2.0t Quattro S-line 1 Owner 40k Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

A magical, disappearing ad for the hydrogen Audi A7 Sportback H-Tron

It's not quite Tupac appearing at Coachella with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in hologram form, but it'll do for the gearhead set. Audi is looking to make a first impression for its A7 Sportback H-Tron hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle by making as little of an impression as possible. Like the car itself, Audi has, as it says in a video, "created ads that leave behind nothing but vaporized water." Pretty slick. Audi worked with German advertising agency Thjnk, on the campaign, which uses LED lighting and other bits of magic to first show an image of the sedan and then show it disappearing into a cloud of steam, according to Adweek. The publication posted Audi's 58-second video on the campaign (we've embedded a German version of the video for those looking to practice a bit of linguistics). The German automaker first revealed details about the A7 Sportback H-Tron late last year. The all-wheel-drive sedan can go as far as 31 miles on electricity alone. And the hydrogen fuel-cell drivetrain delivers almost 400 pound-feet of torque and a full (hydrogen) tank's range of 311 miles as well as a 0-62 mile per hour time of less than eight seconds and a top speed of 112 mph. Featured Gallery Audi A7 Sportback H-Tron Quattro View 83 Photos News Source: Adweek via Hybrid Cars Green Marketing/Advertising Audi Hydrogen Cars billboard adweek

Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.

Elon Musk: Teslas will already know where we’re going

In the future, cars will drive us. And probably not surprisingly, they'll often know where to go without us even needing to tell them. That's the theme of a short back-and-forth conversation on Twitter recently between Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk and a user who tagged him in a comment suggesting that "it would be cool" to be able to tell a car where to go. Responding to user James Harvey, Musk replied, "It won't even need to ask you most of the time." Later, after Harvey asked how the car would know where he wants to go, another user suggested that the car would know what time you go to work. "Yeah, don't exactly need to be Sherlock Holmes," Musk tweeted. It won't even need to ask you most of the time — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2017 Yeah, don't exactly need to be Sherlock Holmes. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2017 That the ability to know where we're going will be part of our future driving experience shouldn't be surprising. After all, the smartphones we carry around already possess the ability to predict what we want — think Google's cleverness in tailoring search results or providing traffic information just before your commute, Facebook's highly customized News Feed content or even auto-fill technology, which can predict the words you're typing. And plenty of automakers have been touting their own work in developing in-car artificial intelligence systems. Like Audi's Elaine concept, which will be able to learn, think and even empathize with drivers. Or Mitsubishi's e-Evolution concept, which can not only assist your driving, but also assess your skills and teach you how to improve them. Tesla's vehicles, of course, are being outfitted with all the latest autonomous driver-assist technology, with the automaker eager to one day reach full Level 5 self-driving capability. According to Inc., Teslas will be able to listen and respond to directional commands, and they'll even have access to your calendar to comb for information about where you need to go. Tesla has also said it's developing an update to its Autopilot hardware and remains on track to achieve full Level 5 autonomous driving by the end of this year, which strikes a lot of people as wildly unrealistic. At any rate, the promise of cars knowing what time we're sneaking out to get donuts or picking up the kids is interesting, coming from the man who has warned that AI presents "a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."Related Video: