Blog on 2040Parts

Tesla expands electric-car charger network

Tesla 20-minute “superchargers” will blanket the U.S. and Canada within two years, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. Musk announced plans to greatly upgrade and expand the number of its superchargers in and between population centers of the United States and Southern Canada to link major cities via free electricity.

2014 GMC Sierra Denali gets more bling, luxury, tech

The 2014 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks -- revealed at the Detroit auto show -- will be two of the GM's biggest sellers this spring. Now we know a little more about the luxury GMC Sierra Denali trim, which about 20 percent of buyers opt for. The new Sierra Denali will come with a standard 355-hp 5.3-liter V8 or available 420-hp, 6.2-liter V8.

One Lap of the Web: Lupe Fiasco, the Peel P50 and Dubai's supercar patrol fleet

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- This weekend was a car enthusiast's dream with the Indy 500, NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Touring Superleggera Disco Volante and Ralph Lauren Bugatti win at Villa d'Este

The Touring Superleggera Disco Volante was the surprise winner of the Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes at 2013 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. It beat the likes of the BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe, Aston Martin CC100, Infiniti Emerg-E and McLaren P1, although it should be said that BMW, as a major sponsor of the event, dosn't enter its cars into the vote. The Alfa Romeo-based sports car once again proved that if it's red Italian and with a Milanese connection, it's a dead cert for winning the prize, voted for by both the judges and the general public.

Who's Where: Mamoru Aoki and Koji Nagano promoted to Nissan executive design directors

Mamoru Aoki and Koji Nagano have been promoted to Nissan executive design directors, reporting to head of design Shiro Nakamura. Mamoru Aoki is now responsible for the design and development of all Nissan brand passenger and electric vehicles as well as design strategy and is based at the carmaker's Design Center in Atsugi, Japan. Koji Nagano – previously design director at Infiniti – now manages the design development of the new Datsun brand and Nissan brand light commercial vehicles.

First 2014 Cadillac ELR rolls off the line

IndyCar driver Simona De Silvestro christened the first 2014 Cadillac ELR to roll off the line at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant in Michigan on Wednesday. The Volt-based electric-gas hybrid will go on sale next year. We assume De Silvestro is in town for the Chevrolet Indy Duel in Detroit, two races at Belle Isle scheduled for this weekend.

Renault Twin'Run concept

The Renault Twin'Run concept, unveiled during the weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, is the sibling of the Twin'Z collaboration with Ross Lovegrove. Together they fulfill the ‘Play' stage of Renault's ongoing concept car lifecycle. While its overall form is very similar to the Twin'Z's (apologies for awkward punctuation on Renault's behalf), previewing the next-generation, rear-engined Twingo, the ‘Run is altogether racier than the more pragmatic – if no less flamboyant – ‘Z.

New Vauxhall VXR8 GTS gets 576bhp & costs £54,999

The new Vauxhall VXR8 GTS gets 576bhp If you’re going to make your most potent saloon car more powerful, you could just tweak the engine management a bit to add a few more horses. But Vauxhall have gone a bit further with the latest VXR8 GTS – it gets a 6.2 litre V8 from the Camaro ZL1, a whole 150bhp and 140lb/ft of torque than the old VXR8. Vauxhall has based the GTS on Holden’s new GEN-F GTS – Australia’s maddest production Holden – and the increase in power comes courtesy of a supercharger, new exhaust system.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage S arrives – the quickest production Aston ever (video)

The new, more powerful, Aston Martin V12 Vantage S arrives Aston Martin has been teasing something ‘Coming soon’ for a few days, and here it is – the new V12 Vantage S. The new S replaces the V12 Vantage (which we knew Aston Martin had stopped building) and gets Aston’s latest AM28 version of the venerable V12 with 565bhp and 457lb/ft of torque thanks to new engine management, combustion chambers and camshafts resulting in more power and a much flatter torque curve. The extra power has pushed the V12 S beyond the 200nph barrier, with the top speed now 205mph and, we assume, a quicker sprint to 62mph, but Aston Martin aren’t letting on how much quicker the V12 S is.

CDR Trend Insight – Blade Lamps

Previously we've reported on the headlamps of cars aping the human eye as a graphic device. With full LED clusters now feasible and appearing more commonly on production designs, we're seeing a new type of lamp appear – the blade of light. Horizontally orientated and slim, these present a much wider, meaner DRG.

Proposed M1 Concourse car condos a country club for car buffs

Brad Oleshansky's a "car fanatic" who spends time cruising Detroit's Woodward Avenue, getting shooed out of parking lots by business owners. He sought a space conducive to show and work on cars. "I tried to envision a project where we could capture that whole scene in one destination," he said.

