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Tesla passed Honda and GM in California sales. A DOE loan will help Redwood Materials ramp up. Ford is expected to announce LFP battery production in Michigan. And the first Ram electric truck won’t look as revolutionary as teased. This and more, here at DriftBreath Reports Leading into a Super Bowl ad yesterday about “premature electrification,” Ram showed the production version of its 1500 REV electric truck, emphasizing that it’s nothing close to the design revolution shown by the brand’s recent Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept. According to a report summing up California sales, Tesla took 11% of the market…
The latest Mercedes-Benz S-Class has spawned a plug-in hybrid option. It’s known as the S 580e, and Mercedes on Monday announced that the electrified luxury sedan reaches dealerships in the first half of 2023, as a 2023 model. Order books are already open, and pricing is confirmed to start at $123,700, including a $1,150 destination charge. The S 580e’s powertrain consists of a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-6 combined with a single electric motor, and its drive goes to all four wheels. Combined output is a healthy 510 hp, or enough for 0-60 mph acceleration in 5.1 seconds and a governed top…
The one and only Bugatti Chiron Profilée has become the most expensive new car ever sold at an auction. RM Sotheby’s sold it in Paris for precisely €9,792,500 including the buyer’s premium, a sum that represents approximately $10.8 million at the current conversion rate. For context, the Profilée makes the standard Chiron (which is sold-out) look like a bargain. Bugatti charged about $3 million for it, meaning the anonymous collector who took home the one-off car could have bought three regular Chiron models instead. With that said, we’re not 100% surprised by the result: in addition to being a unique…
Battery-recycling firm Redwood Materials may soon received a $2 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to expand its operations. The DOE on Thursday made a conditional commitment for the loan, which would go toward a $3.5 billion recycling and remanufacturing facility in Nevada, according to a Reuters report. The loan, which must still be finalized, is a step toward the Biden administration’s goal of building up the domestic EV supply chain. Redwood will play an “outsized role in bringing the battery supply chain home,” energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an interview with Reuters. Rendering of proposed…
Porsche engineers have been spotted testing prototypes for an updated version of the Cayenne Coupe. The Cayenne Coupe, as the name suggests, is a coupe-like version of the Cayenne designed to tackle high-end versions of the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe, as well as the likes of the Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX, and recently revealed Ferrari Purosangue. It first arrived on the market in 2019 as a 2020 model, and a range-topping Cayenne Turbo GT variant was added to the lineup for 2022. This updated Cayenne Coupe is slated to arrive in the spring, likely as a 2024…
Tesla had 11.2% of the 2022 California new-car market, making it the second-highest-selling brand in the state with a lineup of only EVs, according to a report from the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA). The 2022 results put Tesla behind Toyota’s 17.3% and ahead of Ford, which took 8.4% of the market. But Tesla is gaining, as it saw sales increase 43% year-over-year, while Toyota’s sales declined 14% in the same period. In addition to Ford, Tesla also topped Chevrolet, despite both American brands’ popular full-size pickup trucks. The Tesla Cybertruck still hasn’t arrived after multiple delays, with the…
Toyota’s incoming CEO, Koji Sato, has provided the first details of his overarching strategy for the company he’s set to run from Apr. 1. Sato said on Monday there are three main areas of automotive development he plans to focus on: electrification, intelligence, and diversification. He said electrification will play a particularly important role in the quest for a carbon-neutral society. He also said the “time is right” to ramp up battery-electric vehicle development, and that the Lexus brand will be the focus rather than Toyota. Sato, who is currently chief of Lexus, said next-generation EVs with a dedicated platform…
From the February/March issue of Car and Driver.While everyone’s busy celebrating the complicated sound maker under the hood, a device that needs all sorts of care and feeding and still only makes peak power in a minuscule range, they tend to ignore the system that may be twice as powerful. That’s right, the brakes. Car and DriverThe whoa part of the equation is just as responsible for a quick lap as the go portion, even if its sound doesn’t get people out of their seats. So this year we quantified just how hard braking systems were working at Lightning Lap,…
Quick Facts About Manual Cars The number of manual cars being produced is up slightly from 2022. Cars with manual transmissions use third pedals called clutches. Acura reintroduced its Integra with a manual transmission after being discontinued for more than a decade. Transmission — whether automatic or manual — isn’t typically top of mind when buying a new or used car. If you’re seeking an automatic car, that’s easy to find when searching for your next ride. But finding a car with a stick shift — now that’s a challenge. According to the latest data from the United States Environmental…
As new cars and trucks continue to become more complex and tech laden, the simple, almost minimalist nature of classic vehicles is a quality many buyers are seeking—and willing to spend big bucks on. Velocity Restorations of Pensacola, Florida, is a company that has capitalized on the growing demand for classic vehicles that still offer the convenience, performance, and reliability of modern equivalents. The company has spent the last decade building restomod versions of the original Ford Bronco, and it recently started offering a restomod version of the fifth-generation Ford F-Series F-250 pickup. Jay Leno has featured the truck in…