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Time For Buyers To Have Some Skin In The EV Game

Politicians know that $8- or $9-a-gallon gas like in Europe would end their careers.

The back-and-forth between those writing the fuel economy rules and auto manufacturers is designed to see how far the CO2 regulations can be pushed without inconveniencing the general public.

Rather than taxing fuel like they do in Europe to encourage buyers to opt for the most fuel-efficient vehicles, in America it's up to the manufacturers to develop a fleet that averages some magic number, in this case 54.5 mpg by 2025. That's because most politicians know that $8- or $9-a-gallon gas like in Europe would end their careers.

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Question: When does the desire to win dictate that a racing driver try to drive slower than everyone else? Answer: When those drivers are attempting to qualify for the opening of the World Touring Car Championship at the Salzburgring track in Austria.

And now for the why. It seems that, after racing hard for the first several minutes of the qualifying session, several drivers decided to slow down to let others pass them in an effort to follow close behind in the slipstream. It's a well-known fact that drafting is one way to gain an advantage in close wheel-to-wheel racing, but the desire to catch a competitor has never proven so comical as it did in this instance.

The final lap of qualifying was so slow that time ran out as the field limped their way around the track. Officials were not amused, and after it was all said and done, 12 drivers were handed penalties, leaving Michel Nykjaer, who was not penalized, on pole. Check out the ridiculous scene of poor sportsmanship on video below.

Generally speaking, today's Aston Martin is known more for its beauty and power than for its minimalism or lightness. But that could change if it decides to produce a version of this CC100 Speedster concept, designed to celebrate the company's centenary. The V12-powered roadster is being unveiled at the Nordschliefe today ahead of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, where it is expected to lap the circuit with Aston CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez at the wheel. The rakish concept is a nice surprise, and will be run around the circuit along with a 1959 DBR1 with racing royalty Sir Stirling Moss in the driver's seat. No surprise, then, that designers had the company's Nürburgring- and Le Mans-winning '59 racecars in mind when they conceived of this car.

Aston says that the two-seat CC100 Speedster came together in under six months time, carbon fiber bodywork and all. Powered by the British automaker's well-known naturally aspirated 6.0-liter V12 and six-speed sequential manual paddleshift gearbox, the company estimates 0-60 in four seconds and a top speed of 180 mph. Aston claims the butterfly-doored CC100 affords onlookers with "teasing glimpses of potential future design direction," suggesting a pugnacious new face is in store for the company.

Production hopes? None are mentioned, but even if today's Aston isn't known for its minimalism or lightness, it is known for turning concepts into production cars, and we wouldn't be surprised to learn in a few months that a handful of the company's best customers have managed to cajole it into building a handful of examples.

Oh, and about that Stirling Moss connection – forgive us if we're experiencing a bit of déjà vu. After all, doesn't this half-door speedster concept remind you a bit of another car? The Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Stirling Moss comes to mind for us. For some reason, however, this doesn't really bother us. If it doesn't bother you either, scroll down for to watch a video from Aston and to find the official press release.

"Consumers Desire More Automated Automobiles." That's the title of one page of a new study published by Cisco Systems as part of its Customer Experience Report, which focuses on the "automobile buying and driving experience." The study specifically targeted technology and its integration into the cars and trucks of today and tomorrow, and, not surprisingly, roughly half of all those surveyed globally (1,500 consumers across 10 countries, says Cisco) "value the technology adoption reputation of a brand when selecting a vehicle." We also think it's of interest that "83 percent of global consumers prefer to research online for information on a car."

Perhaps the most intriguing bit of information gleaned from the study pertains to driverless automobiles. A full 57 percent "stated they would be likely to ride in a car controlled entirely by technology that does not require a human driver," with Brazil, India and China cited as the countries most willing to trust autonomous technology. When Cicso asked drivers if they'd let their kids ride in driverless cars, however, the figures dropped dramatically – just 46 percent found that idea acceptable.

In the United States, 60 percent of those surveyed said they would trust driverless cars, and that dropped to 48 percent when children were included. Japanese drivers were least likely to trust their lives or their children's lives to automated technology. Scroll down below for a press release from Cisco highlighting more of its findings.

