+++ Renault’s ALPINE division plans to significantly expand its sales and global presence in the coming years. It’s preparing to launch an array of new models, and it published 2 preview images of a concept called A290_β that was developed to blaze the path future cars will follow. Alpine isn’t a household name in the United States, but it’s worth paying attention to because there’s a good chance it will enter the American market in the coming years. It’s already in talks with AutoNation about potentially distributing its cars here. Americans won’t see the A110, the only model it currently sells, on their shores, but its next wave of cars could spearhead its American offensive. That’s where the A290_β comes in. The brand describes its next concept as “an electric hot hatch,” which hints (but doesn’t confirm) that it could be related to the LeCar-inspired Renault 5 Prototype presented in 2021 and due out in European showrooms in the not-too-distant future. An image published in January 2021 gave us a vague look at the city-friendly hatchback’s front-end lighting signature, and the latest teaser hints at a muscular-looking exterior design that borrows some styling cues from Alpine’s classic rally cars. Driving lights are seemingly integrated into the front end, there’s a bulge or a scoop on the hood, and the roof panel flows into a spoiler. The proportions are 5-like, and the heritage is there to back it up: Alpine sold a high-performance variant of the original 5 in the 1970s and 1980s, and the model is highly sought-after by collectors.
The second image shows emblems on what’s presumably the car’s rear end, but it doesn’t reveal anything about the design. Pronounced “A290 beta”, the name is a hint of things to come as well. Alpine’s future models will follow a new naming system: A stands for “Alpine”, the first number represents the size of the car, and “90” will denote so-called “multi-purpose sports vehicles” (also referred to as “life-style vehicles” by the company). We know there’s a crossover in the pipeline, so it could land as the A390 or A490. On the other end of the spectrum, the “pure sports vehicles” will carry on with the “10” suffix, like the aforementioned A110. “Beta” is reserved for prototypes. Alpine will unveil the A290_β concept in Bristol, England, on May 9, 2023, at 10:30 p.m. . The presentation will be streamed online. As for what’s next, your guess is as good as mine. Nothing is official yet, but our crystal ball tells us the A290_β has already been approved for production and will arrive in showrooms in the coming years. +++
+++ ASTON MARTIN is making it easier to keep important, classic vehicles like the DB4, DB5, DB6 and some V8 models from the 1960s and 1970s on the road. The company is re-introducing vital mechanical parts like engine blocks, cylinder heads and gearboxes. All of the new pieces comply with the original manufacturer specifications. They also come with documentation to support the provenance of the replacement parts. Aston Martin’s continuation car programme is partially responsible for re-introducing these parts. The company had to create new tooling to make the components for vehicles like its DB5 Goldfinger and DB4 GT Zagato. With that work done, there’s a money-making opportunity to sell the pieces to existing owners of the original cars. The company worked with ZF for creating a gearbox that matches the original specification. It’s the first time new examples of this part are available since the early 1970s, according to Aston Martin’s announcement. These original vehicles are quite valuable today. For example, duPont Registry currently has a listing for a 1966 Aston Martin DB6 with an asking price of $898.780. Aston Martin is hardly alone when it comes to re-introducing parts for classic models. Brands like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche maintain large catalogues of components for retro vehicles. At least in Japan, Mazda has reproduction components for the first-generation MX-5 and the second- and third-generation RX-7. Over the past several years, Toyota brought back parts for several enthusiast-loved models through the automaker’s GR Heritage Parts Project. This has included pieces for the third- and fourth-gen Supra. The 2000GT, FJ40 Land Cruiser, and AE86 Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno have received attention, too. In a related development, we’re seeing a few automakers introduce modern infotainment systems for classic models. Jaguar Land Rover has such a unit that even fits into an E-Type. Similarly, Porsche has a product that slots into the 2005-2008 911, 2005-2008 Cayman and Boxster, and 2003 to 2008 Cayenne that even includes navigation. +++
+++ Incremental changes to 3 of BENTLEY’s 2024 offerings are claimed to bring “harmony” to the Azure, S, and Speed trims across the model lineups. As a refresher, Azure signals the variants that go beyond Bentley’s traditional obsessive luxury to cater to wellbeing and comfort. The S and Speed are all about performance. Starting with the 2024 Continental GT and 2024 GTC Azure, the duo look to the Bentayga Extended Wheelbase Azure for a front fascia revision. These include wearing a new “vertical vane grille” that places “bright chrome vertical vanes in front of a black mesh grille”. Those are Bentley’s words describing what are effectively 2 grilles. Only one can be seen from afar, though. Down below, the Flying Spur Azure donates its wheel design, the 22-inch, 10-spoke black painted and machined hoop becoming the standard fit for both Continentals. Inside, the 2+2 models upgrade to a new lofted quilting pattern for the leather, and even more sybaritic deep-pile, 100% wool, Wilton overmat carpets. On the Speed side, their grille changes from vertical vanes to a matrix mesh harking back to pre-war models like the Bentley Blower. Exterior jewelry such as the grille surrounds and inserts, and the brightwork along the lower doors, can be optioned in Granite Grey. This will make the Blackline package look even meaner. And opening the doors reveals a new diamond-in-diamond stitch pattern for the cabin leather. For the all Bentleys, the new exterior color Topaz Blue joins a palette that is already effectively infinite. Inside, the dark tint aluminum technical finish first seen on the Bentayga comes to the instrument panel and waist rails of the Flying Spur and Continental GT, the finish being an abstract representation of the crosshatched lines from the matrix grille. Finally, the nylon carpeting underneath the floor mats will be made from 100% recycled nylon instead of virgin nylon. +++
