+++ The CHEVROLET Camaro may be one of the most popular sports cars in the United States, but sales are trailing behind the Ford Mustang so far this year. To bolster sales and make the Camaro more competitive against rivals, General Motors is reconsidering build options and price points for the sports car. According to product boss Mark Reuss, GM could rework prices at the lower and higher ends of the Camaro range. He says the Mustang and some of the Camaro’s other rivals “will have a lower base price and that’s an opportunity for us probably. I think we’ve got opportunities at the very low end of the Camaro range and some remix of some of the V8 options on it so we don’t force people to buy all the options with a V8, just to get a V8”, Reuss said at the press unveiling of the Camaro ZL1 Nascar Cup racer. Prices for the base Camaro start at $26,900 and this model comes with a 2.0-liter turbo-4 engine making 275 hp. Comparatively, the 2017 Mustang starts at $26,085 and features a 3.6-liter V6 good for 300 ponies. The revamped 2018 Mustang, coming out this fall, gets a base 2.3-liter EcoBoost 4-cylinder that makes 310 hp and will start at $26,485. A base Dodge Challenger, however, is more expensive than the Camaro. It runs $28,090 with a 3.6-liter V6 making 305 hp. When equipped with the V8, the 2018 Camaro starts at $37,995. That price is way ahead of the Mustang GT, which starts at $34,095, or $35,995 for the 2018 model year. It’s also more expensive than the Challenger R/T, priced from $34,090. The Mustang leads the way in terms of sales. Ford moved 50,814 Mustangs from dealer lots through July, ahead of 41,280 sales for the Camaro. The Dodge Challenger is coming up on the Camaro’s tail with sales of 41,243 during the first 7 months. If you look at it another way, the Camaro is actually doing pretty well. Camaro sales dropped just 2.5 percent through July, while Mustang sales were down a whopping 30 percent. Challenger sales have increased about 3 percent. Reuss declined to comment when we can expect some of these possible pricing changes for the Camaro. +++
+++ FIA president Jean Todt has told the next generation of FORMULA E car will be…different. He predicts “surprises” when the look of the design is unveiled later this year. The 2018/19 Formula E car programme has been spearheaded by the FIA, the first time it has had a direct influence in the design and management of supplying a car to a series it sanctions. While Todt would not be drawn on specifics of the car, which was shown to some key Formula E partners at Montreal last month, it is understood that the futuristic-looking design could feature a radical departure from the classic single-seater shape, especially around the rear of the car. It is also said to be a considerable departure from the initial schematics which were issued earlier this year by Spark Technologies. A venturi rather than a traditional rear wing is believed to be part of the design, which is also expected to embrace the Halo cockpit protection device set to be adopted by F1 in 2018. “We like to make some good surprises and this (the season five car) will be a good surprise with new safety and technology on the car”, Todt told. “The big change is only having one car (per driver, per race) and for me Formula E is a visionary category in motorsport”. The season five car is expected to test privately this October before one car per manufacturer is supplied early in 2018 for private testing. Manufacturers are expected to get an additional 8 test days on top of their initial 15 for season five preparations. +++
+++ I’m not usually discussing commercial vehicles, but this is too interesting to pass: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck and Bus Corporation kicked off at the end of July small series production of the Fuso eCanter. The company is labeling it as the first light truck that is fully electric and manufactured in series production. The truck is being built at their facility in Tramagal, Portugal, for the European and US markets. The new announcement follows the start of production of the light electric truck at home in Japan at the Kawasaki plant that took place earlier in July. The all-electric light-duty truck is Fuso’s version of the conventional Canter light-duty truck; just the electric-powertrain specific components are different on the production line. The model is expected to reach large scale series production in the near future after gathering more experience with real world users. The eCanter has a range of 100 kilometers and a load capacity of 2 to 3 tons; the powertrain is made out of 6 high voltage lithium/ion battery packs with 420V and 13.8 kWh each. The battery packs come from another Daimler subsidiary: Accumotive, which builds them in Kamenz, Germany. Previously the eCanter has been trialed in Portugal and Germany between 2014 and 2017, and the company says it can save up to 1,000 Euro per 10,000 kilometers on operating costs. +++
+++ It took Toyota’s Lexus Division nearly a decade to grow its modest product lineup into one that occupied a majority of segments where luxury consumers shopped. But GENESIS , the premium brand recently created by Hyundai, is not being nearly as patient. In fact, its brash product plan could put established Japanese and German luxury marques on their heels. According to internal company documents, Genesis will have 3 sedans, 3 SUVs, a sports coupe, and a dedicated electric vehicle by the end of 2021. And that’s just for starters. The G70 compact sedan, set to be unveiled in September in South Korea, will challenge the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class and go on sale in the U.S. in early 2018. The GV80 midsize crossover, which was unveiled in concept form at this year’s New York auto show, will arrive in early 2019. It will be quickly followed by the GV70, based on the G70 platform. Then things start getting really interesting, with the return of a sporty coupe arriving alongside a redesign of the G90 flagship (after just 4 years on the market). After that we will see a ‘crossover-utility vehicle’, which will be in addition to the GV70 and GV80 but which Genesis execs say will be sufficiently different in that it will not cannibalize sales like the BMW X6 does with the X5. An electric vehicle, which will be on a dedicated Genesis platform not shared with Hyundai’s EV work, should arrive by 2021, as well. The G80 midsize sedan also should see re-engineering during this period, though Genesis officials declined to give a timeframe. There also is the possibility of a shooting brake (envision a sporty wagon similar in style to the Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake) for the European market.
