Motor News

Stellantis and battery maker LG Energy Solution are teaming up to build a lithium-ion-battery manufacturing plant in North America that will start operations in early 2024, the automaker announced this morning. Separately, Toyota announced today that it will spend $3.4 billion to develop battery production and build hybrid and electric vehicles in the U.S. Toyota will be pairing with Toyota Tsusho on a lithium-ion-battery plant to open by 2025.Both moves are another sign of how seriously mainstream automakers are taking the move toward electric vehicles, following recent announcements from Ford and GM about similar investment plans.Stellantis, parent company of Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, announced this morning that it’s teaming with battery maker LG to produce lithium-ion battery cells and modules in a North American plant. The location was not announced, but the target start date is early 2024, according to the automaker’s statement. The batteries will be used in hybrid and electric vehicles built in North America. Stellantis has previously stated it intends to have 40 percent of its U.S. sales come from EVs by 2030 and has earmarked a total of $35 billion toward meeting that goal. In July, Jeep revealed its 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid and vowed to have a zero-emission vehicle in every SUV segment by 2025.

2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe.
Jeep

Separately, Toyota Motor North America announced it will spend $1.3 billion, part of a larger $3.4 billion, nine-year investment plan, to set up a U.S. lithium-ion-battery plant to supply U.S.-market hybrid and electric vehicles. That plant is set to start production in 2025, Toyota said. The automaker had previously announced it will spend $13.5 billion worldwide to produce its own batteries and to develop a solid-state battery by 2025 as well. In September, a Toyota executive told Automotive News that the company is already testing a “working prototype.” Although Toyota has been slower than some companies to express enthusiasm for EVs, focusing more attention on hybrids, its announcement today was titled “Toyota charges into electrified future in the U.S.” The automaker says it will build “about 70” hybrid or electric models by 2025, of which 15 will be fully electric.The news from Stellantis and Toyota follows closely on Ford and General Motors’ statements that they are investing in new U.S. facilities for EV production. Ford’s Blue Oval City will produce batteries and electric vehicles in Tennessee, with a separate facility in Kentucky, and its Ion Park will develop batteries in Michigan. GM has two joint-venture battery plants, also with LG, in Ohio and Tennessee. The first of these should start producing battery cells in the second half of 2022.
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Numbers released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau show there was an 11 percent increase in the number of vehicles stolen in the U.S. last year, with the two most popular targets being Ford and Chevrolet half-ton pickups.The Honda Civic and Accord were the next most popular cars to steal, in part because late-1990s versions of these vehicles still on the road are unlikely to have anti-theft devices built in.The FBI, which uses different methods to calculate crime statistics, found that motor vehicle thefts in the U.S. jumped 16.6 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. The year 2020 was tough for most everyone on the planet, but the hundreds of thousands of people who had their vehicle stolen last year got to deal with an extra helping of “Seriously, this too?” amid the pandemic. Thanks to numbers released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), drivers of Ford and Chevy full-size pickups were most likely to have to deal with having their vehicle disappear unexpectedly than anyone else.

In its annual “hot wheels” list (get it?), the NICB found that, overall, vehicle thefts were up 11 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. The top ten most stolen makes and models add up to just over 231,000 vehicles, led by full-size Ford pickups with 44,014 units stolen and full-size Chevy trucks in second place at 40,968. Coming in third and fourth places last year, respectively, were the Honda Civic and Accord. Late-1990s versions of these vehicles are popular targets for thieves because they were some of the last models built without anti-theft technology, NCIB said.

NICB

For the most part, thieves tend to pick older vehicles, the NICB found. For the Ford trucks, for example, the most common model year stolen was 2006, while the 2004 was the most common Chevy truck stolen. There are some surprises in the bottom half of the Top 10 most stolen vehicle list, though, with the Toyota Camry (fifth place overall), Nissan Altima (sixth), and Toyota Corolla (eighth) having their most common model year stolen being either 2020 or 2019. Rounding out the top 10 are the GMC full-size pickups at number seven, the Honda CR-V in ninth place, and the full-size Dodge pick-ups in tenth.”Auto thefts saw a dramatic increase in 2020 versus 2019 in part due to the pandemic, an economic downturn, law enforcement realignment, depleted social and schooling programs, and, in still too many cases, owner complacency,” said David Glawe, NICB president and CEO, in a statement. The FBI, which uses different data collection methods than the NICB, found that, overall, there were around 407,000 motor-vehicle-theft incidents in 2020, a 16.6 percent increase over the 315,000 such incidents in 2019 and the 270,000 incidents that were reported in 2018. The real numbers of vehicles stolen in the U.S. are higher, as the FBI collects its data through the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which relies on numbers submitted by local law enforcement, and not all local agencies share their information with the Bureau. In 2020, for example, the FBI estimated national crime statistics based on data received from 15,875 of 18,623 law enforcement agencies that year.However many vehicle thefts actually happened last year, the NICB offers some common-sense tips on how not to add to the statistics next year. The super-easy ones: always lock your car, park in well-lit areas, and don’t leave your keys in the car. Installing a warning device or something that will immobilize or track your car will take a bit more effort, but it is worth considering if you think your vehicle is at risk.

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Lucid reveals details of DreamDrive advanced driver-assist system, designed to offer semi-autonomous features and upgrades via OTA updates.The automaker’s system will include driver attention monitoring to make sure drivers keep their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, pointing to Level 2 capability.Lucid says it is working on Level 3 features as well, which will be functional in some driving conditions.This week Lucid Motors, just days after starting production of its 520-mile Air sedan, has revealed the first details of its DreamDrive advanced driver-assist system, which is expected to compete with Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, among others. The system boasts 32 sensor inputs, including ultrasonic and radar sensors, 18 cameras, solid-state Lidar, and sensors to monitor driver attention.

DreamDrive will offer a group of features dubbed Highway Pilot, which combines adaptive cruise control with lane centering, as well as Traffic Jam Assist, which will function at speeds between zero and 40 mph, working to center the electric sedan in the lane in tight traffic and respond to the movement of other vehicles around it. “An infrared driver camera tracks head position, eye gaze, and blinking, while hands-off detection prompts the driver to return their hands to the steering wheel immediately,” the automaker notes.DreamDrive will also offer an Auto Park feature, which will allow the sedan to identify parallel and perpendicular spots and will enter them automatically, managing steering and drive inputs.

Lucid Motors

The hardware behind the system is something Lucid calls an Ethernet Ring, which is a high-speed data network that uses four computer gateways, each positioned in one of the four corners of the sedan, to relay data at gigabit speeds, allowing for system redundancy and quick data transmission.”DreamDrive Pro has been designed to grow in capability, thanks to our ability to deliver software over-the-air and key equipment already in place in the vehicle,” said Eugene Lee, senior director of advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving at Lucid Motors. “Thanks to highly integrated hardware and software teams, Lucid has the ability to develop new functionality for DreamDrive Pro in-house. This can benefit every facet of the DreamDrive Pro experience, from the frequency of updates to the planned rollout of the Highway Pilot system for conditional automated driving on select roadways in the coming years.”At this point it’s prudent to note just what DreamDrive does not promise. For starters, it does not promise that drivers will be able to take their attention off the road. It also does not promise that drivers will be able to keep their hands off the steering wheel, because driver monitoring sensors will make sure that they do so at all times. So there are certainly a few caveats here that point to a system with no eyes-off, brain-off capabilities of Level 3 and Level 4 systems, some of which are already available in other vehicles. For now, it appears that it will be a purely Level 2 system, like Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD.The company does mention that Level 3 capabilities are in the works, at least for limited circumstances.”The Lucid DreamDrive technology suite supports 19 key safety, driving, and parking assist features that will be available on Lucid Air immediately upon start of production, with another eight features expected to be available later via over-the-air (OTA) updates. Additional DreamDrive capabilities to enable Level 3 driving in certain conditions are also in development,” Lucid said in 2020.The company also adds that Highway Pilot with conditional hands-free capability is something that will be offered in the future.While the major hardware advantage with Lucid’s system could be the inclusion of solid-state lidar, something that Tesla has shunned over the years in favor of transitioning to a camera-only system, DreamDrive appears to be taking a very careful approach to Level 2 autonomy to the point of not offering hands-free driving at the moment, unlike GM’s upcoming Ultra Cruise system. So while it will certainly feature a far fuller sensor suite than that offered by other advanced driver-assist systems on the market, it won’t be pushing the envelope for the time being.

