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1/15/2018 IVECO dominates the Africa Eco Race 2018 in the truck category and finishes with the victory of Gerard De Rooy from Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO Gerard De Rooy wins the first place in the truck category of the Africa Eco Race 2018, having dominated the race from the start. In the Dakar 2018 Federico Villagra achieves his sixth podium in eight stages with a second place in stage 8 and IVECO places again three Powerstars in the top 10 of stage 8 The Africa Eco Race 2018 edition is over: after 12 stages and 6,500 km across 3 countries – 5 in Morocco, 6 in Mauritania and 1 in Senegal – fierce competition in breathtaking landscapes over fast rocky tracks and challenging dunes, the drivers and their crews have reached the shores of Lake Rose in Senegal to celebrate the winners and the big achievements of the rally. Gerard De Rooy, leader of team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO, won the rally in the truck category, having maintained the lead over the trucks throughout the rally – on the fast rocky tracks as well as the extremely soft sands of the dunes. IVECO, official supplier of Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO for the eights consecutive year, provided the Africa Eco Race’s winning crew with the vehicles, engines and spare parts. The legendary reliability of IVECO trucks comes from this extreme experience, where every part of our trucks is put at the hardest test that could exist. Equipped with IVECO Cursor 13 engines – specially engineered by FPT Industrial, CNH Industrial’s powertrain brand – the vehicles deliver up to 1000 hp of power. The final stage saw the drivers compete in a short, final boost in the traditional last leg around Lake Rose, near Dakar. The crowds were out in force to encourage the competitors and celebrate the winners as they took their place on the podium on the beach of the lake. Dutchman De Rooy is very pleased with the rally: "I enjoyed both the beautiful specials and the toughness. That was what it was all about in the first place: having fun again. They were long specials, but still short days because we had almost no connection. I really look back on it with a very good feeling." In South America, the three IVECO Powerstars are fulfilling their potential, delivering consistently high performances and achieving placements in the Top 10 in the two stages after the rest day. In stage 7, Ton Van Genugten took the lead and never let go, winning the special two minutes ahead of teammate Federico Villagra, with Artur Ardavichus following 18 minutes later in seventh place. Stage 8 took the competitors on the 381 timed kilometers that ended the marathon stage between the Bolivian cities of Uyuni and Tupiza. The tracks were no big hazard for the IVECO crews in the world’s toughest Rally Raid: in spite of the heavy rain and flooded roads, the three IVECO Powerstars piloted by Federico Villagra, Ton Van Genugten and Artur Ardavichus reached the finish line of the special – and all three in the Top 10. Federico Villagra continued to deliver podium placements, crossing the finish line of stages 7 and 8 in second place. The Argentinian, who is aiming for victory through a consistent performance, is steadily closing in on leader Eduard Nikolayev. Ton Van Genugten followed his win in the stage 7 with a sixth place in the Uyuni-Tupiza special of stage 8, finishing 15 minutes behind the leader. Artur Ardavichus also delivered a consistent performance, completing stage 7 in seventh place and stage 8 in ninth, maintaining his position in the Top 10 of the overall classification. Due to bad weather in the south of Bolivia and north of Argentina, the organization decided to cancel Stage 9 (Tupiza – Salta). Overall Standings – Trucks Category – Africa Eco Race 2018 1. GERARD DE ROOY (IVECO) 45h53s 2. Tomas Tomecek (Tatra) + 5h12m32s 3. Johannes Van De Laar (DAF) + 6h49m12s Stage 8 – Rally Dakar 2018 1. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) 4h23m32s 2. FEDERICO VILLAGRA (IVECO) + 5m11s 3. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) + 6m28s 4. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) + 8m33s 5. Martin Kolomy (Tatra) + 12m11s ---------- 6. TON VAN GENUGTEN (IVECO) + 15m36s 9. ARTUR ARDAVICHUS (IVECO) + 41m36s Overall Standings – Rally Dakar 2018 1. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) 28h15m06s 2. FEDERICO VILLAGRA (IVECO) + 46m25s 3. Martin Macik (Liaz) + 3h29m25s 4. Siarhei Viazovich (Maz) + 3h59m35s 5. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) + 4h23m20s ---------- 6. TON VAN GENUGTEN (IVECO) + 4h31m08s 8. ARTUR ARDAVICHUS (IVECO) + 5h28m16s

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Matt Cole, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / January 16, 2018 More than 1,200 Kenworth and Peterbilt tractors are being recalled following the announcement last week of a recall from Eaton Cummins of certain automated manual transmissions. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents, Paccar is recalling approximately 1,222 model year 2018 Kenworth T680 and T800 and Peterbilt 567 and 579 tractors equipped with certain Eaton Endurant and Paccar automated manual transmissions. The transmission control module in these trucks could allow the engine to crank while in gear, allowing the truck to move upon cranking. Paccar will notify owners beginning Feb. 16, and dealers will update the TCM software for free. Owners can contact Peterbilt customer service at 1-940-591-4000 or Kenworth customer service at 1-425-828-5000 with recall numbers 1217F and 1717KWF. NHTSA’s recall number is 17V-840.

