1979 El Caimno on 2040-cars

Auto blog

1 in 7 Americans say they might buy an EV next, as sales of electrics surge

About one in seven driving Americans may likely purchase an electric vehicle as their next car, according to an AAA poll, meaning that as many as 30 million Americans may pony up for an EV within the next three to five years. While some of the motivation is environmental, survey recipients say that lower maintenance expenses and solo access to high-occupancy-vehicle lanes are also among the factors behind potentially going electric. Take a look at the AAA press release on the study here. The poll indicates that about as many people are planning to buy an EV for their next car as are looking to buy a pickup, which is impressive given that the best-selling US vehicle is the Ford F-150. And things should only improve, as about 20 percent of millennials polled said that their next car would probably be an EV. The results are all the more encouraging, at least among green-car advocates, because gas prices have fallen about 40 percent within the past five years, meaning that there's less of an incentive to go electric from a purely economic perspective. Through the first quarter of this year, US plug-in vehicle sales were up about 63 percent from a year earlier to about 39,000 vehicles. Meanwhile, when it came to AAA's annual green-vehicle awards for this year, Tesla's Model S and Model X took the large car and SUV categories, respectively, while the Chevrolet Bolt and Volkswagen e-Golf were listed atop the subcompact and compact lists. The Lexus GS 450h hybrid and the Ford F-150 took home AAA's best green vehicle in the midsize and pickup truck categories. Related Video:

Corvette racer Gavin confirms Grand Sport debut in Geneva

Need further proof that Chevrolet is trying to turn the Corvette into a truly globe-spanning sports car? Then check out this Instagram post from Corvette Racing's Oliver Gavin that shows a new Grand Sport model will debut not at Detroit, or Los Angeles, or even New York, but at Geneva. In Switzerland. That's in Europe, land of Bugatti, Porsche, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Gavin hasn't deleted the image as of this writing, but is probably getting an earful from his Chevrolet handlers at this moment. His post shows a number of press materials, including a schedule for Chevrolet's press conference, slated for late tomorrow morning (Geneva time, of course). Gavin will be handling the introduction at the Palexpo, and he'll be joined by Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter, who according to the materials will be driving the new Grand Sport on stage. It's a bold move on the part of Chevrolet, showing its homespun Kentucky-built Corvette alongside debuts like the Bugatti Chiron and Aston Martin DB11. But while we now know that the Grand Sport is coming tomorrow, our next question moves on to how it will look and perform. Will Chevy revive the classic Grand Sport color scheme – a single wide, white stripe on an Admiral Blue body with two red accents on the driver's front fender – or follow the example set by the C6, which went for a subtler look with classic Cunningham-like stripes? Will there be any performance advantages over the standard model? Perhaps less weight and a smidge more power? Chevy's Geneva presser kicks off at 10:45 a.m. or 4:45 a.m. here on America's east coast. We'll be on hand both in Geneva and here at home to cover all the excitement, so check back then. And bring coffee. Related Video:

GM's Buckle to Drive teen safety feature comes to more models for 2021

In 2014, GM announced a feature called "Belt Assurance," which would prevent a vehicle from being shifted out of park until the driver and front passenger had buckled their seatbelts. Initially launched on certain fleet vehicles in 2014, the feature rolled out as a free option on the 2015 GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Colorado, Cruze and Silverado. At the time, GM said it would push Belt Assurance to more models if customers took to it. That appears to have happened; come 2019, GM repackaged Belt Assurance as Buckle to Drive, part of the automaker's Teen Driver System that bundled tech such as geofencing and speed limit warnings to help parents keep track of their children's driving habits. In that implementation, the system only works when Teen Driver Mode is activated, locking out the shifter and muting the radio for 20 seconds or until the seatbelts are buckled, whichever comes first. The system shows a visual warning in the gauge cluster, too.  For this model year, the Teen Driver System came standard on 10 Chevy models, but Buckle to Drive was only allotted to the Colorado, Malibu and Traverse. Later this year, the 2021 Camaro will join the Chevys outfitted with the Teen Driver System and will get Buckle to Drive in addition. GM Authority reports that for the 2021 model year, Buckle to Drive will also be picked up by the Cadillac CT4 and CT5. Previously, the Cadillac ATS, CTS, Escalade and XTS came with the Teen Driver System, but three out of those four vehicles are no more, and the 2021 Escalade makes no mention of the Teen Driver System nor Buckle to Drive among its safety features. Elsewhere around the GM empire, the Buick Envision and Encore GX include the Teen Driver System, as do six GMC vehicles, but it's not clear when any will be upgraded with Buckle to Drive. The tech could help save numerous teenagers' lives. On its page of teen crash facts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes that roughly 300,000 teens between the ages of 16 and 19 ended up in emergency rooms to treat crash injuries in 2017. Furthermore, "only 58.8% of high school students always wore seat belts when riding as passengers," and, "Among young drivers aged 15-20 who died in car crashes in 2017, almost half were unrestrained at the time of the crash (when restraint use was known)." Related Video: