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Pixar has a knack for bringing inanimate objects to life. Starting with the studio’s first feature, Toy Story, it’s been able to create vivid, lovable characters out of everyday objects. No movie franchise flexed that muscle like Cars, a series entirely devoid of humans. In it, Pixar brought a 2002 Porsche 911 named Sally Carrera to life through animation. Now, with the help of Porsche, they’re turning the animated character into a real-life car.

Porsche

The two companies are teaming up to build a real, brand-new 992 Porsche 911 styled like the beloved character. The project hasn’t been finished, but Porsche’s release contains photos of what appears to be the 996 911 that Pixar modified to resemble the original Sally. The marketing car is painted to match Sally’s blue hue and has a revised bumper, with Sally’s trademark smirk for an air intake. Like in the movie, its windshield is dominated by two big green eyes with body-colored eyelids. Its wheelbase was shortened and the roof was raised to keep the proportions right.

Porsche

Despite that, Porsche says that it intends for the new one-of-one 992 to be entirely street legal. It’ll take a bit of clever work from Porsche and its Exclusive program to make sure that cooling and visibility don’t get ruined, but the result should be something special. It’ll be auctioned off in celebration of Sally’s 20th birthday.

Porsche

Porsche

The character, Pixar says, was defined by wanting to help. In service of that, the proceeds of the auction will go to two charities. The first, Girls Inc., helps with. mentorship and education for young women in America. The second, USA for UNHCR, is part of the United Nations’ Refugee program and is working to help resettle refugees of the current war in Ukraine. The buyer will also get a special one-of-one watch by Porsche Design. More details, including the location and timing of the auction, held by RM Sotheby’s, will be released later in the year.

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BMW has been working with Qualcomm and Arriver since late 2021 on some autonomous driving technologies, but now the three have said they are forming a long-term partnership to bring Level 3 technology to BMW models by the second half of 2025, and then maybe more beyond that.Some of the technologies used will be Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride Vision system-on-a-chip (SoC) and Arriver’s Computer Vision technology, which will provide better AV options than BMW’s current system that was introduced on the iX last year and is coming to the new 7-series next month.BMW could also use this autonomous tech in Mini and Rolls-Royce models down the line.Future iterations of BMW’s autonomous driving technology will be more connected, and not just to the growing internet of things. This week, BMW announced more details about its autonomous driving partnership with Qualcomm and Arriver that the three companies will jointly develop next-generation automated driving solutions that will offer Level 3 capabilities in the second half of 2025, with an eye toward Level 4 capabilities after that. In brief, Level 3 will allow drivers to ride without having to touch the steering wheel or constantly watch the road when they’re on some highways, but a human must be ready to take over whenever the system is unable to drive itself.

This week’s news grew out of an announcement from November 2021 when BMW said its next-generation automated driving system would use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride Vision system-on-a-chip (SoC) and Arriver’s Computer Vision technology. Moving forward, the joint project will combine BMW’s current automated driving technologies, which debuted in the BMW iX in 2021 and are coming to the new 7-series next month, with Arriver and Qualcomm technology. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride autonomous driving platform can be used from the common Level 1 and 2 driver-assistance systems seen today to fully self-driving Level 5 vehicles.”The idea [with the Snapdragon digital chassis] is to be able to find economies of scale within an automotive platform that allows OEMs to be able to scale up very quickly.” said Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal on a media call with journalists. “To be able to build a reference platform with a partner like BMW that scales from entry-level vehicles all the way to luxury vehicles, at a global scale, is something that is synonymous with what a lot of different automakers need.”That platform will include a common reference architecture, sensor specifications, and safety requirements, the companies said, and will get input from more than 1400 specialists working around the world, including the BMW Autonomous Driving Test Center in the Czech Republic, Arriver engineers in Sweden, Germany, and the U.S., and Qualcomm employees in South Korea and India, among others. The investments that the three companies are making will provide a benefit to the entire autonomous driving ecosystem, Duggal said, in terms of time saved to bring this tech to market. BMW’s senior vice president of driving experiences, Nicolai Martin, said during the call that the technology could also find its way to Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles as well but this project will not be limited to BMW brands. As part of the announcement, Qualcomm, BMW, and Arriver said they “remain open to further partnerships.”
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VW unveiled the ID.Buzz Cargo alongside the passenger version this week, with the panel van slated to be offered in Europe starting next year.The Cargo version was first previewed in 2018 with two concepts, as Wolfsburg mulled several versions of the base model.The panel van will offer 137.7 cubic feet of space inside, or enough for two Euro-size pallets, but it would face stiff competition from electric vans in the U.S.The journey of the Volkswagen ID.Buzz from concept to production has not been short, and prospective U.S. buyers have to wait another two years to actually receive their retro-style MPV when it goes on sale in 2024. But with the official reveal of the model this week, Wolfsburg certainly delivered on an EV in a segment that is unlikely to be contested for quite some time.Speaking of delivering, Volkswagen is also set to offer a panel-van version of the ID.Buzz that will land in a much more contested segment, one that has already seen a number of players. Unfortunately, the Cargo model is not slated to be offered stateside, and not just because of the chicken tax.The ID.Buzz Cargo was first previewed in concept form at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Hannover, Germany, in 2018, showcasing the versatility of the MEB platform in a fairly compact package. The panel van, featuring two rear barn doors and a single side door, was previewed with 48.0- and 111.0-kW batteries at the IAA, while also showing off a solar roof that was promised to add as much as 9.3 miles of range on a sunny day. Equipped with the larger of the two batteries, the cargo version was also promised with a top range of 340 miles in the WLTP cycle, with a single 201-hp motor out back doing the work.

