Tag Archives: replace

News

Bentley replaces W12 with 740bhp, 50-mile plug-in hybrid

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Bentley has confirmed that it’s going to exchange its outgoing W12 engine with a V8-based plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain that places out greater than 740bhp.

The agency added that the set-up will produce, in metric items, “four-figure torque over a wider plateau”, suggesting it should no less than match the 738lb ft of the tuned W12 within the limited-run Batur.

Bentley has but to reveal the technical specs of the brand new engine or its electricals however mentioned the powertrain will ship an electric-only vary of fifty miles between fees and CO2 emissions of lower than 50g/km.

The Continental GT, GTC and Flying Spur might be up to date with the brand new powertrains later this 12 months, changing each the usual V8 and the W12 in every occasion.

The Bentayga will provide a pure-combustion engine till 2026, at which level it should go hybrid-only.

The V6-based plug-in hybrid powertrains in each the Bentayga and Flying Spur will stay on sale.

The new particulars come shortly after former Bentley introduced significant investment into plug-in hybrids. Former CEO Adrian Hallmark, who was lately named the next boss of Aston Martin, mentioned Bentley will spend “hundreds of millions” on PHEVs that might be provided on the market into the early 2030s.

He hailed PHEVs as a “transitional technology” for decreasing CO2 emissions and acclimatising drivers to electrical driving.

As properly as upping funding in PHEVs, Bentley additionally delayed its first battery-electric automotive from subsequent 12 months to late 2026. Hallmark cited delays to the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) programme as the explanation for pushing again the brand new automotive. These points additionally set again the arrival of the Audi Q6 E-tron and the electric Porsche Macan.

He added that the delay would enable additional growth of the EV’s superior driver help techniques.

News

New Vauxhall Frontera is chunky, electrical Crossland substitute

The Vauxhall Frontera has been revived as a chunky family SUV to interchange the Crossland, with the choice of petrol or pure-electric energy. 

Understood to be an in depth relation to the upcoming second-generation Citroën C3 Aircross – and anticipated to share its affordability-focused Smart Car platform – the Frontera is bigger than its predecessor, at round 4400mm lengthy, and shall be positioned as a rival to the likes of the Dacia Duster and Nissan Qashqai. That’s solely a somewhat smaller than the present Vauxhall Grandland, however that automobile may also get replaced later this yr by a barely bigger new mannequin with an electrical choice. 

The Frontera will supply a selection of battery-electric or 48V mild-hybrid petrol powertrains, with the previous possible providing round 134bhp and a spread of practically 250 miles, and the latter as much as 162bhp and round 58mpg. 

Inspired by its Nineteen Nineties namesake, the Frontera swaps the Crossland’s cab-forward, rounded kind for a extra ‘rugged’ and upright two-box silhouette, which Vauxhall managing director James Taylor reckons will “appeal to a wide range of customers who want to stand out from the crowd”. 

The inside is all new too: Vauxhall’s ‘Pure Panel’ digital interface – comprising a pair of 10in screens – tops the redesigned dashboard, which ditches nearly all of bodily buttons in favour of a “detoxed”, extra minimalist association. 

Out again, the Frontera has 460 litres of boot area with the rear seats up and 1600 litres with them folded, whereas the roof rails can assist a great deal of as much as 200kg, maximising capability. It is just not but confirmed if the Frontera shall be obtainable with seven seats, as will its Citroën sibling.

Full particulars stay beneath wraps for now, however the Frontera is predicted to be on sale in the summertime, priced from roughly £27,000 with petrol energy and round £32,000 as an EV. 

DSAutomobile

DS AUTOMOBILES REVEALS SIMPLIFIED TRIM LINE UP ACROSS THE RANGE

  • PALLAS and ÉTOILE will exchange current trim ranges from early summer season, starting on DS 4
  • PALLAS title is synonymous with DS Automobiles, having first appeared in 1964
  • New prime quality, ÉTOILE, represents the guts of Paris
  • This new vary simplifies the buying journey and provides a greater buyer expertise

 

DS Automobiles has introduced a brand new simplified trim line as much as simplify the vary. The new extra compact vary construction relies round two trim ranges referred to as PALLAS and ÉTOILE. The intention is to supply better readability to clients, highlighting the important thing options of those fashions rooted in a legacy that’s per the model.

Thanks to this new vary, clients can have entry to the very best savoir-faire of DS Automobiles accessible via two very expressive variations, providing gear ranges that meet their expectations.

 

Inspired by the Palace accolade that’s awarded to essentially the most luxurious five-star inns, the PALLAS title returns to DS Automobiles. A historic title from the heritage of DS, Pallas was launched in 1964. Sixty years later, it’s again with the identical objective of reflecting French experience.

 

Introduced as a brand new model, the “Pallas” was on the time “intended to satisfy the aspirations of the most demanding customers”. Distinguished by great consideration to element, it stays a benchmark signature of historic DS.

