News Opinion (Page 104)

With Type 1 Beetle Mark 3 in its swansong, VW decides in good timing that it’s ready to try its luck and good fortune on another storied halo, that some say as a van, has more potential of being even more popular and longer lasting than Beetle, even as an electric. Let’s hope Samba reaches its 100th Birthday in 2049 that Beetle almost made in 2038 (or earlier?), but didn’t quite live as long.

2013 was only a few years ago, a long time for most, lightning fast time in the electric car universe, and after all the talk, the drafts, the drawings, the concepts, the rumors, the prototypes, and camouflaged pre-production vehicles since, Audi finally presents its first full electric car. With a price point of about $80,000 USD, the Audi e-Tron Quattro aims to take its throne as a heralded German electric, while finally taking on the American Teslas.

Instead of going over the top like most car makers do, especially startups when introducing autonomous technology in their concept vehicles, BMW took a more practical approach recently with theirs, called iNext, a new electric driverless capable concept CUV but still a human hands on driving car which includes a steering wheel and pedals. So practical they intend to put something much like it into production in as little time as in 2021.

It's a sad but necessary part of the business. When business isn't good and cars are sitting on lots do you know what happens? Unless the automaker is extremely confident of a turnaround, the automaker eventually pulls the plus on the vehicle. That's what happened this week as VW squashed Its slow-sellng, though iconic, Beetle.

Sono Motors is a Bavarian startup electric car company that actually has a very good chance of making it to production being months/weeks away from making their sole solar BEV with the 7,200 orders they already have. Yes, that’s right, a BEV that has solar panels all over the car that provides a range extending 30 km or 18 miles for the 155 mile battery range a day.

So, Audi announces the pricing for its Q8, five-door coupe and I have to scratch my chin: what exactly is a coupe? Doesn't Audi sell several coupe models such as the two-door TT? So, if it sells real coupes, how can it call a five-door crossover a coupe? It's a strange one, I'll admit.

After abandoning plans for Zil, the storied Russo-Soviet official state car builder that was supposed to make Vladimir Putin’s next set of wheels back in 2012, the Russian Federation tapped and funded a government entity to develop a LWB car. Here’s the thing: instead of relying on unreliable Russo-Soviet engineering, they German engineered and are now ready to market this SWB car with Europe in mind. Both cars have Porsche developed engines. I get it now. A Zil this is not. Not bad at all.

In formulating a response to Audi’s rollout of its first BEV e-Tron very soon, more so than responding to anything Tesla, Daimler AG bizarrely unveils a whole year before its debut, its first head-on to Tesla full production BEV, a historical vehicle on its electric E-Mobility platform in CUV variant in the separate Mercedes EQ line. But they baffled the media giving it only a puzzling 200 mile range.

With the continued uptick purchases of trucks and SUVs by US consumers, while global new car sales are slowing down, and gas prices remaining low the last two years, there is now a glut of used EV cars on the market, with bargains to be had if you know where and how to find one for the right price.

People would laugh at a vacuum company investing money and its reputation in building all electric BEV cars it’s never done before. But Dyson has something that took Tesla years to get and another thing it still doesn’t have, that gives Dyson an edge against Tesla: a manufacturing apparatus to build solid state batteries, and the key patents to make them, which are better than what Tesla is using.

As new car sales slow down for the first time since the Great Recession, car makers have had to make key decisions about marketing and production efficiencies, and Ford is no exception. Ford may be limiting itself with choices that customers will grow tired of, if it’s all about just one car: Mustang.

Have you been wondering lately if you are driving the right car? After all, your commute is, at least, one hour each way and there are more than a few drivers’ roads – twisty bits, off-camber fall aways and more – along the way, which enrich your drive. But, your vehicle, the humble daily driver in the driveway, it is up to it?

German camper manufacturer Dethleffs continues its experimentation in the EV camper market with another prototype. The last one we reported was a Type 3 RV EV camper covered head to toe with solar panels. This time it’s a EV RV trailer already in production as a conventional camper, that it’s still hitched to a vehicle, but self propels itself with two electric motors on each wheel. A large battery pack has implications for off grid camping and auxiliary home power.

During a year when it seemed that the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance seemed more about all of the previews it is still nice to see a classic winning Best in Show, which it has.

