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Recharge Wrap-up: BMW cars to share i tech, Jordan to build solar EV charging network

Jordan is looking to promote EVs and build a solar charging network. The country is waiving import tariffs on electric cars, and is spending $120 million on solar chargers. It plans to build 3,000 charging stations, along with 30 MW of solar power. Some chargers will be powered by solar canopies, while others will get electricity from nearby solar farms. Jordan's solar plan should also help to lessen the amount of energy it needs to import from nearby countries. Read more from Navigant Research, or at Green Car Reports. BMW's mainstream cars will benefit from technology borrowed from the i3 and i8, according to BMW sales head Ian Robertson. In an interview with Automotive News, Robertson said that next-generation cars will use carbon fiber more extensively, and that more cars will get plug-in technology. He said that about half of i3 buyers opt for the range extender and added that it is incorrect to refer to a range-extended electric vehicle as a plug-in hybrid. Read more at Automotive News. The ethanol market should remain healthy despite falling oil prices. While cheap oil could drive down ethanol prices, demand still remains due to the federal biofuels standard. Additionally, ethanol producers may find it cheaper to ship their products as domestic oil production drops and railroad shipping opens up. Ethanol byproducts like distillers grains continue to sell, and foreign demand continues as other countries impose their own renewable fuel standards. Read more at Yahoo News. Via Motors will launch the production of an electric Chevrolet Silverado. The company will convert the pickups into range-extended EVs at its assembly line in Mexico, near GM's Silverado plant. Via has the capacity to produce 10,000 vehicles per year at its Mexico facility. Via Motors Chairman (and former GM Vice Chairman during the early days of the Chevrolet Volt project) Bob Lutz wants to help make EVs mainstream in America, and believes that requires electrifying pickups and SUVs. Read more in the press release below. Bob Lutz to Announce Production Launch of the Electrified Chevy Silverado BY VIA Motors Media access to Bob Lutz, former Vice-Chairman of General Motors and father of the Chevy Volt Bob Lutz is now Chairman of VIA Motors who builds the "Volt Style" extended range electric drive system for the Silverado, the Express Van and is working on the SUV's (Tahoe, Suburban) 5 years in development. Now production Launch and Consumer Sales in 2015.

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

GM to trim Russian output, raise prices amid currency woes

General Motors is shutting down its factory in Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg, from the middle of March until the middle of May as the country's currency, the ruble, continues to give economists fits. The ruble's value has plunged due not only to western sanctions, but a precipitous fall in oil prices. We knew these factors were already impacting the auto industry there, as Ford reported in its 2014 earnings statement, and now they're forcing GM to cut production at the factory, shown above, that is responsible for production of the Chevrolet Cruze and Opel Astra. Meanwhile, Automotive News is citing Russian outlet Kommersant as saying that GM has hiked its prices in the country by an average of 20 percent over the past two months. While a GM spokesman confirmed the St. Petersburg plant would be shut down for the two-month span reported by Kommersant and AN, he would not confirm the price increase. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Alexander Nikolayev / AFP / Getty Images Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Chevrolet GM Opel opel astra