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Germany’s BMW plans to create up to 6,000 new jobs next year to prepare for the growing demand for its electric vehicles, the carmaker’s chief executive said.
BMW is on a very good path through the transformation and has its plants prepared for e-mobility, Oliver Zipse was quoted as saying in an interview published on Wednesday. “That is why we will increase our workforce by up to five percent next year.”
Honda Motor and its Chinese joint venture partner Dongfeng Motor said on Thursday they would build a new factory in Wuhan to exclusively manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) from 2024.
The factory would have a production capacity of 120,000 vehicles a year, Honda said in a statement.
Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, is set to launch a new EV brand in China this year called e:N Series with plans to roll out 10 models with partners Dongfeng and GAC.
Japan’s Sony Group Corp plans to launch a company this spring to examine entering the electric vehicle market, looking to harness its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play a bigger role in next-generation mobility.
The new company, Sony Mobility Inc, comes as the Japanese tech giant is “exploring a commercial launch” of electric vehicles, Sony chairman and president Kenichiro Yoshida told a news conference, speaking ahead of the CES technology trade fair in the United States.
“With our imaging and sensing, cloud, 5G and entertainment technologies combined with our contents mastery, we believe Sony is well-positioned as a creative entertainment company to redefine mobility,” he said.
Although its once-dominant position in consumer electronics has been eroded by Asian rivals like South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, Sony still has an arsenal of sophisticated technology in areas such as sensors critical to autonomous driving.
It also remains one of the world’s biggest entertainment companies, home to prominent video game and movie franchises. Audio and entertainment systems are increasingly a focus for next-generation vehicles.
Shares in Sony jumped 4.2% in Tokyo after the electric vehicle plans were announced, easily outpacing a flat Nikkei index.
Yoshida unveiled a prototype sport utility vehicle (SUV), the VISION-S 02, which uses the same electric vehicle platform as the previously announced VISION-S 01 coupe that began testing on public roads in Europe from December 2020.
He said the company saw mobility as an “entertainment space” where passengers could choose individual entertainment options and use 5G internet connection.
Wall Street is betting heavily on electric cars and the global auto industry has been upended by Tesla Inc, now the world’s most valuable automaker. Many investors also expect Apple Inc to launch its own vehicle within the next few years.
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp in December committed $70 billion to electrify its automobiles by 2030.
The Lamborghini Sian hypercar has created ripples ever since it debuted globally. The huge prices and the exclusivity mean that few people will be able to get their hands on one of these rare beauties! However, in a fun alternative, LEGO Group has collaborated for a unique and engaging activity with Automobili Lamborghini. It has built a life-sized replica version of the fabulous Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 vehicle.
A 15-member team worked for more than 8,660 hours in development and immaculate construction to build this veritable masterpiece of a LEGO creation! It makes use of more than 400,000 Technic and LEGO elements for its construction. The life-size model has proportions that are absolutely the same as the actual Lamborghini Sian hypercar. Every body panel has been built with the complex bespoke hexagonal LEGO Technic elements which interconnect.
They also pay a special tribute to the iconic and signature six-sided Lamborghini design and shape. Interiors are also top-class for the LEGO model with signature touches like the brick steering wheel with the Lamborghini logo and the Italian flag as well. LEGO has also built special racing seats and dashboard controls for the replica. 154 unique elements from LEGO, which included 20 molded pieces, were created for building this replica. This indicates the design of the Lamborghini Sian right down to the very last detail and mirrors the dimensions perfectly.
The replica also gets a neat paint-based finish with a special UV color coated effect and this was put by the paint shop of Lamborghini. The LEGO model for the Lamborghini Sian weighs around 2200 kilograms which is just as heavy as a regular full-sized SUV! Booking the LEGO scale model is even rarer and almost impossible! It may be actually easier to get your hands on the real-life Lamborghini Sian hypercar than getting the LEGO version for home! This is a one-off development for LEGO’s own museum and will not be sold anywhere. All in all, it is certainly one of the most unique things you will ever see in this lifetime at least! LEGO fans will certainly rejoice at the sheer ingenuity and jaw-dropping scale of this latest creation! Now that both the hypercar and its replica are out of reach, why not plan a trip to the LEGO museum instead?
