AD #2557 – Ford Invests In EVs & AVs, 2019 Chevy Blazer Impressions, Magna Prototype Has 10 Drivetrain Combos
March 21st, 2019 at 11:59am
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Runtime: 7:32
0:07 Ford Invests in EVs & AVs
0:46 Volvo Expects EV Margins to Match Traditional Vehicles by 2025
1:06 Volvo Goes After Distracted & Drunk Drivers
1:41 IIHS Says Pickups Need Better Passenger Protection
2:48 Our 2019 Chevrolet Blazer Impressions
4:42 Magna Prototype Features 10 Drivetrain Combinations
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FORD INVESTS IN EVs & AVs
A few days after announcing plans to expand production of its big SUVs, Ford is revealing more manufacturing plans for North America. It will invest $850 million through 2023 to expand production at its plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, which includes building the next-gen Mustang and battery electric vehicles. The company will also begin assembling autonomous vehicles at a new facility in Southeast Michigan starting in 2021 but it did not say where it will be located. And that same year, Ford will start production of the next-gen Transit Connect in Mexico.
VOLVO EXPECTS EV MARGINS TO MATCH I.C.E. BY 2025
Volvo’s CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, told Reuters that it expects margins on its electric vehicles to be the same as cars powered by internal combustion engines by 2025. He said reduced costs for EV components and falling margins on traditional vehicles will help Volvo hit that goal.
VOLVO GOES AFTER DISTRACTED & DRUNK DRIVERS
It also recently announced it will lower the top speed of its vehicles as a way to improve safety and now Volvo’s going after distracted and drunk drivers. The automaker will install in-car cameras and other sensors that monitor the driver and allow the car to take over if the driver does not respond to warnings. The system could limit the car’s speed, alert the Volvo on Call assistance service and, as a final course of action, actively slow down and park the car. Volvo will start to roll out the system in 2020.
PICKUPS NEED BETTER PASSENGER PROTECTION
Speaking of safety, due to their high seating position, big trucks can make feel very safe, but the IIHS says most pickups need better passenger-side protection. It recently tested 11 crew cab pickups in its small overlap test and only three earned a “good” rating; the Ford F-150, Nissan Titan and Ram 1500. The majority of the trucks earned a “acceptable” or “marginal” rating, but the Toyota Tundra was the only one to receive a “poor” rating. The IIHS says “pickups took longer than other vehicle categories to meet the Institute’s challenge for driver-side small overlap protection, so it’s no surprise that they are lagging a bit in the newer passenger-side evaluation.”
OUR 2019 CHEVY BLAZER IMPRESSIONS
We just got a chance to drive the 2019 Chevy Blazer and since it’s an all-new vehicle, we thought we’d share some of our impressions. When it comes to ride and handling, Chevy nailed it. And you know it in the first 100 yards of driving. The Blazer is also impressively quiet on the highway and we found the optional 3.6L V6 to be surprisingly responsive. And here’s something we found kind of clever. Puddle lights normally shine down from the side-view mirrors, but on the Blazer it shines down from the rear bumper, more toward the driver’s side. It’s actually marking where you need to kick your foot to open the hands-free liftgate. Overall the interior is ok. We like the large center vents with the outside bezel that spins to adjust the temperature, but the other control buttons are small and shoved right below the infotainment screen, which can make them hard to read and push when driving down the road. And as a taller person I found the bottom seat cushions to be too short and not very supportive of my legs. Our test vehicle was a bit pricey at nearly $47,000, but we think your local retailer will be ready to make a deal.
And don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon. We’ll be taking a dive into the glory days of General Motors with Greg Wallace, who used to work at the company’s Heritage Center. That’s today at 3PM eastern time on our website and YouTube channel.
The supplier Magna has created a prototype with 10 different drivetrain combinations. We’ll tell you why right after this.
MAGNA BUILDS THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF PROTOTYPES
Suppliers like to build prototypes to show car companies the new technology they’ve developed. But building prototypes can be expensive. And demonstrating different technologies in different vehicles can be time consuming. So Magna built an intriguing prototype that incorporates 10 different drivetrain combinations in one car.
Walter Sackl, Director Global Product Management, Magna Powertrain
“We wanted to ensure that, we ourselves, but also our customers get a fairly good understanding about the potential of scalability with just one car. So, it represents more or less 10 different types of architectures in one car.”
The car is a BMW 218i, which is sold in Europe and China. But Magna now calls it the e2 prototype because they made so many changes to the drive train.
Walter Sackl, Director Global Product Management, Magna Powertrain
“So, it starts with the standard ICE combined with the main transmission, a dual clutch transmission, fairly comfortable 7-speed and goes up to high performance plug-in hybrid versions, including torque vectoring. So, all the levers of electrification, from mild-hybrid through plug-in hybrid, up to BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) represented power, we can show in that car.”
The e2 can operate in front wheel drive, with the expected wheel spin.
