Motor News

Lucid Motors has announced it’s holding an event on October 30 called Dream Delivery where the first reservation-holding customers can pick up their Lucid Air Dream Edition EVs. The event is likely to be based at Lucid’s headquarters in Newark, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. A “Lucid Rally” as part of the event will include company executives along with the customers and is intended to showcase the car’s performance, Lucid said.520 Dream Edition cars, priced starting at $169,000, will be the first delivered to buyers. Air Grand Touring cars will come out next. Orders for the slightly more affordable Touring and Pure models won’t reach customers until 2022. Lucid Motors, a company that originated in Silicon Valley, doesn’t let its factory’s remote location in the Phoenix suburb of Casa Grande, Arizona, keep it from pulling off Instagram-ready product positioning. The startup EV maker held a splashy start-of-production event at the plant in September, and on Saturday, October 30, it will bring together a group of customers in California to pick up their Dream Edition EVs, the launch version of the luxury Air sedan. As part of the “Dream Delivery” event, the customers get to participate with company executives in a Lucid Rally, then take home their personally configured cars.Earlier this week, Lucid tweeted this photo of several Air cars sedans loaded onto a transporter.
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These first Lucid owners will be those who placed reservations for the inaugural Dream Edition in either Range or Performance spec, starting at $169,000. Both cars are dual-motor, all-wheel-drive models that have an 118.0-kWh battery pack. The cars promise a top speed of 168 mph. Claimed range on the 1111-hp Performance model is 451 miles for the car with 21-inch wheels, or 471 miles with 19-inch wheels. As its name suggests, the 933-hp Range version offers more miles between charges: 481 or 520 miles, depending on wheel choice.There’s also a $139,000 Grand Touring version of the Lucid Air, which will begin to reach reservation holders after the 520 buyers of the $169,000 Dream Edition get theirs. The $77,400 Pure and $95,000 Touring trims will reach their buyers in 2022, Lucid said, while the Gravity SUV isn’t due until 2023.
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Uber has announced it is partnering with Hertz to offer 50,000 Tesla EVs as rentals for ride-sharing drivers over the next two years.The pilot program will start November 1 in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., but will expand to other U.S. citiesHertz just agreed to purchase more than $4 billion for 100,000 Tesla Model 3 cars in a deal announced Monday.Uber Technologies issued an announcement today that it will offer Teslas to its ride-sharing drivers to rent for a flat monthly fee that will include insurance and maintenance costs. The company will source the Teslas, which Reuters reported will be “mostly” Model 3 cars, from rental giant Hertz. Hertz itself just inked a deal to buy 100,000 Teslas to add to its rental fleet by the end of next year.

Uber had previously stated it would transition to becoming an EV-only service by 2030 in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It also started a Zero Emissions Incentive program that rewards drivers who use EVs by paying them $1 more per trip, up to a maximum of $4000 a year. The Teslas will also qualify to be called Uber Green or Uber Comfort rides, which charge riders a premium.

Uber

The pilot program will start in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., starting on November 1. Hertz will make the total 50,000 Teslas available to Uber drivers by 2023, Uber’s statement said. Initially, drivers who rent the EVs will be charged $334 per week, which will include insurance and maintenance costs, but the price will drop to $299 “or lower” later. To apply, drivers must have a 4.7 or higher rating and have completed at least 150 trips with Uber.Uber already has programs to encourage drivers to use an electric vehicle in their work. The service’s website offers an $8000 rebate for purchase of a 2021 Nissan Leaf or $6000 for a 2022 Nissan Leaf. Uber also offers $2500 rebates for purchase or lease of a 2021 Chevy Bolt EV, in addition to deals the buyer can get from the Chevrolet dealer or GM. Uber drivers can also rent an unspecified EV from Avis for $260 a week, with a fee of $65 a week for unlimited charging.

