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Archive for the ‘green cars’ Category

Although it will never come to the U.S. in this guise (or any other I am afraid), I feel that we should know all there is to know about the new Ford Territory. This very car may showcase the future of Ford crossovers. Revealed for the Chinese market only, the Ford Territory is actually a reimagination of the famous Territory sold in Australia. However, unlike the Australian car which was a full-fledged Ford product, the newest Ford Territory is actually a rebadged JMC Yusheng S330. Ford developed it with Jiangling Motors Corporation (JMC) to give Chinese customers another option in the sea of similar compact SUVs available there.

We have been waiting for Audi to reveal the new e-Tron
Quattro for what seems like a millennium. Audi finally set a date – September 17 – when they will show us an all-electric Audi created to take on the rest of the expensive electric SUVs available on the market. In short, I am talking about the Tesla Model X and the Jaguar I-Pace. With the announcement of the reveal date, Audi also revealed additional information about their new car confirming it will be fast, advanced, and quite efficient.

As expected, even Land Rover had to go all hybrid with its luxurious Range Rover offering. For the new model year, the British producers of awesome SUVs revealed the 2019 Range Rover Sport Plug-in Hybrid. It is a car capable of traveling on hybrid power or using electric-only propulsion. Now available in the U.S., the Range Rover Sport P400e Plug-In Hybrid price comes at $78,300 which falls right in between the HSE Td6 and the HSE Dynamic.

The Tesla Model S has been around since 2012, and while it’s still a few years away from getting a full redesign, a rendering of a next-gen Model S is already making rounds on the Internet. It looks exactly like what we hope the next-gen Model S looks like. Designed by Emre Husmen, the new Model S rendering is far more aggressive and dynamic than the current model that’s on the market today. More importantly, it doesn’t deviate too far away from the current Model S to the point that it becomes unrecognizable. It’s still the Tesla Model S, albeit rendered to look sharper and edgier than what we have now. In other words, it looks fantastic.

The Tesla Model S has been around since 2012, and while it’s still a few years away from getting a full redesign, a rendering of a next-gen Model S is already making rounds on the Internet. It looks exactly like what we hope the next-gen Model S looks like. Designed by Emre Husmen, the new Model S rendering is far more aggressive and dynamic than the current model that’s on the market today. More importantly, it doesn’t deviate too far away from the current Model S to the point that it becomes unrecognizable. It’s still the Tesla Model S, albeit rendered to look sharper and edgier than what we have now. In other words, it looks fantastic.

Back in June, we found out that the production version of the Mission E concept will be called the Taycan. Now, with development well underway and several prototypes already built, Porsche unveiled some technical data too, including its output.

There’s certainly been no shortage of drama in the world of Elon Musk lately. The billionaire CEO of Tesla had a few choice words for a diver involved in the recent Thai cave incident after he criticized Musk’s
plan to use a submarine to rescue the stranded children. Musk eventually apologized, but Tesla’s stock took a plunge all the same. Now, a raft of Tesla haters have revealed a stockpile of freshly minted Model 3’s parked in California, leading to a host of unfounded accusations thrown at the EV producer.

Continue reading for the full story.

Hello there! You’re probably asking yourselves where I’ve been lately. Well, it’s none of your business. But since you’re reading this, I just came here to tell you that I told you so! Oh, wait, that’s not very specific. I told you that the Nissan Leaf Nismo would suck. I did that in October 2017, when Nissan launched the concept car. Now it’s July 2018, and we have a production model that looks like the concept but sucks where it matters most.

The demand for the Porsche Taycan is skyrocketing as interested customers start piling up ahead of the electric car’s production launch in 2019. Porsche UK managing director, Alexander Pollich, confirmed the expected news to Autocar, though he did not disclose the exact amount of customer interest in the German automaker’s first-ever all-electric EV. The Taycan is expected to arrive in dealerships sometime in 2020, kick-starting a new era for the Stuttgart-based automaker.

Since the introduction of the first Nissan Leaf, the automotive world has been quite eager to see what the Nissan performance division Nismo can do with the electric hatch. The race-ready Nismo Leaf RC was the first one to appear, but it was just too radical. Then, over the years, Nissan played around with some pseudo spirited versions never giving us a true Nismo Leaf. All that until October 25, 2017, when the Japanese company showcased the Nissan Leaf Nismo Concept.

Fast forward to today.

Nine months of the gestation period gave birth to a Leaf Nismo only available in Japan and wearing much the same attire as the concept version. Yet, I am far more interested in what Nismo did to that 147 horsepower drivetrain.