Or it can operate in all wheel drive, with much better acceleration.
But the real benefits of driving in all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring is seen in how stable the e2 is on a skid pad on a frozen lake. The car is impressively neutral, not exhibiting understeer or oversteer.
Walter Sackl explains why the e2 feels so stable driving on ice.
“Why? Because it combines the mechanically torque vectoring solution with the electric drive, which opens us new ability to control the car. Electric drive has higher accuracy but also higher performance in terms of controllability. And that, combined with the torque vectoring style, gives us a real asset in the future ability of providing fun to drive to the customer.”
Magna’s strategy is to demonstrate modular and scalable technology. It can keep adding modules to get different powertrain solutions.
But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (39)
March 21st, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Love Sean’s driving impressions. He should do one a week and make them longer.
Pat
March 21st, 2019 at 12:30 pm
It has been several days since we had any more news stories from 0.5% share joke Volvo, so it figures today we were hammered by not just one but two of them. I always say the PR guy at Chinese-Owned Geely- Volvo deserves a big raise, not because I am impressed by any of the substance of their PR spiels, but because they always succeed, despite their pitiful 0.5% (and falling) market share, to seem like they are an important player.
March 21st, 2019 at 12:33 pm
So Volvo hopes to make its own EVs competitive in 2025 or whatever by a combination of savings (reduced cost of its EV components) and incompetence (decreased margins of its ICE vehicles) lol. Sounds like some idiotic Egalitarian socialist theory to me. When pigs fly.
March 21st, 2019 at 12:44 pm
Adding stiffness to large mass vehicles for IIHS’s flawed Small Overlap Rigid Barrier test is not always a good thing. That stiffness increases occupant-felt crash energy. Shame on IIHS.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:03 pm
4 Intrusion into the passenger space is a lot of what they are looking for, not just “stiffness.” The Tundra had lots of intrusion into foot space, and the A pillar moved into the passenger space. That vehicle is an old design. I suspect the next one will do much better.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:22 pm
So Sean what are the dimensional differences of the Blazer compared to the Equinox and Acadia. They all look so similar in size and in fact the Blazer looks like it could have just been a next generation Acadia. Guess you cant have too many SUVs in your lineup right now.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:26 pm
6 I’m curious to see if pure EV buyers have the same strong preference for SUVs over cars that ICE buyers have. So far there are few true EV SUVs, the Tesla X and Y are more like crossovery-minivanny-coupey than Jeeps.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:27 pm
IIHS says trucks need better passenger side protection based off what statistic? Or just based off their test results. Cause I could test a vehicle for RPG attacks and they will probably fail miserably but does that mean there is really a problem?
March 21st, 2019 at 1:29 pm
The Blazer is closer to the size of the XT5 (Cadillac); the Acadia shares the platform but is stretched, the Equinox uses a different platform (pretty sure of that). The Blazer offers the 3.6, which the Equinox doesn’t so it has that going for it. I’ve seen it in person and it looks better than the pictures. The one I saw was the Premier model and listed for right at 49 thou (but was just about loaded).
March 21st, 2019 at 1:37 pm
I’m not a fan of the IIHS. Too many cooks spoil the broth. It should be between the Automakers and the Government safety agencies.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:46 pm
9 Thanks Chuck sounds like that’s right in between the Acadia and Equinox in size and yea that 3.6L is a great motor. I have a 2012 version rated a 305hp so I wonder if after 7 years they got more out of it.
March 21st, 2019 at 1:57 pm
11 How many cars and trucks do you own? You said you had a Ram and a CTS coupe. Is the engine in the CTS the one you mention or do you also have some GM SUV. Any others?
March 21st, 2019 at 2:11 pm
I wonder what Chevy was originally going to call the Blazer? It seems damn funny that there was no talk of Chevy bringing back the name until it showed up just before the much publicized return of the Bronco. I saw it at the Philly car show and really Meh, there was nothing to distinguish it from the other SUVs in the Chevy line up. It’s a decent looking vehicle ,but almost every single person that has talked about it says ” yeah ,but that’s not a real Blazer. Maybe they are afraid of going retro with the styling as it appears that Ford may do. Chevys retro styling attempts have gotten mixed reviews of how good they did.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:23 pm
6, 9, 11
From the CR web site. I don’t know how this will display here.
L WB W H
Equinox 183 107 73 65
Blazer 191 113 77 67
Acadia 194 113 75 66
XT5 190 113 75 66
March 21st, 2019 at 2:27 pm
11 The power rating of the current 3.6 varies a little by application. It’s 335 in the Camaro, and, I think, 310 in most of the CUVs. Two friends have Camaros with that engine, and really like them.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:31 pm
14 much bigger than the Equinox, closest in size to the CT5.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:35 pm
xt5, not ct5 in 15. We would really appreciate it if we can edit our posts here, and, in my case, if we could post photos like in FB and similar sites. I have close to 10,000 photos of some really amazing cars, incl over 2,000 Mercs, 1,200 Rollses and about 800 Bentleys, but many other historic makes too, going as early as the 1910s.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:39 pm
17 Put your photos on flickr or a similar site, and post a link here.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:42 pm
18 don’t know what this is. I have photos in FB but most are in car groups you need to be a member to see.
