The storied 911 will not be immune from Porsche’s electrification plans and that could be a good thing. The car company’s CEO recently told Autocar that the hybrid 911 “will be the most powerful 911 we’ve ever had; 700 bhp might be possible.” Count me in (as long as someone buys it for me).
Porsche already makes 911 models above the 700 mark so it’s likely CEO Oliver Blume was referring to a non-performance version of the 911.
There was a time when anything but an air-cooled 911 was considered a disgrace. A hybrid drivetrain will likely be met with similar outcries. In the end, Porsche has to adopt measures to keep up with performance trends and meet fuel economy regulations. A hybrid system can likely do both.
Porsche has been playing with performance hybrid powertrains for several years including the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid that outputs 680 hp thanks to a 136-HP electric motor — that’s up from the 550 hp 4.0-liter V8 also available. Most notable the 2013-2015 Porsche 918 Spyder showed Porsche was able to make a gas, electric car worthy of the Porsche nameplate.
A hybrid 911 would sit alongside Porsche’s upcoming pure EV lineup that currently includes a sedan and crossover.
As far as a hybrid 911, it’s expected after the next version of the 911, which puts its release around 2020 or 2021.
What’s the biggest motivating factor behind automakers embracing autonomous vehicles and self-driving? You might think ‘safety’ or maybe even consumer demand, but in truth the biggest driver might be China and its incentivization programs for automakers.
Much like China’s rules for qualifying for subsidies and restrictions on selling vehicles in market have led to automakers around the world investing massively in building out and maturing their electric vehicle operations, Volkswagen’s head of its eMobility model line Christian Senger says that China’s forthcoming rules will spur autonomy’s introduction to the market, too.
During a journalist roundtable at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, Senger noted that indicators suggest an upcoming intelligent vehicle rules from Chinese regulators will provide big incentives in the way of subsidies to automakers who includes specific levels of automation in their production cars. For VW in particular, that’s a huge motivator, since the automaker has 13 percent market share in China as a brand, and 20 percent if you could the Volkswagen Group at large, including sub-brands like Audi and others.
“Right now you need to have electric drive train, a minimum range, and local production and then you get subsidies,” Senger explained. “There are a lot of indicators that this will now change that also the level of automated driving is a required premise to get subsidies. So the future of our market success is also dependent on our self-driving abilities.”
Every automaker in the world right now is rushing to shape up their electric program, even if in past they’ve been a bit laggard in this regard (Toyota is a great example) and the specific cause is the relatively hard line China is taking in this area with regards to subsidies, incentives and in-market sales rules. Per Senger, we should watch very closely for the very same thing to happen with automated vehicles of all levels over the course of the next few years.
The bottom line here is interesting: Where goes China, so goes the automotive industry, at least for the foreseeable future.
Brief teaser campaigns are fun and build hype for a new car, but if you string it out for too long, you risk everyone getting tired of it before it even debuts. Thankfully, what's under the cover at Mercedes-Benz will be too exciting to tire of.
Ahead of its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in just a few days, Mercedes-Benz sent out one last set of teasers for its new Mercedes-AMG GT "Four-Door Coupe," which is actually a sedan but nobody's bothered to tell the automaker that. Last time we saw it, it was covered in some Guy Fieri-approved flames. This time, it appears to be inside a volcanic cave of some sort, which doesn't seem good for the tires. Or the rest of the car.
Anyone else feeling a bit warm? Just me? Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz has handed out precisely zero tidbits regarding this car's specs, so it's all one big mystery. It could carry the same 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that's in the (actual) coupe, or it could borrow the 800-horsepower hybrid system found in the concept that presaged its existence.
Either way, we'll have an answer to our question soon enough, which is good, because I'm running out of things to say when these teasers appear.
It's part of a wider release covering all corners of the powertrain.
The Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform underpins a whole bunch of new Toyota and Lexus vehicles, from the Prius to the Camry to the Lexus LC. Soon, it's set to get even better with a whole bunch of new powertrain goodies.
Toyota announced a new slate of transmissions, engines and drivetrain parts for the TNGA platform. Some are focused on improved packaging, while others focus on efficiency. One engine in particular lays claim to being the most thermally efficient in its class. That seems like a good place to start.
2.0-liter Dynamic Force Engine
While I have a hard time aligning Toyota with the words "dynamic force," that's the name Toyota gave to its new 2.0-liter gas engine for the TNGA platform. It features variable port and direct injection, an increased angle between the valves and a more thorough and rapid combustion process.
The result is one seriously efficient engine. In fact, Toyota claims it'll be the most thermally efficient 2.0-liter gas engine on the market, offering 40 percent efficiency in a standard gas car, and 41 percent when part of a hybrid powertrain.
Being able to hot-swap between port and direct fuel injection will also allow the engine to prioritize output or fuel efficiency, depending on engine load and the driver's wants.
2.0-liter Toyota Hybrid System II
Toyota also showed off a new variant of its gas-electric hybrid system, based on some of the tech inside the latest generation of Prius. The power control unit, generators and motors are all smaller and more efficient. The battery is smaller and lighter, as well. The result is a lighter, more efficient hybrid system that'll make for lighter and more efficient vehicles. Makes sense.
