Author: EVAI
IBM’s Maximo helps prevent production snags by predicting when machinery needs maintenance
IBM has been expanding Maximo’s capabilities to monitor the health of production machinery and tooling by using data to predict when critical maintenance is needed. The goal: Prevent unplanned downtime.
Modern Renault 4 debuts at 2024 Paris auto show
Renault used this week’s 2024 Paris auto show to debut the 4 E-Tech electric subcompact crossover. The crossover serves as a spiritual successor to the popular Renault 4. Renault also launched a modern 5 electric hatchback earlier this year, making it another iconic model from the French brand’s past that has been reborn for the electric era. The…
Honda recalls hybrids due to possible fuel leaks
Honda is recalling approximately 720,000 vehicles in the U.S.—including several hybrid models—due to fuel pumps that may crack and leak. The automaker announced that recall Tuesday, noting that 2023-2024 Accord and Accord Hybrid sedans, 2025 Civic and Civic Hybrid sedans, and 2023-2025 CR-V Hybrid crossovers were included. But it…
Honda recalls 720,000 vehicles over cracked fuel pumps
Honda is recalling approximately 720,000 vehicles in the U.S. because they may have defective fuel pumps. The pumps in question were manufactured with defective cores, which could allow cracks to form inside the pump due to the high pressure of fuel flowing through it, Honda said. These cracks can grow enough to cause fuel leaks, which could…
Report: Apple worked with China’s BYD to develop EV batteries
Prior to ending its much-discussed electric-vehicle project, Apple worked with Chinese automaker BYD on batteries, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
A partnership between the two companies started around 2017, according to the report, with the goal of developing lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells for the Apple car. BYD has much experience with this tech, claiming cooling and safety improvements for its Blade battery introduced in 2020.
BYD Han EV
Apple reportedly assigned Alexander Hitzinger to the effort. Hitzinger was technical director of the Porsche 919 hybrid race-car project before joining Apple as head of product design for its special projects group, a position he held from 2016 to 2019 before returning to the Volkswagen Group, where he worked on autonomous driving and an Audi EV project.
The team also reportedly included 50 engineers led by Apple’s Mujeeb Ijaz, with Michael He, Vice President of BYD’s battery business, representing that company. A larger team, rumored to be about 2,000 people, worked on the car project itself. Sometimes referred to as “Project Titan,” had been discussed in media reports since 2014, although little concrete information was ever released.
BYD Han EV
Apple reportedly moved away from the partnership and began exploring battery tech from other companies. Two reports in 2021 claimed Apple was seeking LFP batteries from both BYD and fellow Chinese firm CATL, with possible U.S. manufacturing. Reports in December 2020 also claimed Apple was pursuing a “monocell” design for batteries that freed up more space.
After reportedly being scaled back to a basic vehicle without previously-hoped-for autonomous driving, Apple cancelled the electric car project earlier this year. Apple’s further involvement in the auto industry will likely be limited to the CarPlay phone-mirroring system it currently supplies to automakers.
California police call EVs “nearly unusable”
- California police forces are seeing the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y as too tight for police duty
- There’s no official Tesla police package, and few other EV options
- Police-duty F-150 Lightning pickups have been better received—and other patrol EVs are on the way
Tesla electric cars have convinced many civilians to make the switch from internal combustion, but they aren’t winning many fans at police departments.
Electric police cars are starting to appear in greater numbers in California, which aims to phase out sales of most new cars with combustion engines by 2035. SF Gate recently interviewed police chiefs from three Northern California cities, who highlighted numerous issues with the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y as patrol cars.
Most automakers develop police packages for existing passenger cars, but Tesla hasn’t done so. Instead, the California police departments bought standard Teslas and had them converted by aftermarket companies, making them effectively custom jobs. In the case of the Ukiah Police Department, that meant relying on aftermarket firm Unplugged Performance, located about 500 miles from its headquarters.
