- German court rules in favor of city bans on diesel cars – Reuters: While other countries are also considering restrictions on diesel cars, a ban in the birthplace of the modern automobile is a new blow for the car industry, and an embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which…
- Factbox: German court rules in favor of city bans on diesel cars – Reuters: A top German court ruled on Tuesday in favor of allowing major cities to ban heavily polluting diesel cars, a move likely to hit the value … Analysts have said the ruling of the Leipzig court will be crucial in shaping demand across Europe where…
- Aston Martin needs ‘big brother’ to survive autonomous wave – Automotive News: Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer says the supercar maker can be very profitable making 7,000 to 14,000 cars a year “but only by having a big brother.” … Li Shufu, who on Friday acquired a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler, owns UK sports-car maker Lotus…
- Cars makers ramp up smartphone integration in new tech race – Autocar: Seat announced it would add music recognition app Shazam to its cars’ infotainment screens Seat is the latest manufacturer to enhance its smartphone integration with the addition of Shazam; Ford will soon add Waze to its cars
- Aston Martin prepares for IPO with first pre-tax profit since 2010 – CNBC: Aston Martin delivered its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 on Monday after last year’s sales reached a nine-year high, while the luxury British car-maker also confirmed it is considering a stock market flotation. Pre-tax profit reached £87…
- Hyundai Kona Electric gets 292-mile range, 7.6sec to 62mph – Autocar: Hyundai”s second EV is a Nissan Juke rival, with only 8lb ft less torque than the 997 Porsche 911 GT3 and up to 292 miles of range from a single charge
- Updated Kia Optima gets two new engines and added safety kit for 2018 – Autocar: Kia has updated its Optima model for 2018 Kia’s £21k saloon and its Sportswagon estate sister get revised looks along with extra petrol and diesel engines; on sale in the summer
- Lexus UX crossover revealed with aggressive design and new infotainment – Autocar: Lexus has revealed its new UX Lexus”s answer to the BMW X1 and Jaguar E-Pace is said to be as ‘agile as a hatchback’
- More focused Alpine A110 model confirmed for spring launch – Autocar: Alpine will launch a more focused version of the A110 next month Lighter variant and also a higher-spec version of French sports car will go to Geneva show
- Porsche remains committed to diesel, exec says – Automotive News: Porsche expects to launch a diesel version of the new-generation Cayenne SUV this year and may offer the powertrain in the smaller Macan crossover as well, a top executive said, denying reports that the automaker plans to abandon the technology. “We’re…
- Elon Musk and the silly billy billionaire’s club – FT: Is there anything sillier than a billionaire? Thanks to a billionaire, a red sports car is now pootling about outer space. Elon Musk – PayPal tycoon, visionary loon – whooshed it up there on a rocket. “It’s kind of silly,” he says. Yes it is. It is…
- California Scraps Safety Driver Rules for Self-Driving Cars – New York Times: Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, started testing autonomous vehicles without safety drivers on Arizona roads in October. Since then, it has picked up passengers in driverless vehicles and it plans to start a…
- New car CO2 rises for the first time on record due to shrinking diesel sales – Autocar: Dwindling diesel demand caused the average CO2 emissions of new cars to rise by 0.8%; it follows the lowest-emitting year yet