Tesla announces Model X SUV for 2014
Tesla Motors Inc showed off a prototype of its Model X, a battery-powered SUV that represents the company s bet that consumers will buy a range of electric vehicles spun from a common platform.
The Model X, which features what the company calls “falcon-wing” doors and faster acceleration than a Porsche 911 — it goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds — will start production late 2013 and begin delivery in 2014.
Tesla begins taking reservations at noon on Friday for the characteristically sleek vehicle resembling a taller version of its Model S sedan, but with a folding door hinged on the roof.
CEO Elon Musk touted his latest electric vehicle as cramming in more space than a typical sport utility vehicle. It seats seven, with ample storage.
“Minivans and SUV have been trying for years to overcome these problem,” the entrepreneur told a rowdy crowd. Musk didn t lose his cool even when the front trunk — or “frunk” — stubbornly refused to open in the middle of his demonstration.
Tesla — which has never made a profit — hopes to create a buzz with Thursday night s event, which featured a smattering of lesser-known celebrities, a buffet spread and an open bar, with hundreds of guests milling across a hangar-sized space at the company s California design engineering offices.
The well-heeled guests were offered a chance to be first in line for the Model X, sales of which will follow a reservations-and-delivery template much like the preceding sedan.
While flashy car debuts are a staple of the auto industry, nine-year-old Tesla tracks and reports the number of reservations for upcoming models as a benchmark for investors.
The company went public in June 2010. Its private backers range from venture-capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VantagePoint Capital Partners to Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google Inc. It also won a $465 million loan guarantee in 2009 from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Its shares were trading on Nasdaq on Thursday at $32.58, well above their June 2010 IPO price of $17.
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The Model X is important for the company because it is the second model to be based on a platform purpose-built by Tesla for electric drive vehicles. The first was the Model S, a sedan scheduled to go on sale in the middle of this year.
Musk has bet that development costs for the Model S and the Model X can be recouped as more models are introduced on the same platform. Two more Tesla models are in the works, the company has said.
Tesla has said between 10,000 and 15,000 of the Model X vehicles will roll off its Fremont, California assembly lines in 2014, priced close to the $60,000-plus Model S.
The Model X — whose falcon-wing doors recall a design made famous by the DeLorean sports car in 1985 s “Back to the Future” — will compete with Toyota Motor Corp s electric RAV4, a crossover SUV that will sport Tesla s electric-drive technology.
Musk did not detail pricing or specifications for the Model X, which will have dual-motor all-wheel drive — a motor in front, and another in the rear, which he says vastly improves grip, handling and turn radius.
For now, Tesla is scrambling to meet a July deadline for delivering the first Model S cars. Musk hopes to have delivered 20,000 of the cars by 2013, yielding a gross margin of 20 percent or more.
The Model S, which goes for a base $57,000, is Tesla s entree into the mass consumer luxury market, going downscale from the $100,000-plus Roadsters that it made its name on.
While the base version of the Model S will sell for $57,000, few cars are expected to be sold for that little. The average price for a car sold in the U.S. market in 2011 was around $30,000.
Tesla autos have captured the public imagination and helped spur Detroit to work on its own electric vehicles. General Motors Co in 2010 started selling its plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt.
California governor Jerry Brown was on hand on Thursday to join Musk in touting the Model X. The wealthiest U.S. state approved aggressive new rules in January to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring automakers to put many more electric and hybrid vehicles on the roads by 2025.
Fuel prices up in China
China on Tuesday raised its ceilings on gasoline and diesel prices in response to rising prices in international markets.
The move, disclosed on Tuesday by China s top economic planning body, comes as Beijing continues to balance its efforts to protect consumers from the rising cost of oil with its desire to tame growth in energy consumption and make its booming economy more energy efficient.
The National Development and Reform Commission said it would raise gasoline and diesel prices by 300 yuan ($47.50) per metric ton, effective midnight Wednesday. This represents an increase of 3.3% and 3.6% over the current average gasoline and diesel retail ceiling benchmarks of 9,080 yuan and 8,230 yuan, respectively, according to Dow Jones Newswires calculations. The exact price ceiling varies by geographic location throughout China.
The move may indicate that authorities are growing less concerned about inflation. Beijing sometimes delays fuel price adjustments when it fears that increases could add to inflationary pressures.