Tesla Model Y police car by Unplugged Performance
While it’s possible to equip them with lights, radios, and other police equipment, the Model 3 and Model Y lack the interior space for police work, according to the report. One police chief told SF Gate that the Model 3 only had room in the back for one prisoner, while another said the tight fit for officers wearing duty belts and bullet-resistant vests made Model Y patrol cars “nearly unusable.”
California cops aren’t the only ones dissatisfied with Tesla police cars. In 2022, two Spokane Police Department Model Y crossovers received “scathing reviews” from officers. That police departments are still turning to Tesla highlights the lack of options for fully electric police vehicles, but more choices are becoming available.
The Fort Bragg Police Department gave its F-150 Lightning pickup trucks a more positive review. It’s acquired five since 2022—on its own initiative, rather than via a government mandate—and they were cheaper than replacing decommissioned police cars with gasoline vehicles due to incentives, the department’s chief told SF Gate. Fort Bragg plans to make its nine-vehicle fleet all electric within two years.
2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV
The F-150 doesn’t have the space issues of the Model 3 and Model Y. Its bed can be used to store equipment or the abandoned bicycles and shopping carts cops are sometimes tasked with picking up. The Ford is also a known quantity to both aftermarket equipment suppliers, so maintenance and repairs are less of a challenge.
More EVs are also reporting for police duty. Another California police department—in the City of Irvine—recently took delivery of a Tesla Cybertruck. And Stellantis has teased a Dodge Charger Daytona police car, likely in a bid to maintain the police business from the previous-generation Charger sedan.
Mexico’s own EVs could rival India and China, face Trump trade rules
- Mexico is aiming to develop its own EV manufacturing and supply chain
- At present, global automakers’ Mexico plants assemble EVs and other vehicles for the U.S.
- The push could be a preemptive move vs. Trump tariff policy
Mexico is developing a small electric car to rival cheap imports from China and India.
In her Oct. 1 inaugural address, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said prototypes of the EV had already been built, Bloomberg reports. The project, dubbed Olinia, aims to develop domestic supply chains for EV-related components.
“We are going to generate supply chains so that everything that is in the electric car is manufactured in the country and we import as little as possible,” Sheinbaum told Bloomberg and other media outlets in a briefing.
BYD Dolphin EV – Euro spec
Sheinbaum didn’t name specific companies that would be involved in the project, the report noted, but said there were already several in Mexico manufacturing components such as electric motors, and that “the idea is to bring them together with Mexican researchers so that they can assemble this electric vehicle.”
The all-Mexican EV would likely compete with Indian imports, which are being used as taxis in parts of southern Mexico, as well as low-cost Chinese imports from automakers like BYD, which is looking to increase sales in Mexico even as top officials pledge to curtail Asian imports, Bloomberg noted.
Right now, Mexico builds hundreds of thousands of U.S.-bound vehicles annually, but it buys few of them— especially EVs. GM invested big in its Mexico plant as a hub for EV assembly, and BMW is expanding its Mexico plant to manufacture EVs starting in 2027. Meanwhile Tesla was considering Mexico but now appears to have snubbed it.
BMW Group Plant San Luis Potosí in Mexico
It’s unclear if a small EV designed to compete against the cheapest Indian and Chinese models would be a viable product in the U.S., but if it were sold here it could face incredibly steep tariffs depending on the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Donald Trump has promised a 100% tariff on Mexico-built vehicles sent to the U.S.—EVs or not. Trump’s policy also hints at dissolving what was once known as NAFTA. Are Mexico’s moves preemptive? While Mexico’s new president hasn’t called that out specifically, it’s hard to imagine not.
Ford Mustang GTD likely lapped the ‘Ring in under 7 minutes
One of Ford’s goals for the Mustang GTD was a Nürburgring lap time of under seven minutes Hardcore Mustang benefits from 815 hp, Multimatic suspension, and F1-inspired aerodynamics Prices expected to start around $325,000 Ford is on a mission to lap Germany’s Nürburgring racetrack in a time of less than seven minutes using the Mustang…