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Honda announced today it will bring not one, but two race-car concepts based on the new Civic Si sedan to this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas. The first car, dubbed the HPD Honda Civic Si, is a turnkey factory race car designed to compete in the SRO TC Americas series. The other is a one-off model put together by a collection of Honda engineers, meant to compete at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill happening in December.

The HPD Honda Civic Si will represent the company’s next generation of grassroots racing, succeeding the wildly fun-to-drive Civic Si TCA. Built from a body-in-white to adhere to the SRO TC Americas rulebook, it’s stuffed with all of the safety and performance gear necessary to perform on track. As far as drivetrain modifications go, there’s a tune for the 1.5-liter turbo inline-four, a strengthened fourth gear, a specialized exhaust, and a race-spec limited-slip differential. Other upgrades include Bilstein dampers, Eibach coil springs, adjustable control arms, and Wilwood rotors with six-piston calipers up front.The one-off Si meant to run in this year’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill is a bit more customized, with similar safety gear but a lot more drivetrain mods. Assembled and raced by engineers across the company’s divisions, the car features a new tune for the engine, an oil cooler, a bigger radiator, a titanium exhaust, a custom gearset for the transmission, and specific engine mounts. There are Paragon brakes all around with endurance racing pads from Pagid, cooled with custom brake ducts. The dampers are KW competition units, paired to H&R race-spec coil springs. There are also custom forged wheels, a custom vented carbon hood, and custom LED exterior lights.

The Si meant to race at Thunderhill will be the first of the two Civics to make a public appearance post-SEMA when it competes for a class win on December 3. We expect the SRO car to begin competition with the 2022 season. Honda has yet to release pricing, though we expect it to come in around the $60,000 mark. That may sound expensive, but when you consider all of the expensive parts necessary to make it legal for competition, you’ll realize it’s actually a bargain.

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For 2022, the Range Rover will come in standard- and long-wheelbase variants with seating for four, five, or seven.Four-wheel steering is newly standard across the lineup.The 2022 Range Rover SE, Autobiography, and First Edition are available for order now, with deliveries next spring.“Range Rover is not about radical change for the sake of it,” says Jaguar Land Rover’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern. Despite the fact that a new Range Rover is a once-in-a-decade occurrence (significantly longer than the typical product cycle), the all-new 2022 Range Rover does indeed look immediately familiar. But the new Rover packs a host of innovations. Those start with the model’s first ever three-row version, which at long last puts it on equal footing with competitors such as the Mercedes-Benz GLS-class, the BMW X7, the Cadillac Escalade, and the Lincoln Navigator. The seven-seat Range Rover uses the long-wheelbase body style and is expected to be especially popular in the U.S. market, where, Land Rover tells us, one in four existing customers have requested such a vehicle.

Both versions have added approximately three inches between the axles, with the standard wheelbase now 118 inches and an overall length of 199 inches, and the long-wheelbase version eight inches greater in both measures. The wheels are as large as 23 inches. McGovern characterizes the new Range Rover’s design as “clean, reductive, and free from excessive line work.” As before, the profile view features a gently falling roofline, a continuous beltline, and a rising sill line. Compared to the previous version, McGovern says the new one “is about taking out, not adding in.”