2014 Corvette Stingray rated at 455 hp

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray's 6.2-liter LT1 V8 engine has been rated at 455 hp at 6,000 rpm and 460 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm -- the highest standard-power rating ever for the Corvette. An available performance-exhaust system boosts the rating up to 460 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. Chevrolet says the new LT1 with standard exhaust has 25 more horsepower than the current Corvette's base LS3 6.2-liter engine, which is rated at 430 hp, and 41 lb-ft more torque compared with the 2013 model's 424 lb-ft.

Aston Martin V12 Vantage S (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

You're looking at Aston Martin's new 200mph sports car: the V12 Vantage S. Replacing the now-discontinued standard V12 Vantage, the S gets a new, more powerful engine, and a host of visual tweaks. It'll cost around £150,000 and go on sale in late 2013.

New Mercedes A Class recalled for faulty air bag

The new Mercedes A Class is being recalled for an Airbag fault The new Mercedes A Class is a cracking little car, and offers much more style, performance and joy than the boxy little original A Class. On the market for less than a year, the new A Class has been a big success story for Mercedes-Benz with 100,000 orders on its books by the end of 2012 as buyers fell for the appeal of MB’s first really credible compact car. And that appeal was wide, with everything from frugal diesels to the range-topping A45 AMG, which offers the promise of not just stunning performance from its 335bhp, but decent economy and practicality when you’re not in the mood to blat.

Vauxhall VXR8 GTS (2013) first pictures of Aussie M5-killer

This is Vauxhall's BMW M5 and Mercedes E63 AMG fighter: the new VXR8. The £55k rear-drive saloon doesn't just beat its German peers for price though. It's also punching with the heavyweights in the power stakes, developing 576bhp and 545lb ft.

Meet the 2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S

Aston Martin revealed the 2015 V12 Vantage S supercar on Tuesday. Besides the limited-run One-77 supercar, it's claimed to be the fastest road-going Aston ever built. The Vantage S is on sale now; first deliveries will start at the beginning of 2014.

Jeep Wrangler JK production tops one million

Never mind persistent economic uncertainty and unstable fuel costs, Americans love Jeeps. Compared to nearly anything else on the road, they're far too brash and noisy for anyone to want for daily use, and the majority of Wrangler owners never push 'em anywhere near their limit. But none of that seems to stop us from snatching Wranglers up off dealer lots as quickly as the folks at Jeep's Toledo, Ohio, assembly plant can bolt them together.

One Lap of the Web: Cizeta-Moroder, predicting Volvo's demise and the best rally corner on earth

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- What does electronica producer extraordinaire Giorgio Moroder have to do with cars?

Want ads hint at redesigned Jeep Wrangler

Jeep has begun searching for the extra bodies to mount its next big project: the redesign of the Jeep Wrangler. And the job opening descriptions provide some clues as to the changes planned for the off-roader's next generation. This is supposition on my part, of course -- and a Jeep spokesman declined to comment when asked, saying the company doesn't discuss future product.

BMW i3 caught testing in New York

BMW has been hyping its futuristic i lineup for years now, but the long lead time doesn't mean that the highly efficient, carbon-fiber-based vehicles are vaporware. Earlier this month, we test drove pre-production versions of the i3 and i8, and last week, Autoweek reader Frank Cogliano spied the former vehicle on the road. Cogliano caught this wrapped i3 near Stony Point, New York -- about 30 minutes from BMW's New Jersey headquarters.

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid does 62mpg in the hands of motoring journalists

The Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid – a Panamera with a plug-in hybrid powertrain – arrives last month, along with a 2013 facelift for the Panamera range , complete with claims from Porsche that it could do 91mpg. That was never going to happen in the real world, but Porsche has followed up its official economy figures with a degree of proof that the Panamera E-Hybrid can actually achieve very impressive economy numbers in the real world, and in the hands of motoring journalists – a group not renowned for their light touch on the throttle. At a press event in Hockenheim, Porsche let car journalists loose on the Panamera E-Hybrid for a total of 42 drives over a total distance of 750 miles and returned an average of 62mpg.

Better Place EV Battery Swap business goes bust

It seemed like a good idea: take the cost of batteries out of the cost of buying an electric car and instead charge EV owners to use ‘Battery Swap’ stations where depleted batteries could be swapped for fully charged ones in the time it takes to fill an ICE car with petrol. But it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. Better Place – which partnered with Renault in 2009 to make the battery swap technology viable – has failed to find anyone to add to the $750 million already involved in the project and has filed for bankruptcy.

