2023 Jeep Gladiator Sport on 2040-cars

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Stellantis tells UK: Change Brexit deal or watch car plants close

LONDON - British car plants will close with the loss of thousands of jobs unless the Brexit deal is swiftly renegotiated, Stellantis has told the UK parliament, the latest in a series of warnings from the industry since the country left the European Union. The world's No. 3 carmaker by sales and owner of 14 brands including Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat said that under the current deal it would face tariffs when exporting electric vans to Europe from next year, when tougher post-Brexit rules come into force. "If the cost of EV (electric vehicle) manufacturing in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, operations will close," Stellantis said in a submission to a House of Commons committee examining the prospects for Britain's EV industry. Stellantis urged the government to reach an agreement with the European Union about extending the current rules on the sourcing of parts until 2027 instead of the planned 2024 change. In response, a government spokesperson said the business secretary had raised the issue with the EU. "Watch this space, because we are very focused on making sure that the UK gets EV and manufacturing capacity," Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday at a British Chambers of Commerce event. The potentially existential problem facing Britain's car industry is closely tied to the shift to EVs. Under the trade deal agreed when Britain left the bloc, 45% of the value of an EV being sold in the European Union must come from Britain or the EU from 2024 to avoid tariffs. The problem is that a battery pack can account for up to half a new EV's cost. Batteries are also heavy and expensive to move long distances. Experts have been warning since Britain left the EU at the end of 2020 that the country would need a number of EV battery gigafactories or potentially lose a hefty chunk of its car industry. Only Japan's Nissan has a small EV battery plant in Sunderland, with a second one on the way. Cost of failure Britishvolt, a startup which received UK government support for an ambitious 3.8 billion pound ($4.80 billion) battery plant at a site in northern England, filed for administration in January after struggling to raise funds. The company was then bought by Australia's Recharge Industries, which has yet to unveil plans for the site.

Watch this Jeep Willys return to its birthplace after 70 years

Earlier this month, a very significant Jeep was celebrated at the Toledo North Assembly plant. No, it wasn't the upcoming reincarnation of the Jeep Cherokee, but instead it was a 1943 Willys MB that visited the Toledo grounds where it had been built exactly 70 years ago to the day.
Of course, the actual building where the MBs rolled off the assembly line before heading to Europe for World War II no longer exists, but that didn't stop Italian owner Vittorio Argento from having the vehicle shipped to the US to make its trek back to its birth place. According to Chrysler, Argento's MB is still 95-percent original and it drove 1,000 miles from New Jersey to Toledo.
The whole adventure was chronicled on a blog aptly named A Jeep Comes Home. Scroll down for a brief video from Chrysler and for some photos of the Toledo visit and be sure to read more at Argento's blog.

Jeep pickup truck apparently will be named Jeep Gladiator

For months we — we, meaning the automotive world in general — have been operating under the assumption that the Jeep pickup truck would be named Scrambler. For those of us who always thought that sounded like a breakfast at Denny's, vindication: According to Jeep Scrambler Forum — yes, they were so sure, they named themselves that — the truck will carry a different name: Jeep Gladiator. Gladiator, we salute you. Jeep Scrambler Forum says it'll roll with the changes: "Stay tuned as we'll be making the switch to JeepGladiatorForum.com in the coming days (smiley face, thumbs up)." The discovery came when a forum "longtime trusted source" found a web page with the new name that went up momentarily on FCA's media site. No sense looking for it, it's not there now. But here's the screen grab: Gladiator is not new. It was the name, way back in 2005, for the Jeep pickup concept: View 5 Photos Could this still be a mistake, and Scrambler will stick? It seems more likely that this is it. One thing's for sure: We're so close to finding out, we can almost taste it. The truck has been testing everywhere, from the Rubicon Trail to the streets of Detroit and Auburn Hills, where it's pretty easy to see a camouflaged example on most any morning commute. The wait is almost over: The wraps will come off later this month at the L.A. Auto Show. So what do you think of Gladiator? Let the movie quotes fly ... Related Video: