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Ford has debuted a new generation of the Everest, a body-on-frame SUV based on the Ranger pickup.The Everest uses the same series of turbo-diesel engines as the global Ranger, as well as the gas-powered 2.3-liter EcoBoost expected to motivate the U.S.-market Ranger.The interior is very similar to that of its truck sibling, with a massive vertical touchscreen in the center console and a new digital gauge cluster behind the steering wheel.The next-generation Ford Ranger, already revealed for global markets, will hit our shores by 2023 and will bring with it a hard-core Raptor variant sporting nearly 400 horsepower, 33-inch all-terrain tires, and Fox shocks. But the U.S. will miss out on the Ranger’s SUV sibling, the Everest, with Ford revealing the next-generation body-on-frame SUV today for the rest of the world.

Ford

Ford

The Everest shares its C-shaped LED headlights and grille with the Ranger but trades the truck’s chunky front bumper for a more refined look. There is, of course, a cabin instead of a bed, as well as longer rear doors for easier access to the backseat. Horizontal taillights are connected by an Everest-branded trim piece. The interior also closely mirrors that of the Ranger, with a vertical 10.1-or 12.0-inch touchscreen in the center console and an 8.0- or 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster behind the wheel. A 360-degree camera linked to the screen helps with parking and traversing rough terrain.

Powering the Everest are a mix of turbo-diesel engines not likely to be offered on the Ranger we will receive in the United States, with a 3.0-liter V-6 positioned above single- and twin-turbocharged versions of a 2.0-liter inline-four. The gas-powered 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder expected to power the U.S.-market Ranger will become available in 2023. A six-speed automatic and 10-speed automatic transmission are available depending on trim and engine. Two four-wheel-drive systems will be offered, and certain markets will also get a rear-wheel-drive Everest. While the United States does already get a Ranger-related off-road SUV in the form of the Bronco, that won’t stop us from daydreaming about tackling dirt roads in the more subtle-looking Everest.
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• Our Bring a Trailer pick of the day is this refurbished and upgraded 1975 Chevrolet K5 Blazer four-speed 4×4. • This model year was the last for the Blazer’s iconic removable roof.• Bidding is open on this 1975 model until Monday, March 7, with current bidding at $20,000. The 2023 Chevrolet Blazer may be a stylish crossover with pleasing road manners for the daily commute, but there’s little of it that resembles its more rugged ancestry. Fortunately, examples of that history remain available. Take for example this 1975 Chevrolet K5 Blazer 4×4, which is open for bidding until March 7 on the Bring a Trailer auction site—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. Originally developed as an answer to the Ford Bronco and the International Harvester Scout, the original 1969 Blazer was essentially an SUV version of Chevy’s C- and K-series pickup trucks. The Blazer featured in this listing is from the second generation, which started in 1973 and lasted for nearly two decades. Pre-1976 models, like the one from today’s listing, featured completely removable roofs, giving them an unmistakable look on the road.

Bring a Trailer

According to the listing, this Blazer was a former forestry service truck that has since been repainted in an appropriately ’70s black-and-red motif. The 350-cubic-inch V-8 has the requisite upgrades: new cam, intake manifold, carburetor, and so on. The engine is connected to a four-speed manual transmission and a two-speed transfer case. Additional off-road improvements include a 4.0-inch lift, locking front hubs, and 33-inch tires. While a five-digit odometer means the true mileage is unknown, the listing says rust repairs were made to the floor and that the frame was sandblasted and repainted. It’s easy to appreciate the attention to detail evident in the badging and painted bowties on the quarter-panels.

Bring a Trailer

One hopes that the success of the new Ford Bronco and Bronco Sport might inspire Chevy to make a spiritual successor to the early Blazer (don’t hold your breath for a new International Scout). If not, there will surely be more examples like this one, which currently has a high bid of $20,000 in an auction set to end on Monday, March 7. If I didn’t already own a 1972 Chevy C10, I’d be tempted to place a bid.