 

For its return to the vary, Pallas retains its preliminary ambition, with complete gear completely tailor-made to every of the completely different fashions’ segments.

 

At the prime quality, ÉTOILE is one other very Parisian title. It is a logo of the Place Charles-de-Gaulle (beforehand referred to as the Place de l’Étoile), in the course of which the Arc de Triomphe stands on the prime of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, whose cobblestones kind a star when seen from the sky. This sq. serves essentially the most emblematic Parisian avenues forming a star, in line with the design supervised by Baron Haussmann.

 

ÉTOILE additionally displays the final word standing granted to dancers within the Opéra National de Paris ballet because the 19th century.

 

Art, mixed with architectural creativity, excellence and the spirit of high-quality experience are conveyed in these interiors which might be clad in high-quality Alcantara® or Nappa leather-based.

 

Each variant can have its personal particular badge, with designs impressed by the ornamental arts. PALLAS subtly combines the door of a big Parisian palace and the Historical Axis of Paris (Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the Concorde Obelisk, Arc de Triomphe and Arche de la Défense), whereas ÉTOILE illustrates a broad enhanced luminous radiation of the twelve avenues which converge in the direction of Place Charles-de-Gaulle, referred to as Place de l’Étoile till 1970.

 

This new vary might be launched first on DS 4 in early summer season.

News

Drivers to be affected as M25 part to shut this weekend

Why is the M25 closing?

National Highways says the street will shut so it might demolish and exchange the bridleway bridge at Clearmount and set up a big gantry.

The work can even enhance the variety of lanes at junction 10, which, National Highways stated, will “make journeys safer and improve traffic flow”. Entry and exit roads to Wisley, Pyrford, Old Byfleet and RHS Wisley will probably be made safer, it stated, and air pollution can even be diminished. 

Jonathan Wade, venture lead for National Highways, stated: “Drivers ought to solely use the M25 if their journey is totally needed. This is the primary of 5 full closures of one of many busiest junctions on our street community.

“We have spent months planning for these closures and ensuring there are diversion routes in place, however there’ll nonetheless be heavy congestion and delays.

“These improvements will bring long-term benefits to drivers who pass through this stretch of the M25, not to mention pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders who will also see positive changes in the area.”

When will different M25 closures happen? 

Five full closures are set to happen between now and September 2024 as a part of National Highways’ programme to enhance Junction 10. 

The authorities physique has not but introduced the precise dates of the 4 different closures, however the subsequent one will happen in April to put in the brand new bridleway bridge at Clearmount. Closures won’t happen throughout vacation durations, it stated.

Future closures will embody the set up of the brand new Cockrow Green Bridge – the UK’s first heathland bridge, which is able to join the Ockham and Wisley commons and type a pure and protected hall for native wildlife.

Between 4000 and 6000 autos journey between junctions 9 and 11 between 10am and 9pm on a weekend, National Highways stated, and it warned that journey to airports comparable to Heathrow and Gatwick could possibly be affected.

Motorsport

The New Kia K4 Has A Strange Rear Pillar

The Forte is useless. Long reside the K4. Kia will exchange the compact sedan with a brand new automobile scheduled to debut on March 27 on the New York Auto Show. Kia will present the ultimate design every week from immediately, however within the meantime these teaser photographs must make do. 

The 2025 Kia K4 already seems so much totally different than the outgoing mannequin. It shares some styling cues with the K3 launched in August 2023, however that automobile is not coming to the United States. We are getting the brand new K4, full with droopy lights harking back to a Cadillac. We’ve tweaked the publicity and brightness of the official photographs to unlock extra design particulars of Kia’s Corolla fighter. That bizarre rear pillar we noticed in spy pictures and renderings is now confirmed.


Motorsport

Mate Rimac Shows Behind-The-Scenes Photos Of Bugatti’s New V16 Engine

Bugatti introduced on Thursday morning plans to exchange its flagship quad-turbo W16 engine with a new V16 hybrid powertrain. The firm launched a brief sound clip alongside the announcement teasing what the engine will sound like, and now, because of Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac, we’re in a position to take an extended at some behind-the-scenes improvement images of the facility plant.

The Croatian CEO shared a handful of images to Facebook on Thursday afternoon exhibiting improvement of the V16 engine, together with images of the block, the crankshaft, and the pistons.

 

Though the V16 is perhaps information to us, it has been within the works for at the very least 14 months, in line with Rimac. The CEO claims these images had been taken in November 2022, and that the corporate already had operating engines testing on dynos on the time.

“It was very hard to keep quiet about such an amazing development,” Rimac mentioned on Facebook. “And there are many more such surprises waiting with the rest of the car! I am incredibly proud on what the team has managed to pull off and not go crazy with me over the last years.”

 

Aside from the V16 hybrid powertrain, we do not know a lot about Bugatti’s subsequent hypercar. It would be the first fully new product launched by the model since Rimac’s and Porsche’s takeover of Bugatti in 2021, which noticed Rimac take a 55-percent stake, whereas Porsche claimed the remaining 45 %.

