2006 Dodge Magnum R/t Wagon 4-door 5.7l on 2040-cars

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Stellantis and LG launch joint venture for North American battery plant

Stellantis has struck a preliminary deal with battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) to produce battery cells and modules for North America, as the world's No. 4 automaker rolls out its 30 billion euro ($35 billion) electrification plan. Global automakers are investing billions of euros to accelerate a transition to low-emission mobility and prepare for a progressive phase-out of internal combustion engines. Stellantis and LGES's joint venture will produce battery cells and modules at a new facility with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh), the two firms said on Monday. No financial details of the deal were provided. The plant is scheduled to start production by the first quarter of 2024, with groundbreaking expected in the second quarter of 2022, the companies said in their statement. Its location is under review and will be announced later. Stellantis, formed in January from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA, has said it wants to secure more than 130 GWh of global battery capacity by 2025 and more than 260 GWh by 2030. The batteries produced under the deal will supply Stellantis' U.S., Canadian and Mexican assembly plants for installation in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, supporting its goal of e-vehicles making up more than 40% of its U.S. sales by 2030. The company, whose brands include Peugeot, Fiat, Opel and U.S. best-sellers Jeep and Ram, earlier this year announced it would invest more than 30 billion euros through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup. Stellantis has said it would build three battery plants in Europe and two in North America, including at least one in the United States. Intesa Sanpaolo analyst Monica Bosio said the deal was positive, and a further step ahead in Stellantis' electrification process. It comes weeks after Stellantis and its partner TotalEnergies agreed to open up their battery cell joint venture ACC to Daimler, to expand their European sourcing of battery cells. Stellantis is also targeting more than 70% of sales in Europe to be of low-emission vehicles by 2030, and aims to make the total cost of owning an EV equal to that of a gasoline-powered model by 2026. Related video: Green Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Ferrari Fiat Jeep Maserati RAM Citroen Lancia Opel Peugeot Vauxhall Electric Hybrid EV batteries LG

The final-year Viper special editions sold out so fast Dodge is adding more

Viper collectors don't mess around. After Dodge opened ordering for its 25th anniversary 2017 Viper models – some of the last ones that will be built – all of the cars were spoken for in just five days. The company managed to sell 206 cars, an average of about 41 per day. Compare that to the 241 Vipers sold through May of this year and you can see why special editions make good business sense. Demand was so strong that Dodge will add a sixth special-edition for the Viper's last year of production. Within the group of five initial special packages, the winner was the 1:28 Edition ACR; all 28 went in 40 minutes. Dodge sold the 31 VooDoo II Edition ACRs in two hours, while 25 Snakeskin Edition GTCs and 100 GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACRs took two days to sell out. The 22 Dodge Dealer Edition ACRs took five days – apparently the dealers were too busy taking orders for the other 184 cars they didn't have time to order their own. The additional anniversary car is called the Snakeskin ACR. Dodge will build "up to" 31 of them, which we're pretty sure means exactly 31 if the previous demand is any indicator. The count matches the 2010 run of Snakeskin ACRs and will take the final-edition total to 237. We don't have any photos of that one yet, but you can get a good idea of what it will look like from the Snakeskin GTC. This one features Snakeskin Green paint, obviously, with a custom snakeskin-patterned SRT stripe, the ACR Package, the Extreme Aero Package, carbon-ceramic brakes, the ACR interior, a serialized Snakeskin badge on the instrument panel, and a custom car cover with the owner's name by the door. It will be available to order in the middle of this month, which means it will be sold out well by the end of the month. Chances are these and many of the others will go to mega-collectors like Wayne and D'Ann Rauh of Texas, who, at last count, owned 79 Vipers. Seventy-nine. Like we said, Viper collectors don't mess around. Related Video:

Watch Jay Leno drive an ex-highway patrol '61 Dodge Polara

The latest vehicle to swing by Jay Leno's Garage is a 1961 Dodge Polara. This one was used by the California Highway Patrol half a century ago, ordered specially by the state police instead of the Darts that were usually used by law-enforcement. After sitting out in the sun for a few decades, it recently underwent a comprehensive, ground-up restoration by the historians and craftsmen at the Automobile Club of Southern California. As you can see for yourself, the result of the restoration is really quite stunning. The ACSC apparently spared no expense, bringing the 413-cubic-inch V8 back up to working order, along with the emergency lighting, radio, certified speedometer... the works. In the process they even found the engine cranked out more than the factory quote of 325 horsepower, recording 332 hp and 406 pound-feet of torque on the dyno. The Polara CHP cruiser hadn't even been back out on the freeway since the restoration was finished. But after getting the full run-down from the guys responsible for its resuscitation, Jay wasted little time in bringing it back to its natural habitat.