But Toyota didn't just focus on efficiency. It also tweaked the hybrid system to deliver extra torque from the electric motor under acceleration. That should make the car feel livelier and a bit more fun to drive when you really step on the right pedal.
All the torque vectoring, all the time
Toyota also plans to debut two new all-wheel-drive systems, one for gas cars and one for hybrids.
The Dynamic Torque Vectoring AWD system is meant to help increase cornering stability for gas-powered cars. It uses the car's brakes to adjust the torque on each side of the car, which is a method that's caught some flak in the past for not being "true" torque vectoring -- that term is left for systems that manage torque distribution using complicated and expensive differential internals.
Toyota's system can also disconnect the front axle so all the power is transmitted rearward, which can improve fuel efficiency when the car doesn't need four wheels transmitting power to the ground.
The second system, called E-Four, is for hybrids. It boosts torque sent to the electrically driven rear wheels and operates under the same general principles as the Dynamic Torque Vectoring setup.
Smaller, rev-matchier 6MT
Built in response to "global needs," which Toyota puts mostly on Europe, the automaker developed a new six-speed manual transmission. Here's hoping that it'll make its way to the US, too.
This one is all about packaging. It's about 15 pounds lighter than Toyota's old six-speed, and it's about 1 inch shorter. Toyota claims it's one of the world's smallest transmissions. It should be one of the smarter ones, as well, because it has a system that automatically adjusts the engine's speed for smoother shifting. That sure sounds like a rev-matching system to me.
Toyota didn't have a fun little animation for its six-speed manual. Bummer, that. Toyota
Direct Shift-CVT
It might seem like the hyphen's in the wrong place there, but it isn't. The automaker claims its new CVT is unlike any other, because it uses an actual set of gears for launching, followed by more traditional operation under all other circumstances.
With the forces from launching sent through that gear, Toyota shrank the belt and pulley components of this new CVT since they don't need to handle those stresses, which means it can swap gear ratios 20 percent faster. The result is a CVT that Toyota claims is 6 percent more fuel efficient than its current one.
And that's not all!
Toyota will start outfitting its vehicles with these new goodies as early as this spring, although the automaker didn't specify which models. It did say that Europe, Japan, China and the US will all benefit from this new tech, and that it hopes to have these parts installed in 80 percent of new Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the end of 2023.
What you see here is only part of it, too. Toyota claims it will introduce 17 different versions of nine different engines, 10 versions of four transmissions and 10 versions of six hybrid systems by the end of 2021. Sound confusing? It should, because it is! In short, if you plan on getting a new Toyota or Lexus within the next few years, it should come with new tech that enables better efficiency and reduced emissions.
All in, these new powertrain components should reduce global carbon dioxide emissions from Toyota vehicles by more than 18 percent.
Limited edition Lexus GS F, RC F sport a crazy blue interior
The German giant thinks that the way forward to profitability is to chop the roof off of its smallest SUV.
Have you eaten recently? Are you currently standing? If the answer to either of those is yes, then we're not responsible for your reaction to the following statement: Volkswagen is investing $98.3 million in the production of a convertible SUV.
"Volkswagen is evolving into an SUV brand. The T-Roc is already setting new standards in the compact SUV segment. With the Cabriolet based on the T-Roc, we will be adding a highly emotional model to the range," said Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen brand. "I am especially pleased to note that we can count on the Osnabrück team's decades of experience with convertibles. The Osnabrück plant now has bright prospects for the future."
Yeah, we don't know why they're making it look like a disfigured Beetle either. VW
The T-Roc Cabriolet will be built at the company's Osnabrück facility beginning in 2020 and will share the same MQB-based platform as the standard model. The company's move into the loathsome convertible SUV segment comes as a surprise, as we're hard-pressed to think of an example other than the Jeep Wrangler where one was a hot seller.
For some historical context, let's take a spin down Convertible SUV Lane, shall we? Way back in the 1990s, several companies had brief dalliances with convertible SUVs. Toyota did a needlessly complex version of the RAV4 from 1997 to 2000 where owners could drop the rear portion of the vehicle's roof. It was a pain to operate and never sold in significant numbers, and when Toyota changed platforms for the RAV4, they ditched the idea altogether.
This woman hasn't considered how hard it will be to put the top back up once it gets dark. Toyota
Next up was the Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet. Seeing one of these in the wild is both notable due to its rarity and unpleasant because, well, look at it. Nissan debuted the Crosscabriolet at the 2010 LA Auto Show and put it in production for the 2011 model year. It had a few short years in the sun and was unceremoniously discontinued in 2014.
Perhaps the most famous convertible SUV of all, the Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet. MikeDitz, Wieck
Lastly, there is the Range Rover Evoque Convertible, which went into production last year. The Evoque convertible is based on the Evoque coupe and seems like a move by Jaguar Land Rover to hoover up any potential customers on the absolute fringes of the SUV market. That being said, it's a lot less weird-looking than the Crosscabriolet, owing to its two-door progenitor. It's expensive though, with the HSE trim starting at almost $60,000.
