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January 27, 2022 – The market segment for electric pickups is heating up in the new model year. GMC began shipping its first all-electric pickup, the Hummer EV, to consumers late last year. Ford is hot on this market as well, with about 200,000 orders in hand for its new F-150 Lightning.
Chevrolet is adding a battery-powered version of its Silverado pickup is expected to reach showrooms in 2023 aa 2024 model. Reports suggest that Stellantis will offer a battery-electric Ram 1500 in 2024.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Toyota Tundra i-Force Max is beginning to reach showrooms, the company’s first full-size hybrid-electric pickup, joining the Ram 1500, Ford F-150 and Maverick pickups in the hybrid pickup space. And that’s just the start; there are any number of startup EV manufacturers with eyes on the same market, particularly Rivian.
via The Detroit Bureau
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January 29, 2022 – An opinion piece suggests you’ll freeze if stuck in an electric car in a blizzard for hours, while gasoline drivers won’t. Like a lot of anti-EV tropes, this one’s not backed up by facts.
“I’m grateful that I was driving my EV when I got stuck on I-95,” wrote Model 3 driver Dan Kanninen. He spent 14 hours in his base Model 3, the shortest-range version of that car. He stayed warm (with no engine running, obviously) and was able to stream videos on the car’s 15-inch display. He had 50 miles of range left after 14 hours. EV drivers often charge at home, he wrote, so “we are less likely to have just a partial charge, unlike drivers who rarely drive on a full tank.”
En route to a Supercharger station, he saw long lines of cars waiting to fuel up.
via Car and Driver
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January 28, 2022 – Ford is stepping up its game in the used-car business, announcing its new Ford Blue Advantage program, which helps drivers track down certified preowned vehicles, ones that also happen to be backed by generous warranties.
Two tiers of vehicle are offered in this program. Gold-level cars must be newer than six years old and have fewer than 80,000 miles on the clock. Cars and trucks certified at the less stringent Blue level can be up to 10 years old and have rolled as many as 120,000 miles.
Either way, these vehicles come with 24/7 roadside assistance and a free Carfax history report. They’re also eligible for FordPass Rewards points and feature a 14-day, 1,000-mile money-back guarantee, the best offered by any full-line automaker, according to Ford.
via Roadshow
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January 27, 2022 – As automakers continue to build excitement with new electric vehicle launches, first-time owners who have made the switch to battery electric vehicles are discovering that it is a positive experience, according to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study.
Brent Gruber, senior director of global automotive at J.D. Power, said. “We know from our research that many consumers have concerns during the purchase consideration process with aspects like battery range and vehicle charging. However, once someone has purchased a BEV, they’re pretty much hooked.”
The U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study is driven by a collaboration with PlugShare, the leading EV driver app maker and research firm.
via J.D. Power
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Disruption in the Fleet World
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By Richard Mallek, Director of Business Development/FLD Remarketing
To say fleet has experienced a marked period of disruption over the past two years would be an understatement.
Throw in uncertainty brought on by corporate downsizing, the proliferation of procurement-based buying models, and the virtual musical chairs-like machinations of current and retiring fleet professionals, and it’s easy to see why people are confused. And why fleets may be finding it hard to identify suppliers who can deliver on their promises.
Given this craziness, where can fleets turn when the entire space seems to be in a state of flux?
READ MORE
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January 29, 2022 – Gasoline-powered vehicles are banned inside Inglenook Winery’s vast Infinity Caves, which can be good for the quality of its most popular varietals but problematic for workers trying to move heavy equipment, like the massive stainless-steel fermenting tanks.
Associate winemaker Chris Phelps says the zero-emission Ford F-150 Lightning Pro and E-Transit van, with on-board generators, can solve both of those issues and relieve other pressures of managing the 1,700-acre property with about 100 workers.
Ford Motor Co. expects vintners such as Phelps — along with florists, plumbers and other business owners — to be in the vanguard of its pivot to the electric age. The automaker already owns a leading share of the high-margin, high-volume commercial vehicle market and is betting that fleet managers will recognize the benefits of going electric far quicker than the average retail buyer. The automaker expects Ford Pro will generate $45 billion in revenue by 2025.
via The Car Gossip
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January 25, 2022 – There is a lot of change in the car industry, a lot of big ideas about how to manage that change, and a lot of big problems to solve: the transition to electric vehicles, the fact that cars are basically turning into rolling smartphones, how to make self-driving work safely, and more.
All these folks are trying to reinvent the car industry, but they’re making very different tradeoffs along the way, and it’s illuminating to hear them all at the same time: Ford CEO Jim Farley, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, Jeep CEO Christian Meunier, and Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group. CEOs of companies building autonomous driving technology: Luminar CEO Austin Russell, Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky, and Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana are all working on self-driving cars in various ways.
There are some themes that keep coming up in these conversations, and we wanted to highlight the similarities and differences for you. Sometimes they agree with each other, sometimes they completely disagree.
via The Verge
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