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alicecharlotte · 3 years ago

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2023 Nissan Maxima: The Next-Gen Nissan Maxima Review

2023 Nissan Maxima You may know the Nissan Maxima as a bland sedan brand, destined to become a fleet car for rental companies or taxi services. Over the years, the car did have a few decent versions, among them the SR, which was supposed to be a sportier variant of the mediocre front-wheel-drive mid-size sedan.

To make matters worse, the Maxima dropped the manual option in 2008 and, since then, the powerful 3.5-liter V-6 has had to work with the crippled CVT unit. However, the Nissan Maxima 2023 has the potential to be an attractive proposition. This is the reason.

It was initially believed that the current eighth-generation Maxima would be discontinued sometime in the next two years. This belief was further strengthened by the decline in sales of large sedans, in response to increasing demand for crossovers and SUVs. However, the data shows that not all car owners join the SUV/crossover.

For example, 42 percent of Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cruze owners do not upgrade to a high-riding vehicle. Instead, they choose another similar vehicle from another automaker, which is often a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic.

Despite the crossover/SIV craze, sedans, whether they're compact, mid-size, or full-size, still make up a sizeable percentage of the automotive market. In addition, the sedan has become more versatile than ever. So, how is the Nissan Maxima related?

Maxima hasn't been offered in Europe, for almost two decades, but this may change. Given that compact sedans have become bigger than ever, certain models have become obsolete.

For example, Toyota discontinued the Avensis, positioned above the Corolla, in favor of a smaller Corolla (not much smaller nowadays). This in turn leaves room for larger models, which is why the Toyota Camry returned to the European market in 2018, after a long absence.

This means that the 2023 Nissan Maxima could once again become a global model. Plus, the Maxima has already gone through a mid-cycle refresh, in 2019, so you can bet it'll be around for a longer time. Hopefully not as long as the GT-R and 370Z.

According to the Motor1 article, 2022 could also spawn a fully electric version of the Nissan Maxima. However, that probably won't happen until 2025, when the model is rumored to be undergoing a complete redesign.

The current generation Nissan Maxima looks a bit sportier and more distinctive than the previous generation, some of which have a very conservative styling. If the Maxima 2023 is indeed influenced by the Nissan V-Motion concept, this means a more futuristic and sporty interpretation of the current design.

The Maxima could also be a four-door coupe or liftback (hatchback) in some corners, similar to the Kia Stinger or Fastback Peugeot 508. However, this will most likely happen after 2025.

One thing is for sure, the Maxima has become a pretty fast car, even with a CVT. The 0 to 60 mph time of the current generation is 5.7 seconds and on a good day, the Maxima proves it can run with the Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.

For the engine, the Maxima is expected to still use the 3.5-liter VQ35DE V-6 engine, which has the potential to produce a little power. A prize, the engine produces 300 horsepower and 261 pound-feet (354 Nm).

Maxima's biggest weak point is the gearbox, which is a CVT. While it's great for fuel economy, it doesn't quite match the pretensions of a sportier car.

This is the bad news. While Nissan currently has options when it comes to automatic transmission options, the 2023 model could still feature a CVT gearbox. Nissan did come with a heavy-duty toroidal CVT that has a greater torque capacity, but it might only be featured on pick-up trucks and SUVs. We still think the Maxima should have a manual option or at least a proper automatic like the Mercedes-derived nine-speed automatic.

Now, more than ever, it makes sense for the Nissan Maxima to, once again, become a global model. With Nissan's current pricing strategy, the Japanese sporty sedan has the potential to generate great value for money, not only in the North American market but globally as well.

However, the CVT had to go if the Maxima wanted to reenact its sporty character. While the Nissan Maxima 2023 is partly a mystery, we'll likely get more of the same, until a complete redesign comes out, in 2025.

#nissan #maxima

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otosafari · 5 years ago

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Honda ‘elektrikli vizyon’ stratejisini genişletiyor

Japon otomobil üreticisi Honda, Şubat ayında İngiltere’deki Swindon üretim tesisinin yanı sıra 2021’de mevcut Civic Sedan modelinin üretiminin tamamlanması ile birlikte Türkiye'deki otomobil üretim operasyonunu da sonlandıracağını duyurmuştu.

