[ad_1]
Long after Ford and Chevy stopped making their own all-electric pickup trucks, a startup stepped in to take their place. It sounds familiar. All this and more in The morning shift by September 15, 2021.
1st gear: Rivian just got government approval for production, had been waiting since mid-August
OK, so the big news is that Rivian, the Ford and Amazon-linked EV pickup / SUV startup, has started building production cars for customers because the the boss tweeted:
The deeper news is that Rivian got government approval to start shipping these trucks to customers, like Bloomberg reports:
Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric pickup manufacturer backed by Amazon.com Inc., claims to have received full regulatory certifications and can begin delivering its first electric vehicle to US customers.
“Rivian vehicles are fully certified by NHTSA, EPA and CARB, and are ready for sale in all 50 states,” a Rivian spokesperson wrote in an email.
G / O Media may earn a commission
Depending on who you ask, Rivian was either ready to manufacture these trucks in August and was awaiting federal approval …
Of Electrek:
Rivian says his R1T electric pickup is virtually production-ready and is now awaiting government approval to begin deliveries.
The R1T was due for delivery earlier this summer, but Rivian encountered production issues as you would expect when launching a new vehicle program and especially a new startup that has never delivered a consumer vehicle before.
The company has since guided a start of deliveries in September.
… Or it was stuck waiting for components.
Of Bloomberg:
Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric pickup manufacturer backed by Amazon.com Inc., is pushing back production of its first vehicle from two months to September due to supply chain bottlenecks.
The startup also shifted the schedule for its planned second model, an electric sport utility vehicle, from August to an unspecified time in the fall, according to a letter to clients Friday. The company cited a shortage of components.
Both are probably true.
In all cases, Ford manufactured 1,500 all-electric Ranger electric vehicles from 1998 to 2002, and Chevrolet has made their own S-10 EVs, but neither has embarked on their programs in the era of cheap gasoline.
2nd Gear: Workhorse Drops USPS Drama
It’s been weird, with a small business claiming bribery, or, uh, unfair use on a large government contract that went to an existing large government contractor. This kind of thing never happens in America!
Anyway, the little guy gave up, like David Shepardson reports in Reuters:
Electric vehicle company Workhorse Group voluntarily sacked on Tuesday his legal challenge against a move by the US Postal Service to award a multi-billion dollar contract to Oshkosh Defense for delivery vehicles. 10-year contract announced in February could be worth over $ 6 billion and deliver 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles. Workhorse had offered to build a fleet of all-electric vehicles for the USPS, while Oshkosh plans a mix of internal combustion and battery-electric vehicles. Workhorse’s legal challenge, filed in June, was due to face arguments before a judge on Wednesday in the United States Federal Claims Court.
Workhorse and Oskhosh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday evening. USPS declined to comment immediately.
3rd gear: Foxconn, Apple supplier, also gives up its partnership with electric vehicles
Speaking of quitting, a major Apple supplier has given up on its automotive aspirations just like Apple’s path to auto manufacturing has stuttered. Of Reuters:
Apple supplier Foxconn’s electric vehicle project with Byton has been put on hold due to the Chinese startup’s deteriorating financial situation, according to Nikkei newspaper reported wednesday, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter.
“The project is not officially finished yet, but it is very difficult to proceed at the moment,” said one of the sources. Nikkei Asia.
4th gear: Germans can drive as fast as they want and still drive most of the time Less than 80 MPH
I am always interested in the world of driver management. How we set speed limits, how we calm traffic and design the roads themselves – it all feels like it’s done wrong in America. But what about that beacon of automotive infrastructure, Germany, where village streets are filled with traffic calming measures and major highways have unrestricted and unrestricted driving sections? speed.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Germans don’t even take advantage of it, according to a new study, as The mirror reports:
[O]years only a small proportion of people even need to hurtle down the streets at speeds of over 130 kilometers per hour.
It is the result of a analysis of the Institute of German Economics (IW) related to employers in Cologne . According to the institute, experts evaluated real-time data from sections of freeway without speed limits for the investigation. The data come from automated metering stations on the highways of North Rhine-Westphalia , from mid-May to the end of August. In total, 1.2 billion car movements were included in the analysis.
This shows: Even without a speed limit, 77% of cars on freeways were traveling less than 130 km / h at the time of the sample. Twelve percent drove at 130 to 140 kilometers per hour. Nine percent of drivers orientated at speeds between 140 and 160 kilometers per hour. According to the study, less than two percent of drivers were going faster than 160 kilometers per hour.
130 km / h is about 80 miles per hour, 160 km / h is about 100 mph. The truth is that there aren’t many unrestricted German highways, and when it is you don’t always want to make more than money.
5th gear: this is wrong
I don’t know what’s wrong with this, but all of my warning flags are going up. Of Detroit News:
Ford Motor Co. and Argo AI announced on Wednesday that they are teaming up with retail giant Walmart Inc. to offer autonomous vehicle delivery service to three U.S. cities starting at the end of the year.
The last mile delivery service, which the companies say marks Walmart’s first multi-city autonomous delivery collaboration in the United States, is set to start in Miami, Austin and Washington, DC. Walmart customers in defined service areas of cities will be able to order groceries and other items online, with delivery being handled by Ford vehicles equipped with the Argo autonomous driving system.
Conversely: only a few years before the railway was connected
Of Story:
On September 15, 1858, the new Overland Mail Company sent its first two stages, inaugurating the government postal service between the eastern and western regions of the country.
Neutral: When did major manufacturers give up an early advantage?
You could kind of say that Jeep has lost a lead in China’s SUV boom, but that would only be if you hadn’t read the business mismanagement case study that is Beijing jeep.
[ad_2]
Source link