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SRT partners with Bondurant for performance driving classes

Dodge and Bob Bondurant have announced a new partnership that will see the latter become the former's official high-performance driving school. The deal will see the Bondurant school's entire fleet of nearly 100 vehicles switched over from mostly General Motors products to Dodge Chargers, Challengers, and Vipers. It will give paying customers the chance to drive models like the new Hellcats and even the Viper ACR (for those deemed qualified to drive it) on the track in Arizona. The arrangement won't only benefit Bondurant clients, though. Anyone who buys or leases a new SRT model will get a one-day course at the school, including professional instruction on track. They'll have to pay for their own travel and accommodations, but the instruction will hopefully show more drivers of SRT vehicles how to handle all that muscle they've got at their disposal. DODGE/SRT PARTNERS WITH LEGENDARY BOB BONDURANT SCHOOL OF HIGH PERFORMANCE DRIVING The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving Is Now "The Official High Performance Driving School of Dodge/SRT" - All customers who buy a new 2015 or 2016 model SRT will receive one full-day session of high-performance driving with professional instruction and time on the track as part of the Dodge/SRT package - Bondurant attendees will get to experience the full line of Dodge/SRT vehicles, including the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger Hellcats - Bondurant's entire fleet of cars is being converted over to Dodge Chargers, Challengers and Vipers - Non-Dodge owners can purchase racing instruction through Bondurant and experience their full line of Dodge SRT vehicles on the track - Racing participants who qualify will get to experience the Dodge Viper ACR, the fastest street-legal Viper track car ever November 3, 2015 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - New Dodge/SRT buyers grab your racing shoes and helmets – Dodge is teaming up with the legendary Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving to create "The Official High Performance Driving School of Dodge/SRT." Starting Jan. 1, 2016, Dodge customers who purchase or lease a 2015 or 2016 Dodge/SRT can experience a high-performance driving class with professional instruction and time on the track where they can develop their racing and driving skills in a one-day performance-packed adventure. Dodge will provide the rides – nearly 100 SRT vehicles – including the 707-horsepower Dodge Charger and Challenger SRT Hellcats.

EV cost burden pushing automakers to their limits, says Stellantis' CEO Tavares

DETROIT — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said external pressure on automakers to quickly shift to electric vehicles potentially threatens jobs and vehicle quality as producers struggle with EVs' higher costs. Governments and investors want car manufacturers to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, but the costs are "beyond the limits" of what the auto industry can sustain, Tavares said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference released Wednesday. "What has been decided is to impose on the automotive industry electrification that brings 50% additional costs against a conventional vehicle," he said. "There is no way we can transfer 50% of additional costs to the final consumer because most parts of the middle class will not be able to pay." Automakers could charge higher prices and sell fewer cars, or accept lower profit margins, Tavares said. Those paths both lead to cutbacks. Union leaders in Europe and North America have warned tens of thousands of jobs could be lost. Automakers need time for testing and ensuring that new technology will work, Tavares said. Pushing to speed that process up "is just going to be counter productive. It will lead to quality problems. It will lead to all sorts of problems," he said. Tavares said Stellantis is aiming to avoid cuts by boosting productivity at a pace far faster than industry norm. "Over the next five years we have to digest 10% productivity a year ... in an industry which is used to delivering 2 to 3% productivity" improvement, he said. "The future will tell us who is going to be able to digest this, and who will fail," Tavares said. "We are putting the industry on the limits." Electric vehicle costs are expected to fall, and analysts project that battery electric vehicles and combustion vehicles could reach cost parity during the second half of this decade. Like other automakers that earn profits from combustion vehicles, Stellantis is under pressure from both establishment automakers such as GM, Ford, VW and Hyundai, as well as start-ups such as Tesla and Rivian. The latter electric vehicle companies are far smaller in terms of vehicle sales and employment. But investors have given Tesla and Rivian higher market valuations than the owner of the highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands. That investor pressure is compounded by government policies aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union, California and other jurisdictions have set goals to end sales of combustion vehicles by 2035.

Chrysler expecting up to 200,000 9-speed transmissions for 3 models this year

Striving for improved fuel economy, we already knew that Chrysler will begin using a nine-speed automatic transmission in some of its new products this year, but what we haven't known is that volume at which this gearbox will be used. According to Bloomberg, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has been quoted as saying that the automaker expects to sell close to 200,000 units equipped with this new transmission in 2013. Those gear-rich trannies will be spread out across three models, consisting of the redesigned Chrysler 200, the still-unnamed Jeep Liberty replacement and the Dodge Dart.
This transmission should play a pivotal role in making Chrysler vehicles more competitive in their respective segments. Just for comparison, one of the Dart's key competitors, the Toyota Corolla, still uses a four-speed automatic, and a previous report indicates that the next-generation 200 could get up to 38 miles per gallon on the highway, which is better than most non-hybrid midsize sedans on the market. Marchionne says that the new Jeep model is expected during the second quarter of this year, but there is no word as to when the new 200 or nine-speed Dart will debut, but clearly Dodge would like to have the transmission in its compact yesterday. As for that volume figure, it definitely doesn't seem out of reach since the Dart, Liberty and 200 combined for a total of more than 225,000 units in 2012.
How many more gears can we expect in future cars? Probably not many more, since the CEO of transmission-builder ZF, Stefan Sommer, previously stated that nine speeds was the "natural limit" for transmissions.