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GM delaying additional Silverado EV and Sierra EV production to Q4 2025

This looks like more "Gotcha!" news about storms in the EV sector, but the word "additional" is key here. The Detroit News reported today that GM is pushing delaying production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups at the Orion Assembly Plant to late 2025, about a year behind expectations. The Silverado EV Work Truck is already in production at GM's Factory Zero in Detroit, which won't change. Retail versions of the Silverado EV are still planned for production at Factory Zero before the end of this year, and the Sierra EV is expected to enter production at Factory Zero early next year. This new plan simply means GM won't add more production of those electric trucks at Orion.  GM builds the Chevrolet Bolt at Orion right now, assembly of that groundbreaking car to end this year. GM's original idea was to spend $4 billion to convert Orion to EV pickup production in time to get its two giant profit makers rolling down lines in early 2025. The move to late 2025 could mean the plant is out of commission for about two years. The facility's 1,261 employees are being offered spots in other plants, including Factory Zero.  The automaker gave several reasons for the move, a spokesperson telling The Detroit News the company wants "to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand," and telling the Detroit Free Press, "We're looking at EV demand and the trendline for EVs is stabilizing. ... It is not rising as fast as originally forecasted." On top of that, engineers "have identified engineering improvements that we will implement to increase the profitability of our products." The spokesperson also made it clear that the delay has nothing to do with the UAW strike, now in its 32nd day.  Factory Zero's working up to a near-term production capacity of about 600,000 units annually, GM saying it wanted to get capacity to 1 million EVs annually by the end of 2025. At the moment, the site builds the Silverado EV Work Truck, the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV, and the Cruise Origin shuttles — not the Bolt taxis, the autonomous pods. The Detroit News reported GM sold 18 Silverado EV Work Trucks in Q3 this year, GM Authority says GMC Hummer EV production has ramped up to about 3,000 units per month, and Cruise Origin is still waiting on approval from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration to mass-produce the autonomous shuttles because the shuttles need an exemption for not having steering wheels.

GM drops diesel engines for 2020 Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers

GM is officially discontinuing the diesel engine in the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain for the 2020 model year. The 1.6-liter turbodiesel was always an oddball of an engine in the compact crossover segment, and now the experiment has come to an end. The Car Connection initially reported the news, and a GMC spokesperson, Stuart Fowle, confirmed it to us this morning.  “A huge majority of our Terrain customers have opted for one of our two gas engines," says Fowle. We canÂ’t say this eventuality comes as a massive surprise, as we saw news from couple of months ago that GM was dropping all-wheel drive from the diesel-powered cars for 2020. Low demand was cited as the reason for that cull, and itÂ’s the same for the little GM crossovers this time around, too. These vehicles were the only ones powered with a diesel engine in their class, but thatÂ’s going to be changing. Just as GM is going away from the diesel, Mazda is finally bringing its diesel to market in the CX-5. YouÂ’ll only be able to get that engine in the most expensive ($42,045) trim level, combined with all-wheel drive, though. The cheapest Equinox diesel starts at a comparably low $30,795. ThatÂ’s a $2,400 upcharge over the base 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder, and the value is questionable. Mileage is better, but diesel fuel is more expensive. Towing capability didnÂ’t increase over the base engineÂ’s 1,500-pound capacity, but the extra torque around town was nice. As diesels go in the U.S., this one was rather rough and noisy, possibly contributing to some turning their noses up after a test drive. Perhaps another reason for its demise was that the much quicker 2.0-liter turbo Equinox was only $100 more than the diesel. This engine offered significantly better towing at 3,500 pounds, too. You can read all about what we thought of the diesel in our first drive review here, but the 2019 model year is the last one if you had it on your shortlist. This article has been updated to indicate the source.

VW, Jeep and Cadillac top list of most-tattooed car brands

Most car enthusiasts own at least one piece of gear with their favorite brand's logo on it. It can be a T-shirt, a pen, a hat, or a garage sign, for example. It takes a much greater degree of dedication to get a car-themed tattoo, and a study suggests this sky-scraping level of obsession is most often found in Volkswagen, Jeep, and Cadillac fans. Compare the Market analyzed Instagram hashtags and posts to compile a list of the most commonly tattooed brands. Volkswagen came out on top, with 5,507 posts; note that anything related to the Wolfsburg-based brand earns it a point, whether it's a logo, a cutaway diagram of the Beetle's air-cooled flat-four engine, or a Touareg V10's firing order. Jeep finished second with 2,139 posts, followed by Cadillac at 1,775 posts. Surprisingly, the fourth spot is occupied by Pontiac, which appeared in 1,609 posts in spite of the fact that it hasn't built a car since 2010. Holden appears near the very bottom of the top-20 chart, ahead of Lamborghini, and its result might be influenced by the fact that General Motors announced plans to shutter it earlier in 2020. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are in sixth and 12th place, respectively. Alfa Romeo doesn't appear in the top 20, though its decades-old Quadrifoglio logo (pictured) can easily be mistaken for a symbol of Irish luck. Searching for posts that show a tattoo of a specific model uncovered even bigger surprises. According to the same study, the most-tattoed nameplate is the Chevrolet Impala, which appears in 823 posts. Odds are the earlier generations, like Dr. Dre's famous six-four, are more often tattooed than the final-generation model, which unceremoniously went out of production in February 2020 without a direct replacement waiting in the wings. Second place goes to the DeLorean DMC-12, which has transcended its status as an esoteric fiasco on wheels thanks to its role as a time machine in "Back to the Future." It appeared in 800 posts. Chevrolet's Corvette takes a distant third with 180 posts, followed by the Volkswagen Beetle (147 posts) and the Mini Cooper (116 posts). All told, car-themed tattoos are relatively rare. To put some of the aforementioned numbers into context, searching Instagram for the hashtag Volkswagen yields over 15 million posts, while the hashtag tattoo appears in over three million publications. Auto News Cadillac Chevrolet Jeep