The Range Rover Evoque Convertible is a $60,000 lesson on why some market segments are better left untapped. Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow
This brings us back to Volkswagen and its T-Roc Cabriolet. Apart from sounding like a lesser character from "Trailer Park Boys," this will be VW's first foray into the murky depths of convertible SUV-dom. The press release is decidedly light on information as to the topless T-Roc's particulars, but the odds are good that we'll never see this thing in the USA.
Nissan Motor and DeNA announced today that field tests of Easy Ride, the self-driving taxi service they developed together, will begin next month in Japan. This means that Nissan and DeNA now rank among Uber, Lyft, GM, Didi Chuxing and other companies pioneering self-driving taxi pilots, with the goal of launching commercially within the next few years.
DeNA is a Tokyo-headquartered online services company that is probably best known outside of Japan for a partnership with Nintendo that has produced mobile games like “Fire Emblem Heroes.” Its other services, however, encompass a wide range of verticals, including e-commerce, entertainment, healthcare, social networking and automotive tech. Two years ago, DeNA launched its first production vehicles with French autonomous vehicle company EasyMile, which are used to provide a driverless shuttle service called Robot Shuttle in Japanese cities.
Easy Ride’s first field test will begin on March 5 in Yokohama, the city to the south of Tokyo where Nissan’s global headquarters are located. Its self-driving taxis, which the companies call “robo-vehicles,” will take passengers along a 4.5 kilometer set route between the Yokohama World Porters shopping center and Nissan’s corporate complex. During the ride, passengers can try out Easy Ride’s concierge features by using a mobile app to ask for suggestions about local sightseeing destinations, which are then displayed on an in-car tablet screen, with coupons available for download. A remote monitoring center will oversee the cars during the field test and passengers will be asked after their ride to complete a survey about their experiences and how much they would be willing to pay for Easy Ride when it launches.
Nissan is one of several Japanese automakers that want to get self-driving vehicles on the road by the beginning of the next decade, motivated by the country’s aging population, which needs more transportation options, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants self-driving vehicles to help with transportation during the games and also serve as a showcase for Japan’s manufacturing and technological prowess. The government is currently in the process of drawing up laws meant to make the process of testing and commercializing autonomous vehicle systems more efficient.
Nissan and DeNA say they plan to launch full service of Easy Ride in the early 2020s, after a limited rollout. The fields tests will be used to “develop service designs for driverless environments, expanded service routes, vehicle distribution logic, pick-up/drop-off processes and multilingual support,” the companies said in a release.
The taxi industry in major Japanese cities like Tokyo is heavily regulated and cab drivers are required to have special licenses, so companies there must focus on other services instead of ride-sharing. For example, earlier this week Sony announced that it will launch an AI-based taxi-calling app, while Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi said the company wants to form partnerships with a taxi companies to put new life into its Japanese expansion strategy.
A 600-horsepower electrified coupe will make any auto show better.
Polestar, Volvo's standalone performance arm, may have revealed its first car back in October, but it hasn't been shown off to the public yet. That changes in March.
Polestar will have its own booth at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, marking the fledgling brand's first major auto show appearance. It only has one car for now, so that's what'll be on display -- the Polestar 1, which looks like a coupe version of the Volvo S90 but packs one hell of an electrified punch.
Relying on a plug-in hybrid setup that sees electric motors powering the rear wheels while a gas engine powers the wheels up front, the Polestar 1's output is a whopping 600 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. A 34-kWh battery pack permits a claimed 93 miles of EV-only range, which is the longest PHEV range in the industry, outperforming some older pure EVs in the process.
This is only the start. In the future, Polestar claims that all its future models will be pure battery-electric affairs. It will still continue to play with Volvo's standard stable of cars, as well, offering a sort of performance middle ground between standard Volvos and pure Polestars.
The Polestar 1 won't enter production until the middle of 2019, so you'll have plenty of time to salivate while you stash piles of money under your mattress.
The car leasing and rental market is forecast to be worth $124 billion in 2022, and today a startup that is hoping to get a piece of that action by making the process of leasing a car easier is announcing a Series A in its effort to get there.
Honcker — a New York-based startup that acts as an aggregator and search engine for leasing services, and platform for would-be customers to consolidate their data and application process in one place — has raised funding from IAC, the media and marketplace giant behind services like Angie’s List and Tinder, as well as Daily Beast and Vimeo.
Along with the funding, Honcker is releasing a new version of its app with more parameters to search for vehicles and get recommendations, a facility to break or extend leases and add co-signers to leases if needed.
Honcker’s new round comes in the form of a Series A and Honcker is not disclosing many details, but from what we understand the value is around $15 million — a relatively modest amount when you consider that Fair, another hopeful in the flexible ownership/leasing business, has secured up to $1 billion in debt and hundreds of millions in equity investments, plus some acquisitions, for its efforts.
Honcker’s path to growth is a little different, coming on a more modest funding base and with a different structure. Since raising a seed round of $3.6 million in October 2017 from Lead Edge Capital and Evolution, the company has had some interesting traction.
The company, founder and CEO Nathan Hecht told me, is focused on leasing new cars only and working with existing dealerships rather than holding the inventory itself (which is one way of keeping down costs). Today there are over 250 on the platform across eight states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and New York.
