Ford Puts Commercial Business at Forefront of EV Strategy
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.
A Recent Op-Ed Suggests EVs are Ill Equipped to Handle a Winter Stranding. We Check the Facts
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.
Ford Revamps its Used-Vehicle Program
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.
Seven CEOS and One Secretary of Transportation on the Future of Cars
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.
ARI and Enel X Team to Electrify GlaxoSmithKline’s Fleet
This collaborative effort will support the global healthcare company’s goal of transitioning its fleet to 100 percent electric vehicles by 2030
Through the pilot project, part of GSK’s commitment to the EV100 initiative, ARI and Enel will help GSK implement a holistic sustainability solution that includes the deployment of electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles and installation of more than 100 charging locations.