Söz konusu kararın küresel otomotiv endüstrisindeki elektrifikasyon alanında yaşanan gelişmeler ve bu gelişmelere bağlı olarak uygun üretim kapasitesinin sağlanması gerekliliği nedeniyle alındığı belirtilmişti. Marka, yaptığı duyuru ile 2025’e kadar tüm modellerinin elektrikli olarak üretilmesinin planlandığını açıkladı.

Markanın, ‘Elektrikli Vizyon’ stratejisi kapsamında yeni elektrikli şehir otomobilinin adı ‘Honda-e’ olarak açıklanırken; yeni nesil Jazz modeli ise gelişmiş Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) teknolojisine sahip hibrit güç ve aktarma organı ile satışa sunmaya hazırlanıyor.

Strateji kapsamında, 2025’e kadar Avrupa satışlarının yüzde 100’ünün elektrikli araçlardan oluşturulması da hedefleniyor. 2019 Cenevre Otomobil Fuarı’nda üretime hazır olan prototipi sergilenen Honda-e, Urban EV Concept’inden geliştirilen ilk model. Avrupa genelinde 22 bin adedin üzerinde talep alan kompakt boyutlu elektrikli otomobil Honda-e, sportif arkadan çekişli formunun yanı sıra güç aktarma sistemleriyle de markaya özgü sürüş dinamikleri sunuyor.

Honda’nın popüler küçük hatchback modeli olan Jazz’ın yeni neslinde kullanıma sunulacak olan hibrit sistemi ise Honda’nın SUV modeli CR-V’nin hibrit versiyonunda da bulunuyor. Yeni nesil Jazz’ın uluslararası ilk gösterimi ise 24 Ekim’de kapılarını açacak Tokyo Otomobil Fuarı’nda olacak.

#elektrikli #otonom #elektrikli otomobil #elektrikli araba #electric cars #hibrit #birgün gazetesi #ersoy yasar #ersoyyasar #otonom otomobil #sürücüsüz otomobil #Otomobil #oto safari #otosafari

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actutrends · 5 years ago

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Comma.ai launches Comma Two, a $999 kit that imbues cars with assisted driving features

Two years ago, analysts predicted that upwards of 10 million self-driving cars would hit the road by 2020. They weren’t the only ones — in 2015 and 2016, respectively, The Guardian and Business Insider proclaimed that people would become “permanent backseat driver[s],” riding in fully autonomous cars from 2020 “without needing any interaction from [drivers].”

Fast forward to today. Despite assurances that as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025, even operations like that of Alphabet’s Waymo have yet to expand beyond selected metros. The reasons are regulatory as well as technological in nature, but expense plays a role. Conservative estimates peg the cost of outfitting cars at between $100,000 to 250,000 per car.

So why not go the do-it-yourself route? That’s the question George Hotz posed five years ago — he’s the American hacker best known for developing exploits that targeted Apple’s iOS operating system and reverse-engineering Sony’s PlayStation 3. In September 2015, Hotz founded Comma.ai with the goal of developing a semi-automated system — OpenPilot — that would improve cars’ visual perception and electromechanical motor control. Unlike most full-stack solutions in testing, it’s intended to replace OEM advanced driver-assistance systems, effectively imbuing cars with self-driving capabilities.

For the first time in its history, Comma.ai has an official presence at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company this week invited members of the press (including VentureBeat) to test-drive the latest version of its system — and to show off the Comma Two.

OpenPilot

OpenPilot’s development had a bit of a rocky start. The first version’s reveal in a Bloomberg article and video prompted a cease-and-desist letter from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which accused Comma.ai of testing a self-driving car in the state without a license. Subsequently, OpenPilot was packaged into a shippable device dubbed the Comma One, which again ran afoul of the authorities because of noncompliance with U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Under pressure from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, Comma One was canceled, and Comma.ai open-sourced OpenPilot on GitHub.

Much has changed. In the roughly three years since Comma.ai made OpenPilot available to the public, over 1,500 users have racked up more than 14 million autonomous miles collectively, half of which were driven autonomously. (That’s up from 10 million miles as of May 2019.) Moreover, they’ve forked the GitHub repository over 2,300 times, adding features like automatic lane change and support for older Tesla, Chrysler, and Jeep models.

