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Saturday, July 10, 2021
Welcome Home to Hawks Hill Car Collector Community
Friday, July 9, 2021
Stellantis spells out its EV plans for the future
| If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.  This week Porsche said it wants all of its suppliers to switch to renewable energy, Polestar brought the Polestar 2 to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and an EV truck startup you may not have heard about will have Pininfarina design its truck. But first:  This week it was Stellantis' turn to lay out its electrification strategy. Up until now, we haven't heard much from the FCA and PSA brands on their future EV offerings for North America. That all changed this week when Ram announced that it would begin production of a battery-electric version of its popular 1500 pickup by 2024. What's more, the brand plans to offer battery-electric versions in the majority of its segments by 2025, ahead of rolling out electric versions in all of the segments it covers by 2030. The automaker showed a shadowy teaser image of the truck wearing wraparound LED shades and a rakish windshield, perhaps previewing a concept vehicle we could see sometime in 2023, a year before production starts.  Jeep took the wraps off the 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe this week. Jeep rolled out its own electrification plans during Stellantis' EV day, promising a zero-emission 4xe version of every model by 2025, and revealed the Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid for the 2022 model year. This model will follow in the footsteps of the Wrangler 4xe PHEV, which offers a combined 375 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque. But the automaker also showed a glimpse of an entirely new model, one that is expected to be battery-electric. What could it be called?  Dodge showed a teaser image of a future EV, but will this be a coupe or a sedan? Not to be upstaged, Dodge revealed plans for its own battery-electric muscle car, also due in 2024. The performance-oriented brand shared an image of a Challenger-shaped passenger model in a not-too-subtle, cyberpunk-style hint at just what we could see in a few years. However, as with the electric Ram 1500, the automaker did not share any expected specs or a name for the model. "Our engineers are reaching a practical limit of what we can squeeze from internal combustion innovation," Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said during the presentation. "They know—we know—that electric motors can give us more. And if we know of a technology that can give our customers an advantage, we have an obligation to embrace it. Whatever it takes to keep them in the lead." One of the questions that remains about Dodge's upcoming EV: Will it be a sedan or a coupe?    The very first plant among Stellantis brands to produce only battery-electric vehicles will be the Ellesmere Port factory in the U.K. Starting later this year, it will produce electric passenger and commercial vans for four different brands.  Porsche itself has already achieved a carbon-neutral status in the production of the Taycan and four other models, and is on its way to achieve this status for all of its offerings. But what about some 1,300 suppliers that build parts for Porsche cars? The automaker wants them to switch to renewable energy as well, and says it won't consider them for future contracts if they don't implement appropriate changes.   Spread the word: If you know someone interested in staying on top of the rapidly growing EV segment, feel free to pass this newsletter along.
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