The National Bureau of Statistics will release data for January s consumerprice index on Thursday. Economists expect that the CPI rose by 4.1% from a year earlier, unchanged from December s rise, according to the median forecast in a survey of 15 analysts. That would be down from a peak rate of 6.5% in July of last year.
Beijing faces competing priorities as it considers energy prices. Inflation has slowed but remains a key concern for the nation s leaders because it can lead to political unrest. At the same time, China has begun to take further measures to curb its pollution problems, including improved monitoring and incentives for more fuel-efficient cars, and last year said it could accept binding global emissions reductions after 2020.
In November, China raised electricity prices for businesses nationwide and unveiled a system for raising prices for the heaviest residential users, part of efforts to wean the economy off over-dependence on energy-intensive industry.
In December, the government launched a test reform in two provinces that would link natural gas prices more closely to market prices rather than keeping them artificially low.
The NDRC last changed gasoline and diesel prices on Oct. 9, cutting them by 300 yuan per ton, in response to declining international oil prices.
Under China s oil product pricing system, domestic fuel prices may be adjusted when the moving average of a basket of international crudes changes more than 4% over a period of 22 working days. The government hasn t always rigidly followed the formula, which was introduced in 2009.
Rome witnesses unusual snowfall
Thick snowflakes are falling on Rome, a rare occurrence for a capital usually blessed by a temperate climate, and other parts of the country are experiencing frigid temperatures unseen in years.
The last substantial snowfall in Rome was in 1986, though there have been other cases of lighter snow since then.
Snow began falling in the late morning Friday, leaving a light dusting on trees and cars. It wasn t clear if there would be any significant accumulation on the ground. The north of the country has also been gripped by snow and ice that is disrupting train travel.
Temperatures plunged as low as minus 22 Celsius (minus 7 Fahrenheit), in Trepalle, a village in the Italian Alps.
German city’s parking fines are just the ticket
German authorities are giving parking violators in one city an unexpected break by issuing tickets without fines. The tickets, put on carelessly parked cars in Potsdam, include a fine of 0 euros and the cheerful message “Glueck gehabt” (Lucky you).
The new approach is designed to admonish motorists without hitting them in the wallet.
Modern muscle car Chrysler 300 SRT8
The current 300 SRT8 s engine might share the pushrods of the original Chrysler 300 models, but the big touch screen, adaptive cruise control, and active suspension certainly weren t available in 1965.
Like an old muscle car, the 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8 starts up with a roar from its 6.4-liter Hemi V-8, then settles down to a low rumble that makes the car shiver as if alive.
At the same time, an 8.4-inch touch-screen makes useful features such as navigation and a Bluetooth phone system easily available to the driver.
Largely successful mix of classic power and new electronics could also be found in the car.
Of course, the bold exterior styling of the 300 has contributed to its success. Not many cars have a horizontal roofline these days.
new lexus sports car
June 3, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Drinking and driving do not mix. Is that why Lexus is shattering a Champagne glass in a new commercial?
No, not really. The spot, scheduled to begin running on Wednesday, is meant to demonstrate the “pursuit of perfection,” to quote the Lexus slogan, in a new way.
The commercial features a new Lexus model, the two-seat LFA, a so-called supercar. But the spot is intended to burnish the Lexus brand image as much as to sell the new car since only 500 of the two-seaters are to be produced.
The Champagne flute breaks in the commercial as a result of the sound of the IFA’s engine being revved up. A physicist was hired, Lexus says, to help determine the type of glass whose natural resonance frequency matched the frequency of the engine noise, which causes the glass to vibrate until it breaks.
Fans of the Lexus brand will recall a couple of previous times that glassware played leading parts in the brand’s pitches. A pyramid of Champagne glasses on a hood helped Toyota Motor introduce the Lexus luxury marque in 1989.
And in 2006, a commercial showed a LS 460 being parallel-parked with its park-assist feature, thereby keeping intact two giant pyramids of Champagne glasses.
Lexus is breaking out — pun intended — the glassware again to introduce a campaign that carries the theme “Engineering the impossible.”
The TV commercial is part of the campaign, along with print, online and outdoor ads; a commercial for movie theaters to be filmed in 3D; and a presence on the version of Sports Illustrated to appear on the new iPad.
