Auto Industry News: Holley Adds EV-Only Event, Honda Heads Off-Road, and Chip Shortage Drags On

In addition to dominating manufacturers’ agendas, electric vehicles are now making their way onto enthusiast calendars as well with Holley’s most recent announcement. Automakers aren’t throwing in the towel on traditional rides just yet, though. With rugged SUVs still in the limelight, Honda adds a new off-road badge to its lineup to complement its tougher Ridgeline pickup.

Wondering what good new rides are without the tools to make them? We deep-dive the ongoing chip shortage below, from the grim sales numbers to the silver-lining predictions.

Holley Adds EVs To Its Power Lineup

Holley announced last week the addition of an all-new, EV-only event to its enthusiast lineup. Scheduled for next month – November 13-14 at Sonoma Raceway in California – the “High Voltage Experience” will celebrate the EV lifestyle and electrified motorsports. According to the company, the event will welcome all fully-electric vehicles and all vehicles equipped with electric powertrains, whether originally installed or installed as a modification to an existing vehicle.

Like its other enthusiast-minded events, Holley’s High Voltage experience features multiple segments, including a car show, drag race, 3S Challenge, drift exhibition, Grand Champion, and a vendor midway. Renowned racecar driver Randy Pobst is scheduled to host driving instruction, and 2021 EV class King of the Hammers champ Kyle Seggelin will be on hand with his electric 1^st-gen 1986 Toyota 4Runner.

Tickets are only available online. Click here for more information.

Traditional Power Still On Deck

Holley still has plenty of traditionally-powered beasts on the go-fast schedule. In fact, the company just wrapped two exciting events last month in Bowling Green, KY: LS Fest East and MoParty.

LS Fest East

The 12^th running of LS Fest East – “a celebration of everything and anything powered by the GM LS engine” – ran the second weekend in September. It hosted multiple segments, including an autocross with two circuits, drag races, the Lucas Oil/S3 Magazine Drift Challenge, and even a downhill Power Wheels challenge. That last one featured a group of adults barreling downhill in toy cars, which maybe didn’t earn anyone a checkered flag but certainly looked like a fun time, nonetheless. LS Fest East also held its Grand Champion challenge, which offers the ultimate test: Drivers need to compete in every race with the same set of tires through the whole weekend.

Plenty of LS-swapped eye candy was on display, including a gorgeous 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1980 Chevrolet K5 Blazer complete with Detroit Steel wheels, and Johnny Cichowski’s track-attack 1999 Mazda Miata. The Saturday schedule included a Show and Shine showcase, complete with everything from vintage S10s to well-polished Custom Deluxe pickups and plenty of muscle car action.

MoParty

On the heels of LS Fest East was the second annual Holley MoParty, which took place the following weekend. True to its name, MoParty celebrated all things Mopar-powered. “The drag strip’s staging lanes were filled to the brim with thumping Chrysler power, the show fields shone brightly with all of the colorful paint shades that Mopars are famous for, and autocross competitors tore around the course,” organizers said.

The event hosted a solid number of races, including the Trans Am/Mopar Connection Magazine Grand Champion Race. In the late-model series, John Brown and Jerry Mathis ended up squaring off their Dodge Challengers in an exciting autocross tie-breaker. Brown beat Mathis with a 40.199 lap. In another category, a 2000 Dakota, 1988 Dodge D150, and 1975 Jeep Cherokee faced off in a delightfully eclectic truck race, representative of MoParty itself.

While bad weather affected some of the racing, it certainly didn’t dampen spirits – especially with a just-for-laughs mullet contest during the event. Organizers joked that when you’re in the “home of the Kentucky Waterfall” (that’s a nickname for Joe Dirt’s signature haircut), you might as well celebrate it. We agree!

Honda Passport Gets TrailSport Upgrade

Honda recently announced an updated Honda Passport, featuring a hefty exterior design as well as some noticeable beefed-up off-roading capabilities. A quick scan of the updated Passport shows a new rear bumper and exhaust finishers and a more aggressive-looking front end. What’s more, Honda’s added a brand new Passport TrailSport badge to the trim options.

The folks at Kelley Blue Book speculate the TrailSport might eventually feature off-road tires and other features for the trail. Still, there are a handful of cosmetic updates at the moment, like orange badging and pewter wheels (at least the build Honda provided for the video). In addition to off-road friendly AWD handling, there’s also some critical attention to details like carrying the orange color scheme to the interior on the seat stitching and a set of folding mirrors for those narrow canyon paths and heated windshield wipers.

Engine-wise, it looks like the 2022 Passport TrailSport still has the same package under the hood as its 2021 predecessor. There’s a 3.5L V6 (280hp, 262 lb-ft), and the transmission is a 9-speed automatic.

If you’re ready to pull out your checkbook, though, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the price. Honda said it won’t unveil numbers until the end of 2021. (NOTE: the Sport trim on the 2021 version comes in around $33,000.)

The Semiconductor Saga Continues

Things just seem to grow more complicated with the semiconductor shortage — and the last week or two hasn’t been an exception. Tesla CEO Elon Musk chimed in at a recent conference, saying he believes the chip supply shortage will be “short term” and that we should see a leveling off by next year. Meanwhile, federal regulators are reaching their breaking point with chip manufacturers on finding a solution to supply chain ripples. White House Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the administration might even invoke the Cold War-era Defense Production Act if producers don’t start actively cooperating by providing inventory and sales data. On top of all that, light-vehicle sales projections for September will fall to their lowest since the Great Depression, thanks to thinning lot inventories.

