This Saturday Jan. 29 marks the 125th anniversary of the automobile based on Mercedes-Benz’ assertion that Carl Benz’ patent application for his motor car commenced the whole thing rolling to where we are today. To mark the occasion, Mercedes-Benz has opened an exhibit at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on drive technologies of the future.
GM is out with the news that it sold 8.39 million vehicles globally in 2010 but the question remains if that momentum for strong global sales can be maintained with challenges in key markets like China where congestion and real estate prices continue to be an issue while India is facing strife over rising gas prices.
In a preemptive move, Tesla and Toyota are innovating their way around future rare-earth material shortages induced by threats of production cutbacks in China.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its intention to provide a loan guarantee to a commercial biorefinery using Coskata Inc’s proprietary technology.
The Ford Transit Connect Electric shown at the 2011 NAIAS is not to be outdone by Ford’s latest Transit Connect entry into natural-gas powered vehicles.
Natural gas vehicles could be considered niche vehicles in the United States, but worldwide their appeal is growing with sales expected to hit 3.2 million by 2016 - up from 1.9 million vehicles in 2010.
News of an automaker launching a contest such as BMW has in advance of the Super Bowl on its Facebook page to win a two-year lease on a BMW X3 is not noteworthy in and of itself. What is interesting is the contest requires viewers to guess the configuration of the BMW X3, which has 10 million possible choices.
