Motor News

Two new Hyundai recalls include models such as the 2013–2015 Santa Fe Sport and the 2019–2020 Elantra.The Santa Fe Sport recall is for a possible short within the anti-lock braking module that could cause an engine fire.The Elantra, Veloster, and Kona recall is for improperly treated piston rings, which could also cause an engine fire.Hyundai is adding more potentially affected vehicles to its list of models with increased risk of fires, with two new recalls that include the Santa Fe Sport, Elantra, Kona, and Veloster. The total number of vehicles potentially affected in the U.S. is 277,045.

The first recall is for the 2013–2015 Santa Fe Sport crossover, with 151,205 units potentially affected according to NHTSA. It is for a defect with the braking system that could cause break fluid to leak into the ABS module, possibly resulting in an electrical short. This could increase risk of an engine fire. Owners will be notified in June, at which point dealers will begin inspecting and replacing the ABS module if necessary.The second recall affects 125,840 total units including 2019–2020 Hyundai Elantra, 2019–2021 Kona, and 2019–2021 Veloster models equipped with a 2.0-liter inline-four engine. These engines may have improperly heat-treated piston oil rings, which could cause oil to leak onto hot exhaust components. Owners of affected vehicles will receive letters in June, and dealers will be prepared to replace the engine in certain cases.These latest recalls add to Hyundai and Kia’s recent woes, as the two Korean automakers have recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles for similar issues. Numerous Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia models have been recalled for similar potential brake-fluid and electrical-short issues. You can check the NHTSA recalls site to see if your vehicle is affected.

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The 2021 Ford Explorer is adding a rugged trim level called Timberline.It features a lifted suspension, all-terrain tires, and a few visual changes inside and out.The Timberline starts at $47,010 and comes standard with all-wheel drive.Ford already has many names meant to indicate a rugged attitude—Tremor, Raptor, Bronco, Badlands—and the 2021 Ford Explorer is adding another to that list with its new Timberline trim level. This model includes a few mechanical upgrades and an outdoorsy appearance, with standard all-wheel drive, a lifted suspension, and all-terrain tires, among other features.

Looks-wise, the Timberline has a different grille, red tow hooks, front and rear skid plates, and 18-inch wheels. It’s also offered in a new Forged Green color, pictured here. There’s a bit of extra off-road capability in play thanks to the 0.8-inch suspension lift, retuned springs, Bridgestone Dueler all-terrain tires, and a Torsen limited-slip rear differential. Ford says the Timberline has the same upgraded shocks as the Police Interceptor version of the Explorer, but with different tuning meant for off-road use.The interior features stone mesh dashboard trim, cloth inserts for the seats, and various Timberline logos that are shaped like a mountain range. Standard features include heated front seats and a heated steering wheel.
The Explorer Timberline is only offered with the SUV’s base engine, a turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four with 300 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque. A towing package comes standard and Ford claims a tow rating of 5300 pounds. Various outfitter packages will be available and include accessories such as rubber floor mats and roof-rack crossbars.With a starting price of $47,010, the Timberline fits in price-wise between all-wheel-drive versions of the XLT and Limited models within the Explorer lineup. It’ll reach dealerships in the U.S. this summer.
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In our highway fuel-economy testing, a Tesla Model S Long Range Plus went 320 miles at an average speed of 75 mph. This is the first EV that’s broken the 300-mile barrier in our range testing. The Long Range Plus model has the same 100.0-kWh battery pack as its predecessors, such as the Model S 100D, which went 270 miles in the same test. Tesla unlocked the extra range with a series of efficiency-minded modifications to the rest of the car.In the five years since we started conducting a 200-mile highway fuel-economy test, we’ve had the pleasure and inconvenience of running the test on a wide array of EVs. The test involves an out-and-back loop of a 100-mile stretch of interstate taken at a cruise-controlled 75 mph. Often, a highway fuel economy test of an EV involves a shortened loop and a lot of nail-biting on the part of whichever test driver has been assigned to the task. But when we recently got our hands on a Tesla Model S Long Range Plus, the scene was different. No shortened loop, no nerves. We had to lengthen the course instead, notching 320 miles at 75 mph, the best result of any EV yet.

