1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee on 2040-cars

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Stellantis to offer electric versions of most of its European lineup by 2025

Newly merged automaker conglomerate Stellantis will offer electric versions of almost all of its European lineup by 2025, it said on Thursday, as the auto industry faces regulatory pushes in Europe and China to accelerate the shift to zero-emission cars. Formed in January by the merger of France's PSA and Italian-American group Fiat Chrysler, Stellantis is the world’s fourth largest carmaker with 14 brands including Opel, Jeep, Ram and Maserati, and like its peers faces an investor community keen for a road map to an electric lineup to rival Tesla . Speaking during Stellantis' first annual shareholders meeting, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said that in 2021 the carmaker expects sales of electrified vehicles — that is, both plug-in hybrids and fully electric models — to more than triple to over 400,000 units in 2021. By 2025, electrified vehicles should make up 38% of European sales, a huge jump from the 14% of sales it expects in 2021. Tavares said by 2030 electric models should make up 70% of European sales and 35% of U.S. sales. He said Stellantis will use four electric platforms for passenger vehicles across its 14-brand empire — small, medium and large sizes for cars, and "frame" for high-margin SUVs and pickup trucks. Sweden's Volvo said this month its lineup would be fully electric by 2030, and Ford Motor Co said in February its lineup in Europe would be too. BMW has said at least 50% of its car sales should be fully-electric models by 2030. Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in the European Union almost trebled to over 1 million vehicles last year, accounting for more than 10% of overall sales. Green Alfa Romeo Fiat Jeep Maserati Citroen Lancia Opel Peugeot Vauxhall Electric Hybrid Stellantis

Buyers ditching expensive European sedans to buy expensive American trucks

The New York Times ended the automotive week with a story that adds numbers and context to a range of other stories, from the crossover craze to the increasing median price of a new car to ever more grandiose pickup trucks. The NYT piece reveals that the shift to larger vehicles isn't merely about the average U.S. buyer swapping the midsize sedan for a Ford Edge. Luxury buyers are migrating from plush sedans to plush SUVs and trucks that creep close to six-figure prices, and the Detroit Three are running Treasury presses because of it. From 2013 to 2017, the truck category — everything from pickups to minivans — climbed from 30 percent of the market to 41 percent. In January of this year, trucks claimed 66 percent of new vehicle sales. At the milk-and-honey end of profits, GMC alone accounted for 11.3 percent of all vehicle sales over $60,000, not just trucks. That puts the luxury truck maker behind Mercedes-Benz and Ford, The Blue Oval's feasting on Lariat, King Ranch and Raptor versions of the F-150, which make up more than half of that pickup's sales, putting it ahead of Chevrolet, Porsche and Lexus on the high-dollar sales list. The average transaction price of a GMC in Denali trim last year was $56,000; it's easy to see why, when one dealer told the NYT he just swapped a 2012 BMW 550i for a $71,000 GMC Sierra Denali. That truck starts at $52,900. The NYT started its story with a buyer who took home a Ford Raptor instead of an Audi A6, and optioned that $50,020 Ford Raptor close to $80,000. Over at Lincoln, the new $72,055 Navigator — the one so popular that Ford will increase production — crossed hands for an average sale price of $77,000 in January. And a Jeep dealer told the NYT that the two $93,000 Trackhawks he had on his lot "won't be here more than a few weeks." While trucks head up in sales volume and price, cars are headed so viciously in the opposite direction that "the Detroit Three and even some foreign manufacturers acknowledge they are now losing money on many of the cars they sell." So ... get ready for a lot more crossovers and trucks. Related Video: Find out what vehicle is right for you. Give our Car Finder tool a try.

Supplier says Jeep Cherokee hack only affects FCA cars

Harman doesn't think that drivers need to worry about any further hacks of its products. The company supplies FCA's Uconnect infotainment system where a software vulnerability is responsible for a 1.4-million vehicle recall. "This experimental hack is unique to Chrysler," Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal said to Automotive News. "This does not exist, to our assessment, in any other vehicle." The reason that the company wouldn't be involved is that automakers aren't simply plugging in the existing infotainment systems into new vehicles. According to Paliwal, Harman supplies the unit, but FCA and other automakers are able to make additional modifications for their vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also recently taken up the question of broader software vulnerabilities in Harman's products. On July 29, the agency began investigating the company to check for similarities between Uconnect and the infotainment systems supplied to other automakers. The Jeep hack became national news when two researchers were remotely able to take control of a Cherokee. The vulnerability in the cellular connection even gave control over the brakes. "Once people get in the car and get into the CAN bus, then you can start to mimic and mess up many, many things in the car," Paliwal said to Automotive News. Politicians immediately responded with legislation to create federal standards in hopes of protecting drivers better. NHTSA also opened an investigation to make sure the automaker's software update actually solved the problem. Related Video: