Over 115 years the auto industry in the east German town of Zwickau has lived through wrenching upheavals including World War II and the collapse of communism. Now the city’s 90,000 people are plunging headlong into another era of change: top employer Volkswagen’s total shift into electric cars at the local plant.
The world’s largest carmaker is creating its first all-electric plant and phasing out production of the internal combustion-engine cars built by generations of local workers.
The electric transformation raises questions about the long-term prospects of the auto industry, which employs 840,000 people in Germany and millions worldwide, as a source of jobs for communities like Zwickau, which gave the world both the luxury brand Audi and the communist-era Trabant “people’s car.”
Fewer workers will likely be needed, with different skills. And there is no mass market yet for battery-only cars. Volkswagen’s 1.2 billion euros ($1.35 billion) [...]
You’ve taken down the evil lair, incapacitated your arch-nemesis after an exhausting chase down the local bobsled track, and rescued the stunning damsel from her distress. Finally, after 133 minutes of run time, you, the hero, have earned her hand in marriage. After a tasteful ceremony in Portugal, the two of you climb aboard your wedding flower–adorned 1969 Aston Martin DBS and drive away as friends and family toss rose petals and see you off into married life.
That was Agent 007’s story toward the end of the sixth James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. For the 50th anniversary of the 1969 classic, Aston Martin has collaborated with the Bond films’ production company to create a limited run of DBS Superleggera models inspired by the movie. The limited edition Aston will wear exclusive olive green paint to match the movie car, and six horizontal metal vanes subdivide the DBS Superleggera’s gaping maw, referencing [...]
Better late than never. Years after its German rivals launched cut-down versions of their mainstream SUVs, Porsche has finally got around to building a Cayenne with a lower roofline and faster D-pillars. The Cayenne Coupe arrives in the U.S. this fall with three powertrains, additional standard equipment, and a host of options, ready to take the fight to the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe. And on first impressions, it’s the best of the bunch.
Let’s skip the arguments over door counts and simply acknowledge that four-door coupes—and four-door SUV coupes—exist. (If you follow the logic that differentiates a two-door sedan from a two-door coupe, which is that the former has a taller, more formal roofline than the latter, there is no reason why any four-door vehicle with a low roof and swept rear pillars could not be described a coupe.) They exist, and customers like them: Porsche expects the coupe to account for at [...]
Ford just unveiled the second generation of the Focus ST Wagon, and unless you live outside the confines of the United States, you can’t have it. To make matters worse, you can’t even console yourself with the regular Focus ST hatch, because the Blue Oval cut U.S. availability of all sedans and hatches last year.
Just to make it sting a little sharper, the new ST Wagon looks fun—damn fun. Power comes from your choice of a 2.3-liter turbocharged four-banger with 276 horsepower and a whopping 310 lb-ft of torque or a 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel with 187 horses. If you spec it incorrectly and outfit it with the diesel, a six-speed manual transmission is the sole gearbox, but the 2.3-liter comes with either a six-speed manual or a slick seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Just like the Focus ST hatch we took for granted, the wagon comes outfitted with go-fast goodies, including an active electronically controlled differential, [...]
Elon Musk’s master plan has always had the Model 3 circled in fat red ink as Tesla’s mega-selling, do-or-die affordable car. But since then, those fickle car buyers out there have been having other ideas and ditching their sedans for crossovers. Although the Model 3 has been selling remarkably well nonetheless, it hasn’t been enough (probably because of its price) to avoid a $700 million loss last quarter. Moreover, the predicament’s been compounded by slipping sales of the more profitable Model S and X (the S is seven years old now, but still going strong, check out our exclusive Model S long-range test) and the headwind of evaporating federal incentives.
Answer? Scribble out that first circle and draw a new one around the next car—the Tesla Model Y. Although it’s based on the Model 3 (75 percent so, Musk says), it’ll land in the absolute sweet spot of the market (crossover) and where people are [...]