The Porsche Museum at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen is a big attraction for automobile lovers worldwide. Porsche has confirmed a stunning new upgrade to this iconic museum with lasting changes. The latest additions to the museum commemorate Porsche’s work in the electric car category that dates back quite a few years. The museum now pays tribute to a lot more than Porsche’s racing models, road cars, and engines.
A lobby sits at the museum entrance, which is Porsche’s prologue. An escalator goes up to the top, and this is where visitors can journey back into the history of the chequered global brand. The Head of the Porsche Heritage and Museum, Achim Stejskal, has already stated that the prologue has been revamped and upgraded after more than one year of planning, research, and execution. He has also confirmed the installation of several interactive and brand new touchpoints for visitors along with 20+ stations, unique exhibits, and three models which are fully functional.
The first car here is the oldest surviving car that Ferdinand Porsche worked with. This Egger-Lohner C 2 model dating back to 1898 and is a whopping 123 years old! It has an octagonal electric motor rear-mounted and gets front-axle steering! The very first Porsche was an electric car which is astounding! You will then view the Ferry Porsche and the 356 No 1 Roadster, the first vehicle with the Porsche brand name. Ferdinand Porsche did not limit himself to only electric cars but also designed the first full-hybrid vehicle and wheel hub motors. Curator of the museum, Iris Haker, has also stated that the shift towards hybrid is a critical milestone in the history of Porsche, especially since the iconic founder started not with combustion engines but with electric motors instead. According to him, the wheel hub motor is an innovative exhibit and it also made the motor more steerable as per his opinion.
The Lohner-Porsche model had a couple of generators paired to gas engines that enabled power supply to the batteries, which drove the wheel hub motors at Porsche. The key objective of this museum remains more awareness about Porsche and its history. Many connoisseurs automatically equate the beginning of the brand with the iconic 911 but it goes back a lot earlier than this model.
Despite technically skipping this year’s Omicron-infected Consumer Electronics Show, Google absolutely bombarded the tech world yesterday with exciting announcements originally designed for a large Las Vegas audience.
We could even go so far as to say the search giant had one of its strongest CES presences ever… in its physical absence, unveiling (or rather teasing) a whole bunch of potentially groundbreaking, decidedly life-changing, or simply extremely useful features scheduled to hit every platform from Android to Wear OS, Chrome OS, Google TV, and Windows by the end of 2022.
While we already covered a large part of the company’s bold software plans for this year in fairly extensive detail, several big changes headed to Android Auto managed to escape our radar at first. Arguably the most important thing coming to Big G’s Apple CarPlay rival this very month is actually not developed or manufactured by Google itself, instead hailing from Motorola… licensee SGW Global.
Although Android Auto can technically facilitate a wireless connection between your (Android 11 and up) phone and your car, the list of vehicles natively supporting the technology remains depressingly short, which means many drivers looking to get valuable assistance (and some much-needed entertainment) behind the wheel have to rely on a good old fashioned USB cable… in 2022.
Starting January 30, however, you will be able to score a handy and seemingly easy-to-use alternative for this barbaric connection process at just $89.95.
Enter the Motorola MA1 wireless car adapter, which aims to do exactly what you think and nothing more. Namely, “adapt” your USB-enabled Android Auto vehicle to wirelessly connect to your phone using Bluetooth every time you get into your car.
Obviously, you will still need to rely on a USB port to activate wireless Android Auto functionality, but you can say goodbye to your trusty cables and maximize the in-vehicle freedom of your handset.
Just remember to keep your eyes on the road and register your interest in the non-Motorola-made MA1 dongle on the Motorola website to ensure your place at the front of the line. Naturally, it’s unclear how many units that little-known SGW company will manage to manufacture and deliver to early adopters around the world, and you might not want to miss your chance here.
As for exactly what Google is preparing to deliver on the auto front this year, we should probably kick off our little roundup today with Android Auto’s upcoming Lyft and Kakao Mobility driver apps aiming to make life easier for, well, everybody who uses the two services.
Then you have a bunch of extremely cool stuff coming (relatively) soon to vehicles with built-in Google technology, starting with “select” Volvo cars. Among other things, those bad boys will allow you to download a multitude of popular apps ranging from Sygic and Flitsmeister to ChargePoint, PlugShare, SpotHero, and ParkWhiz from a special version of the Play Store baked into the infotainment systems of said cars right from the factory.
