Audi recalls first electric vehicle in U.S. on battery fire risk

The 2019 Audi e-Tron, the luxury automakers first fully electric series-production model, will be in Canadian showrooms in the spring and pricing starts in the $90,000 neighbourhood.Audi Canada Volkswagens luxury brand Audi is recalling its first all-electric vehicle due to the risk of a battery fire. The company issued a voluntary recall of approximately 540 E-Tron SUV models sold in the U.S. because of a risk that moisture can seep into the battery cell through a wiring harness glitch, spokesman Mark Dahncke said. The company isn’t aware of any fires or injuries because of the flaw, which affects a total of 1,644 models, he said. The E-Tron, which went on sale in the U.S. in April, is Audi’s first fully-electric car and one in a wave of contenders from traditional automakers looking to challenge Tesla’s dominance of the segment. While electric vehicles are no more prone to accidents or fires than gasoline-powered cars – and might be less so, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – the lithium-ion battery technology that powers them is still evolving, and there is no consensus on safe system design. Audi said there have been five instances globally where a battery fault light turned on because of the moisture issue. It began contacting E-Tron owners in the U.S. last week, prior to a warning from federal safety regulators, and should have a repair available by August. “We are applying an abundance of caution as no such incidents have been reported globally,” the company said in a statement. Audi said it’s offering E-Tron owners loaner vehicles and an $800 cash card to cover gas or incidentals during the recall period, as well as free roadside assistance. There are still E-Trons unaffected by the recall available for sale, it
Origin: Audi recalls first electric vehicle in U.S. on battery fire risk

Tesla updates software after parked car caught fire in Hong Kong

Tesla is rolling out a software update for two of its electric vehicles, including the flagship Model S, to beef up battery safety as part of a probe into a vehicle fire in Hong Kong. The over-the-air updates will revise the charge and thermal-management settings for the Model S and X, Tesla said in a statement. The company said it’s acting “out of an abundance of caution,” insisting the vehicles are 10 times less likely to experience a blaze than their gas-fueled equivalents. A Tesla Model S suddenly caught fire in a parking lot at San Po Kong Plaza on May 12, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported. Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department has confirmed it’s investigating a fire, without identifying the make of the car. Recent vehicle fires have raised concern over the safety of electric vehicles in China, the top market. In 2018, the country recorded at least 40 fire-related incidents involving new-energy vehicles, which includes pure battery electric, hybrid plug-in and fuel-cell vehicles, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. In its statement, Tesla said it had a team in Hong Kong to support its customer and establish the facts. “While our investigation with authorities is ongoing, we have found that only a few battery modules were affected and the majority of the battery pack is undamaged,” Tesla said. NIO, a Tesla rival, said last month one of its ES8 electric vehicles caught fire in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an while being repaired. Tesla earlier confirmed it was examining an incident in Shanghai after a car bearing the company’s logo was shown in an April social media video emitting smoke before bursting into
Origin: Tesla updates software after parked car caught fire in Hong Kong

Collection of perfect ’90s-era Chevrolets destroyed by fire on film set

Some 27 pristine Chevrolet vehicles from the late ’80s and early 1990s were destroyed in a fire May 9, while parked together on a film set in New York. According to The Poughkeepsie Journal, the vehicles were in, or out front of, a mock Chevrolet dealership, constructed for an upcoming HBO series set in the 1990s. The stand-in structure, the 613 Automotive Group dealership building located in Ellenville, New York, caught fire in the middle of the night at almost 1:00am on Thursday morning; the flames weren’t put out until 10:00am. Nobody was injured during the blaze, but the vehicles were all destroyed. The collection included mint-condition Corvettes, Camaros, a pristine C1500 pickup, a 454 SS pickup and a replica of a 1990 Beretta Indy pace car. All of the vehicles were provided by a company owned by Automobile New York bureau chief Jamie Kitman, who wrote about the incident for Automobile. Fortunately, everyone is insured by the production and they will be made whole, financially. And no one was injured—or worse, Kitman said. Still, there is no amount of money and nothing you can say about a total loss of a motor vehicle that makes it right, although everyone I called took comfort in the fact that no people were injured. While fire inspectors, police, and insurance claims adjusters poke through the ashes, the cars that can still move leave the site, while others sit, charred and grim as could be. Obviously, filming for the TV series has been suspended, but Kitman says once it’s back on, he will recreate the 1990s dealership once
Origin: Collection of perfect ’90s-era Chevrolets destroyed by fire on film set

