Here’s a first look at the ’22 Subaru WRX testing near Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Subaru used the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show to unveil its Viziv Performance Concept, which offered a glimpse at the next-generation WRX models due for the ’22 model year. A couple of months later at the 2018 Tokyo Auto Saloon, the Viziv Performance STi concept was revealed. The prototype seen here appears to draw a lot of styling influence from that concept. Autocar spoke to Subaru Design chief Mamoru Ishii where he stated “Such a car [the concept] brings lots of expectation, from within the company and from our customers. What we know is that our customers’ lifestyles are changing and we have to respond to that.”
Rumors have been circulating about a replacement turbocharged 2.4L four-cylinder (a boxer type) referred to as the FA24, could power the next WRX STI with 400 hp and 361 lb.-ft. of torque. Currently, the FA24 2.4L turbocharged four-cylinder moves Subaru's bigger three-row Ascent. There’s zero confirmation on whether the WRX will use a similar version of that new turbocharged 2.4L, or if they’ll rely on the established 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder. Expect the next-gen WRX to offer a six-speed manual or an automatic transmission.
An official debut is expected around the second quarter of 2021.
The deadline for SEMA-member companies to submit project overviews to participate in the 2021 Jeep, Ram and Dodge Project Vehicle Program is 11:59 p.m. (EDT), April 8, 2021.
Companies are invited to submit proposals based on the criteria outlined below. Applicants need to meet all of the requirements outlined or the submission will be removed from consideration.
Chosen companies will be selected by Stellantis from the total number of eligible submissions to take part in the program.
Interested companies must submit a detailed marketing plan. If selected, each participant must actively promote, at its sole expense, the project vehicle according to the Stellantis-approved marketing plan.
The Stellantis/Mopar booth at the 2021 SEMA Show will highlight the following
vehicles in addition to other vehicles from its existing lineup:
Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody
Wagoneer
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe
Jeep Gladiator
Ram 1500 Rebel
Ram 1500 TRX
Ram 2500 Mega Cab
Ram 2500 Power Wagon
Ram 3500 Chassis Cab
Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody
Information on Jeep, Ram and Dodge Vehicles can be found at:
Stellantis/Jeep, Ram and Dodge Project Vehicle Program Criteria
Open to SEMA-member company manufacturers, designers, customizers and/or retailers.
Submissions for multiple vehicles will be permitted, but does not increase odds of being selected.
Submissions must be submitted to: submissions@moparbuilds.com and must be received by 11:59 PM, April 8, 2021.
Each company requesting vehicles must be willing to enter into an agreement with FCA US LLC requiring the company to:
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe
Feature the vehicle in a booth at the 2021 Las Vegas SEMA Show.
Register and keep the vehicle in the participant’s name for the duration of the agreement.
Use the provided Mopar and Jeep Performance Parts accessory products as specified and provided by Stellantis.
Purchase and maintain $5 million in general liability insurance, $5 million in automotive liability insurance, $1 million employer liability and demonstrate workers’ compensation coverage; an umbrella policy may be used to achieve coverage limits.
Enter into an agreement with FCA US LLC agreeing to dispose of the vehicle at the end of the agreement, and provide proof of such disposal.
Commit to feature the vehicle with the Jeep, Ram, or Dodge logo intact and visible.
Make vehicles available to Stellantis or its Dealers for display.
Jeep Gladiator
Companies must submit written quarterly status reports for a period of 18 months, as specified in the contract, detailing:
Modifications to the vehicle.
Events (including dates, location and type of event).
Media exposure (originals or color copies).
Company print and digital advertising featuring the vehicle.
Social media exposure with statistics.
A copy of the project vehicle registration.
Submission Requirements
Step 1: Project Overview/Summary—Must be Received by 11:59 p.m. (EDT), April 8, 2021.
E-mail a one-page project summary with the following information to submissions@moparbuilds.com
Vehicle/theme.
Vehicle modifications.
Promotional plan, including the events at which the vehicle would be displayed (in addition to the SEMA Show); social media plan (please include your potential exposure/reach with your followers).
Your proposed vehicle-display location at the 2021 SEMA Show. Please also include what other vehicles will be featured within that display.
Step 2: Email Detailed Project Proposal to submissions@moparbuilds.com by 11:59 p.m. (EDT) April 30, 2021.
Include: all details that support the one-page project summary on company letterhead, color rendering(s) and past project vehicles examples. If the interior is to be significantly modified, an interior sketch should also be included.
Selection Criteria:
Stellantis will determine the number of participants in its sole discretion. The participants will be selected from the total number of submissions received. Participants will be selected according to the above-mentioned and following criteria:
Originality.
Demonstrating an understanding of the vehicle’s position in the market, and complementing that position.