Because of its connection to existing car leasing companies, who ultimately hold a customer’s contract, Honcker’s users also typically follow the general leasing schedule, which is typically around 36 months, although Hecht says it’s getting shorter, and the breaking/changing option in the new app should also influence that.
The company has been growing 25 percent month-over-month in terms of transactions on the platform, and has up to now grown with almost no marketing spend and by word-of-mouth.
Honcker got its start, Hecht said, when he was working on a different startup (interestingly, another one based on temporality but of a very different kind: Dstrux was designed to create messages for different social media platforms that would self-destruct).
“I walked into a car dealership to try to lease a car,” he said. “I sat there a whole day but still went home without a car.”
He said he discovered a lot of shortcomings. The process was not only laborious, but didn’t favor the kind of choice that consumers want to have today: you had to know what car make you wanted from the start, but what if you were searching for a minivan and were open to different makes and models?
Hecht also noticed that there were no decent leasing search engines online, in the way that there are for shorter-term car rentals. “And I couldn’t get a monthly payment on the lease, they wanted additional credit applications and more in what turned out to be a long process of choosing vehicle and figuring out the paperwork.”
He said he left the dealership and reconvened with his team and got them to agree to pivot.
There is a clear opportunity to improve the leasing experience these days, and in the future. Many are questioning whether outright car ownership will be as palatable in a future where there are other transportation alternatives, and autonomous and other smart vehicles become potentially too cost-prohibitive to own.
But even if, as Hecht claims, the leasing market is the fastest growing segment of the new-car market right now, itself worth $160 billion in his estimation (that is, higher than the figures I quote at the start of this article from a research firm) that doesn’t mean that all companies going to to try to fix this now are hitting home runs. Among the many that have stumbled have included Beepi, Evercar and Breeze.
Hecht believes, however, that if you run the company “very lean” and stick to a specific goal without rampant expansion and over-leveraging with too much inventory, it’s possible to find success.
And it seems that IAC agrees. The larger firm has been an investor in startups with mixed success. One of its big bets, the TV startup Aereo, was shut down by regulators (but IAC isn’t giving up: it’s also backing Starry from the same founder). On the other hand, it’s had a wild run so far with Tinder, which was wholly funded and incubated by IAC.
Although IAC has a lot of first-hand experience in two-sided marketplaces in its own stables, this is the first time it’s getting involved (via this minority stake) in a car marketplace. Automotive, however, seems to be something it’s getting more interested in, perhaps feeling a little left out of the huge growth of Uber and Lyft. Last year, it also invested in a Series B for trucking startup Convoy, which is also backed by Y Combinator, Greylock Partners, Jeff Bezos and more.
The company has set itself a goal of getting involved in more of these kinds of opportunities to tackle new markets. “This year we will look to plant the seeds for future growth through the acquisition of smaller, earlier stage assets and to incubate opportunities both inside and adjacent to our existing businesses,” IAC CEO Joey Levin wrote in his shareholders’ letterearlier this month.
The German manufacturer is saying goodbye to its oil-burners and hello to electrons.
Porsche never really went whole-hog on diesel technology. Mostly it just took hand-me-downs from its corporate siblings at Volkswagen and Audi, but we never got the impression that it was all that into it, which is cool because now Porsche's diesels are dead, for the most part.
Don't get us wrong, the US-market Cayenne diesel was a nice car to drive, the torque was pleasant, blah blah, but diesel never really fit with Porsche's sporting personality. Now thanks to the missteps by VW (and everyone else, it seems), nobody wants to buy a diesel Porsche anymore, so it can get back to shoehorning super powerful gasoline engines into things, as Herr Porsche intended.
To clarify, Porsche offered three diesel vehicles in total, for the whole world. We only got the Cayenne here in the US, but folks elsewhere had access to a diesel Macan and a diesel Panamera. Porsche has committed to continuing production of a diesel Cayenne (though not for the US), but the other two are slated to be kaput.
In terms of global sales, diesels accounted for just 15 percent of Porsche's total for last year, most of which came from Europe. Of the 11,000 Panameras sold globally, only 15 percent of those were diesel, 35 percent were gasoline-powered and a full 50 percent were the plug-in hybrid.
It's like old Bob says, "The times they are a-changin'."
Porsche has invested heavily in gasoline-electric hybrid and fully electric vehicles of late, after moving almost entirely away from naturally aspirated gasoline engines, so the writing is definitely on the wall even at one of the world's most stalwart manufacturers of driver's cars.
That makes a bit more sense, but it doesn't make potholes any less dangerous this time of year.
Update, Feb. 21: This story has been amended to reflect new information from the Detroit Police Department.
As a new Detroit resident, I'm used to (condescending) questions about how safe the city is. While I have never felt unsafe here, for a brief minute, I was about to pick up a new fear -- killer potholes.
The Detroit Free Press reported yesterday that a man died after a vehicle he was riding in contacted a pothole. The story alleged that the vehicle hit a pothole on the city's west side, which caused the vehicle to lose control and crash into an electrical pole. However, after a police investigation, it became clear that the pothole was not to blame. In fact, there wasn't even a pothole. Speed was the underlying factor in the crash, which should put some killer-pothole fears to rest.