Comma Two

Comma.ai previously sold the Eon Devkit, a self-contained and windshield-mounted modified OnePlus phone. It started at $599, and once OpenPilot was installed to it, it automatically recognized car models by analyzing CAN network traffic. (The presence of certain CAN messages and their lengths is an indication of the model year, car brand, car model, and trim.) Companion devices dubbed the Panda and Giraffe plugged into cars’ OBD-II ports to track RPMs, MPG, cornering G-force, battery life, and more, and to provide access to the communication buses and enable the Eon to interface with the car.

The Comma Two replaces the Eon, but it retains all of the Eon’s features and then some. That said, it ditches the Panda for a single-cord solution, and it’s slightly pricier at $1,000 (though it’s available on a payment plan through Affirm).

The first batch of 300 units are available for purchase today. They’ll begin shipping later in the month, Hotz says.

The Comma Two is powered via OBD-C as opposed to by battery, which Hotz says was a top complaint among current Eon owners, and it has a larger mount as well as a custom fan-based hardware cooling solution. Like the Eon, which used a camera to recognize drivers’ faces and decelerate if it detected those drivers were distracted, the Comma Two performs facial recognition. In point of fact, it’s in improved in that it leverages two infrared sensors as opposed to an RGB sensor, enabling it to work during nighttime.

Other highlights include front and back cameras, as well as a fourth CAN bus to connect the OBD-II port and a low-power mode that automatically shuts off the Comma Two after three days to save car battery.

The Eon was equipped with cellular service and a SIM card supplied by Comma.ai. Data was unlimited (though capped to 512Kbps), and users could spring for Comma Prime if they so chose, a $24 per month service that enables remote access (via T-Mobile) from anywhere and online storage of 14 days’ worth of drive data (compared with the standard three days). The Comma Two also taps cellular for connectivity and plays nicely with new and existing Comma Prime subscriptions, and it comes with a year’s worth of storage.

By default, OpenPilot uploads driving data in real time from the road-facing camera, CAN, GPS, inertial measurement unit, magnetometer, thermal sensors, and operating system to Comma.ai’s servers for machine learning training and development purposes. Much of this data can be accessed locally through the Comma Connect app for iOS and Android or through Explorer, an online dashboard of recent drives from which disengagements (i.e., instances when a driver took control from OpenPilot) can be annotated to help improve the system.

From within the app, Comma Two owners can remotely wake up the Comma Two and snap a picture from either the front- or rear-facing cameras. Additionally, they’re able to switch among multiple units on the fly and to view their real-time geographic locations.

Compatibility

OpenPilot isn’t compatible with every car under the sun. It only works with these models and model years:

Acura ILX (2016-2018) and RDX (2016-2018)

Buick Regal (2018)

Chevrolet Malibu (2017)

Volt (2017-2018)

Cadillac ATS (2018) and Pacifica (2017-2018)

GMC Acadia Denali (2018)

Holden Astra (2018)

Honda Accord (2016-2019), Civic (2017-2019), Civic Hatchback (2017-2019), CR-V (2015-2019), CR-V Hybrid (2017-2019), Fit (2018), Odyssey (2018-2019), Passport (2019), Pilot (2016-2019), and Ridgeline (2017-2019)

Hyundai Elantra (2017-2019), Genesis (2018), and Santa Fe (2019)

Jeep Grand Cherokee (2016-2019)

Kia Optima (2019), Sorento (2018), and Stinger (2018)

Lexus RX Hybrid (2016-2019) and ES Hybrid (2019)

Subaru Crosstek (2018) and Impreza (2019)

Toyota Avalon (2016-2018), Camry (2018-2019), C-HR (2017-2019), Corolla (2017-2020), Corolla Hatchback (2019), Highlander (2017-2018), Highlander Hybrid (2018), Prius (2017-2019), Prius Prime (2017-2020), Rav4 (2016-2019), Rav4 Hybrid (2017-2018), and Sienna (2018)

Equally critically, OpenPilot isn’t capable of fully autonomous driving on all road types in all conditions. It can currently handle lane centering on roads without clear marking thanks to machine learning algorithms trained with user data, and it can maintain a safe follow distance and drive in stop-and-go traffic without supervision.

