Featured GM Blazer

here's how desperate japanese automakers are:

Toyota, Nissan, 10 others join forces to form a new research group powerhouse for software

 

Heck they are using Tesla charging nozzles now, they might as well just buy the software from them, ready-made. It'd be a lot faster
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Go ahead then and do a subjective comparison.
We can add in the GM Blazer as well

Mike

 

Uh, I see the Mercedes EQB key on our table and have to beg to differ…

I wanted an EV, couldn’t wait for the VinFast, waited for a Y they never built. Oh, where’s the darn 500+ mi Cybertruck 6 seats and FSD for $80k, with Ludacris mode?

All the while BYD is doing what?

EDIT- I don’t think GM “is thinking” I’m worried about selling more of my gas burners, but losing customers completely.

I still like the ground up Ultium attempt/approach.

I’m afraid GM being in the middle is a sitting duck, aka Silverado -> RAM REV, 1500 Ramcharger. When Cybertruck failed to meet 500 mi range, I started looking elsewhere…

 

Open source software was a real game changer which I believe started with Linux OS, and continued with Android. It was the only way to practically (reasonably able to) compete with software giants/establishment…

I am reminded that the BZxx looks very familiar to the Subaru Soltera (pardon my butchering their model names). I believe that was a collaboration, no? Similarly GM Blazer, and Honda Prologue, although I think GM was foundational (Ultium) in that pairing.

Glad GM is not pulling the plug like ElectraMeccanica’s Solo. Or even worse take deposits and produce nothing like Ellio…

 

Android is Linux.. it may have different libraries on top, but the kernel is Linux.

The bzx4 is a conversion of the RAV4 to an EV, with some help from BYD. That's why it is, to quote John1701a, not competitive with the other EVs on the market. Hopefully Toyota comes up with a clean sheet design in the next few years.

 

John says Toyota is deliberately slow because the tortoise always wins the race. Perhaps he never read the fable. The tortoise only won - because the hare went to sleep. No one is sleeping at BYD, Tesla, GM, Kia Hyundai, Honda, ford et al. In the present day case, it's the tortoise that's taking a nap.
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GM and FORD aren’t taking a nap yet, but they are eyeing the couch ;-)

 

Toyota has a major stake in Subaru's parent company. Those EVs are a bit more than a simple partnership. The X Mode Toyota advertises for the bZ4X AWD is a Subaru trademark.

GM talked about becoming a supplier of EV drive trains to others when Ultium was announced. Then the first Honda Passport ICE was a rebadged GM product they licensed when they didn't have a product ready for the first wave of SUV popularity. So the companies have had partnerships going back some time, with FCEVs being the biggest and most recent. I don't know where the Prologue stands in the rebranded GM to Honda using GM part spectrum, though from the little I've read, it sounds like the Passport. A temporary solution to Honda being behind in plug in development.

 

Little known fact.

For a while when we couldn't fill all the orders for the US built Camry - The Subaru Automotive Plant in Indiana helped out by manufacturing the Camry at that Plant to help us fill orders.

You can bet your a_ _ this was closely supervised. The home of the Camry is Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky and many of us employed there had to fill slots as Advisors at the Subaru Plant to train, monitor and help run the specially dedicated manufacturing line at Subaru Indiana for the Camry. The Camry's built there went thru rigorous inspections to assure they were the same quality as the ones coming off The TMMK line. They were of equal quality.

It has always been a problem filling orders for Camry's - they are the best loved, selling sedan in America and have been for many, many years. At times Japan has had to pitch in and help fill orders for the Camry. Logistically and financially, it made more sense for the Indiana Subara Plant to help out as Japan has their hands full trying to make enough Toyota's to fill their orders.

Toyota to build Camry in Indiana (reliableplant.com)

Toyota eventually built a second plant in Kentucky to try and manage Camry production and fill all the Camry orders. Subaru Indiana now no longer has to help out.

Toyota and Subaru have shared each other's award winning technologies between each other for many years without a lot of fanfare.

 

not always - nor everywhere ...

Tesla surpasses Toyota as bestselling carmaker in California

Calif .... largest market ... good place to be upsetting the status quo
(that's another little know fact)

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Here is a quiz for you:
How long has the Camry been the best selling sedan in the US?
2nd part
How long has Tesla been the best selling vehicle in the US?

congrats to Tesla and hope the success of this American Company grows and continues it is good for our country!

Another quiz:
Is it necessary to hate one thing to like another?
2nd part
Must you hate your father to love your mother?
3rd part
Isn't it possible to enjoy and appreciate others and things together without disparaging one or the other?
4th part
What does a balanced view mean?

 

Annoying when articles don't include a publish date. Looks like that was when Toyota first bought into Subaru, getting a bunch of GM's stock as they divested. they were under 9% then. With the BRZ/86 partnership, that grew to 16.x%. Now Toyota is the largest owner at 20%.

For the most part, they seem hands off, though the little Sambar is now a rebadged Diahatsu.

 

Subaru to stop building Camry for Toyota in the US - Autoblog

"It was back in 2007 that Subaru of Indiana Automotive, under contract from Subaru minority shareholder Toyota, built the first Toyota Camry at its plant in Lafayette, Indiana."

Subaru stopped manufacturing the Camry in Indiana in 2016.

 

That doesn't change the leverage from being the major owner of Subaru Toyota can use when it comes to joint projects.

Your first link on the topic of Subaru starting to make Camrys didn't have a date. Making wanting to know what the ownership status between the two at the time difficult to determine. I lucked out in that sources covering the history of Toyota's acquisition of Subaru shares mentioned the Camry assistance. Perhaps it was part of the deal for Toyota to make their first share purchase.

That lack of a date at the article wasn't your fault. It is just a pet peeve of mine in general. Things stick around in the internet. When they were first put there is an important context.

 

Pretty sure it is the Prologue, but on the GM side I’m not clear which specific model they took foundation from. (When I asked a GM rep at the LA Auto Show (s)he said “all of them”. It does look quite similar to one, which I think is the Blazer…

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2024-honda-prologue-ultium-electric-suv-first-look-review/

Neat video comparison:

 

Been sometime since a shared model could have little more than changes in badges.

Then the use of the term platform can have some flexibility in the automotive industry. Traditionally, it referred to the chassis and frame components like the suspension, but some have expanded it to also cover power train. Wish they had taken Mazda's lead with SkyActiv; they referred to those engines and transmissions as a technology suite. That's how I think of Ultium. GM calls it a platform, but when talking about it, they discuss the battery, motors, and supporting components. The chassis platform their Ultium unibody cars and SUVs are using is BEV3, and full frame trucks are using BT1.

BEV3 is flexible enough for their current EV models, and Wikipedia reports the Prologue is using it. So the GM rep was correct in a manner of speaking. Your link points out how Honda is tweaking it to make it a Honda, and not a GM clone.

Oh, the original Passport was actually an Isuzu Rodeo. Though GM had a one third stake in them since 1971, and part sharing between them was well underweight by the '90s.

 

According to the articles, the Honda and the Acura ZDX are a mix of the GM Ultium systems, primarily the Blazer and the Lyric.