News

The car detailing experts at Meguiar’s have announced new Hybrid Ceramic products at this year’s SEMA trade show.
A new Hybrid Ceramic wash and wax as well as a new wash mitt join the lineup as does a Hybrid Paint Coating kit.
Due to Coronavirus concerns, the 2020 SEMA show has moved to an online format and Meguiar’s has launched an interactive virtual experience.
Citing an increase in demand for its Hybrid Ceramic detailing products, the car-care specialists at Meguiar’s are expanding the company’s lineup of detailing products with a virtual debut at the 2020 SEMA trade show. The new products include a wash liquid with the company’s Hybrid Ceramic Si02 additive, which is said to boost surface tension and improve water beading. A double-sided wash mitt is also new.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Meguiar’s

Meguiar’s

Intended to be used in addition to the Hybrid Ceramic spray wax, the wash liquid helps maintain the protective coating on the paint’s surface. On sale in January 2021, the Hybrid Ceramic Wash and Wax will cost $19.99 and provide enough soap and Si02 boosting liquid for 16 washes.
For those looking to step up their home detailing game, a new Hybrid Paint Coating product has also joined the party. This more expensive kit—$59.99 when it goes on sale next year—uses a hybrid polysiloxane compound to provide protection and deliver exceptional water beading. The kit offers enough product to do two coats on the average car and is said to last about a year. Meguiar’s claims it provides similar benefits and shine to a professionally-applied ceramic coating.

Meguiar’s Car Care Kits on Sale to Pamper Your Car

How Can I Care for My Car during the Pandemic?

How to Safely Sanitize a Car Interior

Meguiar’s also announced changes to the polymer compounds in its popular Ultimate line of wax products as well as a new tire-shine foam spray and the introduction of a new snow foam soap product for those who use foam cannons. The company has no plans yet to introduce a foam cannon tool of its own, but says its liquid soap product is compatible with foam cannons from other car care brands.
Both Meguiar’s and competitor Chemical Guys have told C/D that they’ve experienced increases in sales and interest in DIY car care products this year as car enthusiasts like us have been homebound due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Not only is car detailing a great way to kill time until we can get back to track days and in-person Cars and Coffee events, doing car care at home is cheaper than hiring a professional detailer.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Bentley announced it will sell only EVs starting in 2030.
The luxury brand’s first all-electric model will arrive in 2025.
By 2026, the full Bentley lineup will either be a plug-in hybrid or an electric vehicle.
While many automakers are happy to talk about the end of combustion engines, most tend to do so in the abstract. Bentley is brave enough to put a date on it and has confirmed that it will no longer offer any internal-combustion engines, including those found in plug-in-hybrids, as soon as 2030. From that point onwards the British luxury maker will be EV-only.

Bentley EXP 100 GT Shows What a Luxury EV Could Be

2021 Bentley Flying Spur Now Available with a V-8

Bentley Bentayga Hybrid MPG Lower Than Non-Hybrid

The radical move was announced at an event today as Bentley executives elaborated on the company’s Beyond100 strategy to become an “end-to-end carbon neutral car brand.” The move to full electrification is set to happen quickly. Bentley says that every model will have the option of a hybrid powertrain by 2023, it will launch its first full EV model in 2025 and that as soon as 2026 it will be selling only plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and full EVs.
Although Bentley is still the world’s largest producer of 12-cylinder engines, it had previously said that the mighty W-12 used in the upper reaches of its range will be retired soon. But as Volkswagen Group’s most powerful PHEV powertrain uses a V-6 gas engine, today’s announcement seems to confirm that Bentley’s V-8 powered models will survive barely longer than those using the W-12.
At the event Bentley also confirmed it will launch two new PHEVs next year, both using developments of the V-6 plug-in powertrain that made its brand debut in the Bentayga last year. The first of these will be a revised Bentayga with an increased electric-only range. The second, we believe, will be the same powertrain in the Flying Spur sedan.
Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark is a self-professed fan of PHEVs, and has even been part of the Volkswagen Group’s efforts to lobby European regulators to exempt them from forthcoming bans on the sale of combustion engines. But he acknowledges that smaller companies like his own won’t be able to support the cost of parallel development of pure combustion and EV powertrains for long.
“You’ve got to make a corporate decision on how much overlap you want,” he told Car and Driver at an event in the U.K. last month, “and I would always say the less the better. Don’t forget, by the time we get to 2030 the legislation on batteries and the energy efficiency of cars will be no less challenging than it is now with combustion engines.”
“We would love to keep working on six engines plus battery-electric vehicles plus hybrids,” Hallmark added, “but we haven’t got the capacity to do it. You’ve got to pick a point in time where battery power density, especially for bigger cars, is the liberator for us. We’ve always said that the mid-2020s is the time when you can expect to see 120.0-plus-kWh batteries coming through the supply chain.”

Bentley EXP 100 GT concept
Bentley

At the same event Bentley announced it wanted to become fully carbon neutral on the same timescale and also “plastic neutral”—removing the same amount of plastic from the environment as it creates. It is also set to actively target an increase in female and minority representation among its senior management.
The aggressive move is likely to create a rift with fans of the brand’s charismatic existing engines; we find it hard to imagine any fully electric Bentley will be able to match the experience of the mighty W-12 engine. It also reveals an ideological split at the top of the car industry, with Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri having recently said he does not expect his company’s production to be even half EV within his lifetime. Others are much more likely to follow Bentley’s lead, Rolls-Royce’s ultra-quiet powerplants making it a brand that seems ideally suited to electrification.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

The electric Audi e-tron GT will get the RS treatment. It makes 684 hp and 612 lb-ft of torque.
The battery-powered sports sedan will do zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds and come with four-wheel steering and a two-speed transmission.
The RS e-tron GT shares its platform with the Porsche Taycan and will support 800-volt DC fast-charging up to 270 kW.
While Audi began its electrification path with with the e-tron SUV, there are those that covet the joy of being near the asphalt in a beautiful vehicle that also happens to be quick and powered by electricity. For those people, there’s the Audi RS e-tron GT, the high-performance version of the upcoming electric sedan.