Jim Park, Today's Trucking / January 16, 2018 Electric trucks are coming to market on the strength of their lack of tailpipe emissions. Can the trucking industry get over the cost, weight and range hurdles? Electric trucks seem to be all the rage today, just as natural gas was to be the industry’s salvation just a few years back. There’s not much excitement in natural gas today, though it remains a viable alternative fuel. Electric trucks, on the other hand, are just beginning their climb to prominence. Interest in electric trucks peaked in November with the world’s first look at Tesla’s Electric Semi. Whether Tesla can carry the torch for battery-powered heavy trucks remains to be seen, but Elon Musk isn’t only player in the market. I drove a fully electric plug-in Transpower USA Class 8 tractor back in 2015. That truck had been in field tests at the port of Long Beach, California, for two years prior to that. The company made headlines recently announcing a partnership with Meritor that will make its technology commercially available in the spring of this year. There are a handful of others too: Motiv Power Systems, BYD, and others. Chinese-owned BYD is backed by Warren Buffett, and plans to open an assembly plant in Ontario sometime this year. In August, Cummins threw its hat into the electric ring with the unveiling of a concept truck called AEOS. Contrary to popular belief, Cummins is not getting into the truck manufacturing business. “Our power electronics teams and controls groups will be using it as a test vehicle as we develop the next generation of components for our electrification business,” said Julie Furber, executive director – electrification business development at Cummins. A new player, Los Angeles-based Thor Trucks, has developed a truck it calls ET-One. It made news in December with a video clip of the truck operating in southern California. This one is still early in development, but it has attracted more than a little investor attention. Navistar and Volkswagen have stated publicly they intend to have medium-duty truck in service by 2019, too. Oddly, much of the public’s attention has focused on an on-highway, over the road electric truck, which is probably the least-practical candidate for electrification. Yard tractors, refuse or utility trucks, port drayage trucks and the like — with limited service ranges and less sensitivity to weight — are more plausible options. Indeed, many such trucks are already in service. TranspowerUSA has a fleet of more than 20 trucks running 80,000-pound loads around the Los Angeles basin. Their current range is about 160 kilometers with a battery pack weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds. That isn’t much heavier than the diesel engines they replace. Transpower also operates yard tractors and school and transit buses. Motiv Power Systems of Foster City, California, has refuse trucks on trial in Chicago where they reportedly manages routes of about 100 kilometers with an 18,000-pound payload while running a hydraulic compactor. Other companies such as Workhorse and Chanje are building Class 5 and 6 delivery trucks with ranges of 160 to 300 kilometers, ideal for local and regional pickup and delivery operations and so-called last-mile deliveries. Chanje’s chief executive, Bryan Hansel, the head of Smith Electric Vehicles until 2015, says the Model V8070 was conceived as an all-electric vehicle. It’s not a retrofitted, fossil-fuel van. “It was purpose-designed as a BEV from the ground up,” he says. “We will be producing these on a global scale so they will be economically priced. In fact, the purchase price will be on par with a similar diesel vehicle but with 70% lower energy and maintenance costs. The pass-through savings will come from our battery leasing program and energy supply service.” Then there are the lighter medium-duty trucks, such as Mitsubishi Fuso’s eCanter, which premiered at the IAA show in Hanover, Germany, last fall and made its North American debut in October. It’s a Class 4 with a battery capacity of 70 kWh and a 185 kW motor. Depending on the body, load and usage, it has a range of more than 60 miles with a payload of more than 5,000 pounds. The company says in designing the powertrain, it chose to favor higher payloads rather than extend the potential range of the truck, based on the preferences of European customers who are already using the previous generation of the truck, the Fuso Canter E-Cell. Approximately a third of the 8 million fossil-fueled trucks and buses in North America are ideal candidates for electrification. These vehicles drive planned local routes of less than 160 kilometers a day with a lot of starts and stops, and they usually park at a depot overnight, which typically has the infrastructure necessary to charge the vehicles. As for Class 8 line-haul trucks? Not likely, says Furber. “The current battery technology just isn’t ready for the linehaul market where trucks can run up to 140,000 miles [225,000 kilometers] annually,” she says. “We’ve done some rough calculations that show you’d need a battery that weighs 22,000 pounds to complete a full day’s driving at highway speeds.” Benefits, challenges, batteries Musk claims his Electric Semi will run up to 800 kilometers on a single charge at highway speeds at full gross weight, but he didn’t disclose any details about the size, weight, or cost of the battery pack. We made several attempts to contact Tesla Motors seeking insight on their battery systems but they never returned our calls and email messages. Instead, we found a report in Wired magazine, from June 2017, that suggests the Tesla Semi will run a lithium-ion battery system that generates 243 watt-hours per kilogram at the cell-level. To cover about 1,000 kilometers without stopping to charge, the authors say, the truck would need a 14-ton battery — which isn’t out of line with Furber’s estimates. Based on current prices, those packs would cost between US $290,000 and $450,000. The authors also note that a next-generation “beyond-lithium-ion battery-pack” could provide a 1,000-kilometer range at a cost of about $180,000, leaving enough room for a payload of about 16 tons. While weight is still a significant concern according to many observers, battery costs could become less of an issue in the future. Last July, Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Claire Curry reported that lithium-ion battery prices have tumbled since 2010, dropping from roughly $1,000 per kilowatt/hour then to about $275 in 2016. With prices stabilizing at some level close to this, Curry believes that BEVs will accelerate to 54% of new car sales by 2040. “Tumbling battery prices mean that BEVs will have lower lifetime costs, and will be cheaper to buy, than internal combustion engine cars in most countries by 2025-29,” she notes. Among the many questions still to be answered is how electric trucks will play in the maintenance sphere. Since BEVs have fewer moving parts that are prone to failure, the big questions is, how long could they last? What’s the vehicle’s lifecycle going to look like? “The current useful life of a typical diesel is five to six years. If these BEVs start going out 10, 12 or 15 years, what will that do to fleet trade cycles?” asks Scott Perry, who was until recently the chief technology and procurement officer for Ryder Global Fleet Management Solutions. “What will happen to the value of traditional trucks if electric vehicles gain sudden market acceptance?” Voluntary or regulatory adoption So what will it take to make all this talk of zero-emissions commercial vehicles a reality? Many fleets still struggle with the cost of the things; others see the limited range of some vehicles as an insurmountable hurdle. But solutions are there: fuel cells, range extenders, more batteries, etc. Or, just having a close look at the route and service areas and deciding where trucks can work and where they won’t. Like anything in the trucking business, the term one-size-fits-all just doesn’t apply. “There are four of five key factors that will drive adoption in the near term, says Cummins’ Furber. “Regulation, technology readiness, technology cost, charging infrastructure, and finally the Total Cost of Ownership [TCO] calculation. Regulation could drive small scale adoption in certain areas, such as California. We know that in trucking, TCO is going to be what plays out as the main driver. In Perry’s opinion, electric trucks are the next wave. “It will start in the light and medium duty classes where the technology is available today, and spread to the heavier classes as the technology proves itself,” he says. “Regulations will drive adoption as well. We’ve seen cities like London, Paris, Athens, and others banning fossil fuel vehicles in city cores. Some U.S. cities are looking at that, too.” But there’s nothing like public opinion to motivate regulators. The public seems to be leaning very heavily in the electric direction. And there are the image-conscience shippers. Last year, Chattanooga, Tennessee-based U.S. Xpress held a customer summit where Trevor Milton, Chief Executive Officer of Nikola Motor Company, made a presentation on hydrogen-powered trucks. “As a group of shippers, they were pretty excited,” said U.S. Xpress executive chairman Max Fuller. “Some of them are now trying to lock in all the electric trucks they can get. They like emissions-free. That’s the image the shippers want.” Can the grid handle electric trucks? Very few new large-scale power plants have been built in Canada in the past 10 years, yet demand for electric energy is sure to rise, fueled by interest in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV). Does the grid have the capacity to handle the expected infusion electric cars and trucks? The short answer is yes, but some adjustments may be necessary. Demand for electricity is not constant throughout any 24-hour period, so the time of day when the energy is required has a very large impact on the grid’s ability to meet demand. Since our electric grid has no storage capacity, power generation and transmission must be continuously managed to match fluctuating customer load. If the growing fleet of personal and commercial BEVs were to be plugged in all at once, on top of today’s regular daily demand, it would be a big problem. But BEVs for the most part will charge overnight when demand is lowest. Once the commercial fleet reaches a critical mass, this will allow energy producers to run their facilities at higher and more efficient output during overnight periods of traditionally lower demand. A secondary advantage now being tested is to have the batteries on individual vehicles serve as a sort of surge protector for the grid, and as a buffer in the event of a significant disruption in transmission — such as a blown transformer or a downed high-tension power transmission line. They could also provide fill-in capacity at times when wind or solar output may be diminished. Writing in the New Journal of Physics, researcher Andrej Gajduk notes that potential benefits of a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept include offering a possible backup for renewable power sources including wind and solar power, load balancing by valley filling, and peak load shaving among others. “The V2G concept can improve grid efficiency, stability, reliability,” he writes, “and can reduce utility operating costs and even potentially generate revenue for the consumer.” .