The interior features enough space for two Euro pallets.
Volkswagen

With the release of the full specs of the civilian version of the ID.Buzz, it’s safe to say the cargo version was due for some revisions when it came to planned battery options, as the demand for a massive (and pricey) 111.0-kWh battery has proved to be too much of a good thing. Rather, VW indicated the Cargo version will be offered with an 82.0-kWh (77.0 kWh usable) battery as the top option, giving it a range of 310 miles in the WLTP cycle, which will be closer to 260 in the EPA cycle. The automaker presented the Cargo version in short-wheelbase form this week, but a long-wheelbase version is on the way as well, at least in Europe.Volkswagen had already previewed a compelling contractor version of the ID.Buzz at the LA auto show in 2018, showcasing a storage and shelving system by specialist Sortimo, along with a 1760-pound payload capacity. Such a model was aimed at contractors that carry an extended supply of small parts and tools, rather than those who may need to transport something very heavy and bulky.

VW intends to offer the Cargo version in Europe starting next year.
Volkswagen

If the battery options might make the cargo version fairly compelling, other considerations have made the ID.Buzz Cargo moot for the U.S. market: size and a lack of body-style variants. The Cargo version is 185.5 inches long, which buys it enough room for two European-size pallets (which are smaller than U.S. pallets) with a total of 137.7 cubic feet of space inside. It would be adequate for some users, but it’s still in the category of boutique delivery vehicles rather than contractor vans.For comparison, Ford has just started production and deliveries of the E-Transit, which is offered with a choice of three lengths and three roof heights in addition to chassis-cab and cutaway versions. All models use a 68.0-kWh battery, along with a single rear-mounted motor producing 266 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque. The high-roof, extended-wheelbase version serves up 487.3 cubic feet of cargo space and a maximum payload of 3800 pounds. The sheer variety and size of the E-Transit, which began testing in fleets late last year, easily eclipses the varieties of the ID.Buzz that Volkswagen is expected to offer in Europe, with the Ford cargo van starting at $47,185 before incentives and destination charges.Of course, Volkswagen could have made plans to offer the ID.Buzz Cargo in the U.S. market and would have found buyers, but the expected volume of sales would have likely been the deal breaker, along with the absence of a VW Commercial Vehicles sales arm here in the U.S.
So, as logical as the launch of the ID.Buzz Cargo versions may have seemed stateside at some point in time, VW was not in a position to replicate the variety of cargo models likely to be offered by other players, including BrightDrop. And perhaps Volkswagen learned something from Nissan, which last summer ended U.S. production of its NV Cargo, Passenger, and NV200 vans, due to slow sales. VW would have certainly found some buyers, while still having to circumvent the chicken tax via disassembly and reassembly, but as a delivery or work vehicle it would have existed in a segment that’s perhaps too small to address with such an entry.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stopped many imports into Russia, which resulted in a stoppage at Lada’s assembly plants this week.A Renault spokesperson in Russia (Lada models are made by Avtovaz, which is controlled by Renault) told Car and Driver that limited production will restart next week, but with some forced time off on down days.Last year, Lada models made up 21 percent of all new cars sold in Russia.The first cars under the Lada brand appeared in 1973 during the Soviet era, and the brand is such a symbol of the country that Russian president Vladimir Putin has frequently posed for photos behind the wheel of Lada vehicles. Now, economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have, at least for a time, stopped production of the iconic auto brand.The Wall Street Journal reported that Lada’s auto factories “ground to a halt” this week because sanctions left the Russian facilities without the components and supplies required to build new cars. Groupe Renault holds a 67.6 percent controlling stake in Avtovaz, the company that builds Lada vehicles. The Journal said that more than 20 percent of the parts Avtovaz needs are imports, which have mostly dried up in the last two weeks.

Lada Largus.
Lada

“If trade stops, Avtovaz stops,” a former Avtovaz board member told the paper. “Putin knows that he can’t do it by himself.” The board member added that it could take months or perhaps years to start up production again if Avtovaz loses support from Renault. For now, though, some sort of solution to the production stoppage is in the works, based on an Avtovaz statement about restarting car assembly next week. “The company is making every effort to be back to a normal production schedule at its plants in Togliatti and Izhevsk as soon as possible,” Sergey Ilinskiy, a Renault Group spokesperson based in Russia, told Car and Driver.

Lada Granta sedan.
Lada

The “ongoing crisis in the supply of electronic components,” Ilinskiy said, means that Avtovaz production will look different next week than it usually does. Assembly of the Lada Granta and the Niva Legend, for example, will run at full speed for two shifts over three days next week, but March 14 and 15 will be declared as “downtime days” with employees getting paid two-thirds of their average income. Workers at Togliatti who work on producing components will continue to make those items with an eye towards aftersales as well as once again assembling new vehicles.

Lada Vesta.
Lada

Meanwhile, Lada’s Izhevsk plant will continue preparations it needs to do to build the Vesta New Generation model, Ilinskiy said, but workers there who aren’t directly working on the car will be forced to take time off next week (Ilinskiy called it “downtime mode”). Ilinskiy said other Avtovaz functions and subsidiaries, like those involved with producing and distributing spare parts or customer service representatives, will continue working full time.This may be more than you care to know about the vacation schedules of Russian auto workers, but it relates to the fact that the ruble has lost around 30 percent of its value since the invasion began in late February. So opting to take time off sooner than later could be a popular move among workers who see the value of their money declining so precipitously. The Wall Street Journal said Lada vehicles made up 21 percent of all sales in Russia last year, and with foreign brands suspending their own production in the country as well as pausing imports into Russia, car buyers in Russia might be about to face a more constrained marketplace than the U.S. is dealing with two years into the pandemic. Russia has imposed its own export bans on over 200 products, the BBC reported, including vehicles.
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