Nutson's Auto News Weekly Wrap Up - December 6-12, 2020
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Nutson's Automotive News Wrap-up - Week Ending December 13, 2020; Below are the past week's important, relevant, semi-secret, or snappy automotive news, opinions and insider back stories presented as expertly crafted easy to digest news nuggets.
* Millions of coronavirus-wary Americans avoided driving during the week of Thanksgiving as Covid-19 cases surged across the country. That sent holiday week gasoline sales plunging to a 23-year low. Gas sales during Thanksgiving week 2020 fell 19.3% from the previous year and even fell dramatically from the week prior to Thanksgiving, according to a recent IHS Markit Oil Price Information Service survey, which monitors weekly consumption at nearly 25,000 gas stations. The OPIS report shows Americans purchased 185 million less gallons of gas the week of Thanksgiving than they did the week prior. 2020 marked the lowest Thanksgiving week for gas consumption since 1997, according to the data company.
* The first all-electric auto service station opened as drivers increasingly avoid cars fueled by gasoline and diesel. The station in Essex, southeast England, is the first of 100 electric facilities that Gridserve and Hitachi Capital U.K. Plc. are planning and is part of a 1 billion-pound ($1.35 billion) program to roll out the stations across the country. It includes 36 rapid chargers powered only by renewable energy. The charging technology is among the fastest commercially available in Britain and can top up a battery with 200 miles (322 kilometers) of capacity in 20 minutes.
* Nissan has followed General Motors in dropping its support for the outgoing Trump administration's legal efforts to strip California of its right to set its own vehicle emissions rules and electric vehicle mandates.
* Reuters reports a survey conducted in November of more than 700 would-be car buyers by vehicle shopping site Cargurus found that 60% are open to buying a vehicle online, compared to 35% pre-pandemic. The survey has plenty of other data points - some obvious (nearly 60% of shoppers said they are interested in an SUV) and some less so (a solid majority of respondents said they are confident they could keep up with payments on a new vehicle, despite the gloomy near-term economic outlook.)
* The NY Times reports that Uber, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a self-driving car project that executives once believed was a key to becoming profitable, is handing the autonomous vehicle effort over to a Silicon Valley start-up, the companies said. Uber will also invest $400 million in the start-up, called Aurora, so it is essentially paying the company to take over the autonomous car operation, which had become a financial and legal headache. Aurora’s first product will not be a robot taxi that could help with Uber’s ride-hailing business. Instead, it will likely be a self-driving truck, which has a better chance of success in the near term because long-haul truck driving on highways is more predictable and does not involve passengers.
* Nissan continued its Nissan Next rollout of 10 new models in 20 months with an on-line reveal of the new 2021 Armanda and Kicks models that will be in dealers in January. We're expecting two more reveals in January including the new Nissan Z. We also saw web reveal of the new Ford F-150 Tremor, 2022 Acura MDX and Genesis GV70.
* Cadillac teased us (again) on the upcoming CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwing high performance models with a look at the shift knob for the 6-speed manual transmission that will be standard equipment on each. The Blackwings are due next summer. Cadillac shared that they had a survey conducted among 4,095 adults age 18 and over and sixty-six percent responded they know how to drive a manual.
* The redesigned 2021 Ford F-150 with the 3.5-liter V-6 PowerBoost hybrid and two-wheel drive will be EPA rated at 25 mpg combined, 25 city mpg and 26 higher mpg, while the four-wheel-drive hybrid F-150 will get 24 mpg combined, as well as 24 mpg city and highway, Ford said. For comparison, EPA ratings of the Ford F-150 with different V6 and V8 engines have city fuel economy ratings ranging from 16 to 20 mpg and highway ratings ranging from 22 to 27 mpg. Your mileage may vary!
* GM’s self-driving car company is sending vehicles without anybody behind the wheel in San Francisco as it navigates its way toward launching a robotic taxi service that would compete against Uber and Lyft in the hometown of the leading ride-hailing services. The move announced by GM-owned Cruise comes two months after the company received California’s permission to operate fully driverless cars in the state. Cruise is confident enough to send out its self-driving cars without that safety net, instead monitoring from remote locations and, at least initially, having a company employee sitting in the front passenger seat. That employee won’t have access to the same controls as a backup driver and eventually won’t be sitting in front, according to the company. Initially five vehicles will be on the roads.
* Remember the Ford Maverick. Ford hasn’t officially announced it yet, but the automaker has a new compact pickup coming soon. It’s based on the new Ford Bronco Sport crossover utility vehicle and will be called the Maverick, according to various spy photos of disguised prototypes and insider leaks. Now the entire body has been exposed in images shared with Motor1, revealing a four-door, short-bed form in all of its glory – not to mention the name stamped on the tailgate. Expect the Maverick for the 2022 model year.
* CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine has announced their 2020 charging infrastructure Best-in-Test awards. And the overall winner is…Electrify America! The CHARGED team reviewed five of the major charging networks (Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, EV Connect and Greenlots), looking at their website, app operation, app functionality, price transparency and payment, charging station environment, charging station functionality, service + hotline and payment options. Electrify America scored highest overall, earning top marks in 4 of the 8 categories (Web site, App operation, Charging station environment, Charging station functionality).
* The 2021 Chicago Auto Show has officially been postponed, organizers confirmed. Originally slated for February 13 to 21, the Chicago show will now be held in the spring, though no firm dates have yet been made public. It's the latest in a series of shuffles that reflect the chaos being inflicted on the industry by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. So! Spring starts March 20.
* Barrett-Jackson is postponing its 50th annual January auction, the company’s flagship event, until March because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottsdale, Arizona. The event will not be held at WestWorld in Scottsdale from January 16-23, as previously planned, but instead will move to a date in March 2021 rather than risk spreading infection during to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in Arizona. Nearly every one of the eight collector car auctions scheduled for Arizona Auction Week in January 2020 has announced changes in plans because of the pandemic.
* ClassicCars.com reports entrants in the Dakar Rally already have competed their first challenge: getting their vehicles to the Port of Marseille, France, in time to put on quite a car show before catching the boat to Saudi Arabia. The rally doesn’t start until January 3, but because of coronavirus regulations governing international travel, the 75 cars, 42 trucks, 110 motorcycles and quads that will compete in the 2021 Dakar Rally had to be in Marseilles earlier this month to be loaded onto the Garnet Leader for ocean transport to Jeddah.
* Hyundai Motorsport has claimed its second consecutive FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) manufacturers’ title with a double podium result in Rally Monza, the season finale. Ott Tänak finished a challenging weekend in second place with Dani Sordo in third. Second place for Ott Tänak and third for Dani Sordo allowed the team to win the title by five points after successfully tackling tricky conditions in Italy. The team concluded its title-winning year with three victories, 11 individual podiums, two 1-2 results and all five of its crews taking top-three results in the Hyundai i2O Coupe.
* The first Formula One victory by a Mexican driver in 50 years was that of Sergio Perez who won the Sakhir Grand Prize in Bahrain. It was Perez's first Formula One win in 190 race starts. Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez won the Belgian Grand Prix in June 1970.
Stay safe. Be Well.