Today's Trucking / January 16, 2018 It’s Tuesday afternoon, a little after 2 pm. You’re the operations manager of a major truckload carrier. The morning rush is over, all the drivers and customers are happy, and now you’re gearing up for the onslaught of late-afternoon messages from customers wondering where their trucks are and drivers alerting you that they can’t load ’til tomorrow. Typical day. Then a driver calls on his mobile phone. “My engine has just shut down and I’m sitting deader than a doornail in the center lane of Highway 401 between Dufferin and Keele Street,” he says. “No warnings, no red or yellow lights. It’s just quit. Traffic was too heavy for me to get over to the shoulder. I’m blocking traffic. What a mess.” Then your phone chirps with a text message: “Send 20,000 in bitcoin and you can have your truck back.” Most of you are now chuckling, saying, “that could never happen.” Well, it has happened, on a test rig, and it’s likely to happen someday in real life if manufacturers, regulators and fleets do not take appropriate actions to protect certain vulnerabilities in the basic electronic architecture of nearly every truck built in the past 20 years or so. What began as a class project at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) in the spring of 2016 made it to the pages of Wired magazine as a sort of follow up to the widely reported controlled hacking of Jeep Cherokee while it drove around public highways in St. Louis, Missouri. The exercise was also controlled, conducted on a closed test track, and the hacker was sitting in the sleeper with a laptop plugged into the OBD port of a 2006-vintage Class 8 tractor. Last year, the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma began research on a truck-in-a-box. It was a typical Class 8, electronically speaking, but just the wiring and electronics. Researchers there were able to dig pretty deep into that system as well with very little difficulty. Those two projects were just demonstrations, accomplished with hard-wired connections to the truck. But nobody today can guarantee that today’s connected truck is completely and absolutely safe from some kind of deliberate intervention. “What concerns me, as a fleet equipment manager, is increased opportunity for cyber attacks because of the inter-connectivity of our vehicles and all of the components now,” said Gary Hunt, vice-president of equipment and maintenance at ABF Freight System. “When you talk about how these different components are going to talk to the truck, across the J-1939, through our telematics system, to us, those are all opportunities that somebody else can talk to those components and get into the truck. That’s a real concern for me.” Hunt was speaking at the at the inaugural meeting of a new Taskforce on Cybersecurity at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology and Maintenance council’s annual meeting earlier this year. He was part of a panel that was trying to raise awareness among member fleets and suppliers of the cybersecurity challenges the industry faces. Last fall, a similar meeting took place at the Society of Automotive Engineer’s Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress in Rosemont, Illinois. A panel discussion there laid bare the threat faced by industry. It’s real. Very real. A large part of the potential threat comes from the J-1939 data bus. It’s an open standard and provides a great deal of efficiency to the industry, but its open design makes it vulnerable. “We worked, as an industry, to develop that open architecture, so that we could have this great flexibility, as fleets, as OEMs, to work collaboratively. Is J-1931 now going to be our Achilles heel?” asked Hunt. The open-architecture CANBUS is just one of the challenges. To really look at the whole attack surface, we need to look all the way up and down the supply chain, noted Keith Doorenbos, a system engineer with Paccar who attended the taskforce session. “So the OEs buy major systems and components from a lot of large suppliers, who, in turn, buy from other suppliers. And when we complete our part of a truck, we hand it off to bodybuilders, to telematics providers, and to the fleets. Even drivers are installing or connecting their own electronics to the truck. So every piece that gets connected provides another path into the system and another risk to the system,” he said. Theoretical models have been developed that suggest even diagnostic tools could be used to move a virus-like attack from one truck to the next, but so far, Doorenbos says that’s entirely theoretical. “I don’t believe it’s even been demonstrated by any of our white hats [hackers working for good], but there’s a lot of exposures in different elements. Basically everything that’s ‘smart’ out there creates another opening.” Directed threats By now you might be prepared to concede that the potential for a cyber attack on a truck is real, but you’re having a hard time imagining why someone would bother. Well, a truck could become a pretty effective weapon in some sort of terrorist attack. There have already been examples of terrorists using trucks as a weapon in other areas of the world. Or it could be used by someone with an axe to grind, maybe even a kid who wants to prove something to his girlfriend. Doorenbos told those at the taskforce session that the threat could come from several quarters. “You’ve got the tuners, the age-old nemesis of OEMs; the people to go in and find ways to modify trucks to get more power, better fuel efficiency, and bypass emission systems without the approval of the OEMs,” he says. “Then you’ve got your prankster category — people who are just out to demonstrate that maybe they’re smarter than somebody else. And you’ve got your hacktivists, people who are either socially or politically driven with specific agendas. Hacktivists have an enormous amount of dedication to put into making their particular political or social point at anybody’s expense.” He says trucking hasn’t yet had a lot of exposure to what he called the classic cyber criminals who are after access to traditional servers for data-mining, identity theft, and financial theft. “At the top end of the system, you’ve got your nation states or pseudo-nation states, the types of organizations that have very large resources and are willing to mount large-scale, very sophisticated attacks in order to support political goals,” he warns. “They can be very difficult, if not impossible, to completely block if they come after a system.” More likely, Doorenbos believes, the biggest threat lays in the for-profit sector: cargo theft. “Right now that’s pretty much done using old-school methods,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is prevent giving them new techniques that might make that simpler, more efficient or more accessible.” Ongoing efforts There’s a huge amount of work in the background to better understand the scale of the problem, and a few solutions are emerging that will help slow the black hats down, even if we can’t shut them out completely. A key pillar of cybersecurity efforts is encrypting data and software so it can’t easily be reverse-engineered or accessed by outsiders. Another strategy is partitioning truck electronic architectures so that, rather than having a single-vehicle network on J-1939, there are a number of sub-networks separating the most critical systems from the less critical systems. Engineers are also inserting firewalls or gateways between the different networks so they can control the data and commands that can move from one network to another. “Even if somebody can compromise your telematics system that does not automatically give them immediately the ability to send commands directly to an engine or a brake,” says Doorenbos. On a sobering note, the U.S. National Motor Freight Traffic Association recently completed a survey to gather registration data for all vehicles launched since Model Year 2000. The results suggest that four out of every five trucks built in the last 15 years are still registered. That’s a lot of systems to reverse-engineer, partition, encrypt and protect. It’s a fairly new problem, but there are several U.S. universities now actively engaged in research on the subject, such as UMTRI and the University of Tulsa, among others. The U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and other U.S, government agencies are looking at it. And there are several industry groups very actively engaged in discussion and research on the subject, including SAE, Technology and Maintenance Council, National Motor Freight Traffic Association, and the Automotive Information Sharing And Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC). Auto-ISAC is an industry-operated environment created to enhance cybersecurity awareness and collaborate across the global automotive industry. Participants include including light- medium- and heavy-duty vehicle OEMs and their suppliers. Still largely absent from the table are carriers. Much of the message ABF’s Gary Hunt delivered at the Technology and Maintenance Counicl session was on the need for fleets to become involved. “I, as a fleet, have a definite dog in this fight and so does every [fleet] in here,” he said. Look at what’s at stake: safety of employees, safety of customers, safety of the industry and the safety of the general public. What can happen to my trucks can also happen to yours.”

