That’s A Wrap! The Latest Automotive News From Around The Web – March 26, 2021

For The Week Of March 26, 2021… There’s TONS of news and information this week. Highlights from this week include: Amazon’s electric delivery van; Rivian’s planned charging network; Geely plans on taking on M-B and Tesla; Electric motorcycle & scooter sales boom as gas prices soar; a naked 2022 Ford Maverick; Interior video of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV; new pics of the Kia EV6 and also Kia’s Virtual Auto Show; Pictures of the gorgeous Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition; Tesla news and Formula 1 plus lots more…

Our local gas prices have jumped from 98¢ to $1.29 per litre in the past 2 weeks. Looks like the same thing is happening around the world. Electric motorcycle and scooter sales booming as gas prices soar. For the price of an electric bicycle ($1,995), you can get an electric motorbike/scooter. The batteries are usually removable and it’s quick and easy to charge for everyone – no matter where they live. More info from electek HERE including some great videos.

Rivian’s all-electric Amazon Delivery van has started making deliveries in San Francisco, joining Los Angeles as the only locations to currently receive Amazon packages from the all-electric vehicle. Click HERE for more information

More from Rivian – They are working on its own electric car charging network called the Rivian Adventure Network that is going to be similar to Tesla’s Supercharger Network. These stations are going to be only for Rivian owners and over 600 stations with more than 3,500 300 kW chargers will be installed by 2023 in the U.S. and Canada. Complete details HERE

Netflix. Season 3 of “Formula1: Drive To Survive” is streaming now on Netflix. The first 2 seasons have been great and we’ll probably have watched season 3 by the time you read this. Although every actual F1 race is as boring as watching paint dry or grass grow, the show is very entertaining and one of Road Test’s favourite shows. It’s so good it almost makes us want to start watching F1 again, but we won’t. We’ve been boycotting the #Snoozefest for about 10 years now.

Staying with Formula 1

The Aston Martin Vantage is the new Official Safety Car of Formula 1. To celebrate, they’ve released a special version for us common folk – the 2021 Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition. The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission, putting out 535 hp / 505 lb.ft torque. The new Vantage F1 Edition is on sale now with a recommended retail price from £142,000 (around $245,610 Cdn) in the UK with deliveries scheduled to begin in May 2021. More pictures at the end of this article… More details HERE

Switching to a more interesting racing series…

Nissan becomes the latest manufacturer to commit to Gen3 era of Formula E. They announced a long-term commitment to the ABB FIA FormulaE World Championship through to the end of Season 12 (2025-2026). More info HERE

Geely (owner of Volvo Cars & 9.7 percent of Daimler), is to launch new a premium EV brand with the ambition to make premium cars “like Mercedes-Benz” and Tesla. The new marque named “Zeekr,” will open showrooms in city centres to sell cars at a fixed price, departing from traditions to sell cars through dealerships. The first Zeekr electric cars are to be delivered as early as Q3 2021, and they plan to launch one new model in each of the next five years. Much more information HERE and/ or HERE

Tesla
For the third year in a row, Model 3 was recognized as the 2021 Top Safety Pick+ from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). More Info from Tesla HERE

Staying with Tesla…

They have an assembly plant in Europe? Who knew? They’re apparently planning to close its European assembly plant in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The Model S and Model X are assembled there for Europe. More detailed info HERE

KIA – The later reveal from Kia’s Virtual Auto Show is the Stinger. It’s only a couple of years old, but Kia have seen fit to give it a big update. Check out the launch video HERE

The Kia EV6 is to be launched later this month, but Kia dropped a couple of teaser pictures to whet our appetite for the first ground-up dedicated EV from the Korean manufacturer. Based on Kia’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), it features “a distinctive crossover-inspired design.” More details HERE

Turning to Kia’s sister company – Hyundai… Last week the internet was abuzz with pictures and information about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV. Other than a couple of press pictures, we didn’t get to see much of the interior… until now. Here’s a video by Charlie Min from Asian Petrolhead that takes us on an in-depth tour of the car. Take a look, cause there’s plenty of good information here as well as video details.

More Breaking News from last week – SPIED! Here’s the unclad 2022 Ford Maverick. Last time out we gave you links & pictures of the all-new small truck from Ford, this week it broke cover while filming a commercial in San Diego. Big news is that it IS a unibody truck like the Honda Ridgeline. HERE is a link to the site TFLTruck that got the shots.

Following Audi’s lead, the Volkswagen brand VW no longer intends to develop new combustion engines. This transformation is happening across the Volkswagen Group. Both companies want to develop the engines currently in use and prepare them for new emissions standards such as Euro 7 that the EU Commission intends to present a concrete draft by the end of this year. Lots more information HERE

Lexus. Pencil Tuesday March 31 into your calendar because Lexus will announce details of its brand transformation efforts online at 6:00am (7pm Japan time), along with the Concept Car which symbolizes the next generation of Lexus. Join the digital press conference at: Lexus.com/Concept-Reveal

As promised – more pictures of the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition