Not all of Ford’s specialty F-150 models will make the transition to the new-generation, aluminum-intensive bodystyle that debuted earlier this week in Detroit.

Speaking with Automotive News, Doug Scott, Ford’s truck marketing manager, revealed that the 2015 F-150 lineup won’t include a new version of the Tremor sport pickup.

Launched late last year, the Tremor is a short-wheelbase, regular-cab model that uses a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 to deliver on-road-focused performance.

In addition, AN reports that the future of Ford’s off-road superhero, the Raptor, could be up in their air, with an anonymous source from the Blue Oval’s Dearborn truck plant telling the trade journalthat the Raptor isn’t included in the 2015 production schedule.

While it’s possible that the Raptor’s future is indeed uncertain, it seems more likely that Ford is simply following the common industry practice of launching the performance variant a year or two after the standard model.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for news on the Raptor and relay any developments to you posthaste.

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Toyota has earned a reputation for building bulletproof cars, and the Japanese automaker is taking that notion to the extreme with its upcoming fuel cell vehicle.

As fuel cell technology is new to the market, Toyota is taking every precaution to ensure its forthcoming hydrogen-powered vehicle is just as safe as its conventionally powered automobiles. That includes the standard gambit of testing, as well as a few tests that are a little more extreme.

Bob Carter, head of Toyota’s automotive operations, revealed in Detroit this week that firing guns at the carbon fiber tanks that will contain hydrogen for its upcoming fuel cell vehicle was implemented as part of the company’s testing routine.

“We wanted to know what it takes to actually pierce them,” Carter told Automotive News. “It’s just one of thousand different tests we’re conducting to ensure the durability of the vehicles. We want to be absolutely sure of the integrity of the systems.”

Toyota started with a small-caliber gun, but moved on to a 50-caliber gun after the tanks emerged unscathed. The 50-cal weapon was only able to dent, not penetrate, the tank’s surface, and barely at that.

Previewed by the FCV concept that has been on tour since debuting at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, Toyota’s first fuel cell vehicle is scheduled to hit the market next year.

Live photos by Ben Hsu.

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Subaru plans to ride a steady growth curve to 500,000 annual sales by 2016, the company’s president has revealed.

After selling 424,683 vehicles last year,an increase of 26 percent over 2012, Subaru plans to sell around 450,000 units in 2014. Tom Doll, Subaru’s president, predicts that figure will swell to 500,000 units by 2016.

However, Doll stresses that Subaru will “have to moderate that growth.” Instead of simply chasing voluming, the Japanese automaker will focus on steady sales growth while strengthening its dealer service capacity and improving customer service.

“Our challenge over the next couple years is to make sure we have the necessary service capacity — the lifts, service bays, technicians, better waiting rooms and loaner cars so that when customers come in for service we have everything in place back to handle them,” Doll told Automotive News.

Subaru is currently expanding its lone U.S. production facility in Lafayette, Indiana, to produce 300,000 vehicles per year, up from an annual capacity of about 200,000 vehicles.

Subaru is also readying a new, three-row crossover to replace the Tribeca, but it remains to be seen if that vehicle will be out in time to help with the company’s 2016 goal.

Photo by Andrew Ganz.

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Tesla’s eagerly-awaited entry-level electric sedan won’t be ready until 2017, two years later than previous reports had suggested.

“[O]ur mass-market, affordable car is about three years away,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed in an interview with CNN.

Likely to be called the Model E, the new sedan is expected to be similar in size to the BMW 3-Series and to possess a range of up to 200 miles.

Pricing for the sedan will start at roughly $35,000, Musk said.

While Tesla’s design chief, Franz Von Holzhausen, had previously suggested the new four-door could be unveiled as early as the 2015 Detroit show, the 2017 debut date strikes us as a much more realistic timeframe given the continued development work on the Model X midsize crossover.

For all its successes, Tesla is still a relatively small company, one that likely lacks the engineering resources to simultaneously bring both the Model X and Model E to market.

In other future product-related news, Musk stated that the Model X will launch in late 2014 with a price range in the neighborhood of $70,000 – $90,000. A pickup is still on Tesla’s wishlist, Musk added, but it likely won’t arrive for another four or five years.

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General Motors’ top international operations executive has indicated that the automaker may tap its assembly plants in South Korea to supply vehicles to Australia.

The Detroit-based car builder is in the midst of a major international operations shakeup. Not only did it hire ex-Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby to head up its global manufacturing operations, the automaker announced plans to cease building cars in Australia and it said that it will soon begin phasing its Chevrolet brand out of Europe.

The decision to put an end to Chevrolet as a global brand initially left its South Korean assembly plants – which build most Chevy-badged cars sold in Europe – in flux, but now Jacoby says that GM vehicles bound for Australia may be sourced from South Korea.

“We are building our puzzle pieces together for the international markets,” Jacoby said on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week.

These moves will undoubtedly keep GM’s new international chief busy over the next couple of years as the automaker looks to shore up many of its money-losing global operations. Among GM’s biggest markets, only North America and China have been consistent money makers lately. The financial recession in Europe has combined with high labor costs there and in Australia, where a strong currency is also a challenge for manufacturers, to force automakers to rethink their international strategies.

One thing that still remains unclear is the future of GM’s rear-wheel-drive architecture, which was heavily developed in Australia and underpins cars like the Aussie-market Holden Commodore range and, in North America, the Chevrolet Camaro and Chevrolet SS. GM has been able to continue developing that platform due in part to the additional volume offered by the Australian market. However, the automaker’s decision to stop building cars Down Under has left the platform’s future something of a mystery.

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