GM recalls more than 40,000 trucks in Canada for engine fire risk

2017 Chevrolet Silverado HDHandout General Motors is recalling over 368,000 pickups and other trucks worldwide, including more than 40,000 in Canada, after 19 reports of fires caused by engine block heater cords. The recall covers certain 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 4500, 5500 and 6500 trucks, as well as the 2017 through 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500 and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500. All have GM’s 6.6-litre diesel engines and an optional engine block heater used to keep the block warm in extremely cold temperatures. GM is asking customers not to use engine block heaters until further notice. The company said early May the electric heater cord or the terminals connecting the cord to the heater could short-circuit and fail. That can cause fires. No injuries have been reported. GM is still trying to find the cause of the problem and develop a fix. The company began investigating the problem in December and found that a fire can occur if a block-heater coolant leak develops and the coolant comes in contact with the cable terminals, or if the cable itself is damaged. About 324,000 U.S. trucks are covered by the recall, and about 40,319 in Canada. GM began notifying dealers on April 26 and told them to stop selling the trucks until repairs are made. No date has been set yet to notify
Origin: GM recalls more than 40,000 trucks in Canada for engine fire risk

News Roundup: Tesla sales stall, a Model S catches fire, and what to make of Rivian

A Tesla car arrives at a service center in Los Angeles, California on March 4, 2019.Mark Ralston / Getty via AP Dismal Q1 earnings and explosion reports from Tesla, the saga of John Cena’s GT and more fiery auto news from around the world Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam. Here’s what you missed while you were away. The first quarter of 2019 has not been kind to Tesla The Tesla Model 3 Performance Handout / Tesla Tesla is reporting net losses of US$702 million in the first three months of 2019, which is almost six times the profits earned in Q4 of 2018. Ouch! This despite Elon Musk doing what CEOs are wont to do and calling for profits throughout the year. The source of the leaking funds? Delivery woes that have seen a 31 per cent decline in cars actually getting to their owners. Now reports are surfacing that Tesla is trying to stop the bleeding by shuttering stores, cutting staff and shifting sales online. What if the value of a used car depends not on brand but on its owners? Does maintenance trump brand? Handout / Fotolia Driving’s Justin Pritchard has been asked the question, “So what’s the best used car to buy?” many times over his years as an auto journalist. Today, his answer has nothing to do with brand. Instead, he encourages used car shoppers to look for responsible owners with good maintenance rather than nameplates. Finding an owner who was religious in his execution of the vehicle’s ‘maintenance schedule’ is arguably more important than mileage, interior condition or any of the other metrics by which we often measure used cars. As Pritchard puts it, “It’s all about how well you take care of things.” Watch as a Tesla spontaneously combusts in a parking garage in China When will videos of Teslas going up in flames get old? Maybe after this one, but certainly not before. The clip shows the Model S quickly going from smoky to fully engulfed in the crowded parking garage. Video was pulled from the lot’s closed-circuit feed and Tweeted out by @ShanghaiJayin, some sort of self-appointed watchdog to the Chinese EV market who went on to share another video, this time of a NIO ES8 going up in flames at a repair centre in Xi’an, China. Environmentally unfriendly: These are the biggest gas guzzlers of all time Lamborghini Countach Brendan McAleer / Driving As governments and automakers alike set their sites on the electric future, we’re looking back at those vehicles that make gas station owners smile and environmental advocates shudder. Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s records dating back to 1984, we’ve rounded up the most gas-guzzling vehicles of all time, featuring such thirsty beasts as the 7-mpg 1986 Lamborghini Countach, the small but insatiable 1995 Saab 9000 sedan, and the 1,000-horsepower Bugatti Veyron. Rivian’s proposed electric pickup’s numbers don’t really add up Rivian R1T There were many highlights at the recent New York Auto Show, but perhaps none shone brighter than the Rivian R1T electric pickup truck. As one of the main belles at the ball, it also raised a lot of questions. This week, Motor Mouth David Booth pulled out his calculator and green accounting visor to see if he could make sense of the promised 640-km range, advertised weight and what we already know about how EVs function. In short. He couldn’t, saying that “dissecting the numbers, the battery-powered R1T makes a great case for a hydrogen fuel cell.” Slip inside the 10 finest car interiors of 2019 Jeep Gladiator Jeep People make a lot of fuss about tires and engines and paint colours, but the majority of the time spent in cars is spent, well, in them. That’s why ranking their interiors, as WardsAuto recently did, is a worthwhile exercise. The Michigan-based brand tested 32 nominated vehicles, scoring them on design, comfort, ergonomics, materials, fit and finish, and user-friendliness. The top ten includes the Bentley Continental GT, Genesis G70, Hyundai Santa Fe, Jeep Gladiator and Toyota Rav 4. Check out the full piece to see if your car made the cut. We built a visual timeline of the saga of John Cena’s 2017 Ford GT John Cena’s 2017 Ford GT crossing the Mecum Auctions block in Dallas in October 2018 Mecum Auctions When John Cena was hand selected to take order of a liquid blue 2017 Ford GT back in fall of 2017, he was instructed by the brand not to sell it for two years, or until late 2019. And considering that said GT was auctioned in February, changing hands for the fifth time, it’s safe to say the big guy didn’t follow the rules. In fact, since Cena sold it just a month after he’d received it, the GT has been the centre of an ongoing scandal. Then there’s the silver GT that’s also being sold against Ford’s wishes. Confused? Our timeline of the Ford-defying GTs should clear things
Origin: News Roundup: Tesla sales stall, a Model S catches fire, and what to make of Rivian