While you might be inclined to make an "even the potholes in Detroit are dangerous" joke, potholes in general are hardly a laughing matter. Potholes are created when water gets under the asphalt in liquid form. When it freezes, it expands, pushing the road surface upward. When it thaws again, there's now a hole under the asphalt, and the weight of road traffic pushes that asphalt back down into that hole.
When your vehicle contacts a pothole, the rapid movement of the vehicle can cause all sorts of problems. Potholes can damage suspension components, bend wheels, and even slice tire sidewalls open. When any of that happens, there's a chance the vehicle could lose control, which could cause a problem like the ones seen here. My personal car hit a pothole a couple weeks ago, and it was enough to bend the brake dust shield into the rotor, causing a gnarly noise and briefly affecting handling.
Some cities allow you to recoup the cost of fixing pothole-related vehicle damage, but the best thing you can do is keep an eye on the road surface and attempt to avoid some of the gnarlier ones by changing lanes. If your normal commute is littered with severe potholes, it might be best to consider alternate routes, as well. Above all, drive slowly and exercise caution.
The small Atlantic island of Porto Santo is getting a big technological leg up, thanks to a pilot program by the Renault Group.
When I hear the phrase, "smart island," I start getting visions of Syndrome's island lair from Pixar's "The Incredibles." Thankfully, Renault's plans for Porto Santo, one of two islands in the Madeira archipelago, are slightly less nefarious.
Porto Santo is a small Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco that once served as the home of Christopher Columbus and his wife. Now it's mainly a tourist destination, which, along with the fact that consistent power generation due to isolation and geography is a challenge, makes it the ideal location for a three-phase pilot program by Renault that will offer residents an energy-efficient way of life.
A small fleet of 14 Renault Zoe EVs and six Kangoo electric vans will spearhead the pilot program on Porto Santo. Renault
Renault's plan starts with electric vehicles. A small island like Porto Santo is an ideal use case for many of Renault's electric cars like the new Zoe and the Kangoo Z.E. 33, given the short distances between destinations and the relatively low speed of traffic. Renault will provide vehicles to 20 volunteers and work with the Madeira archipelago power authority (EEM Empresa de Electricitade da Madeira, SA) to install 40 public and private charging stations on the island.
Next, in late 2018 -- and this is where things start getting interesting -- the vehicles will be used to provide energy back to the grid during times of peak consumption, essentially serving as big, wheeled backup batteries that will stabilize the whole system.
The third and final -- and my personal favorite -- part of the program involves using second-life batteries from Renault electric cars to act as energy storage devices, much like the cars were doing in the second phase. These batteries would have otherwise been scrapped, but will now serve as stationary backups for the power grid on Porto Santo, storing energy produced during high wind and sun days by the solar and wind generators on the island and pumping it back into the grid as needed.
During times of high demand, the batteries in the Renault EVs can put energy back into the grid. Renault
"We are delighted to be teaming up with EEM today to establish this unprecedented smart electric ecosystem which demonstrates to what extent the electric revolution is changing our everyday lives beyond just transport," said Eric Feunteun, electric vehicles and new business program director. "Our aim is to build a model that can be carried over to other islands, eco-districts and cities, while consistently striving to achieve large-scale rollout of electric mobility solutions that are affordable for all."
This is a really interesting solution to the problem of power and mobility in small, isolated areas. We'd love to see this trial succeed and be rolled out at scale to other municipalities around the world, particularly those in economically challenged areas where other larger-scale investment might not be financially attractive to companies.
Ford today announced the departure of the Raj Nair, Ford’s President of North America and former executive vice president, Product Development, and chief technical officer. According to a press release, he is leaving the company following a recent internal investigation that found certain behavior by Nair was “inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct.” Nair worked at Ford since 1987.
“We made this decision after a thorough review and careful consideration,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett said in a released statement. “Ford is deeply committed to providing and nurturing a safe and respectful culture and we expect our leaders to fully uphold these values.”
Ford included a comment from Nair in the press release announcing his exit: “I sincerely regret that there have been instances where I have not exhibited leadership behaviors consistent with the principles that the Company and I have always espoused. I continue to have the utmost faith in the people of Ford Motor Company and wish them continued success in the future.”
This news comes a day after TechCrunch discovered the departure of the CEO and co-founder of Chariot, Ali Vahabzadeh, acquired by Ford in September 2016. Ford confirmed he was no longer at the company but declined to comment on the nature of his exit. We heard at Vahabzadeh was actually fired in early February after employees co-signed a letter to Ford’s CEO James Hackett complaining about toxic work culture and poor employee retention.
There may be some seemingly large omissions in the Porsche 911 Carrera T, like any kind of infotainment system or even rear seats, but less can definitely be more.
The early months of the year are a time when a lot of people tuck their sports cars up in the garage. The idea of taking them out on cold, salty, wet roads is anathema to these owners. And in some ways I understand that -- a GT3 or 911 R is a beautiful thing that you don't want to subject to the worst of the weather. The Carrera T, however, is a car that should be driven all year round. It feels like an everyday driver's 911. Break stride in October just to bung on a set of winter tires and then get stuck in through the snow, sleet and salt.
