Detroit Three Have A New Competitor In The Electric Pickup War – It’s Called Endurance
Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns plans to dominate the all-electric pickup market segment with the Endurance for years, even though he is taking on big guns Ford Motor Co. and General Motors.
The coronavirus pandemic caused the cancelation of the Detroit Auto Show next month, so Lordstown Motors will do a "virtual" reveal instead, likely in late June. Burns expects to take pre-orders for all 20,000 pickups the automaker will build next year.
Burns insists the Endurance will match, even outperform, a traditional gasoline pickup in every way. It can go from zero to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and has better traction than a traditional pickup.
Read the article at Detroit Free Press.
London Is Creating The World’s Largest Car-Free Zone
London has been actively pursuing strategies to reduce congestion and air pollution for nearly two decades by imposing fees - called a congestion charge - on vehicles coming into the downtown area and establishing ultra low emissions zones.
Some of the zone restrictions had been relaxed due to the Coronavirus but will be reinstated and expanded to allow Londoners more ways to get around the city on foot or by bicycle while observing social distancing requirements and avoiding the use of The Tube.
London Mayor Sadiq Kahn said “We will need many more Londoners to walk and cycle to make this work. That’s why these plans will transform parts of central London to create one of the largest car-free areas in any capital city in the world."
Read the article at CleanTechnica.
Wheels-ALD Partner with Shouqi Car Rental & Leasing in China
Des Plaines, Ill, May 14, 2020 – Wheels Inc., a leader in the automotive fleet management and services industry, along with its global partner ALD Automotive, announce a partnership with Shouqi Car Rental & Leasing (Shouqi) in China. As part of their strategy to increase coverage in Asia, Wheels-ALD will partner with Shouqi in providing automotive leasing and fleet management services to global corporations in China.
The partnership includes cross referrals, common participation to global fleet tenders, comprehensive fleet services such as fuel provision, insurance, accident management; and overall support including transparent commercial terms and global fleet reporting using the ALDNet.com platform.
Wholesale Prices Rebound in the First Half of May After Historic Fall
As used retail sales have started to recover, both retail and wholesale supply are coming down.
Retail supply peaked in early April and was down below normal as of May 15. Wholesale supply has also come down dramatically but remained about twice the normal level as of May 15.
Wholesale used vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage-, and seasonally adjusted basis) increased 5.74% comparing the first 15 days of May to the month of April. This brought the mid-month Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index to 133.0, a 4.8% decrease from May 2019.
Read the article at Manheim.
Cybersecurity Expert: Many Fleets Are Unprotected Against a Massive, Calamitous Hack
By Mark Boada, Executive Editor
Most fleets are unaware that they might be defenseless against a cyber-attack that could disable all of their vehicles, according to a long-time veteran of the cybersecurity industry.
In an extensive interview with Fleet Management Weekly, Dan Sahar, vice president of product at Upstream Security, a cloud-based automotive cybersecurity company, said that the adoption of telematics and the proliferation of other digital connections has created a growing number of “connected” vehicles that are vulnerable to long- and short-range hacks from criminals that could disable every vehicle they operate.