Hear the 2021 Audi e-tron GT Electric Sedan

View Photos of the 2021 Audi e-tron GT

Audi e-tron GT Concept Brings Sportback Style

The all-wheel-drive, dual-motor RS e-tron GT will produce 684 horsepower and 612 ft-lbs of torque pushing it from zero to 60 mph in about 3.5 seconds, according to Audi. This will be the first electric RS model but won’t be the last. The dual-motor horsepower split will be 449 hp for the rear motor and 235 hp for the front motor. By contrast, the regular e-tron GT is anticipated to produce 590 horsepower.
The GT will ride on an air suspension with adaptive dampers, which allows for ride-height adjustment based on drive modes. For example, in efficiency mode, the vehicle drops an additional 0.8–0.9 inch to help increase the driving range. Audi didn’t share drag coefficient or range numbers but did note that this is the first Audi with a flat undercarriage design.
A 93.4 kWh battery pack is standard, and Audi says 83.7 kWh of that is the usable capacity. The weight and location of the battery pack give the RS e-tron GT a lower center of gravity than the Audi R8, according to the automaker. If that pack’s gross capacity sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same as what’s found in the Porsche Taycan. The Taycan and e-tron GT share the same platform and Audi and Porsche developed the vehicles together. Where the vehicles differ is in motor, chassis, steering, and suspension tuning.

Audi

One thing both vehicles share is quick charging and the ability to pre-condition the battery ahead of reaching a charging point along a route. Like the Taycan, the RS e-tron GT supports 800-volt DC fast-charging up to 270 kW. Also like the Taycan, the rear motor has a two-speed gearbox.
Audi will offer 19-, 20-, and 21-inch wheels. The company says the 20-inch wheels are the most aerodynamic. A four-wheel steering system is available, which can turn the rear wheels up to three degrees. It can either turn the rear wheels in the opposite direction as the fronts at low speeds or in the same direction for lane changes at higher speeds.
Stopping power is available in three flavors: traditional steel disc brakes, carbon-fiber ceramic discs, or surface-coated steel discs. As with most EVs, the braking will be handled by both the friction brakes and the regenerative braking system.
Audi says the RS e-tron GT will arrive in showrooms in the United States in the summer of 2021 and will go on sale later in the same year. While the automaker is covering the vehicle in camouflage for now, its final production design is close to the concept car it unveiled at the LA auto show in 2018. In other words, it’s a looker.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

The sales data from those that report monthly numbers show that while the automakers are still being affected by the pandemic, the worst is behind them.
Ford added itself to the list of monthly reporters in October, a decision which will continue for the “foreseeable future.”
Growth in SUV and truck segments were largely the reason why automakers saw their sales largely flat as compared to last October.
The auto industry—or at least those companies that report monthly data—showed in October what we have seen in the last few months: a steady recovery from a low point in sales back in the spring. And although new vehicle sales still aren’t quite what they were last year, the strength in sales of SUVs and trucks has kept the industry optimistic through October.

Third Quarter New-Vehicle Sales Hint at Recovery

This was the case among the larger monthly reporters, including Honda and Toyota, as well as Ford. The American automaker has rejoined the group of monthly reporters to give “investors more frequent updates on US sales and dealer inventory during the pandemic,” Said Deep, a Ford spokesperson, told C/D. That’ll continue for the “foreseeable future.”
Ford’s sales were down in October by 5.8 percent, but its luxury division, Lincoln, did see a 2.8 percent increase in sales. Ford SUVs, led by the Expedition and the Explorer, were up 9.4 percent, but the trucks division did see sales decline partially due to a 4 percent drop in F-series sales.
Honda reported a drop in sales of 3.4 percent as compared to October of last year, while Acura car sales and Honda truck sales both ended the month positive. The Honda Pilot, Passport, and Ridgeline all made year-over-year gains; the Pilot, the most popular of the three, saw sales jump 22.1 percent.
On the other hand, Toyota had sales increase 8.8 percent in October, with sales moving upwards among all of its divisions except for Toyota cars. The popular Toyota Tacoma, RAV4, and Highlander all made gains.

Auto Sales in August Continue Recovery from Spring

Sales in May Show a Slow Recovery as States Reopen

Both Hyundai and Kia saw sales improve compared to October of last year to the tune of 0.5 percent and a 12.2 percent, respectively. Kia’s largest gains were seen from the Telluride, but also saw Forte sales increase; overall, Kia’s sales were helped along by new offerings including the Seltos and K5, which both performed well. Hyundai’s sales were influenced by an improvement among the Kona, Palisade, and Sonata.
Subaru posted a 10.6 percent increase in sales for the month, which was led by the Outback and Crosstrek. The Japanese automaker saw its best October ever last month. Mazdahas seen its performance largely undeterred by the pandemic. Mazda’s sales increased 12.2 percent and its year-to-date sales are currently down only 0.7 percent. The CX-5 and CX-9 both posted strong monthly sales.
Nonetheless, despite the positive numbers seen throughout the industry, there are reasons for concern, as noted by Cox Automotive senior economist Charlie Chesbrough. “However, weakness of lower-priced segments like compact cars shows these buyers, generally with lower incomes, have been hit hard by the pandemic recession,” Chesbrough said in a release. “All of which suggests the vehicle market is an example of the K-shaped economic recovery – higher incomes do well while lower incomes do not.”
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More