Tag: future

  • Moving forward — and backward

    Moving forward — and backward

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    pflienert
    in

    A century ago, my grandmother Mary Lienert knew firsthand about freedom of mobility — both the upside and the downside. The purchase of a family automobile confined, rather than freed this young Nebraska farm wife, who never learned to drive. Before then, my father Bob Lienert wrote in a 1979 essay, my grandmother’s principal mode of…

  • A great Leapmotor forward? Ask Stellantis

    A great Leapmotor forward? Ask Stellantis

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    pflienert
    in

    Is the new Leapmotor B10 a sneak peek at the future of electric vehicles in North America? Or is it simply another warning shot in an ongoing series of trade skirmishes between China and a number of key overseas markets? Unveiled October 14 at the Paris auto show and targeted at global markets in 2025,…

  • How Maverick might morph into King Kong

    How Maverick might morph into King Kong

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    pflienert
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    At the risk of offending fans of Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift, I have a modest proposal for Ford CEO Jim Farley: Go global with that hot Maverick pickup. You’ll need the right partner to pull it off — to design and build a true “world truck” that appeals to consumers in North America, Europe and,…

  • A $3,850 China EV? Seriously?

    A $3,850 China EV? Seriously?

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    pflienert
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    As automakers in the US and Europe scramble to come up with more affordable electric cars, a little-known Chinese automaker named Zhidou has lowered the bar again with a cute micro EV called Rainbow. Price: $4,400, with a discount for early-bird buyers that drops the sticker to an unbelievable $3,850, according to CNEVpost.com. Zhidou’s achievement…

  • I was promised . . . turbines

    I was promised . . . turbines

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    pflienert
    in

    I think Peter Thiel is wrong. I don’t remember anyone promising ME flying cars. Not that I didn’t dream about them. I grew up in the Fifties, a period of wretched excess in automotive styling in my hometown Detroit: Too much chrome and too little taste. Even the dream cars from European auto shows of…

  • Future transport? The sky’s the limit

    Future transport? The sky’s the limit

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    pflienert
    in

    Elon Musk’s recent remarks to Don Lemon about future Tesla products was intriguing in several respects, not the least of which were Musk’s teasing hints about the next-gen Roadster (“not really a car”) and how it would marry technologies from Tesla and SpaceX. This was just a day or two after I stumbled across a post…