But it’s complicated. On all supported cars, OpenPilot’s automated lane centering and lane keep assist replace the stock systems. Only on specific supported cars does the system’s adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning slot in for default, however, and on no model does OpenPilot take over things like auto high-beam, blind spot warning, and side collision warning.

Driving experience

So how’s the driving experience with the Comma Two? “Smooth sailing” sums it up. OpenPilot indeed maintains its lane position even when the markings aren’t obvious — or aren’t visible. In a construction site with cones on either side and on an unpaved road without dividing lines, we watched OpenPilot deftly keep centered and maintain a comfortable following distance from the car in front of it.

It doesn’t much matter whether the road ahead is straight or severely curved. OpenPilot used to scrape OpenStreetMap for road curvature and traffic data, but it doesn’t any longer — now, it’s smart enough to calculate the trajectory in real time and to ensure it doesn’t speed along that trajectory too violently.

In this respect, OpenPilot is akin to Nissan’s ProPilot Assist, Volvo’s Pilot Assist, and GM’s Super Cruise, the last of which is one of the few systems that offers hands-free driving thanks to an eye-monitoring infrared camera. But in contrast to Super Cruise, which only engages on about 130,000 miles of U.S. and Canadian highway that GM has mapped, OpenPilot theoretically works anywhere there’s a discernible road.

OpenPilot can change lanes automatically, but it requires signaling from drivers before it does so — they have to first switch on a turn signal and nudge the steering wheel in the direction they’d like to go. It smoothly merging while keeping pace with the traffic ahead in our brief experience. But Hotz noted that OpenPilot won’t prevent lane changes when cars are to the immediate left or right, in the Comma Two’s blind spot.

Of course, Comma Two and OpenPilot can’t anticipate every situation. An SUV rear-ended a hatchback during our driving demo, forcing Hotz — who was behind the wheel — to tap the brake and disengage the system. And OpenPilot doesn’t handle things like red lights or stop signs — at least not yet.

Safety

Whether OpenPilot can be considered truly safe is a semantics question, in part. The driverless car industry lacks an agreed-upon metric for safety — Noah Zych, head of system safety at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, told Wired in an interview that miles traveled isn’t a particularly insightful measure without context like location. Derek Kan, U.S. secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, echoed that sentiment in remarks at a conference two years ago.

Companies like Intel’s Mobileye and Nvidia have proposed mathematical models that aim to codify good habits like giving other cars the right of way. Essentially, they’re decision-making policies in a motion-planning stack that monitor unsafe actions by analyzing real-time sensor data.

Comma.ai has a safety model of its own, which Hotz said involves several forms of regression testing. Commits aren’t merged to the OpenPilot codebase before they’ve met the test suite’s muster.

This aside, Comma.ai problematically hasn’t committed to regularly publishing any sort of statistics beyond miles driven, like disengagements or accidents. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles mandates that all companies testing autonomous cars report disengagements, but because Comma.ai doesn’t have a permit to test cars, it’s exempt from this requirement.

Hotz for his part asserts that the infrared sensors in Comma Two will improve safety substantially, as will the onboarding video customers are required to watch before they launch OpenPilot for the first time. On the subject of the former, a warning appears on the Comma Two’s screen if a driver diverts their eyes from the road for four seconds, and after six seconds, OpenPilot disengages and begins to slow down. (Unclicking the driver-side seat belt or opening the car door also disengages the system.)

For what it’s worth, we encountered only one disengagement — Hotz’s stop to avoid the accident — over roughly 7 miles and 25 minutes of driving “We pushed on nuance [with this latest version of OpenPilot],” said Hotz. “Intersections have no lane lines — it’s unclear where you should go. [OpenPilot] follows the path that the human would follow.”

Backend improvements

On the backend side of the OpenPilot equation, new is a simulation environment called the Small Offset Simulator that loads in real-world routes and simulates deviations of them. “You can’t just take a lot of data and train a model to mimic the data, because that model doesn’t realize that if it takes action, the world will change,” said Hotz. “The only way to really do that is to build a simulator.”