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Stellantis said today that it will bring out the first fully electric Jeep in early 2023.The image shown with the announcement appears to show a vehicle about the size of the Compass, but no name or details were provided. The Jeep EV is only one of 100 planned EV launches from the multi-brand automaker by 2030, including electric muscle cars and family vehicles.At a global press event in Amsterdam, Netherlands, today Stellantis laid out its future business plan, called Dare Forward 2030. Unsurprisingly, it focuses on electrification, mobility, data as a service, reduced carbon footprint, increased customer care, and so on. With regard to new product, Stellantis promises more than 100 launches between now and 2030.

Stellantis

The highlights include Jeep’s first EV, coming in “early 2023.” No word yet on whether that’s a new model or an EV version of an existing Jeep, although the timeline certainly suggests the latter, and based on the image, we’d speculate that vehicle will be the size of the Compass. That new Jeep EV will beat the previously announced Wrangler EV, which is set to arrive in 2024.

Stellantis

The next battery-electric offering will be a Ram ProMaster van in late 2023, followed by a Ram 1500 electric pickup in 2024 (teaser image above). Although the company acknowledges that they are late to the blossoming EV pickup market, CEO Carlos Tavares boasts that the Ram will beat all others—including the Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and even the Tesla Cybertruck—in range, towing, payload, and charging time. That’s quite a claim, and we’ll be watching closely to see if it delivers.

Stellantis

The Wrangler EV also launches in 2024, in addition to “Lifestyle Family SUVs” from Jeep as well as Dodge’s first electric, described as a “Performance Muscle Car.” Chrysler finally joins the party in 2025 with a “Lifestyle Family Car,” which should be based on the Airflow concept unveiled at CES.The goal is to have 50 percent of U.S. sales being EVs by 2030, with that figure being 100 percent in Europe.

Stellantis

In addition to battery-electrics, Stellantis is also planning to delve further into hydrogen-powered vehicles. Last year, the company introduced a hydrogen-powered version of the Peugeot e-Expert and Opel Vivaro-e mid-size vans, and it will expand those offerings to larger models in 2024, with the U.S. getting a hydrogen-powered full-size Ram ProMaster van in 2025. Tier 1 supplier Faurecia is a technology partner on the hydrogen effort, which is likely to be exclusively a fleet offering. The company plans to further expand hydrogen powertrains into heavy-duty trucks.

Stellantis

Interestingly, it appears—from the above slide at least—that Stellantis is operating under a No Brand Left Behind policy. Even Vauxhall and Lancia are included! CEO Carlos Tavares said, however, that no additional Stellantis brands will be coming to the United States, so apparently, Francophiles can forget about seeing DS or Peugeot automobiles here.
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Good news for Chrysler: Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares today said the brand will be “relaunched” with “gorgeous” new models.Tavares was speaking at an event in Amsterdam on Tuesday morning.He also said no additional Stellantis brands are coming to the U.S. market. On that list are Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, and other marques not currently sold here. With just two models in its lineup, one of which is the ancient 300 sedan, the Chrysler brand has been teetering on the brink of extinction for some time. But no longer. At an event outside of Amsterdam today to discuss the future product strategy for the 15-brand Stellantis empire, CEO Carlos Tavares said that “Chrysler is one of the emotional pillars of the former FCA. It’s important for us to give this brand a future and opportunity to rebound,” and that “Chrysler will be relaunched.” He added that the coming Chrysler models “look really gorgeous,” which is something that CEOs always say about future products.We expect one of the first new models to be an electric compact crossover called the Airflow (pictured above) that will compete with the Tesla Model Y, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Volvo XC40 Recharge. More specifics on future entries may be part of the presentation happening later today.The plans for the other faltering U.S. brand, Fiat, which sells only the 500X crossover at the moment, don’t sound as concrete. “We still have to think about how we make the Fiat brand rebound in the U.S.,” Tavares said. “We have a couple of ideas, and we didn’t yet make all of the decisions.”In speaking more broadly about the U.S. brand strategy, Tavares said, “We have the strategic vision to invest in all the American brands,” but added that “I have no intention to bring more brands to the U.S. right now. I think we have enough.” This is a developing story. We will update as more information is available.

