2007 Chrysler Pacifica Touring Fwd 3rd Row Low Miles on 2040-cars

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Ford delays North American production restart from coronavirus lockdown

Ford said on Tuesday it was postponing its plan to restart production at its North American plants due to safety concerns for its workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. To generate cash, the No. 2 U.S. automaker had said last week it was poised to restart production at some plants in North America as early as April 6, bringing back such profitable vehicles as its top-selling F-150 full-sized pickup, the Transit commercial van and SUVs. But on Tuesday, Ford said it had been aiming to resume production at several key U.S. plants on April 14, but would now instead do so at dates it would announce later on. "The health and safety of our workforce, dealers, customers, partners and communities remains our highest priority," Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford's North American operations, said in a statement. Still, the automaker will open a plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, during the week of April 20, that will make ventilators to treat patients afflicted by the coronavirus. Rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said last week it plans to resume production in North America on April 13. General Motors has shuttered its plants indefinitely and has not provided a date for vehicle production to restart. It is facing a delay in the production launch of its redesigned large SUVs and is delaying work on other SUVs. "Once it is safe to resume production, we will do so," a GM spokesman said. As of Monday, Volkswagen was shooting for an April 5 reopening at its Tennessee plant. Honda, Nissan and Subaru facilities in North America will remain closed through April 6, and Hyundai through April 10. Toyota was planning to reopen its North American plants April 17. Plants/Manufacturing Chrysler Fiat Ford GM coronavirus

Chrysler Airflow EV concept gets new duds for New York

Chrysler's Airflow electric crossover returned to the stage in New York Wednesday in a new exterior finish as Chrysler's development engineers creep closer and closer to their goal of taking the brand all-electric by 2028. The brand's first electric vehicle is due by 2025, and some variant of this definitely-not-a-revived-Celine-Dion-era-Pacifica-crossover thing is likely to be it.  This version of the Airflow is dubbed "Graphite" and is the iteration Chrysler teased ahead of the show, but as we expected, not much of substance has really changed. Perhaps that's because this concept isn't yet particularly substantial. That's the beauty of an EV; once you have the basic design nailed down, the rest is really just an elaborate Lego project. Chrysler's builders are evidently still hard at work putting together a final product that lives up to the initial hype and range target of 400 miles on a charge.  In the meantime, the design team has been tweaking the looks. As we saw in the teaser, the updated Airflow gets a new grille design with a thin light bar at the Airflow's nose and acute beneath flanking the headlights forming a symmetrical pair of lightning bolts (gee, d'ya suppose it's electric?) aimed at the car's nose. The lower fascia appears a bit more sharply defined too, but it could just be the lighting.  The updates to the exterior are repeated inside on the wheel and dash, which have also had their colors inverted from the concept we saw at CES. Some of the interior details have also been tightened up from what we can see here. The selector dial on the center console appears to be more compact, as does the primary infotainment screen (though again, that could be a trick of the "photography"). The secondary display beneath the main infotainment screen has also been eliminated. We're guessing those controls have either been integrated into the main screen or as touch-sensitive elements hidden in the glossy plastic where the screen once was. The same was done to the steering wheel controls, it seems.

FCA, Waymo expand plans: 62,000 more self-driving vehicles, potential retail sales

If you live in Phoenix, you may have seen one of Waymo's 600 autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids ferrying passengers around town. You may have even been one of the riders. You're likely to see a lot more of them, too. Today, FCA announced that it will deliver up to 62,000 additional Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid's to Google's automated driving technology company. The expansion of the partnership between FCA and Waymo goes beyond growing the fleet. The companies have also announced that they're considering making Waymo's tech commercially available to FCA vehicle retail customers through a possible licensing partnership. FCA would build the cars, and Waymo would provide the self-driving system. "FCA is committed to bringing self-driving technology to our customers in a manner that is safe, efficient and realistic," said FCA boss Sergio Marchionne. Waymo CEO John Krafcik added, "Waymo's goal from day one has been to build the world's most experienced driver and give people access to self-driving technology that will make our roads safer. We're excited to deepen our relationship with FCA that will support the launch of our driverless service, and explore future products that support Waymo's mission." That service, expected to launch later this year, will allow the public to use Waymo's app to hail a ride from one of its self-driving minivans. To date, vehicles equipped with Waymo automated driving tech have logged over 6 million cumulative miles in testing. As of late last year, Waymo's self-driving cars needed far less human intervention than the competition. Earlier this year, Waymo also announced a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover to deploy autonomous Jaguar I-Pace EVs. The plans for an expanded partnership come on the same day Japan's SoftBank announced a $2.2 billion investment in GM's Cruise self-driving division. Related Video: News Source: FCA, WaymoImage Credit: Joe White / Reuters Green Chrysler Technology Emerging Technologies Minivan/Van Autonomous Vehicles Electric Hybrid Sergio Marchionne Waymo john krafcik