Jim Liaw – President/Co-Founder, Formula Drift Holdings
Voting will take place online between May 11–25, and is open to current SEMA-member companies. Votes must be cast by each company’s primary contact. Details on the upcoming election will be sent to the member company’s designated primary contact beginning April 30. Winners will be announced by May 28.
While SEMA is unable to host its traditional in-person Washington Rally event this year, SEMA members still have the opportunity to connect with their lawmakers in our nation’s capital to impact the issues that matter most to the industry.
SEMA invites members to virtually meet with their elected representatives this spring. Unlike the single day in-person event, meetings will be scheduled over the course of several weeks, allowing SEMA Government Affairs to make arrangements with your schedule in mind. There are no registration fees to participate.
Whether it’s standing up for motorsports, combating zero-emissions vehicle mandates, or ensuring vehicle data access for the specialty-aftermarket industry, there are many issues facing SEMA members in the nation’s capital. That’s why it’s more important than ever to get engaged with your elected officials.
If you are interested in participating in the virtual Washington Rally, please contact Christian Robinson at christianr@sema.org.
Are you hunting for a new job? The SEMA Career Center has a comprehensive listing of automotive-related job openings around the country. Here are some of the latest jobs posted to the website.
Technical Salesperson Air Flow Research is hiring a technical salespersonto provide automotive and technical information/assistance to customers. This position requires the selected candidate to spend 95% of his/her time resolving automotive technical issues by phone and email as well as selling products to consumers. Prior experience working with natural aspirated engines and customer service skills is preferred. A high school diploma or equivalent is required.
Shipping Associate Modern Driveline is hiring a shipping associateresponsible for maintaining organized product shelves, pulling items from stock, preparing invoices, packaging items for shipment and assisting in loading carrier trucks for domestic and international delivery. The shipping associate is also expected to participate in restocking efforts and clean up duties to maintain a ready, clean and safe work environment.
Domestic Market Sales Manager Turn 14 Distribution is hiring a domestic market sales managerto lead the company’s domestic sales team. The ideal candidate has a strong understanding of modern muscle applications and a solid background in e-commerce wholesale distribution sales. The ideal candidate is a leader who loves working with people. Candidates must have one to three years of management experience and five years of inside sales experience.
The September 2021 issue of SEMA News will highlight rising stars in the automotive aftermarket industry who are age 35 and younger. If you know a leader in that age range as of September 1, 2021—whether they are in manufacturing and design, marketing, retail, events and media, or distribution—we would like to hear from you.
Many SEMA members are currently working with creative young professionals who are already industry trailblazers. They may have played key roles in leveraging new and emerging technologies with a traditional automotive aftermarket business to expand company reach, improve product development, energize marketing efforts or upgrade customer interaction.
They could be budding talents at an established company, entrepreneurs building their own brands or innovators who have launched companies that might become big names in the future. What they all will have in common are fresh ideas, enthusiasm, charisma and the drive to succeed.
SEMA News looks for candidates drawn from diverse industry segments who are already making a significant impact through their leadership within their organizations or businesses. Entrepreneurship, commitment, insight, innovation, integrity, responsibility, demonstrated skill, involvement and success within the marketplace weigh heavily in the decision-making process. We’ll honor the winners in the September issue of SEMA News and on www.sema.org.
Exhibit at the 2021 SEMA Show and shine the spotlight on your company in front of tens of thousands of qualified buyers looking for the best that the automotive specialty-equipment market has to offer.
In addition to buyers, the Show also attracts thousands of traditional media and social-media influencers ready to let the rest of the world know about your products and applications, opening up even more sales opportunities well after the Show concludes.
Access SEMA's worldwide network and create more opportunities to sell. Be there to reconnect at the 2021 SEMA Show, Tuesday-Friday, November 2-5, Las Vegas.
Below are key dates that SEMA Show exhibitors are encouraged to mark on their calendars.
The Exhibitor Services Manual (ESM) will be live in May. The ESM contains all of the forms and applications required to prepare for the Show: feature vehicles, new products, booth vehicles, celebrity appearances, etc.
The Exhibit Space Rental Application and deposit are due May 7.
Dates for the SEMA Show Space Selection: June 7-23
SEMA eNews highlights SEMA-member companies’ websites weekly through the Hot Links to Cool Sites section. SEMA members: To be included in Hot Links to Cool Sites, email your company name and website to enews@sema.org. Note: Make sure to include “Hot Links” in the subject line of the email.
Businesses are keeping in touch with remote staff with
employee pulse surveys.
With increasing numbers of workers finding themselves working from home these days, businesses are keeping in touch with their staff with employee pulse surveys. Generally as easy to use as standard surveying software, these solutions often feature questionnaires designed by psychiatrists and psychologists that deeply probe employee sentiment and, ideally, lead to insights and changes that enhance a business’s overall performance.
As with performance reviews, employee pulse surveying is usually overseen by company human resources (HR) departments, but they differ from traditional HR surveying techniques in that the employee surveying is often ongoing and frequent rather than a once- or twice-a-year affair.