Using a technique called projected geometry and generative adversarial networks (GANs), or two-part AI models comprising generators that synthesize data samples and discriminators that attempt to distinguish between the synthesized samples and real data, the simulator redraws scenes meters to the left or right or with curvature and other perturbations. Hotz said that the models within the Small Offset Simulator are now training on 200,000 minutes of driving data collected by Eon users.

It’s similar — but not quite the same — as the simulation environments deployed internally by Uber, Waymo, and others. GM’s Cruise, for instance, leverages a replay approach that involves extracting real-world sensor data, playing it back against the car’s software, and comparing the performance with human-labeled ground truth data. Cruise also engages in planning simulation, which lets the company’s data scientists create up to hundreds of thousands of variations of a scenario by tweaking variables like the speed of oncoming cars and the space between them.

Future developments

Going forward, Comma.ai plans to release new hardware on roughly a yearly cadence — Hotz believes its business model of selling devices at profit and eating the cost of software development is sustainable. (Comma.ai has raised $8.1 million in venture capital to date across two funding rounds, the most recent of which closed in April 2018.) As for OpenPilot, achieving a better end-to-end driving experience remains an acute area of focus for the engineering team.

“What we want to do is move away from [lead car following] and move to an end-to-end longitudinal [model],” he said. “One of the problems we as a company have trying to convey is, when it works well, you don’t even notice it. Our company mission is to solve self-driving cars while shipping intermediaries.”

But Comma.ai isn’t discouraging rivals from cloning its hardware and piggybacking off of OpenPilot. In fact, Hotz encourages it, just as he encourages those with proprietary solutions to compete with Comma.ai.

One such challenger — former Yahoo CTO John Hayes’ Ghost Locomotion — emerged from stealth last November promising an aftermarket self-driving kit to retrofit existing cars. Another — Cambridge, U.K.-based Wayve — claims its driverless cars self-improve by learning from safety driver interventions. Mobileye doesn’t sell a consumer product, but like Comma.ai, its driverless tech leans on cameras for autonomous decision-making. And then there’s Tesla, which recently release a preview of an active guidance system (Navigate on Autopilot) that navigates a car from a highway on-ramp to off-ramp, including interchanges and making lane changes.

Hotz is unconcerned. “Mobileye is the Windows [of autonomous driving] that’s going to do Microsoft-style business development deals with big companies, Tesla’s the Mac that’s going to ship sexy hardware to consumers, and we’re the Linux,” he said. “Everybody should use us for whatever they want.”

The post Comma.ai launches Comma Two, a $999 kit that imbues cars with assisted driving features appeared first on Actu Trends.

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years ago

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The Next Honda Civic Type R Won’t Be an EV, But It Likely Will Be a Hybrid

Earlier this week, Honda announced an accelerated electrification strategy in Europe where instead of electrified vehicles making up two-thirds of sales by 2025, the goal for that continent is now 100 percent. Honda hasn’t said whether or not its timeline for electrification in the U.S. has changed, but either way, it seems likely that one car already destined to go hybrid is the next-generation Civic Type R.

Speaking to PistonHeads at this year’s Geneva motor show, Kohei Hitomi, project manager for the E prototype, said Honda had briefly considered making the next Civic Type R fully electric. That idea’s been scrapped, though, because the Type R is “about handling, operation, and drivability. We don’t think it’s as simple as replacing that with electric power. That’s not the right direction for Type R.”

Based on what he said next, it sounds like the focus has shifted to building a hybrid Civic Type R. Not necessarily to meet emissions and fuel-economy requirements, either. To improve the way it drives.

“People complained when we said the Type R would use a turbocharger, but now they appreciate the new possibilities this has provided,” Hitomi told PistonHeads. “I believe it would be the same for electrified vehicles as well; people who love Type R will come to realize what it can add to the driving experience. We just need to find the best attributes that are relevant for the Type R, so as to enhance the experience without losing what makes a Type R.”

That’s not quite an official confirmation, but it sure is a strong hint. It could also nod at an even bigger change for the Civic Type R. After all, while Honda sells fuel-efficient hybrids with front-wheel drive, it seems to prefer all-wheel drive for its performance hybrids.

Whatever is decided, it will probably be a while before we hear anything official on the next-gen Type R. The current Civic will stick around for a few more years, with the Type R likely following a year after that. U.S.-market Civic hatchbacks like the Type R may be built in America, after Honda announced the 2021 closure of the current source for the models, its Swindon, U.K., plant.