Even more… unusually, the same vehicles will be capable of playing YouTube content without you having to lift a finger while also letting you adjust and activate various settings and features like lane keeping assist sans pressing any buttons or doing anything that doesn’t involve your voice.
Speaking of voice assistance, Google is also partnering with Volvo to make it easy to remotely control your car directly from your smart home. While you obviously won’t be able to drive your vehicle from a distance, your voice will be enough to lock, unlock, warm up, and cool down your car without getting anywhere close to it.
Pretty much like everything else, these game-changing remote actions are set for a limited launch in the foreseeable future and an expansion to more cars and car brands at some point down the line.
BMW AG is claiming that it outperformed Mercedes-Benz in terms of sales in 2021. The carmaker has beaten its German counterpart for the first time in the last six years as Mercedes-Benz had been the highest-selling luxury carmaker since 2015. Pieter Nota, Head Of Sales – BMW Group took to LinkedIn saying, “Proudly claiming number one position in the global premium automotive segment for the BMW brand in 2021,” Nota has credited the sales growth to the carmaker’s product range and operational performance.
That said, BMW is yet to disclose the annual sales numbers of 2021 but has said that deliveries have been tracking ahead of the Daimler AG brand for much of this year. According to reports, the Bavarian carmaker has been comparatively less impacted by the semiconductor shortage crisis. In fact, there is a good chance that Mercedes-Benz’s sales have been impacted mainly due to the semiconductor issue that disrupted production. Mercedes on Monday said scarce supply of components will continue to grip the industry during the first half of the year.
According to news reports, BMW will publish its full-year sales data on January 12 which is when we’ll get an idea of its sales. The carmaker delivered sold 1.7 million units in the first three quarters of 2021 and exceeded Mercedes-Benz’s by over 1.12 lakh units. Even in India, BMW Group recorded the highest ever sales growth in a decade this year at 35 percent selling 8,876 cars (BMW + MINI) and 5,191 motorcycles in 2021.
BMW Group India has recorded the highest ever sales growth in a decade at 35 percent selling 8,876 cars (BMW + MINI) and 5,191 motorcycles in 2021. While the Bavarian carmaker sold 8,236 units of BMW cars, 640 units of MINI cars were sold in India. BMW India saw over 40 percent contribution from locally manufactured SUVs including the BMW X1, the BMW X3, and the BMW X5. The new models such as the BMW M 340i xDrive, BMW X7 and BMW 3 Series Gran Limousine which were quite a in demand were either completely sold out or had a long waiting period of several months.
Vikram Pawah, President, BMW Group India said, “BMW Group India has remained strong and resilient with all its three brands – BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad – posting stellar growth. Greater flexibility and farsighted planning in business processes ensured that we overcame unpredictable market situations and increased our market share. An attractive product portfolio specially designed keeping in mind the requirements of Indian customers and an unwavering emphasis on customer service has significantly propelled brand loyalty and drawn many new customers into our fold.”
Coming to its sedan range, the BMW 3 Series and the BMW 5 Series continued to be strong performers for the brand. Even the MINI range saw a growth of 25 per cent compared to 2020 sales where the MINI Countryman remained the bestselling MINI contributing over 50 percent to overall sales. The MINI Hatch and the popular MINI Convertible contributed 18 percent each.
Japanese automaker Toyota Motor is planning to launch its own operating system, which would be capable of handling advanced operations such as autonomous driving, for its vehicles by 2025, Nikkei reported on Monday. Software is playing an increasing role in vehicles, from managing electric motors and batteries to supporting functions such as autonomous driving, entertainment, and navigation.
Toyota’s automotive software platform Arene will compete with German rivals, Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, with Volkswagen working on its ‘VW.OS’ software and Daimler planning to roll out its own ‘Mercedes-Benz Operating System’ in its cars by 2024.
Toyota is considering a licensing model to make Arene available to other car manufacturers and companies working on electric or self-driving cars
The Japanese carmaker aims to put the operating system in its own vehicles by 2025, with plans to make it available to affiliates such as Subaru in the future, Nikkei said.
Toyota is considering a licensing model to make Arene available to other car manufacturers and companies working on electric or self driving cars, the report added.
