Crashed Nissan GT-R in Malaysia Pictures

Tesla Roadster heading to Europe

We’ve got good news for Europe. Though Tesla was planning to bring the Tesla Roadster to Europe someday, we didn’t know exactly when that was going to happen. But today, InnovationBeat reaports that Darryl Siry, VP of marketing, sales and service at Tesla, announced that, because of the dollar losing ground to the Euro, they’ll bring the Roadster to Europe earlier than planned.

The reason for this action is that the Tesla Roadster’s components are sourced abroad and a lot of the construction is being done in Hethel, England. And with the dollar getting very weak compared to the Euro, selling the car to Europe as fast as possible will provide the company a better balance between income and cost currencies.

Still, considering that all the 900 models that’ll be produced this year are already taken, Europe will see its first Tesla Roadster next year. We don’t know yet what countries will get the car first, but InnovationBeat says that, because of the tax incentives offered on low-emission vechiles, Norway and Sweden are favorites.

Though production started last week, Tesla is currently building just one car per week and will keep it like this for a month or two. “We’re doing intensive quality control along the way,” Siry said “We’ll ramp it up to two a week, then five a week. That’s normal. You only ramp up one you’re satisfied everything is up to quality.”

Priced at $98,000, Tesla hopes to produce and sell about 1,800 units next year and they also plan on presenting a four-doors sedan in 2010.

Hyundai Elantra 2009

On March 21, while accompanying South Korean President Lee Myung Bak on a Kia Motors´ plant tour, Hyundai-Kia Chairman Chung Mong Koo made a very interesting announcement. He said that, starting from 2009, eco-friendly Hyundai cars will enter mass production. “The importance of developing futuristic, environmentally-friendly cars is increasing for sustainable growth,” Chung said. “Therefore, technology for advanced cars, like the hybrid, is imperative. We also plan to produce a small fleet of fuel cell electric vehicles from 2012.”

Currently, Hyundai provides Accent hybrid models to government agencies as pilot projects and plans on starting mass production with the compact-sized LPG model, the Elantra LPI (Liqufied Petroleum Injection) hybrid, a car that uses both Liquefied Petroleum Gas and electricity. Hyundai also started development for mass producing Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) strating from 2012.

Audi Q7 Hybrid

With the dollar steadily falling against the Euro, it was expected that a lot of car makers strategies would be affected. If this meant good news for Europe, which will get the Tesla Roadster sooner than planned, for the United States it’s not such good news. Because Audi announced that they’ve decided to cancel the Q7 Hybrid in the US.

Initially, the plan was for the Audi Q7 Hybrid to be available in the U.S. early next year, but they cancelled that, because, with the current weak US dollar, this won’t be profitable anymore. And considering that the US is the world’s largest auto market, we’re sure Audi thought very good before taking this decision. Johan de Nysschen, Executive Vice President in charge of Audi of America, Inc, in an interview for Automotive News, said that, given the current situation, it will be “very hard to make the numbers work. We will not do the hybrid Q7 as a conventional product offering”.

However, don’t be dissapointed, because, even though the Q7 Hybrid won’t be available, Audi won’t do the same with the upcoming Q5, which will debut at the Beijing Motor Show and will be available in the US in a hybrid version starting next year.

Audi R8 2008 New York Auto Show

Audi R8 snatched the dual victory in the exhibition of the car 2008 New York the Show car, as World Performance Car and World Car Design of the Year. The victory dianugrahkan the international judge. Last year, the similar appreciation was also whipped by Audi through Audi TT as 2007 World Car Design of the Year and Audi RS4 as World Performance Car.
This year of Audi S5 including one of the finalists World Performance Car. The international jury consisted of 47 wartawaan automotive from 24 countries. In papapar him, the jury praised the position of the machine of 402hp V8 that was installed in the car middle and the construction of aluminium R8.
The combination produced the stability and the extraordinary balance, comfort and the control that made the self-confidence driver push the car through to his limit.

BMW 118d: World Green Car of the Year

The exhibition of the car 2008 New York the Show car would in recalled BMW AG. the Article of BMW 118d was chosen as World Green Car of the Year alias the car was most environment-friendly a world. This car was chosen because of succeeding in reducing emissions CO2 and consumption of his fuel significantly. BMW 118d surpassed Smart Fortwon cdi and Volkswagen Passat 1,9 TDI. the three cars used the diesel engine.

The international jury that consisted of 47 automotive reporters from 24 countries chose 118d because of consumption of his fuel reached 52mpg (22.11km/liter) and only produced 119g/km CO2. This the figure that was very impressive for an unified car.
BMW 118d both that three and five doors used Efficient Dynamics BMW technology, including brake engine regeneration, the car start-stopped and electric power steering that helped reduced emissions and increased consumption of the fuel.

4,703 Mazdas to be smashed

In the last two years, Cougar Ace, the freighter 4.703 new Mazda vehicle units lay downed in Alaskan Sea. Management Mazda finally broke all of them the car would in scrap the alias could be in no way rescued. Originally Mazda tried rescued totaling possibly the car, but rust that was resulted in sea water made cars be not possible to be sold.

Now, after the insurance paper work has been finished, all the cars, which were stockpiled in the Portland port, will be drained, stripped of tires and fed to a vehicle-gobbling machine. With the capacity of smashing 200 vehicles per hour, the machine is expected to return about 2,900 of steel and what will be left of the Mazda's will be processed into fence posts, wire rods and reinforcing bars.

Of course, taking into consideration the vast proportions of the process, even though it doesn’t own the cars anymore, Mazda will supervise the whole operation, to make sure no car ‘escapes’ the process.

Almost half of the cars were Mazda 3 and a quarter him was Mazda CX7. The car was originally unloaded in the Vancouver port, Tacoma and Hueneme.