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GM's Cruise Origin EV platform to be shared by many electric vehicles

GM on Monday announced that it was spending $2.2 billion at its Detroit-Hamtramck facility, part of its $3 billion commitment made after the UAW strike to transform Hamtramck into the company's first plant to exclusively build a wide variety of electric and autonomous vehicles. The operation will eventually employ 2,225 people. Hamtramck is still building the Cadillac CT6 and Chevy Impala. Production of those cars will wind down Feb. 28, when GM will idle the lines for 18 months of retooling. During the transition, more than 800 workers will likely be transferred to build pickups at Fort Wayne, Indiana, or Flint, Michigan. When Hamtramck production of new EVs begins in late 2021, the Cruise Origin electric shuttle revealed last week will be among the first vehicles built there. Also, an electric pickup likely branded as a Hummer to be sold as a GMC, which will be debuted by LeBron James during the Super Bowl this Sunday. GM made quite a few pronouncements during the unveiling of the electric, autonomous Cruise Origin last week in San Francisco. We heard that the Origin was designed to last for for 1 million miles, be "roughly half the cost of what a conventional electric SUV costs today,” and riders could save as much as $5,000 per year by giving up their cars for Origins. Much was left out, as well, such as detailed specs on the platform, and when the Origin could see wide deployment. Carscoops addressed one open question about the platform, reporting that the Origin's bones will be shared among a number of other GM battery-electric vehicles, probably starting with the Cadillac EV due in 2021. The site received confirmation of that tidbit from Megan Soule, the automaker's assistant manager of Electrification, Battery Technology, Fuel Cells, R&D and GM Ventures Communications. It seems what we've been shown in the Origin is the first fruit of the multi-vehicle EV strategy GM CEO Marry Barra presented at the 2017 Barclays Global Automotive Conference. One of the slides (below, full PDF presentation here) touts an "All new multi-brand, multi-segment platform" with a "Structurally integrated all new battery system." The next slide places that modular platform at the center of 11 new vehicles, the van-looking silhouette on the upper right labeled "SAV," for shared autonomous vehicle, apparently in reference to the Origin.

6 luxury car brands to watch in 2024

2023 was a healthy year for the auto industry, and even with incentives returning and dealer lots filling up, there's plenty to like about the market if you build luxury automobiles, and we expect 2024 to be more of the same, which makes luxury-segment rivalries all the more interesting. Top luxury car brand rivalries? Well, that sounds downright uncivilized. But we know better, don't we? And when every quarterly sales update is an opportunity to remind somebody else that they bought the wrong status symbol, well, who can resist? Certainly not the diehard customers who fly their favorite brands' banners high.  Read more: Auto sales: Industry records best year since 2019 Read more: 2023 auto sales and 2024 preview: Ford Bronco vs. Jeep Wrangler This is a tricky segment to define, but essentially, we're looking at luxury car brands with depth to their portfolios and dealerships that exist to attract real-world customers. The Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and McLarens of the world are luxury cars, certainly, but we're more concerned with brands that have a bit more mass appeal — manufacturers who treat supply constraints as fiascos rather than features. If you disagree with our selections, feel free to let us know in the comments.  And since we're mostly concerned with finishing order, the luxury brands and totals featured here may change as new data come in throughout 2024. Due to the wild swings of the past several years, we're treating 2023 as the baseline by which we'll measure sales performance. And rather than rank brands vs. their finishing order in 2022, when supply-chain and inflationary issues still played havoc with sales figures, we're starting 2024 off with a clean slate.  The mainstream luxury segment is always a dogfight, but with their varied approaches to electrification all of the major luxury brands are in the midst of reshaping the premium landscape. Who is doing it right? Well, according to U.S. shoppers, the usual suspects are up to their old tricks.

2022 Cadillac Escalade makes small changes across lineup

Cadillac recently opened up about the changes it's made to the 2022 car and crossover lineup for next year, but has been mum on what's planned for the 2022 Escalade. GM Authority says it has the goods, rounding up a number of trim alterations being made to the big SUV. The fifth-gen 'Slade comes in five trims, from bottom to top: Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport, Luxury Platinum, and Sport Platinum. Starting with the updates coming across the lineup, two exterior colors retire, Dark Mocha Metallic and Shadow Metallic. They're replaced by three colors, Galactic Gray Metallic, Mahogany Metallic, and Wilder Metallic. The Escalade only offers one free color, Black Raven; all of the Metallics cost $625, and we expect these new ones will, too. Safety is the word for next year's model, with more features going in more vehicles. The entire lineup will get GM's Buckle to Drive feature that's part of the Teen Driver safety suite. Trying to make sure teens get the buckle in the clasp before taking off, if Buckle to Drive is activated, it won't let the vehicle be shifted into drive until the seatbelt is fastened. It starts with a beep and a message in the driver information center once the vehicle is started, and times out after 20 seconds. The last near-term whole-lineup changes are Near Field Communication going away, the tech having been superseded by modern smartphone capability. Finally, Super Cruise will eventually join the Escalade options sheet.  After that, the middle Premium Luxury and Sport trims are the big beneficiaries. In 2021, those two offered adaptive cruise control, automatic seatbelt tightening, enhanced automatic emergency braking, and reverse automatic braking as options. These features will come standard in 2022. Piling in more features necessitated a change to the optional $3,650 Driver Assist Tech Package that's currently offered, because the package includes three of the features that will come standard. Hence, the option's been renamed the Touring Package, and it will include air ride adaptive suspension, front and rear soft-close doors, and illuminated tread plates. Pricing is a mystery right now. The base Luxury trim gets a little attention, making lane keep assist and lane departure warning standard next year. That kit can't be had for any price on the 2021 Escalade.  And in 2023, GM Authority says we should get the hotter and more supercharged Escalade-V.