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The city of Milwaukee is experiencing a big uptick in car thefts, and Hyundai and Kia vehicles are the majority of vehicles stolen.To address the problem, Hyundai and Kia say they are working with the local police department, which is distributing free steering-wheel locks to Milwaukee Hyundai and Kia owners through the end of the year.Starting with the 2022 model year, Kia said, it will make immobilizers standard on all trim levels of all models, a spokesperson said. Hyundai told C/D that all its new vehicles at every trim level have the immobilizers now. These have a transponder in the key fob to prevent a vehicle from being started by someone without the right key.According to city police in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, car theft is an increasing problem during pandemic times—and it’s especially dangerous to own a Hyundai or Kia. Vehicles of these brands, in fact, represent two out of every three vehicles stolen during the first half of 2021 in Milwaukee. City officials, faced with police cuts and a record wave of violent crime, have called on the automakers to fix what they perceive as defects and have threatened to sue them.According to police and WISN-12, while total year-to-date car thefts have risen nearly 2.5 times since 2020, the number of stolen Hyundai and Kia models was 25 times higher in just the first six months. Milwaukee police reported nearly 10,000 motor vehicle thefts so far this year, compared to 4509 last year and 3487 in 2019. Fox 6 Milwaukee says it’s the highest in 11 years. When thieves successfully break into a car and start the engine without a key, the targeted vehicles are usually older, don’t have anti-theft devices, and have physical ignition cylinders that can be mechanically bypassed. But age apparently hasn’t been a factor in Milwaukee, where police say that thieves—many of them minors—are jacking late-model or brand-new Hyundai and Kia vehicles, and many are posting about it on social media.One car-repair facility owner was quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explaining that “Kia thieves know they can break the back window without setting off an alarm, unlock the door, quickly peel back the steering column, and either use a screwdriver or a USB port to crank the car and go.”City council members are blaming the automakers for allegedly not installing anti-theft devices such as engine immobilizers in their cars. Alderman Khalif Rainey said the automakers are “directly responsible” for the uptick in crime and that “it’s time to fix the problem they created.” In separate letters to the U.S. divisions of both automakers, Rainey alleged that their cars “can be stolen with nothing more than a USB cable.” The city “revealed it’s considering suing Kia and Hyundai under public nuisance laws,” according to WISN-12. No lawsuit has been filed. Spokespeople for Hyundai and Kia said in June that the companies were investigating and cooperating with police.

Hyundai and Kia spokespeople told Car and Driver that the company is currently “working closely with the Milwaukee Police Department and other local officials and departments.” The police are providing anti-theft steering-wheel locks to owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles that don’t have an engine immobilizer, a transponder in the ignition key that communicates with electronic devices inside the vehicle to prevent theft. Hyundai said it is directly supplying the Milwaukee Police Department with these locks.Spokespeople for Hyundai and Kia told C/D that every new Hyundai now has standard engine immobilizers, and that all 2022 Kias across the lineup will also have the engine immobilizer fitted as standard equipment. The Kia spokesperson also said, “While we have seen the same public statements about the potential for a lawsuit to address a crime wave in Milwaukee, we are not aware of the basis for any legal claims against Kia America.”It’s not just Milwaukee and it’s not just Hyundai/Kia products, of course. Nationwide, more cars were stolen in 2020 than any year in the past decade, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the lead data source for vehicle thefts reported to insurance companies. A total of 880,595 vehicles were reported stolen, which was an 11 percent increase from 2019. Theft increases were reported in 41 states. Interestingly, no Hyundai or Kia model made the NICB’s top 10 most-stolen vehicles list for 2020.
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A Wall Street Journal report today, citing “people familiar with the matter,” says General Motors is planning to spend about $3 billion and add some 2700 jobs to produce EVs and batteries in Michigan.The paper noted that Ford and Toyota both announced big expenditures on EV and battery production recently, both in the southern U.S. rather than in Michigan.We have reached out to GM for details and will update this story when we know more.General Motors will reportedly invest around $3 billion to produce electric vehicles and batteries in Michigan, according to a report today by the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources. The automaker is set to update the Orion Assembly plant, which currently produces the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, to serve as a production facility for its electric pickups.

Additionally, GM is preparing to build a battery production facility in Lansing. This project will supposedly be done in partnership with LG Energy Solutions. Each project is estimated to cost approximately $2 billion, with the latter battery plant’s cost split evenly between GM and LG. The two investments are set to create more than 2700 jobs, with more than half of those new jobs reportedly earmarked for the updated Orion Assembly plant, according to the WSJ. We’ve reached out to GM for comment and will update this story with more information as it becomes available.