Land Rover

To that end, the molding at the base of the windows has been removed, the door handles are flush-mounted, and there’s flush glazing. Until illuminated, the taillights present as simple black vertical elements. Those flush elements, along with the new vertical creases at the rear corners, active aero elements, and a suspension that automatically lowers at highway speeds give the Range Rover a coefficient of drag of 0.30, an improvement of 12 percent.Range Rover claims to have pushed the envelope in terms of luxury finishes, with the SV trim (which arrives with the 2023 model year) featuring ceramic knobs and switchgear (in white or anthracite), wool-blend upholstery, and marquetry wood veneers in a mosaic pattern. The SV offers two design themes: Serenity, with a copper-colored roof and matching accents on the wheels and grille surround, or Intrepid, with black trim and anthracite gray as the accent color.The new Range Rover interior features a 13.1-inch central touchscreen that runs JLR’s Pivi Pro operating system, which adds haptic feedback and includes Amazon Alexa integration as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Ahead of the driver sits a new 13.7-inch digital instrument cluster with a configurable display. The 1600-watt Meridian sound system, which is exclusive to the Autobiography and First Edition, includes active noise cancellation and boasts 35 speakers—including in the headrests. Perhaps the ultimate luxury: The optional cabin air purification system can filter SARS and Covid pathogens. Come next year, entering and exiting the Range Rover will be made easier by the optional new Power Assisted Doors, which also can be controlled via the touchscreen.We poked around inside three pre-production Range Rovers: a standard-wheelbase First Edition, an extended-wheelbase SV with the four-seat interior, and a seven-seater. In the seven-seater, both rear rows are power-folding. The third row is genuinely usable, with 34 inches of legroom, and access is reasonably easy. It also avoids feeling like steerage class thanks to its padded armrests, USB ports, A/C vents, and seat heaters. The four-seat SV, meanwhile, has a full-length center console from which a table motors up and swivels to serve either rear-seat occupant as well as its own 8-inch touchscreen. Its executive-class rear seats include deployable leg rests. An available rear-seat entertainment system features dual 11.4-inch screens, and there’s a refrigerated cool box in between the rear seatbacks.

Land Rover

Moving to the back of the Range Rover, the model again features an upper liftgate and a drop-down tailgate. For the latter, there’s a newly available Tailgate Event Suite: a pop-up two-person seat with leather cushions—just the thing for watching a polo match or tailgating before the Harvard-Yale game. The option includes additional lighting and speakers in the liftgate that can play music from your smartphone.Underneath all the finery, the new Rover debuts the brand’s MLA-Flex architecture, which is said to be 76 percent aluminum. Torsional rigidity is up by a claimed 50 percent. Powertrain choices include inline-sixes and a turbocharged V-8. An EV is also promised but won’t arrive until 2024.The familiar turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with 48-volt hybrid assistance returns as the base engine in the SE. It delivers 395 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque.Optional on the SE and standard on the Autobiography and First Edition is a new 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 making 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. With it, the new Rover hustles to 60 mph in a factory-estimated 4.4 seconds.A plug-in-hybrid six-cylinder arrives a few months later for the 2023 model year and makes 434 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. Its 38.2-kWh battery (usable capacity 31.8kWh) gives it a projected EV range of 62 miles. A 105kW electric motor integrated into the transmission is brawny enough to propel the Range Rover at speeds up to 87 mph. All-wheel drive is standard and can now disconnect the front axle. The Range Rover adopts Land Rover’s Clearsight front camera system, which can stitch together a forward-view image as if the front bodywork were see-through. The default ground clearance is 11.6 inches, and the air suspension offers a maximum rise of 5.7 inches. The Rover can wade through nearly three feet of standing water. As in the Defender, there are six off-road driving modes. The major chassis innovation is the addition of four-wheel steering, which is standard. The rear wheels turn as much as 7 degrees, trimming the turning circle to 36 feet. Air suspension again is used but gets new twin-valve dampers that adjust rebound and compression separately. The Range Rover also adds 48-volt electronic anti-roll bars. The 2022 Range Rover is available for order now, with deliveries to commence in spring 2022. Expect the plug-in hybrid powertrain to be available three months later. Prices start at $105,350 for the SE and $153,350 for the Autobiography, with the First Edition currently the most expensive offering at $159,550 for the standard-wheelbase variant and $164,850 for the long-wheelbase version. When the SV arrives, it will be even dearer still and sit at the top of the lineup.

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A lot of the excitement surrounding the launch of the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is understandably about the 8600-rpm screamer of a V-8 nestled between its 3.6-inch-wider rear flanks. And a key piece of the return to a stonking naturally aspirated V-8 is about the experience. It sure sounds great from the outside, like when we caught it ripping off launch-control starts, but what about from the driver’s seat? Unfortunately, that’s a question we can’t fully answer just yet.

