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    Geely to Partner with Chinese Tech Company Baidu to Build Smart Electric Vehicles

    Automaker Geely and tech company Baidu have entered into a partnership to start a new company to build connected, autonomous electric vehicles.
    The vehicles will be based on Geely’s electric Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) with Baidu technology onboard and will offer a maximum of about 435 miles of range.
    The partnership will result in a new company although its name is unknown and there’s no word on when the first vehicle will be announced.
    Automaker Geely is expanding beyond building its own vehicles and expanding into partnerships with companies looking to get into EVs. Geely has announced that it’s partnering with Chinese tech giant Baidu to build vehicles. Baidu has been called the Google of China. Geely said in a statement that “The strategic partnership will focus primarily on the joint research and development and production of intelligent and connected electric vehicles.”

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    The partnership brings together the strengths of the two companies, with Geely bringing its new open-source electric Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) and Baidu contributing its driver-assistance technology, including the Apollo self-driving system that it showed off in September 2020. Geely states that its platform will have single, double, and triple motor availability, have a maximum range of over 435 miles, and go from zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds.The collaboration will result in a new company, although the name has yet to be announced. At its core, Geely will build the upcoming electric vehicles, which will use Baidu’s driver-assistance features. “As a top Chinese automaker with global reach, Geely has the unique experience and resources to design, produce and market energy-efficient, reliable, and safe automobiles in large scale,” Baidu CEO Robin Li said in a statement. “We believe that by combining Baidu’s expertise in smart transportation, connected vehicles and autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise as a leading automobile and EV manufacturer, the new partnership will pave the way for future passenger vehicles.”
    Geely has its own brand of EVs and is also the parent company of several automakers, including Volvo, which is moving toward electrification and is the majority stockholder of Lotus.We’ve reached out to Baidu and Geely about when we’ll see the first vehicle from the partnership and if they plan to sell the vehicles outside of China and will update this article if they share that information.
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    China’s Nio Unveils ET7 Sedan with Lidar, 600+ Miles of Range

    Chinese EV maker Nio unveiled its first sedan, the ET7, expanding its lineup to four vehicles.
    The ET7 offers buyers several battery and charging options, including 70.0 and 100.0-kWh batteries and a forthcoming 150.0-kWh battery. Drivers can also opt into Nio’s battery swapping service.
    The ET7 also offers Nio’s latest autonomous technology and features a lidar system. It isn’t yet clear what Nio’s autonomous system is capable of.
    Nio, a China-based electric-vehicle maker, unveiled its fourth production vehicle and first sedan, the ET7, over the weekend at an event it called Nio Day. The company has made a name for itself in its home market through impressive technology, and the ET7, which the company claims will offer a solid-state 150.0-kWh battery by 2022, follows suit.

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    The ET7’s standard 70.0-kWh battery offers a range of more than 310 miles, according to Nio. A 100.0-kWh battery with up to 435 miles of range is also offered; a solid-state battery, which won’t become available in China until next year, will give drivers a range of more than 620 miles. The largest battery in the ET7 would easily best the longest-range battery Tesla offers, which comes on the Model S and rings in at 402 EPA-rated miles.
    Way back in 2018, Nio discussed plans to eventually enter the U.S. market with a possible electric crossover. But the company has not provided any details or an estimated timeline for when that might happen.
    Starting at around $69,000 for the 70.0-kWh option, the ET7 and the Model S will battle for the same buyers. That said, the price drops to around $58,000 if the buyer opts for Nio’s Battery as a Service (BaaS) subscription, which allows drivers to swap their batteries at Nio Power Swap stations in China for a fee of around $150 a month. The Power Swap stations are Nio’s answer to the time-consuming process of charging an electric vehicle. The ET7 features motors at front and rear with a combined output of 643 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. The sedan is claimed to accelerate to 62 mph in a swift 3.9 seconds.

    Nio

    The Nio ET7 is a luxury sedan with a simple yet attractive design. The look is sleek and clean with sharp in front accentuated by the narrow headlights. The gentle slope of the roofline meets a slim taillight that runs the width of the vehicle.
    Inside, the ET7 features a 12.8-inch infotainment screen and a digital gauge cluster, and it drops the air-vent design seen in Nio’s other vehicles to adopt a look more akin to that of the Tesla Model 3. Buttons are few and far between, and the steering wheel has a two-spoke design like that in new Genesis vehicles.
    Nio claims the ET7 is an autonomous vehicle, but it’s unclear what the advanced driver-assist system in the ET7 is capable of in terms of driver intervention and monitoring. We know that the system does have 11 8-megapixel cameras and what Nio calls “ultra-long-range high-resolution lidar,” along with five radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors, among other technologies.

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    How a 215,000-Mile Legacy Went from Craigslist to Subaru's Vintage Collection

    The Rad Report via Subaru

    This pristine 1990 Subaru Legacy was posted on Craigslist and spotted by Jalopnik.
    It has 215,000 miles but looks like it’s in fantastic condition.
    Subaru of America ended up buying it for its vintage collection.
    We all love to browse used-car listings on the internet for no good reason. But every so often, a true diamond in the rough appears. Consider the heartwarming story of this 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon posted on San Francisco Craigslist that has now been purchased by none other than Subaru of America for the company’s own historic collection.

