Ford 1926 Model T Roadster Pickup on 2040-cars

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2021 Ford Escape PHEV finally reaches dealers

Last October – which feels like both five minutes and five years ago – Ford had to push the Escape PHEV sales date back to this year. The holdup arose because Ford had to recall the Escape's European twin, the Kuga PHEV, over a fire risk thought to center on the high-voltage battery. At the time, a Ford spokesperson said, "We are moving full scale production of Escape PHEV to the 2021 model year. The first Escape PHEVs will be sold next year." With just three months left in 2021, a Ford spokesperson confirmed to Ford Authority that the Escape PHEV has finally made it to dealer lots. The end of the Escape PHEV's long and winding road comes about a week after the Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring reached dealers. The compact luxury plug-in hybrid debuted at the 2019 LA Auto Show and was intended to go on sale in the summer of last year. But because it uses the same powertain as in the Escape, Ford had to delay the Lincoln as well.  Now that you can finally buy them, here's the quick recap. Both start with a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-4 and an electric motor powering the front wheels, and a 14.4-kWh battery providing juice. The Escape makes 200 horsepower, can go 37 miles on all-electric driving, is EPA-rated at 105 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe), and returns a combined 40 mpg if the battery's dead. It starts at $34,320 before incentives. The Lincoln adds an electric motor with a single-speed transmission to power the rear wheels, as Toyota has done with the all-wheel-drive Prius, RAV4 Hybrid and Lexus UX250h. Output in the Lincoln is 266 ponies, it manages 28 miles on pure electric driving, is EPA rated at 78 MPGe, and returns a combined 33 mpg on gasoline alone. It starts at $51,485 before incentives. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Child cobalt miners: Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for EVs

BERLIN - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed "Drive Sustainability" consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance "will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector," said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. "This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue" to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer.Related Video: Image Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Green BMW Ford Honda Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Automakers Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Green Automakers Green Culture Electric Scania ethics mining

How the Ram Multifunction Tailgate compares to Ford, GMC, Honda

Ram just announced its Multifunction Tailgate — a descriptive if not very creative name. It's an asymmetrical barn-door arrangement, which can both fold down like a conventional tailgate or swing open like a gate. There's a new bed step, but unlike Ford or GM, the step isn't part of the tailgate itself. Rather, it kicks out from under the bumper (as opposed to out from under the driver's side of the rear bumper in its previous incarnation). So let's just focus on the tailgate functionality. A video of the Ram Multifunction Tailgate in action is above. For one, either of the swinging tailgate sections can be opened independently. They open to a full 88 degrees. In conventional flip-down mode, the tailgate works just like a normal one, too, with a 2,000-pound rating. The bottom line is that while it gives a variety of types of access to the load area, it doesn't "do" anything else. It's a $995 option on any Ram 1500. Its closest analogue is the Honda Ridgeline, which works basically the same way, but on that truck the tailgate swings as one piece. And the Honda's load rating isn't as hefty as the Ram's tailgate: 300 pounds. As Honda says, that's sufficient to hold the weight of the part of an ATV hanging out of the bed, or something similar, but it's a lighter-duty unit (and a lighter-duty truck) than the Ram's overall. Let's also get Ford's one-trick tailgate out of the way before comparing to the more analogous, and complicated, GM MultiPro. A bit of trivia: Ford's optional Tailgate Step is actually designed and supplied by Multimatic, better known as the outfit that builds the Ford GT and produces the DSSV spool-valve shocks. This step has been available for years. It pulls out of the top edge of the tailgate when the tailgate is lowered, deploying a single step. A separate handle pulls out from beside the step and flips up, giving a handhold. While it was initially (and infamously) mocked by competitors, with load floor heights as high as they are it's better than toting around a stepstool. It's currently a $375 standalone option. Now we get to the GMC MultiPro tailgate, the most complicated and multi-functioned around. It's essentially a tailgate within a tailgate, with a fold-out stopper that deploys from the inner tailgate. This gives it several functions depending on the position of all the parts. It can still be used like a normal tailgate, dropping down at the push of a button or using the key fob.