Motor News

The Detroit News is reporting, citing unnamed sources, that President Joe Biden will be coming to Detroit to tour Ford’s electric-vehicle facility at the Rouge Complex next week.While there, he’s reportedly getting an advance look at the Ford F-150 Lightning, the automaker’s electric pickup, at least a day before its official reveal on Wednesday, May 19. The president has been forthright in his support for electric vehicles and has called for $174 billion in spending on EV development and infrastructure.UPDATE 5/11/21, 1:30 p.m.: Ford issued a statement via Twitter confirming the Biden visit and adding, “We’re honored to host President Biden at Ford Motor Company and excited to preview for him the new F-150 Lightning and the exciting technologies that made it possible.”Ford has been talking about its electric version of the F-150 pickup for years now, and with the big debut finally coming on May 19, the automaker has festivities planned—even installing a giant projector screen on the side of its World Headquarters building in Dearborn, Michigan. But first, the automaker will reportedly welcome President Biden to Michigan, where he’ll get a sneak peek at the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning ahead of the official unveiling.

The Detroit News reported, citing unnamed sources, that Biden is expected at Ford on Tuesday, May 18, and will be given a tour of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where the Lightning will be built. He’s also expected to get an early look at the pickup and talk to Ford engineers about its development. The News reports he will speak publicly during the visit. (Biden is pictured above visiting the Ford booth at the 2017 Detroit auto show.)Biden’s American Jobs Plan includes $174 billion earmarked for electric vehicles including charging-station infrastructure, with the intention to “create good jobs electrifying vehicles.” A White House fact sheet on the proposal calls the $174 billion an “investment to win the EV market” against foreign competitors.
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After the Colonial Pipeline oil company was hit by hackers Friday, shutting down a massive pipeline that supplies the U.S. East Coast, demand has spiked 20 to 40 percent in anticipation of shortages in the East and now the South.The DOT has issued an emergency declaration for 17 states and D.C., which Colonial Pipeline said will help alleviate the disruptions. The EPA has also issued a fuel waiver of some requirements to allow gasoline to be distributed more freely in affected regions.The FBI said it thinks a gang based in Russia or Eastern Europe launched the attack but did not say the Russian government is involved. If you’re reading this on the East Coast and still drive a gasoline-powered car, you have probably already figured out that there’s a problem with the supply of gasoline. The biggest fuel pipeline in the U.S., around 5500 miles long, was shut down Friday after hackers targeted it, pausing the flow of almost half of the East Coast’s fuel supply. CNN reported that demand for gasoline was up 20 percent in the U.S., and 40 percent in some southern states, on Monday compared with the previous week. The pipeline normally carries around three million barrels of fuel a day, and it might take until the end of this week for things to flow as normal.

That’s the latest from Colonial Pipeline, the company that was hit by the hack last week. According to reports, the systems were not hacked to try and cause an oil spill or other direct damage, but instead to make money through a ransomware attack. Colonial Pipeline’s online data has been held hostage by unknown actors until the company agrees to pay up or finds another way to get its system back online. The company is trying to do just that. Colonial Pipeline’s website is down—which the company said was unrelated to the ransomware attack—but in a statement posted to Reddit, the company said it “continues to dedicate vast resources to restoring pipeline operations quickly and safely.” Some portions of the pipeline system were taken offline in response to the cybersecurity attack, the company said, and workers are now evaluating if these can be brought back online safely. Colonial Pipeline is owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Koch Industries, as well as foreign and domestic investment firms, the New York Times reported.Bloomberg said a portion of the pipeline from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Baltimore was reopened for a limited time Monday. That allowed some East Coast markets to be reconnected to a “key supply hub.” Colonial said its plan is to have its entire network “substantially back in service” by the weekend, Bloomberg said. While some gas stations in the South and East Coast have run out of fuel, the price of gas nationwide has not been affected. In the meantime, state and federal governments are taking action. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a Regional Emergency Declaration for 17 Eastern and Southern states and Washington, DC. that temporarily relaxes restrictions on how long drivers can work in a shift. Colonial Pipeline said this change “should help alleviate local supply disruptions and we thank our government partners for their assistance in resolving this matter.” In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp temporarily suspended that state’s gas tax, so drivers can pay less for gas, if they can find it. Reuters reported that the FBI has said it believes DarkSide, a criminal gang possibly located in Russia or Eastern Europe, is behind the ransomware attack, but the U.S. government has not publicly accused the Russian government of anything related to this hack. The Russian embassy in the U.S. denied Moscow had anything to do with the attack.
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The list of around 200 available accessories for the 2021 Ford Bronco is now live on Ford’s website. Some of the accessories include rock rails, fender flares, seat covers, roof racks, and other off-road equipment. The 2021 Bronco is available in two- and four-door models with either a hard or soft top. When Ford first announced the return of the Bronco last summer, it promised that there would be more than 200 accessories available to customize the off-road SUV. Now you can see all of them, with the full list of accessories and prices available here. Ford offers everything from trail armor to pet harnesses, plus stuff you need to build the new Bronco into a capable overlanding rig.