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    We can see why the car caught the attention of someone at Subaru HQ. Although it has 215,000 miles on the odometer, the stick-shift Legacy longroof looks as if it just rolled off the showroom floor. The car’s remarkable condition and storied history are well documented in the extensive and detailed Craigslist ad penned by the car’s owner, Aaron, who runs a page called Rad Report that focuses on—you guessed it—Craigslist ads featuring stick-shift cars from the ’80s and ’90s.
    The Legacy will now make its way to Subaru’s vintage collection in New Jersey, where it will live out the rest of its days in a climate-controlled garage. According to Aaron, it will be trotted out for various car shows and events, so if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll spot the legendary Legacy at a future instance of the ’80s and ’90s–themed Radwood car show.

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    Honda's Adorably Rugged Fit to Appear at Virtual Tokyo Auto Salon

    Nobody can actually visit the Tokyo Auto Salon this week, thanks to COVID-19, but if you check out the Honda booth online starting on January 15, you’ll see two concepts that expand the limits of a small car.
    A modified Honda Fit called the e:HEV Crosstar Custom gets the little hatchback ready for more time in the outdoors with a slightly raised suspension and all-terrain tires, along with a rougher—but still cute—look.
    The N-Van Custom, a.k.a. the “3rd Place Van,” is ready to tackle urban duties like operating as a food truck or a “third place” for adventures that’s not work nor home.
    Good things come in small sizes. Especially when they’re modified Japan-domestic-market Hondas that have been transformed from basic transportation options to quirky multi-use vehicles. We’ll take one of each, thank you.

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    Up first is the black-and-tan Fit e:HEV Crosstar Custom, an adapted hatchback based on the Fit e:HEV Crosstar. Honda has discontinued the Fit in the U.S., but even before it canceled the car here, we were not getting the hybrid version. The Crosstar is a CUV-ish trim level for the regular hybrid Fit, and for this Custom version, the show team raised the Fit’s suspension a bit, threw on a rugged Yakima roof rack, and added Toyo All-Terrain Open Country tires on black steel wheels to emphasize the fact that even small cars sometimes deserve to drive off the beaten path.

    Honda

    When you’re back in the city and feeling peckish, head on over to the other customized Honda, a food truck version of the N-Van. The metallic silver N-Van Custom, called the “3rd Place Van,” is meant to adapt to whatever boxy functions users might need. With a large roof rack on top and a string of inviting lights out back, its main work use is as a café, selling food out of the side door that’s covered by a red and white awning. Then, when it’s time to play, it can be used (if our translation is accurate) as a place to rest—a “third place” to be away from both work and home.
    We expect to get more details on both of these cars once the Tokyo Auto Salon opens, virtually, on Friday, January 15. During the event, Honda will also make an announcement regarding participation in four-wheel motorsports in 2021. For its virtual visitors with a need for speed, the company will showcase some of the vehicles that raced for the brand during 2020. The list includes the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing RB16 and Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda AT01, both of which raced in the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship’ the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IR-12 from the 2020 IndyCar Series; and the Team Kunimitsu Raybrig NSX-GT from the 2020 SUPER GT Series GT500 Class.
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    Report: GM to Build Honda and Acura a Pair of Electric Crossovers

    Automotive News reports that GM will build Honda EVs in Mexico and Tennessee.
    The two vehicles will be crossovers for the Honda and Acura brands and will be about the same size as the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq.
    Honda and GM entered into a partnership earlier this year to use GM’s Ultium battery platform in Honda vehicles.
    It looks like the Honda partnership with GM to use the Ultium battery platform, which we told you about last spring, is already bearing electrified fruit. According to a report from Automotive News, GM plans on building two electric crossovers—one a Honda, one an Acura—at two different plants, with release dates in 2023 and 2024.

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    For the Honda brand, a crossover will be built at GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant where General Motors currently builds the Equinox and Blazer. There have been reports that the factory would be transformed for EV production, but GM has yet to confirm that. The Honda is slated to go into production in 2023.
    On the Acura side, a second crossover is slated to start production in 2024 at the Spring Hill, Tennessee, facility alongside the upcoming 2023 Cadillac Lyriq. The vehicle is reportedly about the same size as the Lyriq. The Cadillac SUV is slated to go on sale in 2022.

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    This report lines up with official news out of Honda and GM that the two automakers would team up to build two electric vehicles and the first would go on sale in 2024. In both of these instances, it’s likely that, as noted by Honda back when the partnership was announced, Honda will design the vehicles and the Ultium battery platform powering them will be engineered to support Honda’s driving character.
    GM for its part, has recently accelerated its transition to electric vehicles and plans to have 30 EVs on the road by 2025 as it invests $27 billion in electrification and self-driving technologies. The automaker’s Ultium platform will support battery pack capacities up to 200.0 kWh and ranges up to about 400 miles.

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