Tesla planning car to take on Nissan LEAF – and maybe sell out to Apple

Elon Musk is buoyed by the success of the Tesla S and the seemingly inexorable rise in Tesla’s stock which has allowed Tesla to repay its government loans way ahead of schedule. Now Musk has been getting adventurous in an interview with Bloomberg where he’s stated that the next plan for Tesla is to build a smaller, more affordable electric car that can take on the Nissan LEAF. Musk plans to stay in control of Tesla until plans for a news small EV are complete, and said: With the Model S, you have a compelling car that’s too expensive for most people.

Audi R8 e-tron killed off for production – again

It’s more than six months since we reported that Audi were planning to kill off any production plans for the electric R8 e-Tron, with Audi’s head of R&D saying the production plans for the R8 were going to be scrapped. And it seems they have now gone in the bin. Autocar are reporting that Audi has confirmed to them that the R8 e-Tron won’t be going in to production and the ten latest e-Trons to be built will be used just for testing and development to help Audi with its ‘electrification’ plans, which will now almost certainly concentrate on plug-in hybrids and range extenders, rather than EVs.

Peugeot 208 T16 ready for 2013 Pikes Peak assault

Peugeot is set to take on the infamous Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado, USA in this 875bhp 208, driven by nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb. The team behind the 208 T16 Pikes peak has released this video showing Loeb shaking down the monster 208 on French mountain roads, ahead of the 2013 Pikes Peak event on 30 June. The car uses a mid-mounted twin-turbo petrol V6 to develop 875bhp.

BMW Gran Lusso (2013) the Pininfarina coupe revealed

BMW’s team-up with Italian styling house Pininfarina, the Gran Lusso coupe has been revealed in full at the 2013 Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza in Italy. The imposing V12-powered coupe is a one-off styling concept for now, but shows the direction BMW could take for a new 8-series coupe, designed to battle the new Mercedes S-class coupe and Bentley Continental GT. BMW Gran Lusso: the details Riding on 21in alloys, the 7-series-sized Gran Lusso has all the trademark BMW styling boxes ticked: forward-raked ‘sharknose’ grille, the rear pillar's ‘Hofmeister kink’ in the windowline, and a cab-back stance accentuating that long bonnet.

Hyundai i20 WRC starts testing

Hyundai has been busy plotting its return to WRC Rallying for 2014, but so far it’s all been about behind the scenes work on building an i20 capable of taking on the rally world and gathering a team that can make it a success. But with the first official outing for the i20 due in January 2014 in Monte Carlo, Hyundai has finally taken their i20 WRC out in the world to give it some proper testing outside the workshop, Hyundai have been playing on a private testing ground to check out the i20′s systems, followed by a comprehensive testing session to work on different setups and gather data, with a major focus on the i20′s 1.6 litre turbo which, until now, hadn’t been run in the car outside Hyundai’s R&D. Hyundai say all went well over the 55okm of testing across three days, a prelude to a full programme of testing in the coming months as Hyundai get closer to their official debut.

1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta ‘Competizione’ makes €9,856,000

It’s the annual  Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este festival of supercars and classic cars this weekend, and poart of that is the RM Auctions sale at Vella Erba, on the banks of Lake Como, with a 1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta ‘Competizione’ smashing the world auction record by fetching €9,865,000. The 375 MM is one of three works cars entered in the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans and has a good history including 24 Hour of Spa, the Carrera Panamericana, and winning the 12 Hours of Pescara, has been driven by World Champions Hawthorn, Ascari, and Farina and won numerous awards at many events including Pebble Beach, Goodwood Revival and the Louis Vuitton Classic. But it wasn’t just the 375 MM that sold at a strong price, with other notable lots fetching good prices, such as a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB, for €1,120,000,  a 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 at €426,600, a 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for €1,114,400 and a 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Coupé Aerodinamico for €2,184,000.

Henrik Fisker wants to buy back Fisker

The resignation of Henrik Fisker in March from the eponymous company he worked so hard to build in to a credible ‘Green’ car company precipitated the meltdown of Fisker, which now stands on the edge of bankruptcy over $171 million owed to the US government. But Henrik Fisker has a plan. He’s teamed up with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li – a Fisker investor – to try and buy the US government debt and save Fisker from being crushed by bankruptcy.

BMW 4 Series Coupe makes UK debut at PGA Championship

We had our first look at the car that will replace the old 3-Series Coupe ahead of its debut at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show when the BMW 4 Series Coupe Concept arrived, looking like a winner even before it goes in to production. Even when you take away some of the fripperies of a concept, you’re still left with an impressive 4 series Coupe that’s longer and lower than the old 3 Series – and a lot better looking. In fact, the 4 Series looks a lot like a smaller 6 Series and is also likely to spawn a ‘Gran Coupe’ version at some point – just like the 6 Series – which could do very interesting things to sales of the regular 3 series saloon.