The post The Next Honda Civic Type R Won’t Be an EV, But It Likely Will Be a Hybrid appeared first on Automobile Magazine.

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jesusvasser · 6 years ago

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The Next Honda Civic Type R Won’t Be an EV, But It Likely Will Be a Hybrid

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jonathanbelloblog · 6 years ago

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The Next Honda Civic Type R Won’t Be an EV, But It Likely Will Be a Hybrid

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carsreleasedate · 9 months ago

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The 2025 Honda Civic: A Compact Car Revolution

2025 Honda Civic Overview The 2025 Honda Civic is the eleventh generation of the popular compact car. It was unveiled in April 2025 and went on sale in the fall of 2025. The new Civic features a redesigned exterior and interior, as well as a number of new features and technologies. The 2025 Civic is available in sedan, coupe, and hatchback body styles. All models come standard with a 2.0-liter…

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robertkstone · 6 years ago

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Honda May Add Civic Hatchback Production in North America

Honda announced it will close its Swindon, U.K., manufacturing plant in 2021 when production ends on the current-generation Civic. All Civic hatchbacks in the U.S., including the Civic Type R, are made at the Swindon factory. Once the Swindon plant closes, Honda may bring production of the Civic Hatchback to North America.

A Honda spokesman told MotorTrend, “We are considering adding production of the Civic Hatchback in North America, starting from the next generation model, to serve our customers in the North American market. Since we launched the stylish Civic Hatchback in the U.S. in 2016, the customer reaction has exceeded our expectations, representing nearly 20% of Civic sales volume and helping make Civic the #1 retail selling passenger car in America last year. So, this would support our efforts to make optimal use of our global production network to meet the needs of our customers.”

The decision comes as Honda evolves its EV strategy. “The significant challenges of electrification will see Honda revise its global manufacturing operations, and focus activity in regions where it expects to have high production volumes,” Honda said in a statement.

Honda chief executive Takahiro Hachigo said the move was not related to Brexit. “We had to consider the rise of electrified vehicles, and the different speeds at which electric vehicles will be taken up in North America and Europe,” he told Reuters. “This decision was not informed by Brexit.”

As you may recall, Honda has big plans for electrification. Honda created an EV platform first seen on the Urban EV concept from 2017. Globally, two-thirds of the cars Honda sells will have electrified technology by 2030. That target is 2025 for Europe, Honda announced at the time.

The Swindon factory produces 150,000 cars per year and employs around 3,500 people. Honda made the announcement just a few weeks after Nissan reversed a decision to build the new X-Trail at its Sunderland, U.K., plant. Nissan said, “While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the continued uncertainty around the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future.” Meanwhile, Panasonic and Sony have decided to move their headquarters from Britain into the EU.

The closing of the Swindon plant is part of a larger restructuring for Honda’s manufacturing network. The automaker said it will stop building Civic sedans in Turkey from 2021. The plant in Turkey currently makes 38,000 units per year.

Honda says its European headquarters will remain in the U.K.

Source: Honda, Reuters

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thecarexpertuk · 7 years ago

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The Frankfurt motor show is, by far, the largest motor show in Europe and held every two years. Geneva might be the darling of the supercar manufacturers, but Frankfurt is a tour de force for the big German car companies and other major brands.

This year, the overwhelming theme for almost everybody was electrification. Almost every concept car and new production model featured either a hybrid or fully-electric drivetrain of some sort. With numerous governments planning to ban purely petrol and diesel cars in coming decades (the UK expiry date for non-electrified new cars is 2040), the car manufacturers were rolling out their latest ideas for electric vehicles.

Three-pointed star of the show

There was no doubt about the leading attraction at Frankfurt this year. Mercedes-Benz finally took the wraps off its long-awaited Mercedes-AMG Project ONE supercar. As close as you can possibly get to a Formula One car for the street, this 1,000hp monster is powered by a hybrid powertrain developed from Lewis Hamilton’s championship-winning F1 car.

