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      Yamaha and Lola pair up to enter Formula E next season

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Yesterday - 14:42 · 1 minute

    A Gen3 Formula E car with a yellow and blue livery and Lola logos on it.

    Enlarge / After a 10-year gap, Lola is back developing an electric racecar, or at least the powertrain for one, as it will enter Formula E next season. (credit: Lola)

    In 2022, we brought news that Lola, a once-famous racing company, was planning its renaissance . Lola never really cracked Formula 1, but it did have success in IndyCar and sports car racing with cars it designed and built from the 1960s until it ceased trading in 2012. Now, under new ownership, the company has been rebuilding its engineering facilities and expertise. And together with Yamaha as its technical partner, it has chosen Formula E for its official return to professional motorsport.

    Formula E's dart-shaped electric single-seaters are getting a bit of an update before they start season 11 next year. We expect new bodywork, better tires, and perhaps the ability to use the front electric motor to send power to the wheels instead of just acting as regenerative brakes on the front axle, but those components are all spec parts, meaning every team has to use the same ones without modifying them.

    That goes for the battery, too, but there is freedom when it comes to the 470 hp (350 kW) electric motor that powers the rear wheels. And then there's the software, without which the car won't go anywhere.

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      US pricing announced for the Polestar 4 EV; starts at $54,900

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 17:42 · 1 minute

    A car underneath a gold dustcloth

    Enlarge / The Polestar 4 went on sale in China late last year, then in Europe and Australia in January. Now it's North America's turn. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

    NEW YORK—On Wednesday, Polestar formally launched its next electric vehicle in the North American market at the New York International Auto Show. Until now, Polestar's range has been a little limited—there was the Polestar 1, a handsome if a little eccentric plug-in hybrid GT that went out of production after just 1,500 examples. And there's the Polestar 2 sedan, now available as a more efficient, more fun rear-wheel drive variant . But the brand has lacked that most popular of body styles, the SUV—until now.

    "We have been obviously waiting for this year so much in order to really accelerate now. So the two cars coming are SUVs, [which] is, for us, key to really get into the dimension that we want to be," said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. "We have invested so much into the brand. We have so much invested into being in 25 countries. Of course we need now that kind of scale, a minimum of a three-car company to justify all of that," he said.

    The latest addition is called the Polestar 4, which slightly confusingly slots between the smaller Polestar 2 sedan and larger, more expensive Polestar 3—the other SUV that joins the range this year . It has a clear family resemblance to its siblings, with similar front styling to the Polestar 3 and a fastback rear that calls back to the Polestar 2. The decision to ditch the rear windshield will no doubt be controversial—instead, the Polestar 4 uses a camera-based mirror that provides a wider-angle view of things behind the car than a normal passive mirror.

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      Genesis unveils its take on the big luxury EV—the Neolun Concept

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 3 days ago - 16:07 · 1 minute

    The front half of the Genesis Neolum Concept EV

    Enlarge / This concept points the way to a future Genesis flagship SUV. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

    Genesis provided train tickets from Washington to New York and accommodation so Ars could attend its event. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

    NEW YORK—You can always rely on Genesis to bring at least one interesting concept to the New York International Auto Show. This year, the company brought several. At a busy reveal at the brand's Genesis House in Manhattan, it showed us its high-performance ambitions with not one but four bright orange machines, plus one rather famous Belgian racing driver. Then, in a chamber reminiscent of The Barmacide Feast , we got to see the poshest Genesis yet, the brand's take on a big luxury electric vehicle inspired by Korean hospitality.

    The Neolum Concept

    Genesis was tight-lipped in the lead-up to Monday night's unveilings, but no one was entirely surprised to see a big electric SUV. Genesis is owned by Hyundai Group, after all, and has access to the E-GMP architecture, a thoroughly up-to-date flexible platform that keeps impressing us. Kia just used E-GMP to great effect to make the EV9 , a three-row family SUV. And Hyundai's take on that form factor is due later this year in the production Ioniq 7, so an upmarket model from Genesis seemed obvious.

    "The last eight years, it was about finding who we are and then discovering DNA for the Genesis," said SangYup Lee, global design head for Genesis. "Now it's time to expand."

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      Testing the 2024 BMW M2—maybe the last M car with a manual transmission

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 6 days ago - 11:00 · 1 minute

    A pale blue BMW M2 seen parked in the hills

    Enlarge / BMW's M2 might be the last M car it builds with three pedals and a stick shift. (credit: Peter Nelson)

    We're at an interesting crossroads in the high-performance enthusiast car market. Running east to west is the adoption of electric vehicles and a slow reduction in internal combustion engine car production. North to south is the progression of ICE horsepower from the factory over the years, and it's unclear how far it continues from here. Coming in diagonally is the weakening demand for manual transmissions—this is sadly where they end.

    In the middle of this intersection is the 2024 BMW M2 six-speed manual, hanging its tail out in a massive controlled drift around the edges, expressing one last hurrah as BMW's final object of internal-combustion M car affection.

    I recently had the opportunity to pilot BMW's latest, smallest M car through some of Southern California's most fun mountain roads, plus Willow Springs International Raceway's Streets of Willow circuit. When it comes to quickly figuring out this kind of car's powertrain and chassis, I can't think of a better mix of pavement. Here's what makes the latest—and last—six-speed-manual-equipped M2 generation an overall excellent enthusiast coupe.