Transport Topics / January 16, 2018 U.S. retail sales of medium-duty trucks climbed 5.4% in December, with only Class 6 volumes dipping from a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported. Sales of Classes 4-7 trucks totaled 21,179 units compared with 20,096 in the 2016 period. For the full year, sales were 222,790, up 7.3% from 207,694 in the 2016 period. Gains in the period were led by a 13% rise in Classes 4-5. “The growth is not quite as spectacular or as volatile as you see on the Class 8 side [up 43% in December year-over-year], but ever since we came out of the Great Recession [medium-duty] has had a slow methodical, really sustainable, growth rate,” ACT Research Co. Vice President Steve Tam said. “You have investment by businesses, so there are more things being produced, and often it is the medium-duty guys who are at play in that space,” he added. Sales of Class 7 trucks in December jumped 12.9% to 5,429 and were spread among five truck makers. Freightliner led with a 47% market share. Paccar Inc. and Navistar International Corp. were next, while Ford Motor Co. and Hino Motor Sales USA Inc. tied with 264 sales each. Class 6 sales slipped 4.2% to 5,385 in a market crowded with seven truck makers. Segment leader Ford Motor Co. was the main downward force, with sales plummeting 41.5% to 1,685 from 2,883 units a year earlier. Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Freightliner was right behind Ford, selling 1,640 trucks. Others ranked by sales included Hino, Navistar International, Paccar Inc. and Isuzu Commercial Truck of America Inc.. Also in December, GM launched its Chevrolet brand low-cab forward truck in Class 6, selling seven. Classes 4-5 rose 7.3% for the month to 10,365 trucks. Ford led in Class 5 with a 60% market share, or 4,846 trucks. Isuzu earned a 60% share in Class 4 with 1,394 sales. Kenworth Truck Co. announced its K270 Class 6 and K370 Class 7 models now come with the option of the Bendix Wingman Fusion advanced driver assistance system. “There are certainly folks, especially in the private fleets, who understand and are willing to make that kind of an investment in the equipment,” Tam said. Wingman Fusion offers enhanced collision mitigation, lane departure warning, stationary vehicle braking, and overspeed alert and action. .