Now that McLaren is a proper automaker, it's automatic that auto journalists will inquire about future product. That's how we've come to learn that the McLaren P1 will have a successor – but not until a decade from now.

Attempting to answer the question left by the mission statement of the P1, which is that it "will maintain its status as the best super sports car the world has ever seen until a successor is built," Autocar inquired about the supercar's following act. The company's head of sales and marketing explained that not only will it be a "decade or so" before the next flagship arrives, but we can expect a "short product cycle" for the P1 because "you have to step back from the market for a few years." We take that to mean there'll be a gap when no transcendent flagship is on sale, the same way we waited nine years for the Ferrari LaFerrari to succeed the Enzo.

The McLaren F1 didn't fulfill its sales ambitions but did become a legend. The clock has just started on the McLaren P1, but with "30 or so" cars in the order books it should avoid the former fate, and before we get to thinking about a successor, perhaps we can first see how the P1 fares against the competition and its own heritage.

A chap who calls himself "Sheepo" has a habit of making custom creations out of Lego bits. These aren't kits, these are the expressions of his own automotive imagination using traditional Lego and Lego Technic parts. His year so far seems mostly devoted to suspension builds and a Land Rover Defender, but his latest work is a Caterham Seven.

Sheepo keeps his builds close to their inspirations, this Seven constructed with working steering, double-wishbone front suspension and Ackerman geometry in front, a three-link De Dion rear suspension in back and disc brakes. A bit of liberty has gone into the gearbox, which is a five-speed sequential unit plus reverse.

At one-seventh scale it is 45 centimeters long, has 2,500 parts and five motors. It is also a Chapman-approved lightweight at just 2.2 kilograms. Check it out in the video below and the high-res gallery of images above.

We knew Aston Martin was taking three cars to the Nürbrurgring 24-Hour race this weekend, they being a V12 Vantage GT3 car, the Rapide S Hybrid Hydrogen concept and a V12 Vantage N24 that is close to road-legal. We've just discovered that the automaker is bringing a fourth, a concept to be revealed on Sunday, May 19 that we know nothing about save that it will celebrate the company's centennary.

Based on the image above it looks like it will be a modern take on the Aston Martin racer from the late fifties that contested the World Sportscar Championship and won Le Mans, but we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out. There's a short video below, and a press release on its other 'Ring efforts this weekend, to tease you until then.

Taking a detailed look at the Honda lineup in the US, it isn't hard to see the strength of some models and the weaknesses of others. A recent report on Autoline Daily points out that its five core models – the Accord, Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Pilot – make up a full 93 percent of Honda's sales in the US. Through April, Honda has sold 419,798 vehicles, and 389,474 of them were from these core models; not to mention the fact that the Accord was the top-selling car in the US last month.

This means that Honda could technically cut six of its 11 models and only lose about 5,000 sales per month. Of course, this is just some data crunching and there is no reason to believe that Honda is planning to kill off any of its models in the near future. In fact, it seems to be committed to the Ridgeline, while Japanese-made models that may actually lose money for Honda still fill unique voids. Scroll down for the video report – fast-forward to the 1:43 mark for the Honda info.

Well, now it's official: Nobody in Dubai is going to be able to outrun the police. You see, in addition to the Aston Martin One-77, Ferrari FF and Lamborghini Aventador that were already part of its stable of police cars, the constabulary in Dubai have most recently procured a Bugatti Veyron to add to the force. And, since the Veyron is the fastest production vehicle in the world, it'd take something truly special to evade the long arm of the law.

The image you see above was tweeted by Dubai's Chief of Police, and as you can see, it's painted up in the green and white hues we've come to expect from its ilk. We do have to wonder, though, if they drilled holes in the Bugatti's roof for the light bar or if it's held on by suction cups or something else less likely to damage the delicate carbon fiber bodywork...