When we asked the Corvette engineering team if they could quantify how much louder the Z06’s 5.5-liter DOHC V-8 is, compared to the 6.2-liter pushrod V-8 in the Stingray, they told us that the sound level at the exhaust exit is essentially the same, as, in both cases, they’re at the limits of noise pass-by requirements. In the Stingray, it was a bit of a letdown that the move to a mid-engine layout coincided with a slight reduction in the small-block’s roar at the driver’s ear. However, in the Z06, there’s a trick that should get more of its shriek into the cabin.
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As you can see from the above photo, what look like quad tips are actually just finishers behind which the actual exhaust pipes are hiding. But notice the diffusers in the outer two. According to vehicle-performance manager Alex MacDonald, these bezels are actually “reverse trumpets” that are used to reflect the engine’s high-pitched anger back into the cabin. This is part of an extensive effort to perfect the sound of the highest-output naturally aspirated V-8 ever. Getting this inventive solution just right involved retooling the rear fascia during the development process, according to executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter, something made possible by the delay to the Z06’s launch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply-chain issues. In addition to hearing more of the LT6, you’ll also feel more of it: its mounts, stiffer than the Stingray’s, “bring the engine into the car,” according to MacDonald. We can’t wait to experience it for ourselves, and, don’t worry, we’ll be bringing our sound-level meter when we do.

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If you own a C7 Z06, allow me to congratulate you on your gnarly hunk of machinery. With 650 supercharged horsepower stuffed under its bulging hood, the C7 Z06 wasn’t a car for novices. It’s not like it had any evil handling characteristics, but a front-engine car slamming 650 pound-feet of torque through the rear tires is going to be inherently traction challenged. Seldom have Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s worked as hard as the ones on the back of a C7 Z06—except maybe the ones on the back of a C7 ZR1, which had 755 horsepower. That one was supercharged, too. It was like a Z06, but more.

Which was disappointing for Corvette fans who’d come to expect the Z06 to embody a certain track-rat purism, defined by low weight and a high-revving, naturally aspirated V-8. When the C5 Z06 debuted 20 years ago, it was only available in hardtop form—no hatch—with a manual transmission. Its successor, the C6 Z06, packed one of the more memorable engines of the past two decades, the LS7 7.0-liter V-8 that revved to 7000 rpm and cranked out 505 horsepower. It was also only available in hardtop/manual configuration. By the time the C7 debuted, you could get a Z06 convertible with an automatic. In our Corvette fanfiction, the C7 Grand Sport (Z06 body, natural aspiration) got the LS7, the Z06 was called the ZR1, and the ZR1 was the L88. You follow? Of course you do.

Now, with the C8, the Z06 is returning to its roots. You could say that its 670-hp 5.5-liter double-overhead-cam V-8 is the spiritual heir to the Mercury Marine–built 5.7-liter screamer from the C4 ZR1, a car that should have been a Z06 (it belongs to that universe, and that’s an argument we can have at the next Bloomington Gold). Pushrods—or lack thereof—aside, this new engine is a worthy successor to the LS7, except it revs even higher and uses a flat-plane crank. You know who else makes a naturally aspirated flat-plane V-8? Nobody! But Ferrari used to, which is why Chevy benchmarked the old 458 Italia rather than the newer turbocharged 488 GTB. They’re chasing an experience, not just a lap time. A Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 (supercharged V-8, dual-clutch automatic) will torch a GT350 (flat-plane naturally aspirated V-8, manual) around any track you care to name, but the GT350 driver will be immersed in a more visceral experience. It’s like the difference between a Porsche 911 GT3 and a GT2: the turbocharged GT2 is quicker, but that doesn’t mean it’s more rewarding to drive.The C8 Z06 is an anomaly in the modern world, a special model with its own special engine. Bolting on some boost is far easier than designing a valvetrain that can survive 8600 rpm and accommodating the vibration challenges that come with a flat-plane crank. (Like, screw-on oil filters that unscrew themselves, prompting a design change.) But that’s how you get a street-legal car that sounds like it belongs on an F1 starting grid—by doing things the hard way.The C8 already had the exotic mid-engine looks. Now it’ll have the sound and, we expect, the pace to hang with the best of the European stuff—Chevy is claiming a 1.2-g skidpad number with the Z07 package. “Corvette or 911 GT3?” is about to become topic worthy of serious debate. If past is precedent, then we’d expect Chevy to follow the Z06 with a ZR1 that uses forced induction to generate silly numbers—mega horsepower, higher top speed, lower lap times. And that car, we’ll respect. But the Z06 will be the one we love.