The Model S Long Range Plus was a flash in the pan of Tesla’s lineup. Announced in June 2020 with an EPA-estimated 402 miles of range, it’s already off the menu as Tesla prepares for the launch of the Model S Long Range, Plaid, and Plaid Plus, which promise 412, 390, and more than 520 miles of range, respectively (not to mention claims of sub-two-second zero-to-60-mph times for the Plaids). But even if it’s destined to be quickly overshadowed by an even more impressive sibling, the lucky few who bought a Long Range Plus while it was available should take heart in knowing that, for now, they’re driving the only EV on the road that could actually beat certain gas cars in a range battle. The Model S Long Range Plus would tie in a range war with a Mustang Shelby GT500, which earned 20 mpg during our highway fuel-economy test and has a 16-gallon fuel tank. And that’s only if the driver of the GT500 could resist the siren call of the Predator V-8 and stick to a 75-mph cruise. At the 320-mile mark, the low fuel light would probably be on in a Jeep Renegade, which earned 29 mpg on our test but has a 360-mile range between fill-ups. The Model S Long Range Plus has a 100.0-kWh battery, the same capacity of its predecessors such as the 2018 Model S 100D, which had 335 miles of range according to the EPA methodology and went 270 miles in our highway range test. Tesla eked out 67 extra miles of EPA range by employing a number of efficiency measures, including shaving weight from the car’s interior, adding model-specific aerodynamic wheels and tires, and making tweaks to the electric motor. Those changes also helped us go 422.7 miles in a different Long Range Plus during a test in which we drove at 65 mph instead of the 75 mph we use for our highway fuel-economy test. We’re eager to get our hands on a Model S Plaid Plus, as it claims nearly 30 percent more range, but the launch of that trim has been delayed until the middle of next year, so the Long Range Plus should hold our EV highway range crown for a while.
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The Torsus Praetorian is an off-road bus that can hold up to 35 people.It uses a heavy-duty MAN truck chassis and a six-cylinder diesel engine.Prices range from the equivalent of $185,000 and go up to around $445,000.What vehicle would be best suited for the apocalypse? The typical answers tend to feature rugged trucks or SUVs. But what if you need to move more people?This could be the bus for the end times. Built in Slovakia, the Torsus Praetorian is able to carry up to 35 occupants further into the wilderness than almost anything else thanks to its combination of a bus body with the underpinnings of an off-road truck. Using a heavy-duty MAN chassis, four-wheel drive, and a six-cylinder diesel engine, Torsus claims it can climb a 33 degree incline and wade through water up to three feet in depth.

Torsus

Designed to haul personnel through the world’s toughest environments, the Praetorian uses a 6.9-liter MAN D08 turbodiesel engine which makes 286 horsepower and 849 pound-feet of torque and a nine-speed ZF automatic transmission. It can operate in rear-drive mode, or the front axle can be engaged. There is also a front differential lock, although selecting this restricts the front wheels’ steering angle. Torsus claims a 32 degree approach angle, 26 degree departure angle, and minimum ground clearance of 13.4 inches beneath the axles. Fully laden, the Praetorian’s maximum possible weight is a substantial 29,550 pounds—and it also has a standard 62-mph speed limiter. Given the forces involved, that’s probably sensible.Torsus is particularly proud of the Praetorian’s air conditioning system, which has been extensively tested in environments as hot as Australia’s Great Sandy desert. The company says it can reduce the temperature in the cabin from 140 Fahrenheit to 85 Fahrenheit in just three minutes, and down to 68 Fahrenheit in under 15 minutes—all while carrying a full load of 35 occupants. The system can also provide addition cooling to the engine in extreme situations, like trying to climb sand dunes. A similarly powerful heating system and the bus’s insulation are designed for Arctic conditions.

