Articles by Stephen Ottley

Land Rover has continued to ramp up the anticipation of its all-new Defender.

Peugeot is preparing for its future.

The brains behind Tesla has quit.J.B. Straubel, chief technical officer for the electric car company, has announced his departure from the brand he helped establish alongside Elon Musk. While Musk is the colourful front-man for Tesla, Straubel was the brains of the operation and is the man credited with convincing Musk that lithium-ion batteries were the key to a successful electric vehicle.While he will remain tied to the company in an advisory role, Straubel’s decision to leave is another blow to the car maker, coming at the same time it announced it lost US$408m ($590m) in the second quarter of 2019; although in fairness to Tesla, that’s still an improvement on the previous quarter when it lost US$702m ($1.05b).For technology fans, Straubel was the Steve Wozniak to Musk’s Steve Jobs, a quiet presence in the background but a vital piece in the creation and growth of Tesla. The pair reportedly met in 2003 when Straugel pitched the idea of an electric airplane to Musk utilising lithium-ion batteries, before the pair joined with Tesla’s original founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to work on electric cars.“I want to thank J.B. for his fundamental role in creating and building Tesla,” Musk said during a conference call with analysts last week announcing his departure. “If we hadn’t had lunch in 2003, Tesla wouldn’t exist, basically.”While Musk is the public face of the brand, Straubel was responsible for developing its key technologies including the batteries, motors, power electronics, firmware, software and controls so his importance to the company cannot be understated.However, reports from the US suggest after 15 years working on Tesla, Straubel is looking for a fresh challenge away from the high pressure automotive business. He already established a new company in 2017, Redwood Materials, that is working on techniques to recycle and re-manufacture in new ways.Tesla has lost several other key executives in recent times, just last week Steve McManus, Tesla’s head of interior and exterior engineering, left for Apple. He joined two other Tesla executives who also moved to Apple, while the head of manufacturing jumped ship to Lucid Motors, a new EV player.

Would you buy a Corvette SUV?

Ford has shown off the future of electric utes - and it looks strong.The Blue Oval showed off a prototype of its forthcoming electric F-150 in a promotional video this week, towing more than 500,000kg. Linda Zhang, the F-150 chief engineer, hooked up a battery-powered F-150 to 10 double-decker cargo train carriages and pulled it more than 300-metres; the length of 42 F-150s (representing 42 years as America’s highest selling pick-up truck).Ford then loaded all 42 of those petrol-powered pick-ups onto the train, taking its weight beyond 566,900kg and had the electric F-150 prototype tow the train again. Don’t expect a 500,000kg towing capacity on the production version though, with a disclaimer in the video stating the “F-150 all-electric prototype is towing far beyond any production truck’s published capacity in a one-time short demonstration event”.Nevertheless, the publicity stunt appears designed to proactively establish the electric F-Series as just as tough and capable as its gas-guzzling siblings, well before it hits showrooms. Ford hasn’t even confirmed when the electric F-Series will go on sale, but it’s likely to be sometime before 2022, as that’s when the Blue Oval has promised to have 16 fully-electric vehicles added to its roster.Ford is getting serious about electric pick-ups, not only developing the new F-Series but also investing more than $700 million in start-up Rivian. The would-be Tesla rival has made a splash with the Rivian RT1 and RS1 electric ute and SUV prototypes, announcing plans to sell the two models globally, including Australia.Ford Australia has previously told CarsGuide that it is open to offering the F-150 locally, as long as it can be built in right-hand drive.

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BMW and Jaguar Land Rover are reportedly set to share petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains in a bid to save money.

Friday’s announcement that America’s iconic sports car will be arriving in Holden showroom didn’t come as a complete surprise - in fact we’d expected it for years - but it was still great to get the confirmation.

That was the codename given to the Corvette test mule that was hidden inside the highly modified body of a Holden ute. Years after this Frankenstein vehicle was first spotted by US media flying drones over General Motors’ proving grounds, the team behind the Corvette has revealed all the details around this Holden-inspired prototype.Speaking to Popular Mechanics, Corvette executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter explained the reason for Blackjack’s existence and how it helped develop the C8 Stingray. In order to keep the project as secret as possible (despite years of rumours and speculation the Corvette was making the mid-engine switch) Juechter and his team tried to throw spy photographers off the scent by using the Holden bodywork. Blackjack featured the distinctive front-end of the VE Holden ute, grafted onto a C7 Corvette cabin with the V8 engine hidden beneath what looked like a covered Holden ute rear end.Those aren’t the only modifications, with wider wheelarches, front and rear, to better simulate the track of the new mid-engine supercar. There was also a rear wing, which was deliberately designed to generate lift to help develop the suspension. “If you look at the wing,” Juechter told Popular Mechanics, “it’s on upside down. That’s because aerodynamics come into play on suspension development at relatively low speeds, and this front end had a ton of lift. So to get the pitch right, we inverted the wing to add lift to the rear.”Beneath the bodywork there was also some German assistance for Chevrolet, with a Porsche PDK dual-clutch transmission mated to the V8 engine. That’s because the engineering team knew they wanted to make the switch to the faster shifting gearbox but they had to design and engineer one first; a lengthy process.But proudly adorning the front-end of this crucial Corvette prototype is a Holden lion badge, a little piece of Australian help for the car that will soon be available in local dealerships for the first time in its history.