We won’t pretend to have the answer to the problem, but let’s take a closer look at each of these parts of the equation.

Musk Stays Positive

Elon Musk’s prediction was part of a chat at Italian Tech Week. During a streamed interview, he said “a lot of chip fabrication plants are being built,” indicating this would increase capacity. However, he failed to clarify where those plants are located or when they’ll be completed. CNBC pointed out that both Intel and TSMC have plans to build new U.S. chip plants, but those facilities won’t start production for a few years.

Other industry players remain less optimistic. Projections from firms like Bain & Company and Forrester estimate the shortage will drag on well into next year. Interestingly, both Musk and Stellantis & Ferrari Chairman John Elkann voiced potential support in the pipeline coming from nuclear power to address growing global energy demands. It’s hard to say what exactly the correlation is between nuclear power and semiconductor chips. But that could signal that the auto giants are mulling how to produce more without taxing already-strained grids, especially in the U.S.

White House Grows Chilly

The Biden Administration, in contrast, remains focused on the here-and-now when it comes to the shortage. On Sep. 23, Secretary Raimondo said the administration was zeroing in on the bottlenecks hampering domestic car production — including allegations of possible hoarding by chip users.

Raimondo said her team has been trying to get more information on how companies distribute chips. However, as yet, those companies remain unwilling to share details or hand over data. Now, the Commerce Department said it’s giving chip companies 45 days to fill out a voluntary questionnaire that provides supply chain information. Raimondo also said she may consider invoking the Defense Production Act if chip makers don’t step up and communicate. (If that Act sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same one that the Trump and Biden Administrations used to ramp up COVID vaccine supplies and PPE, such as face masks.)

So far, the decision received positive responses from automakers like Ford and Stellantis. They both expressed support for more supply chain transparency in the matter.

“There’s allegations of certain consuming companies buying two or three times what they need and stockpiling,” Raimondo said. “So suppliers say, ‘We can’t get a handle on an accurate demand signal because consumers are stockpiling, so we don’t know what the accurate demand is.’ Some consumers are saying ‘We can’t get straight answers from suppliers, how come I was told I could have X and now I’m being told I can only have half of X?’”

She hopes by putting some feet over the fire, her team can get a better grasp on the true chip supply. There is concern that continual panic buying and stockpiling of unused inventory will lead to a crash.

Sales Numbers Look Grim

The sales numbers tell a whole other story, too. In Cox Automotive’s Forecast for Sept. 2021, the firm forecasted “significantly hampered” auto sales due to the ongoing lack of new-vehicle inventory. Cox said the pace of auto sales, or seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), is likely to finish near 12.1 million. That’s the slowest pace since May 2020, when the U.S. was primarily closed due to COVID.

The September 2021 sales pace is also down from August’s 13.1 million pace and down from the September 2020 pace of 16.3 million. Cox also forecasted sales volume coming in at a meek 1.0 million units for September, putting the low volume expectations as some of the worst in the past decade. Sales volume is expected to be down nearly 26% from last September and down 8.5% from last month.

Despite those dismal numbers, it doesn’t sound like doom and gloom to everyone.

“Vehicles are getting produced, and some OEMs have improved their supply situation,” Cox Automotive Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough said in the report. “In recent months, OEMs seem to be managing the situation better now that they’ve had time to adjust.”

Chesbrough pointed to automakers redirecting existing chips to the most important vehicles in their portfolios as an example of new strategies. He said those strategies should yield better sales in the fourth quarter.

Ford Investing $11 Billion in New Battery Plants for EV Pickups

Not all automakers are waiting for current problems and regulations to sort themselves out. Ford recently announced plans to invest $11 billion in a mega campus in Tennessee and dual battery plants in Kentucky. Ford and its partners SK Innovation said the move will create roughly 11,000 new jobs – close to 6,000 in Stanton, Tennessee, and 5,000 in Glendale, Kentucky.

Dubbed Blue Oval City, the Tennessee campus will live on a six-square-mile site. It’ll be the new home for the construction of the automaker’s electric F-series pickups, as well as advanced batteries, Ford said. Meanwhile, the Kentucky site will house twin battery plants to supply Ford’s North American plants with locally-built batteries. Those batteries are designated for Ford and Lincoln EVs.

“This is a transformative moment where Ford will lead America’s transition to electric vehicles and usher in a new era of clean, carbon-neutral manufacturing,” said Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford in an announcement. “With this investment and a spirit of innovation, we can achieve goals once thought mutually exclusive – protect our planet, build great electric vehicles Americans will love, and contribute to our nation’s prosperity.”

The automaker said production of the new electric vehicles and advanced lithium-ion batteries is scheduled for 2025.

The Engine Block is your one-stop source for any and all auto industry news. Keep an eye on our weekly round-up of enthusiast coverage, product reviews, vehicle spotlights, auto show/expo features, and more. Be sure to tune in Wednesday for some insight on the budding compact truck market — as well as the exciting new products Extang has on deck.