Tesla doesn’t have what it takes to a car rental company, it seems. Bloomberg reported that Nextmove, a German rental outfit, had ordered a hundred Tesla Model 3s, but after getting only 15, they cancelled the rest. The cars reportedly had paint issues, bad wiring, dashboard scratches, and condensation in the headlights; Nextmove apparently gave […]
Chevrolet has joined Ram in having diesel engines; both are built in-house, but Ram chose a ZF eight-speed automatic, redesigned somewhat by Fiat Chrysler, while GM uses a ten-speed automatic which it developed with Ford. The two engines have around the same displacement, just under 3.0 liters, but the Chevrolet echos Ram’s big Cummins diesels by […]
Bloomberg claims that Tesla has agreed to pay local Chinese governments around $323 million taxes each year to build a Shanghai plant on government property. The payments must start at the end of 2023, or the company has to return the land, complete with its factory. In addition, Tesla must invest around $2 billion on […]
General Motors’ old Warren (Michigan) transmission plant has closed. 60 of its 262 employees have found other positions, 25 are retiring, and the rest are being placed at other GM operations (the company is building a new parts facility at Flint which may be one source of openings). Around 2,800 jobs are being lost as […]
Rivian was first company to show off an all-electric pickup truck; they have promised a great deal, shown a prototype, and are taking preorders. Their system uses four motors, one per wheel, and in top spec promises 0-60 in 3 seconds with a 5,000 kg towing capacity, 800 kg payload, and 400 mile range—not to mention […]
The people over at Allpar have surfaced a video of what looks like a Ramcharger, but might actually be the Chevrolet Suburban. The Allpar group noted that while the grille is definitely Ram-ish, with the emphasized crosshairs, Ram itself has stopped using the crosshair design. While they said it could be a Jeep Wagoneer being […]
Matt Hagan’s 11,000-horsepower NHRA Funny Car is getting an aggressive makeover for the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil. Hagan will debut a new 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody graphics package with a flared-out feel at the Denver area event, scheduled to take place July 19-21, 2019. His special Funny Car graphics recreate […]
Teslas are cheaper now, with the base Model 3 dropping down to $38,990, or around $8,990 more than Elon Musk’s original promises for the car. When the Model 3 came out, newspapers compared it favorably to the Chevy Bolt; it was theoretically cheaper than the Bolt’s $37,495, faster, and such. Sure, it didn’t have a […]
Chrysler’s minivan factory in Windsor, Ontario, the only place in the world they make Pacificas and Grand Caravans, is being shut down for five weeks this summer. Orders for minivans will be hung up until production restarts on August 12. The company claimed that they increased the outage by three weeks for improvements, maintenance, and […]
Do Dodge or Chrysler have a future? FCA has three brands that are definitely global: Jeep, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. Ram is slowly becoming semi-global, appearing in greater quantities outside North America. (Mopar doesn’t count, since it’s a parts business.) The key to looking at the future of any FCA brand is to consider whether […]