And we certainly put that theory into practice on this shoot. We had rain and ice, and it was one of the coldest shoots that I have ever been on. The temperature might only have been hovering around freezing, but the way the wind whipped across the bleak landscape of Exmoor meant it felt much, much colder. The icy blast seemed to cut through clothing and chilled me to the bone within seconds of stepping out from the shelter of the car.
Thankfully, it is a lovely car to be in. With the infotainment left off the spec sheet, along with back seats, there is a singularity of purpose to the Carrera T that puts it in the same bracket as cars like the 911 R.
No, it doesn't quite have the magic of the machines that emerge from the GT department at Porsche, but it is still an involving and deeply enjoyable thing to drive. The engine in particular deserves praise. It doesn't quite tingle the spine like a naturally aspirated motor, but it has a supremely linear power delivery and still loves to rev. It is fantastic having both the flexibility to shift early and row through the gears enjoying more chances to exercise your left foot, but then also access tremendous pace if you hold onto each ratio. And all this from a base Carrera engine.
This is the first concept in the I.D. lineup to rock a sedan body.
Volkswagen's electric MEB platform is versatile enough to support a wide variety of bodies. We've seen a crossover, a hatchback and a van already, and soon, we'll see a sedan enter the fold -- with a few tricks up its sleeve.
Volkswagen announced this week that it will bring a new I.D. electric concept to the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The I.D. Vizzion concept sports a swoopy sedan body, not too far removed from the style seen on the new Arteon sedan, but with a pure-electric powertrain underneath the sheet metal.
I'm never going to complain when suicide doors are involved. Volkswagen
The most important part of the I.D. Vizzion isn't the body, though -- it's what's inside. Namely, there isn't a steering wheel to be seen, because this concept is meant to embody VW's vision for a world when human controls are unnecessary. The Vizzion is totally autonomous and meant to enhance mobility options for folks who might not be able to drive any longer.
If you're playing 21st Century Car Tech Bingo at home, place a marker over "AI" while you're at it. The I.D. Vizzion packs what VW calls a "digital chauffeur," which uses artificial intelligence to take note of occupants' preferences and tailor the in-car experience to match. Since it's a concept, though, VW didn't go into too much detail -- plus, it needs to hold some details back for the show.
While explanations of its in-car tech are light, Volkswagen did discuss the electric powertrain. Sporting a set of 111-kWh batteries, larger than any offered on a modern passenger car, VW believes the Vizzion could go as far as 413 miles between charges. It won't be slow, either, with an output around 300 horsepower thanks to two electric motors, one positioned at each axle.
We'll find out more when we see the I.D. Vizzion in person at the Geneva Motor Show in the first week of March. Keep your eyes peeled to Roadshow for pictures, video and more.
Need to seat more than four? Perhaps it's best to take the I.D. Buzz, then. Volkswagen
What might look like a gorgeous classic Aston is in fact, a brand-spanking-new car. Made from the ground up to the original specification of the 1959 Le Mans competitor, the DB4 GT Continuation is the closest you could get to automotive time travel.
If you have north of a million dollars to spend on a car, there exists a remarkably large selection of new hypercars and rare classics that will gladly change hands for crazy money. And at that kind of price, you can have pretty much anything you want.
The Aston Martin DB4 GT was, besides an exceptionally beautiful car, an accomplished motorsports competitor. A mere 75 were ever made with only eight being made to a special lightweight specification. If you wanted that car, in race-ready condition, unmarked by the ravages of time, you could be forgiven for thinking that money alone wouldn't be able to help you out.
Aston Martin, however, is not a company to let an opportunity to make some money go by, no matter how much effort it might take. Say hello to the DB4 GT Continuation -- a brand-new, factory-fresh car that's almost 60 years old.
Built from the ground up to the original specification of the prototype that became the DB4 GT, every single part is fully interchangeable with the original car. It might be the closest you could get to traveling back in time and driving one off the original production line, except you'll spend much, much more money in the process.
We got the chance to take the first of the limited production run out for a spin on track. Watch the video to see just how it must have felt to drive one of these all the way back in 1959.
India’s Zoomcar — which operates an on-demand car rental service — has raised a $40 million Series C round led by Mahindra & Mahindra, the 70-year-old Indian corporation that specializes in automotive.
Ford and other existing investors also took part in the round, Zoomcar confirmed. CEO and co-founder Greg Moran added that the round is still open and may be extended with other investors coming in.
As it stands, the new capital takes Zoomcar to around $100 million from investors to date, according to Crunchbase. Previous to today, its last round was its $24 million Series C led by Ford in 2016 with an undisclosed investment from China’s Cyber Carrier added later that year.
Other backers include Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, FundersClub and a number of angels including former U.S. treasury secretary Larry Summers and ex-Infosys CFO T.V. Mohandas Pai.
