Daily News: Wednesday 6/21/17

Jaguar E-Pace Announced: PACE Line-Up Detailed

Jaguar has announced the new addition to their ‘PACE’-line of SUV’s, the E-Pace. The E-Pace is not electric, despite the E, and is instead Jaguar’s compact performance SUV offering, much like the Range Rover Evoque. The E-Pace will only feature JLR’s new Ingenium gasoline 4-cylinder engine and standard All Wheel Drive.

Not much is known about the E-Pace besides its official announcement, as the full-reveal is scheduled for July 13, 2017. Once released, expect the E-Pace to contribute to Jaguar’s growing sales—44% increase through May 2017, largely due to their first SUV, the F-Pace. An actual electric SUV is scheduled for release in 2018, dubbed the I-Pace, which will further Jaguar’s SUV lineup to the planned three.

Polestar Transformed by Volvo: EV’s Inbound

It was recently reported that Polestar may begin focusing on electric vehicles for its performance line-up, and today parent-company Volvo has confirmed this. As well as Polestar shifting focus to an EV performance-car platform, Volvo announced that Polestar would be split into a separate auto-group. What this means is that customers would purchase a Polestar make car, rather than a Volvo-branded one.

Along with this announcement, Volvo reshuffled the leadership of the new automaker, with Volvo’s Senior Vice President of Design, Thomas Ingenlath, assuming the CEO position. He will be joined by Jonathan Goodman, Volvo’s Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, who is assuming the position of COO.

With parent-company Volvo shifting more and more towards hybrids and EV’s—as well as Volvo’s parent-company Geely in China—it makes sense that both companies desire a PR-friendly halo-model, with the Polestar brand ripe for the picking.

Look for Polestar cars in the coming years.

Harley Eyeing Ducati Purchase

Rumors are being reported that not only is Volkswagen and Audi looking to divest of Ducati—which they acquired in 2012—American bike manufacturer Harley-Davidson is eyeing the purchase. The first rumor is likely true, as the diesel scandal has forced VW and Audi to trim its portfolio a bit, with an Italian motorcycle manufacturer being a prime target. The company is valued at $1.67B USD.

Harley-Davidson is rumored to have contracted Goldman Sachs bank to help broker the deal, although competition may be seen from Indian motorcycle company Bajaj Auto, as well as Investindustrial, an investment firm which originally sold Ducati to VW and Audi. While VW has yet to confirm anything, it is reported that they may wait until after November’s EICMA Motorcycle show in Milan.

Look for more news in the coming months.

Dodge Demons Like It Toasty

It has recently come to light that the Dodge Demon—Dodge’s ‘Strip car for the street’—is coming with a few stipulations for new owners. It has already been reported that new owners will have to sign—and have notarized—a document when they purchase a Demon; it turns out that document goes a long way towards covering Dodge’s butt.

Specifically, the document states, “Customer shall not move the Vehicle in temperatures below 15° F with the Drag Tires. In temperatures below 15° F, the Drag Tires can lose flexibility and that may lead to cracking and other tire damage”. While the street tires will have no issues, the 315-width Nitto NT05R ‘street-legal’ drag radials are only street legal in the barest sense of the word. Dodge also advises against driving on the highway or in the wet with them, with the latter being for safety and the former for both safety and tire-life concerns.

Dodge Demon orders are now open.

Travis Kalanick Officially Leaves Uber

Uber has drama, there is no denying it: not only is the head of their autonomous car program accused by Google of stealing 14,000 documents from their program, the company is being rocked by claims of a persistent climate of acceptance regarding sexual harassment, supposedly persisted by CEO Travis Kalanick.

As various emails and former employees have come to the surface, things looked worse and worse for the CEO of Uber. Finally, the board—or what is left of it, more on that in a second—wrote a letter demanding his immediate step-down from responsibilities. This letter comes as he was already on a week-long leave, supposedly to deal with the untimely death of his mother. Travis Kalanick complied with the request, stepping down from all duties.

While this will probably end up being a good thing for the company, for now it must be scary for the 14,000 employees of the $68B USD company, as this leaves vacant seats for the CEO, CFO, COO, President, and Senior Vice President of Business positions. Hopefully this will soon be filled.

2018 Formula One Schedule Announced

This week, along with the Formula E schedule, the FIA has announced the Formula One race calendar for 2018. The series loses the Malaysian Grand Prix but returns the German (Hockenheim) and French (Paul Ricard Circuit) Grand Prix to the racing schedule, bringing the total number of events to 21.

To accommodate these additional races, the Russian Grand Prix moves from April to September and the Azerbaijani race going back from June to April. A triple-header is also on the schedule for the end of June, going into July, as the French, Austrian, and British Grand Prix are all on subsequent weekends, beginning June 24^th and continuing to July 8^th.

The full schedule is as follows:

• March 25 – Australia
• April 8 – China
• April 15 – Bahrain
• April 29 – Azerbaijan
• May 13 – Spain
• May 27 – Monaco
• June 10 – Canada
• June 24 – France
• July 1 – Austria
• July 8 – Great Britain
• July 22 – Germany
• July 29 – Hungary
• August 26- Belgium
• September 2 – Italy
• September 16 – Singapore
• September 30 – Russia
• October 7 – Japan
• October 21 – USA
• October 28 – Mexico
• November 11 – Brazil
• November 25 – Abu Dhabi