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We all know by now that Tesla doesn’t follow the rules or traditions of other automakers as it launches new models, so the fact that previously announced specs for the upcoming Cybertruck have disappeared from the company website isn’t exactly a huge surprise.The removal of these details does make us wonder if the recently announced production delay is really about changing more than the delivery date.If you want to buy an actual, physical Cybertruck, you can do that by checking out the $250 Mega X Cybertruck brick model, which comes with cute Easter eggs re-created in plastic.The Tesla Cybertruck saga continues to roll along on its own path. From its divisive, angular styling to delays for when the truck is supposed to go into production, the Cybertruck is the perfect vehicle for those uninterested in a standard new-vehicle buying experience. The latest twist is that even the few details Tesla previously offered about the truck might not be as locked in as fans might wish.

Previously, for example, Tesla said the Cybertruck would come in three main flavors: a rear-wheel-drive model for $39,990, an all-wheel-drive option for $49,990, and a tri-motor option for $69,990. These prices and other specs, like its 500-plus miles of range and zero-to-60-mph time of under 2.9 seconds (in the top tri-motor configuration), were removed from Tesla’s website this week.Tesla doesn’t have a traditional PR department, so the company did not release a statement about why details about the Cybertruck were taken off the site. Similarly, CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter feed is silent on the matter.

Tesla

While the specs have been taken down from Tesla’s official site, you can still find them on Car and Driver and other automotive sites. The big question now is if Tesla is simply updating the specs as it reconfigures what, exactly, it will offer when the truck actually goes on sale in the future or if the continued delays and this spec disappearance hint at larger changes coming between what was promised and what will be delivered. Tesla was supposed to start production of the Cybertruck this year, but that was recently pushed back to 2022, and it’s not inconceivable that the delay means details on what will eventually be delivered have changed. Without an official statement from Musk or Tesla, though, all we can do is guess about the reasons behind the removal.For what it’s worth, Tesla is still taking $100 refundable deposits for the Cybertruck. Now, though, instead of picking a trim based on specs that Tesla has previously promoted, if you click to pay your deposit, the site simply says, “You will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in 2022.”

Mega

Hot Wheels R/C 1:64 Scale Rechargeable Radio-Controlled Racing Cars for Onor Off-Track Play, Includes Car, Controller & Adapter for Kids 5 Years Old & Up

Hot Wheels
amazon.com

$19.99

The good news is you can still buy an actual, physical Cybertruck online today, just not from Tesla. In addition to the Hot Wheels RC Cybertruck we told you about recently, there’s a new one from Mattel. The toymaker has started taking orders for a $250 Mega blocks (i.e., non-Lego plastic toy) model you put together yourself called the Mega X Cybertruck. This “collector’s building set” is made up of 3283 pieces and costs $250, with a limit of two per person. As befitting a desktop toy for the Cybertruck lover, this model includes a working tonneau cover, a folding tailgate, and Easter eggs like driver’s-side windows that look like they’re cracked, a nod to the ironic “these windows won’t break” demonstration when the truck was unveiled in 2019 and the window did, indeed, shatter. Mattel is promising that orders for the Mega X Cybertruck model placed now will be shipped out in December. If the company really wants to provide customers with an authentic Cybertruck experience, it should push that back to January, at the very least.
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A newly released Batmobile Lego Technic set is a retro-looking car based on the vehicle that will be featured in the 2022 film The Batman. This set contains 1360 pieces and includes two light bricks, moving pistons, a spinning flame exhaust, front steering, rear differential, and opening doors and hood. This set is available for pre-order and will start shipping on November 1, priced at $99.99. Lego is releasing a new Batmobile Technic set based on the personal vehicle that the caped crusader will be driving in the upcoming film The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. The film was expected to release this year but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this Lego set is a good outlet for fans waiting for its eventual release.

Lego.com

Batman and his Batmobile, of course, are legendary superheroes, and the iconic car has been present in every iteration of Batman. Every Batmobile has features that make it unique and stand out from the previous versions. This new and presumably improved version has yet to be seen, so consider this Lego version a teaser. It shows some resemblance to a Chevrolet Camaro or Dodge Challenger from the late 1960s or early 1970s era.