Mahindra & Mahindra, for those who are not aware of it, is a $14 billion-valued company that operates a series of businesses focused on automotive, motorcycles, agricultural machines and more. The firm started out as a manufacturer for Jeep, but it has expanded its business considerably. The firm has worked with Zoomcar to distribute its electric vehicles.
Zoomcar was founded in 2013 by Americans Moran and David Back. Back is not directly involved in the business today, having returned to the U.S. for personal reasons in 2015, and Moran serves as CEO.
Plenty has happened in the past 18 months since we last wrote about Zoomcar. The service is currently present in 29 cities while it claims 2.7 million registered users and 3,500 cars. Its customers have completed over 1.1 million trips to date.
Its core business remains Zipcar-style rentals, allowing registered users to find and use cars in a city, but the company shifted its focus with ZAP (Zoomcar Associate Program) which allows new car buyers to lease their vehicles out when they aren’t being used. (India law prevents existing vehicles being used for commercial purposes.) That helps buyers recoup the cost, and it allows Zoomcar to grow its inventory without the high cost of purchase.
That approach helped grow Zoomcar’s fleet but not to the 25,000-car target Moran spoke of last year. Moran told TechCrunch while demand for ZAP purchases reached 25,000-30,000 people, a combination of India’s “byzantine” car financing landscape and state-level red tape, meant interested customers were forced to wait months for their car which most weren’t prepared to do.
In response, Zoomcar modified its package somewhat with a subscription service that effectively allows users to pay up in advance for access to a personal car for a 6-24-month period.
In other words, the process of buying the car is massively simplified with Zoomcar doing most of the work. It simply turns up at your house, in similar to fashion to how Silvercar delivers Audis in the U.S..
Their costs are lowered if car owner leaser, agrees to allow the vehicle to be pooled as part of ZAP. The deal is sweetened by free insurance, maintenance and other perks which Zoomcar hopes make it more attractive than buying.
Only a few months old, Moran said the move has strengthened ZAP which is close to representing one-third of its fleet. The Zoomcar CEO is optimistic that it can reach 15,000 cars by the end of the year and go from there.
Moran said electric vehicles are another key driver, which is where Mahendra & Mahendra comes into the strategic picture. The companies are working together on selected pilots. Right now, just 50 of Zoomcar’s fleet are EVs, but Moran sees that figure growing to 500 in the coming few months ahead of a further push.
“We’re thinking that by 2020, EVs will be over 50 percent of the fleet,” he added.
Pedal power
Beyond electric — which also includes electric scooters — Zoomcar has gone further still.
Last year, the startup expanded into bike-sharing services with its Pedl offering which is rivaled by a new launch from taxi-hailing firm Ola and China’s Ofo, which recently moved into India. Pedl is available in half a dozen cities in India, including Chennai where it partnered with Mahindra World City.
Mr. Vijayan Janardhanan, Business Head (Residential) at Mahindra World City, Chennai, inaugurates a healthy, convenient and eco-friendly cycle sharing service for short trips within the integrated city. MWC Chennai, is proud to partner with PEDL @ZoomCarIndia for a greener future pic.twitter.com/Pw52KsKwdG
The core service is 29 cities in India, with perhaps the potential to reach 35 in total, but the scope for Pedl is far more ambitious with the company aiming for 100-plus locations that would include tier-three cities (and beyond) where the car rental business is unlikely to enter. “Pedl gives us a virtuous flywheel effect,” Moran explained. “It’s a way to give us a massive funnel for Zoomcar.”
That applies to the 30-35 cities where its rental cars as positioned, but in Pedl-only cities, Moran sees the potential to move into complementary services in the future.
Currently in ten cities since its launch three months ago, Pedl is clocking around 500,000 transactions per month, according to the company. Moran thinks that over one million transactions per month can happen before the end of the year if Pedl expands to 75 cities and 200,000-250,000 bikes as is planned.
As for global expansion, Moran said in 2016 than 2018 would be the year for moving overseas but challenging conditions in India and expansion into new verticals have pushed that timeframe back to “two to three years.” The target remains the same, and that is to explore neighboring markets in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Africa, where Moran sees similarities with India, is another region that Moran said Zoomcar is “continuously evaluating.”
At the end of 2017, Zoomcar announced it had turned EBITDA positive but it remains unprofitable overall. According to Mint, which accessed filings, the company lost Rs 100.4 crore ($15.6 million) for the financial year ending March 2017, versus Rs 101.4 crore ($15.8 million) in the previous year. Revenue for the period grew by 35 percent to reach Rs 121.2 crore, or approximately $19 million.
The company’s newest financial results come after March — even private companies file financial returns annually in India. Moran didn’t comment on them, but he did say that if the company can hit its goal of 15,000 cars on the road it is looking at “north of $100 million in annualized revenue.”
“We’re not burning cash for operations,” said Moran. “We want to be the definitive leader within self-drive mobility in India.”
Russian search and internet services giant Yandex has been working on its autonomous driving program, and its most recent achievement is a public self-driving pilot of its self-driving test car in Moscow, the first such test on public roads in the Russian capital.
Yandex had an additional degree of difficulty to contend with, too: Their recent testing, which kicked off in December of last year, included some days following heavy snowfalls, which are difficult conditions for any autonomous vehicle to navigate because of how they obscure road markers and other guiding indicators used by optical cameras systems, among other challenges.