FCA lavishes tech, safety gear on 2019 Ram pickup Larry Vellequette, Automotive News / January 15, 2018 DETROIT -- When FCA US abandoned mainstream compact and midsize sedans in 2016 to focus its limited resources on more profitable utility vehicles and pickups, analysts viewed the shift from cars as risky. But the redesigned 2019 Ram 1500 -- bowing Monday at the Detroit auto show -- appears to be a major beneficiary of the strategy, sporting a long list of engineering, safety, performance and functional improvements. The Ram pickup is the automaker's best-selling vehicle and the third-best-selling vehicle in the U.S. behind the Ford F series and Chevrolet Silverado. Even as it nears the end of its current product cycle, the outgoing Ram managed to chalk up a U.S. sales gain in 2017, topping 500,000 for the first time ever, including the decades when the Ram was part of the Dodge brand. With the redesigned Ram 1500 going into production this month -- along with the previous model, which will continue to be produced for up to a year -- FCA officials believe the Ram has a shot to knock the Silverado out of second place. Chevrolet plans a major redesign of the Silverado that is also on display in Detroit and will hit showrooms in the fall. But the new Ram bows in showrooms in the first half of 2017, giving FCA a chance to narrow GM's 85,000 unit sales lead with both a new and outgoing Ram. The 2019 Ram 1500 is bigger than the previous model, with overall length growing by 9 inches, including 4 additional inches to the cab. The added cab space enables the second-row seats to recline up to 8 degrees. The redesigned pickup is also stronger than the previous version. The frame is made of 98 percent high-strength steel. Also, a new eTorque mild-hybrid system increases torque by 90 pound-feet on the 3.6-liter V-6 engine, and by 130 pound-feet on the 5.7-liter V-8 engine. The eight-speed automatic transmission has also been improved. Maximum payload increases to 2,200 pounds and maximum trailer towing to 12,700 pounds. The 2019 Ram also boasts increased efficiency. A belt-drive generator and 48-volt battery are standard, as are short-term torque assist and regenerative braking. Drag coefficient improves to .357, with active grille shutters, raised bed rails, an air dam and air suspension contributing to a more aerodynamic ride. Fuel economy numbers were not yet available, however, and FCA has not yet indicated whether it will keep its 3.0-liter EcoDiesel engine as an option for the 2019 pickup. Even though it is longer, wider and taller than the previous Ram 1500, engineers were able to trim nearly 225 pounds from the latest model. Inside the cabin, legroom is increased in the first and second rows, while the reclining second-row seating has new folding center armrests. A new 12-inch infotainment touch screen dominates the instrument panel, with split-screen capabilities allowing simultaneous operation of up to two functions, such as the climate controls and navigation. A bird's-eye camera system eases parking, and the pickup gets Sirius XM's new 360L service that allows individualized streaming for subscribers. A 19-speaker, 900-watt Harman Kardon audio system with repositioned door speakers to improve sound quality is optional. Interior storage space is greatly expanded, including a larger reconfigurable center console that can be transformed into 12 storage combinations. The optional RamBox bed storage boxes include a three-prong 115-volt plug. The 2019 Ram 1500 will continue to be powered by the 305-hp 3.6-liter V6 engine or an optional 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. But engineers were able to quiet the cabin in the V-8 model by employing frame-mounted "active tuned mass modules," which work electronically to dampen engine noise in the cabin, reducing cabin noise to 67 decibels. Both engines are paired with an updated version of its eight-speed automatic transmission. In terms of safety, Ram incorporated new wheel blockers into its frame across all trim levels to improve performance in slight offset frontal crash tests. In addition to expected electronic safety features such as automatic braking and adaptive cruise control, the Ram 1500 will have available adaptive front lighting that illuminates up to an additional 15 degrees in the direction of travel. Pricing has not been announced. Production of vehicles for sale will begin this month. The previous-generation 2018 Ram 1500 will remain in production for "at least a year," FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said in October, in part to help guard the new pickup's residual values. . .