With improvement of the V16 thus far alongside, we would not have to attend for much longer to see what kind of automobile it’s going to name house. The inside combustion engine is way from useless. Color us excited.

News

Vauxhall Frontera identify returns in 2024 for Crossland alternative

Vauxhall is reviving the Frontera identify for the chunky compact SUV that can exchange the Crossland later this yr.

Due to be revealed within the coming weeks forward of deliveries beginning on the finish of the yr, the brand new Frontera is bigger than the Crossland and can introduce the choice of an electrical powertrain.

It shall be launched shortly forward of the alternative for the bigger Grandland, which would be the remaining mannequin within the Vauxhall line-up to get an EV variant. 

The authentic Frontera was Vauxhall’s model of the Isuzu MU, a rugged, mid-sized SUV within the vein of the Land Rover Freelander that was offered over two generations from 1991 to 2004.

Built in Luton, the primary Vauxhall SUV was accessible as a standard five-door mannequin and in short-wheelbase, two-door kind with a comfortable high. 

The new Frontera shall be offered solely as a five-door five-seater however will take cues from its Nineteen Nineties namesake in adopting a chunkier, extra overtly 4×4-inspired look than that of the Crossland. 

It shall be, Vauxhall mentioned, “a fun car with clever functional features” and “a high level of space and versatility” in a bid to enchantment to “customers with an active lifestyle and families alike”. 

All clues level to the brand new Frontera being a direct rival for the Dacia Duster, and like that automobile, Vauxhall has promised it is going to be provided “at an attractive price” – possible beginning within the low-£20,000s.

Images of a camouflaged prototype reveal the Frontera is clearly a radically completely different proposition from the Crossland, with chunkier, flatter edges and a extra overt billing as a small SUV, slightly than a raised supermini. 

Vauxhall’s new Vizor entrance finish, with its slimline LED headlights and contrasting wraparound ‘grille’ panel, is nearly seen by the heavy camouflage, however there – it appears – is the place the similarities finish. 

News, Technology

Elon Musk’s Ambitious Plan to Transform Twitter into an All-In-One App

Elon Musk has been open about his plans to expand Twitter’s capabilities beyond being a social media platform. He envisions turning the company into an “everything app,” similar to popular super apps like China’s WeChat. These super apps serve as a one-stop-shop for various functions on your phone, including messaging, calling, appointments, games, and ordering food.

In August, it was reported that Twitter, now called X, was exploring the addition of a stock trading hub. This move aligns with Musk’s banking ambitions, which he started discussing shortly after acquiring Twitter. In November 2022, Musk reportedly met with Twitter employees to discuss his idea of implementing payment features, such as debit cards, instant money transfers, and even loans, according to The Verge.

Musk’s plans have attracted mixed reactions. Some people express concerns about trusting X and its owner with their financial information, while others point out the challenges of introducing a WeChat-like service in the U.S. and Europe due to existing laws and regulations.

Motorsport

2025 Lamborghini Huracan Hybrid Successor Spotted with Unique Hexagonal Lights

Lamborghini has set a goal to electrify its entire lineup by the end of 2024, and this includes the upcoming successor to the Huracan. The automaker is already in the process of developing the new model, and recent spy shots have captured the camouflaged supercar undergoing testing on public roads.

The covers on the car hide some of the finer design details, but the overall aesthetic remains true to Lamborghini’s distinctive style. The company has attempted to deceive onlookers with stickers featuring fake headlights and cladding on the hood, but the car’s narrow slits reveal its unmistakable hexagonal daytime running lights, and its iconic wedge shape cannot be concealed. Only a small portion of the taillights can be seen peeking through the Aventador stickers.


News, Technology

Twitter’s Community Notes Are Getting A Massive Video Expansion

Twitter’s Community Notes system is undergoing a significant expansion with the addition of video capabilities. However, it is crucial to note that this expansion does not aim to replace the important work carried out by dedicated fact-checking organizations. These organizations are often faster and have access to certified experts, without the limitations imposed by the consensus requirements of the Community Notes system.

According to an analysis by the Poynter Institute, achieving a cross-ideological agreement on truth, which is necessary for Community Notes, becomes increasingly difficult in the current partisan environment. The Community Notes system has been criticized for its disproportionate implementation of moderation, safety, and security features.

For instance, Twitter has faced accusations of censoring critical voices that target the government in countries like India and the Middle East. In these markets, content shared by journalists and media houses is frequently removed or withheld based on government requests. With upcoming elections in 2024 in both India and the United States, the importance of addressing such concerns will only grow.

Community Notes, in essence, places the responsibility of fact-checking on its most active users who possess expertise in specific fields. This approach differs from having a dedicated trust and safety team to perform this task. Notably, Elon Musk, following his assumption of control, initially reduced Twitter’s safety team but is now in the process of rebuilding it. This development comes as X, Twitter’s parent company, is lifting its ban on political ads in its domestic market, which was imposed in 2019.