The drive towards electric cars will create chaos in the supply chain for components, says Daimler.
It has warned the overhaul of diesel and petrol engines will create issues for component suppliers and may threaten to put some out of business while others will struggle to meet demands for the products necessary in electric powertrains.
Driverless cars and retail deliveries are unachievable in London before 2030, says the London Assembly.
The Government has indicated such vehicles could be on UK roads inside three years but the Assembly says the congested capital may not get them until 2040.
The vaunted rival to the next Land Rover Defender proposed by Ineos petro-chemical company will be engineered by a team partly financed by Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler.
They will start work on the project this spring with a view to production by 2021, Automotive News reported.
Car buyers would rather visit a dentist than a showroom, according to a survey for FairSquare UK.
They dread doing car deals, negotiations and sorting finance more than sitting in the dentist’s chair.
Tesla’s Model S outsold the luxury flagships of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi in Europe for the first time, according to Automotive News Europe.
European sales of the Model S outstripped German premium brands’ range-topping sedans including the Mercedes S class and BMW 7 series models it has beaten in the USA.
SEAT announced that Tarraco will be the name of the brand’s third SUV following a vote by 146,124 SEAT fans in 134 countries who participated in the final stage of #SEATseekingName.
Tarraco received 51,903 (35.52%) of the votes, followed by Avila, which was supported by 41,993 (28.74%) of the participants, Aranda, in third place with 39,321 (26.91%) of the votes and the new model will appear before 2019.
As production of hybrid and other electric cars is expected to ramp up in the coming years, automakers and electronics companies have been developing new high-powered magnets which require less rare earth metals to reduce costs and trim exposure to possible fluctuations in supply.
Toyota has developed a magnet which replaces some of the neodymium, a rare earth metal used in the world’s most powerful permanent batteries, with more abundant and cheaper lanthanum and cerium, adding that it aimed to use the magnets in electric vehicle motors within the next 10 years.