Polestar may have wowed the crowd at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by bringing the high-performance Polestar 1 to the event, but the company’s second model, the Polestar 2, made waves of its own. No, it didn’t make an appearance at the event — it’s still being developed — but Polestar COO Jonathan Goodman talked a great deal about it, including its performance capabilities, proposed timetable, and expected price tag. It’s safe to say, then, that the Polestar 2 will be much cheaper than the Polestar 1.

Polestar may have wowed the crowd at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by bringing the high-performance Polestar 1 to the event, but the company’s second model, the Polestar 2, made waves of its own. No, it didn’t make an appearance at the event — it’s still being developed — but Polestar COO Jonathan Goodman talked a great deal about it, including its performance capabilities, proposed timetable, and expected price tag. It’s safe to say, then, that the Polestar 2 will be much cheaper than the Polestar 1.

Ten years after Mini introduced the Mini-E electric prototype, the German automaker is finally on the verge of launching its first-ever production electric model. MINI is presenting initial design sketches of its future fully electric production model. The pair of sketches show two distinct sections of the all-electric Mini, one of which we already saw in the concept version that was unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Audi E-Tron may be the first Audi to feature all-electric capabilities, but it’s also the first production Audi model to feature cameras in place of traditional side mirrors. The technology is called the Audi Virtual Mirror, and it is obnoxiously cool. The setup involves a pair of small cameras sitting in the place where the mirrors should be. The camera then feed visual signal to two small touch-screen display units near the door handles, both of which can be configured in a variety of ways.

Not only are the optics of it cool, it also represents a new way of using cameras on vehicles that have largely been disallowed among road cars for various reasons. More importantly, the aerodynamic benefits of using virtual mirrors will also help Audi improve the E-Tron’s coefficient of drag, in large part because the size of these cameras will allow Audi to design thinner casings to store them in. The days of large clunky casings appear to be over in what can only be described as a classic case of reinventing the wheel to accommodate the rise of modern technology. The Audi Virtual Mirrors look awesome and if it ends up on the production version of the E-Tron, expect it to find its way into other future Audi models sooner than later.

Unfortunately, the arrest of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler scuttled plans to have the electric crossover debut at the Audi Summit in Brussels, Belgium on August 30. Hopefully, the delay doesn’t take too long because we can’t wait to see the Virtual Mirror in action on an actual production model.

Whether you’re a fan of electric cars or not, there is one indisputable fact that all of us have to come to grips with. Electric cars aren’t figments of science fiction anymore. They’re not even novelties anymore. Electric cars are real, and they’re going to take the auto industry over. In the years to come, more electric cars will hit the streets, and we best get used to them. The good news is that, as the industry shifts to electrification, there are some electric cars that are worthy of the hype being bestowed on them. You might even say that these EVs could shape the future of the industry as we know it.

Whether you’re a fan of electric cars or not, there is one indisputable fact that all of us have to come to grips with. Electric cars aren’t figments of science fiction anymore. They’re not even novelties anymore. Electric cars are real, and they’re going to take the auto industry over. In the years to come, more electric cars will hit the streets, and we best get used to them. The good news is that, as the industry shifts to electrification, there are some electric cars that are worthy of the hype being bestowed on them. You might even say that these EVs could shape the future of the industry as we know it.

After a short teasing campaign, the German tuner Abt revealed their newest work of art. Actually, “work of mad.” Based on top of the already frighteningly fast Audi RS6, Abt showcased the RS6-E Hybrid Concept, a car featuring a 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-8 and a freaking 288 horsepower electric motor strapped to the transmission.

Please welcome the first hyper-wagon with 1,004 horsepower. Of course, it had to be an Audi.

After a short teasing campaign, the German tuner Abt revealed their newest work of art. Actually, “work of mad.” Based on top of the already frighteningly fast Audi RS6, Abt showcased the RS6-E Hybrid Concept, a car featuring a 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-8 and a freaking 288 horsepower electric motor strapped to the transmission.

Please welcome the first hyper-wagon with 1,004 horsepower. Of course, it had to be an Audi.

It’s no secret General Motors is working hard to create its own fully autonomous vehicle, and now, it looks as though the domestic auto-making behemoth could be gearing up for a big reveal before we know it.

Continue reading for the full story.

The Polestar 1 is arguably one of the most highly anticipated cars in the business today. The performance coupe checks a lot of boxes on what you want out of the first offering from Volvo’s former performance division. Needless to say, the Polestar 1 has our attention. That much was clear when the coupe’s online configurator went live. We couldn’t wait to play around with it, and when we got the chance to do it, well, this happened.