1973 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Base Coupe 2-door 5.7l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chevrolet will preview electrified Silverado-like truck at CES 2021

After abandoning its fight against California's lawmakers, General Motors is shifting its electrification offensive into high gear. CEO Mary Barra will give the opening keynote address at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which will be held online, and Chevrolet will provide a peek at its electrified pickup during the event. Insiders familiar with the carmaker's plans told Bloomberg that Barra's address will highlight ways that electrification can improve the environment and society in general. General Motors president Mark Reuss will speak, too, and his remarks will be followed by a video that will highlight several future products, including what the sources referred to as "a plug-in Chevrolet pickup, some Cadillac models, and vehicles for other brands." These comments ask more questions than they answer, because plug-in means many things in this context. Chevrolet's electric Bolt is a plug-in vehicle, as is the upcoming GMC Hummer, but the plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler 4xe is one, too, and it's clearly not all-electric. It's often been assumed that Chevrolet's upcoming electrified truck will be electric, but it might arrive with a hybrid powertrain or a gasoline-powered range extender. Chevrolet could also follow Ford's lead and plant a stake in both the hybrid and the electric pickup segments. It's too early to tell if Chevrolet will unveil the same truck it previewed during a presentation earlier in 2020. Shown briefly, it wore a highly futuristic design that gave it a sleeker look than the current-generation Silverado. Cadillac's presentation promises to be interesting, because the company hinted it might abandon gasoline entirely by 2025, several years earlier than expected, even though its dealers aren't all on board with the shift. Going electric-only in about four years would force the brand to conduct a massive overhaul of its range. As of writing, there is not a single electric Cadillac in showrooms, but the Lyriq will arrive in late 2022 as a 2023 model. It's difficult to tell what's in store for other brands, but there are several cars that General Motors could show during CES. Buick doesn't sell an electric car in the United States yet, for example. Alternatively, GMC is working on an SUV variant of the Hummer, and it has started developing an electric truck. Going back to Chevrolet, our crystal ball tells us we'll see more of the 2022 Bolt EUV during the next edition of the tech show, too.

Fernando Alonso sputters in his Indy test

INDIANAPOLIS — Helio Castroneves and Fernando Alonso kept waiting around Wednesday. Now both international stars have some unfinished business to take care before qualifying for this year's Indianapolis 500. After enduring a rain delay of more than four hours then watching IndyCar regulars turn laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for two more hours, Castroneves and Alonso finally made it onto the track — but couldn't quite complete their refresher course. "Happy to be back here because this place is great," Alonso said after posting a fast lap of 218.690 mph — the slowest of the nine-driver evening session. "We were slow because the weather and some of the decisions people made on running time and things like that." He faced a bevy of problems in his first trip back to Indy since an impressive rookie performance in 2017. The rain delay forced organizers into rescheduling the one-day test, moving the rookie and refresher driver time from midday to the evening, cutting a significant amount of practice time for Alonso and the others. And when the green flag finally waved, Alonso's No. 66 car stalled in the warmup lane forcing the two-time Formula One champion from Spain to be towed back to pit lane where his crew worked feverishly to fix an electrical problem while sat in the cockpit. Eventually, he did get out and passed the first of two refresher phases. He'll have to wait until opening practice of the 500 on May 14 to pass the second. "It was frustrating for everyone because it was a brand new chassis and a brand new car, so we expected to run a lot," said Alonso, who drives for McLaren Racing. "If we could have had this at midday, you could work on your issues in the afternoon and then go out again." To put his day in perspective, Takuma Sato, the 2017 Indy winner from Japan, posted the fastest lap of the day at 226.993 mph and Colton Herta was the fastest rookie at 226.108. Castroneves, as usual, was good right from the start and posted a fast lap of 225.565. The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner looked smooth and fast on his favorite track and wasted no time passing the first phase. That much should have been expected from the popular Brazilian, who has recorded seven top-three finishes in 18 Indy starts and will make his season debut May 11 in the IndyCar Grand Prix. The weather and yellow flags prevented four of the five veterans — Castroneves, Alonso, Oriol Servia and JR Hildebrand — from passing phase two. Only Indy native Conor Daly made it.

Officially Official: Chevrolet replaces Daewoo name in Korea

Chevrolet Camaro in Korea - Click above for high-resolution image

There once was a time when Daewoo was one of the biggest companies in South Korea. It was larger than both LG and Samsung, and second only to Hyundai. But these days the name is all but gone.