In opening the first Jaguar Land Rover Classic facility in the US, the first of its kind, JLR is cleverly taking steps to preserve its heritage with the cars already in the wild. By expanding the restoration market by offering electrification and restoration options, it also takes steps not only to help clean the environment, but also cleverly erase the mechanical troubles its cars have been known for, for decades.

Poor Tesla: First it was the Shorts, now even the Russians are coming after them with a new Kalashnikov CV-1 electric car. Kalashnikov wants to build an electric car. But this Russian response from the inventors of the AK-47, to Tesla’s earth soothing, humanity healing, eco-conscious electric car lineup, is a retreaded 1970’s Soviet Era hatchback retro-electrified. Classic car conversion: maybe. State of the art design prototype: no. Roadware! Very nice!

Ohio electric commercial mobility company Workhorse Group has been in the news lately with either new products or updates on the progress of ongoing ones. They diversified their product line by rolling out a new helicopter drone recently in Manhattan. With the recent news of Ford introducing a hybrid, and Tesla’s plans to introduce a BEV pickup, eyes are now paying closer attention to Workhorse and their new pickup.

We have no one to blame for the destruction of the manual transmission except for the few of us that were gifted to know how to use it. If we only knew how few of us existed, maybe we could have coordinated consumer demand to prevent the inevitable from happening. Electrics would have sealed their fate anyway.

Like it was a few weeks ago when a Spanish designer took to Instagram to show his render of a proposed Tesla Semi 8 RV Camper, another artist has given us his vision of what a Tesla Model S next generation might look like with the present generation before its retirement sometime in 2021.

We continue our series of reports on EV camping, an industry taking off like wildfire in both the retirement and surprisingly Millennial demographics. In this story I will address the challenges of what EV campers face once they get to their camp site.

For one reason or another, Volkswagen has continued to sell very strongly into the intermediate crossover segment. This segment has been redhot and VW has sought to have models that sell into it quite well. The Atlas and the so-called "Long Tiguan" have fulfilled this roll. The other item that has Audi managers happy is the 105th straight month of sales records for VW's luxury division.

Volkswagen has recalled about 33,000 2015-18 Golfs to repair a problem with the ignition switch. It is possible that over time the contacts of the switch may become contaminated. This, in turn, can create a rollaway problem.

Talk about eager to get into autonomous cars. Some people can’t wait until you have to get a real one. A national trend is developing quickly that has the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) alarmed that if it’s not soon abated it will add another condition to the already overburdened resources of local law enforcement, and that is car jumping to the song and social media movement #InMyFeelings by the pop artist Drake and recording the episode to post it on YouTube. The NTSB is telling people to stop.

For the 5th time, Volkswagen's Jetta received honors as the most appealing vehicle. The J.D. Powers Study made its findings based on 67,000 new-car owners responses from February to May.

Though it is not known officially whether the feathers are flying at VW over the new I.D. family of cars, one can infer it by looking at the statements of Hinrich Woebcken, chief of VW of America, and someone at Wolfsburg who made a statement contrary to the U.S. chief.

Let me start off at bat: Don Marchionne is a great man. Period. I didn’t agree with him with his paltry 5 year electrification plan for FCA Group, but with his expedited departure, we can now look back with definitive successes and failures. This is how the Era of Sergio Marchionne came to an end, and the Era of Jeep begins as the dominant force in the car industry, perhaps to equal that of Goliath General Motors, now that Jeep takes the world stage.

It has been an eventful week for Volkswagen Chattanooga and for VW's subsidiary Lamborghini.

EV customers and fans are holding their breaths almost as if EV fatigue is overwhelming us, while Autocar is reporting that Porsche AG is receiving interest from customers about the new production coded BEV Mission-E, now named the 2020 all electric Porsche Taycan utility sports saloon, that will compete with the Tesla flagship sports saloon, the Model S. But of course we’re all looking over our shoulder at, shall I write it? The debacle surrounding the Model 3.

This Nismo Juke is the quirky, peppy, and fun car you didn't know you wanted.

Tesla Inc was smart for itself by taking down the mystery $35,000 price for a model version some have long been waiting for, hadn’t yet been built, not sure if it will ever exist, and that they were never really in a position to offer. They need to worry about surviving first, and you do that by making money. Period.