March 21st, 2019 at 2:44 pm
14 Also, the Blazer is a lot heavier than the Equinox, 4200 lb. vs 3540.
March 21st, 2019 at 3:07 pm
Flickr is a photo sharing site that was owned by Yahoo, but I think was sold to maybe Verizon. It has “everything,” including “adult” content that wouldn’t be allowed on facebook, but has a relatively simple interface for sharing photos, and is good for sharing car photos.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitgerhart/
I have only a few photos, and was too lazy to caption most of them.
March 21st, 2019 at 5:32 pm
21 is mostly a reply to 19.
March 21st, 2019 at 6:11 pm
Nice pics Kit. Is the white Vette yours; nice (and a little jealous).
March 21st, 2019 at 7:12 pm
Yep, the white ‘Vette is mine, and the green C4 is the one I had for a couple years.
March 21st, 2019 at 7:15 pm
Some of the Stutzes and Marmons came from a long way off, to national “home coming” events in Indiana. There are very few events like that.
March 21st, 2019 at 9:24 pm
23 I really like the white with red interior for the Corvette, but it seems like few are ordered that way. Mine is a base 1LT, so only the seats are red, and the rest of the interior is black. Higher trim levels have extra red bits with the red interior. The 3LT has a red dash top, a bit much red for my tastes. What color is your XT5?
March 22nd, 2019 at 7:06 am
26, My XT5 is the white pearl with a light (cream) interior. Living in the south I like a light interior and exterior (helps a little with the heat).
I also had a C4; it was an ’84, red exterior with black interior, cross-fire injection (not as bad as some say, good torque, just got winded when pushed). It had the Z51 suspension so it rode a little rough but handled pretty good for the era too. Bought it used and sold it when the kids went to college (and I needed another more practical vehicle) but at least I can say I had one.
March 22nd, 2019 at 8:00 am
21 Thanks, good bunch of photos.
27 That’s the reason I am stuck with the 2nd diesel in the US, I thought that the first one I bought north of Indianapolis, with its black interior, would be too warm in the summer overseas, and bought a 2nd one from Columbus OH, also a (very unusual, striking) white exterior with a beige -like interior.
March 22nd, 2019 at 8:03 am
26 that combi was quite popular with the early Corvettes of the 50s.
March 22nd, 2019 at 8:25 am
29 Yep. In fact, I think is was the only combination for the few hundred 1953 Corvettes.
March 22nd, 2019 at 8:34 am
27, My C4 was a 1996, with Z51. My medium green 1974 Plymouth Duster, which I ordered, had a white interior with bucket seats, vinyl, of course. It had a slant six, with a 3-speed manual on the floor. The $30 floor shift option also included a different transmission that included synchro 1st gear.
March 22nd, 2019 at 8:49 am
12 Just the Ram and the CTS and yea the CTS has the 3.6L.
14 That seems crazy that there isn’t one dimension that more than 3 inches different from the Acadia. The Blazer is actually wider and taller but just 3 inches shorter. I would assume they wont be offering a third row like they do in the Acadia.
13 I really wanted the Blazer to come back out with a removable top. Didn’t even care so much about retro styled but that was a feature that would compete with Jeep and make it very unique. However I don’t suppose even many Jeep owners remove the hard top very often. If they do they most likely have a soft top. GM could have offered both though and tons of aftermarket parts like Jeep.
March 22nd, 2019 at 9:46 am
Our +Dept used to own a van (Ford Econoline I believe) that could carry 12-15 passengers, and I borrowed it once or twice for errands. Two things that amazed me with it was one, how it rattled, really loose, no rigidity, and, even more amazing, how high the driver’s seat was, I would look down on not only Escalades and Navigators but all kinds of pickup trucks too.
March 22nd, 2019 at 10:38 am
Those vans are tall, with a floor high enough to clear the drive shaft, suspension, etc. to provide a completely flat floor. They are probably easier to roll than about any vehicle since a Samurai or CJ-5.
March 22nd, 2019 at 10:59 am
30, Correct, ’53 there were only 300 Corvettes made; all were white with red interior.
March 22nd, 2019 at 11:13 am
34 Advantage, FWD! or even bigger advantage will be EV.
March 22nd, 2019 at 11:21 am
36 Yep, and with an EV version, the center of gravity would be much lower.
March 22nd, 2019 at 11:32 am
36,37 And if they tie the battery pack into the structure (stressed member, those battery packs are stiff) and much more rigid too.
March 23rd, 2019 at 11:03 pm
Caddy’s XT4 has a similar bumper light, with their shield instead of the Bow Tie of course. I wish my new QX50 had that.