Ford announced earlier this year that it will make batteries for the upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup at a new plant under construction in Georgia. The automaker will also produce EVs and batteries in Tennessee and Kentucky and will develop batteries at the newly announced Ion Park in southeastern Michigan. Stellantis, parent company of Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, will produce battery cells for future vehicles in North America but has not yet said where. Toyota is opening an EV battery production “megasite” in North Carolina that will open in 2025.
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The next-generation Mini Cooper Hardtop has leaked in new spy shots that show an uncamouflaged prototype testing in China.The front end is similar to the current model, but the taillights now feature a sharp, triangular design and are missing the Union Jack motif.The next Cooper Hardtop is due in 2023 and will come with both electric and gas powertrains.Back in November, Mini showed off a camouflaged prototype of the next-generation Cooper Hardtop and told us that it would be offered with both internal combustion engines and an electric powertrain. Now the next Mini Cooper’s design has been leaked in full, thanks to journalist Greg Kable, who snapped photos of the future Cooper Hardtop undergoing testing with disguised prototypes in China.
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The front end isn’t a drastic departure from the current Cooper Hardtop, featuring the same bulldog-like face with big round headlights and a chunky grille. The grille looks mostly blocked off, with only a small opening in the lower third, and the prototype appears to lack exhaust pipes, leading us to believe this is the electric version of the next Mini. The interior includes a large circular screen in the center console and what appears to be a head-up display taking the place of a gauge cluster behind the steering wheel.

The most noticeable change is at the rear, where the rectangular taillights have been swapped out for triangular units that seem to have ditched the kitschy Union Jack motif. A gloss-black trim piece spans the width of the tailgate and links the taillights, while the bumper sports a simple, clean design. The next-generation Mini Cooper Hardtop is expected to arrive in 2023, when a new Countryman SUV will also debut. The electric version will ride on a platform jointly developed by BMW and Chinese automaker Great Wall and will be built in China, while the gas-powered Cooper will be built in Oxford, England, likely on an updated version of the current Cooper’s platform.
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Volkswagen has confirmed that a camper version of its ID.Buzz van will be made. No other details were released, but we can imagine such a vehicle would ride on the longer-wheelbase version of the ID.Buzz MEB electric platform, with front- or all-wheel drive offered. Range could possibly reach 342 miles. We in the U.S. haven’t been offered a VW camper since 2003, and they weren’t big sellers then.Buried deep inside a European press release, camouflaged under the headline “Electrification of more European plants,” was this little snippet: “Another vehicle derivative, the ID.California, has likewise been approved for the [Hanover, Germany] site.”Woo-hoo! That means ID.Buzz campers. Rejoice, hippies!

The release is the first acknowledgment from VW that the much-buzzed-about ID.Buzz will, indeed, get a camper variant. Used-car sale prices of past VW camper vans have been steadily increasing, and with good reason. As the pandemic got more people out on the road with their laptops to work remotely and anywhere they darn well pleased, the need for practical camper-style transport grew exponentially. A Westfalia camper van offers much of the same #VanLife practicality as a Sprinter or a full-fledged motorhome while being a lot easier to drive and park.

Here’s a more recent rendering of the coming VW ID.Buzz electric van. Imagine that with a pop top and swivel seats.
VW

Details of the ID. California are scant, but the regular ID.Buzz van is expected to come with a choice of 82.0- or 111.0-kWh batteries, good for a possible range of up to 342 miles. There should be two powertrain options in the ID.Buzz: single-motor rear-drive or front- and rear-motor all-wheel drive. Volkswagen has already announced that there would be a cargo version of the ID.Buzz called, cleverly, The ID.Buzz Cargo. It will be built on the longer-wheelbase version of the ID.Buzz. All will ride on the purpose-built MEB electric-car platform that sits under all of Volkswagen’s EVs. While Europe and other markets have been getting Volkswagen camper vans since the very beginning, we here in the States haven’t had the option since the T4 van (Type 4, the fourth-generation van) was last offered here in 2003. That one came in a pop-top version with sleeping for two upstairs and for another two down below when you folded all the seats flat. There was a flip-up table and a cute little refrigerator under the rear-facing seat, too. Winnebago offered a more fully equipped camper version. Problem was, even when the T4 Westfalias were being offered in American showrooms 20 years ago, few were buying them. Low sales combined with the cost of federalizing the T5 and T6 versions killed any business case anyone in Wolfsburg may have been trying to make for them. It’s still not clear from today’s “announcement” if U.S. sales will be part of the plan for what is being referred to as the ID.California. We got to spend a few days camping in a Euro-spec T6 California camper three years ago, glommed onto a larger worldwide press launch of that fine camper bus. We found that thing roughly 400 times better than the rickety 2003 T4 we actually own. But it was just cruel of VW to tease U.S. van lovers with that. Now, maybe, we’ll be getting our own. Maybe.”No word on anything at this point,” said a spokesperson when asked. “Let’s hope it comes here!!”Note the two exclamation marks. That’s gotta mean something, right?
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