This morning Matt wrote about how everyone seems to hate Stellantis right now. Not just the UAW, not just the Italian Government, not just some consumers, not just dealers, not just suppliers — I could go on and on. Some of the qualms aren’t exactly unique to Stellantis, but plenty of them are, and this led CEO Carlos Tavares to explain the situation to reporters.
Tavares’ quote, per Motor1:
“The automotive industry is in a kind of survival mode: we are beyond fear. We cannot complain, we cannot hesitate, we have to concentrate our efforts to stay alive. To stay alive we need to achieve cost parity between electric cars and thermal cars, but another chapter opens here. We operate in a geographical region animated by chaos and it is difficult to make predictions. Governments have decided to reduce purchase incentives and this is holding back the market.”
I noted in the article that “Thermal Cars” is a bit of an odd expression in American English, and obviously a result of a translation from Italian. But this led some of you, dear commenters, to hit us with a bit of clever wit.
Bearddevil’s comment is gold:
That Audi in the next story is definitely a “thermal car”…
A “thermal car” is one that burns your leg on the exposed tip of the side pipes as you exit.
In keeping with yesterday’s Comment of the Day sub-theme involving me not getting some kind of pop culture reference, here’s one from 2-Car Solution that I don’t get, but based on the number of likes, I’m assuming it’s because I lived under a rock as a child:
“Look in the tunk.” He must mean “trunk.”
If I had to guess… could it be from Rat Race when the guy with the tongue-ring couldn’t speak well? That seems like a really obscure reference. That can’t be right.
I’m hopeless.
It is a Carlos Tardvarnish attempt to put more negative connotations toward a Gas Engine….because you know Batteries/electric motors never get hot?
I would’ve thought that a “Thermal Car” was a racing rig owned by a rich guy for use at Thermal Club in the California desert.
I think the translation was botched from the word ‘thermite’. Tavares is planning to build thermite powered vehicles, they will use the molten metal from old Stellantis vehicles to power the new ones. Sustainability.
Tavares was speaking to AFP, so likely he was speaking french. The french term for combustion car is “voiture thermique”.
Go ahead and put that in google translate, I’ll wait.
Wow David, that would have been my thought too since I own and love that movie. I too, live under a rock, in the woods, near a loud stream. So I don’t hear or see much of anything.
User name checks out…
The reference is to the Simpsons episode centered on Ralph Wiggum’s crush on Lisa after she gives him a pity valentine. Later in the episode, he invites her to a live Krusty the Klown comedy show by giving her a toy car with the 2 tickets in the trunk. The note guiding her to check the trunk reads “Look in the tunk”, causing her to say the line from the comment.
I hadn’t realized the lack of depth to his pop culture knowledge until this moment…
Simpsons?
I choo-choo-choose to give you a smiley face for that thorough explanation.
Your brother’s mustang is a thermal car.