For video game enthusiasts who can't stand the thought of playing a racing game on a single television screen, using a standard controller and (gasp!) sitting on a couch, there are plenty of realistic racing simulators out there. While better simulators usually include a trio of monitors, a racing chair and appropriate steering wheel and pedals, Costco has what could be the ultimate racing simulator for Formula One fans in the UK with deep pockets and a desire for a life-like gaming experience.

Costing a mere 90,000 British pounds (roughly $136,000), Costco UK sells a simulator mounted to a life-size F1 car that includes plenty of composite, carbon fiber and alloy. It even has full brakes, wheels and tires. The price includes set up and training, but don't expect to pick one up in addition to a 10-pound package of bacon and a 40-count package of toilet paper, since it takes about 12 to 18 weeks to deliver. All that is missing to get this thing on a real track are the engine and transmission. As for the simulation aspect, this system uses three 23-inch thin film transistor (TFT) screens, an Intel Core i7 processor and a five-speaker surround sound system.

Head over to the Costco UK website to check out what has to be the coolest and most excessive gaming device ever.

Bloomberg reports shifting tariff regulations have upended the traditional automotive pecking order in Korea. Thanks to cheaper import taxes, foreign brands have seen market share jump from 28 percent to 41 percent over the last two years. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have all capitalized on the shift, with domestics like Hyundai and Kia suffering at the hands of their German rivals.

Taxes on European imports have fallen from 8 percent in 2011 to just 3.2 percent today. Over the next few years, tariffs will all but be eliminated for most imports, and taxes on US-made vehicles are expected to fall to just 4 percent in 2014. By 2016, that number will be zero. Needless to say, Hyundai and Kia are concerned about the shift.

Hyundai has seen profit fall by 15 percent last quarter, and the company says it is on pace to see the slowest sales growth since 2007. The company's shares have fallen by 12 percent. In order to stem the losses, Hyundai has discounted its midsize sedans and started working on diesel engine options.

The Bowler EXR S is a purpose-built SUV based on Land Rover bones with a 550-horsepower supercharged V8 designed to tackle off-road rallying events like the Paris-Dakar. The Caterham Seven Supersport is a feather-light track day weapon, purposely created to out-hustle just about anything on a winding race circuit. If asked to pick one of the as the fastest around a handling circuit in the UK, the smart money is clearly on the racing Caterham. Right?

Maybe, maybe not, as it turns out.

In what can only be the product of some right-place, right-time car loans, British publication Autocar has put together a wild on-track comparison between the Seven and the EXR S, with a pretty interesting outcome. We won't spoil it for you – go ahead and click it on below to watch the head-to-head for yourself.

Those that hanker for the days when automobiles were generally simple machines – responsive only to the will of their human masters – probably don't work in R&D at Visteon. The Michigan-based automotive supplier, with a track record in climate control and electronics manufacture, has released some new information about a new system it is calling Human Bayesian Intelligence Technology or HABIT.

The goal of HABIT, in a nutshell, is to learn and predict what in-car setting a driver would like, in advance of him even having to ask for them. Using data about radio, climate control and driving behavior, HABIT stores and analyses (some might say "learns") about a driver's preferences, and then makes cues them up for the driver at the right time of day, or in the right situation.

If all of that sounds a little "big brother" to you, well, just wait until you have a look at the demo video Visteon has put together. We'd certainly like to get a closer look at the HABIT system when it's ready for primetime (or even in advance of that), but we're not entirely sold on the sort of creepy, blonde robot guide that we've seen here. Scroll down to see and watch what we mean.

Our tiniest Toyota (Scion iQ notwithstanding) is about to get a little French flair. The Japanese automaker announced Thursday that its Toyota Motor Manufacturing France facility would begin building Yaris models destined for North America – specifically, the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. This will mark the first time in history that Toyota has exported vehicles to North America from Europe.

Initially, Toyota will export roughly 25,000 Yaris models to North American markets from France each year. In order to handle this additional production, Toyota Motor Manufacturing France has invested 10 million euro into its French facility.

Despite being somewhat of a snooze-fest (it's a car!), the Yaris carries on in North America with a 106-horsepower 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine, with prices starting at $14,370 for the three-door and $15,395 for the five-door, not including $795 for destination.