Listen to “AD #3171 – Lucid Kicks Off Production; GM Making 1st BrightDrop Vans; Citroen Has Wild Vision of Future Mobility” on Spreaker.
Follow us on social media:
Runtime: 8:58
0:07 Ford Asks Salaried Workers for Vaccination Status
0:59 Hyundai Launching EV Innovation Challenge
1:43 Lucid Kicks Off Production
3:03 GM Making 1st BrightDrop Vans
3:55 Jeep Reveals All-New Grand Cherokee
6:17 Citroen Has Wild Vision of Future Mobility
7:38 Mystery Car is An Old Toyota
Visit our sponsors to thank them for their support of Autoline Daily: Bridgestone, Intrepid Control Systems, Magna and Schaeffler.
This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
FORD ASKS SALARIED WORKERS FOR VACCINATION STATUS
Ford is mandating salaried employees in the U.S. report their vaccination status by the end of next week. It’s also asking union members to do the same but on a voluntary basis. The automaker is asking employees to reveal their status in order to comply with President Biden’s mandate that says companies with over 100 employees must be vaccinated or tested for the virus. Last month, General Motors also asked salaried employees in the U.S. to report their vaccine status to the company and is working with the UAW to get union members vaccinated. Employees have until this Friday to report their status and those that don’t risk losing a portion of their performance bonus. So far, GM says nearly all of its salaried workers have done so and only a handful have not.
HYUNDAI LAUNCHES EV INNOVATION CHALLENGE
The U.S. EV charging infrastructure lags well behind Europe and China. So in order to improve it, the Hyundai Group is launching the 2021 EV Open Innovation Challenge, where it will collaborate with startups in EV charging and services. The startups can apply for a project in one of nine categories including, bi-directional charging, smart charging, robotics, infrastructure, in-car payment, service while charging, battery management system, gig economy and new technology. The goal is to explore commercial opportunities and launch pilot programs in North America, in order to improve the charging infrastructure.
LUCID KICKS OFF PRODUCTION
EV startup Lucid Motors hit a major milestone by kicking off production of its Air sedan at its plant in Arizona. The company will start delivering the car to customers beginning next month. So far, Lucid says it has 13,000 reservations for the Air. Earlier this month, the model received an EPA rated 520 miles of range, by far the longest range of any EV on the market.
GM STARTS MAKING 1ST BRIGHTDROP VANS
General Motors is making impressive progress with its all-electric commercial vehicle startup, BrightDrop. The automaker announced it built its first production versions of the EV600 van, which will be delivered to FedEx before the end of the year. GM says it developed the EV600 in just 20 months, a record for the company. It also revealed the second model in BrightDrop’s lineup, a medium-sized commercial van called the EV410. Verizon will be the first customer to receive the van. Like the EV600, the 410 is expected to have a range of 250 miles. It will go into production in 2023 at GM’s CAMI plant in Ontario, Canada. That factory will also build the EV600 starting at the end of 2022.
JEEP REVEALS ALL-NEW GRAND CHEROKEE
Jeep revealed the all-new Grand Cherokee, but since we’ve already gone through the design changes and upgrades with the Grand Cherokee L, we’re going to stick to the one thing we haven’t been able to provide any information on, the 4xe model. Like the L, the Grand Cherokee will have a 3.6L V6 and 5.7L V8 engine options, but it also has a plug-in hybrid option. The 4xe combines a 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, 8-speed automatic trans, two electric motors and a 400-volt 17 kWh battery pack. The setup produces a total of 375 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. It also has the ability to tow 6,000 pounds, travel an estimated 25 miles or 40 km on a charge and get up 57 MPGe. Jeep even says the Trailhawk version of the 4xe was able to complete the Rubicon Trail in full-electric operation. The new Grand Cherokee goes on sale in the U.S. before the end of the year. The 4xe hits the U.S. market early next year and then launches to other global regions after that.
Race cars without drivers doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. But the Indy Autonomous Challenge that takes place at the Brickyard at the end of October is not about replacing drivers, it’s about finding extreme edge cases in autonomy. That’s going to be one of the topics on Autoline After Hours this Thursday. Also, Michael Sprague, who runs Lincoln in North America will be on the show. So join John and Gary for an insider’s view of what’s going on in the automotive industry.
CITROEN HAS WILD MOBILITY CONCEPT
Citroen has an interesting vision of what future mobility could look like. It designed an electric and autonomous platform, called the Citroen Skate, that would be able to accommodate a number of different transportation pods, depending on what the user is doing. It shows how you could lounge around, spend time with the family or even get in a workout. The Citroen Skate is meant to travel in dedicated lanes, which it says could increase what it calls traffic fluidity by 35%, but it’s only capable of reaching speeds of 25 km/h or about 15.5 MPH. But the good news is, it only takes 10 seconds to change out a pod and it can move in any direction with a spherical tire system designed by Goodyear. Citroen also seems to have a logical approach to make something like this happen. It sounds like it wants to make the skateboard and the pods, but have the cost of the pods be paid for by targeted companies. For example, a furniture store would pay for the lounge pod or a gym sponsor the workout one. It could even expand into areas like package delivery or maybe even a food truck. The Citroen Skate is a pretty radical idea, but what do you think? Could this be the future of mobility?
MYSTERY CAR IS AN OLD TOYOTA
Over the years we’ve asked you to help identify some really difficult vehicles, but you all treated yesterday’s mystery car like a professional baseball player going back to tee-ball. We set it up for you and you easily crushed it out of the park. We got so many responses that this is a Toyota Celica GT from the 1970’s and we’ll also note this seems to specifically be a liftback version. The Celica was first offered in 1970 and while the license plate says 1974, it doesn’t have some of the changes that were made that year, including the federally mandated 5 MPH bumpers. It’s very possible the owner adopted older bumpers and as we noted yesterday it clearly has a number of other upgrades. Thanks to everyone that submitted an answer.
But that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.