#FutureModels

The $6 billion in funding promised in Ford Motor Company’s new four-year labor contract is starting to be seen and heard. Having secured a walletful of incentives from the state of Michigan, Ford is now promising about $1.45 billion and 3,000 new jobs for the Southeast Michigan area.

Ford’s cash dump, announced Tuesday, will flow into three facilities in the area, one of which doesn’t yet exist.

Mini’s Clubman, a vehicle the B&B won’t stop talking about, could undergo significant changes for its next iteration — not just in terms of style, but perhaps in terms of size. If word out of Britain is anything to go on, the Clubman wagon could morph into something larger and more palatable to American audiences.

It could become a crossover.

Cadillac’s upcoming next-generation Escalade is garnering plenty of headlines ahead of its reveal, and not just because of leaked shots showing a very Escala-like take on the Chevrolet Suburban/Tahoe.

Redesigned from the ground up for the 2021 model year, General Motors’ full-size, body-on-frame SUVs aim to top the current crop in both refinement and interior room, and the pinnacle of that lineup will be no different. Cargo volume aside, we now know for sure it’ll top challengers in at least one measurement: screen size.

If Cadillac President Steve Carlisle’s vision turns into a reality, we’re in for plenty of disruption by the end of the coming decade.

The brand chief’s vision, shared by many in the industry (especially overseas), depicts a land almost completely devoid of new internal combustion vehicles. That includes a marque that once fielded an 8.2-liter V8.

Few things combine funky and trendy quite like an all-electric version of the Mini Cooper. Such a model almost begs for images of sexy young urbanites embarking on free-spirited adventures as their equally good looking (and musically inclined) friends wave goodbye from the front steps of their Brooklyn apartment.

Well, barring activities of a sexual or criminal nature, those adventures will run out after 110 miles.

No, it doesn’t take on water, though we won’t really know for sure until a thorough on- and off-road evaluation puts that assertion to the test. Rather, the headline refers to images of the upcoming Cadillac range-topper that appeared on Instagram Wednesday.

Borrowing a colossal grille inspired by the Escala concept (now firmly in place as the brand’s corporate face), the revamped full-size SUV’s unplanned reveal comes on the heels of the public debut of its Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban platform mates.

Remember the ridiculously long lead-up to the release of Dodge’s Challenger SRT Demon? That never-ending trail of breadcrumbs leading to the hottest LX-platform car to date? Yeah, that one.

The teasing grew tiresome after a while. Many buyers and writers (circles that rarely cross) were about to get up and leave the bar, until FCA finally debuted the limited-run, 840-horsepower drag beast.

Well, it looks like FCA’s on the make again.

Maybe Land Rover isn’t so removed from its former parent, after all. Whereas Ford saw the resurrection of the Bronco nameplate as an opportunity to butch up an Escape, Land Rover apparently sees the return of the storied Defender as an excuse to push its lineup downmarket.

No, not with the Defender itself — the range-topping SUV will only go upward in price, Autocar reports, but the opportunity lies in sprinkling some of its design magic over a new entry-level model.

A battery plant mentioned in General Motors’ recently ratified UAW labor contract will soon become a reality in the hard-hit city of Lordstown, Ohio. That locale recently saw the lights go out at GM’s Lordstown Assembly, which closed its doors this spring after the discontinuation of the Chevrolet Cruze. The plant’s now in the hands of a fledgling electric automaker.

On Wednesday, GM announced the spending of $2.3 billion and the creation of 1,100 jobs in Lordstown — a necessary move to supply the automaker with battery packs for its electric vehicle push.

Not in the way Genesis would have liked, however. While the fledgling Genesis brand’s first utility vehicle isn’t expected to debut until early in the new year, a pair of images posted to Instagram gives us a pretty good impression of what to expect.

That said, the brand’s 2017 GV80 concept vehicle (seen above) took us a good part of the way there. Clearly, Genesis’ designers didn’t stray too far from the camp.

In the struggling Alfa Romeo brand’s near future, the subset of voices calling for sexy new sports cars will have to take a backseat to owners and would-be buyers who just want minor improvements to existing vehicles.

Exciting? Not very, but Alfa isn’t concerned with wowing the blogger crowd at this point in time. The axe taken to its future product lineup shows this pretty clearly. In response to the about-face, Alfa’s North American director claims the sky is no longer the limit, though you can expect some sexy new lower body cladding.

With a brace of sedans not arriving until later in the year, Cadillac’s big attention-getter last January was a gas-free, unnamed crossover… as well as a conventional one with little charisma in the tank.

The concept EV heralded an electrified product surge from General Motors as well as the Cadillac brand, but in the 10 months since its reveal, little has been heard of the future model. Expect to hear a lot more in the New Year, as the vehicle’s debut is barely more than a year away. It’s the first of many fingers-crossed products from GM.

When Ford lined its domestic passenger car offerings against a brick wall, gangster-style, and unleashed its 50-round drum, one nameplate was singled out for potential preservation: Fusion. Actually, another name was supposed to live on in the form of the overseas Focus Active, but the Blue Oval kiboshed that model’s boat trip.

Acrimony over the Focus, Fiesta, and Taurus’ North American death ran high, perhaps more so than that of the doomed Fusion sedan, but the latter model’s name seemed to hold a special purpose. Recall back in the summer of 2018, when sources told Bloomberg that Ford intended to develop some sort of Subaru Outback fighter under the Fusion name. Spokesman Mike Levine backed up, to some degree, the name-preservation side of the story.

Real, physical proof of that program may now exist.

Rivian, the Michigan-based EV startup with big plans for its R1S SUV and R1T pickup, isn’t bashful about making its “skateboard” electric vehicle platform available to rivals. At Ford, that skateboard may soon appear below a new Lincoln vehicle, a new report claims.

Ford raised eyebrows earlier this year when it sunk $500 million into the upstart EV maker, with the Blue Oval claiming the investment paves the way for an “all-new, next-generation battery electric vehicle.” That vehicle is apparently now taking shape.

Just this past week, a base Dodge Journey that shacked up with a family member four years ago headed off to not-so-greener pastures. Life for the four-speed, front-drive crossover might not be easy at its new home, but at least it has a new, non-corroded oil pan.

That particular model is worth mentioning, as it’s one of only two Journey trims available for the 2020 model year. While the model’s future remains uncertain, a new report hints at a looming replacement for Dodge’s pedestrian people hauler.