Bentley’s next big leap

We’d already seen the photos, but Frankfurt marked the public debut for the all-new Bentley Continental GT, powered by a substantially reworked 6.0-litre W12 petrol engine. The original model revolutionised Bentley when it was launched in 2003, and was updated in 2010. Now the third-generation model promises to lead Bentley into the next decade, with a plug-in hybrid and possibly even a fully-electric model to follow.

Ferrari redefines the “entry-level” model

Replacing the successful California model, which has marked the gateway to the Ferrari range for the last decade, is the new Ferrari Portofino. With 600hp on tap and a handy 70kg weight reduction, however, its performance is anything but pedestrian. Styling is also smoothed out compared to the rather fussy California, especially with the folding hard-top roof in place.

Audi finally builds a rear-wheel drive car

For decades, Audi has championed the safety benefits of all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive over the driving dynamics of rear-wheel drive. When the brand took control of Lamborghini nearly 20 years ago, the first thing it changed was to add all-wheel drive to the Italian supercars to make them safer and easier to drive.

So it was to everyone’s great surprise that Audi whipped the covers off a special version of its R8 supercar called the RWS, which stands for Rear Wheel Series (as usual, Audi is great at catchy names). Only 999 are planned to be built, and they are likely to sell out quickly.

Next page: Living in electric dreams Nearly every car company at Frankfurt was keen to talk about electric power. Given the spectacular nose-dive of diesel sales in the UK, and governments everywhere looking to ban diesel cars from entering major cities, electric power appears to have reached a tipping point. Suddenly the UK government’s plan to ban non-electrified new cars from 2040 seems very conservative.

Whether a familiar hybrid setup, a plug-in model with more electricity and less fossil fuel, or a fully-electric motor powered by a battery or hydrogen fuel cell, there was electricity everywhere in Frankfurt as manufacturers showed off their plans for augmenting or replacing the internal combustion engine.

BMW’s i division steps up

BMW showed off a concept for an electric sports saloon called the i Vision Dynamics, which previews an upcoming i5 saloon to join the company’s i3 and i8 all-electric models. Longer, lower and wider than a regular 3 Series saloon, the i5 is set to reach roads by 2021.

Also on the BMW stage was the Concept X7 iPerformance, previewing a large luxury SUV to take on Range Rover. Powered by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain, as well as regular petrol and diesel models, the production BMW X7 is set to arrive late next year.

Finally, Frankfurt marked the public premiere of the already-announced upgrades to the successful BMW i3 city car, including a high-performance i3s model.

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Volkswagen wants you to forget dieselgate

Frankfurt 2017 marked Volkswagen’s most determined effort yet to set out its plans for an electric future and try to make people forget about the diesel scandal that continues to dog the company (and the rest of the car industry).

VW showed off its T-Roc small SUV, which offers nothing revolutionary but which will follow the likes of the Range Rover Evoque and the MINI brand in offering enormous personalisation. Compared to the more strait-laced models in the Volkswagen range, the T-Roc attempts to be more emotional and exciting. We’ll see about that when it hits showrooms next year.

Volkswagen also served up further evolutions of its electric vehicle concepts, the ID Buzz and ID Crozz. Leading the way for up to 80 new electrified models from across the Volkswagen Group by 2025, the production Crozz should arrive in 2020, ahead of the Buzz in 2022.

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Mercedes-Benz makes the case for hydrogen

While most car manufacturers are looking squarely at batteries to deliver electricity, Mercedes-Benz remains part of the minority who still insist that hydrogen fuel cells will play an important role in powering electric cars over coming decades.

In Frankfurt, Mercedes showed off a different kind of plug-in hybrid; a GLC SUV that combined a hydrogen fuel cell with a battery to delivery electricity in two ways. Promising considerable advantages over a regular plug-in hybrid (the fuel cell and the battery both supply electricity to the same motor, rather than having to fit both a petrol engine and an electric motor on board), the GLC F-Cell could enter limited production in the next year or so.

Mercedes also previewed an upcoming electric small car and its next-generation A-Class hatchback with the EQA concept car. The production EQA will not replace the A-Class, and will likely be built on a completely different platform to maximise the advantages of its electric drivetrain. It’s possible that the next A-Class, due in 2019, could be the last conventionally-powered small car from Mercedes-Benz.