Toyota did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Tesla Inc’s shares started the year with stellar gains after the electric carmaker reported record deliveries for the fourth quarter, allaying fears of supply chain woes that have hit automakers. Shares of the world’s most valuable carmaker ended up 13.5% at $1,199.78 each on Monday, marking the biggest daily percentage gain in nearly 10 months. Analysts expect the strong delivery numbers to bolster 2022 expectations and see the pace of expansion of its new factories in Berlin and Texas to be large determinants.
“We expect a gradual ramp of Berlin and Austin and anticipate those ramps will lead to a deceleration of exports from Shanghai, many of which have been bound for Europe in 2021,” Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne said.
The company, like others, faces component shortages as a global logistics crunch and factory closures due to the pandemic limited supply. But Tesla managed to overcome much of the problems by reprogramming software to use less scarce chips. Tesla delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter, higher than analysts’ forecasts of 263,026 vehicles, which includes its Model 3 compact cars and Model Y sport-utility vehicles and flagship Model S and Model X vehicles, the company reported on Sunday.
RBC Capital Markets revised its quarterly revenue estimate, bumping it up by $2.3 billion. J.P. Morgan boosted its profit estimates. Still, analysts said Tesla has a lot to watch out for in 2022 as competition heats up with several startup EV companies scheduled to launch their first cars on the road. Legacy automakers such as Ford and General Motors also are shifting focus to electric cars.
“We see 2022 being a more challenging year than 2021 was in light of increasing competition, and we believe the design of the four vehicles on the road are getting long in the tooth which likely decelerates growth,” Osborne said.
Some analysts also said Tesla’s stock is over-valued, given its relatively smaller production volume. Tesla, which produced some 930,000 vehicles last year, is about four times more valuable than Toyota Motor which aims to produce 9 million vehicles in the year that ends in March.
Sports cars have always been and still are the object of lust of a true car enthusiast, regardless of his nationality, age, and financial situation. Beautiful, powerful, and high-speed cars look extremely spectacular on the screens and on the glossy pages. But how practical are they in real life?
Is it worth buying such a masterpiece of design, if you have the necessary sum in your pocket, or is it better to spend them on more practical SUVs?
It is known that a sports car can provide fast driving, and it is worth noting that the concept “sports car” covers quite a large set of the most effective qualities of cars in general. But there are fundamental differences between sports cars and “ordinary mortal” passenger cars. Here are these differences:
An extremely powerful engine, giving you the ability to develop high speed immediately after starting;
a typical sports car has just two doors;
low landing; a light body, the weight of which is much less than in conventional cars.
It must be said, however, that today’s market has advanced so much that these attributes are not always respected today. Some famous companies already make sports cars with four doors.
Manufacturers producing sports cars can be divided into three categories:
The first category includes those concerns that produce sports cars in the most sought-after price range. These firms produce sports cars in limited numbers: Bugatti, Pagani, AC Cobra, MG.
The second category includes manufacturers who are exclusively engaged in the production of sports cars and racing cars: Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Martin, McLaren, Maserati.
And the third category is those manufacturers who produce both sports and simple cars. These are world-famous Mazda, Nissan, BMW, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and others.
If you decide to buy a sports car, you should, first of all, get rid of a very common false public opinion: sports cars and sports racing cars are not the same.
Sports cars are mass-produced for sale to the public, so they require state registration. And, like any other car, it is possible to carry passengers in the sports car. Although there is a popular opinion, that the car is not a luxury, a means of transport, this truth almost does not apply to the sports car. The matter is that the automobile is really luxurious because it indicates refined taste, a certain style of life, and the high financial position of its owner.
A sports car is a rather expensive purchase, and in order not to make up your mind, you should thoroughly analyze to what extent you need exactly such a car, and what you would like to expect from it. These are quite serious issues that need to be addressed. In this respect, your expectations may not be met because real sports cars have much less comfort compared to conventional cars. So the main advice in our article will be to get used to the character of sports cars. To rent a car sports will be a great solution to this issue.
At the end of the article, I would like to add that everything depends only on your preferences. The final decision in the choice of a sports car, in any case, remains for you. And in this case, we would like to hope that our small review will be useful to you. We wish you a successful choice and a safe road!