Torsus

The Torsus Praetorian has been on sale since 2018, but new innovations for 2021 include LED lighting, a power-operated door that incorporates pneumatic footsteps, and an automatic fire suppressant system for the 79 gallon fuel tank and underhood area. While designed primarily for industrial and military use, the Praetorian is available in various configurations, from bus to what the Torsus refers at as a “Command Center.” There’s even the chance for adventurous millionaires to buy overland camping versions, or alternatively to commission their own build based on the stripped-out entry level version. Prices start at the equivalent of $185,000 for the bare-bones version and rise to $445,000 for the top-spec Expedition. Sadly, the Praetorian isn’t federalized for sale in the U.S.
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Bring a Trailer is running an auction for the last Plymouth vehicle ever built, a 2001 Neon LX that rolled off the line in June 2001.The Neon in question is a single-owner car with 68 miles showing on the digital odometer.There’s no reserve, but as of Monday evening, the bidding stood at $10,250. The auction ends on May 10 at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. We’ll update this story with the final selling price.If you’ve got several thousand dollars and a particular taste for pristine examples of objectively boring cars, have we got a car for you. Bring a Trailer (with which Car and Driver shares a parent company) is running an auction for the last Plymouth car ever built, a 2001 Neon. Hagerty reports that the car was custom ordered by Darrell Davis, who was then senior vice-president of parts and service for DaimlerChrysler. The car’s digital odometer has only recorded 68 miles of travel, and it’s currently based in Florida, safe from the salty winters of its Midwestern birthplace.

The Neon is in the LX trim. It has a silver exterior and a black leather interior, and it’s packed with options including wood-grain trim, a sunroof, and an in-dash CD changer. It has front-wheel drive and a five-speed manual transmission, and it’s powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine.

Bring a Trailer

Davis drove the car off the Belvidere, Illinois, assembly line himself and has saved every conceivable piece of memorabilia for the next owner. That person will take delivery of a banner displayed above the car as it came off the line, a never-installed radio antenna, the original window sticker, and assorted other paperwork and miscellaneous items. The car is stored in a climate-controlled garage, but there’s some corrosion visible on the muffler in the pictures provided to Bring a Trailer.

Bring a Trailer

The 2001 Neon was the second model year of the car’s second generation, and it was also sold as a Dodge in the United States and a Chrysler in other markets. After Plymouth folded on June 29, 2001 (the day after this car was built), Dodge continued building the cars and selling them in the U.S. until 2006.The Neon cost $18,210 when new. That works out to $27,250 in 2021 money. There’s no reserve on the auction, and at press time on the evening of Monday, May 3, the bidding stood at $10,000 after having risen quickly in the afternoon. The auction is scheduled to end on Monday, May 10 at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. Davis, who says he has owned 160 cars in his life and is now selling the Neon in an attempt to shrink his fleet, is hoping the car will go to someone who can appreciate its place in automotive history.
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Ford and BMW have invested in Colorado-based solid-state battery startup Solid Power.Solid-state batteries are promised to offer greater energy density than the lithium-ion batteries that are currently used in electric vehicles.The upcoming EVs with the new batteries will arrive by 2030. Ford and BMW are investing $130 million in solid-state battery startup Solid Power in a push to reduce the cost and increase the range of their future electric vehicles. Ford initially contributed to an earlier investment round in 2019, and both automakers have joint agreements to use the technology in upcoming electric vehicles that will arrive by 2030. Solid-state batteries, which are not yet being used in mass-market cars, promise to offer greater energy density compared to the lithium-ion batteries typically used in today’s electric vehicles. Solid Power uses sulfide-based cells and promises that its solid electrolyte is not flammable, and it says they deliver more than 50 percent more energy density. The startup produces them using a manufacturing infrastructure similar to that used for lithium-ion battery production.

A BloombergNEF (New Energy Finance) report from December 2020 said that the production costs of manufacturing solid-state batteries could be 40 percent that of current lithium-ion batteries when they reach full-scale production. However, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer told CNBC that its investment in solid-state batteries is currently “significantly smaller” than for lithium-ion.Solid Power will begin production of the automotive batteries early next year, according to Doug Campbell, CEO and co-founder of Solid Power. They’ll be used for the testing and development of upcoming Ford and BMW vehicles starting then, too. Ford announced last week that it’s opening a $185 million lab called “Ford Ion Park” next year to develop new processes for producing these solid-state battery packs in house. Ford just launched the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover, of which it has sold 6614 so far this year, and the electric F-150 Lightning will arrive next year. BMW currently has the electric i3 on sale in the U.S. and the i4 sedan and iX crossover will arrive soon. It says that its new generation of electric vehicles will launch in the middle of the decade. A prototype car with the technology will be on the road by 2025, BMW says.
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We have some great news for French car enthusiasts in our nation’s capital. Free2Move, a ride-sharing and rental service, may soon be offering the Citroën Ami, a tiny electric two-seat hatchback sold in Europe, to customers in the Washington, D.C., area.

