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FCA, Ford idle plants due to semiconductor shortage

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford and FCA will become the latest automakers to idle production facilities due to a semiconductor shortage. Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky will idle for a week, borrowing a down period from later in the year to compensate. Per Automotive News, FCA is idling its Brampton facility in Ontario, Canada, and one other site which has not yet been identified.  Louisville Assembly is the production site for the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair SUVs; Brampton Assembly produces the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger for FCA.  A Ford spokeswoman, who declined to identify the semiconductor supplier, confirmed the temporary shutdown to Reuters. In this, FCA and Ford join Nissan and potentially Honda in idling production in the wake of the shortage, which also hit Volkswagen late last year. The shortages are being blamed on consumer demand for silicon after production slowdowns resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Volkswagen said it had to adjust production schedules in China, Europe and North America to compensate.  Nissan said it planned to reduce production of the Note, a hybrid electric car, at its Oppama Plant in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, but did not give details of the scale of the output cut. The Nikkei newspaper reported that Nissan would slash its Note production at Oppama to about 5,000 units in January, from an initially planned 15,000 units. "A global shortage of semiconductors has affected parts procurement in the auto sector. As a result of this shortage, the Oppama Plant in Japan will adjust production in January, reducing production of the Nissan NOTE," Nissan said in a statement. (This article contains reporting from Reuters.)     Auto News Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Chrysler Dodge Ford

7 major automakers to build open EV charging network

A new joint venture established by BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis will build a new North American electric vehicle charging network on a scale designed to compete with Tesla's industry-benchmark Supercharger network. The 30,000-plus planned new chargers will accommodate both Tesla's almost-standard North American Charging System (NACS) and existing automakers' Combined Charging System (CCS) options, effectively guaranteeing compatibility with the vast majority of current and upcoming electric models — whether they're from one of the involved automakers or not.  "With the generational investments in public charging being implemented on the Federal and State level, the joint venture will leverage public and private funds to accelerate the installation of high-powered charging for customers. The new charging stations will be accessible to all battery-powered electric vehicles from any automaker using Combined Charging System (CCS) or North American Charging Standard (NACS) and are expected to meet or exceed the spirit and requirements of the U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program." Critically, the automakers involved will have a say in how the charging tech is implemented, guaranteeing that the hardware will play nicely with each automaker's in-house charging systems. Hyundai and Kia, for example, were hesitant to jump on board the Tesla NACS bandwagon earlier this year over concerns that the Supercharger network is insufficient for powering the two automakers' 800-volt charging systems; similar tech is used by Volkswagen and Porsche.  In addition to providing much-needed capacity and high-output charging for America's growing fleet of electric cars and trucks, the new network will integrate seamlessly with each automaker's in-app and in-vehicle features, rather than forcing customers to use third-party tools and payment systems, as is the case with some existing public charging infrastructure.  "The functions and services of the network will allow for seamless integration with participating automakersÂ’ in-vehicle and in-app experiences, including reservations, intelligent route planning and navigation, payment applications, transparent energy management and more. In addition, the network will leverage Plug & Charge technology to further enhance the customer experience," the announcement said.

Somebody created a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon droptop

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is a vehicle built with one purpose in mind: going fast down a drag strip. Weight is the enemy when it comes to acceleration, and one surefire way to add weight to a car is to make it into a convertible. However, that’s exactly what one Demon owner decided to do to their Challenger. Motor Authority spotted this Plum Crazy Demon convertible conversion for sale online, and the dealer and builder even spilled a few details on the car itself. This particular conversion was done by Droptop Customs, a shop with experience, having previously converted a couple Challengers into convertibles for Shaq in Miami. However, ripping the roof off the 840-horsepower Demon is no small task. ThatÂ’s a ridiculous amount of horsepower to handle for a car that has lost a fair amount of structural rigidity from removing the roof. The Droptop Customs sales manager told MA about the changes that were made to make this build work. To begin, the frame rails were reinforced with 1x2-inch pieces of metal. Then, the shop added diagonally-mounted metal braces underneath to resist twist. Even more structural supports were added to the trunk, front and rear shock towers, and gussets were added to the bottom of each door to keep them from moving. Lastly, the shop boxed the connection of the front rails to the engine cradle. No specifics about weight gain were provided. There is one sad bit of news about this Demon, though. The dealer told MA that itÂ’s currently on consignment, despite being listed for sale on FCA dealership Cape CoralÂ’s website. ItÂ’s priced at an eye-watering $145,995. But the new owner wonÂ’t have to manually put down the top! ThatÂ’s right, itÂ’s powered, and itÂ’s supposed to take about 20 seconds to lower or raise into place while stationary. Somehow, the car has only 172 miles on it, so itÂ’s hardly been used. We have no photos with the top up, so youÂ’ll have to settle for top-down photos for now. It looks like a professional job through and through, and we actually dig the convertible look. Plus, who doesnÂ’t love Plum Crazy?