“Today, organizations are beginning to embrace ‘continuous listening,’“ said Emily Hardy, a marketing manager at Peakon, a maker of employee survey software. “They gather feedback frequently, digitally and anonymously. At Peakon, for instance, we ask our own employees for weekly feedback. The more frequent your surveys, the fewer questions your employees are required to answer each time, and the more up-to-date your data is.”
Employee pulse survey solutions differ by manufacturer, of course, but most at least offer the ability to send out prefabricated questionnaires as well as custom questionnaires that can be designed by HR or department heads. Some solutions, in fact, offer hundreds of prefabricated surveys, which are designed to measure and analyze virtually every employee sentiment
imaginable.
Many of these surveys are based on the Full Potential Index, “a one-of-a-kind tool to help individuals and organizations discover the depths of their potential and help them to reach new heights of self-actualization,” according to psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman.
Still other survey makers offer users the ability to pick and choose individual queries from libraries of questions, targeting even more specific company
concerns.
Virtually all of the solutions rely on digitally inputted employee feedback, which is whisked back into the software where analytics look for trends, insights and opportunities for profitable change. In some cases, artificial intelligence is built into the analytics.
Once the data is crunched, the analysis is often displayed in the form of charts, graphs and similar data visualizations, and some packages even offer HR the option to auto-route analysis of a pulse survey to a specific department head or to a specific group of interested parties.
Even before the move in early 2020 to widespread remote working, employee pulse surveying was being used by companies to ferret out workplace factors that were discouraging employees from putting in a good day’s work. Driving that use were studies such as the one released by Gallup in 2019, which found that only 35% workers in workplaces were engaged, 13% were actively disengaged, and 52% were completely disengaged. (www.gallup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-
record-high-employee-engagement.aspx).
But the need for pulse monitoring grew even more intense beginning in March 2020, when multitudes of workplaces dealing with the epidemic began encouraging employees to work from home.
It’s a trend that continues to this day.
“During uncertain times, it’s more critical than ever to understand employee sentiment in order to drive engagement, productivity, well-being and ultimately uphold a dynamic workplace culture,” said Didier Elzinga, CEO of Culture Amp.
Jason McPherson, a chief scientist at survey maker Culture Amp and holder of a PhD in psychology, said that his company’s software looks for insights such as:
Employees at a business who feel that they’re part of a team.
Employees who believe they have good career opportunities where they’re working.
Employees who are satisfied with their compensation and benefits.
But the same question-and-answer approach can also be used to predict if there will be a mass exodus of employees in coming months due to an underlying and fundamental problem with management or company structure, McPherson added. He said that Culture Amp’s solution can make those predictions because the scientists behind the software are able to compare results from one study against a database of insights drawn from the same study implemented at numerous businesses.
For example, Culture Amp’s ability to predict when a significant number of employees will most likely leave a specific organization is based on data about employee departures collated from more than 2,000 companies that employ hundreds of thousands of workers.
No matter which employee pulse survey solution you choose, one of the key drivers behind your success will be the implementation of requested changes where warranted, according to Peakon’s Hardy. After all, employees will most likely grow skeptical of ongoing surveys if they never see any of the changes they request in their responses.
“If members of your team are reporting a lack of work-life balance, for example, you should consider making changes to your flexible working policies,” Hardy said. “Then you can compare your employee engagement scores to thousands of those from other relevant companies across the globe using our benchmarking tools, and set benchmarks for yourself in the areas you’d like to improve on.
“You should also share your insights throughout the organization. That will encourage increased participation and act as a reminder that everyone has a part to play in driving employee engagement and success.”
Also key to the success of your employee pulse surveying is the absolute guarantee of survey-taker anonymity. Few employees are willing to critique their workplace, department or even the department head if they know that their grievances will be tagged to them.
“If you want a high number of honest responses, you must ensure that your survey is anonymous and remains that way,” Hardy said. “If employees feel even slightly unsafe giving honest feedback, they will withhold information—or worse, choose not to participate in the survey at all.”
Dr. Jeff Smith, a cognitive psychologist and director of the Best-Self Academy at 15Five, another maker of employee pulse surveying software, agreed: “Anonymous surveys offer everyone an opportunity to speak up without fear of consequences.
A good way to check out the market in employee pulse surveys is to look at these top 10 packages in the industry, according to Select Software Reviews:
The September 2021 issue of SEMA News will highlight rising stars in the automotive aftermarket industry who are age 35 and younger. If you know a leader in that age range as of September 1, 2021—whether they are in manufacturing and design, marketing, retail, events and media, or distribution—we would like to hear from you.
Exhibit at the 2021 SEMA Show and shine the spotlight on your company in front of tens of thousands of qualified buyers looking for the best that the automotive specialty-equipment market has to offer.