ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Bollinger Motors is about to shift into drive. With the majority of the engineering complete on Bollinger’s first commercial product, a battery-powered Class 4 chassis cab, final testing is underway. Bollinger’s marketing team is about to hit the road to book orders ahead of the planned start of production in the
DETROIT — After Hurricane Idalia pummeled Florida in August, about 300 flood-damaged Teslas were sold during an insurance auction. Within days, two burned to the ground, said Dalan Zartman, COO of Energy Security Agency, a Piqua, Ohio, company that trains first responders to combat EV fires. Those developments underscored what Zartman and others on a
What automakers are learning about electric vehicles, veterans of Weight Watchers already know: It’s hard to keep the pounds off once you’ve lost them. EVs are posting eye-popping curb weights, wiping out the lightweighting progress automakers have made in the past decade. The heavy batteries required to provide hundreds of miles of range are the
Buyers plying the online forums for Rivian’s electric pickup and SUV frequently mention a common complaint — the tires wear out too quickly. One Colorado Rivian driver loaded his truck with two motorcycles and hit the road. About 6,000 miles later, nearly a tenth of an inch of rubber had worn off his front tires.
Aston Martin is adding a convertible version of the DB12, the Volante, late this year. The car is powered by a 671-hp twin-turbo V-8. Its top speed is 202 mph. As with the hardtop version, Aston engineers made a host of improvements from the vehicle’s former iteration as the DB11. The aluminum-bonded body and chassis
Before the end of the year, JLR says it will give an early look at the first of three new all-electric Jaguars that will begin appearing in 2025. Although JLR officials updated the progress on their plan to reinvent Jaguar as a low-volume, super-premium luxury brand cast more in the mold of Bentley and Aston
With a lineup of only SUVs and crossovers, Land Rover must move into electrification with surgical precision. Vehicles such as the Defender are engineered for off-road use, and many are used for overlanding. The $100,000 Range Rover already has a gross vehicle weight of nearly 7,400 pounds, and the upcoming battery-electric model won’t weigh any
When Jaguar completes its transition to an all-EV brand, a famous part of the storied British brand’s heritage — the snarling exhaust tones from its high-performance engines — will fade into memory. But Jaguar officials recently ensured that the sound of a Jaguar sports car engine will never completely disappear. Engineers at the company’s technical
Mazda is dropping two vehicles from its U.S. lineup after the 2023 model year, the MX-30 — its first electric vehicle — and the CX-9 large crossover. For now, Mazda is focusing on gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles instead of EVs. Three hybrid crossovers, the CX-50 and CX-90 that are already on sale, and the CX-70 that
French engineer Francois Castaing, along with product development ace Bob Lutz, design chief Tom Gale and several other key executives were part of a dream team of brash, scrappy leaders that turned Chrysler into America’s hottest car company in the 1990s. Castaing was just 35 when he was dispatched to the U.S. in 1980 by