Where's Chevy's mid-engine Corvette? Richard Truett, Automotive News / January 16, 2018 One of the most talked-about cars leading up to press days at the North American International Auto Show this week isn't even at the show. In fact, it has not even been confirmed by its manufacturer, General Motors. We're talking about the next-generation Chevrolet Corvette, widely expected to have its engine placed behind the seats for the first time in its 65-year history. Enthusiast car magazines and websites have been breathlessly reporting that the eighth-generation Corvette would make its long-awaited debut this week in Detroit. Turns out it was premature speculation. Although the car has been caught testing numerous times by spy photographers, and appears nearly fully baked, apparently no one outside GM knows when it will debut. The next major global auto show happens in early March in Geneva and nearly all the world's supercar manufacturers are on this year's list of exhibitors. GM and Chevrolet are not scheduled to attend -- but that may be a ruse to tamp down speculation. If you are going to launch a bona fide American supercar, why not take it to the Europeans and introduce it in their backyard? Also, even though GM no longer owns Opel and Vauxhall, Chevrolet maintains a small presence in Europe, offering Camaro and Corvette in several countries. So a European launch for the Corvette is plausible. Last week, I thought there was a decent chance Chevrolet would roll out the next-gen Corvette at the Detroit show. The redesigned Silverado pickup had its coming-out party at a weekend press event, clearing the way, I thought, for the next-gen Corvette to suck the oxygen out of Cobo Center just like the Ford GT did in 2015. It didn't happen. Several people I know who claim to have good sources in GM say the car will be shown next year at the Detroit show. I hope not. With more and better spy shots coming almost weekly, there won't be much mystery left to the new car. Photo gallery - http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=CA&Date=20180105&Category=PHOTOS01&ArtNo=105009999&Ref=PH&Profile=1115

Ford to hatch most powerful street-legal Mustang under Shelby badge Michael Martinez, Automotive News / January 15, 2018 DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. next year will launch its most powerful street-legal Mustang ever: a 700+ hp Shelby GT500. Joe Hinrichs, head of Ford's global operations, teased the high-performance pony car at the 2018 Detroit auto show on Monday. Ford showed a short teaser video showing brief glimpses of a red Mustang accompanied by the Shelby's signature Cobra badging. No other details were released. The Shelby GT500 will mark one of 12 new performance vehicles that Ford has vowed to bring to market by the end of the decade. . .

GM picks Mich. plant to build new Silverado diesel engine Richard Truett/Michael Wayland, Automotive News / January 16, 2018 DETROIT -- The new 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine coming in the redesigned 2019 Chevrolet Silverado will be manufactured in a General Motors engine plant in Flint, Mich. Production of the engine -- designed at the General Motors diesel center of excellence in Turin [Italy] -- will start late this year or early next year. It was unclear how many new jobs could be created by the move. GM Vice President of Global Propulsion Systems Dan Nicholson would not divulge technical details of the new fuel-efficient engine, but he confirmed that the Flint engine plant would be the production site. Over the weekend, at the press debut of the new pickup, GM product chief Mark Reuss said Flint would play a "very important" role in the "long-term viability" of the pickup. He declined to offer any specifics. "You're going to see some announcements around Flint," he said after unveiling the Silverado on Saturday in Detroit. Flint Assembly produces regular and crew cab heavy-duty models of the Silverado and GMC Sierra. The diesel engine, combined with a weight reduction of 450 pounds and a new, fuel-efficient 10-speed automatic transmission, is widely expected raise the Silverado's fuel economy to 30 mpg or more on the highway -- which would meet or beat the diesel-powered Ford F-150 debuting this year. It also would give GM an industry-leading two trucks with highway fuel economy in the 30s. The diesel-powered Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon have EPA-certified fuel economy of 30 mpg. The 3.0-liter engine is the first light-duty diesel available in a full-size GM pickup since the mid-1990s. Nicholson said the new engine is an all-new GM design