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General Motors will produce Ultium-brand Level 2 electric vehicle charging equipment and work with its dealers donate thousands of the units to underserved areas in cities and rural areas.There are three levels of charging equipment, with power ranging from 11.5 to 19.2 kW, and they’ll be usable by all EV customers, not just GM EV owners.Deliveries of the first Ultium charging stations start in early 2022, and customers can include the cost of a station when financing their new GM EV.General Motors said today it will sell its own electric-vehicle charging stations, branded with the Ultium name—and donate more than 40,000 of them to its 4000-plus franchised dealers to install in their communities.The goal, the company said, is to expand access to charging stations in “underserved, rural, and urban areas where EV charging access is often limited.” It’s a recognition that while GM “aspires” to sell only EVs as passenger cars and light trucks by 2035, many of its dedicated customers and longtime dealers have little exposure to them—and, crucially, may have never seen or noticed a public EV charging station.

The three Ultium charging stations announced today vary in their features, including models with an embedded touchscreen and a camera. They also vary in the amount of power they deliver, from 11.5 to 19.2 kilowatts, which makes them among the highest-power stations available. (In comparison, Electrify America’s Level 2 HomeStation is 9.6 kW, ChargePoint’s Home Flex claims 12.0 kW, Ford’s Mach-E Connected Charge station provides 11.5 kW, and the top-end Charge Station Pro for the future Ford F-150 Lightning will offer 19.2 kW.) All are networked via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, allowing GM to monitor and aggregate charging data, though the company says users can opt out if they prefer. All offer dynamic load balancing, meaning that when electric utilities signal they need to reduce demand or want to encourage off-peak charging, the stations can adjust the energy delivered to the vehicle.Deliveries of the first Ultium stations will start early next year, and EV buyers can roll the cost into their auto financing at the dealer. Importantly, the stations are intended for both home and commercial use. That’s a hint that, like Ford, General Motors may anticipate faster EV adoption among commercial-vehicle fleets, lured in by EVs’ far lower per-mile running costs, than among consumers who often need to be educated one by one.As for what GM calls the Dealer Community Charging Program, the company will give each of its EV-certified dealers up to 10 Ultium charging stations for free. The dealer is expected to work with community leaders to identify highly visible, long-dwell locations where EV charging doesn’t presently exist. Those may be parking lots at arenas, sports fields, fairgrounds, and the like—locations that will be “accessible, visible, and ubiquitous,” in the words of Hossein “Hoss” Hassani, GM’s North America director of EV commercialization and ecosystem.The new stations won’t be at the dealerships themselves, however. Dealers have other programs under which they can install charging stations—though their real-world accessibility varies greatly. (EV drivers often report that dealership charging stations nominally open to the are frequently blocked by other vehicles.) This program is intended to get EV charging out in front of the people who have never seen such a site—or may not be aware that they’ve encountered one.

