Motor News

To simulate intense crashes with modern cars, Volvo decided a standard laboratory test was not powerful enough. The solution? Gravity.
Volvo thus dropped 10 new cars (sad!) from a crane over an impact site that was ready with video cameras and a bunch of Swedish first responders, who then tried to access the passenger cabins with the Jaws of Life.
Lessons learned will be made available to first responders around the world.

If nothing else, Volvo knows how to get our attention when it comes to safety issues. The latest example is a series of crash tests involving 10 new Volvo vehicles. But, unlike controlled laboratory tests with high-speed cameras and dummies, these tests involved a crane—and cameras, because who doesn’t want to see what happens when cars are dropped from 30 meters (98 feet) in the air?

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Volvo didn’t just drop these vehicles to rack up millions of video views. Instead, the tests were done in partnership with first responders in Sweden to learn better how to extract people from a totally damaged vehicle in the shortest possible time. Volvo said dropping the vehicles allowed the engineers to re-create the “most extreme crashes, beyond what can be simulated with ordinary crash testing.”

Volvo

Despite the vertical aspect, Volvo said the drops are a good way to understand how vehicles crumble in “single-car accidents at very high speed, accidents whereby a car hits a truck at high speed, or accidents whereby a car takes a severe hit from the side.”
Volvo smashed up modern cars because, it said, first responders who test their tools on cars in junkyards might not be learning best practices. Even though in the U.S. the average age of a car on the road is 12 years, old models aren’t totally representative of the vehicles that may be involved in today’s crashes. In other words, first responders need to understand the difference between how a 2005 Honda Civic, say, and a 2020 Volvo XC40 respond to the jaw of life.
In the extreme situations the falling tests were meant to simulate, vehicle occupants are likely to be in pretty rough shape, and not wasting any time on figuring out how to best open the deformed metal can provide more minutes in the “golden hour,” that short window of time first responders know they have to get people from an accident site to the hospital.

Volvo

But back to the cars falling 100 feet through the air. Volvo says everything it has learned from these crashes and the tests the on-site first responders did with their tools will be put into a report that will be made free to access for other rescue workers, removing the need for others to drop cars from a crane. Until they come up with their own reasoning to do so, anyway.
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Joe Biden’s progressive campaign promises prove he’s bullish on the power of EVs to make a difference in the fight against climate change, but having the right attitude won’t make them just happen.
Giving the president-elect tailwinds are a slew of new electric vehicles (among them the GMC Hummer EV, above) due to go on sale during his first term, including a lot of pickup trucks that can shift the public image of EVs and a lot of EV production that is or will soon be happening in red states.
As usual, cheap gas and a Senate potentially still controlled by Republicans means any plans Biden has will be tempered to some degree.
The upcoming Biden Administration elicits unequal parts worry and excitement when it comes to electric vehicles and the future of the automobile industry. The excitement is there, in spades and with good reason, but there are worries from many corners as well.

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Excitement over electric vehicles flows from the president-elect himself, who promoted two distinct EV policies in his campaign climate plan. First, his Day One “unprecedented executive actions” include moving the federal government procurement system toward 100 percent “clean energy and zero-emissions vehicles” as well as making sure U.S. fuel-economy standards are set so they get “100 percent of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles [to] be electrified” alongside annual improvements for heavy-duty vehicles.
Second, Biden’s “Year One Legislative Agenda” is to include accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles by working with governors and mayors to deploy over 500,000 new public charging outlets by the end of 2030. The plan also calls for restoring the federal government’s electric-vehicle tax credit and targeting it toward middle-class consumers while prioritizing electric vehicles made in America when possible.

2021 Rivian R1T.
Rivian

That’s what the president-elect has said himself. Industry sources who spoke to Car and Driver on background said once Biden is inaugurated, he could use the presidential bully pulpit to signal to Americans that the future belongs to EVs. He could also stop the fight with California over fuel-economy standards and get back to promoting one national standard.