“This will provide an unprecedented level of protection for Illinois’ half-million" illegal immigrants, said public servant Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner.

Can Ranger crash GM's midsize pickup party? Michael Martinez, Automotive News / January 15, 2017 DETROIT — If General Motors struck gold by reviving the Colorado and Canyon midsize pickups four years ago, then Ford had better hope that mine isn't tapped out by the time the Ranger reaches dealerships early next year. The segment exploded in popularity this decade — it has surged 78 percent since 2014 — but that growth appears to be running out of steam. Last year's U.S. sales of 452,335 midsize pickups were less than 1 percent more than the year prior, and IHS Markit doesn't expect the segment to top 480,000 sales through 2025. "Ford is late to the party," Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader, said in an interview. "The question is: Is there room for yet another entry, or has the growth in that segment peaked? It's quite possible that it has." Still, Ford believes next year is the right time to resurrect the Ranger nameplate, which was discontinued for U.S. buyers in 2011 while remaining in many global markets. Officials are positioning the pickup as a lifestyle vehicle that appeals to younger, active buyers who may not want the herculean hauling capabilities — and higher price tag — of a full-size F-150. "It's really just not about growth and the segment size itself; it's about some of the dynamics that are happening within full-size," Todd Eckert, Ford's truck marketing manager, told reporters this month. "As transaction prices continue to grow, we see more of an opportunity than we did, say, five years ago, to bring in a midsize pickup ... and really get to that entry-level buyer, who's a very different customer." The Ranger, which Ford planned to unveil Sunday, Jan. 14, at the Detroit auto show, will differ significantly from the F-150. It has a mostly steel body, eschewing the aluminum diet the F series, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator have undergone. Instead of the multitude of powertrain options on the F-150, the Ranger will come with one: a 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. It includes rugged front and rear differentials from Dana Inc., which also supplies the Jeep Wrangler. An available electronic-locking rear differential should give the vehicle better off-road maneuverability than its bigger brother. "These buyers have a work/play lifestyle that requires something of a different scale," Eckert said. Architecturally, the Ranger will differ little from the version sold outside the U.S., but it will be built in Michigan with parts sourced in North America. Interior and exterior designs have been changed to give the truck a more rugged look for U.S. buyers. "This is not about bringing the global Ranger here to the U.S. and selling it in our dealerships," Eckert said. "This is about designing and engineering specifically for the North American customer and the conditions the trucks will be put in here." It will have lots of new technology, such as a standard 4G connected Wi-Fi hotspot, FordPass and precollision assist, as well as other optional driver-assist features. It will come in three trim levels: XL, XLT and Lariat. Ford will sell two-door SuperCab and four-door SuperCrew configurations. An off-road FX4 package will be offered across all trims. That will give drivers the terrain-management system first offered on the F-150 Raptor that includes four drive modes: normal, grass/gravel/snow, mud/ruts, and sand. The package also includes a new "trail control," which acts as an off-road cruise control by accelerating or braking to maintain a set speed while traversing gravel or mountain trails. It's an extension of the automaker's hill-descent control, which controls braking on steep grades. The FX4 package will also come with standard automatic emergency braking. The Ranger also will have a blind-spot information system with sensors that can extend their line of sight to the back of a trailer up to 33 feet long. The system will be standard on the XLT and Lariat trims. The interior includes an 8-inch touch screen, as well as two liquid crystal display screens in the instrument cluster. The rear seats offer waterproof underseat storage. Ford said it expects the Ranger to have best-in-class payload capacity but declined to give details on power, fuel economy, dimensions or weight. The company hopes to recapture some of the midsize pickup buyers it abandoned when it closed the St. Paul, Minn., plant that built the previous-generation Ranger. It also aims to conquest from other brands, woo some F-150 buyers — though not too many, and only if they otherwise would have defected to a rival brand — and even snatch sales from small crossover and sedan buyers. It wants the Ranger to add to its strong overall pickup sales; its full-size F series has been the nation's best-selling pickup for 41 straight years. "We see an opportunity," Eckert said. "It's one thing to get on top, but it's also about staying on top."

Thank you Ted. I know the author, Steve Brooks. I told him that he's the best heavy truck journalist in the business.