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MINI and Honda preview new electric city cars

With large cities likely to be the major battleground for electric vehicle sales over the next few years, both MINI and Honda rolled out concepts that preview production models that will go on sale by 2019.

The MINI Electric Concept gave an early indication of what the production model will look like, smoothing out some of the traditional MINI design cues to improve airflow. Interior design was not part of the project, so the car on the Frankfurt stand had simple blacked-out windows. Also not up for discussion was any detail of the electric powertrain, which will be revealed at a later date.

The Honda Urban EV combines retro design cues with future tech in a far more successful way than any MINI design since the original BMW MINI back in 2001. Paying homage to the original 1970s Honda Civic, the Urban EV previews an all-electric city car that is set to hit the streets by 2019.

Set to be the flag-bearer for Honda’s electric programme, the Urban EV will lead a wave of electrified models starting with the CR-V Hybrid, set to be launched next year. Honda’s target is for two-thirds of all European sales to be hybrid or electric models by 2025.

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Jaguar goes electric SUV racing

Despite many thousands of Jaguar fans wishing that the manufacturer would throw its hand into world-class racing series like Formula One, WEC/Le Mans or even GT3 racing, the company has again dodged its major rivals by announcing a single-make race series for its new I-Pace electric SUV.

Billed as a support series for the Formula E championship (best not to ask about how Jaguar’s debut season went), we can expect to see the I-Pace eTrophy series get underway in conjunction with the 2018/19 Formula E season.

Meanwhile, the F-Type sits in the corner, just begging to be developed into a GT3 race car…

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Next page: Looking further ahead – will we even drive in the future? As with the Geneva motor show earlier this year, the development of autonomous vehicles continued to throw up some fascinating concept cars.

Some manufacturers worked on the transition between manual and automatic driving, while others showed off concepts for a fully-automated future.

Audi Aicon predicts a first-class future

Audi’s Aicon (short for AI concept) envisages a completely self-driving future, with not a steering wheel or brake pedal in sight. Instead, passengers can relax in a cabin that has been inspired by first-class aeroplane cabins.

Cabin space is huge, thanks to an overall vehicle size longer than the Audi A8 flagship saloon. Passengers can stretch out in comfort while the car takes care of the driving. And since the car’s “brain” uses radar and laser systems to see where it’s going, there’s no need for traditional headlights. Instead of being used to see where you’re going, the Aicon’s elaborate LED units are used for people to see it coming.

Renault makes your car a part of your home

The Renault Symbioz concept was very similar to the Audi Aicon, forecasting a fully-autonomous electric luxury vehicle for 2030 or thereabouts. But Renault has also been thinking about how such a vehicle can integrate with the rest of your life, for those times when it’s not delivering you from A to B.

Inspired by the design of living rooms, Renault sees the Symbioz being used as an extra room of your house, where you can either sit and chat with a friend (or whatever else you might want to do in the privacy of your back seat), or lock yourself away to do some work away from the disruption of the rest of the family.

The Symbioz would also sync with your diary to manage energy consumption for best efficiency. If you don’t have any trips planned, it will use the electricity in its battery to power your house. Then it will charge up overnight when electricity is cheap to be full of charge before you need it again. Of course, if you’re rubbish at keeping a diary or like being spontaneous in your driving, it might not be for you…

A smart vision for future car use

Daimler’s city car brand, smart, has already announced plans to go fully-electric in coming years. At Frankfurt, smart showed off a concept car called the Vision EQ, a self-driving city car that will act like a driverless cab to pick up and drop off passengers as it goes along.

There were no great surprises at Frankfurt, with every major new model having been already announced, previewed or teased in advance of press day. The major reveal of the show was the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE, and the only real surprise was that it was uglier than almost every media rendering had predicted…

Unsurprisingly, there were no great announcements about any new diesel engines or models. Industry figures continue to insist that diesel cars will play an important role for the foreseeable future, but the end point for diesel seems to be getting ever closer. A flurry of new electrified vehicles that will arrive over the next few years will only hasten its demise.

Next up is the Tokyo motor show, where we can expect to see what the major Japanese manufacturers have to offer in the way of concept cars and new metal.

Car manufacturers electrify Frankfurt The Frankfurt motor show is, by far, the largest motor show in Europe and held every two years.

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