Tesla Inc is recalling over 475,000 Model 3 and Model S electric cars, the U.S. safety regulator said.
For Model 3 sedans, rearview cameras mounted on these units might malfunction, increasing the risk of a crash, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.
Tesla had launched the new Model S and Model X which were equipped with AMD RDNA 2 based GPUs that deliver performance that’s comparable to the PlayStation 5 (PS5). And now, as revealed by a leak from its test program in Europe, it has also launched new models of the Model Y and Model 3 which have the very same chip powering the infotainment screen. This is true for models that have been manufactured in China. This is particularly true for the performance edition of the Model Y in China.
Now, this is interesting as authorities in the US have opened an investigation into Tesla’s implementation of triple-A games that operate from the main infotainment panel facilitated by this AMD GPU that packs 10 teraflops for computing power. Tesla has even said that it will be pushing out a software update in the US to disable this feature.
But it looks like Tesla is going ahead with the implementation of this feature in markets outside of the US. And considering the global semiconductor shortage, this chip must have been hard to procure as both Sony and Microsoft can’t get enough for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One Series X – so Tesla could’ve gone for something not as powerful but it is motoring ahead.
In addition to this chip, these new cars also come with a new 12-volt battery system that will be susceptible to fewer failures. Tesla’s have been prone to battery issues which is why this is a welcome change and will make the Tesla experience more reliable.
Ferrari has signed a multi-year accord with Swiss technology firm Velas Network to create digital content for its fans, the luxury sports car maker said on Monday.
From next season, Velas, a provider of digital products and services, will become a partner of Ferrari’s Formula 1 racing team.
“In addition, Velas will be Title Sponsor of the Ferrari Esports Series, the online mono-brand series of the Prancing Horse, and of the Esports team that will compete in the F1 Esports Series, the official digital championship competed in by all teams participating in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship,” Ferrari said in a statement.
Velas is a leading provider of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain that have an identification code that makes them unique and has gained popularity as a way to sell digital art.
EVRE, India’s leading EV charging infrastructure player, has announced a partnership with Zyngo, a last-mile delivery provider for parking and charging infrastructure solutions. Zyngo operates an existing 500+ strong fleet across 10 cities and is working towards achieving a 10,000-strong electric vehicle fleet by 2023. Under the partnership, EVRE will offer 5,000 EV charging stations across India within the next 24 months, which will be utilized by Zyngo and other EV fleet owners. Zyngo will use these chargers to extend its last-mile access and expand its reach, while EVRE will design, manufacture and execute the operation and maintenance of the EV charging infrastructure.
During the first phase of the partnership, EVRE will support Zyngo with 500 charging stations for its fleet of 500 EVs. EVRE will lease the land, provide the parking and charging infrastructure operate and maintain, and take care of the insurance, safety and security of these hubs. According to a press statement, over the next few months, EVRE will provide the support to park and charge this dedicated EV fleet with its existing and upcoming infrastructure.
Speaking on the partnership Prateek Rao, Founder & CEO, Zyngo said, “We are driving ahead the electrification of hyperlocal delivery services across E-commerce spectrum. This initiative requires such collaborations to enable the empanelment of EV ecosystem in the last mile delivery space. EVRE’s tech advanced charging infra combined with Zyngo’s fully competent and advanced Logistics tech platform and fleet management will strive the EV ecosystem and enable faster adoption.”
Commenting on this partnership, Krishna K Jasti, Co-Founder and CEO of EVRE said, “We aim to increase new business value through co-creation with services and businesses, such as the advancement of computer vision technology. Through such partnerships, we are looking towards developing an integrated ecosystem for EV fleet owners as well as EV users across the country. Zyngo, with its unique proposition, is an apt partner as both the organizations will mutually benefit from the cross-utilization of resources in the EV ecosystem”.
The 5,000 chargers will be integrated with the rest of the EV ecosystem across the country through the EVRE App. This will enable electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler Zyngo fleet operators with slow and fast unmanned smart chargers that are capable of metering, billing, and payment collection. EVRE is India’s leading integrated charging infrastructure company that follows EAAS (Energy-as-a-Service) model, offering public charging infrastructure in a pay-per-use model in nine cities across India. EVRE is focused on establishing and maintaining 50,000 EV charging stations by 2023.