LEGO Technic THE BATMAN – BATMOBILE 42127 Model Building Kit (1,360 Pieces)

LEGO
walmart.com

$100.00

The set comes with 1360 individual pieces, so it’s not going to be quick or easy to build. The kit includes are two light bricks: the yellow light will illuminate the grille, while the red light will glow over the transparent rear engine. The set also includes front-wheel steering, a rear differential, and a hood and two doors that open and close. To top it all off, there is a spinning flame on the back of the car imitating the fire that backfires from the exhaust in the films.

LEGO DC Batman 1989 Batmobile 76139 Building Kit (3,306 Pieces)

LEGO
amazon.com

$249.95

An earlier, more elaborate Batmobile Lego set was released in 2019, based on the 1989 Batmobile. That set contained 3306 pieces and took a long time to build. The new Batmobile set has almost 2000 fewer pieces but will still take a lot of time to construct. The previous version had a price of $249.99 while this one only costs $99.99—a bargain in Lego terms for a set this big.The new set is available for preorder and will begin shipping on November 1.

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Ford has released details for the 2022 Mustang Mach-E.It receives updates to its battery pack, pricing, colors, and equipment.The 2022 Mach-E is available to order now, but deliveries won’t start until February 2022.The Ford Mustang Mach-E, our EV of the Year award winner, is receiving a few updates for 2022. Along with pricing adjustments for some models and tweaks to the color palette, the most notable change is an increase in usable battery capacity that should boost its range. The standard battery pack goes from 68.0 to 70.0 kWh of usable capacity, while the optional extended range pack increases from 88.0 to 91.0 kWh.

Ford says that the EPA isn’t retesting the 2022 Mach-E, so the official figures won’t change from the current model, which ranges from 211 miles for the standard range AWD model up to 305 miles for the RWD California Route 1 model. But based on the capacity increase, we would expect the updated 2022 model equivalent to the 2021 AWD extended range car we tested to go an extra 8 miles in our 75-mph real-world highway test. The 2021 model achieved 250 miles in that test, compared with an EPA-rated range of 270 miles. We look forward to running a 2022 model in the same test to see how it performs.We asked Ford if it’s possible that these battery updates could be pushed to existing 2021 Mach-E models via over-the-air updates and will update this story when we get more information.Other updates include a new option for all-wheel drive on the California Route 1 trim level that was previously available only with rear-wheel drive. This trim also now comes standard with heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, while the performance-oriented GT now has a black-painted roof as standard (it was previously a $385 option).While the base price for the Select model stays the same, at $43,995, the Mach-E Premium’s price goes up $500 to $49,200 and the California Route 1 goes up $375 to $51,875. The more powerful GT model gets a $1005 price cut and now starts at $59,995. It comes standard with all-wheel drive, which is a $2700 option on all other models.The color palette is slightly different, as Iced Blue Silver Metallic replaces Iconic Silver and Carbonized Grey is no longer available. Grabber Blue and Cyber Orange, which were previously exclusive to the GT, are now more widely available throughout the lineup. And there’s a new Ice White Edition available that we’ve previously detailed.Orders for the 2022 Mustang Mach-E are open now on the Ford website, but be prepared to wait. The company estimates that deliveries of the Select and California Route 1 models will start in February 2022, with deliveries of the Premium and GT models starting in April 2022.
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Welcome to the United States, where the 301-hp V-6 Toyota Camry thrives and a 470-hp Jeep Wrangler on 35-inch mud-terrain tires reaches 60 mph quicker than a Ford Mustang Mach 1. It’s all screaming bald eagles until one ends up stolen, racing, and weaving between traffic like a drunken three-ton bowling ball. Sure, helicopters are fast, but somebody’s got to meet ol’ Breaky McLawLaw when their crime spree comes to a crashing halt. So what’s the best car for the job? Although the law enforcement profession is far more dynamic than just high-speed emergency responses, many departments require their vehicles to meet what’s called a “purchasing spec.” Vehicles must meet certain requirements to be eligible for patrol but still have enough performance to be effective when responding to more dangerous situations.

