Canada: Ontario Steps Up On Ottawa's Absence

Automotive Weekly

ONTARIO STEPS UP IN OTTAWA'S ABSENCE

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday that his government will put more money on the table to help carmaker Stellantis resume its battery plant in Canada. Stellantis on Monday stopped construction at a C$5 billion ($3.7 billion) electric-vehicle battery plant in Canada, which is being built in partnership with South Korea's LG Energy Solution (LGES), saying Canada has not fulfilled the promises.

Source: Reuters

FLEET-FOCUSED CHEVY SILVERADO EV TO DEBUT WITH 450-MILE RANGE

Chevrolet's first electric pickup will have a longer range when it launches this year than previously estimated. The 2024 Chevy Silverado EV work truck, intended for fleet customers, will have an EPA-estimated 450 miles of range on a full charge, according to Rory Harvey, General Motors' incoming president of North America. That exceeds GM's earlier estimate of 400 miles. The truck will start at US$79,800 including shipping.

Source: Automotive News

FIRST U.S.-CANADA EV CORRIDOR TO RUN THROUGH DETROIT

The first electric vehicle corridor between the United States and Canada — a route stretching about 860 miles from Kalamazoo to Quebec City — was announced this week. Why it matters: The route is intended to encourage EV adoption by addressing a primary barrier: range anxiety. On the U.S. side, the corridor will pass through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and run along I-94 to Kalamazoo. An EV charging site will be installed every 50 miles to reassure drivers they'll have enough juice to reach their destination, each with at least four DC fast chargers and within 1 mile of the highway.

Source: Axios

GM RECALLS 668,000 CHEV, GMC VEHICLES FOR FAULTY CHILD SEAT ANCHORS

General Motors is recalling more than 668,000 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles in the U.S. for child seat anchors that may not function properly. The recall affects Equinox and Terrain compact crossovers from the 2020-23 model years. Those vehicles fail to comply with requirements under a federal safety standard for child restraint anchorage systems, according to NHTSA. GM said it was not aware of any injuries, accidents or deaths related to the issue.

Source: Automotive News

CHEAP USED VEHICLES DISAPPEARING: CARS UNDER $20,000 HARDER TO FIND

First, the under-$20,000 new car died — now, the under-$20,000 used vehicle is disappearing. Why it matters: Affordable transportation is essential to a healthy, equitable economy. By the numbers: 30.6% of used vehicles were sold for less than $20,000 in the first quarter, down from 60.5% in the first quarter of 2018, according to car-research site Edmunds. Even the average 7-year-old vehicle with 75,000 miles still sells for more than $20,000.

Source: Axios

FORD'S CEO SEES CAR PRICES DROPPING 5%, PUTTING PRESSURE ON TESLA

Ford Motor Co. expects auto prices to fall by more than 5% this year and next as dealer inventories grow, and the competitive pressure will take a toll on Tesla Inc.'s dominance of the electric vehicle market. "They've had the market to themselves, they had a big head start," Jim Farley, Ford's chief executive officer, said of Tesla in an interview on Bloomberg Television Monday. "And now they're seeing a lot more pressure."

Source: Bloomberg

EVs TO AVOID – BATTERY REPLACEMENTS THAT CAN COST $20,000

One of the biggest concerns that prospective electric-car buyers have is if they'll ever have to make a costly battery replacement. And while they haven't been very common among early EVs, some models have needed them more than others. Excluding major recalls for the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV and Hyundai Kona Electric, of the EVs studied by battery health reporting firm Recurrent, only 1.5% have received battery replacements. About 15,000 EV drivers in the US use Recurrent, so that's only 225 vehicles.

Including the two well-known EV battery pack recalls raises that percentage of battery replacements to 6.5%, according to Recurrent, or 975 of the 15,000. Still, Recurrent found the relatively low numbers promising, and said it suggests EV batteries overall maintain a lot of life. The state of the battery is also important info once an EV enters the used market. A second or third owner of an EV would want to know if the battery has already been replaced or if it's something that may need to be done. A battery having been replaced before a second or third owner would actually be a benefit, as the EV would essentially be back to new. Here's Recurrent's full list:

*The high Kona and Bolt percentages are primarily a result of the vehicles' major battery recalls.

Source: Business Insider

HOW USED EVS COMPARE TO ICE VEHICLES IN TERMS OF MILES DRIVEN AND PRICE

The cost of used electric vehicles are coming down, but according to iSeeCars.com, the average price on a 3-year-old EV is still 47% higher than that of a same-age internal-combustion vehicle. Add oddly enough, owners will drive their 3-year-old EV an average of 9,059 miles – 29% less than the 12,759 miles/year the average owner of a 3-year-old ICE vehicle will put on their car. These findings come from iSeeCars' analysis of more than 860,000 model-year 2020 used vehicles from January to mid-May, which calculated both average mileage per year and average price.

Source: Auto Remarketing

VINFAST RECALLS ALL 999 OF ITS FIRST SUVS SHIPPED TO THE US

Vietnam's electric-car maker VinFast recalled all 999 of its initial sport utility vehicles shipped to the US over malfunctioning software that can lead the main screen to go blank. The company can begin delivering an over-the-air software update on Thursday that fixes the issue, according to its defect notice posted to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website. The recall comes after the automaker's first vehicles sold in the US garnered a number of bad reviews, with some saying they aren't ready for deliveries.

Source: Bloomberg

NHTSA PROBE OF RUPTURING ARC AIRBAG INFLATORS ECHOES TAKATA

The latest escalation of a nearly eight-year investigation of rupturing airbag inflators manufactured by ARC Automotive has reminded some safety advocates of a dark time in automotive history: the Takata recall. In a letter made public this month, the nation's top auto safety regulator demanded that ARC, a Knoxville, Tenn., Tier 2 supplier, to recall 67 million airbag inflators produced through January 2018 that the agency "tentatively concluded" are defective.

Source: Automotive News

IN A NEW BMW SEDAN -

In the new BMW 5-series sedan, unveiled Wednesday by the German luxury automaker, drivers will be able to change lanes on the highway just by looking to the side. The car's optional Highway Assistant system allows drivers to go long distances on major highways without touching the steering wheel or pedals. This sort of feature is now offered by a number of major automakers, but BMW adds this novel capability: Drivers will be able to change lanes just by looking at one of the outside mirrors.

Source: CNN

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