Industry

Early last year, French automaker Renault revealed it was considering launching a new luxury sub-brand to be labeled Initial Paris and feature standalone models using technology borrowed from alliance partner Mercedes-Benz. One of the first of these new upscale Renaults was to be a sedan based on...

You'd never know it today, but there once was a time when Britain had the second-largest automotive industry in the world. A bit of that heritage surfaces this month as one of the seminal auto plants that built Britain's industry celebrates its 100th birthday. That site, now called MINI Plant...

While Lincoln hasn’t had a commanding position in any of the luxury segments for quite a few years now, there was one area where it dominated, and that was in the livery market. Lincoln’s Town Car, which was also available as a stretch limousine, was one of the most popular choices in...

At next week’s 2013 Geneva Motor Show, McLaren Chairman Ron Dennis and new Formula One recruit Sergio Perez will present the company’s flagship supercar, the P1, to the public for the first time. Surprisingly, there’s been no mention of Antony Sheriff, the managing director of...

China is the world’s largest market for automotive sales, and General Motors’ [NYSE:GM] luxury brand, Cadillac, is a well-established player in the Chinese market. Cadillac’s Chinese dealer network now includes some 150 stores, which is roughly twice as many as the brand had in...

After designing Porsches in Germany for the past 15 years, 47-year-old Hakan Saracoglu will head to Shanghai, China to lead a new design studio for state-owned automaker Chery. Saracoglu, who during his tenure at Porsche helped style models like the upcoming 918 Spyder as well as the latest Cayman...

Though the two have been linked closely for almost three decades, today, Nissan named motorsport and engineering firm Nismo its exclusive global performance and motorsport partner. Nismo is already highly regarded in performance circles, though Nissan has never fully exploited the potential of the...

It was just two years ago that we brought you details about a prototype version of General Motors’ OnStar connectivity system with full 4G LTE support, which at the time we said could potentially offer services like Skype video chat, voice-to-text, vehicle and home monitoring, and more...

When Superstorm Sandy blew through the Northeast last October, its swath of destruction included some 250,000 cars, among them the 338 Fisker Karma sedans that were parked in a holding facility at Port Newark and awaiting delivery to dealers. From Fisker’s perspective, the loss was a minor...

Over the years Nissan’s performance and motorsport partner Nismo has been working away on numerous projects, including launching its own mildly-tuned models like the 370Z Nismo and more recent Juke Nismo, as well as its own range of performance parts. Despite the credibility of the Nismo name...

As CEO Elon Musk explained in yesterday’s Tesla conference call, 2012 was a pivotal year for the electric automaker. It began with the firm still producing limited quantities of the Tesla Roadster, and ended with the Model S sedan achieving an annualized production rate of 20,000 units. Along...

First it was Nevada that allowed a commercial entity, in this case Google, to start testing an autonomous car on its roads, including alongside other motorists. Soon after Florida and California passed legislation to allow the self-driving cars to be allowed on their respective roads, with...

After a failed attempt to source a compact car platform from a rival automaker, Volvo has confirmed it will develop its own platform together with its Chinese parent Geely, which plans to use the platform for its own range of compact cars. The two firms announced today they will form a new R&D...

Based on the U.S. sales numbers reported at the end of 2012, BMW, excluding its MINI and Rolls-Royce brands, sold 281,460 cars and SUVs last year. Mercedes-Benz, excluding the Smart brand and its Sprinter vans, sold 274,134 cars and SUVs here. Simple math shows that BMW outsold Mercedes-Benz by...

Following yesterday’s announcement it had the most powerful brand in the world, according to the results of a leading study, Ferrari, the maker of some of the finest sports cars on the planet, has now revealed it’s just recorded its best financial result in its 66-year history. Over the...

Struggling extended-range electric automaker Fisker had a difficult year in 2012. Shortly after its Karma sedan hit the market, it was plagued by a series of recalls for battery, software and cooling issues. Fisker lost access to previously-committed Department of Energy loans for failing to meet...

With all of the excitement surrounding the launch of the new 2014 Chevrolet SS, a performance variant of the Australian Holden Commodore, it’s easy to forget that Holden’s arch rival Down Under, Ford, also has some formidable performance sedans of its own. Unfortunately, the Blue Oval...

According to the results of a latest study, Ferrari is the world’s most powerful brand, outperforming much larger automakers such as BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. The Prancing Horse also managed to outpace giants such as Apple and Coca Cola when it came to brand power, although it...

With luxury auto sales booming in many parts of the world, especially in resource-rich nations like Russia, where sales of Audis, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes continue to soar, some of the local automakers are considering entering the segment with their own upmarket vehicles. In Russia, the push is...

The results are in for this year’s J.D. Power and Associates U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study and it appears Lexus has topped the rankings for the second year in a row. The Japanese automaker not only had the highest ranked brand, with those surveyed in the 2013 study experiencing only around...