Ford

Bolts with the Bronco logo indicate where certain accessories can be added on the off-roader. There are rock rails (for both two- and four-door models) for $595, trail armor for the front and rear corners as well as the rocker panels, a cool hood scoop for $449, various styles of fender flares, a Bronco R-themed car cover ($969 to $979), a few spare tire covers with different Bronco logos ($80), and custom exterior graphics.

Ford

And there are tons of upgrades available to transform the Bronco into an overlanding rig including drawer systems ($670.43), a folding table for the swing gate ($209), a 19-quart portable fridge and freezer ($759), off-road recovery kits from Warn ($149 to $329), tons of roof racks and accessories from brands like Thule and Yakima, and rooftop tents from TEPUI and Yakima. Of course, customers can also equip the Sasquatch package from the factory, which adds things like 35-inch tires and heavy-duty Bilstein shock absorbers.

Ford is offering plenty of interior accessories, too. There are all kinds of floor mats (the Bronco has available plugs in the floors to rinse them out), Carhartt seat covers ($299–$319), console vaults, and storage bags for the removable doors and roof panels (you can see how to remove the Bronco’s doors, roof, and fenders here). The 2021 Ford Bronco is available in two- and four-door models with hard and soft tops, just like its chief rival the Jeep Wrangler. Trucks that were preordered will arrive this summer, while others will likely have to wait until next year. Pricing starts at $29,995 for the base model.
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Subaru has announced a name for its new EV crossover: Solterra.It uses a new platform that is shared with the Toyota bZ4X and it has standard all-wheel drive.The Solterra will arrive in the U.S. in 2022.Subaru will soon be joining the EV crossover craze with a new model that we now know will be called Solterra. Combining the Latin words for “sun” and earth,” this new moniker is meant to emphasize the car’s environmentally friendly milieu. The Solterra will go on sale in the U.S. in 2022 and newly released teaser photos give us an idea of its overall shape and a few details.

The 2023 Subaru Solterra shares its platform with the recently revealed Toyota bZ4X as part of a joint venture between the two automakers. Its headlights look similar to the Toyota’s, and the Subaru version will likely be the same size as the Toyota, which fits into the compact-crossover segment alongside models such as the RAV4 and Forester.

Subaru

The only details we have about the powertrain so far is that the Solterra will have standard all-wheel drive. That likely means it will have front and rear electric motors. Battery capacity is also unknown but we figure it will need an estimated driving range of at least 250 miles to be competitive with other models in this segment such as the VW ID.4 and Ford Mustang Mach-E.Subaru has not yet announced a reveal date for the Solterra, but we expect to see it before the end of 2021 before it goes on sale next year.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a preliminary report in its investigation into the fatal crash of a Tesla Model S in April near Houston.The report states that when the car started, security video shows the owner in the driver’s seat, contradicting reports at the time of the April 17 accident that the seat was empty when the car crashed. The NTSB also tested a similar Model S on the same road and found Autopilot could not have been in effect at that place. The government group said that the Autopilot technology onboard needed both Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer to be engaged in order to operate, and it was not possible to engage Autosteer in NTSB’s tests on the road where the crash occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report today in its investigation into the crash of a 2019 Tesla Model S near Houston, Texas, on April 17. Two noteworthy statements stood out in the report. First is that the car’s owner was seated in the driver’s seat, with his companion in the front passenger seat, which contradicts reports at the time that the wrecked car had one person in the front passenger seat and the other in the back seat, with no one behind the wheel. Second is that, although the Model S had Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assist technology equipped, it could not have been in effect at the time of the crash because it couldn’t be enabled in that location. This would seem to vindicate Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who insisted that Autopilot couldn’t have been in operation in the crash.