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It’s also the case that some of the names being suggested as members of a Biden cabinet are strong proponents of EVs, among them Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer. The tea leaves are still too weak to read with precision, but it’s something to keep an eye on as Biden gets ready to be sworn in in January.
There Are Going to Be Limits
Of course, any worries that the Biden Administration is about to run roughshod over an automobile industry that’s had such success working with the oil industry for over a century are simply unfounded. Our sources pointed to two large roadblocks, including likely Republican control of the Senate, which will limit how far Biden can push his plans, and low gas prices. A $2 gallon of gas makes the economics of going electric less appealing than $4 gallons, but even in an era of relatively cheap gas, there might be some reasons for Republicans to work with Biden on EVs.
Those reasons can be counted in four letters: jobs. Plug In America’s policy director, Katherine Stainken, pointed out to C/D that there is a relatively under-the-radar EV production boom happening in red states, citing the Cadillac Lyriq being built in Tennessee (where Volkswagen is expanding EV operations and Nissan has been building the Leaf for years), Tesla opening a plant in Texas to build the Cybertruck, SK Innovation’s $2.6 billion battery plant potentially coming to Georgia, and the Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio, along with Lucid and Nikola in Arizona.
“There’s a lot of new manufacturing happening around the United States for electric vehicles, and we hope that will resonate with some of the Republican senators,” she said.

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Center for Automotive Research president and CEO Carla Bailo wrote that despite the excitement around EVs, she sees a downside for existing internal-combustion engine and transmission plants that will need to be managed during the transition. “We have several years before internal-combustion engines will be obsolete, and we should begin to prepare the workforce and plant management accordingly,” she wrote. With Biden, she said, “We will have someone in the White House committed to the resurrection of the Paris accords and improved air quality for the U.S. There will remain good checks and balances due to the situation in the House and Senate to move pragmatically.”
Another source said senators who realize Biden has the power to put executive orders into place might be encouraged to find middle ground on some EV proposals to stop the administration from going too far left. Or not, if Republican Senate leader (for now, anyway) Mitch McConnell continues his drive to be seen as the “grim reaper” of progressive legislation.

Ford E-Transit and Mustang Mach-E. 
Ford

Ford F-150 Electric prototype.

Electric Trucks Could Change the Landscape
There’s another factor that might override the political concerns. Government incentives alone can’t force people to buy EVs and small numbers of people buying EVs won’t have the climate impact Biden is talking about. Everything needs to work together, and it just might be time for everything to come together in the shape of America’s iconic pickup truck.

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No all-electric trucks are available today from any major automakers, but there will be a fair number released during Biden’s first term. This new generation of trucks is likely to simply outperform a lot of the gas or diesel pickups available now. Most of them will have onboard power, allowing users to plug in tools at a worksite or offer electricity while remote camping. Rivian says its R1T pickup truck will go through three feet of standing water, for example, and Ford has hyped the towing capability of its upcoming electric F-150, famously pulling a million-plus-pound train in a promotional video. These sorts of features might be what it takes to give EVs the boost they need, politics be damned.
“There’s all this potential that we can’t even imagine right now when you’re driving a pickup in the middle of nowhere and you’re bringing power with you,” said Plug In America executive director Joel Levin. “Where will that lead? What kinds of creative things will people do?”
We’re about to find out.