The stations will be branded Ultium Charge 360, GM’s unwieldy name for what the company calls its “holistic charging approach that integrates charging networks, GM vehicle mobile apps, and other products and services to simplify the overall charging experience.” Essentially that translates to making EV charging more available, simpler, and easier. No EV maker except Tesla has accomplished that goal so far, but with more than a dozen EVs from its four U.S. brands hitting the market by 2025, the company realizes it has to do better.Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra said the company would spend $750 million by 2025 to improve electric-vehicle charging and make it accessible to all Americans. This morning’s announcement is a first cautious step toward that goal. Asked if that rather large amount of cash would include DC fast-charging for trips beyond an EV’s range, Hassani demurred. “This is what we’re announcing today,” he said. Clearly, though, if GM is serious about making EV charging available to all U.S. drivers, we can expect more such announcements, and soon.

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RVs are incredibly popular right now, and anything that allows you to spend more time off-grid certainly has an audience waiting to check it out.The latest such accessory is the Xpanse Solar Awning, which can provide up to 1.2 kW of solar power to power up an RV full of appliances while it shades your comfy seats below.Xponent Power will take your pre-order $100 deposit and is offering the awning at an initial price of $7500 through October 30, but buyers after that will pay $10,000. Deliveries should happen sometime next year.There’s been an unmistakable boom in RV sales during the pandemic. According to the RV Industry Association (RVIA), there were just over 55,000 RV shipments in the U.S. in September 2021, a 32.2 percent increase over the same month in 2020. September 2021 was also the highest month for RV sales that the RVIA has ever tracked, which helped 2021’s third quarter (July to September) become the highest sales quarter ever, with 152,370 RVs shipped. In other words, if you’re getting ready to launch the “first commercially available retractable solar awning for RVs,” now’s the perfect time.

Xponent Power, which is coming out of stealth mode today, is right on time with its new Xpanse solar awning. Instead of a fabric awning to provide shade near the camper, the Xpanse awning is made up of thin, high-efficiency solar panels that fold together in a zigzag fashion and hide inside a protective shell on the top of the RV when not in use. Xponent said it takes 30 seconds to extend or retract the awning, which in standard form is about 16 feet long and can be mounted anywhere there is space available to mount two side arms 16 feet apart, company founder Rohini Raghunathan told Car and Driver, adding that Xponent is working on designing other sizes and ways of attaching it to an RV.”The Xpanse solar awning can be sized anywhere from three feet to 16 feet,” Raghunathan said. “We are in the process of designing the next-generation product that will not require side arms and hence will be compatible with a broader base of models, including Sprinter-type vehicles.”

Palmer Morse/Xpanse

The Xpanse awning can provide up to 1.2 kW of solar power to run onboard appliances and is unsurprisingly compatible with the kinds of electrical components used in traditional RV solar installations, including charge controllers, batteries, and inverters, plus RV appliances such as refrigerators, lights, and microwaves, the company said. It can be installed on either side of an RV, so if you like the shade awning you already have but want an additional power source, that’s not a problem.

Xponent Power

Xponent said it designed the Xpanse so it doesn’t cause problems when the wind picks up. For one thing, the solar panels are separated from each other to let air pass through and thus stay stable “even at relatively high wind speeds,” the company said in a statement. At higher speeds, the awning uses built-in sensors detect wins speed and automatically retract when needed. The awning decides when to retract using what Xponent calls “extensive machine learning” that has helped the company identify situations when it is no longer safe to have the awning out.There are still some details pending. For example, Raghunathan said Xponent is currently in discussion with manufacturing and assembly partners in the U.S. and hasn’t yet finalized the assembly location. “We are also in discussions with solar cell manufacturers for sourcing and final decisions have not yet been made about where these cells will be sourced from,” she said. Even more interesting, the company said it is also in talks with automotive and RV manufacturers to offer the Xpanse as a pre-installed option on new vehicles.

Xponent Power

Xponent Power plans to charge $10,000 for this solar awning system but initially is offering it for $7500 for those who order by October 30. The company will start taking $100 refundable pre-order deposits today even though the first product deliveries won’t happen until 2022.

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