+++ Toyota affiliate DAIHATSU rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests carried out for some 88.000 small cars, most of which were sold under the Toyota brand, the companies said on Friday. They said the door trim on the affected vehicles had been modified with a “notch” to minimize the risk in testing that the door interior could break with a sharp edge and cause injury to an occupant when the side airbag deployed in an accident. The modification for testing was not part of the production vehicle, the companies said. Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda said the companies were investigating how the side-panel of Yaris and other models had been changed for safety testing and apologized for what he called an “unacceptable” violation of consumer trust. Toyota said it had not received any report of an accident or injury related to the rigged side-crash test. It was not immediately clear who had rigged the doors for crash testing, how widespread the knowledge of the action had been within Daihatsu and whether senior managers had approved the step. “We’ll proceed with a detailed investigation from here on, but promise to decisively understand what happened at the site, investigate the true intentions and sincerely work to prevent a recurrence”, Toyoda told reporters. “We’re going to need some time to do that”, he said. Daihatsu said it had discovered the rigged safety test after a whistleblower report. It said it had reported the issue to regulatory agencies and stopped shipment of affected models. The affected models include Toyota Yaris Ativs made in Thailand from last August, and Perodua Axias manufactured in Malaysia starting from February. Of the 88.000-plus vehicles, some 76.000 were Yaris models mainly bound for Thailand, Mexico and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Daihatsu said. About 11.800 affected vehicles were Axias manufactured by Daihatsu at a joint venture plant it runs with Malaysian automaker Perodua. Those cars were sold in Malaysia. The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Daihatsu said it would run new safety tests in the presence of regulators and confirm the safety of the models before resuming shipments. The discovery of the rigged safety test is the first crisis for Toyota president Koji Sato, who took over the top job from Toyoda on April 1. “We have to find the cause of what happened, including examining the environment in which it happened, and once we’ve confirmed that to take appropriate action to address the underlying cause”, Sato said. Toyoda, who was Toyota president in 2010 when a string of recalls prompted U.S. investigations, said he wanted all Toyota employees and those at affiliates to understand that “making better cars” required a commitment to speak out about problems. “We can’t run away from this or hide”, he said. Daihatsu, which specializes in the production of small cars, became a wholly owned Toyota subsidiary in 2016 when Toyoda was president. The incident comes at a time when Toyota has been ramping production back up from restrictions imposed by a shortage of semiconductors, facing pressure to move faster to roll out new and cost-competitive electric vehicles and dealing with a sales slump in China, a key market. +++
+++ Nearly 1 in 5 cars sold globally this year will be electric, with the prices of smaller ELECTRIC VEHICLES dropping to rival those of combustion engine cars in North America and Europe by the mid-2020s, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted on Wednesday. The agency raised its EV sales forecasts in part because of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which supports green industry and subsidies for consumers’ purchase of electric vehicles, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said on a media call. China features prominently, making up half the EVs on the road worldwide including battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and with 60% of EV sales last year taking place there, according to the IEA’s annual outlook on EVs. The country has also seen prices for some smaller EV models edging lower towards those of their combustion engine equivalents, said the IEA’s energy technology policy head, Timar Guell. Electric car sales globally are expected to surge 35% this year to 14 million, the report said, comprising 18% of the passenger car market, up from just 4% in 2020. “Our current expectation is that we can see price parity in small and medium-sized electric cars in North America and European markets somewhere in the mid-2020s. For larger cars like SUVs and pick-ups, purchasing parity is likely to come later, probably into the 2030s”, Guell said. Governments are investing in EV expansion out of concerns over the environment, to boost industrial policy and decrease dependency on oil, demand for which will fall by 5 million barrels a day by 2030 because of the EV transition, Birol said. SUVs and large cars account for nearly two-thirds of EVs in China and Europe and a greater proportion in the United States. In emerging and developing economies, 2- or 3-wheel electric vehicles outnumber cars. Over half of India’s three-wheeler registrations in 2022 were electric, according to the study. +++
