1973 Ford F-250 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Autoblog Minute: Ford Ranger, UK Mustang, Hyundai Hybrid

Ford may bring the Ranger back to the US, the UK goes nuts over the Mustang, and the battle of hybrids heats up with spy shots of the Toyota Prius and a new Hyundai. Autoblog's senior editor Greg Migliore reports on the weekly recap edition of Autoblog Minute. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Ford may bring the Ranger back to the US, the UK goes nuts over Mustang, and the battle of hybrids heats up with spy shots of Prius and a new Hyundai. I'm Autoblog senior editor Greg Migliore and this is your Autoblog Minute weekly recap. 2011 was the last time we saw Ford's midsize pickup in the US but according to a report from the Detroit News we could see production of the Ranger at the [00:00:30] Dearborn automaker's Michigan Assembly Plant as early as 2018. Ranger could compete with the Chevy Colorado and perhaps revive the compact and midsize pickup market for Ford, but the future of Ranger in the US depends a lot on Ford's ongoing negotiations with the UAW. About 2,000 orders for the 2015 Mustang were placed in the UK, tying up production of the pony car until July 2016. According to details in a press release from Ford UK, [00:01:00] it looks like Brits are a lot like their American cousins, opting for the 5.0 liter V8, with Race Red as the popular color of choice. Photos of the 2016 Toyota Prius leaked generating a lot of buzz over the styling. This fourth generation Prius will have some new competition as spy shots of a new Hyundai also surfaced this week. The car is said to be a hybrid and a bonafide "Prius fighter." Those are the highlights from the week that was. Be sure to check out my full recap this Saturday, [00:01:30] including the latest in FCA rumors for 2016. For Autoblog, I'm Greg Migliore. Autoblog Minute is a short-form video news series reporting on all things automotive. Each segment offers a quick and clear picture of what's happening in the automotive industry from the perspective of Autoblog's expert editorial staff, auto executives, and industry professionals. UAW/Unions Ford GMC Hyundai Toyota Truck Hybrid Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video

UK's Loughborough University improving Ford's 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine

How much does it cost for college students to study zero emissions vehicles? At Loughborough University in the UK, a new Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) is being built at a cost of a billion pounds ($1.7 billion US). The school has just announce that it will fund a number of grad student positions and is creating a new Chair in Advanced Propulsion Systems, which sounds like a fun job to us. We're weird like that. There will be a total of four professor-type positions in the new Center, including the chair, all focused on teaching students about low-carbon vehicle technologies, specifically electric and hybrid ones. The school is investing 1.5 million pounds ($2.5 million) for the new positions. There is a bigger picture as well, a 26-million pound ($44 million) Advanced Combustion Turbocharged Integrated Variable-valvetrain Engine (ACTIVE) project, which uses funds not only from the school but also from Ford and others. The point of ACTIVE is to study Ford's 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine and "improve further its efficiency and ensure it exceeds 2020 emission regulations." This is already a popular engine for the automaker, and it will need to stay at the bleeding edge of efficiency to remain as important in 2020 as it is today. Loughborough University has been working with automakers on advanced energy technologies for years, for example with Rolls-Royce and fuel cells in 2007 and the Lotus Hotfire engine in 2008. University invests GBP1.5M in advanced propulsion research to advance zero emissions vehicles challenge Loughborough University is investing GBP1.5M over five years in strategic research appointments, inspired by the global challenge to develop the new advanced propulsion technologies required for the move to zero emission vehicles. These appointments reinforce the University's world-class research in low-carbon vehicle technologies, adding new dimensions concerned with electric and hybrid drives. Four appointments will be made, including a Chair in Advanced Propulsion Systems, supported by a number of PhD studentships. The GBP1.5M investment is part of the University's commitment to the recently announced Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) to support the development of new supply chains for low carbon vehicles. APC is an initiative established by the Automotive Council that will see GBP1 billion of investment from government and industry over the next 10 years.

Ford blamed in drug mule lawsuit

If a college student is caught smuggling drugs across the border, one might think the kid got what was coming to him. But when a Mexican student at the University of Texas in El Paso was caught by Border Patrol agents with duffel bags filled with marijuana in his trunk, the man used a classic excuse: He claimed they weren't his.
While a claim like that is almost unbelievable, Ricardo Magallanes, the student, is now suing Ford for handling its vehicles' key codes negligently enough to allow drug smugglers to break into his Ford Focus and stash the drugs, The Daily Caller reports. The twist here is that four other people who lived in Juarez and worked in El Paso were involved in the same type of scheme - allegedly unwittingly, just like Magallanes - and all the cars were Fords except one model from General Motors. FBI agents also found an employee at a Dallas Ford dealership that had accessed the key codes to all four of the cannabis-stuffed Fords.
While we all may not own Fords, the case still causes us slight paranoia. We'll definitely be checking our trunks before we cross any more international borders.