California legislature is once again setting the new laws to help combat climate change. They are, after all, the leading entity that led the first efforts of enforcing America’s Clean Air Act on automobile emissions.
However, these new greenhouse emissions mandates aren’t just focusing on the reduction of car emissions. Now, the new bill is intended to focus on improving California’s infrastructure. In the press conference for the vote, members of the Senate said the new requirements will affect all industries in the state, from agriculture, to oil refining, and even public utilities.
In a recent state Senate voting poll, a 25-13 support was recorded to set a new target for the state’s emissions. The goal is to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions to levels equivalent to 40 percent below the recorded amount in 1990, by the year 2030. Through the voting process, California proudly said that they’re on track for meeting their original goal for 2020 of reducing emissions back to levels recorded in the year 1990.
Continue Reading
Uber hasn’t been so uber lately as Bloomberg reports the popular ride-sharing company already posted a $1.2 billion loss as we enter the third quarter. The company’s money drain was first reported when a conference call happened between Uber’s executive branch and investors for a company evaluation.
According to the report, Uber posted a loss of $1.27 billion in just the first half of 2016. Now that’s a lot of guap.
The company’s finance chief, Gautam Gupta, stated that Uber’s loss can mainly be attributed to subsidies used to compensate its drivers around the world, mainly China. The compensation however is more severance as the company announced to be pulling out of the Chinese market earlier this month. Their market share was sold to Didi, a Beijing-based ride-hailing program. Losses have amounted to at least $1 billion from subsidies in China alone.
Continue Reading
Rumors with Mazda are giving all of us car nuts a headache again with rumors bouncing back and forth. Just recently, Motoring.com in Australia reported that a committee associated to Mazda approved the project of an RX successor. The discovery is sourced to a recent article on a Japanese automobile magazine page.
This conflicts with the last report surrounding the RX, indicating that Mazda officials downplayed the production RX-VISION concept. The production concept would essentially be named the RX-9, as hinted by a patent filing.
Click here for more news on the Mazda RX.
Despite the one conflicting report compromising the RX’s possibility for production, many other recent events imply the car will eventually happen. The introduction of the RX-VISION concept plus a separate patent filing for a 400 horsepower rotary engine proves Mazda is taking the project seriously. That new rotary is supposedly named the SKYACTIV-R concept, displacing 1.6-liters with a twin-rotor setup. Major technical changes include the use of turbocharging, a first since the last RX-7 “FD” from the 1990s, and diesel-style compression ignition, eliminating the use of spark plugs.
A low curb weight of 1,300 kilograms, or 2,866 pounds is expected, allowing for a greater power-to-weight ratio, excellent handling, and fuel economy.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Holiday Auto Japan via Motoring.com.au
Photo Source: Holiday Auto Japan
Whether you like Jeremy Clarkson or not, you cannot deny that he is a significantly influential voice in the automotive media industry. Above all, his critique of automobiles is hugely entertaining, especially when the cars are bad.
Speaking of which, it just so happens Clarkson announced his list of the 10 worst cars he drove in 2015 and 2016 for his latest column in The Sunday Times.
He criticized these cars for simply lacking in imagination and failing to give him “the Fizz,” or the sort of excitement that good cars tend to give. Naturally, Clarkson also responded with his top 10 list of cars he did love in 2015 and 2016.
Check out his hated list after the jump, and his loved list here.
Continue Reading
The Kia Rio is nearly four years old, so it isn’t necessarily old enough to be needing replacement. But that isn’t stopping Kia from moving forward with a next-gen model since the company just released some teaser sketches of one.
Posted on the automaker’s global press site, the new official renderings provide us with a very concrete look as to what to expect visually with the fourth-generation Kia.
The next Rio’s design is described to be a result of a collaboration between Kia’s two satellite design centers in Germany and California, and the main HQ in Namyang, Korea. Both are ultimately led by the one and only Peter Schreyer.
The Kia Rio is the automaker’s best-selling model and to no surprise, it isn’t revolutionary in anyway means. Instead, to keep the formula consistently successful, Kia evolved the fourth-generation model to be as good as the outgoing car, but with all the latest and greatest updates.
Expect the new Rio to berevealed on September 29, at the 2016 Paris Auto Show.
– By: Chris Chin
Scion was sentenced to death earlier this year and it was a blessing in disguise. Despite trying to reach down to the younger spectrum of the car-buying market, Scions ended up being bought mostly by old people and first-time drivers wanting a sports car. The latter are the reasons why the Scion tC sold, which was an OK car.
But making OK cars just wasn’t enough, even with the amazing FR-S and so thus, Scion had to be shut down. That said, the FR-S now receives the badge it deserves, being called the 2017 Toyota 86. Similarly, the European Auris-based Corolla comes to the US now as the 2017 Toyota Corolla iM, versus the Scion iM in 2016.