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General Motors has announced a recall of 50,932 2017 through 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in the U.S.
The problem is the chance of a fire in the high-voltage battery pack, which could occur even when the vehicle is stopped, parked, and not plugged in to charge.
GM said owners should park the vehicles outside and away from houses until repairs can take place and, in the video below, explains what else owners can do.
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Chevrolet is recalling more than 50,000 of its Bolt EVs in the U.S. equipped with batteries manufactured by LG Chem in South Korea. There is a risk that these high-voltage batteries, located under the rear passenger seats, could catch fire. The Bolt EV has a 60.0-kWh lithium-ion battery pack.
Executive chief engineer Jesse Ortega, in the GM video above, details the problem and explains what owners can do while waiting for a fix.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and GM are investigating complaints from owners and have confirmed five instances of fires related to the problem. NHTSA’s investigation report indicates that the agency is also investigating 2020 model year Bolt EVs and gives a total of vehicles potentially affected of 77,842. However, Chevrolet said, “The 2020 Bolt EV uses a different battery-cell design than the vehicles affected by this recall.”
NHTSA’s report on its investigation of three vehicles that caught fire—one each from 2017, 2018, and 2019 model years—said “fire damage appeared to be concentrated in the EV battery compartment area with penetration into the passenger compartment from under the rear seat. The root cause of these fires is unknown. One of these incidents . . . reported smoke inhalation injuries.” In a consumer alert this afternoon, NHTSA said it has confirmed five fires and two injuries. In one case, the fire spread from the vehicle and “ignited a home.” Therefore, the agency says Bolt EV owners should park them away from houses and outdoors.
At the time of each of the reported incidents, Ortega said, the batteries were at full or nearly full charge.
What Owners Should Do Now
GM will give dealers a software update beginning on November 17 while it continues to investigate the cause of the incidents and look for a fix. This software update will automatically limit the battery’s charge to 90 percent, the automaker said. Owners are asked to contact dealers and set up appointments on or after November 17 to get the software update.
Meanwhile, Ortega said, owners of 2017 and 2018 Bolt EV vehicles should change their charge setting to the Hilltop Reserve option. Owners of 2019 Bolt EVs should change the vehicle charge setting to enable “target charge level at 90 percent.” Watch the video above for detailed instructions.
Owners of potentially affected Bolt EV vehicles can check GM’s dedicated Bolt Recall website. Details of the NHTSA investigation are on its website.

Battery pack is located under the rear seats of the Bolt EV. Pictured: 2017 model.
Chevrolet

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For this week’s episode, we challenged the Window Shop crew to find the best British cars out there. If you’re thinking, “Well, that’s easy: McLaren F1,” we also set a budget of $10,000, which, far from getting you an F1, probably wouldn’t cover the ’90s Compaq laptop computer you’d need to service that car. We kept the criteria for this challenge purposely vague, wanting our shoppers to define what makes their Limey the best. As you might expect to hear in a conversation about cars built on Old Blighty, reliability—or the lack thereof—is an important factor.Among the many things you might learn from this episode—including how to turn on the map light in a Rover P6 and how to pronounce the word “turbine”—is that contributor John Pearley Huffman doesn’t like British cars, but he puts aside his feelings and chooses the iconic MG B roadster. We also find out that only one of the crew has ever owned English car.The team presents a Jaguar with a spectacular 6.0-liter V-12 as well as a gorgeous Jaguar XJ6 Series III, and deputy testing director K.C. Colwell makes a strong case for the 2006 Land Rover Range Rover. But it’s the last pick that intrigues us most. It’s a real dark horse. Grace Kelly died in a similar model, but it offers British innovation and engineering and is the last car that the Rover brand developed before being swallowed up by British Leyland. It’s not British Racing Green, but it’s a clear winner.
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Ford is highlighting a small but significant added option on the 2021 Bronco four-door: a slide-out tailgate.
The tailgate is claimed to add enough length for two people to sleep comfortably inside the Bronco, or one person to enjoy an eight-foot-nine-inch space to stretch out diagonally.
The optional tailgate will be available starting in late 2021.

Ford

One of the best things about the 2021 Ford Bronco is that you can fit it with all kinds of goodies and options. To the list of washable floor mats, grab handles, LED light bars, side rock rails, and brush guards, add this space-extending slide-out tailgate. Specially for the four-door Bronco, it arrives in late 2021 and adds about 14 inches of legroom.

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With the front seats forward, there’s a total of seven feet, six inches of diagonal space for one camper to stretch out, or six feet, six inches of length for two people to sleep with the tailgate closed. If that doesn’t feel like enough, with the slide-out tailgate option, you get more than a foot more length, so that one person stretched out diagonally can enjoy eight feet, nine inches of space or two people can have seven feet, nine inches. The Bronco’s removable top completes the picture with a sleep-under-the-stars experience.

Ford

Ford marketing manager Mark Grueber told Car and Driver earlier this fall that the automaker will be adding more goodies to the Bronco’s spec list, saying that “everything from colors and options to special editions” will be announced during the runup to the new vehicle’s arrival. So this is surely not the last such add-on that will be highlighted to further entice Bronco buyers—as if they needed any more encouragement to want one.
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If you’re into cool Porsches, you’re going to like this news. The company revealed late yesterday a collection of previously-unannounced one-off concepts to the public, giving us an inside look at what could’ve been from the past 15 years.

