Author: Clark Westfield
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, and lives in Farmingdale, New York.
04/10/2022
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GM to build clean EV battery chargers for remote locations, clean power backup
A meme on social media shows a diesel generator powering a BEV charger, suggesting that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) are just as “dirty” as regular gasoline cars. While the photo itself is a fake (the box is not a diesel generator) and most people get power from the grid, the point has been taken. General Motors […]
11/09/2021
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Geely Farizon Homtruck: battery-swapping long-hauler—but is it real?
Geely, the Chinese company behind “Lynk & Co” (to be confused with Lincoln), has a Farizon (rhymes with Horizon and Verizon) Auto division making commercial trucks. The latest release, a full semi, can be purchased with swappable batteries, methanol power, or a range-extended electric drive. Geely isn’t planning to scoop Cummins, Volvo, or Tesla: their […]
10/01/2021
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Chinese Foxconn buying Lordstown Auto
The Lordstown auto plant, once owned by General Motors and purchased by startup Lordstown Motors for $20 million, is being purchased by Chinese electronics firm Foxconn, best known for assembling most Apple products. Foxconn has been expanding in the United States, largely at Apple’s behest, and some see the move as paving the way for […]
07/02/2021
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GM, FCA sales numbers seem good but both lost market share; Ford in production Hell
GM announced a healthy 40% gain in sales over the COVID-afflicted second quarter of 2020; year to date, GM is up by 20%. FCA US, or Stellantis US, posted a quarterly gain of 32%, with the same year-to-date rise of 20%. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, year to date, both companies […]
06/15/2021
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New Nissan Rogue to complicate Renegade, Trax sales paths
Last year, Nissan sold a stunning 350,447 Rogues. The small crossovers had gotten an early publicity boost from the 2016 movie Star Wars: Rogue One, which had nothing to do with the car other than the title, but seemed to dramatically lift sales. Their styling could best be described as “distinctive,” but their price and […]
04/02/2021
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Chrysler still dominates minivans
Chrysler still dominates the minivan market, despite the discontinued Dodge Caravan posting a 93% sales drop—from 24,931 to 1,709. Most of those lost buyers probably did not move up to the Pacifica, which went up from 24,525 to 34,342, a 40% gain. The Honda Odyssey posted a 22% gain, moving up to 20,066. The Toyota […]
03/15/2021
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Dealer satisfaction: GM at top, Stellantis at bottom
When Mary Barra took the helm of General Motors, she almost immediately started working on increasing the quality of the company’s dealer network. PR people have been tight-lipped on how this was done, but the results are clear in the latest J.D. Power study. Every General Motors brand (shown in bright green) ended up in […]
03/14/2021
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The big electric pickup list, updated
Here are all the electric pickups we know about, in one table. We are reporting what we know about; there are things we don’t know about. Not everything is comparable to gasoline powered cars (e.g. torque at the wheels). Most of these figures are not final, and some may be hyperbole. Electric car companies have realized […]
03/02/2021
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GM tops manufacturers for loyalty—again
General Motors was the top manufacturer for loyalty in the United States, for the sixth consecutive year, while the Ford brand took the top loyalty to a brand for the 11th year in a row. At the dealer level, Lincoln took the honors. There were 17 segment categories. Ford won three (plus a Lincoln), GM […]
02/18/2021
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GM does well in J.D. Power Dependability; Stellantis and Ford, not so much
The big winner in the J.D. Power dependability survey was, again, Toyota; they took the #1 spot with Lexus, and then the #4 spot with Toyota-the-brand. Both were well below average in problems (0.81 and 0.98, respectively). Hyundai/Kia also did quite well, coming in at #3 and #7, with Genesis at #8. But GM has […]
