June sales get a pick-me-up from pickups

If there's a bright spot in June's tepid light-vehicle sales, it came from an unlikely segment. After slumping for several years as the economy tanked and gas prices spiked, pickup demand is rising faster than the overall sales gains of most automakers--serving as a pillar once again during the industry's fledgling recovery. And most of the buyers returning to showrooms are pickup enthusiasts, automakers say.

R8 e-tron electric supercar will be built, Audi says

The Audi R8 e-tron is back on: Audi has backtracked on an earlier decision to cancel production of the zero-emission supercar and will now push ahead with small-scale production two-seater, Autoweek can confirm. The decision is part of a number of sweeping changes made to Audi's research and engineering operations since the arrival of its new head, Ulrich Hackenberg. Citing recent advances in lithium-ion battery technology that has reportedly increased its range from an original 134 miles to close to 250 miles, high-ranking insiders at Audi's headquarters in Germany suggest the R8 e-tron will now go into limited production during the latter half of 2014.

£2m McLaren P1 GTR for Pebble Beach

McLaren McLaren will show its new P1 GTR – pictured here for the first time in an official teaser shot above – at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance car show next month. The P1 GTR will feature a number of circuit-biased modifications – including a 1,000hp engine – and will cost £1.98 million. McLaren P1 GTR: track-focused modifications The GTR is based on McLaren’s P1 hybrid hypercar, itself designed not to be the fastest, but the most focused, involving and advanced driver’s car there is.