“It’s still the pursuit of perfection,” Dave Nordstrom, vice president for marketing at Lexus, said in an interview by phone on Tuesday, adding the element of “showing the lengths Lexus goes to pursue perfection.”
The wink and nod to the previous commercials will be noticed by “the people who know Lexus,” Mr. Nordstrom said, but that knowledge of Lexus ad history is not needed to enjoy or understand the new spot.
Lexus is the luxury car leader in the American market and has been weathering the bumpy economy well, Mr. Nordstrom said.
The brand has also weathered a recent incident, he added, when Consumer Reports warned drivers to avoid the 2010 GX 460 sport utility vehicle after it failed the magazine’s emergency handling test.
Lexus recalled the S.U.V.’s and stopped selling them after the warning, subsequently updating the software that runs the electronic stability control system, The Associated Press reported; Consumer Reports then lifted the warning.
About 40 percent of the campaign will appear in digital media, Mr. Nordstrom said, which would be more than before for Lexus.Lexus had developed a commercial that was labeled the “perfect pitch.” There were several phases to the advertisement scheme, but having the cars sold out at a price of $375,000 a piece makes the commercial less important at this time.
The new sports car from Lexus is powered by a 4.8-liter V10 engine. The car costs three times as much as the Porsche 911 GT3, and is almost double the price of the Ferrari 458 Italia.
train accident
May 28, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
200 others injured following explosion and collision; sabotage by Maoist rebels suspectedA bomb apparently planted by Maoist rebels derailed an overnight passenger train that was then hit by a cargo train in eastern India on Friday, killing at least 65 people and injuring an additional 200, officials said.
The passenger train was travelling from Calcutta to the Mumbai suburb of Kurla when 13 cars derailed in a rural part of West Bengal state near the small town of Sardiha, about 150 kilometres west of Calcutta. A cargo train then slammed into three of the cars from the other direction, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
A.P. Mishra, general manager of the railway system in that area, said the train had been derailed by a bomb and that the rail tracks had also been sabotaged. Mr. Banerjee said authorities suspected that the bomb was planted by Maoist rebels.sorce theglobeandmail.com/
Attempts to isolate Iran failed: Ahmadinejad
May 9, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened on Sunday what is being dubbed as the Middle East”s biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA said the plant, “biggest” in the Middle East and located in the central city of Kashan, would manufacture 150,000 vehicles annually.
The facility, built at a cost of around 350 million dollars, would on full production offer direct employment to 4,000 people and launch a slew of locally designed sedans and small cars, called the Tiba (Deer).
Tiba, marketed as entirely domestically built, was unveiled by Ahmadinejad on Sunday and is priced between 8,000 to 9,000 dollars, mainly targetting the lower middle-class buyers.
“This is the first Iranian vehicle with Iranian characteristics as it is designed and manufactured by Iranians,” the president was quoted as saying on the state-run television website.
“Tiba is the symbol of our confidence in ourselves … The Iranian nation has shown that despite sanctions and pressures from enemies, we have have resisted and have progressed.”
Ahmadinejad told the gathering at the inaugural ceremony that Iranian car manufacturers must increase the performance of locally made vehicles.
“The quality of our cars should be such that if an Iranian wants to buy a vehicle, he must prefer home-made ones,” Ahmadinejad said.
Iran is the largest automobile manufacturer in the Middle East with more than 1.4 million vehicles produced last year.
In 2009, Saipa was the leading car producer in Iran manufacturing 54 percent of the total vehicles produced. State-run Iran Khodro produced the rest, according to official figures.
Both companies have technical tie-ups with leading French and South Korean automobile manufacturers such as Peugeot, Renault and KIA.
Saipa has tie-ups with KIA and Renault for its Pride and Logan range of cars, while Iran Khodro collaborates with Peugeot for several models, including Samand which uses the Peugeot engine.
Iran has banned importing vehicles which compete with these locally-made models, which have to be paid for in cash, but it allows luxury vehicles to come in after paying a hefty 90 percent customs duty.
Iran”s automobile industry is the second largest employer in the country after the oil sector. It directly employs around 500,000 people, as well as creating jobs in connected industries.
GM recall
March 2, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com GM recall : Several of the cars produced in Lordstown
WKSU reports Mike Olszewski
General Motors is recalling more than a million vehicles because of problems with power steering. Most Cobalts, which are in northeastern Ohio, and she was in great demand in cash for clunkers program.
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