Go Truck Yourself

Truck Production Returns To Ford Oakville Plant.

Ford announced the return of truck production to their Oakville Assembly Plant.

Originally planned to be used to build a new 3-row electric SUV, Ford now plans to produce F-Series Super Duty models in Oakville in 2026. ctvnews.ca, reuters.com, techcrunch.com, canada.autonews.com

“Under the new plan, Ford will invest more in the plant — US$2.3 billion versus its initial commitment of US$1.8 million — and only keep the plant idle for two years rather than three. The company also said it will require 1,800 workers, which is more than previously expected.” financialpost.com

UNIFOR welcomed the news (and not much makes them happy). unifor.org

There are some concerns that Ford is delaying electric vehicle production. globalnews.ca

Future versions of the F-Series are also expected to include EV models.

The 3-row electric SUV is still expected to be produced; it just isn’t clear where that manufacturing will occur. Car and Driver reported that production might be redirected to Ford’s new Ohio facility. caranddriver.com

My vintage 1980 F-150 was built in Oakville. It’s nice to see truck production return to that plant. It has been over 20 years since trucks rolled out of there. wikipedia.org

Headline inspiration came from this spectacular East Coast Ford dealership ad a friend shared with me. facebook.com

In a bit of a reversal of opinion, instead of shutting down China, Trump wants US-based production of Chinese vehicles. He adds that if China’s OEMs don’t comply, he will expand tariffs to 200%, double what Biden imposed and 8X the tariff he put in place during his first administration. autonews.com

EU countries can’t decide if they are for or against tariffs. “A dozen EU members voted in support of the tariffs, four voted against it, and 11 abstained, the sources said.” autonews.com

In addition to tariffs, the US wants to implement new rules to limit Chinese vehicle software usage and adoption. theverge.com

Nio shows off how you can control the ET9's chassis with a phone. cnevpost.com

BYD plans to expand its Vietnamese dealer network. autonews.com

BYD plans to build an EV plant in Cambodia. cnevpost.com

BYD sold 1,084 vehicles in Japan in the first half of this year, up 88%. cnevpost.com

Geely’s funky Zeekr 009 MPV to launch in Hong Kong with $96,700 USD MSRP. carnewschina.com

Hongqi plans to launch two electric cars in Europe. reuters.com

CATL claims their "Long-Service-Life Battery" can last up to sixteen years or two million kilometres. insideevs.com

Biden trash-talks Elon on Twitter (X). techcrunch.com, x.com,

Tesla's next-generation battery production is struggling. theverge.com

Arevon's Condor Energy Storage Project repurposed a retired steam plant site for a massive Tesla Megapack installation. teslarati.com

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed to complete its planned burn and deployed 20 Starlink satellites too early. Engineers attempted to position them into orbit and failed. All 20 satellites were lost, and “the satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise.” pcmag.com, x.com

Starlink has over 400,000 customers in Canada. nationalpost.com

SpaceX and X are moving to TeXas. teslarati.com

Australia’s bricklaying robot lands in Florida. newatlas.com

Delta-Q Technologies and A&K Robotics join forces to provide self-driving robot pods at airports. biv.com

Digit, a backward-knee humanoid robot, gets a job at a Spanx factory. fortune.com

Watch a Figure 01 humanoid robot being trained to do tasks on the factory floor at a BMW plant. motorauthority.com, youtube.com

China is installing wind and solar capacity akin to one nuclear plant per week (you might want to read that again). They are also deploying the world's longest high-voltage transmission lines to connect that energy production to parts of the country that need it. abc.net.au

Wind power generated more electricity than coal in the U.S. in March and April. nbcnews.com

New perovskite solar cells can be mass-produced at a pace similar to that of a printing press that prints newspapers (that’s fast). techxplore.com

A new “structural battery” made of carbon fibre may pave the way for lighter electric energy storage for aircraft and EVs. “Researchers say this innovation has the potential to reduce the weight of cars and aircraft by up to 50%.” interestingengineering.com

SVOLT is working on a battery that has a five-minute charge time. electrive.com

Kuwait Oil Co. discovered “huge commercial amounts” of light oil and associated gas in a new offshore field. bnnbloomberg.ca

The path to cost-effective synthetic e-fuels for cars is to solve shipping and aviation needs first. motor1.com

Sam Altman funds a start-up that’s looking to store CO2 in rocks. bloomberg.com

In 2023, Google and Microsoft each consumed more electricity than countries the size of Iceland. tomshardware.com

Solar, so hot right now. economist.com

The 2025 Lucid Air Pure achieves 5 miles of driving range per kilowatt-hour (BTW, that’s super efficient). insideevs.com, caranddriver.com

Ford’s electric SuperVan beat every vehicle, gas or electric, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. electrek.co, caranddriver.com

Ford gives EV customers more time to get their Supercharger adapter. electrek.co

Ford’s new Raptor T1+ is a frightening V8 ready for the 2025 Dakar Rally. caranddriver.com, thedrive.com

Honda expects “growing pains” as it aspires to build out an EV ecosystem in Canada. canada.autonews.com

Stellantis paid a combined $190.7 million in fines for failing to meet fuel economy standards. detroitnews.com

Stellantis dealers ask CEO Carlos Tavares for help. Cite concerns around product, inventory and incentives. carscoops.com

Volvo reported a jump in annual operating profit. cnbc.com

Mercedes is bringing EV chargers to Starbucks in the US. theverge.com

Dealership employees sue CDK over data risk concerns. autonews.com

Waymo wants to bring their self-driving robotaxis to SFO airport. techcrunch.com

Magna has a fancy new reconfigurable swivel seat that will debut in a Chinese vehicle. canada.autonews.com, automotiveinteriorsworld.com, magna.com

OpenAI is going to go to war with Google. searchengineland.com

CrowdStrike's “routine software update” cripples airlines, banking and many other global systems. Microsoft blames CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike blames Microsoft. People take the day off. bnnbloomberg.ca, washingtonpost.com, theguardian.com, wired.com, theverge.com, bbc.com, theatlantic.com

The Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud reached new heights with a viral video game where you can take a baseball bat to an OVO-inspired owl. Also, Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ is now an anti-Canadian sports anthem and hit #1 on both the Billboard and YouTube charts this week. notlikeusgame.com, billboard.com, youtube.com, billboard.com

Metallica's “The Black Album” is now the fourth studio release ever to spend a total of 750 weeks on the Billboard 200. loudwire.com

GWAR's cover of ‘I’m Just Ken’ is epic (albeit a bit delightfully rude and NSFW). youtube.com

LL Cool J has a new album. But don’t call it a comeback. youtube.com

Gracie Abrams is sorry that she loves you. youtube.com

South Korea’s Stray Kids ‘Chk Chk Boom’ is trending on YouTube’s top charts this weekend. youtube.com