Free2Move has published a teaser on LinkedIn showing a silhouette of the Ami along with the phrase “From France with Love,” along with the caption, “Something big is coming to Washington, D.C.,” suggesting it plans to introduce the Ami into its lineup of available shared cars sometime soon. Sounds promising.
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The Ami is already in use by Free2Move on the other side of the pond and, as you can probably already tell, barely qualifies as a car. According to Carscoops, it’s technically considered a quadricycle in Europe, being shorter and narrower than even a Smart Fortwo. Thanks to a 5.5-kWh battery pack mounted in the floor, it’s able to reach a top speed of 28 mph, with a range of up to 44 miles. There’s no word yet on when exactly the Ami might be available to drive in D.C., or how much it’ll cost to rent. Considering the car can be purchased for as low as around $7250 in Europe, we suspect it won’t be too pricey.

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Williams Advanced Engineering is using its EVX modular electric vehicle platform with Italdesign’s well-known vehicle design capabilities. The firms say they are offering a “complete upper-premium EV production solution for electric sports GTs, crossovers, and sedans.”Thanks to the composite structural battery, EVX provides the platform to deliver vehicles with class-leading light weight and chassis stiffness, Williams says.Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) and Italdesign are cooperating on a modular platform for building a wide variety of high-end electric cars. WAE was formed in 2010 from the Williams Formula 1 team, while the Italdesign design studio has been part of the VW Group since 2010. The companies say the platform can be used as a basis for creating sports cars, crossovers, and sedans, and it’s being offered to both new EV entrants and OEMs.

The convertible platform.
WAE

The core of the joint offer is Williams’s EVX electric-car platform with a structural battery. Williams says the EVX platform allows EVs to be industrialized quickly, emphasizing “performance, flexibility, and business cases for small- to medium-volume production.

“The platform is made from recycled composite materials and aluminum,” Williams says, “making EVX lightweight and setting new standards for static and torsional stiffness.” EVX can accommodate wheelbases from 114 inches to 122 inches and both rear- and all-wheel-drive layouts. Customers will be able to choose the vehicle design and the powertrain. WAE says a version of its modular battery system was developed for Formula E, and it can enable either a power output up to 1000 kW or a 620-mile range. In addition to Formula E, WAE supplies batteries for the Extreme E off-road racing series and a new European-based electric touring car series called the Electric Touring Car Racing series, or ETCR. Williams says the platform is designed for battery sizes between 104.0 and 120.0 kWh.

WAE supplies batteries to Extreme E series.
@kubajszcom

Williams says its structural battery is new and explains it this way: “Front and rear chassis structures mount to the carbon-composite case, and crash loads can be transferred via internal reinforcements to the integral side sills,” Williams says. “The resulting higher-profiled cross-section achieves much of the torsional stiffness needed to deliver the full potential of the platform.” So, the company says, there is less reliance on the “upper structure,” potentially offering more freedom in vehicle design.

The SUV concept has a Maserati-ish front end.
WAE

WAE says the modular platform is “ready for customization by the Italdesign styling team, who will shape the final vehicle to match the brand’s requirements in terms of marketing positioning, design direction, etc.”

WAE says it can do a sedan, too.
WAE

“Demand for high-performance electric vehicles is continuing to show considerable growth but to date, there has not been a complete EV production solution,” says WAE tech director Paul McNamara. “This unique relationship brings together state-of-the-art EV rolling chassis technology with one of the world’s leaders in vehicle body engineering.”Italdesign chief technical officer Antonion Casu said the idea is to offer cars in the “GT, sedan, crossover, and convertible markets, fully customizable inside and outside. We are targeting business cases that will cover different production volumes from an Ultra Limited Series up to 10,000 units a year, 500 of which can be built by Italdesign at our facilities in Turin.”

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