The accident involved a 59-year-old man who was taking a 69-year-old passenger for a ride in his Model S P100D EV. They started on a cul-de-sac and proceeded onto a two-lane concrete road in a residential neighborhood of Spring, Texas. The NTSB report describes it as “a concrete two-lane road with one westbound and one eastbound lane and mountable concrete curbs on either side,” and said it has no lane markings and is level, with a curve to the south, at the place where the Tesla crashed. The speed limit there is 30 mph, the agency said. The Tesla owner’s home security camera showed that he got into the car in the driver’s seat, while his companion got in the front passenger seat. From his home, the car traveled “about 550 feet” before going off the road at the curve and over the curb, NTSB said, then it hit a drainage culvert, a raised manhole, and finally a tree, where it caught fire.The report said the car’s lithium-ion battery case was damaged, and in the ensuing fire the infotainment system’s onboard storage device was destroyed. However, the “restraint control module,” which stores data such as whether seatbelts were in use, how fast the vehicle was going, acceleration information, and airbag deployment, although damaged by fire was recovered and turned over to the NTSB’s laboratory to evaluate.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk insisted that Autopilot would not have been able to work on the road where the crash occurred because it had no line markings. The report seems to bear this out, stating that two other driver-assist features, Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer, must both be engaged for Autopilot to work. In a reconstruction using a similar Tesla, the agency found that Autosteer was not usable on that part of the road, meaning the Autopilot system couldn’t have worked. The NTSB investigation will continue, working alongside NHTSA and Tesla. They will be looking into such issues as as seatbelt use, crash dynamics, and “occupant egress”—which should let the agency conclude whether the driver was actually in the front or back of the car at time of impact—among other data such as postmortem toxicology test results. The NTSB investigates some 2500 accidents per year, with about 2000 related to aviation and the rest divided among rail, highway, marine and pipeline accidents. The agency said it has not yet decided on the probable cause of the accident but plans to issue “safety recommendations to prevent future crashes” once it does. Meanwhile, the local Texas Precinct 4 Constable’s Office is also investigating on its own.

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Ford has announced that its upcoming electric pickup will be called the F-150 Lightning. It will be unveiled on Ford’s social media channels on Wednesday, May 19, at 9:30 p.m. ET. The Ford F-150 Lightning will go on sale in the middle of next year. Ford announced that its upcoming electric pickup will be called the F-150 Lightning, as we first reported at the end of last month. The electric F-150 will be fully unveiled next week on Wednesday, May 19 at 9:30 p.m. ET on Ford’s YouTube channel, and it will go on sale in mid-2022.

Ford

Ford CEO Jim Farley says that the F-150 Lightning will be able to power homes (similar to the Hummer EV SUV), accelerate quicker than the supercharged V-8–powered F-150 Lightnings of old, and improve with over-the-air updates. It will have a dual-motor setup providing all-wheel drive, and its battery pack should provide more than 300 miles of range given that the longest-range Mustang Mach-E is EPA-rated at 305 miles of driving range.

The F-150 Lightning should be similar in size and shape to the gas-powered trucks. It will have an illuminated light bar that stretches across the top of the grille and a new “Lightning” logo that will adorn the truck’s bedside panel. The interior should have plenty of screen real estate since the new F-150 debuted a large 12.0-inch screen and digital gauge cluster.

Ford

The new Ford F-150 Lightning will arrive in mid-2022 to compete against other upcoming electric pickups such as the GMC Hummer EV pickup, the electric Chevy Silverado, and the Tesla Cybertruck. Its batteries will be produced alongside it at a new electric vehicle facility at Ford’s Rouge Center in Dearborn, Michigan.
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Ford has announced official power figures for the 2021 Bronco, as spotted by the Bronco6G forum.Ford now says that the 2.3L engine makes 300 hp and 325 pound-feet of torque, and that the 2.7L engine makes 330 hp and 415 pound-feet of torque.Those are increases of 30 horsepower for the four-cylinder and 20 hp for the V-6 over the original estimates.The 2021 Ford Bronco will be more powerful than Ford’s initial estimates claimed. A new spec sheet reports official SAE-certified horsepower and torque figures that are higher by 20–30 horsepower and 5–15 pound-feet depending on engine.

The base turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four, initially estimated to have 270 hp and 310 pound-feet, is rated at 300 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. The optional twin-turbo 2.7-liter V-6, which had initial estimates of 310 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque, is rated at 330 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque. The four-cylinder Bronco offers the choice of either a seven-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic transmission, while the V-6 model comes only with the automatic.These numbers apply when running on premium fuel. Ford also provides slightly reduced SAE numbers that apply for when the Bronco is running on 87 octane regular fuel: 275 hp and 315 pound-feet for the 2.3L and 315 hp and 410 pound-feet for the 2.7L.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the 2013–2015 Honda Accord over reports of loss of steering control.Reuters reported today that NHTSA will carry out an engineering analysis after 107 complaints and two reports of injuries. The initial petition, from October 2020, said an Accord owner experienced deviation from the intended path of travel without warning or driver input.The investigation will cover more than 1.1 million Accord cars and could lead to a recall.The 2013–2015 Honda Accord is being investigated after 107 reports of loss of steering control during driving under normal conditions. The probe, which covers 1,120,470 Accord cars in the U.S., could culminate in a recall if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) decides it is warranted.NHTSA officially opened the investigation on May 6 based on an October 2020 petition from the owner of a 2013 Accord. This petition states that the driver lost steering control and the car deviated from its intended path of travel during normal driving and without warning. The owner describes it as a situation where “my vehicle repeatedly turned 90 degrees of its own volition,” which they said “was replicated by Honda dealership mechanics.”NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation will now open an engineering analysis to “assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety-related consequences” of the problem. We will update this story as more information becomes available. In the meantime, owners can check the NHTSA recalls site for more information.

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