+++ HYUNDAI is planning to leave Russia completely if the local government approves a deal between the South Korean automaker and a Kazakh company. Nothing is official yet but Korean media reported earlier this month the negotiations between Hyundai and the Kazakh investor are now in the final stages. Before anything goes official, however, the deal needs to be approved by the Russian authorities. Hyundai suspended its operations in the country last year, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. About a year ago, the company said it was reviewing various options for its Russian business but nothing has been made official since then. In a new statement emailed to Reuters, Hyundai said that the process continues and no decision has been taken so far. “It is true that there are ongoing discussions regarding the sale, but nothing has been decided”, Hyundai told South Korean TV network MBC. Hyundai has been producing around 200.000 cars annually in Russia, representing roughly 4 percent of its global production capacity. Before the war in Ukraine, Hyundai was also among the top-3 selling marques in Russia together with Renault and Kia. The South Korean manufacturer is the next company from the automotive sector to exit Russia. Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Renault, Suzuki, Stellantis, Honda and many more already left the country following Russia’s economic sanctions and trade bans. Just recently, Volkswagen found itself in a situation where it has to deal with the local court over allegations from GAZ that the German firm broke an existing arrangement for producing VW vehicles in Nizhny Novgorod. Renault, in turn, sold 100 percent of its shares to Moscow City, which renamed the French brand’s Moscow plant to Moscow Automobile Factory Moskvitch. Since December last year, the revived Moskvitch brand has been producing rebadged versions of Chinese manufacturer JAC at the factory, though sales haven’t been especially great, according to reports. +++
+++ As promised, LAMBORGHINI pulled back the covers on its run of 60th anniversary Huracans. The 3 trims, Super Trofeo Omologata (STO), Tecnica, and EVO Spyder each come in two fashion-influenced colorways, and each will come in a run of 60 units for a total of 180 produced. The STO is inspired by sportwear and the athletic team kit. The first version comes in various shades of blue over black, the second version in gray over black. The Huracán Tecnica looks to motorsports liveries and the Italian flag, one variant in gray over black and red, the other in white with green stripes over black. The droptop EVO Spyder is a remix of the other two, available in either blue and white over black, or green with white strips over black. Of note, CEO Stephan Winkelmann said “The special editions of the Huracán not only celebrate the 60th anniversary of our brand, but also give our customers maybe the last chance to purchase an otherwise sold-out V10-powered Lamborghini”. We think “maybe” is an important word in this sentence. The high-riding Sterrato only got 1.499 units that disappeared faster than wet cotton candy. The standard Huracan is sold out through 2024, as is everything else coming out the Sant’Agata Bolognese factory. Yet the Huracan successor isn’t due until the end of 2024. 18 months that will include the afterglow of a huge birthday year is a long time to go without one-third of the lineup, especially at a company that loves (and succeeds so well at) special editions. As for that successor, about the only agreement among rumors is that the chassis be a modified version of the platform created for the flagship Revuelto. Media say the hybrid V12’s carbon-heavy “monofuselage” will be reworked with aluminum to lower the price. As recently as last November, some pubs said they expected Lamborghini to stick with a V10, writing about Lamborghini technical officer Rouven Mohr saying, “the new car is not a range-oriented hybrid and there will be no kind of downsizing”. Mohr conveyed the sentiment “that it’s against Lamborghini’s philosophy to reduce the engine size and then ‘compensate’ with electrification as some rivals have done”. A twin-turbo hybrid V8 has come up more recently, this engine being of Lamborghini’s design. No longer having a corporate sibling in the Volkswagen Group stable to share V10 hybrid costs and upkeep with, a hybrid V8 makes much more sense. The Group is awash in V8s and will be using hybridized versions in models from several brands. The scuttlebutt on this engine alleges about 850 hp of total output, turbos that don’t spool up until 7.000 rpm, and a 10.000-rpm redline. +++
+++ Suffering from its own success, VOLVO has announced it’s no longer accepting new orders for the EX90. The reason is strong demand has surpassed the company’s production capacity, with the “tremendous reception” allowing the Geely-owned marque to sell out the first scheduled production run. If you’re not among the early adopters, the Swedish automaker says it will reopen the order books soon, without providing an exact timeframe. The large electric SUV is scheduled to go into production in the final quarter of this year and will be assembled in Charleston, South Carolina as well as in Chengdu, China. Unlike other automakers that will happily take your order and make you wait one or even two years to take delivery, Volvo is being more pragmatic. The EX90 is not replacing the XC90 as the latter will remain on sale with combustion engines for the foreseeable future. The disclosure about temporarily closing the order books was made in a press release pertaining to the Q1 2023 results. In the same document, Volvo mentions the entry-level EV will be unveiled “in a few months” as an SUV positioned below the XC40 and C40 Recharge models. The company is confident the new model (called EX30) will lure in younger buyers thanks to a lower asking price. It’s slated to debut on June 15 with a “decent range”, according to a statement made by CEO Jim Rowan at the beginning of the year. Volvo was among the first car manufacturer to announce plans for an electric-only lineup by the end of the decade. To get there, it intends to launch additional EVs by rolling out at least one model until 2025. A report from Reuters from early February claimed a minimum of six vehicles without a combustion engine will be introduced by 2026. Not all of them will be SUVs as the company has said it won’t completely give up on saloons and estates. +++