section can be directed this the email rozen@autodata.com.br LIKE WHITE ON RICE No less than 41% of the cars produced worldwide in 2018 have left the assembly lines in the white color, according to Basf’s annual report. Worse: when black, gray and silver are added together with it, the dominance reaches 79%. So there is little left for the other colors like blue, with 8%, red, 7%, and brown, 2%. ELECTRICS 1 Jac Motors promises to launch the electric version of the T40 SUV in Brazil, the iEV40 (photo below). The model, according to the company, has autonomy to run three hundred kilometers and the total battery charging time takes eight hours in an outlet with 220 volts. The importer opened a pre-sale system at the end of January, at R$ 140,000, and says that “the first units will get into the hands of buyers in the first semester”. ELECTRICS 2 Volvo Construction Equipment’s headquarters announced that it will launch an electric line of wheel loaders and compact excavators in 2020. And more: it will not develop new generations of diesel engines for these products. The machines will be presented already this April, in the world’s biggest exhibition of the segment, the Bauma fair, in Germany. VW GOES BY TAXI Volkswagen celebrates a 57% increase with regard to vehicle sales for taxi drivers in 2018 compared to 2017: 12,2 thousand vehicles were sold. The preferred model was Virtus, with 4,6 thousand units, slightly ahead of Voyage, with 4,4 thousand. NEGATIVE RESULT Ford’s revenue in South America accounted for US$ 5.3 billion in 2018, US$ 500 million less than in 2017 due to (mainly) the Argentine market downturn. The operation in the region registered losses, as shows its annual balance sheet: US$ 678 million compared to a US$ 75 million profit in 2017. GREEN AND YELLOW Grin, the company of the green electric scooters, and Yellow, the one that has a bike-sharing system with no stations, merged and created Grow Mobility. Together, they have 135 thousand electric scooters and bicycles operating in seven countries. They made 2.7 million trips in only six months. » PEOPLE&BUSINESS