Vehicles and Performance

Light trucks

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Manned Systems

The Economics of Lightweighting in Heavy-Duty Vehicles

Like those in many other industries, truck and off-highway vehicle manufacturers face the challenge of producing quality components and maintaining productive processes while also...

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News
Propulsion

48V Is Coming, and Not Just for EVs

In every corner of the automotive power engineering world, there are discussions and debates over the merits of 48V power networks vs. legacy 12V power networks. The dialogue started over 20 years ago,...

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News
Manned Systems

No Fear of Loading: Driving the 2025 Ram Heavy Duty

The desert landscapes of the western United States have changed since Mr. Duke and Dr. Gonzo blazed a trail across them in a drug-infused haze. But their advice to buy the ticket and take...

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News
Manned Systems

ICE and Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Show Staying Power

The internal combustion engine. Hybrid-electric. Full-electric. Plug-in hybrid electric. Pick one, two, or more for the product portfolio.

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Original Equipment
Unmanned Systems

First Drive: REE’s Electrifying P7 Delivery Chassis

At NTEA’s 2024 Work Truck Week, REE Automotive showcased its P7 EV chassis and REEcorners modular suspension system. At the time, the P7 was being offered to North American fleets for...

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News
Power

Magna to Produce Its First Dedicated Hybrid Drive System for Chinese OEM

With OEMs rushing to create hybrid-drive vehicles amid a drop in EV sales growth, Magna has won a contract to produce what it’s calling a dedicated hybrid drive...

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Articles
Manned Systems

Hydrogen ‘Inevitable’ for Commercial Vehicles

With the perception of diesel engines as bad actors in the worldwide transportation-emissions crackdown, the commercial-vehicle sector is racing to identify and develop propulsion...

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Technology Report
Imaging

CES: VinFast Previews Wild Concept Truck

VinFast used its third appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to introduce three new electric vehicles, including a midsize pick-up truck concept and a small CUV bound for the U.S....

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News
Test & Measurement

Novel Technologies Debut on 2024 Toyota Tacoma

For nearly 20 years, the Toyota Tacoma midsize pickup truck has been a sales segment-leader and a reputation-maker. “Innovation is core to our success and to our promotion of new product,”...

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Articles
Power

GM Hydrotec Boss Readies Fuel Cells for Commercial Deployment

Call it a “technology-meets-the-moment” place in the transportation sector’s innovation timeline. After decades of concentrated development work, GM’s fuel-cell R&D...

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News
Transportation

Ford EV Engineers ‘Always On’ for Customer Feedback

Engineers like to know what customers think about a vehicle. Now, drivers of the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E can oblige via a new system that channels select...

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Technology Report
Manned Systems

Magna Shows off Electric Offroad Powertrain, In-Cabin Tech

If a mid-20th century engineer could time travel and see Magna’s electric off-road powertrains, they might ask “why is the rear differential so gigantic?” But that’s no...

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News
Power

2025 Ram 1500 REV Driving Range Would Jump to Head of Class

Stellantis’ Ram brand introduced more details about the 2025 Ram 1500 REV electric pickup at the New York International Auto Show in early April, and one option is an enormous...

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News
Energy

WCX 2023: Sorting out EV Public Charging in the U.S.

The still-teething U.S. electric vehicle charging infrastructure is wrestling with significant issues as it builds out. Spotty operability of EV public charging stands is in the...

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News
Energy

Fuels to Transition the Global Legacy Fleet

Put the promise of mass vehicle electrification and its myriad challenges aside for a moment, and consider: What if most IC-engine vehicle owners don’t switch to EVs as the industry and...

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Road Ready
Energy

Toyota Punches up the Prius

An undeniable technical achievement since its U.S. launch for the 2001 model year, Toyota’s Prius never has been able to shake its weenie-mobile reputation. It’s an image formed largely by the combination...

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News
Manned Systems

CES 2023: Ram Unveils 2024 Electric Pickup Concept

Stellantis’ Ram brand is late to the ranks of full-size battery-electric pickup trucks, following the Ford F-150 Lighting EV and Rivian R1Tin 2022, GM’s Silverado EV due in fall 2023,...

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Articles
Design

Tension and the Electric Takeover

Something happened in September 2022 that can be seen as emblematic of the auto industry’s accelerating transition to electrification: Tesla’s Model Y was Europe’s best-selling vehicle. An EV as an...

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Road Ready
Propulsion

Hub-Motoring in Lordstown’s Novel Endurance

“It’s been exciting to create a new vehicle from the ground up,” Chi Yip, Lordstown Motors’ director of vehicle integration, asserted from the passenger seat, as we accelerated onto...

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News
Manned Systems

TRD Spells Capability for Toyota’s Latest Tundra

When Toyota decided it was time to update their capable but aging Tundra, the company knew that the new truck needed to be far more than just a quick reskin. To stay competitive in the...

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Articles
Manned Systems

EAxles Gain Traction for Truck Electrification

Development of electrified drivelines is rapidly ramping up at OEMs and tier one suppliers. With a wide variety of vehicles suddenly in need of electrified drivelines capable of matching or...

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News
Power

Ford Puts More ‘Super’ into the All-New 2023 Super Duty

Customer woes had the full attention of the teams developing Ford’s 2023 Super Duty. But when the all-new truck reached the testing phase, another human stressor surfaced....

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News
Power

Ford Starts the Hard Work of EV Battery, Raw Materials Security

Along with painful jobs news related to its accelerated shift to EVs, Ford Motor Co. had what those scrutinizing electrification trends might deem as positive message when it...

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Road Ready
Manned Systems

GM’s Hummer EV Is Still like Nothing Else

The revival of the Hummer brand has produced a vehicle that is concurrently of its time and a throwback to conspicuous consumption from the decade that spawned its predecessor. Like the original,...

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Road Ready
Automotive

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Redefines the Pickup Paradigm

Just before the media test drives of the 2022 F-150 Lightning, the battery-electric variant of Ford’s market-dominating light-duty pickup truck, the Lightning’s specs were updated...

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Technology Report
Power

Spawning an All-New Gasoline Engine, Stellantis’ Hurricane Is Coming

Although Stellantis has announced its intent to have EVs account for at least 50% of its sales mix by 2030, this week the company’s Head of Propulsion Systems Micky...

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Articles
Design

Engineering a Marvel of a Maverick Hybrid Transmission

Ford’s 2022 Maverick combines many practical attributes that earned the new compact pickup its North American Truck of the Year title, among them a standard hybrid powertrain which...

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News
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Electric Pickup Trucks Bring New Surprise, Delight

Legacy pickup truck OEMs are betting big that they can sway buyers accustomed to monster towing capability and hundreds of miles of driving range that electrified trucks can match, if not...

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Technology Report
Automotive

GM Unveils 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV

General Motors has fired its first salvo in the high-volume electric vehicle wars, unveiling two versions of the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV that bring formidable feature content, evolutionary style...

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