2012 Ram Laramie on 2040-cars

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Stellantis is official: FCA and PSA merger finally sealed

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler and PSA sealed their long-awaited merger on Saturday to create Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest auto group with deep enough pockets to fund the shift to electric driving and take on bigger rivals Toyota and Volkswagen. It took over a year for the Italian-American and French automakers to finalize the $52 billion deal, during which the global economy was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. They first announced plans to merge in October 2019, to create a group with annual sales of around 8.1 million vehicles. "The merger between Peugeot S.A. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. that will lead the path to the creation of Stellantis N.V. became effective today," the two automakers said in a statement. Shares in Stellantis, which will be headed by current PSA Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, will start trading in Milan and Paris on Monday, and in New York on Tuesday. Now analysts and investors are turning their focus to how Tavares plans to address the huge challenges facing the group – from excess production capacity to a woeful performance in China. Tavares will hold his first press conference as Stellantis CEO on Tuesday, after ringing NYSE's bell with Chairman John Elkann. FCA and PSA have said Stellantis can cut annual costs by over 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) without plant closures, and investors will be keen for more details on how it will do this. Marco Santino, a partner at consultants Oliver Wyman, said he expected Tavares to disclose the outlines of his action plan soon, but without divulging too many details at first. "He has proven to be the kind of person who prefers action to words, so I don't think he will make loud statements or try to over-sell targets," he said. Like all global automakers, Stellantis needs to invest billions in the years ahead to transform its vehicle range for the electric era. But other pressing tasks loom, including reviving the group's lagging fortunes in China, rationalizing its huge global empire and addressing massive overcapacity. "It will be a step by step process, also to allow the market to better appreciate every single move. I don't think we will have all the details before one year," Santino said.

2021 Ram 1500 pickup earns IIHS Top Safety Pick award with updated safety equipment

Thanks to changes in option-package content, the 2021 Ram 1500 crew cab pickup achieves a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). For 2021, the Ram adds Pedestrian Protection as part of the optional Advanced Safety Group, which allows the forward collision prevention system to detect people walking in front of the vehicle. Pedestrian collision mitigation is one of the requirements for earning an IIHS Top Safety Pick rating. In IIHS testing, the Ram's pedestrian-protection system avoided hitting the pedestrian dummy or braked enough to moderate the impact in all tests save for one where the vehicle is traveling 37 mph and the pedestrian is walking in the same direction. Still, the overall results of the vehicle-to-pedestrian tests and the vehicle-to-vehicle collision avoidance tests, where the Ram avoided crashes at 12 and 25 mph, were deemed "Acceptable" and "Superior" respectively. The Ram also achieved a top score of "Good" in the agency's various crash tests. The final hurdle to achieving an IIHS award is headlight performance. For the Top Safety Pick+ level, all available headlights must score Acceptable or Good, and for the one-rung-down Top Safety Pick, at least one available headlight option must score Acceptable or Good. The Ram 1500's SmartBeam curve-adaptive LED headlamps were the only ones to make the grade, which landed the Ram at the Top Safety Pick level. The award applies only to the 2021 Ram 1500 Laramie, Laramie Longhorn, and Limited optioned with the Advanced Safety Group and SmartBeam headlamps. Based on IIHS testing so far, the Ram is the first full-size pickup to achieve a Top Safety Pick award for this year. Related Video:

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.