Genesis executives throw around words such as “daring” and “audacious”, and this certainly applies to the brand’s fearless approach to product launches. A complete product portfolio is essential to get onto luxury consumers’ shopping lists as a valid and credible brand, said Manfred Fitzgerald, the Genesis brand’s global boss, in an interview. There is even talk of creating high-performance versions of Genesis vehicles to compete with the Mercedes-AMG or BMW M skunkworks brands. And this is just what Genesis is confirming. “There are a lot of white spots on the map”, Fitzgerald said. “We have a lot of ideas for the future”. +++
+++ HONDA is reportedly making progress developing a new hybrid powertrain that will make its production debut in the US market. A test mule spotted recently is presumed to contain the new system, which is said to be related to the Accord Hybrid’s powertrain. The latter model combines electric power with a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine, delivering 212 horsepower. The latest report suggests the new hybrid setup will be used for a new dedicated model geared for the US market. Unlike the Acura Sport Hybrid systems, the Honda offering is expected to focus on mileage instead of combined power output. Honda has had a checkered past with hybrids, retiring the Insight in 2014, but CEO Takahiro Hachigo has stated that electric vehicles will be critical moving forward and half of the company’s all-new models arriving in the US in the next two years will be electrified. The new hybrid model could be revealed sometime next year. +++
+++ Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has issued a recall for the JEEP Renegade to address a problem with the instrument panel. Multiple malfunction indicator lamps (MIL) may illuminate when no problems exist, violating federal safety regulations related to control and displays. “If the malfunction indicator lamps illuminate at incorrect times, the driver may be unaware when a true malfunction occurs, increasing the risk of a crash”, the recall documents warn. The issue is said to occur when the fuel indicator is reading ‘low range’. The company did not describe which additional MILs illuminate when the fuel tank is low. Approximately 3,000 vehicles will receive new software to fix the glitch. +++
+++ If you live in a city and have ever found yourself thinking you should sell your car and use a RIDE SHARING service like Uber or Lyft, you’re not alone. A recent transportation study found that on-demand ride services actually do impact how many people buy cars. It also found that the presence of those services reduces the number of trips that people take. Back in May of 2016, Austin, Texas, voted to require stricter background checks on ride-share drivers. As a result, both Uber and Lyft pulled out of the city. This decision gave researchers the opportunity to look at how the increase in on-demand ride services had changed people’s transportation decisions. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute worked with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Columbia University to survey more than 1,200 Austin residents about what changes they’d made. Researchers looked at people’s mode of transportation, how frequently they made trips, and whether or not they owned vehicles. Without those 2 companies to depend on for rides, 41 percent of people surveyed went back to using their personal vehicles. 9 percent, however, bought new cars. 3 percent began using public transportation, and 42 percent switched to one of the smaller ride-sharing services that were still available. Researchers also found that people who began relying on their personal vehicle again were 23 times more likely to have started taking more trips than those who switched services. They also found that the more inconvenienced someone was by the absence of Uber and Lyft, the more likely they were to buy a car. The most-inconvenienced people were five times more likely to have bought a vehicle to replace their ride-sharing service. “Our findings show that these ride-sourcing companies do change behaviors. While this study isn’t generalizable to the entire city of Austin, or to other cities, it provides crucial insights that are relevant to policymakers”, said Robert Hampshire, a professor at UMTRI and the study’s lead author, in a statement. When it comes to public policy, Hampshire also thinks on-demand transportation services provide a net benefit to cities, saying “a 30-percent increase in the probability of switching to personal vehicles, for an individual who is inconvenienced by the service suspension provides strong support for policies that help reduce the likelihood of occurrence of such a suspension. The case for this need is made stronger when one considers that this transition may be associated with a 23-percent increase in trip making”. Earlier this year, after a new state law passed, both Uber and Lyft returned to Austin, giving researchers the opportunity to study the impact of this change, as well. Based on initial results, it would make sense that car buying and trip frequency would decrease, but we’ll have to wait and see. +++
+++ Although Electric Vehicles are gaining acceptance, many consumers have lingering fears over the safety of lithium/ion batteries after a crash. These people may find comfort in a patent filing from TESLA , which hints the company is looking to bolster battery safety with a special “pyrotechnic disconnect” device. According to the patent, a “pyrotechnic disconnect” can sever the electrical connection between a battery pack and a motor, increasing the safety of the electrical system. In demanding situations, the disconnect must interrupt very large currents, but doing so can create electric arcs that need to be suppressed in order to avoid further hazards. It’s important these electric arcs are managed properly without making the disconnect overly complex or expensive to implement, a challenge which Tesla’s system hopes to overcome. Tesla’s device includes a housing with a combustion chamber inside, in addition to a pyrotechnic charge in that combustion chamber. A busbar covers the opening of the combustion chamber and is configured to be severed by activation of the pyrotechnic charge. Importantly, the pyrotechnic charge is configured so that gas cools those pesky electric arcs. There’s an exhaust port in a grating in a wall of the housing that allows gas to suppress the electric arc formed by the severing of the busbar. Arc splitter plates arranged in the housing help suppress an arc by dividing it into multiple arcs, interrupting the current flow. A disconnect isn’t limited to just EV batteries, as it can also be used in stationary storage for electric energy. Tesla’s system allows an electrical system to be disconnected quickly while managing arcs, and it could improve battery safety, although it’s unclear how Tesla plans to use this patent filing. +++