The Michigan State Police (MSP) have published their preliminary results from their police vehicle testing at Grattan Raceway in southwestern Michigan. MSP troopers put four motorcycles and 11 vehicles through a series of track tests including acceleration, top speed, distance to top speed, braking, and lap times to make performance comparisons to help municipal, county, and state police departments in all 50 states decide on what fits their needs the best.

Ford Police Interceptor Utility Hybrid.
Ford

The all-wheel-drive 2022 Ford Police Interceptor Utility (FPIU), with its 400-hp twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6, remains the quickest police vehicle sold today, getting to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and 100 mph in 13.5 seconds during MSP testing. It reached its top speed of 148 mph (also the highest of the vehicles tested) in 1.6 miles. Although that’s not as quick as the Wrangler 392, its 36-mph deficit in top speed would allow the Explorer to catch up to it. The EcoBoost FPIU was also 0.7 second quicker to 60 mph and 0.6 second quicker to 100 mph than the 380-hp Dodge Charger Pursuit rear-wheel-drive V-8 sedan. The rear-drive V-8 Charger Pursuit hit its top speed of 139 mph in under a mile, the shortest of any vehicle tested this year. Although not stated in this year’s preliminary results, last year’s Charger Pursuit also posted the best turning radius, which is often a major first part of responding to an emergency.The MSP also got their hands on a Ford Mach-E police prototype vehicle. According to the MSP, this police version has all-wheel drive and 480 horsepower, so it’s basically the Ford Mach-E GT with red and blue lights. It reached 60 mph in 4.0 seconds and hit 100 mph in 11.9 seconds. Ford says the street version should hit 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, but it’s safe to assume the police-going version’s slower acceleration is due to added equipment. It took more than two miles for it to reach its top speed of 124 mph. The more civilized 346-hp all-wheel-drive Mach-E 4 we tested did the 60-mph leap in 5.1 seconds.
The MSP told us that after 18 miles of lapping the Mach-E GT’s battery had dropped to 30 percent, which they said is a good start for electric vehicles. But today’s infrastructure still needs a boost in chargers and charging time for EVs to act as a complete replacement for patrol duty. The MSP also told us that many of their new Ford Explorer FPIUs are the 318-hp hybrid versions, which get the highest EPA-estimated city fuel economy among this year’s police vehicles tested at 24 mpg.

The Ford F-150 Police Responder pickup reached 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and 100 mph in 14.3 seconds. That’s still slower than the quickest pickups we’ve tested, including the last-gen F-150 with the high-output 450-hp twin-turbo V-6, but the trucks we test don’t have push bars on the front. Unlike the Explorer FPIU, the F-150 Responder has a 400-hp 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 with 500 pound-feet of torque. It reached its 120-mph top speed in a little over a half a mile. That’s a big improvement over the 370-hp F-150 Police Responder offered last year: that one had a lower top speed of 105 mph and took 6.6 seconds to reach 60 mph. The MSP also told us they expect more fully electric police vehicles next year, as more automakers continue to focus their efforts on a battery-powered future. A more in-depth look at the MSP’s testing data will become available later this month.
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Mitsubishi has shared official images of the 2023 Outlander plug-in hybrid.The hybrid version will join the standard model in the U.S. in the second half of 2022.We know it will offer all-wheel drive and a third row seat, but more details will be released October 28.The Mitsubishi Outlander looks quite different from the Nissan Rogue it’s based on, and the Mitsu will also differentiate itself from the Nissan by offering a plug-in-hybrid variant. Ahead of its arrival in the U.S. in the second half of next year, we can now see the 2023 Outlander PHEV inside and out thanks to these photos Mitsubishi has released ahead of the full debut October 28.The main styling cues unique to the hybrid are badges on the front fenders and a charging port on the rear fender. It’s identical inside, even including the third-row seat that was absent in the previous-generation Outlander PHEV. It’ll be available in ten colors including red, white, and black.

Mitsubishi

Full details on the Outlander’s powertrain will come in a few weeks, but we know that it will offer an all-wheel-drive system with two electric motors: one in the front and one in the rear. It should also offer more electric driving range than the outgoing model, which is EPA-rated to go 24 miles on a full charge.While it was the only plug-in-hybrid available in the U.S. for some time, the Outlander plug-in hybrid will face more competition this time around. Toyota now sells a RAV4 Prime and Ford offers a PHEV version of the Escape.
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