We have laws that are rigidly enforced.........and then we have laws which are not enforced. It sends a bad message. Not a good way to run a ship. If foreigners are only allowed, by law, to legally immigrate to the United States, then one would be sure that all "illegal" immigrants are detained and immediately deported (and denied the ability to legally immigrate, as a penalty, for a period of time if not forever). No child born to illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship (i.e. DACA). If they want to complain, they should address their parents. The U.S. has nothing to do with it. The current system is, if you were able to sneak in and not be captured for a period of time, you can stay. That doesn't fly with me.

I suggest, the demand for a manual transmission option in the Ranger segment is entirely different from the F-150 segment. The biggest deal breaker is the lack of the 2.2L 4-cylinder diesel and 3.2L 5-cylinder diesel (known to Americans by way of the U.S. market full-size Transit). That the truck has but one engine, in North America, is shocking. The fact that it isn't available with the standard cab and long bed means they don't care about the commercial segment. I was planning to purchase a US market diesel Ranger and Everest in the 2019-2020 period (whenever they launched). WIthout the diesel option, that plan is firmly cancelled.

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No diesel option and no manual transmission. Bob, as predicted, Ford ruined the global Ranger for the US market. I'm a U.S. buyer, and this truck was not "developed specifically" for me. "This is not about bringing the global Ranger here to the U.S. and selling it in our dealerships," said Todd Eckert, Ford trucks marketing manager. "This is about designing and engineering specifically for the North American customer and the conditions the trucks will be put in here." Mr. Eckert, you should have brought over the global Ranger. You completely don't understand this product, nor the US market for it.

Ford Ranger (finally) returns to US market Michael Martinez, Automotive News / January 14, 2018 Ford aims Ranger at pickup buyers who want smaller, simpler package DETROIT -- After an eight-year hiatus, Ford Motor Co. is re-entering the midsize pickup segment with the 2019 Ford Ranger, which offers truck buyers some of the features and benefits they could get in an F-150 but with fewer customization options, a smaller footprint and lower price tag. The revived Ranger, which will be made in Michigan and go on sale next year, has a similar architecture to the pickup Ford sells in dozens of markets overseas, but its design and powertrain have been developed specifically for U.S. buyers. Ford, which plans to formally introduce the Ranger at the Detroit auto show on Sunday, will offer only one engine option: a 2.3-liter EcoBoost mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. The latest Ranger has a mostly steel body, rugged axles from Dana Inc. and an exterior design similar to its larger F-series counterparts. During development, it went through the same torture tests as the F-150. "This is not about bringing the global Ranger here to the U.S. and selling it in our dealerships," said Todd Eckert, Ford trucks marketing manager. "This is about designing and engineering specifically for the North American customer and the conditions the trucks will be put in here." The Ranger will include a host of new technology, such as a standard 4G-connected Wi-Fi hot spot, FordPass Connect and pre-collision assist technology as well as a number of other optional driver-assist features. It will come in three trim levels: XL, XLT and Lariat. Ford will sell two-door SuperCab and four-door SuperCrew configurations. An off-road FX4 package will be offered across all trims. That will give drivers the terrain-management system first offered on the F-150 Raptor that includes four drive modes: normal, grass/gravel/snow, mud/ruts and sand. The package also includes a new "trail control," which acts as an off-road cruise control by accelerating or braking to maintain a set speed while traversing gravel or mountain trails. It's an extension of the automaker's hill-descent control, which controls braking on steep grades. The FX4 package will come with standard automatic emergency braking. The Ranger also will have a blind-spot information system with sensors that can extend their line of sight to the back of a trailer up to 33 feet long. The system will be standard on the XLT and Lariat trims. The exterior will include frame-mounted steel bumpers as well as the Ranger's name prominently stamped into the tailgate and some grille designs. The interior includes an 8-inch touch screen as well as two LCD screens in the instrument cluster. The rear seats offer waterproof underseat storage. Ford said it expects the Ranger to have best-in-class payload capacity but wouldn't divulge any details on power, fuel economy, dimensions or weight. While the U.S. midsize pickup market peaked years ago -- at 1.32 million in 1986 -- it has staged a modest rally in recent years, yet remains small, with the introduction of revived models from General Motors. U.S. sales in the segment haven't topped 1 million since 2000 or 500,000 since 2007. The Ranger was always among the segment's top sellers, including No. 1 as recently as 2004. During the 1990s, Ranger sales routinely totaled more than 300,000 units a year before fading in the 2000s. Ford hopes to recapture some of the midsize pickup buyers it abandoned when it closed the St. Paul, Minn., plant that built the previous-generation Ranger. It also aims to conquest from other brands, woo some F-150 buyers — though not too many, and only if they otherwise would have defected to a rival brand — and even snatch sales from small crossovers and sedans. It wants the Ranger to add to its strong overall pickup sales; the full-size F series has been the nation's best-selling pickup for 41 straight years. "We see an opportunity," Eckert said. "It's one thing to get on top, but it's also about staying on top." Photo gallery - http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=CA&Date=20180114&Category=DETROIT_AUTO_SHOW&ArtNo=114009999&Ref=PH&Profile=1115 .

The arrival of the Transit Custom (panel van) and sister Transit Tourneo (window van) is long overdue. But they would have had to add the US market-specific engine fire feature. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/47453-new-man-tge-and-volkswagen-crafter-launched-at-iaa-2016/?tab=comments#comment-350078