As you can see, the car handled snow, ice, parked cars, traffic and even pedestrians even amid the wintery conditions, which is a key use case that autonomous vehicle technology providers will need to solve before the tech can be broadly adopted.
Beyond the snow, Yandex notes that Moscow also provides a terrific test bed for its AVs because of factors including high traffic volume, as well as pedestrian density on top of the variable weather patterns that come to the city across seasons.
Kia’s European hatch gets a full refresh with lots of new tech and 100 percent less apostrophe.
Most Americans know the Kia Ceed as the reasonably priced car from "Top Gear" a few years ago, though at that time it was officially called the Cee'd. The little hatchback has been a cornerstone of Kia's business in Europe, and now it's getting a refresh that is set to debut at Geneva next month.
Despite its humble economy car nature, the Ceed is an interesting car because of its somewhat unique origins. The name Ceed apparently stands for Community of Europe, with European Design. Unlike most Kias, the Ceed is built in Europe, Slovakia specifically, alongside the European version of the Sportage and the Kia Venga. It was designed and engineered in Frankfurt, Germany.
The new Ceed benefits from a platform change and more pleasing sheet metal. Kia
The Ceed will be built on a brand-new platform that uses front and rear independent suspension, which Kia says will offer improved handling and comfort over the outgoing model. Buyers can choose from either a 1.0-liter turbo or several 1.4-liter turbo gasoline engines or a new 1.6-liter diesel. Every engine will come standard with a six-speed manual transmission, though the 1.4-liter engines can be paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Where the Ceed starts to get more impressive is in its available tech. Buyers will be able to choose between several infotainment screens, with the largest 8-inch display being reserved for navigation. A heated windshield is available, and I can think of several Roadshow staffers who would have appreciated that feature in the last couple weeks. Lane Keep Assist is also available on the Ceed, making it the first European Kia to feature the technology.
The Ceed's interior isn't overly luxe but seems like a nice place to be. Kia
Also cool is the Ceed's optional Eco Pack. Ticking this option nets you an Active Air Flap, which adjusts itself based on the engine's cooling requirements. The benefit comes in the form of enhanced aerodynamic efficiency and fuel economy. The Eco Pack also features an underbody tray and lowered suspension, as well as low-rolling-resistance tires. No word on how big a jump in mileage all this trickery will get you, but with gas prices in Europe being what they are, anything helps.
Kia has said that the new Ceed will go on sale in left-hand drive markets in Q2 of this year but hasn't given any specifics on when the UK can expect it in its showrooms.
VW is betting big on connected cars by making all of its cars capable of communicating via WLANp.
Volkswagen wants to let you know that it has its eye on the future, specifically where vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-environment communication is concerned. You see, VW has committed to having all of its production vehicles adopt the WLANp (aka IEEE 802.11p) wireless communication protocol as standard by 2019 for use in Europe.
Why is that important? Because having one large manufacturer adopt a standard that allows cars to communicate with one another will likely snowball into other manufacturers adopting the same standard, which in turn will enable things like platooning and make autonomy more feasible and easier to implement.
By the 2020 model year, all European VWs will be able to communicate via the WLANp protocol. Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow
WLANp is especially cool because it has already been rigorously tested for security and reliability, and the technology behind it isn't particularly new. In fact it's related to the Wi-Fi that you're probably using to read this article. This is why VW can get it into production so quickly. Essentially, the protocol will allow vehicles within approximately 1,500 feet of each other to communicate information regarding road and traffic conditions and also to communicate with smart traffic-control devices like lights and signs to help optimize traffic patterns.
It's not clear what effect if any the adoption of WLANp will have on American market cars and whether VW and other manufacturers will opt to start pushing this technology in the good old US of A.
If you liked the last few Viziv concepts, you're bound to dig this one, too.
The world could always use another wagon, even if it's just a concept.
Subaru announced today that it will debut the Viziv Tourer Concept at the Geneva Motor Show on March 6. The name comes from a shortened version of the phrase, "Vision for innovation," and it's likely that it previews the next generation of... something, we're just not sure what. It sure does look like a wagon, though.
Subaru has used the Viziv name in the past on some important concepts. The Viziv-7 concept from the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show eventually turned into the production 2019 Subaru Ascent. The Viziv Performance conceptfrom the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show hasn't birthed a production model, but we believe it could preview the next generation of WRX and STI sports cars.
Thus, the Viziv Tourer Concept could preview anything Subaru makes with a long roof and a tall rear end, whether it's the next generation Outback, Forester or Levorg (a wagon not sold in the US). We'll poke Subaru until they give us all the details when we get to Geneva in the first week of March, so keep your eyes peeled and find out whether or not our enhanced interrogation techniques actually work.
Screw around with the .tif file in Photoshop and a few more details pop out. Subaru
The storied 911 will not be immune from Porsche’s electrification plans and that could be a good thing. The car company’s CEO recently told Autocar that the hybrid 911 “will be the most powerful 911 we’ve ever had; 700 bhp might be possible.” Count me in (as long as someone buys it for me).