That said, pricing for the 2017 Toyota 86 was also announced, ticking the invoice at $26,255 with a six-speed manual. That is just an $950 increase over the FR-S, while the automatic rings up at $26,975, or $570 more than the outgoing FR-S equivalent. Though we don’t know why you would want to buy one with an automatic.
The 2017 Toyota Corolla iM on the other hand starts at $18,750 for a variant with a six-speed manual with the automatic CVT-equipped car marking the bill down at $19,490 to start.
Deliveries will commence early in September, next month.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Toyota
Photo Source: Toyota
Here at egmCarTech, I’m not worried one bit to be experimental and so, some experimenting is going to happen.
Click here for more news on the 2017 Volvo S90.
Tomorrow, at around 8AM Eastern Standard US time, I’ll be boarding a seaplane on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which will whisk me away to the eastern tip of Long Island, to a small ocean town called Montauk. There, Volvo arranged for yours truly to try out the new 2017 Volvo S90 along the pretty coasts of the Hamptons.
Should all go well, and technology be cooperative like you would hope, I will be live streaming my entire experience periodically on Facebook as well as providing a first-drive review, as part of a collaborative project with Guys Gab, a popular mens’ lifestyle blog.
So stay tuned to our Facebook page, or Guys Gab on Facebook to check in with me, starting at 8AM EST.
As a refresher, the 2017 Volvo S90 was revealed in December of 2015 as a successor to the aging S80 flagship sedan. The S90 will be later accompanied by a wagon V90 version, both of which ride on the same Scalable Product Architecture as the latest XC90. Power is provided by a range of forced-induced gasoline engines for the US-spec car. Full specifications will be revealed at the drive tomorrow.
– By: Chris Chin
Tesla’s on a huge sales offensive to meet end-of-the-year goals. This benefits the customer usually in the form of discounts and easier purchasing or leasing options–and that’s exactly what happened as of recent.
Earlier today, Tesla officially announced to be introducing new two-year lease options for the Model X and Model S electric vehicles. While you might think this new option works in the potential buyers’ favor, the numbers don’t exactly crunch out much in the way of savings.
In a recent email tipped to Electrek, Tesla is offering a new Model S 60 with a lease rate of $593 per month for a 10,000-mile yearly mileage cap for 24 months. With that rate, you get a pretty basic Model S 60 with virtually no extra options or kit. Oh, that’s also forgetting the need to cough up $6,000 for a down payment. The MSRP for the Model S 60 is otherwise $66,000.
The Model X is also equally expensive at $730 per mont under the same terms. This earns a basic Model X 60D, otherwise MSRP’d at $74,000.
The promotion starts now and is on-going until September 12th. All orders made before then will quality for the lease program.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Tesla via Electrek
Photo Source: Tesla
Volvo Cars continues to move forward with its efforts to innovate and the company’s latest partnership with Uber is living proof. Just recently, the two entities joined forces to cooperatively develop autonomous driving vehicles to develop a self-driving fleet for Uber.
In the latest statement, the two pledged a combined total of $300 million USD to researching and developing the entire project. It consists of Uber buying a bunch of XC90, S90, and V90 vehicles, and fitting them with Uber’s latest autonomous driving tech. That tech is what’s going to be developed between the two companies, but there’s a specific reason why Uber chose Volvo.
Click here for more news on Volvo.
The XC90, S90, and V90 cars are all built on Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture, which is jargon for the company’s modular platform for large vehicles. Not only is the SPA platform, designed with the latest in structural safety, they are also designed with autonomous driving tech in mind. So they basically are premade to accommodate technology expansion with electrification and autonomous driving tech.
Volvo didn’t mention the use of its Compact Modular Architecture, or the new platform currently being developed for the company’s new line of compact and subcompact cars. So this means the project will focus mainly on use of the XC90, the S90, and V90.
Continue Reading
The automotive industry isn’t without its fair share of trends, mostly stemming from advances in technology. For instance, automakers are in constant battles with each other to competitively one-up each other.
It started with examples like, who could design the biggest tailfins, or build the largest displacement engines. Now, it’s down to how many gears automakers can cram into an automatic transmission, all in the name of fuel economy and drivability.
In some cases, it has worked, with modern-day six-speed automatics performing way better than the old-fashioned three-speed automatics from the 1960s and 1970s. While companies like ZF, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz working on nine- and ten-speed automatics, Honda apparently wants to top them all off by producing an 11-speed automatic. And even when you thought two-clutches were enough for the modern DCT automatic, Honda’s unit will have three.
The transmission plans were discovered through a patent filed at Japan’s patent office.
Continue Reading