The coolest car of the lot is the 919 Street, shown above. Developed in 2017 “to make the exhilarating driving experience of the LMP1 race car available to amateur drivers,” it was supposed to use the same carbon monocoque, hybrid drivetrain, and wheelbase as Porsche’s Le Mans-winning 919 Hybrid, with more subdued, production-like bodywork. Unfortunately, a 1:1 clay scale model is as far as the project ever went.

Next up is the Porsche Vision Spyder. Designed just last year, it’s a modern take on the 1954 550-1500 RS Spyder, with no roof and a simplistic cockpit. There are plenty of graphics and red accents, and a cool unique roll bar piece. Like the 919, the car is an un-drivable 1:1 scale model.

Then there’s the Porsche Vision “Renndienst.” The funkiest of the collection, it was conceived in 2018 as a “family-friendly space concept for up to six persons.” According to the company, the 1:1 model was built to show how designers could apply Porsche design DNA to a segment it doesn’t sell a car for. It’s supposed to be all-electric and have a center driver’s seating position. To us, it seems like Porsche’s take on VW’s upcoming I.D. Buzz EV bus.

Another entry into the minimalist category is the Porsche Vision 916, a modern version of the prototype from the Seventies that never saw production. This iteration, designed by an intern from Porsche’s design team in 2016, is a clay 1:1 scale model that, should it have been produced, would be powered by an all-electric drivetrain with four in-hub motors.

The stunning 904 Living Legend concept, built in 2014, uses the same carbon fiber monocoque as the ultra-efficient Volkswagen XL1. Framed as a minimalist sports car, it has some stunning proportions, and would’ve weighed around 2000 pounds in production form thanks to a tiny, high-revving V-twin motorcycle engine—similar to VW’s Ducati-powered XL Sport concept. Unfortunately a 1:1 scale model was the only example built.

Taking things one step further is the 906 Living Legend concept. Developed in 2005, it used the iconic Sixties racer of the same name as inspiration, but incorporated a whole collection of new design cues. According to Porsche, this was one of the cars used to inspire its current model electric model lineup.

Continuing the theme is the Le Mans Living Legend concept, first conceived in 2016. Inspired by the 78 PS, Porsche’s closed-cockpit 1953 Le Mans entry, it uses a Boxster as a base, and would’ve used a racing V-8 engine if it wasn’t just a clay model. The company says this car is the 718 GT4’s predecessor, which makes sense. Unlike the other cars in this article, we can see why Porsche didn’t initially release this car to the public—from many angles, it looks vastly similar to the Alpine A110.

According to Porsche, the idea for 960 Vision Turismo—the basis for what would eventually become the all-electric Taycan—was discovered by accident. “When walking past, I saw a schematic representation of the Porsche 918 on a designer’s drawing board in our studio,” remembers chief designer Michael Mauer. “A line had been redrawn with a felt-tip pen to clearly show the falling contour. From the corner of my eye it looked like a rear door joint. I was astonished!” The car was the first Porsche to receive the continuous light bar design at the rear that almost all current models use today.
These are just eight of the 15 previously hidden cars Porsche has unleashed on the world through a new 328-page book called Porsche Unseen, for sale now through all major book retailers. If you or someone you know is obsessed with the world of Porsche, it’s a must-have.

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Ford will now offer a fully electric Transit van: the E-Transit, powered by a 67.0-kWh battery with up to 126 miles of range.
The E-Transit will start at no more than $45,000, Ford says, and will be offered in the numerous configurations the current Transit is available in.
The 2022 E-Transit is expected to arrive in mid-2021.
For 2022, Ford’s popular Transit work van is joined by the E-Transit, a fully electric cargo van optimized for fleet use. The 2022 E-Transit will offer many of the popular attributes of the Transit, including varying sizes for different customers as well as the ability to upfit the interior to a huge variety of needs and uses.

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The rear-wheel-drive E-Transit has a single motor in the back putting out 266 horsepower and 317 lb-ft of torque. There are eight models, all with the same powertrain but a choice of three roof heights and three lengths, in addition to a chassis cab and cutaway models. The van will offer 126 miles of range for the low-roof cargo van and will start at no more than $45,000, Ford says.
The E-Transit will charge up 10 miles of range in an hour with a Level 2 charger or 30 miles of range in 10 minutes with a DC Level 3 fast charger. Both options come with Ford’s standard mobile charger. A 2.4-kWh generator that can power tools on a worksite or elsewhere is an available option.