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      GM stops sharing driver data with brokers amid backlash

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 7 days ago - 20:23

    Scissors cut off a stream of data from a toy car to a cloud

    Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

    After public outcry, General Motors has decided to stop sharing driving data from its connected cars with data brokers. Last week, news broke that customers enrolled in GM's OnStar Smart Driver app have had their data shared with LexisNexis and Verisk .

    Those data brokers in turn shared the information with insurance companies, resulting in some drivers finding it much harder or more expensive to obtain insurance. To make matters much worse, customers allege they never signed up for OnStar Smart Driver in the first place, claiming the choice was made for them by salespeople during the car-buying process.

    Now, in what feels like an all-too-rare win for privacy in the 21st century, that data-sharing deal is no more.

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      Lincoln Corsair PHEV review: A luxury car shouldn’t squeak this much

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 21 March - 19:38 · 1 minute

    A white Lincoln Corsair parked next to a wall

    Enlarge / We like the interior styling, and it rides well and is rather efficient. But the interior build quality needs work. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

    It probably hasn't escaped notice that electric vehicles, having captured everyone's attention, are having a bit of a slide into what Gartner calls " the trough of depression ." But as skeptics push back on battery EVs, another style of electrified car looks set to travel back up the slope of enlightenment. Plug-in hybrids are finding their second wind, as automakers and regulators look to PHEVs as a way to reduce transport-related carbon emissions.

    Lincoln's Corsair Grand Touring is not a particularly new PHEV, but since we hadn't tested one yet and there was an example on the local press fleet, it seemed prudent to schedule a week with this compact crossover from one of America's luxury brands.

    The first thing to note is that, despite the way it might look in photos, this is not a huge land barge. The Corsair is 181.4 inches (4,608 mm) long, 76.4 inches (1,941 mm) wide, and 64.1 inches (1,628 mm) tall, so about the same size as a Toyota RAV4, or six inches shorter than a Tesla Model Y. The shape uses plenty of curved edges, dominated by the large Lincoln grille up front, with a hint of late-teens Audi SUV to it.

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      Here’s BMW’s electric replacement for the X3—production starts in 2025

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 21 March - 08:15 · 1 minute

    A BMW Vision Neue Klasse X concept in the courtyard of a modern house

    Enlarge

    BMW provided flights from Washington to Lisbon and accommodation so Ars could be briefed on the Vision Neue Klasse X. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

    CASCAIS, Portugal—BMW is one of the more advanced automakers when it comes to electrification. Its current portfolio of electric vehicles includes the iX and i7 , both of which have the edge on the competition in their respective classes—not bad for cars that use an underlying architecture that was designed to be powertrain-agnostic. Engineers, back at the corporate base in Munich, have been hard at work on its next platform, though, which will be just for battery EVs and will debut with next year's Neue Klasse.

    Last year, we saw a preview of what the Neue Klasse sedan should look like when it goes on sale in 2025. Now, we've seen the Vision Neue Klasse X, which will morph next year into BMW's next electric crossover, probably with the iX3 nameplate. It will be an important car for the German automaker; crossovers and SUVs fail to get any less popular with the car-buying public, and demand for the production version of the Neue Klasse X will surely outstrip that for the four-door car.

    BMW would rather call its X cars "Sports Activity Vehicles" rather than SUVs or crossovers and argues that it invented the breed with the original X5. That car was a handsome machine, and the Neue Klasse X keeps those classic two-box proportions and adorns them with bold angular creases that emphasize the wheel arches and create some negative space lower down the car's side that has the effect of reducing its visual bulk.

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      New EPA, DOE fuel regs give automakers longer to reduce CO2 emissions

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 20 March - 20:08

    An EV charger and a fuel container on a balance

    Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

    This week, the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have published new fuel efficiency rules that will go into effect in 2026. The rules favor both battery-electric vehicles and also plug-in hybrid EVs, but not to the degree as proposed by each agency last April.

    Those would have required automakers to sell four times as many electric vehicles as they do now. This was met with a rare display of solidarity across the industry—automakers, workers, and dealers all called on the White House to slow its approach.

    Under the 2023 proposals, the DOE would change the way that Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations are calculated for model years 2027-2032 (which would take place from partway through calendar-year 2026 until sometime in calendar-year 2031), and the EPA would implement tougher vehicle emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles for the same time period.

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      Formula 1 chief appalled to find team using Excel to manage 20,000 car parts

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 20 March - 18:12 · 1 minute

    A pit stop during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in early March evokes how the team's manager was feeling when looking at the Excel sheet that managed the car's build components.

    Enlarge / A pit stop during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in early March evokes how the team's manager was feeling when looking at the Excel sheet that managed the car's build components. (credit: ALI HAIDER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

    There's a new boss at a storied 47-year-old Formula 1 team, and he's eager to shake things up. He's been saying that the team is far behind its competition in technology and coordination. And Excel is a big part of it.

    Starting in early 2023, Williams team principal James Vowles and chief technical officer Pat Fry started reworking the F1 team's systems for designing and building its car. It would be painful, but the pain would keep the team from falling even further behind. As they started figuring out new processes and systems, they encountered what they considered a core issue: Microsoft Excel.

    The Williams car build workbook, with roughly 20,000 individual parts, was "a joke," Vowles recently told The Race . "Impossible to navigate and impossible to update." This colossal Excel file lacked information on how much each of those parts cost and the time it took to produce them, along with whether the parts were already on order. Prioritizing one car section over another, from manufacture through inspection, was impossible, Vowles suggested.

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