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Faraday Future, a California-based electric-vehicle startup, has showed a prototype version of its FF 91, which was built at its plant in Hanford, California.The company says production of the car will start in the third quarter of this year, but it’s worth noting that the company has missed claimed production dates more than once in the past five years.Faraday Future has had a tumultuous history, including its founder stepping down and declaring personal bankruptcy in 2019.Does the name Faraday Future ring a bell? In 2017, the Los Angeles-based electric startup revealed the FF 91 crossover at the Consumer Electronics Show and claimed production would begin in 2018. Five years later, the FF 91 has yet to hit public roads, sidelined while Faraday Future has battled financial issues. But Faraday Future is still kicking, apparently. The company revealed last week that it has built its first “production intent” FF 91. If Faraday Future is to be believed—and we’re not sure that’s totally the case—production is “on schedule” to begin in the third quarter of 2022.

The “production-intent” FF 91 prototype.
Faraday Future

With Faraday Future having receded from the limelight for so long, a refresher is due. The company was founded in 2014 by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting in California. In 2015, the company announced that it would build a plant in North Las Vegas, Nevada. By the time the FF 91—which was supposed to come to life in that factory—was unveiled in 2017, financial troubles had already begun. There were reports of accumulating debts, lawsuits from suppliers, and the claim from former employees that Faraday Future was actually two companies, with a separate entity set up in the Cayman Islands owning Faraday Future’s intellectual property. Founder Jia had also established another competing electric vehicle venture, the LeEco LeSee, which insiders alleged was pulling funds and talent away from Faraday Future, despite other sources claiming that the LeSee was never a real car (it still hasn’t materialized). In July 2017, a Chinese court froze $182 million in assets belonging to Jia, his wife, and LeEco affiliates, and days later Faraday Future said its North Las Vegas factory plans had been scuppered. August saw Faraday Future sign a lease for a former Pirelli tire plant in Hanford, California, and a year later Faraday Future sold a 45 percent stake to Evergrande Group—a Chinese property developer incorporated in the Cayman Islands—for $854 million. But two months later Evergrande pulled out of the deal, and Faraday Future began massive layoffs and salary cuts. In 2019, Jia filed for personal bankruptcy with over $3 billion in debt and stepped down from his role as CEO. Things went quiet at Faraday Future until 2021, when the company went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company—the same strategy employed by startup Lucid Motors.

Faraday Future

Throughout all of the financial topsy-turviness, Faraday Future has continued to promise the arrival of the FF 91. In 2018, the company said it had built a pre-production prototype at the Hanford plant and said production would begin in 2019. Now Faraday Future says it has built a “production intent” FF 91 in Hanford. According to a Faraday Future spokesperson, the latest FF 91 vehicle features a new instrument panel, front and rear consoles, and production-intent exterior lighting. There is also new exterior badging, a new production-spec lidar assembly mounted on the roof, and production paint applied in the paint booth in the Hanford plant.

The specifications of the FF 91 remain unchanged since the 2017 reveal. Three electric motors—two at the rear and one up front—supply a stated 1050 horsepower to all four wheels. Faraday Future claims a zero-to-60-mph time under 2.4 seconds for the crossover, which measures 206.9 inches long, just shy of the length of a 2022 Mercedes-Benz S-class. The juice comes from a 130.0-kWh battery pack, which Faraday Future says will provide a 378-mile range on the EPA test cycle. Given Faraday Future’s financial history, we are taking this most recent announcement with many, many grains of salt. If the FF 91 does reach production by the end of this year, a six-figure price is expected, putting it in competition with the Tesla Model X and Lucid Motors’ Air. The top-of-the-line FF 91 Futurist Alliance model, the company says, will cost more than $200,000, will be limited to 300 units, and is aiming to battle Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Maybach. The Hanford plant will start with an annual volume of 10,000 units, with room to expand to 30,000 vehicles per year, should things ever reach that point.
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