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Sync 4, Ford’s latest infotainment system, is standard on the E-Transit alongside a 12.0-inch infotainment screen, an improvement over the 4.0-inch screen in the gas-powered Transit. Work-friendly features come with the E-Transit’s Sync 4 system such as active driver coaching, which will correct a driver who hits the brakes hard, rapidly accelerates, or drives above the speed limit.

View Photos

Ford

Driver assist features such as lane-keeping assist and pre-collision assist with automated emergency braking come as standard on the van, while other features such as adaptive cruise control with speed sign recognition and speed assist come as available. Blind-spot monitoring, a 360-degree camera, and reverse brake assist are optional.
When fleet managers activate the standard 4G connectivity in the E-Transit, they can then use the tools from Ford Commercial Solutions to monitor and manage the vehicles in their fleet. Managers can see when a van is in use or when it’s charging as well as monitor the efficiency of a given van. Fleet managers can also precondition vans while they are charging and track them with GPS to see when they are and aren’t in use.

Guide to Every EV for Sale in the U.S.

The Ford Transit is the most popular commercial van in the U.S.; its 2019 sales were more than double its next competitor, the Chevrolet Express, and now with the E-Transit, its appeal will be even more broad as this market grows. From 2014 to 2018, electric-vehicle fleet sales went up by four times, and by 2040, the number of electric vehicles in fleets is expected to hit 15 million, according to a recent study from Ernst & Young.
The E-Transit will be built at Ford’s Kansas City plant. It’s slated to arrive in late 2021, meaning it will reach markets before the electric F-150, which is planned to arrive in mid-2022. It’s difficult to say how many competitors will be on the market when the E-Transit reaches the public—if there are even any—but currently, Rivian is working on an electric van and is fulfilling a 100,000-unit order for Amazon. General Motors has also been reportedly working on its own electric van, and Hyundai-backed Arrival is also developing its own electric van.
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Ferrari has announced that the hybrid all-wheel-drive SF90 Stradale will be getting a retractable-hardtop variant.
The SF90 Spider is powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with three electric motors and produces 986 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque.
It’ll go on sale in the U.S. toward the end of next year.
In 2013, the 950-hp LaFerrari, Ferrari’s first hybrid, arrived along with other electrically assisted hypercars from McLaren and Porsche. Seven years later, the hybrid that’s currently dominating the Italian supercar maker’s lineup is the 986-hp SF90 Stradale plug-in-hybrid supercar. Ferrari is announcing today that the SF90 will be available as a Spider variant with a retractable hard top that, when stowed, keeps the same styling profile as the coupe.

View Photos

Ferrari

A 796-hp 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 is still at the heart of the SF90 Spider, which gets assistance from three electric motors—two on the front axle and one between the engine and transmission—that add an additional 217 ponies, making the droptop’s total power output 986 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox and an all-wheel-drive system help send the Spider to 62 mph in an estimated 2.5 seconds with a top speed of 211 mph—the same figures as the SF90 Stradale coupe.

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The SF90 Spider is equipped with a retractable hard top, which can raise and lower in 14 seconds and won’t deform at high speeds like a traditional soft top. To achieve peak downforce, Ferrari added a shut-off Gurney flap in the rear and an active control system that adjusts downforce over the rear axle. To keep air flowing into the engine bay, the intake vents directly behind the roof were adjusted transversely behind the Spider’s rear screen to account for the retractable hardtop’s stowage compartment.

Like the Stradale coupe, the SF90 Spider is equipped with touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons that include headlight, windshield wiper, and turn signal controls as well as the 16-inch digital gauge cluster’s controls. Head-up display is standard, and the lightweight, track-focused Assetto Fiorano handling package is also available on the Spider, which gives it a unique livery, and adds Multimatic spool-valve dampers, carbon fiber, and sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.
The 2021 Ferrari SF90 Spider will arrive in the U.S. toward the end of next year starting at the equivalent of $558,000.
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