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Tesla, BMW and Nissan meeting in secret to discuss charging tech

It's interesting what's happening in the electric vehicle field. It used to be that BMW and Tesla were competitors. Then – and of course they're still competing, especially in the public mind – they were working together on ... something. Maybe. And now, the Financial Times reports that the two luxury automakers are meeting with Nissan. Again, maybe. The scuttlebutt is that the three companies are interested in working together on something to do with charging electric vehicles, potentially a global recharging standard. Currently, when it comes to fast charging, BMW uses the SAE Combo standard, Nissan uses CHAdeMO and Tesla uses its own Superchargers. The meeting was prompted by Tesla opening of all of its patents the other day, FT says. Speaking during the recent annual shareholder meeting, Musk said he was "more than happy to have other manufacturers" use Tesla's Superchargers but that, "there is no other electric car that can accept anything close to 135 kilowatts." Let's assume the technical hurdle can be overcome. With any potential patent/licensing problems out of the way, these discussions with BMW and Nissan might be revolving around this other angle that Musk mentioned: "They (other automakers) just have to contribute to the capital cost, so figure out what percentage of the time are their cars using the Supercharger network and then they can make a contribution proportionate to their customer usage of the Supercharger network." That certainly sounds like something that could take some time to figure out. News Source: Financial TimesImage Credit: Elbilforeningen / Flickr Green BMW Nissan Tesla Electric supercharger chademo sae combo

BMW M6 amped up for track duty by Risden

Risden Engineering is a bit of an unknown, if we're being completely honest - we have yet to report on the company to date, and its corporate website is really an information desert save for the name and a few email addresses. Even the press release that we requested from Risden's contact person is short and vague. That's all pretty much okay with us as long as the shadowy tuners, you know, make good on this sweet-looking BMW M6 racecar thing.
Dubbed the Risden 6R, we're told that the M6 modification will result in a vehicle that is more adept at track work, while still being street-legal. In terms of specifics, we read that a full aero kit will be involved, with one fixed and one retractable rear wing (hard to miss). There are obviously new wheels, and the company has also added a fully adjustable suspension, a four-point roll bar and a new braking system - all while reducing curb weight overall.
Apparently more details are to follow after the 6R's official release in the first quarter of 2013. We wait with bated breath.

Watch two championship-winning DTM cars from BMW go head-to-head

BMW recently had a little fun with two of the company's past DTM champions. Roberto Ravaglia and Bruno Spengler, winners of the 1989 and 2012 championships, respectively, both showed up at the world-famous Hockenheimring with their title-winning cars. The two swapped seats, with Ravaglia taking the helm of Spengler's BMW M3 DTM racer and Spengler sliding behind the wheel of Ravaglia's first-generation M3 racer in the classic BMW Bank livery, and headed for the track. Spengler got a 23 second head start in the first-gen M3 with Ravaglia chasing behind.
It didn't take long for the older hotshoe to sort out his new ride and close the gap. The short clip below follows the two as they make their way around the circuit, but the really interesting portion comes when the pair begin discussing what they like and don't like about each other's machines. You can check out the full video below for yourself.